Spoiler alert: this is the answers page to the AudioCulture Quiz – to see the questions only, go to this page.
AudioCulture Quiz, 18 November, 2024
Che Fu. - Publicity photo
1: Che Fu won the 2002 APRA Silver Scroll for his hit song ‘Misty Frequencies’. Name the keyboard player/ songwriter who co-wrote it with him.
2. Which Māori hip-hop group recently announced a vinyl reissue of their classic 1997 debut album?
A: Dam Native. The album is KDRU (Kaupapa Driven Rhymes Uplifted)
3. Name the Japanese-New Zealand multi-instrumentalist and singer who has performed with Iggy Pop.
A: Miho Wada
Delaney Davidson. - photo by Sabin Holloway
4. What is the title of Lyttelton singer-songwriter Delaney Davidson’s most recent album?
A: Out Of My Head (2024)
5. Which South Canterbury-born pop and adult contemporary singer sang the lyric “Come on and do de blue beat”?
A: Dinah Lee
6: Martin Kini from Gisborne’s Kini Quartet was the brother of bass player Thomas Kini. What was the name of the soul-funk band Thomas was a member of in the United States?
A: The New Zealand Trading Company
Look Blue Go Purple, Dunedin, 1985 - Denise Roughan, Kathy Bull, Lesley Paris, Norma O'Malley, Kath Webster. - Jeremy Freeman
7: What is the title of Dunedin alternative-pop band Look Blue Go Purple’s debut 1985 EP?
A: Bewitched
8: Name the Auckland-based Samoan rapper who made his name selling CDs and T-shirts door-to-door.
A: Poetik
9: Who was the founder of Urban Pacifika Records?
A: Phil Fuemana
10: Which New Zealand drum & bass DJ/producer duo created music for the trailer of the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?
A: The Upbeats
[This week’s quizmaster: Martyn Pepperell]
AudioCulture Quiz, 11 November, 2024
Netherworld Dancing Toys, Dunedin, 1983.
1. Who was the Netherworld Dancing Toys’ lead singer on their hit single ‘For Today’?
A: Malcolm Black, third from left, above
2. What was The Chills’ second single?
A: ‘Pink Frost’
3. In 1969, The Fourmyula released a concept album called what?
A: Green ‘B’ Holiday
4. Which 80s Dunedin band released three eps for Flying Nun and this year won the Independent Music NZ Classic Record award at the Taite Music Prize event for their compilation album?
Split Enz, c.1981: L to R: Neil Finn, Tim Finn, Nigel Griggs, Eddie Rayner, Malcolm Green, Noel Crombie
5. “When my baby’s walking down the street” is the opening line to which 1978 Split Enz single?
A: ‘I See Red’
6. Early 80s experimental trio Marie & The Atom’s first EP was called what?
A: Yellow Read Aloud
7. Which landmark song, written by Ruru Karaitiana, sung by Pixie Williams, was released by Tanza in 1949 and would sell 50,000 copies?
A: ‘Blue Smoke’
Andrew Brough. - Photo by Becky Nunes
8. What band was Andrew Brough in before Straitjacket Fits and after the Blue Meanies?
A: The Orange
Blam Blam Blam. - Photo by John Reynolds
9. Blam Blam Blam recorded a song on their self-titled 1981 EP called ‘Battleship ... ’ – what?
A: ‘Battleship Grey’
10. Who was a staff writer for Rip It Up in the 1980s, ran the Public Address website and currently has a regular column in the Listener?
[This week’s quizmaster: Grant McDougall]
AudioCulture Quiz, 4 November, 2024
Margaret Urlich
1. What is the name of Margaret Urlich’s cousin, who was also successful in the local music scene?
A: Peter Urlich, lead singer of Th’ Dudes, club DJ, and radio host, among other music industry roles
2. In 2000, Bic Runga joined with two of New Zealand’s top songwriters to tour the country and release a live album which reached the Top 5. Name one of her two companions on the project.
A: Tim Finn, Dave Dobbyn. Together In Concert: Live (2000) reached No.2
Tomorrow People - BBQ Reggae (2018)
3. Tomorrow People’s No.1 album BBQ Reggae shows a cartoon of a local music reviewer cooking sausages on an open grill, in order to poke fun at him for his critical comments about the local reggae scene. What was the reviewer’s name?
A: Simon Sweetman
4. Under what artist name did Stella Rose Bennett achieve a billion-streaming hit song?
A: Benee, with her song ‘Supalonely’.
5. This turn-of-the-90s pop band was a Top 20 act in both New Zealand and Malaysia, due to its Malaysian lead singer Aishah. What was its name?
A: Fan Club
Johnny Cooper - National Library of New Zealand Ref: PAColl-10069-11-06
6. Johnny Cooper helped kick off original homegrown rock’n’roll with a composition about a food vendor selling which favourite New Zealand takeaway item?
A: Pies. The song was ‘Pie Cart Rock and Roll’
7. This guitarist ran his own record label, played guitar and mandolin on the Greg Johnson hit ‘Isabelle’, and went on to become a RNZ music host. He has also written the AudioCulture weekly quiz. Who is he?
A: Trevor Reekie from Pagan Records
8. Which New Zealand band had Bernard Butler from Suede as producer on their second EP?
With fellow Quin Tikis (L-R) Anzac Te Oka and Rim D. Paul is Sam Mateparae (older brother of Sir Jerry Mateparae). - Courtesy of the Rim D. Paul Collection at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
9. Sam Mateparae was a member of the Quin Tikis, Maori Troubadours, and Del-Rockers. His younger brother Jerry later took on a high-profile role within New Zealand – what was it?
A: Sir Jerry Mateparae became the Governor-General of New Zealand in 2011
10. What was the first band released by Lil Chief Records?
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
AudioCulture Quiz, 28 October, 2024
Patsy Riggir promoting the release of Lay Down Beside Me, Auckland, 1981
1. Which country music star rode a horse outside the Sounds Unlimited record store and down Queen Street, Auckland, to promote their 1981 LP release?
A: Patsy Riggir
2. Mariah Carey sampled 2004 hip-hop hit ‘A Life With You’ on her song ‘Your Girl’. Which Aotearoa act, made up of brothers Nainz and Viiz Tupa’i, took ‘A Life With You’ to No.3 in the NZ Top 40?
Viiz and Nainz Tupa'i - Adeaze - at the Pacific Music Awards, 2005.
3. Which band, fronted by Murray Grindlay, had its 1969 cover of a Frank Zappa song released as ‘There Will Come A Time’ because Eldred Stebbing refused to put it out under the Zappa title ‘Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance’?
A: Underdogs
4. Name the shampoo that sponsored New Zealand’s prestigious Golden Disc pop music award held annually from 1965 to 1972.
A: Loxene
5. Which band walked the red carpet at the 2012 NZ Music Awards leading a goat, then went on to win Best Hip-Hop album and thank God for not existing?
A: Home Brew
Economic Wizards - The Second Coming (Eelman Records 12" EP, 1986). Artwork by Paddy Neville aka Jim Steel.
6. Which Wellington label released discs by The Hulamen, The Pelicans, and Economic Wizards in the early 80s?
A: Eelman
7. Ladies Bring A Plate and The Money Or The Bags were early suggestions for the name of which New Zealand supergroup?
8. After playing a significant role in the OMC anthem ‘How Bizarre’, whose debut album – recorded in 1996 and 1997 – was finally issued by huh!/Universal in November 2017?
A: Sina
The Maori Album (Ode, 1976)
9. Name the New Zealand record label, founded in the late 60s, that had to change its moniker to Manu in the early 1990s after it was threatened with legal action from a US label of the same name. It released many discs by Prince Tui Teka, Nash Chase, and many jazz and Polynesian musicians.
A: Ode
10. International acts such as Roy Orbison, Los Lobos and Nona Hendryx began pulling out of which failed New Zealand music festival when plane tickets and fees had still not appeared in the days prior to its late January 1988 commencement?
A: Neon Picnic
Acrostic fun! The first letter of each answer spells out the name of celebrated New Zealand songwriter Paul Hewson.
[This week’s quizmaster: Glen Moffatt]
AudioCulture Quiz, 21 October, 2024
The Deceptikonz in 2002 - Mareko (top), Savage, Devolo (middle), and Alphrisk. - Rip It Up Archive
1. Mark Sagapolutele made his name as a solo artist and a member of Deceptikonz, recording for Dawn Raid. What was his stage name?
A: Mareko
2. His first two names are Brian Timothy, but he’s better known by the diminutive of the second. He’s also one of the elder statesmen of New Zealand music, one with a career that goes far beyond the band that made him famous. Name him and the band.
Aaron Tokona / AHoriBuzz. - Dean Mackenzie
3. AHoriBuzz was which musician’s irreverent soul-rock-whatever outfit?
A: Aaron Tokona
4. Michael Braithwaite had a history that went back to 1960s and 1970, recorded for Flying Nun and had a backing band called The Blue Beetles. By what name is he better known?
