Christ The Clean were a brilliant band

Goodness, that sentence really, really, really needs a comma. (Unless I'm so unhip that I've never heard of this band called Christ The Clean).

But in case someone accuses me of not seeing the forest for the trees, it was a pleasure to?

Choice!

"Christ The Clean were a brilliant band"

Goodness, that sentence really, really, really needs a comma.

Nah. I thought about it when I was editing, but sometimes leaving out the comma gives you a certain punch. Try and imagine Brian Turner enunciating it as an opening line ;-)

you and the rough diamond behind the microphone will both have New Zealand accents

And that is why I love the Chills. I was listening to Submarine Bells in my Palmy flat in 1990 and my flatmate said "but he can't sing"...I thought about that for a minute and realised?

Martin was singing in his kiwi accent!

And through his nose. Quite a talent, that.

Speaker: Funny, sexy and ours

Is JC describing himself there too?

but where were the local equivalents of Depeche Mode or Art of Noise?

They came later...

Does anyone else remember the storm in a teacup that erupted when the Headless Chickens won the Rheinech Rock Awards way back when? There were plenty of commentators of the opinon that they weren't?

Does anyone else remember the storm in a teacup that erupted when the Headless Chickens won the Rheinech Rock Awards way back when? There were plenty of commentators of the opinon that they weren't guitary or rocky enough.

I do know that the controversy was a complete pain in the?

I'm not here to detract from the bands or the label.... different strokes for different folks and all that...

But, I seem to recall at the time, that mine was not a minority view.... And it?

Speaker: Funny, sexy and ours

Is JC describing himself there too?

You know, I was going to say that like most of the liberal thirty-something chicks I know, 'correcting his grammar' doesn't make it onto my 'list of things to do to John Campbell', but I'm scared he might be?

it seems to be now, especially it seems for them that hated all that Flying Nun was and became

Though for a lot of people (and most people don't buy music) the Nun and her bands?

Still, the 80s in NZ were a tough time for anyone who didn't like guitars. We had all those local equivalents of Joy Division or the Smiths, but where were the local equivalents of Depeche Mode or Art of Noise?

They were called Car Crash Set, Body Electric, Marginal Era,?

But, I seem to recall at the time, that mine was not a minority view.... And it seems to me an awful lot of people claim to have always loved Flying Nun/The Dunedin Sound....

They may indeed love it now, but some of them are full of it when it?

it wasn't very cool to be a Flying Nun fan back in the day

It seemed that back then non-Flying Nun listeners would clump all the Dunedin bands together in a tuneless, hairy, pissed, mumbling, black jersey-clad mess. Funny Business (Willy De Wit etc) even did a parody called 'I?

Perhaps my own tastes were more heavily influenced by commercial radio and Ready To Roll than the stronger NZ presense on Karen Hay's Radio With Pictures... I was, after-all too young to attend live gigs at the time...

Heavenly Pop Hit was possibly the first?

But, I seem to recall at the time, that mine was not a minority view.... And it seems to me an awful lot of people claim to have always loved Flying Nun/The Dunedin Sound....

They may indeed love it now, but some of them are full of it?

They were called Car Crash Set, Body Electric, Marginal Era, Ballare and dozens of other bands pulling quite good crowds. The tough time they were having was getting much coverage in the media. There was a huge swell in electronic music happening.

I knew Car Crash Set and Body Electric,?

It seemed that back then non-Flying Nun listeners would clump all the Dunedin bands together in a tuneless, hairy, pissed, mumbling, black jersey-clad mess.

Um.... yeah, guilty as charged. :sheepish look:

That was my original point.... not so many people now admit to having thought that way in the past.

Nah. I thought about it when I was editing, but sometimes leaving out the comma gives you a certain punch.

I learned my word skillz on the streets, so I'm totally open to punk-arse comma use.

Try and imagine Brian Turner enunciating it as an opening line ;-)

Hey, this?

