Blog Archives
Believing you are a star, Nick Bollinger
Dead People I Have Known Shayne Carter Victoria University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9781776562213 Rock odysseys can start in obscure places. Shayne Carter’s began in Brockville, a state-housing suburb of Dunedin, a city at the southern end of a country that…
Tagged with: Issue 127, Nick Bollinger, Shayne Carter, Spring 2019, Victoria University Press
Posted in Autobiography, Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Autobiography, Music, Non-fiction, Review
Melody slithering through the misery, Martin Lodge
Good-bye Maoriland: The Songs and Sounds of New Zealand’s Great War Chris Bourke Auckland University Press, $60.00, ISBN 978869408718 For both civilians and the soldiers alike on active service during WWI, music proved a significant and enduring element of New…
Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Chris Bourke, Issue 124, Martin Lodge, Summer 2018
Posted in Māori, Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Māori, Music, Non-fiction, Review
A continuum of community, Chris Bourke
New Zealand Jazz Life Norman Meehan (Tony Whincup photographer) Victoria University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9781776560929 In the 1984 “mockumentary” This is Spinal Tap, the fictional rock band was positive about its declining fan base. “We are more selective about our…
Tagged with: Chris Bourke, Issue 118, Norman Meehan, Tony Whincup, Victoria University Press, Winter 2017
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
National anthems, Andrew Schmidt
In Love with these Times: My Life with Flying Nun Records Roger Shepherd HarperCollins, $37.00, ISBN 9781775540892 A Road Tour of American Song Titles: From Mendocino to Memphis Karl Du Fresne Bateman, $40.00, ISBN 9781869359382 Flying Nun Records, the small…
Tagged with: Andrew Schmidt, Autumn 2017, Bateman, HarperCollins, Issue 117, Karl Du Fresne, Roger Shepherd
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review
“Pure, straight sound”, Elizabeth Kerr
Peter Godfrey: Father of New Zealand Choral Music Elizabeth Salmon Mākaro Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780994106582 On the book’s cover a young boy stands a little uncertainly before the camera. He’s wearing the Eton suit of a King’s College chorister, complete…
Tagged with: Elizabeth Kerr, Elizabeth Salmon, Issue 115, Mākaro Press, Peter Godfrey, Spring 2016
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
A music of our own, Peter Walls
Douglas Lilburn, Memories of Early Years and Other Writings Robert Hoskins (ed) Steele Roberts, $40.00, ISBN 9781927242476 This is the Lilburn centenary year. Concerts are being branded with a special logo – a way of marking the pivotal contribution that…
Tagged with: Douglas Lilburn, Issue 110, Robert Hoskins, Steele Roberts, Winter 2015
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Outrageous fortune, Chris Bourke
Gutter Black Dave McArtney HarperCollins ISBN 9781775540397 Hello Sailor were New Zealand’s most convincing rock stars. They acted like pirates, and managed to look menacing and foppish at the same time. It wasn’t a pose; it was a lifestyle. They…
Tagged with: Chris Bourke, Dave McArtney, HarperCollins, Issue 107, Spring 2014
Posted in History, Memoir, Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Memoir, Music, Non-fiction, Review
Opening the ears, Ross Somerville
How to Hear Classical Music Davinia Caddy Awa Press, $26.00, ISBN 9781877551000 At the end of June this year in Wellington, Michael Houstoun presented the centrepiece of his Beethoven Recycled series of piano recitals, in which he was playing the…
Tagged with: Awa Press, Davinia Caddy, Issue 104, Ross Somerville, Summer 2013
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Pressing on, David Eggleton
On Song: Stories behind New Zealand’s Pop Classics Simon Sweetman Penguin Books, $65.00, ISBN 9780143568162 Any anthology is a work of exclusion, constructed to emphasise or establish a particular narrative. In the case of anthologist Simon Sweetman’s On Song: Stories…
Tagged with: David Eggleton, Issue 102, Penguin Books, Simon Sweetman, Winter 2013
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Tickling the ivories, Edmund Bohan
Piano Forte: Stories and Soundscapes from Colonial New Zealand Kirstine Moffat Otago University Press, $45.00, ISBN 978187737797 What a welcome book this is. Music has been neglected shamefully for far too long in our historiography, either because most of our…
Tagged with: Edmund Bohan, Issue 100, Kirstine Moffat, Otago University Press, Summer 2012
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review