Sunlight filters through - I feel my head is drifting (Fourmyula)

1. The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
2. Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
3. Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
4. John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)
5. Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)
6. Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat  (1982)/ Split Ends - One Two Nine (1973)
7. Max Merritt and The Meteors - Slippin’ Away (1976)/ Let it Slide (1976)
8. Headband - The Laws Must Change (1971)/ Good Morning Mr Rock N Roll (1971)
9. Citizen Band - My Pohutakawa (1978)/ The Ladder Song (1978)
10. Fourmyula - Nature (1969)/ Lady Scorpio (1969)

Tenth and final entry in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is the song widely acclaimed to be the best NZ song OF ALL TIME.





It's a song that has always been part of my consciousness. Prior to 1969 I was aware of music sure (Beatles on Ed Sullivan; Radio Hauraki; my parents' jazz collection) but I was not aware of any indigenous NZ music. I loved Dinah Lee’s song Do The Blue Beat in 1964 but I had no idea she was a kiwi.

The Fourmyula changed all that with a song so good it has eclipsed everything else they did. Even knowledgeable music lovers would be hard pressed to name another of their songs. It’s not so much that they were one hit wonders – more that the song has since taken on a load of additional cultural baggage that has given it a life of its own.

This ends my run down on some of  my favourite kiwi music moments. There is nothing that compares to the music of your youth and I was fortunate to grow up in NZ. My ears slowly become accepting of the local music – for my money – a lot of it was far superior to much of the pop pap I was hearing on the radio.

Some other great bands could have made this list as they were also a huge part of this fabric:

• Hello Sailor
• Th’ Dudes
• The Datsuns
• Herbs
• Muttonbirds
• Zed
• Swingers
• Supergroove
• Phoenix Foundation

New NZ bands keep coming and keep adding to a rich history. Next post – a recent discovery of just such a group – Family Cactus.

Hey Lord, would ya look out for her tonight and make sure that she's gonna be alright until she's home in here with me (Billy Joel)

1. The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
2. Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
3. Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
4. John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)
5. Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)
6. Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat  (1982)/ Split Ends - One Two Nine (1973)
7. Max Merritt and The Meteors - Slippin’ Away (1976)/ Let it Slide (1976)
8. Headband - The Laws Must Change (1971)/ Good Morning Mr Rock N Roll (1971)
9. Citizen Band - My Pohutakawa (1978)/ The Ladder Song (1978)

Ninth in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is the Chunn brothers'supergroup from the seventies called Citizen Band (a sponsorship deal with Citizen watches was a cunning plan).

Super because Geoff and Mike were from the Enz; Clark and Eccles were from Space Waltz.

I can't remember if I formed an attachment to CB via collecting discs on the Mandrill Records label or after hearing the I Feel Good single which has Good Morning Citizen AND My Pohutakawa on the B side. Or maybe it was the Citizen Band live at Westlake Girls' cassette that Greg or Kevy gave me (not sure who it was - both had an attachment to CB; Greg might remember - he's younger than me and has a much sharper memory. I believe he even belonged to the CB fan club but that could be just idle speculation).

However way it happened - it happened and we all fell for the Brent Eccles Muldoon impressions, the twangy guitar of Greg Clark, the gifted Geoff Chunn songs and the humour from Mike Chunn.

All came together on their first album in particular and on this early single mentioned above (the redone LP version of My Pohutakawa does not improve on the single version in my humble opinion).

The band flamed out after two studio albums and a dull live album. If they'd asked I would have supplied the Live At Westlake Girls' tape - now that one had the goods!

[Sorry - nothing on youtube for either of these two songs.]

Long as I have you by my side there's a roof above and good walls all around (Billy Joel)

1. The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
2. Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
3. Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
4. John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)
5. Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)
6. Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat  (1982)/ Split Ends - One Two Nine (1973)
7. Max Merritt and The Meteors - Slippin’ Away (1976)/ Let it Slide (1976)
8. Headband - The Laws Must Change (1971)/ Good Morning Mr Rock N Roll (1971)

At number eight in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is the mighty Headband (grooving).