Erny Belle
5. Aimee Renata had a 2024 Taite-nominated album with Not Your Cupid. Who do we know her as?
A: Erny Belle
Buster Stiggs with The Swingers at the Windsor Castle, Parnell, Auckland, 1979. - Peter Tocher
6. He came from Hawke’s Bay, was in Neil Finn’s first band, wrote or co-wrote two classic singles, ‘Saturday Night Stay at Home’ and ‘Counting The Beat’, and his real name was Mark Hough. What name was he known by?
Yoh at The Gluepot, Ponsonby, Auckland, 1982 - Photo by Michael Thompson
7. Name the 1980s band whose drummer was known to everyone except his parents and the taxman as Yoh?
A: The Screaming Meemees (Laurence Landwer-Johan)
8. His family knew him as Daniel Bolton. What name did he use on his home-recorded indie classic?
A: Darcy Clay
9. Our AudioCulture profile starts: “Bass Player Needed: who you gonna call? For over 50 years the answer has simply been ‘Billy’.” What was legendary bassist Wiremu Karaitiana’s stage name?
Kings in 2017.
10. Kingdon Te Itinga Chapple-Wilson is quite a name. By which name do we know him?
A: Kings
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
AudioCulture Quiz, 14 October, 2024
Dam Native - Kaupapa Driven Rhymes Uplifted (1997, Tangata Records)
1. Dam Native’s 1997 album Kaupapa Driven Rhymes Uplifted has just been reissued on vinyl. Who produced it?
A: Zane Lowe
2. Annah Mac initially emerged from which nationwide school songwriting initiative?
3. In which US state did Troy Kingi and his band The Cactus Handshake record their latest album Leatherman & the Mojave Green?
A: California
4. Who came from Te Kūiti, moved to Dunedin, worked at the Post Office, then with The Enemy and Toy Love, before becoming a recording engineer, producer and promoter?
A: Doug Hood
5. On September 20 we lost “a voice in a million”. After joining The Quin Tikis in 1966 and appearing in the film Don’t Let It Get You, he left in 1969 to start a successful solo career. Who was he?
A: Eddie Low
6. Which band released the single ‘Murder in Manners Street’ in 1980?
A: The Mockers
Dubhead at Auckland Domain band rotunda for the One Love Unity Celebrations, 6 February 1997.
7. Patrick Waller (aka Dubhead) was in which Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland band in the early 1980s with Brent Hayward and Julie Cooper?
8. As featured in AudioCulture’s new Māori Music Collection Ngā Puoro Arotini, in 1927 which singer sang on New Zealand’s first commercial recording with her cousin, the great baritone Deane Waretini?
A: Ana Hato
Rocky Douché in Marmalade Studios.
9. In 1971 Rocky Douché founded Marmalade Studios, where hits by Jon Stevens, Holidaymakers, Dennis O’Brien, Sharon O’Neill, Netherworld Dancing Toys, and Dave Dobbyn were recorded. In which Aotearoa New Zealand city was Marmalade?
A: Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington
10. Who was awarded the 2024 APRA Silver Scroll for her song ‘Kātuarehe’?
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, 7 October, 2024
The Beths: Tristan Deck, Ben Sinclair, Liz Stokes, and Jonathan Pearce. - Mason Fairey
1. Which song by The Beths won the 2023 APRA Silver Scroll?
A: ‘Expert in a Dying Field’
2. Name the winning song from 2013 in which “we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams”.
A: ‘Royals’ by Lorde – writers Ella Yelich-O’Connor, Joel Little and Jack Antonoff
3. Name the songwriter who won twice, in 1988 with ‘Soviet Snow’ and in 1992 with ‘Mercy of Love’.
A: Shona Laing
4. James Milne and Luke Buda wrote the 2009 winner, ‘Apple Pie Bed’. By what artist name is Milne also known?
5. Avalanche City’s Dave Baxter won in 2011 with ‘Love Love Love’. Which television channel ran the song as a promotional ad?
A: TV2
Don McGlashan, 2021. - Diane Smithers
6. In 1994 Don McGlashan won the Silver Scroll for ‘Anchor Me’ (The Mutton Birds). He won again in 2006 for which song?
A: ‘Bathe in the River’ (Mt Raskill Preservation Society feat. Hollie Smith)
7. Name the songwriter behind the 2018 winner, ‘Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore’.
8. No Silver Scroll award was presented in 1981. It was remedied in 2015 when APRA retrospectively announced The Swingers as the 1981 recipients. Name that song.
A: ‘Counting the Beat’ (Phil Judd, Wayne Stevens aka Bones Hillman and Mark Hough aka Buster Stiggs)
9. 2002 winner ‘Misty Frequencies’ was cowritten by Godfrey de Grut and which other performer?
A: Che Fu
10. Name the well-known songwriter who has won the APRA Silver Scroll three times and in 2021 was named Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to music.
A: Dave Dobbyn (‘You Oughta Be In Love’ (1987), ‘Belle of the Ball’ (1993), ‘Beside You’ (1998)
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, 30 September, 2024
Gary Thain in his trademark Ugg boots
1. In 1964, bassist Gary Thain joined Ōtautahi Christchurch band The Secrets. Then in 1969 he joined a high-profile UK hard rock band, playing on their 1972 album Demons and Wizards. What was the band?
A: Uriah Heep
2. Before Dion Palmer co-founded The D4, he played bass in which Auckland North Shore-based band?
3. Which Ōtautahi Christchurch band, who recently reformed for a couple of shows, released the album Showered in Gold in 1997?
4. In July, The Narcs’ biggest hit single hit a milestone: it was released 40 years ago in 1984. What was the song?
A: ‘Heart and Soul’
Studio fun with Miss Nicky Says and @larrikinpuppets, February 2024. - Photo from Facebook with permission.
5. Children’s music superstar Miss Nick Says hails from Kirikiriroa Hamilton. In which country was she living in 2021 when she set up her hugely popular YouTube channel ?
A: Australia
6. In 1972, a musical opened at His Majesty’s Theatre in Auckland which drew the ire of the attorney-general, Sir Roy Jack. He authorised a police prosecution, accusing the producers and promoters of the “Distribution or exhibition of indecent matter.” What was the musical?
A: Hair
7. What was the first band for which Ōtepoti Dunedin producer and engineer Tex Houston did live sound?
8. Name the Aotearoa New Zealand singer who sang and starred in the 1980s television commercial for Gerard roofing.
A: John Rowles
Fan Club (L-R): Dave Larsen, Paul Moss, Malcolm Smith, Aishah, Glenn Peters
9. Sensation – the 1988 album by Auckland band Fan Club – did well in New Zealand, but even better in singer Aishah’s homeland, where it became the biggest-selling English language album ever at the time. Which country was that?
A: Malaysia
10. In 2023, the Play It Strange Trust celebrated 20 years of running secondary school songwriting competitions. Which former member of Split Enz and Citizen Band founded it?
A: Mike Chunn
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, 23 September, 2024
Gill Civil performing in Vulcan Lane, Auckland, c.1982
1. Who is the future member of Marie and the Atom pictured here playing the banjo on Auckland’s Vulcan Lane?
A: Gill Civil
2. Name the sound engineer who created the Tex Tone speakers.
A: Tex Houston
3. At which Wellington experimental music venue was Anita Clark the 2020 artist-in-residence?
A: The Pyramid Club
4. Ventry Parker performs under what name?
A: Poetik
Anna Coddington.
5. In which seaside Waikato town did Anna Coddington grow up?
A: Raglan
6. Name one of the members of the short-lived Dunedin band The Cartilage Family.
A: Shayne Carter, Peter Gutteridge, Lesley Paris, Kathy Bull (aka Francisca Griffin)
7. Which band released the albums Max Harris and DR503 in the 1980s?
A: The Dead C
8. The Phoenix Foundation composed the original soundtrack which 2010 film?
A: Boy
Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders - Word Gets Around (2019)
9. After releasing Word Gets Around, Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders won which Tui award in 2020?
A: The Tui award for best country artist
10. ‘Dancing the Columbine’ was used as an advertising jingle for Columbine hosiery in the 1990s. Who sang on the jingle?
A: Fiona McDonald
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
AudioCulture Quiz, 16 September, 2024
Oceania, a collaboration between Hinewehi Mohi and Jaz Coleman.
1. Who was Dame Hinewehi Mohi’s musical collaborator in the Oceania group?
A: Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke
2. Which Māori pop singer, actor and television personality played the lead role in Tearepa Kahi’s Mt. Zion film?
A: Stan Walker
3. Wellington indie rocker Vera Ellen won this year’s Taite Music Prize for her album Ideal Home Noise. Which local musician produced Ideal Home Noise for her?
A: Ben Lemi
4. Who sang and performed the 1990s Interislander ferry theme song, ‘Cruising On The Interislander’?
Marie and The Atom - She Said (1984)
5. Which New Zealand cassette tape record label released Marie & The Atom’s second EP, She Said?
6. At which classic New Zealand festival did Talking Heads play their final live performance?
A: Sweetwaters South, 1984
Anita Clark aka Motte - David Dunham
7. Anita Clark, aka Motte, is a violinist, cellist, composer, and vocalist from Northern Canterbury. Which famous Australian post-punk musician did she tour New Zealand with earlier this year?
