Mi-Sex


At the time derided, dissed and dismissed more than possibly any other NZ rock band (except for Mother Goose or The Feelers, maybe), Mi-Sex were oft-regarded as not authentic, or cool, or credible. But to our history, they are very significant.

What’s more, the meaty new wave concoctions on their first two albums stand up after all this time, far removed from the contextual and ideological arguments that raged 35 years ago.

Mi-Sex 1983. L to R: Murray Burns (front), Colin Bayley (rear), Kevin Stanton, Steve Gilpin, Don Martin and Paul Dunningham
Spanish sleeve for Computer Games, 1979
Steve Gilpin in 1974
Photo credit: Photo by Robert Joiner, NZBC TV archives
Robert Muldoon talking with Mi-Sex. Photographed by a Dominion staff photographer in 1980
Photo credit: Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22857279
Burning Up (Live 1980)
A Space Race alien
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Mi-Sex 1979
Mi-Sex receive a swag of gold discs for their 1980 album Space Race, with producer Peter Dawkins at bottom right
Don Martin. Fragments of Time, Aranui Hotel Christchurch 1974.
Photo credit: Photo by Kevin Hill
Fragments of Time, 1977
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Blue Day
Mi-Sex backstage 17 June, 1980, with Robert Muldoon and his precautionary ear-plugs. From left: Steve Gilpin, Don Martin, Kevin Stanton, Muldoon. Photograph taken by an unidentified Evening Post staff photographer.
Photo credit: Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22857279
Computer Games
Radio With Pictures - My Kind of Town - 1981 documentary directed by Simon Morris, featuring interviews with Kevin Stanton of Mi-Sex, Dragon’s Marc Hunter, producer Peter Dawkins, Sharon O’Neill, future Warratahs Barry Saunders and Nick Theobald during their time as the Tigers, and Dave McArtney.
UK 7" sleeve
Photo credit: Rone Kane Collection
Mi-Sex circa 1980
UK 12-inch sleeve for Blue Day, 1983
French single for Computer Games – note the 'piou, piou, piou' tag
Australian sleeve
Photo credit: Rone Kane Collection
UK sleeve for Computer Games 12-inch, 1979
Mi-Sex, Narara Music Festival, NSW, January 1983
Photo credit: Paul Dunningham collection
Mi-Sex at Lady Hamilton's. Hamilton mid-1978, shortly before they went to Australia
Photo credit: Photo by Paul Moss
Steve Gilpin
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Steve Gilpin in 1974
Steve Gilpin with Fragments of Time, Aranui Hotel, Christchurch,1978
Photo credit: Photo by Kevin Hill
Steve Gilpin
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
James Lynch cartoon from the Taranaki Daily News, 23 June 1980
Photo credit: Taranaki Daily News 23 June 1980 http://natlib.govt.nz/records/30661166
In Touch review of the infamous Muldoon concert
Photo credit: Gary Steel Collection
Kevin Stanton and Steve Gilpin. Fragments of time, Aranui Hotel Christchurch 1978
Photo credit: Photo by Kevin Hill
Gold discs from CBS Australia for the debut Mi-Sex album, 1979. Producer Peter Dawkins is second from right.
More gold discs for Space Race - it was a number 1 album in NZ and here CBS boss John McCready presents awards. Future CBS boss Murray Thom is in the background
Photo credit: John McCready Collection
People
Labels:

CBS


EMI

Members:

Steve Gilpin - vocals

Kevin Stanton - guitar, vocals

Don Martin - bass, vocals

Murray Burns - keyboards

Phil "Smarty" Smart - drums

Steve Osborne - drums

Richard Hodgkinson - drums

Paul Dunningham - drums

Colin Bayley - guitar

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