Pages tagged with: music

After a hesitant beginning in the early 1970s, rock festivals hit their stride with Nambassa, Sweetwaters and a string of smaller events in the early 1980s. Following a period of decline, festivals are today as popular as ever with The Big Day Out, WOMAD and others catering to a wide range of musical taste.

When four young Liverpool musicians landed in Wellington on a lazy Sunday afternoon in June 1964, seven days of pandemonium erupted. Young New Zealanders flocked in their thousands to hear or just catch a glimpse of the famous 'Fab Four'.

New Zealand Music Month was developed to support the New Zealand music industry by creating a commercially successful platform for local performers. To mark New Zealand Music Month in 2007 we compiled 31 reasons to love New Zealand music.

The early rock music festivals held in Auckland and Ngaruawahia reflected the troubled emergence of teenagers as a distinctive group and economic force in the second half of the twentieth century.

The Beatles' 1964 tour occurred as New Zealand was undergoing a cultural shift, and many young people swapped their old image for the new 'mod' look.

No-one predicted the success of the 1979 Nambassa Festival which drew over 65,000 fans.

Seven thousand screaming fans waited as The Beatles touched down at Wellington airport on 21 June 1964. As the band stepped off the plane, the fans' shrieks drowned out the noise of the jet engines.

Entertainment generally and music in particular have always been a part of the Wellington cafe scene.

Although the American forces worked hard, they all craved some time off. But New Zealand leisure-habits were very different to American ones. So the visitors devised their own forms of entertainment and established enclaves of American culture.

What do Kiri Te Kanawa and 1970s punk legends Suburban Reptiles have in common? Both feature in the 31 daily stories celebrating New Zealand Music Month. It’s a rich mix – from 'Pie cart rock 'n' roll' to 'Poi E', from 'She's a mod' to Shihad.

For many people of both nations the most memorable aspect of the American invasion was the home visits. Often these were arranged formally, with New Zealand families signing up to offer the Americans a weekend at home.

Sweetwaters - Festival of Music, Culture and Technology. There was a lot to that new tagline. It had the future in it. A modernity echoed by the band line-up. Having come together in a mass statement of being youth culture now began to define and divide beginning a pattern still visible today.

From the late 1980s into the 1990s small scale and sharply focused rock music festivals would be the norm, though there were some notable exceptions

As the new century dawned it was clear music festivals were now a viable and often long-running proposition. WOMAD, the Big Day Out and others continue to attract huge crowds each year

Auckland fans were as riotous as those in Wellington. The Beatles' music went almost unnoticed as everyone commented on the audience.

In 2001, to celebrate 75 years of its existence, the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) invited its members and an academy to vote for what they believed to be New Zealand's top songs of all time.

Tex Morton was a Kiwi country and western singer, also known as the ‘Yodelling Boundary Rider’. A prolific songwriter and recorder, as well as hypnotist and whip-cracker, his pioneering style eventually led him to Hollywood, and the Australasian Country Music Awards Hands of Fame.

Tex Morton was a Kiwi country and western singer, also known as the ‘Yodelling Boundary Rider’.