But it seemed to us that synths and samplers weren't really a part of either mainstream pop or the FN sound. The cool kids were turning up the treble on their guitars and gazing at their shoes, not sitting at home programming a step sequencer and listening to Kraftwerk.

I?

Hey, this gives me an idea for the Flying Nun competition.

Well, you'd better hurry up. I'm getting my judging hat on tomorrow night.

those Dunedin bands got their own "NZ" bin in the local record stores on Telegraph in Berkeley

Amoeba Records in San Fran still has dividers with various FN band names in their vinyl bins – it made me go "awww you probably can't buy those records in NZ anymore". Not?

The workmates left early, heads shaking disapproval. I stayed on and it happened. I left my job (big money, silly clothes), left?

it included a tune by a vegas band called?

The Chooks would have made it anyway, but with less money I guess...I must dig out my copy and see how it sounds these days (bearing in mind I only own a portable record player with a speaker the size?

If you were outside the main centres – as I was for much of the early 1980s – but had had some exposure to bands like the Clean,?

I'd actually had John Campbell down as more a Rick Astley type, but he is clearly a huge fan of this stuff....

You're seriously saying you've never come across one of John's spirited reveries about the NME, the Postcard sound of Young Scotland and/or the Clean?

Although I'll grant you?

The Chooks would have made it anyway, but with less money I guess...

If I recall correctly, the prize money was weirdly structured. A lot of it had to be spent on marketing, rather than actually recording, which wasn't really what they needed.

If I recall correctly, the prize money was weirdly structured. A lot of it had to be spent on marketing, rather than actually recording, which wasn't really what they needed.

trying to remember who the judges were...Doug Hood and Colin Hogg come to mind but I can't remember who else

Anyhow, *while* Campbell is correct that parochialism plays a part in the FN phenomenon here, as does certain amounts of catchiness etc., for my money the core appeal is just some sort of weird inner integrity – the FN bands sounded like?

ah, Dragon, Th Dudes, the feelers....

If I recall correctly, the prize money was weirdly structured. A lot of it had to be spent on marketing, rather than actually recording, which wasn't really what they needed.

Not being an expert on NZ recording facilities of the 1980s that does strike me as odd, although I do?

Far from it.

Keyboards and Flying nun bands not a happening thing?
Er, the Skeptics were at the forefront of using samplers and synths so that myth goes out the window.

It always amazes me that the?

After 6 years away I was amazed at how much NZ music was in the mainstream, but it had ditched any of the uniqueness of old which was ultimately holding the likes of the Chills, SJF, Verlaines, JPSE back

Perhaps that's partly inevitable (if you're too unusual or distinctive, almost?

man, the calamari bushmen.... my first thought was "Wedding Present", but if someone had taken acid to watch them in a cheesy pub in tauranga in '90, then many weird thoughts would wander through?

I guess the Calamari Bushmen were a bit like The Wedding Present- yep!

Fantastic name, has just replaced The Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos as my fave band name!

Cool – nice to see there are a few people on here who know about these bands.

tis the beauty of our land – ie not everyone is from the big centres and every town had its original bands, playing to no one but the fermenting home brew

Hamilton's Frybrain?

Dribbly Cat Attraction
Give Me Back My Laughter You Bastards (GMBMLYB)
Semi Lemon Cola
Queerfish

Birchville Cat Motel
The Proxies (Pixies tribute band)
Peneloping
Captain Hammondhead
Disasteradio

Maybe that's just a New Plymouth thing?

Give Me Back My Laughter You Bastards (GMBMLYB)

Laughter should be Lighter

of which they took dozens of mine, the bastards

allegedly Hand of Glory got quite close to a FN release... Stars in My Eyes I think was the song

Beat Rhythm Fashion sounded like they'd recently been expelled from Eton,

for those interest BRF have a CD of their works just released available here or here

and peter at dub dot dash discusses them here

Turn of the Century is one of the greatest singles ever produced in?

Anyway: Anyway, it's amazing what you can find if you look...

Voila!

A name for every taste on that list.