B.
Getting Older - Flying Nun
Behind the scenes
November sees the 30th anniversary of my favourite record label, Flying Nun Records.
Flying Nun Records: The Clean, Ying1 (FN002), The Pin Group. FN 001, Collection: Christchurch City Libraries
Records from this Christchurch label were a breath of fresh air for me as a teenager growing up in Palmerston North during the mid 1980s. Here's a rare test pressing? of Tally Ho (1981) by The Clean, which was the first or second (depending on your mood) release from the label. But my favourite Flying Nun records remain The Clean's second single Getting Older (1982) and the Doublehappys ep Cut It Out (1985) – the latter because it features one of the best songs ever written in New Zealand, Wayne Elsey's 'Some Fantasy'.
The Clean Tally Ho 1981. Flying Nun Records
The Doublehappys Cut It Out 1985. Flying Nun Records
Christchurch City Libraries has a collection of Christchurch posters from the early 1980s Flying Nun scene online. Many of these were designed and printed by Ronnie van Hout who also hand-printed several record covers by Flying Nun bands including 25 cents, Pin Group and Sneaky Feelings. Band members also often produced their own artwork and a number of other artists also collaborated including Stuart Page, Varina Sydow, Robin Neate, John Chrisstoffels and Jason Greig.
Flying Nun are planning a series of gigs throughout New Zealand to celebrate their 30th – a big birthday bash and you can check out events near you at the Flying Nun website.
Related reading: Music
Notes
What's the difference between a piano and an onion?
Answer: No one cries when you chop up a piano.
Apparently that's only the third worst piano joke of all time...
Notes
Playing to the Faithful
The 2011 Christchurch Arts Festival has been full of highlights, from theatre to dance to the visual arts. However, it's been the music that has made the biggest impression on me.
Notes
Number 1 Evil, Number 2 Evil, Number 3 Evil…
Finally, the chance to listen to some loud rock music!
Notes
The Satara Player by Petrus van der Velden
Things are not always what they seem. What looks like the result of an artistic foray into exotic lands is, in fact, an 1894 portrait of a Christchurch busker who posed in the studio of Petrus van der Velden.
Commentary
Laurence Aberhart
New Zealand artist Laurence Aberhart is internationally regarded for his photographs of unpeopled landscapes and interiors. He photographs places redolent with the weight of time, which he captures with his century-old large-format camera and careful framing. But he’s always taken more spontaneous photographs of people too, particularly in the years he lived in Christchurch and Lyttelton (1975–83) when he photographed his young family, his friends and occasionally groups of strangers. ‘If I lived in a city again,’ he says, ‘I would photograph people. One of the issues is that I even find it difficult to ask people whether I can photograph a building, so to ask to photograph them – I’m very reticent. I also know that after a number of minutes of waiting for me to set cameras up and take exposure readings and so on, people can get rather annoyed. So it’s not a conscious thing, it’s more just an accident of the way I photograph.’
Interview
J.G. Thirlwell
J.G. Thirlwell is man of many monikers and even more projects: from the epic avant-garde electro-rock of his thirty-five-year Foetus act to scoring orchestral work; creating sound installations to writing cartoon soundtracks. Fellow sonic artist, Jo Burzynska caught up with the Melbourne-born but long-time New York-resident composer/producer/performer at the Gallery before the opening performance of his first ever New Zealand tour.
