Blog Archives

Insolent bassists and mad drummers, Mark Amery

Posted on June 1, 2004 by NZ Books

Ready to Fly: The Story of New Zealand Rock Music David Eggleton Craig Potton Publishing, $49.95, ISBN 1877333069 I have a confession to make. I’m not much of a reader – at least not in the always-head-in-a-novel kind of a…

Tagged with: Craig Potton Publishing, David Eggleton, Issue 66, Mark Amery, Winter 2004
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review

We were just 17, if you know what I mean, Rosemary McLeod

Posted on March 1, 2004 by NZ Books

Eight Days a Week: The Beatles’ Tour of New Zealand 1964 Graham Hutchins Exisle Publishing, $34.95, ISBN 0908988559 Big Smoke: New Zealand City People in the ’60s and ’70s John Daley Random House, $39.95, ISBN 1869621085 Says Graham Hutchins, “Beatlemania…

Tagged with: Autumn 2004, Exisle Publishing, Graham Hutchins, Issue 65, John Daley, Random House, Rosemary McLeod
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Kino Hughes’s legacy, Paul Wolffram

Posted on June 1, 2003 by NZ Books

Songs of a Kaumatua: Sung by Kino Hughes Mervyn McLean & Margaret Orbell Auckland University Press, $89.95, ISBN 1869402588 Songs of a Kaumatua was initiated by Kino Hughes, the remarkable personality at the centre of this book. Hughes was born…

Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Issue 62, Margaret Orbell, Mervyn McLean, Paul Wolffram, Winter 2003
Posted in History, Māori, Music, Non-fiction, Review

Light fantastic, Laurie Atkinson

Posted on June 1, 2002 by NZ Books

The Pollards: A family and its child and adult opera companies in New Zealand and Australia 1880-1910 Peter Downes Steele Roberts, $39.95, ISBN 1877228737 Shakespeare got in a snit with them and had Rosencrantz compare them to noisy young birds…

Tagged with: Issue 58, Laurie Atkinson, Peter Downes, Steele Roberts, Winter 2002
Posted in Biography, History, Music, Non-fiction, Review

Talking Music, Sue Court

Posted on June 1, 2002 by NZ Books

Talking Music: conversations with New Zealand musicians Sarah Shieff Auckland University Press, $49.95, ISBN 1869402286 Sometimes, out of sheer perversity, I read an entire book ithout having read the preface or introduction to see whether my perception of a book is…

Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Issue 58, Sarah Shieff, Sue Court, Winter 2002
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review

Pulling no punches, Sue Court

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Music in New Zealand: A Reader from the 1940s ed Allan Thomas University of Canterbury School of Music, $25, ISBN 090871808X What does an anthology of source readings, soberly titled Music in New Zealand: A Reader from the 1940s have…

Tagged with: Allan Thomas, December 2001, Issue 51, Sue Court, University of Canterbury School of Music
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review

Words for music perhaps, Nick Bollinger

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Love This Life: Lyrics 1978-2001 Neil Finn Allen & Unwin, $35.00, ISBN 1865085081 Lyrics without melody Mahinarangi Tocker Street Women Press, $19.95, ISBN 0473074427 I have always been a passionate pop fan, but never a great lover of the printed…

Tagged with: Allen & Unwin, December 2001, Issue 51, Mahinarangi Tocker, Neil Finn, Nick Bollinger, Street Women Press
Posted in Literature, Music, Non-fiction, Poetry, Review

Tripping our light fantastic, Adrienne Simpson

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Fantasy and Folly: the lost world of New Zealand musicals 1880-1940 Peter Harcourt Steele Roberts, $39.95, ISBN 1877228656 The dearth of published research on the history of entertainment in New Zealand would be reason enough to welcome the late Peter…

Tagged with: Adrienne Simpson, Issue 55, Peter Harcourt, Spring 2001, Steele Roberts
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review

On the Main Trunk Line, Charlotte Yates

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

An Ordinary Joker: the life and songs of Peter Cape ed Roger Steele Steele Roberts, $59.95, ISBN 1877228125 For a singer, Peter Cape has always struck me as an anomaly, with his thin nasal tenor, tentative tuning, and strongly defective…

Tagged with: Charlotte Yates, Issue 55, Peter Cape, Roger Steele, Spring 2001, Steele Roberts
Posted in Biography, Music, Non-fiction, Review

Chord and discord Laurence Jenkins

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

A Life Set to Music, the Autobiography of Edwin Carr, New Zealand Composer Edwin Carr Blanchard Press, $42.95, ISBN 0473078511 With the recent death of Douglas Lilburn, this country was reminded that the vanguard of creative artists, those who first…

Tagged with: Blanchard Press, Edwin Carr, Issue 55, Laurence Jenkins, Spring 2001
Posted in Autobiography, Music, Non-fiction, Review