How I Learned to Listen to the Dunedin Sound

Flying Nun and more

Photo by author

We all know the wonderful music that flourished on the Flying Nun record label, with many of the bands emerging in 1980s Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand. Thankfully, there is an ever-emerging depth of literature documenting and celebrating much of the times (see bibliography below).

So how to easily listen to that classic scene that reverberated not only up the islands but also across the waves to cool cities and towns far away?

This is, of course, a highly subjective view. It was a scene, it was a vibe, there were core players, there were many on the fringes. Most were on Flying Nun, but not all, though, and some ended up on other or bigger labels. Plus, of course, Flying Nun had a national roster far beyond Dunedin. The bands themselves ran for the hills to atop Mount Cargill/Kapukataumaka to avoid being labeled and boxed in. But we all love labels, categorisation, and filing. Who does not line up their records in beer crates as a student, then later on in the bookshelf as a grown-up, filing them into many types of genre-driven alpha-chronological orders?

For me, and many others, it started with seeing The Clean explode onto our TV screens in the North Island. Underground student radio sounds on mainstream TV! From then on, we wanted more; the Clean burnt brightly and then were gone. In their wake came what quickly became known as the ‘Dunedin Double,’ a gatefold two EP sampler, with a side each of four of Dunedin’s finest: The Verlaines, Sneaky Feelings, The Stones, and The Chills. The picks of the litter, maybe, but many others were around or would follow.

As for me, still in the middle of the North Island, my mates and I survived on the forays and skirmishes North of these Southern sounds. The Stones on a university tour in 1983, catching up with Auckland-based mates to see The Bats at the Winsor Castle, the almighty 1984 Looney Tours travelling circus of Childrens Hour, The Chills, The Double Happys, and The Expendables. Children’s Hour were Auckland based and known for their student radio intense dark romantic track, ‘Caroline’s Dream’ (singer/guitarist Chris Mathews would later re-emerge as an additional Dunedin band member of This Kind of Punishment and then back to Auckland for the incomparable Headless Chickens). They played loud, so loud! The Double Happys were already a favorite, having combined the schoolboy terror twins, Shayne Carter of Bored Games and Wayne Elsey of The Stones. Channeling their best Chris Knox audience baiting and belting out snotty rock-punk classics they would not be ignored. The Chills were pop-rock class with two or three stunning numbers tucked away already and ready for the next rung on the indie rock ‘n’ roll ladder. While I know the name, I have never explored anything beyond the surface of The Expendables.

The following year, we gleefully attended a Double Happys gig in town at the upstairs Uncle Sam’s nightclub. The band were flying and were now a powerful trio with tunes becoming topflight songs. Alas, there was an Auckland gig, then that fateful train back down the Island, and the terrible demise of Wayne Elsey and, of course, the band.

As things came to pass, it was time for me to pack and head south, Dunedin sound and the University of Otago would induct me into a twenty-year sojourn in the southern city.

1986 was quite a year at Orientation; there was Sneaky Feelings and Look Blue Go Purple, and more, I am sure. Mid-year a Five Live in the Union Hall featuring a final national tour by Auckland’s Bird Nest Roy’s, (as befitting a final show, it was shambolic, the band legless, and fun), Look Blue Go Purple grew stronger with each outing, and resonated with great tunes, the dark and introspective The RIP played well, and the post Double Happys fledgling three piece Straitjacket Fits were starting to conjure up indie guitar rock treasure.

Notwithstanding all of the aforementioned talent, the one act I was desperate to see were the seriously dark and moody This Kind of Punishment, who tore through their work with echoes of their formative Taranaki band Nocturnal Projections. If this was not enough,there was an SHJ (Social Events Coordinator supreme) organised Union Lawn end-of-year event at the year's end, featuring Sneaky Feelings, The Moa’s, probably the Axemen, and tour de force Straitjacket Fits — now a fully fledged rock band. The Fits would go on to be world-class and each return hometown gig would be a thunderous raising of the roof to grateful fans.

If I had but a trio of Dunedin Sound to narrow it down to, it would be these three:

Firstly, The Fits, a guitar rock band with songs and lyrical sophistication, wins me every time. Alongside would be the Bats; they had the indie wallop coupled with a dancefloor swing and every week there was another song to showcase.

Finally, The Verlaines. As an English Lit student, why would I not gravitate to the powerful three-piece that combined dark romantic menace with complicated musicality and some of the best lyrics to hit vinyl?

I liked them so much that I twisted my mate to audition as the third bass player, and the band then featured two classical music grads, plus I saw them even more often. But how can you have a favourite child or band, especially as you meet your life partner at a Sneakies Ori gig?

Later, there would be The 3Ds, (if the Fits were good on guitars ….) Snapper (awe-inspiring on their night), David Kilgour solo and with The Heavy Eights, Robert Scott’s offshoot band the Magick Heads, Casandra’s Ears, and The Great Unwashed.

Somewhere sometime, we saw the Dunedin supergroup The Weeds with Shayne and Robert out front and one memorable tune: ‘Wheatfields’ and some good time give it a lash gig. The Alpaca Brothers were always worth a watch for a year or two. Then, of course, to round things out, The Clean reformed and played a stunner at Sammys.

In terms of sound, the common denominator is simply it encapsulated Dunedin based musicians in a time and place — because they do not sound alike.

What they did was challenge, rival, inspire, and raise each other to greater heights. Yes, there is the hark back to parents’ sixties jingle/jangle guitar recordings, but it was rare to hear backing vocals from most, and there was a good dose of the punk/post-punk DIY attitude and necessity when in splendid geographical isolation.

Here is how I would listen:

Bibliography:

Positively George Street, Mathew Bannister Reed 1999

Dead People I Have Known, Shayne Carter, Victoria University Press 2019

The Dunedin Sound, Some Disenchanted Evening, Ian Chapman Bateman 2016

Needles and Plastic: Flying Nun Records, Matthew Goody Auckland University Press 2022

Sportsman of the Year: A Suburban Philosophy, Jan Hellriegel Seahorse Swim 2019

Pull Down the Shades Garage Fanzine 1984–86, Richard Langston Hozac Books 2023

In Love With These Times My Life With Flying Nun Records, Roger Shepherd Harper Colins 2016