In love with those times: Preserving Flying Nun’s legacy

Flying Nun’s rightful place in New Zealand history has been secured with the acquisition of the legendary label’s master tapes by the Alexander Turnbull Library. If Alexander Turnbull was around these days, he’d be your classic bearded, single-origin-coffee-and-fancy-toast-loving Wellington chap. Had he been at his peak in the early 1980s, on the other hand, he … Read more

‘Intense, extreme and mesmerising’: An oral history of the Headless Chickens’ Stunt Clown

Tonight, the Headless Chickens will be presented with the Independent Music Classic NZ Record award for Stunt Clown at a ceremony for the Taite Music Prize. Hussein Moses digs up the inside story of how the band first made their mark on New Zealand music. There was a lot that stood in the way of … Read more

Roger Shepherd on The Fall’s 1982 tour of NZ – and the live album that resulted

Mark E Smith, the singer and poet who led The Fall for over 40 years, has died. In this excerpt from his 2016 book In Love With These Times, Flying Nun founder Roger Shepherd recalls the band’s tour of New Zealand and the controversy surrounding the live album Fall In A Hole that was recorded … Read more

Flying Nun: In love with the sound of their own voice, more like

An essay by Gary Steel on the hits and myths of Flying Nun, as chronicled by the record company’s founder Roger Shepherd in his new best-selling memoir. Flying Nun. Was there ever a record label that was more famous than any of its acts? It’s the home of the “Dunedin sound”, The Clean, The Chills, … Read more