A: Mick Harvey
8. Name the longstanding Auckland recording studio and music manufacturing company that recently started pressing vinyl again in New Zealand.
9. In the early 1980s, Martin Phillipps wrote a letter to a famous American children’s author and cartoonist asking if they would create cover art for The Chills. Who did Phillipps write to?
A: Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr Seuss
10. Which recently deceased New Zealand jazz big band leader spent five years playing in The Quincy Conserve?
[This week’s quizmaster: Martyn Pepperell]
AudioCulture Quiz, 9 September, 2024
The Verlaines in the Californian desert, during the sessions for the 1993 album Way Out Where at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles. From left: Darren Stedman, Mike Stoodley, Graeme Downes, and Paul Winders. - Jeff Bender
1. Which 1993 album by The Verlaines was re-released on vinyl for Record Store Day earlier this year?
A: Way Out Where
2. On which New Zealand label was Split Enz’ 1975 debut album Mental Notes released?
A: White Cloud
3. Australian DJ Timmy Trumpet teamed up with which local hip-hop star to reach No.1 in New Zealand in 2014 with a song called ‘Freaks’?
A: Savage
The Dark Ages at the Top 20, 1966. Left to right: Mick Sibley, Clive Coulson, Vaughan Stephens, Red McKelvie, Ian Thomson. - Ian Thomson collection
4. Guitarist and pedal steel player Red McKelvie, who died in 2022, had a long career in country music. But which South Auckland R&B band – pictured above – did he join in the mid-1960s?
5. Dragon songwriter Paul Hewson found the inspiration for ‘April Sun in Cuba’ in a 1921 newspaper column on what subject?
A: Chess
6. The Redwood 70 National Music Convention was held in which Auckland suburb?
A: Swanson
7. Who won the inaugural Taite Music Prize in 2010 with his album Chant Darling?
8. Name the punk band that evolved out of Smokefreerockquest 2001 winners Carriage H from Logan Park High School in Dunedin.
9. Name the New Zealand band which in 1978 took to busking in the streets of Manhattan in NYC and played at legendary venues CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City.
A: The Drongos
Bill and Boyd in the mid-1970s. Boyd Robertson left, Bill Cate right.
10. What was Bill & Boyd’s highest charting hit in Australia?
A: ‘Santa Never Made It Into Darwin’ (1974) reached No.1 in Australia (‘Put Another Log On the Fire’ reached No.6)
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, 2 September, 2024
Split Enz: Nigel Griggs, Tim Finn, Eddie Rayner, Neil Finn, Paul Hester, Noel Crombie
1. Which former Split Enz member released a solo album called Horse?
A: Eddie Rayner
2. Christchurch band Gorilla Biscuit evolved into which hit-making 2000s group?
A: OpShop
3. “I went to sleep that night and woke up with a start, with the name ‘When the Cat’s Away’.” Who said that?
Barry Saunders
4. Barry Saunders’ late 70s/early 80s Wellington guitar-pop band had a hit with ‘Red Dress’. Name the band.
A: The Tigers
Ticket's Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, 1972
5. Who designed the sleeve of Ticket’s classic album Let Sleeping Dogs Lie?
6. Centred around David Mitchell, their only Flying Nun EP was called The Grotesque Singer. Who were they?
7. Who had a massive hit with ‘Miss September’?
A: Bulldogs Allstar Goodtime Band
8. “Bought a dog off a bloke who was passing through / for a retread tyre and a beer or two / its name and breeding no one knew / it was black and tan, so I called it Blue.” Who sang that?
A: Barry Crump
Josie Rika
9. Josie Rika, Mark Williams and Murray Grindlay created the soundtrack to which classic canine-entitled New Zealand movie?
10. What was the Kiwi Hit Disc?
A: A monthly NZ On Air-created New Zealand music CD sampler for radio programmers
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
AudioCulture Quiz, 26 August, 2024
Howard Morrison, 1965
1. Name Aotearoa’s first full-length musical film, which featured performances by Howard Morrison, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eddie Low, and Eliza Keil.
2. Graham Wardrop was vocalist and lead guitarist for which 1970s Dunedin band?
A: Lutha
Name the artist. - Photo by Dave Simpson
3. Who is this artist?
A: Chelsea Jade
4. Which hair-metal band performed their song ‘TV Blue’ on after-school programme 3:45 Live! in 1989?
A: Push Push
5. Which member of The Beths plays a G&L Tribute Fallout guitar?
A: Liz Stokes
6. Steph Brown performs under which stage name?
A: Lips
Kimbra. - Publicity image
7. In 2018 Kimbra opened shows for which highly influential American musician during his Australasian tour?
A: David Byrne
8. Johnny Sagala and Lucia Ablett (Emcee Lucia) hosted which Max TV video show?
A: True School TV
9. Which band, formed at Onslow College in Wellington, led on to The Hulamen and Holidaymakers?
A: The Rodents
10. ‘We Light Fire’ by Julia Deans was covered by Beastwars for their covers album. What is the name of that album?
A: Tyranny of Distance
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
AudioCulture Quiz, 19 August, 2024
Stan Walker in 2013. - Photo by Gareth Shute
1. Which musician appeared alongside Stan Walker in the film Mt Zion and had supporting actor roles in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, The Kick, and The Pā Boys?
A: Troy Kingi
2. In the 1990s, Flying Nun was gradually bought by which music label from Australia?
3. Which band won the 2023 APRA Silver Scroll for its song ‘Expert In A Dying Field’?
A: The Beths
4. This New Zealand composer has written or arranged popular music with Bellbirds, Neil Finn, Tami Neilson, Anika Moa, Strawpeople, Greg Johnson, Finn Andrews, Shapeshifter, Sandy Mill, Don McGlashan, Sean James Donnelly (SJD), and TrueBliss. Who is she?
5. During his time as a judge on the TV show Studio One, this 1960s rock/pop star admitted he hated country music. Nonetheless he later returned to New Zealand screens as the host of That’s Country. Who was he?
A: Ray Columbus
Pam Sheyne, 2021 - Publicity photo
6. New Zealander Pam Sheyne co-wrote a US No.1 hit for Christina Aguilera. What was the name of the song?
A: ‘Genie In A Bottle’
7. The New Truth headline “Naked Kiwi rockers make Split Enz look like Mormon Tabernacle choir!” was about which 1990s band?
8. Who is this quote from? “We [The Basketcases] played at Mollett Street – Chris Knox came up and jumped on me, he thought I was the bee’s knees, chick drummer and all that.”
A: Jane Walker
9. This multi-talented singer has been added to the New Zealand Order of Merit (in 2004) for services to Māori and music. In 2019 her band’s 1993 album received the Independent Music NZ classic record award. Who is she?
Dave and the Dynamos - Kevin Findlater (top), Bernie Reber, Dave Luther (front)
10. Dave Luther from 1970s band Hogsnort Rupert released a novelty song in 1983 under the band name Dave and the Dynamos. It was that year’s only No.1 by an New Zealand artist. What was the song?
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
AudioCulture Quiz, 12 August, 2024
The Clean, 1981. - Photo by Carol Tippet
1. In which city was Nightshift studio, where The Clean’s ‘Tally Ho!’ was recorded?
A: Christchurch
2. Which Auckland based independent label signed Bic Runga before she went to Sony Records?
A: Pagan
3. Name the Wellington band that had a No.1 hit in May 1988 with their cover version of Bill Withers’ ‘Sweet Lovers’?
4. What is the Bob Dylan-inspired title of Matthew Bannister’s 1999 memoir about the early days of Flying Nun?
A: Positively George Street (the full title is Positively George Street: A Personal History of Sneaky Feelings and the Dunedin Sound)
5. Name the soulful lead singer of 1960s R&B band The Action.
A: Evan Silva
Stanley Manthyng in Cactus: live at The Venue, Auckland, 1989. - Graham Hooper
6. Stanley Manthyng’s early 1990s band World Gone Wild was produced by Michael Den Elzen – which band was Den Elzen in with Phil Judd, Nigel Griggs and Noel Crombie?
7. Which Canadian-born New Zealander opened for US rock band Heart at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz Fest?
A: Tami Neilson
8. Mark Tierney co-produced which album by the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience?
A: Bleeding Star (1993)
The Face in 1972. From left: Mack Tane (bass), Willie Hona (front, guitar), Mark Williams (at rear, vocals) and Gregg Findlay (drums). - Phil Warren Collection
9. The late Willie Hona, who died in May 2024, is best known for his work in Herbs. Years before joining Herbs he was in a band called Face along with Mark Williams and Mack Tane. Which town in the Kaipara district did they form in?
A: Dargaville
10. Who was the local promoter behind David Bowie’s 1983 Serious Moonlight tour of New Zealand?
A: Hugh Lynn
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, 5 August, 2024
Max Merritt and The Meteors at The Christchurch Teenagers Club, 1958
1. Run by Max Merritt’s parents from 1957, The Teenagers Club was the first rock’n’roll venue of which city?
A: Christchurch
2. Name the biggest hit of C&W musician Garner Wayne, from 1964.
A: ‘Love in a Fowl House’.