I have Led Zeppelin to thank for introducing me to Headband. When they toured NZ in 1972 Robert Plant and Jimmy Page raved about a local band whose album they loved - Happen Out by Headband.

By 1972 I was a huge Led Zep fan so if they said it was a great album, then I had to have it. At the time I was only vaguely aware of a NZ rock music scene. I'd watched C'Mon and Happen Inn - two local TV shows - but they were largely made up of locals rehashing the hits of the day or singers with strange voices like Mr. Lee Grant or Bunny Walters. Not my cup of tea.

So Happen Out was a major wake up call for me. And the biggest wake up call of all was the lengthy wig out that was Headband's version of the John Mayall song, The Laws Must Change.

The sound is amazing. It still feels like the band have just walked into your living room, picked up their instruments and gone to work. Jimmy Hill, on drums, is in particularly awesome form and Billy Kristian's guitar work is great throughout. Then factor in the grizzled veteran Tommy Adderley on harp and vocals and you have the recipe for greatness.

Good Morning Mr Rock'n'Roll is a great call to arms (similar to Zep's Rock'n'Roll, also from 1971).

I know it's a cliche but they don't make bands like Headband any more, more's the pity.

So sad, so sad, sometimes she feels so sad (Paul and Linda McCartney)

1. The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
2. Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
3. Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
4. John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)
5. Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)
6. Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat  (1982)/ Split Ends - One Two Nine (1973)
7. Max Merritt and The Meteors - Slippin’ Away (1976)/ Let it Slide (1976)

Seventh in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is a real veteran of the music scene in both NZ and across the ditch.

Max formed the Meteors before I was even born and he's still a member!! Although he's had a rare kind of illness that has laid him up recently, he was still able to perform in 2007 when inducted into the Australian Hall Of Fame.

What did they sing that night? What else but Slippin' Away.

The song is a classic and Max's vocal is a deft less is more masterclass.

Ah c'mon all you lads (Split Enz)

1. The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
2. Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
3. Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
4. John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)
5. Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)
6. Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat  (1982)/ Split Ends - One Two Nine (1973)

Sixth in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is the mighty Split Ends who then became the even more mighty Split Enz.

One of the great things about NZ music is how accessible the bands are to the public at large.

My mate Greg wrote recently to tell me that he remembers hearing Dragon rehearsing from their house near his place in Mt Eden when he was a teenager. He also reminded me that people could book John Hanlon to appear in their living rooms with his guitar and voice.

The band who played at the Mt Albert Grammar school ball in 1976 was Th' Dudes - a great NZ band who may have made my top 10 (you'll have to wait and see). I remember the night well!

And then there was Split Ends, as they were called when they started out: a people's band if ever there was one. The Finn's of Te Awamutu - there you have it - as down home as you can get!


I have a single in my collection at home in Nu Zild that is very special to me. It is Split Ends One Two Nine on the EMI label. You'll notice it was the B side (to Sweet Talking Spoon Song, a good but to my ears, an inferior song to the wonderful One Two Nine).

It was given to me in 1973 by a school friend from Mt Albert Grammar - a fellow member of Senior Five - Michael Budd. I can remember the day he gave it me very clearly.

I was living with the rest of my family in Asquith Ave in Mt Albert at the time, close to another mate (Peter Cahill) while we were waiting for our new home in Mt Roskill to be built. I loved living so close to all my friends (Mike lived in Ponsonby) and so close to the school.

One day during the summer holidays Mike came round to our place in his little Morris Minor (called a Morrie Thousand or Morrie Thou' for short) after work. He was working at the local Heards’ sweet factory.

He had a pile of singles with him: One Two Nine by a group called Split Ends. Seems some members of the group were also working at the Heards factory - supplementing a non-existent income I guess - and they had given Mike some singles to give to his friends. I still have the copy he gave me as I mentioned.

