Clive Cockburn


In the year 2000, I interviewed Clive Cockburn of The Avengers about the 1960s pop era. He had just won the Best Original Music Awards at the TV Guide NZ TV Awards, for his soundtrack to the documentary, Destination Disaster: The Sinking of the Mikhail Lermontov.

The 1960s was a great decade for pop music and Wellington was the recording capital of New Zealand. The HMV label was based in the city and the company was the dominant player in both record wholesale and retail. In 1966, the company purchased their own studio in Wakefield St and started turning out hits from local bands including The Fourmyula, The Avengers, Tom Thumb, The Simple Image, Quincy Conserve and out-of-towners Mr. Lee Grant, Shane and Allison Durbin.

Clive Cockburn at Wanganui War Memorial Hall, 1967
Photo credit: Photo by Barry Clothier
The Avengers outside the HMV building in Wakefield Street, Wellington
Photo credit: Barry Clothier
Clive Cockburn with HMV producer Nick Karavias
Val Murphy and Clive Cockburn, Playdate, October 1970 
Clive Cockburn at Ali Baba's in Wellington
Clive Cockburn
HMV's Frank Douglas at the desk with The Avengers, 5 December 1967. The Avengers are getting a silver disc for 10,000 copies of Everyone's Gonna Wonder. On the right is producer Nick Karavias.
The Avengers - Love, Hate, Revenge (1968)
Labels:

HMV


EMI


Columbia

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