Janet Roddick and band, Threepenny Opera. - Janet Roddick collection
3. In a production of Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera, at Downstage Theatre, Wellington, in 1988, with Janet Roddick as musical director, which electrifying combo played the band?
A: Six Volts
4. Which cult hit by Darcy Clay had a video budget of $250 and a bottle of whisky?
Maisey Rika. - Publicity photo
5. In 2004, Maisey Rika was chosen as a contestant on NZ Idol. Why was she eliminated after the first few days of the competition?
A: For singing waiata in te reo Māori.
6. In 1983, the Skeptics played a gig at the Cricketers Arms Tavern in Wellington, to a small but mutually influential audience consisting solely of the entirety of which Australian band?
A: The Birthday Party
7. Which New Zealand beat group was on the bill of early New Zealand tours by the Rolling Stones and Roy Orbison?
A: Ray Columbus and The Invaders
8. Which Christchurch band made their cassette tape album Equinox stand out in record stores by using full-sized LP record sleeves, adorned with a garish day-glo screen-print style that would become their trademark?
A: AXEMEN
9. When they met in the 1960s, Danny Kaye performed an impromptu haka for which Māori showband?
Clementine Valentine
10. What does the long-running jingle for Geddes dentures (“Broke my dentures, broke my dentures …”) have in common with the sister duo Clementine Valentine?
A: The word Clementine; the denture jingle used the song ‘Oh, My Darling Clementine’ for its melody
[This week’s quizmaster: Bee Trudgeon]
AudioCulture Quiz, 31 July, 2024
Erny Belle
1. Erny Belle’s first album Venus is Home (2019) was named after which member of her family?
A: Her grandmother Venus
2. Clive Coulson was the singer with The Dark Ages, then became a respected road manager and soundman in London in the mid-1960s. After a US tour with Jeff Beck fell apart, he became a roadie for which hugely popular UK rock band?
A: Led Zeppelin
3. Mt Zion (2012) tells the story of a band in 1979 trying to get the support slot for Bob Marley’s concert at Western Springs. The main role was taken by someone who could convincingly take the role of a musician – who is he?
A: Stan Walker
4. Who produced Tex Pistol and Rikki Morris's 1988 hit ‘Nobody Else’?
A: Ian Morris, whose alias was Tex Pistol
Instigators
5. Ska/punk band Instigators recently had their two early 80s Ripper Records singles, and a side of live tracks, released on vinyl on The Best of Instigators. Who was their lead singer?
A: Sonya Waters
6. One of Gisborne Tairāwhiti’s longest-running venues (opened in 1990) features a DC-3 aircraft suspended over the outdoor seating, and a vintage Morris Minor car by the front gate. What is the name of the venue?
A: Smash Palace
7. Who founded Urban Pacifika Records (UPR) in 1996?
A: Phil Fuemana
8. David Gapes passed away in March this year. Which radio station did he co-found?
A: Radio Hauraki
Three Houses Down
9. During Three Houses Down’s performance at the One Love festival in 2016, they brought a special guest onto the stage. Rob’s 10-year-old son Lotima delivered a version of 80s hit ‘Pass The Dutchie’, and a young star was born. What is his stage name?
A: General Fiyah
10. Which member of The Clean and The Bats also ran the magazine Every Secret Thing?
A: Robert Scott
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, 22 July, 2024
Jon Stevens in the late 70s
1. Name one of the Australian bands that Upper Hutt-raised ‘Jezebel’ hitmaker Jon Stevens went on to front.
A: Noiseworks, INXS
2. ‘The Cigarette Duet’ has clocked up over 110 million plays on YouTube – name one of the duet partners.
A: Princess Chelsea or Jonathan Bree
Greg Carroll, Kilburn, London, Christmas Day, 1984. - Richard Morris
3. What Auckland landmark is celebrated in U2’s tribute to their Whanganui-raised roadie Greg Carroll, who died in 1986?
A: One Tree Hill (Maungakiekie)
4. Which iconic 60s New Zealand pop singer did Tami Neilson team up with for a tour last year?
A: Dinah Lee
5. Which Samoan-New Zealand family group’s 1961 debut album was entitled Take Off?
6. ‘Pulsing’ was a hit for which Wellington electronic group?
7. Name the longstanding Wellington band fronted by Jon McLeary which has released music on Flying Nun, Ripper and Jayrem.
A: The Spines
8. Name the founder of Jayrem Records.
A: Jim (James) Moss
9. Which Flying Nun artist won the prestigious Taite Prize in 2024?
A: Vera Ellen
10. What was the name of Warren Maxwell’s post-TrinityRoots rock band?
[This week’s quizmaster: Jeremy Taylor]
AudioCulture Quiz, 15 July, 2024
Footrot Flats soundtrack album cover, 1987
1. Which Auckland college supplied members of its choir to sing on Dave Dobbyn’s ‘I Love Rugby’, from the Footrot Flats soundtrack?
A: Sacred Heart College
Nesian Mystik, from left: Heath Manukau, Junior Rikiau, David Atai (at back), Donald McNulty, Feleti Strickson-Pua (at back), Te Awanui Reeder
2. Which Auckland high school, near a famous outdoor venue, did the members of Nesian Mystik attend?
A: Western Springs College
3. Which Dunedin high school taught Tex Houston, many members of Cripple and Netherworld Dancing Toys, and had Rip It Up writer George Kay as a history teacher?
A: Otago Boys High School
Goodshirt, from left to right: Murray Fisher, Mike Beehre, Rodney Fisher, Gareth Thomas
4. Goodshirt’s Rodney and Murray Fisher went to which Taranaki high school?
A: New Plymouth Boys High School
5. Logan Park High School in Dunedin is the alma mater of several Flying Nun acts. Name one of them.
A: The Verlaines, The Chills, The Same, Andrew Brough (Blue Meanies, Straitjacket Fits, The Orange), Francisca Griffin (Look Blue Go Purple), Aldous Harding, and Nadia Reid
The Ainsworths: Rowan Shedden, Hilary Hunt, Phil Jackson, Adam Holt - Simon Grigg collection. Photo by Anthony Phelps.
6. The Screaming MeeMees and The Ainsworths made good use of which North Shore high school’s music room?
A: Rosmini College
7. Name the high school, on Auckland’s North Shore, that nurtured Lorde and The Checks.
A: Takapuna Grammar School
Hollie Smith. - Steve Dykes
8. Nathan Haines, Joel Haines, and Hollie Smith were also educated on the North Shore, closer to the harbour bridge. Name their college.
A: Northcote College
9. Which member of The Exponents said goodbye at Geraldine High School?
A: Jordan Luck
10. Two Auckland high schools had their caps worn by The Beatles during their 1964 New Zealand tour, photographed by Michael Willison for the NZ Woman’s Weekly. Name one of the schools.
A: Avondale College or Mt Albert Grammar
[This week’s quizmaster: Nick Sampson]
AudioCulture Quiz, 8 July, 2024
Johnny Devlin, 18 November 1958. Taken in Wellington by an Evening Post photographer, during Devlin's 1958-59 national tour. - Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington; Ref EP/1958/3934-F
1. In which provincial city did pioneering rock’n’roll star Johnny Devlin grow up?
A: Whanganui
2. Whose first release was under the name Tono and the Finance Company?
3. Kevan Moore was the producer of which groundbreaking late 60s TV pop show?
A: C'mon
4. Which band is named after a 1970s sci-fi programme, and named its 2018 EP BBQ Reggae?
Gill Civil performing in The Holy Trinity Cathedral, Dunedin, 1983 - Gill Civil Collection
5. With which Australasian band did Gill Civil briefly play keyboards in 1986?
6. I released my first album, You Can Do It, in 1979, fronted early 80s Australian band Koo De Tah and sang the theme song for TV drama Shortland Street. Who am I?
A: Tina Cross
7. In the past five years, two acts have released double-live albums recorded at The Auckland Town Hall. Name one of them.
8. In the 1970s, Mandrax Mansion was a notorious party flat in Auckland. Name one of two bands that lived there.
A: Dragon; Hello Sailor
9. Stella Bennett is better known by what name?
A: Benee
10. Who recorded the Slugbuckethairybreathmonster EP?
A: Tall Dwarfs
[This week’s quizmaster: Grant McDougall]
AudioCulture Quiz, 1 July, 2024
Jenny Morris, 1980s - Simon Grigg collection
1. When Jenny Morris was living in Australia in the early 1980s – after The Crocodiles but before coming into her own as a solo artist – which rapidly rising Australian band did she sing backing vocals for?
A: INXS
2. Who was the first female New Zealander to reach No.1 on the Australian pop charts with her 1964 cover of Jackie Wilson’s ‘Reet Petite’?
A: Dinah Lee
3. Dave Dobbyn, Neil and Tim Finn, Geoff and Mike Chunn, Ian Morris, and Peter Urlich are all late 1960s-early 1970s alumni of which Auckland college?
A: Sacred Heart College
4. Pranksters ?Fog (aka Surgical Brain Implant) formed in Auckland in 1983, playing about 50 gigs under several different iterations of both band and name. During a gig supporting Flesh D-Vice at The Windsor Castle in Parnell in the mid-80s, why was one of the vocalists – Sam Swan – rushed to hospital?
