I'm flying through space, I'm an asteroid (The Swingers) #394 - 395

The Swingers One Good Reason/ All Over Town (Ripper Records, RIP 002, 1980)
The Swingers Counting The Beat/ One Good Reason (Ripper Records, RIP 012, 1981)

Three posts in a row on kiwi rock! Nice.

Phil Judd is an interesting character to say the least. He was a founding member of NZ's favourite sons - Split Ends/Enz but finally left in 1978 after 6 years.

The Swingers existed for even less time, from 1979 to 1983. Life since then has been lived in Australia where he got into strife with the law in the late 2000s. A problematic private life has also been mixed in with infrequent musical adventures.

These two singles, however, contain his most poptastic work without a doubt. Weirdly (sensing a theme yet) they came about after Phil flirted with two of NZ's seminal punk bands - The Suburban Reptiles and The Enemy (with Chris Knox).

The man could write a catchy chorus that's fer sure. Gimmie one good reason not to love these singles or 5 6 7 8 9.

Hidden gems: The B side version of One Good Reason is a re-recorded one; I prefer the original spark on the earlier one. All Over Town is another ace slice of kiwi pop from Phil.

If there's a better way I'll learn it (Split Enz) #354-355

Split Enz I See Red/ Hermit McDermitt; Message Boy (Mushroom, K 7284, 1978)

Split Enz Things/ Semi Datached (sic) (Mushroom, K 7643, 1979)

To my mind there are distinct phases to the Split Ends/Enz story:

• Prologue - Split Ends release two singles and appear on New Faces
• Act 1 - Split Enz - Phil Judd and Tim Finn in control, Mike Chunn on board
• Act 2 - Tim Finn in control (Neil ascending)
• Act 3 - Neil in control (Tim descending, then no Tim)
• Epilogue - reformations

These two singles are firmly in the transitional zone into Act 2 with Tim in control and younger brother Neil finding his feet.

I See Red is a Tim song and is a frenzied blast of raw kiwi rock and roll. It works, spectacularly! A classic!

Things is a Neil song (although Tim and Neil sing great co lead vocals) and is catchy in a clever XTC pop way. Although undeniably catchy, it's still not quite firing on all cylinders. 

Neil was paying attention though as we'll see in the next post.

Hidden gems: The bizarre image years of weird haircuts, weird makeup, and weird clothes were becoming a thing of the past but Hermit and Message both have that kind of weird vocal quirkiness to them still.

Semi Detached (but spelled incorrectly on my copy) is a kind of Charlie or Stuff And Nonsense style ballad. For my money Tim nailed it more on those other two titles.  

How's your day been today? (Split Ends) #353

Split Ends The Sweet Talkin' Spoon Song/ One Two Nine (EMI, HR 512, 1973)

The first time is often the best, in my experience.

The first time I clapped eyes on SE was on the New Faces TV programme in 1973. It wasn't quite the same experience that I'd had watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, but it was close.

They came second to last in the finals but Sweet Talkin' Spoon Song by the uber cool looking fellow kiwis had already become absorbed into my brain for evermore.

A school friend (take a bow Michael Budd) gave me a copy of the single (their second as Split Ends - the name would change to Split Enz for the third), and it quickly became a favourite in my collection.

This was a clever, fun, singalong, inventive song and a huge moment in NZ music. The song shape shifts around old time music hall, Small Faces mod, Beatles inspired invention/ harmonies, The Who's Pictures Of Lily style lyrics and barbershop. 

It just burrows into your skin. Cor!!!

Hidden gem: Oh yeah baby! One Two Nine retains the mandolin hook from the A side, as well as the invention and the pop smarts in glorious style. 

Sorry to be so gushy but this was a secret world of musical wonder that was right up my alley in 1973 and still is!

I was far out, I was groovy (Citizen Band) #84 - 85

Citizen Band In A Lifetime/ Good Morning Citizen (Mandrill M 10007,  1977)

Citizen Band I Feel Good/ 1 Good Morning Citizen 2 My Pohutakawa (Mandrill Drill 4,  1977)

I'm pretty sure it was my old school friend, and (in 1977) my varsity buddy, Greg Knowles who broke the news about Citizen Band. He'd heard about them, maybe from his big brother Michael or maybe it was his sister Susan (pretty sure it wasn't his mum although she was pretty hip as I remember).

Anyway GK was a fan and pretty soon, after he shared the secret, so was I. We loved them partly because they were so accessible. Our new University friend, Kevin Simms, had a tape of Citizen Band and Hello Sailor live at Westlake Girls' High School - the bands often played college gigs - they were cunning! How great was that - we were practically related!

We knew Mike from Split Ends (before they became the Enz) and we'd seen Geoff in After Hours at the Old Maid(ment) Theatre at Auckland University before Waves played. We knew Eccles and Clark from the awesome Space Waltz album.

We were ready for Citizen Band!
 

In A Lifetime had stiffed before Greg shared his discovery and I was ignorant of its existence until after I Feel Good and the other great songs on their first album - Citizen Band.

In A Lifetime didn't make the album, whereas the B side did! The A side is an okay song but it's not representative of the boys' quirky sense of humour and the melodies that would later come pouring out of the classic Geoff Chunn/ Warren Sly writing partnership.

It's I Feel Good where the CB story really starts. A remake of the old Larry's Rebels song; it injects more drive (go Brent!), more infectious fun and more guitar to the original great song. It's become a CB signature tune.

Hidden gems: Good Morning Citizen was clearly a band favourite - it appears as two B sides and is the opening track on their first album but it's not a great song. That description does apply to My Pohutakawa. It IS a great kiwi song.

You're my Pohutakawa, you're my greenstone, my paua, you're the mussel in my sholes, the sausage in my rolls.

Genius! Sholes rhymes with rolls! That's CB at its finest.

They redid the song for the album so this single version is quite rare and I prefer the energy here to the album version. Looking for an alternative national anthem? Right here!

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.