This was fantastic because I knew the song from the TV show - a NZ Opportunity Knocks style show called New Faces. We all loved this show - an early precursor to the X Factor, Turkmenistan's Got Talent rubbish we have now.

At the time it was one of the rare chances we had to see some pop bands on TV. I can remember seeing bands like Split Ends and Space Waltz and solo artists like John Hanlon and Shona Laing from that show especially.



Regardless of my rose tinted memories, it’s a great great song – done in an endearingly flippant kind of tone. I can remember being slightly disappointed with their first album (Mental Notes) because it was much darker and dense in its sound compared to the fun One Two Nine.

Six Months… comes from a vastly different period for the band; much more straight forwardly poppy thanks to Nil Fun being a member (see my previous post for his adventures after the end of the Enz).

It’s probably become a larger than intended touchstone for ex-pats because of the New Zealand references (Aotearoa, rugged individual) and the succinct explanation for our country’s isolation (tyranny of distance).

I include it also to celebrate the patriotic feel that I always have when I live outside the country. Even when I visited NZ at Christmas I felt more positive about the place. Much more positive.

Here’s my top ten of NZ positivity

·         The music industry is fantastic.

·         Isolation can be a blessing.

·         Being laid back is better than over thinking things.

·         Pohutakawa blooms are amazing.

·         The All Blacks won the world cup.

·         The proximity of the sea and swimming beaches is a real plus.

·         The film industry is exciting.

·         JB Hi Fi has a great CD and DVD selection at reasonable prices.

·         My habibi and the immediate fandamly are (mostly) there.

·         And, of course, some of my favourite people are NZers.

Close my eyes, she's somehow closer now (Beach Boys)

1. The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
2. Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
3. Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
4. John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)
5. Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)

Fifth in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is Crowded House - something of an inevitability (say it as Smith from the Matrix - it's good).


Nil Fun is surely a Beatles acolyte, like me. The difference between the two of us is that Neil is a genius writer, singer, musician and I am practicing five basic guitar chords, but that’s by the by.

A genius? You ask. Yes – a genius. He can churn out hummable instantly loveable chewns for fun, in his sleep, with his fretting hand tied behind his back.

Picking two great songs from Crowded House is a very tough job (unlike Berta, say, who only had two great songs to my mind).

I’ve stuck by Weather With You because I use that philosophy a lot in day to day life. It’s like Emerson’s great quote – Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. Neil’s version is even more succinct – you always take the weather with you.



And Private Universe edges out the more obvious pop songs (Don’t Dream It’s Over, Four Seasons In One Day, Distant Sun and loads of others) because it’s a proper mature Beatle song.





The lyric touches on the personal and the universal (private and universe). Neil evokes a Strawberry Fields style sepia coloured childhood domesticity in the song (in his own apple tree, dinner on the table, talking to birds) but he also touches on the cosmic quest for meaning - I have all I want, is that simple enough? A whole lot more I'm thinking of.

The music is otherworldly. There is longing and hope and there at the end are the Polynesian rhythms which take over from the drums. A magical aural experience in its own write (sic).

Macca would have been delighted if he’d written this song!

Me minus you is such a lonely ride (Peaches and Herb)

1. The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
2. Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
3. Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
4. John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)

Next in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is not a band at all.

John Hanlon is a singer/songwriter (still going strong I believe) who had a real knack for catchy toons in the seventies.

He was interesting because he often wrote songs with a NZ flavour and he was entertaining. His lyrics often seemed to contain NZ content - one lyric was about 'heading out of Auckland'. Quite a revelation, at least to me at the time.

Higher Trails was on the soundtrack of a great little documentary film called Off The Edge about a couple of American skiers/ hang glider pilots who climb/ski Mount Cook (I'm pretty sure it was Mt Cook) and then launch themselves off it.

They glide down to the strains of Higher Trails. Fantastic.