A: She was breathing fire when she accidentally set her face alight.
Bressa Creeting Cake, L to R: Geoff Creeting, Joel Bressa, Edmund Cake - Photo by Bridget Jones
5. Bressa Creeting Cake (formerly Breast Secreting Cake) were signed to Flying Nun backstage at Auckland’s Powerstation in 1997 after opening for Australian band Hunters & Collectors. Which song did they cover on Abbasalutely, Flying Nun’s 1995 ABBA tribute album?
A: ‘Ring Ring’
6. Circa 1977, before climbing the pop charts with Thompson Twins, a New Zealand musician started a band with a London punk named Traci; the band was called The Unf*ckables. Who was the New Zealander?
Will Crummer performing with his daughter Annie, 2011. - Trevor Villers
7. Annie Crummer’s father Will Crummer was a prize-winning singer in his own right. Where was his favourite spot in Rarotonga from which to command an audience?
A: Atop a coconut tree, so the entire village of Turangi could hear him.
8. Emma Paki’s 1993 single ‘System Virtue’ – for which she won Best Songwriter and Most Promising Female Vocalist at the 1993 NZ Music Awards – was produced for no charge by Jaz Coleman, as a thank you to local Māori for what assistance?
A: Lifting the tapu on the newly built York Street Recording Studios
Kim Krueger with the Folkstone Three, before the trio left for the UK. - NZ Teen Scene, 7 January 1963
9. In 1964 Wellington’s The Folkstone Three renamed themselves the Harbour Lites and headed for London where, in 1966, they recorded a song off The Beatles’ Rubber Soul album. Name the song.
A: ‘Run For Your Life’
10. Around the time of her 1995 album Tremble, Jan Hellriegel was asked for her autograph by a Ponsonby bank teller. Which enormously popular US female musician had they mistaken her for?
A: Alanis Morrisette
[This week’s quizmaster: Bee Trudgeon]
AudioCulture Quiz, 24 June, 2024
Vera Ellen - Photo by Nicola Sandford
1. What was the title of Vera Ellen’s 2015 debut album?
A: Monte Cassino
2. Godfrey de Grut and Che Fu won the APRA Silver Scroll for which song?
A: ‘Misty Frequencies’
3. Name a member of Across the Great Divide.
A: Tony Burt, Karen Jones, or Hannah Wiskari Griffiths
Miho Wada with Iggy Pop in 2011.
4. Which wind instrument did Miho Wada study at Trinity College in London?
A: Flute
5. Monster was the early name for which 1990s Auckland band on Flying Nun?
A: Superette
6. Where did Julian Temple study music after moving to Aotearoa?
A: University of Otago
7. Which member of Look Blue Go Purple had the cat that inspired their song ‘Cactus Cat’?
A: Denise Roughan
8. Which member of Split Enz spearheaded the ENZSO project?
A: Eddie Rayner
Jonathan Bree in 2023 - Chelsea Nikkel
9. At age 12 Jonathan Bree was playing drums in his cousin’s band. In which band did he become prominent in the early 2000s?
10. What was the name of the record label set up by Tim Finn, Eddie Rayner and Debbie Harwood?
A: Enz Records
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
AudioCulture Quiz, 17 June, 2024
The Beatles arrive in Wellington - Chris Bourke collection
1. Which New Zealand band supported The Beatles at the Princess Theatre, Hong Kong, just prior to their Aotearoa tour?
2. Name the Beatles song recorded by Ray Columbus and the Invaders which was first recorded and released by the Rolling Stones.
A: ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’
3. In 1969, Paul McCartney was at Abbey Road recording ‘Oh Darling’. Which New Zealand band came in to the studio to say hello – and then quickly say goodbye?
Barry Markwick: a 1963 publicity shot. - Jo Jules collection
4. Young Christchurch jazz pianist Barry Markwick was among the first to do what relating to The Beatles?
A: With his trio in 1964 he recorded an album of jazz interpretations of Lennon-McCartney songs
5. In 1963 The Beatles covered Smokey Robinson’s ‘You Really Got a Hold On Me’. Which New Zealand female singer recorded it at the beginning of her solo career?
A: Suzanne, formerly of The Chicks
6. Wellington teenager Rochelle Vinsen recorded ‘My Boyfriend Got a Beatle Haircut’ in 1964. Which New Zealand female singing star recorded ‘Yeah Yeah, We Love Them All’?
A: Dinah Lee
The Beatles at Auckland Town Hall
7. Who was the Auckland mayor who battled his council to give The Beatles a civic welcome during their visit to the city?
A: Sir Dove Myer-Robinson
8. Name the drummer, later well-known as an actor and host of 1980s TV music show Dixie Chicken, who sat at the Beatles’ Wellington show, looked at Ringo and thought, “Fall off that f’n stool and I’ll be up there so fast. I know all the songs ...”
9. Which New Zealand musician released an album of Beatles interpretations called Evolver in 2013?
10. Who was the drummer of The Merseymen, the resident band at Phil Warren’s teenage club in Auckland, The Beatle Inn?
A: Dylan Taite (aka Jett Rink)
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, 10 June, 2024
Grace in 1996: Paul, Jason and Anthony Ioasa
1. Brothers Anthony, Jason and Paul Ioasa formed the neo-soul band Grace in 1993. What was the name of their 1994 album, released on the Deepgrooves Entertainment label?
A: Black Sand Shore
2. Which Auckland band on the Flying Nun label was Dominic Stones in before he joined Snapper and The 3Ds?
3. Name the singer who had a 1980 hit in Australia with ‘Love At First Night’ and went to Penrose High School with Tina Cross, sharing vocal duties with her in a group called Chalkdust?
A: Kim Hart
The Neighbours: Phil Toms, Mike Croft, Rick Bryant, Sam Ford, Tim Robinson, Trudi Green, Wayne Baird, Greg Heath
4. Which Auckland band of the early 1980s included Sam Ford, Trudi Green and Rick Bryant in its line-up and recorded a live album at the Gluepot called Vocal at the Local?
A: The Neighbours
5. The Netherworld Dancing Toys’ Graham Cockroft and Sneaky Feelings’ David Pine were two founders of which student radio station?
A: Radio One, Dunedin
6. Which late 90s/early 2000s metal band from West Auckland, who in 2003 played the main stage at Big Day Out and performed showcase gigs at South By Southwest in Austin Texas, was named after a very tall plant?
7. Omega-B and Koma are two founders of which Hamilton Kirikiriroa hip hop group?
A: 4 Corners
8. Name the musical brothers from Taranaki who formed Nocturnal Projections and This Kind of Punishment.
A: Graeme and Peter Jefferies
9. ‘Codeine Road’ was the name of a 1994 single by which singer-songwriter on the Deepgrooves Entertainment label?
A: Greg Fleming (and the Trains)
Al Hunter at The Gluepot, October 1992 - Photo by Alan Fon
10. In the early 1990s after a decades-long career playing in pubs and clubs, Al Hunter recorded a weather-themed song for a television advertising jingle. The song, written by Jim Hall, Ian Morris, and Callie Blood, raised Hunter’s national profile, and was included on his 1993 album The Singer. Name the song.
A: ‘There’s A Blue Sky Waiting For Me’
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, 3 June, 2024
Ritchie Pickett on the set of That’s Country, early 1980s
1. Who did Ritchie Pickett nickname “His Midgesty”?
2. “Let me be your ruler / I can be your queen bee” – name the song.
3. “Thank God It’s Over!” was the advertising slogan for which cataclysmic 1984 event?
Prince Charles meets The Chicks, Super Pop '70, 25 March 1970. - Judy Donaldson collection
4. Super Pop 70 was a royal variety show held in Auckland in 1970, featuring The Chicks and Bunny Walters. Name one of the royals who was a guest of honour.
A: Prince Charles and Princess Anne
5. Which female singer, born in Tokoroa and now based in Australia, opened for Prince on his 1986 European tour?
A: Jenny Morris
A 1980s Jenny Morris publicity shot - Simon Grigg collection
6. Which Dunedin tavern was the venue for the private party for Nunfest ’96: the 15th anniversary celebration of Flying Nun?
A: The Empire
7. Who was nicknamed “the queen of the mods”?
A: Dinah Lee
8. Whose songs ‘The Cigarette Duet’ and ‘I Love My Boyfriend’ have received tens of millions of streams?
9. Which fondly remembered Auckland pub began its time as a venue with an Al Hunter residency and went on to host countless local and international acts?
10. Which song on Dave Dobbyn’s Lament for the Numb album described the lavishly decorated Auckland cinema The Civic?
A: ‘Palace’
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, 27 May, 2024
Airstrike - Peter Chilton on the truck, Timaru 1980.
1. 1980s rock band Airstrike came from the same city as Chris Knox, Jason Kerrison, and Suzanne Prentice – name the city.
A: Invercargill
Godfrey de Grut performing with the Bob Marley All Stars in Kerikeri, 2017.
2. Godfrey de Grut and Che Fu won the APRA Silver Scroll for which song?
A: ‘Misty Frequencies’
3. Which legendary Māori songwriter formed the performing arts group Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū during World War II?
