Stevie Kaye talks to The xx’s Romy Madley Croft about soft-rock, songwriting camps, and the band’s progression on their new album. Today, UK trio The xx are releasing their new album I See You into a very different world than that of their 2009 self-titled debut. And it’s a world they’ve helped change. The sparse, … Read more
If you view the comments on almost any story on abortion in New Zealand you’ll see assumptions being made about the process by people who haven’t accessed the procedure. Sarah Batkin spoke to four women about their terminations to show the varied experiences people go through in our country. I went to a symposium last … Read more
Calum Henderson review Maigret, the two-part detective drama featuring the man in the Mini as you’ve never seen before. Mr. Bean is back, baby … only this time he’s a pipe-smoking police detective in 1950s Paris. It’s not quite “Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher” levels of outrageousness, but Rowan Atkinson is still a bit of … Read more
MPs on all sides have embarrassed themselves in their ignorance of Uber and similar services. The simplest, cheapest way to tackle traffic gridlock is for the ruling party to abandon its timorous don’t-rock-the-boat attitude, writes ACT leader David Seymour. I sometimes joke that my parliamentary colleagues aren’t in their current job because they got bored … Read more
Philip Matthews examines three new books looking back on the day the music died: December 6, 1969, when the Hells Angels murdered a guy at that Stones concert at Altamont. “I looked away from Mick and saw, with that now-familiar instant space around him, bordered with falling bodies, a Beale Street nigger in a black hat, black … Read more
VIDEO PREMIERE: Randa recalls meeting the Dirty Girls and shooting his new video ‘Apollo Creed’. I gaze up at Amber who has just climbed a 12-foot ladder and is now hugging the top of a palm tree at Papas & Beer, an outdoor night club extravaganza in Rosarito, Mexico. Maybe it’s wrong to appear gleeful … Read more
If the National Party gets its policy of “social investment” right it could stay in power for another generation. So what will Labour and the Greens do about it? Here’s part four of Simon Wilson’s analysis of Labour in 2017. At the National Party’s Northern Regional Conference in May last year, Bill English started his … Read more
Pete Douglas tries to stage an intervention for poor old Daddy Pig, the bumbling patriarch of the ever popular kids show Peppa Pig. Before we had our first son four years ago I was blissfully unaware of the existence of Peppa Pig, much less the intricacies of the show’s plot and character development. This seems … Read more
Will The Project usurp Hosking? Will Shortland Street bring back Lionel? Will Dominic Bowden take his place in The Bachelor circle of life? We look bravely to the year ahead and pluck out the most promising bits of local television programming. Survivor New Zealand It feels like 1000 years have passed since Lana Coc-Kroft had a deadly … Read more
Is identity politics destroying the Labour Party or is that just the catchcry of a bunch of old white guys trying to get their own way again? Is Labour really a broad church party? Here’s the third part of Simon Wilson’s analysis of Labour in 2017. Identity politics Shortly before Christmas a senior member of … Read more
As his friends and supporters continue to remind us, Sir Peter Leitch holds a special place in Māori and Pasifika communities through his support for rugby league. That’s all the more reason for him to step up and admit that his casual racism is a serious problem, says Annabelle Lee. Before it was a maze … Read more
From confirmation that 2016 was New Zealand’s warmest year on record to the imminent inauguration of a big-emissions US president, it’s easy to understand desperation in the face of climate change. But we need to channel all our energies into urgent action, writes James Renwick. Climate change and global warming have been in the news … Read more
How is it that the days feel so long, but the years so short? Thomasin Sleigh writes about the parenting journey – the minutes, weeks, years and the “non-time”. Minutes A pregnancy test. Wait. You have to wait two minutes before you look at the slender lines. Lines which signify a new human being. Inside … Read more
No-one knows who they are in the ‘real world’, but the members of Viva La Dirt League are famous in the only place it counts: the Internet. They tell Hayden Donnell how to walk their path to success. Until six months ago, Alan Morrison, Rowan Bettjeman and Adam King were just workaday losers like you … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored segment where we peruse the extensive Lightbox catalogue for shows you might like to watch. This week, Alice Webb-Liddall creates a vision board of shows to help you become the best can be in 2017. Swamp People There’s nothing like a bit of tragic reality television to make you … Read more