A: Tuini Ngāwai
Linn Lorkin performing at Watershed Theatre, Auckland, 1992. - Linn Lorkin Collection
4. Which song by jazz vocalist and pianist Linn Lorkin celebrated the Aotearoa summer?
A: ‘Family at the Beach’. Sam Hunt liked the way she rhymed “flowers” with “pohutukawas”.
5. Which sister duo first started out as the Purple Pilgrims?
6. Whose album Shake Up won the 2017 Tui award for Best Country Music Album?
A: Jody Direen
Drax Project opening for Six60, Eden Park, Auckland, 24 April 2021.
7. Which song by Drax Project had over 180 million streams by 2022?
A: ‘Woke Up Late’
8. Coco Solid began as a duo. Apart from Coco (ie, Jessica Hansell), who was the other original member?
A: Benjamin Buchanan (aka Erik Ultimate)
9. ‘Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore’ won the APRA Silver Scroll in 2018. Who first recorded the song with Marlon Williams?
10. Name the musicians who toured under the name Reid & Ruins in 2020.
A: Nadia Reid and Tiny Ruins
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
AudioCulture Quiz, 20 May, 2024
What’s that album? by Graham Reid
AudioCulture readers no doubt immerse themselves in the music they hear, but how aware are we of what we see? As we noted recently, album covers in the resurgent era of vinyl have become important art object, the kinds of things we scan for lyrics, clues, information and imagery.
So here’s a quick test of observation skills. What follows are 10 partial images taken from various album covers. See if you can identify the album and artist. Take an extra bow if you get within a year or so of the album’s release date.
--
1.
A: Ragnarok by Ragnarok, 1975 (reissued 2022)
The 1975 debut album from Ragnarok, reissued in March 2022.
2.
A: Shake That Skinny Ass All The Way to Zygertron by Troy Kingi, 2017
Troy Kingi - Shake That Skinny Ass All The Way To Zygertron (AAA Records, 2017)
3.
A: Peking Man by Peking Man, 1986
Peking Man's CBS album, released in July 1986
4.
A: 6Twenty by The D4, 2001 (reissued 2023)
The D4 - 6Twenty (2001)
5.
A: Movement in Demand by Upper Hutt Posse, 1995
Upper Hutt Posse - Movement in Demand, Tangata Records, 1995
6.
A: Pacifica Amour by Hello Sailor, 1978 (reissued 2023)
Hello Sailor’s second album Pacifica Amour, originally released in 1978
7.
A: Whitiora by Maisey Rika, 2021
Maisey Rika - Whitiora (2012)
8.
A: Look Me in the Eye by Mermaidens, 2019
Mermaidens - Look Me In the Eye (Flying Nun, 2019)
9.
A: Monte Video by Monte Video (Murray Grindlay), 1983
The 1983 Monte Vidéo album by Murray Grindlay, released in the US by Geffen Records.
10.
A: Swarthy Songs for for Swabs by The 3Ds, 1991 (yes it reads “for for”)
1991's Swarthy Songs For Swabs EP with artwork by David Mitchell.
and a bonus to turn it up …
11.
A: Bird Dog by The Verlaines, 1987
The Verlaines - Bird Dog (1987)
[This week’s quizmaster: Graham Reid]
AudioCulture Quiz, 13 May, 2024
Delaney Davidson. - Veronica McLaughlin
1. Which APRA “music genre” award has singer-songwriter Delaney Davidson won three times?
A: Best country music song
2. What group won the Independent Music NZ Classic Record Award at this year’s annual Taite Music Awards?
Willie Hona with Herbs at Ruatoria
3. Sadly, long term Herbs front man and songwriter Willie Hona recently died. He grew up in a small town called Rawene. Which province is it in?
A: Northland
4. Which well-known bass player taught internationally successful artists Nadia Reid and Aldous Harding during his 30 years as Head of Music at Logan Park High School?
A: John Dodd
5. Who engineered the tom-tom sound played by drummer Ricky Ball in the 1977 Hello Sailor single ‘Gutter Black’?
A: Ian Morris
6. Starting in the early 1980s a small and ugly pub venue (not The Empire) played an important role in the development of Dunedin's music scene. What was it called?
7. What musical genre plays a key part in the sound of Ōtāhuhu’s Shepherds Reign?
A: Heavy metal. Frontman Filiva’a James traces his love of metal back to seeing Guns N’ Roses’ video for ‘November Rain’ as a five year old.
8. Which Auckland studio has been the been the location for recording classic songs such as The Chills’ ‘Pink Frost’, Chris Knox’s ‘Not Given Lightly’, and ‘Young Blood’, the international hit by The Naked and Famous?
A: The Lab
9. Which singer, who toured the country with Tami Neilson late last year, also played to New Zealand troops in the Vietnamese jungle in 1966?
A: Dinah Lee
10. Which New Zealand band, in its 2024 line-up, recently toured the country with Hello Sailor to celebrate its 50th anniversary?
A: Dragon
[This week’s quizmaster: Nick Sampson]
AudioCulture Quiz, 6 May, 2024
Superette: Greta Anderson, Ben Howe, Dave Mulcahy
1. What connects the groups Lanky, Superette, Dimmer and The Stereo Bus?
A: All feature former members of Jean-Paul Sartre Experience
2. By what name is the Wellington venue previously known as Ali Baba’s and Indigo now known?
A: San Fran
3. What is the name of the Samoan metal band whose 2023 album was called Ala Mai?
The 3Ds.
4. Which former member of The 3Ds and Look Blue Go Purple now plays in the band Living Clipboards?
A: Denise Roughan
5. What was the name of the cassette only compilation of Flying Nun bands covering each other’s songs (sold only at the 10th Anniversary show at the Powerstation)?
A: Roger Sings The Hits
6. Which Taita-raised bassist for Rockinghorse, Taylor, Sharon O’Neill and The Warratahs sadly passed away in February of this year?
7. Whose classic 1998 electronica album Inside A Quiet Mind was recently reissued on vinyl?
A: Micronism (Denver McCarthy)
Minuit. - Photo by Georgia Schofield
8. Name a member of Nelson-based electronic/ dance trio Minuit.
A: Paul Dodge, Ruth Carr, or Ryan Beehre
9. Stephen McCarthy, of Christchurch indie rock trio Pine, is also well-recognised graphic designer. He created much of the distinctive sleeve art for which label?
A: Arch Hill
10. Michael Franklin-Browne replaced drummer Hidee Beast (Mark Hamill) in which band?
[This week’s quizmaster: Jeremy Taylor]
AudioCulture Quiz, 29 April, 2024
Strawpeople, 1990s: Mark Tierney and Paul Casserly
1. Strawpeople gave a rare live performance this year, at Splore and Womad 2024. In the 1990s they opened for friends the Headless Chickens with a performance that, according to founding member Paul Casserly, “fell apart like a bad pavlova” and discouraged them from playing live shows. What was the venue?
A: The Gluepot, Auckland
2. Which Flying Nun group of the 1990s covered the apocalyptic folk song ‘Morning Dew’ and – another with folk origins – Dick Dale’s surf guitar classic, ‘Misirlou’?
A: King Loser
3. Name the Auckland band of the 1990s who had good airplay on student radio and Max TV with songs like ‘Day At The Fair’ and ‘Red Velvet Sofa’ but called it a day before releasing their album, which finally saw CD release through Failsafe Records in 2023?
A: Crash
4. When The Beatles visited Auckland in 1964, what caused a fuss among the city councillors?
A: The councillors didn’t support the mayor’s idea of giving the group a civic reception.
5. Name the New Zealand musician who has played for Split Enz, Crowded House, Space Waltz, and for international artists including Australian Crawl, Phil Manzanera and Paul McCartney.
A: Eddie Rayner
6. Keyboardist Mal Logan enjoyed a lengthy career in Australia, where he played with Charlie Tumahai in Healing Force, joined the Renee Geyer Band for the Ready To Deal album (featuring ‘Heading In The Right Direction’), played on Little River Band’s ‘Reminiscing’ and was among the personnel for Jimmy Barnes’ Soul Deep album. But prior to that, which famous New Zealand garage-pop group did he join in 1968?
The Netherworld Dancing Toys, venue unknown - Nick Sampson collection
7. At which venue did the Netherworld Dancing Toys play their debut show – or “Consummation Party” – in June 1982?
8. Name the former cellist (also percussionist, trumpeter, and guitarist) from The Kiwi Animal who is the host of 95bFM’s longstanding show The Rhythm Selection, broadcast on Monday nights from 9-11pm?
A: DJ Dubhead (Patrick Waller)
Southside of Bombay at York Street Recording Studios, 1995. - Teresa McGregor
9. Auckland’s York Street Recording Studios began in 1992, spearheaded by three people – engineers Malcolm Welsford and Martin Williams – plus which international rock performer/producer?
A: Jaz Coleman
10. Name the drummer and singer (and later, TV host and actor), known for his work in Australian band the Missing Links, and New Zealand bands including Arkastra and BLERTA – who sat six feet behind Ringo Starr’s drum position at a 1964 Beatles show in Wellington.