Gary Steel surveys two new biographies by two old foes from the Beach Boys – Brian Wilson (genius) and Mike Love (asshole), and finds the asshole’s book is better. In the left corner, the drug-fucked genius, the Bach of modern pop: BRIAN WILSON! In the right corner, the craven villain that everyone loves to hate, the … Read more
If Andrew Little hopes to lead the centre-left to victory in the election later this year, he’s got a lot of work to do. In the second of a six-part series, Simon Wilson sets out the task. Everyone who’s thinking of voting for any of the parties on the centre-left this year faces a central … Read more
There’s one thing we know for sure about climate in 2016: it was the hottest year on record – both globally, and here in New Zealand. But what else was big news in climate change? Carys Goodwin takes stock. In November last year, I had the happy privilege of attending the 2016 climate conference in … Read more
In a quest to recreate the Christmas magic her grandmother always made, Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes ends up covered in vomit and balls. After my grandmother died Christmas became quite bleak. I couldn’t reconcile how Christmas happened without her. She always started the family water fight that we had after lunch. She would walk … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. Song of the Week Grouper – ‘Headache’ In case you missed it: Paradise Valley, a new Grouper 7″ released just before Christmas, is everything you might hope it would be. ‘Headache’ is the longer of the two tracks, and stands … Read more
The long journey that turned Shayne Carter, one of New Zealand’s great guitar heroes, into a classical piano music fan. Like most people under 70, I’d always found classical music a bit of a bore, a wing of the museum I hadn’t found the key for, the property of blue rinses bussed in from the … Read more
Alex Casey and Madeleine Chapman live blog the highs and lows of the 2017 Golden Globe awards, for all of you poor folk stuck in the office pretending to work. This content, like all television coverage we do at The Spinoff, is brought to you thanks to the excellent folk at Lightbox. Do us and … Read more
Does Andrew Little stand a chance of leading a centre-left government into Christmas 2017? Ahead of Labour’s caucus retreat this weekend, Simon Wilson considers their task in taking on a new prime minister who is a much more formidable figure than many seem to think Bill English went to the Joseph Parker fight on December … Read more
Right when the Pokémon Go orgy was at its height, Joseph Harper filed this review. It was to become one of our most controversial gaming posts ever as Joseph found it overwhelmingly pointless and bad. Originally published July 8, 2016 When the Pokémon GO trailer was hurled onto the internet last year, it seemed too … Read more
What is it like to face infertility when you’re ambivalent about becoming a parent? From hoping to conceive ‘accidentally’ to starting IVF, Alicia Young writes about her long journey towards motherhood in a series for The Spinoff Parents. At age 28 you break up with the long-term boyfriend who never proposed to you, and who … Read more
Back in April Duncan Greive interviewed Emily Edrosa as Street Chant’s long-delayed second album Hauora was released. The pair discussed the often-grim realities of life as a woman in the New Zealand music industry. Content warning: contains discussion of sexual assault. Originally published April 27, 2016 I met with Emily Edrosa twice in April. We went … Read more
Alex Casey recounts the harrowing experience of waiting to interview Quentin Tarantino during his Hateful Eight promo tour earlier this year (scroll down for part one of the video interview at the end). Originally published January 21, 2016 “Oh, Aaalex!” he exclaimed. “You’re a girl! What a surprise!” I laughed louder than I’ve ever laughed … Read more
In June, the internet rediscovered New Zealand’s longstanding ban on personal gardens, and it collectively lost its mind. Joshua Drummond argues that the ban has had its day. First published June 18, 2016. Well, it happened again. We should be used to it by now. It’s only a year since the topic of New Zealand’s … Read more
TVNZ has pulled a story about Kmart from its site after The Spinoff obtained emails showing two online ‘influencers’ received undisclosed payments to appear. The revelations raise fresh questions about the murky and unregulated world of the influencer economy. Alex Casey investigates. This post was first published on November 15, 2017. Two prominent online “influencers” … Read more