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, 22 April, 2024
Which artists recorded albums with the following titles?
We Light Fire (2018)
1. We Light Fire (2018)
A: Julia Deans
2. Flk Y’Self off Y’Self (1994)
A: Head Like a Hole (aka HLAH)
3. Silencer (2000)
A: Zed
4. Pipeline Under the Ocean (2005)
A: Pluto
Hey U X (2020)
5. Hey U X (2020)
A: Benee
6. Burning Up Years (1969)
7. White Sunday (2003)
A: Mareko
A Study In Black (1967)
8. A Study in Black (1967)
9. Jump Rope Gazers (2020)
A: The Beths
10. In Perpetuity (2022)
A: Deceptikonz
[This week’s quizmaster: Graham Reid]
AudioCulture Quiz, 15 April, 2024
1. Which South Island town does Deja Voodoo sing about in this 2004 song: ‘Today, Tomorrow …’?
A: Timaru
2. Which Pacific nation is the ancestral home of brothers Rob, Sione/John, and Charlie Pome’e of Three Houses Down?
A: Tonga
3. On which street does Jordan Luck of The Exponents wait in this song from 1985? ‘Christchurch – In ? Street I Wait’
Charlie Tumahai with Healing Force in Melbourne, Australia, 1971
4. Charlie Tumahai (Herbs/Be Bop Deluxe) grew up on what became known as “Boot Hill” – Ngāti Whātua’s home base in the Auckland suburb of Ōrākei. What is it more commonly known as?
A: Bastion Point
5. In 1980 Jon Stevens had a No.1 hit about which Jamaican bay?
A: Montego Bay. Fun fact: It was a cover of a song by US singer Bobby Bloom
Anna Coddington.
6. Anna Coddington grew up in which seaside Waikato town?
A: Raglan
7. Hamilton-based New Zealand rapper Raiza Biza’s parents are from which African nation?
A: Rwanda (although he was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then known as Zaire).
8. Gary Wallace (aka Gary Wahrlich), the Quin Tikis’ drummer, starred in the 1965 film Don’t Let It Get You. The plot centres on Wallace trying to get to play in Howard Morrison’s band in which town?
A: Rotorua
9. The second album in Troy Kingi’s 10 albums/10 genres/10 years (10/10/10) project is called Shake That Skinny Ass All the Way to … where?
A: Zygertron
Sneaky Feelings: Matthew Bannister, David Pine, John Kelcher and Martin Durrant, photo by Jeremy Freeman
10. In which Aotearoa New Zealand city is Sneaky Feelings’ ‘Husband House’?
A: Ōtepoti Dunedin
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, 8 April, 2024
The Knobz, L-R: Kevin Fogarty, Mark Stanton, Peter McManus, Bob Reid
1. The Knobz’ only album was Sudden Exposure. What was the name of their big hit in 1980?
A. ‘Culture’
2. The Rhythm & Vines festival in Gisborne has a spin-off festival in Wanaka. What is it called?
A. Rhythm & Alps
3. The White Hart was a major venue for many years in which city?
A. New Plymouth
4. Bronson Price is better known as which rapper?
A. Melodownz
5. Who was the singer in early 80s Auckland ska-punk band The Instigators?
A. Sonya Waters
Andrew Brough - Photo by Murray Cammick
6. What band was Andrew Brough in before joining Straitjacket Fits?
A. The Orange
7. In the 2023 AudioCulture Readers’ Poll, Split Enz’s True Colours was voted best New Zealand album. Which album was second?
A. Based On A True Story, by Fat Freddy’s Drop
8. The 2009 album Stroke was a tribute album and fundraiser for who?
A. Chris Knox
9. My mother was a folk singer, I played with Lyttelton band The Eastern, I appeared on Later ... With Jools Holland on the same episode that Lorde performed ‘Green Light’, have released four acclaimed albums and am currently signed to 4AD. Who am I?
10. Whose 1993 album Tahi won the Independent Music NZ Classic Record award at the 2019 Taite Music Prize?
[This week’s quizmaster: Grant McDougall]
AudioCulture Quiz, 1 April, 2024
1. On Easter Monday 1980 police and Post Office inspectors found and confiscated the hidden transmitter of which fledgling student radio station? (Current name is accepted.)
A: Radio Bosom, aka Radio B, now known as bFM
The first National Banjo Pickers' Convention, Hamilton, 1967. - Photo by Tony Ward
2. The first of four hugely successful and influential National Banjo Pickers’ Conventions took place over Easter Weekend in 1967. In which city did these festivals occur?
A: Hamilton
3. The New Zealander who got rock’n’roll rolling in the UK shared his name with a US president. Which president?
A: John Kennedy
4. Which character in a Beatles’ song gave The Lab’s Bill Lattimer his nickname?
A: Bungalow Bill
5. An alternative singing group to When the Cat’s Away featured Charlotte Yates, Jackie Clarke, and Robin Nathan. What did they call themselves?
A: When the Cat’s Been Spayed
6. The entrance to the venue Smash Palace is decorated with flying Morris Minors. Which city is it in?
A: Gisborne
Look Blue Go Purple, 1983. Photo by - Michael Smith
7. Which Look Blue Go Purple EP shares its name with a 1960s TV comedy?
A: Bewitched
8. ‘Saddle Hill’ is a Ruru Karaitiana song, recorded by Pixie Williams in 1950. It is named after a location in which New Zealand city?
A: Dunedin
9. What is the number of the state highway that was the subject of a Silver Scroll-winning hit by Rob Ruha and Ka Hao?
A: ‘35’
10. Which Auckland singer acted as the manager of TrueBliss in the TV series Popstars?
A: Peter Urlich
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
Jan Preston - Jan Preston collection
1. Classically trained pianist Jan Preston was a member of which hitmaking group in the 1980s?
A: Coup D’Etat
2. Ray Columbus had a No.2 single in 1989 with a hip-hop remake of ‘She’s a Mod’. Which South Auckland duo did he perform with on the single?
Clinton Brown
3. The late Clinton Brown opened a live venue in Wellington in 1978, with his business partner Danny Ryan. What was it called?
4. ‘Dance Stamina’ was a 2006 hit for which Auckland band?
A: Pluto
5. American band The Neighbourhood has had a string of Top 10 hits in the US, several produced by a New Zealand guitarist. Who?
A: Justyn Pilbrow
Ana Hato in the 1930s
6. Ana Hato and Deane Waretini (senior) performed on the very first locally recorded commercial records. In what city did the recordings take place?
A: Rotorua
Murray Grindlay in the 2000s
7. Murray Grindlay was the frontman for which famed 1960s blues rock band?
8. Who wrote the book Dead People I Have Known?
9. Our band featured a former Split Enz bassist and guitarist, sold out the Auckland Town Hall, our drummer later joined The Angels, and our second album was called Just Drove Thru Town. We were?
A: Citizen Band
10. Which album topped the AudioCulture Classic NZ Album Readers Poll in 2023?
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
AudioCulture Quiz, March 18, 2024
David Yetton. - Photo by Murray Cammick
1. What was the name of David Yetton’s post Jean-Paul Sartre Experience band?
2. What was the name of the “girl group” assembled on 1999 TV series Popstars?
A: TrueBliss
3. Whose debut solo LP, released in 2021, was called Bad Meditation?
A: Mara TK
4. Which fine New Zealand singer had a 1977 hit with his cover of Buddy Holly’s ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’?
5. With what song did singer Deane Waretini have a No.1 hit in 1981?
A: ‘The Bridge’
6. Which local artist supported David Bowie in his 2004 A Reality Tour show in Wellington?
The Datsuns, 2003: Matt Osment, Dolf de Borst, Christian Livingstone and Phil Somervell
7. The Datsuns hail from which Waikato town?
A: Cambridge
8. … And Out of The Void Came Love is the title of whose sixth album, released in 2023?
A: The Veils
9. Which band member did The Terminals, The Great Unwashed, Nelsh Bailter Space, and The Pin Group have in common?
A: Ross Humphries
10. Which Hamilton hard rock band had hit singles with ‘Out For The Count’, ‘You Don’t Need Me’ and ‘The Physical You’?
A: Knightshade
[This week’s quizmaster: Jeremy Taylor]
AudioCulture Quiz, March 11, 2024
Myele Manzanza, David 'Taay Ninh' Wright, Mara TK.
1. Mara TK, Myele Manzanza and David Wright formed which globally acclaimed band in the late 2000s?
A: Electric Wire Hustle
2. Name the EMI studio band from the mid-1970s that had a hit with ‘Thru The Southern Moonlight’.
A: Rockinghorse
3. Sea Breeze Motel was an album by which singer-songwriter?
A: Greg Johnson
4. When the Haka Became Boogie was what?
A: A TV series on the history of Māori popular music
Ambitious Vegetables, 1979. Andrew Fagan at far right.
5. Who did the Ambitious Vegetables evolve into?
A: The Mockers
6. “Oh my Gard! Real live Americans! And here we are, these New Zealand dorks playing rock’n’roll to them!” Who said that in 1990?
7. Neil Finn, Sharon Finn and Sean “SJD” Donnelly recorded a 2011 album under what name?
A: The Pajama Club
8. His debut album entered the charts at No.1 in November 2003, sat in the Top 40 for seven months, was certified five times platinum in 2004 and platinum in Australia. It is?
A: The Crusader by Scribe
9. A wild 1950s nightclub in Auckland’s Karangahape Road was once described as “New Zealand’s Naughtiest Nitery”. What was it called?
10. Which legendary Auckland graphic and comic artist once said, “I’ve been called a legend but it doesn’t mean anything, I certainly don’t get legendary pay. I keep doing it and I’m happy when people like my work”?
A: Barry Linton
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
AudioCulture Quiz, March 4, 2024
Valhalla, 2020. - photo by Chris Bourke
1. Wellington venue Valhalla has had a number of other names. Name one of them.
A: Hole in the Wall, Valve, Medusa Bar.
2. The Upbeats released their debut album on which local label?
Crash. - Publicity Photo
3. Name the vocalist for Auckland band Crash.
A: Natasha Reid
4. Name the jazz musician who recorded an album of Lennon-McCartney covers in 1965.
5. The interior of which Dunedin venue features on the cover of French for Rabbit’s’ album The Weight of Melted Snow?
A: The Savoy
Straitjacket Fits - Melt (1990)
6. Which member of Straitjacket Fits also created the cover art for their EP and albums?
A: John Collie
Dead Flowers, L to R: Damon Newton, Rob Dollars, Bryan Bell, Riqi Hadfield, David James - Darryl Ward
7. What is the name of the band pictured above?
A: Dead Flowers
8. Name the pioneering Mosgiel entrepreneur who ran the Dunedin Town Hall dances and the Miss New Zealand pageant.
A: Joe Brown
9. Name the member of Knightshade who ran the cult heavy metal radio show The Axe Attack and went on to form Devilskin.
A: Paul Martin
10. Which band played at the Shortland Street TV wedding of Chris Warner and Rachel McKenna?
A: The Chills
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
AudioCulture Quiz, February 26, 2024
Space Waltz, 2022. From left: Brent Eccles, Peter Cuddihy, Greg Clark, Alastair Riddell, Eddie Rayner. - Publicity photo
1. What is the name of the brand new, 2023 Space Waltz album?
A: Victory
2. With whom did Kelly Horgan of Heavy Jones Trio make up the duo Love Soup?
A: Bic Runga
3. Which bassist was a member of the UK based Be Bop Deluxe as well as New Zealand reggae band Herbs?
Children's Hour on the 1984 Looney Tour. - Photo by Terry Moore
4. Which Auckland band's 1983 debut EP on Flying Nun was named Flesh?
5. Which Auckland-based MC is now part of Fat Freddy’s Drop’s live touring act?
6. Which Wellington jazz/ experimental combo backed The Front Lawn on their 1989 Songs From The Front Lawn LP?
A: Six Volts
7. In 1985 Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil took part in a nationwide tour in support of nuclear disarmament with which local harmonising siblings?
The Bads in 2017: Dianne Swann and Brett Adams
8. What was the name of Brett Adams and Dianne Swann’s recent band?
A: The Bads
9. Name one of the two legendary late 80s High Street, Auckland, nightclubs where DJs such as Greg Churchill, Manuel Bundy and Nick Dwyer cut their teeth and drew big crowds (including international visitors, among them Bono, Mick Jagger, Janet Jackson)?
A: Cause Celebre (previously Siren), and Box
10. Name one of the two New Zealand artists who feature on the recent Nick Drake tribute album The Endless Coloured Ways.
A: Nadia Reid and Aldous Harding
[This week’s quizmaster: Jeremy Taylor]
AudioCulture Quiz, February 19, 2024
Pam Sheyne, 2018 - Publicity photo
1. Pam Sheyne wrote the massive hit ‘Genie In A Bottle’ for which US artist?
A: Christine Aguilera
2. Which Auckland folk musician founded the Java Jive Café?
3. Which Māngere group has featured a guest artist, General Fiyah, since he was 10 years old?
4. Jim Montecino was twice defamed by NZ Truth. What instrument did he play?
A: Piano
Elephunk in My Soup - the 1984 Low Profile EP
5. Low Profile and ‘Elephunk in My Soup’ gave which Wellington musician his highest profile?
6. Who released an album in 2016 called Guitar Party at Uncle’s Bach?
A: Troy Kingi
7. Which sister duo, whose 2023 album was The Coin that Broke the Fountain Floor, originally called themselves Purple Pilgrims?
Decca publicity photo, December 1967
8. Which New Zealand band, whose founding drummer plays standing up, is seen in the above photo trying to break it in Britain in 1967?
9. Which former member of So So Modern released a solo album, Holding Patterns, in 2023?
10. Which veteran music critic is calling his AudioCulture series of retrospective reviews “The Tinnitus Years”?
A: Colin Hogg
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, February 12, 2024
The debut self-titled albums from Hello Sailor (1977) and Golden Harvest (1978)
1. The debut Hello Sailor and Golden Harvest albums, both recorded at Stebbing Studios in Auckland, were released on what label?
A: Key
2. Geoff Hayden and Steve Thorpe were the rhythm section of 1980s trio The Dabs until they joined which hit-making New Zealand pop band?
A: The Mockers
3. What is the title of the 1982 debut album by DD Smash?
A: Cool Bananas
Johnny Devlin
4. What mode of transport did rock ’n’ roller Johnny Devlin use to travel for gigs between Whanganui and nearby cities including Palmerston North and Napier?
A: Motorcycle
5. Name the Nelson trio of the late 1990s/early 2000s tha merged drum machine beats, samples and hypnotic vocals to create their own individual style of dance music.
A: Minuit
6. Which member of the Phoenix Foundation was co-producer of the 2023 self-titled album from Mermaidens?
7. Salmonella Dub’s sound engineer composed and sang their big late 1990s hit ‘For The Love Of It’ before embarking on a successful solo career. Name him.
A: Tiki Taane
8. Which Wellington singer-songwriter released an album in 2023 produced by Bic Runga and Kody Nielson?
A: Ebony Lamb
Rikki Morris in 1988 - Simon Grigg collection
9. What is the title of Rikki Morris’s 1988 No.1 hit single?
A: ‘Nobody Else’
10. Who sang the 1968 song ‘Hush ... Not a Word To Mary’?
A: John Rowles
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, February 5, 2024
Tamburlaine: Steve Robinson, Simon Morris and Denis Leong, the band that made the lauded 1972 album Say No More
1. This Wellington band’s original line-up was Simon Morris, Steve Robinson and Denis Leong and their 1972 debut album Say No More is listed in Nick Bollinger’s 100 Essential New Zealand Albums. What were they called?
A: Tamburlaine
2. Who is behind the Camp A Low Hum festivals?
A: Ian Jorgensen aka Blink
3. Which Modfather used to say, “I don’t go to the toilet without a return ticket”?
A: Ray Columbus
4. We were formed at Cashmere High School in Christchurch and our biggest hit was ‘Renegade Fighter’. Who were we?
A: Zed
5. My recent advice to a 16-year-old me was: “Get a lawyer. Beware of flattery. Read Machiavelli. Get a lawyer”? I am?
A: Bic Runga
6. Out for the Night – Live! was a live album by which 80s metal band?
A: Knightshade
7. What TV show launched the career of Carly Binding?
A: Popstars. She was a member of TrueBliss
Bob Paris, Showtime Spectacular tour, 1961
8. Auckland guitarist Bob Paris is regarded as New Zealand’s first rock’n’roll guitar hero. His nephew was in a Flying Nun band which had the label’s only No.1 single. Who is he?
A: Chris Matthews of Headless Chickens
9. “Politics is show-business in drag.” Who said that?
A: Phil Warren
10. Which famed music emporium was at 192 Queen Street, Auckland for 50 years?
A: Lewis Eady’s
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
AudioCulture Quiz, January 28, 2024
Kaylee Bell - Publicity photo
1. Kaylee Bell opened for all of Ed Sheeran’s New Zealand shows in 2023, and headlined Christmas in the Park. Which Canterbury town is she from?
A. Waimate
2. Kevin Kaukau was famous for playing his guitar with his teeth, especially when covering ‘All Along the Watchtower’. What band was he in?
3. What is the name of Mermaidens’ new album, which was released on 3 November?
A: It’s self-titled: Mermaidens
4. In March 2023, a New Zealand slang word was added to the Oxford English Dictionary. It was popularised by The Howard Morrison Quartet. Now often said as “**** bro” it was originally “**** doy”. What is the first word (four letters)?
A. Chur
5. The soundtrack to 2021 TV series The Panthers was created by choicevaughan, Troy Kingi and which other artist?
A: Diggy Dupé
Diggy Dupé, Wellington, 2021 - Nathan Blundell
6. What is the name of DJ Dubhead’s long-running show on 95bFM?
A: The Rhythm Selection, which started in 1990
7. Which Christchurch Ōtautahi record store shares its name with a Beatles’ song?
A: Penny Lane
8. Smokefree Rockquest was founded by music teachers Pete Rainey and Glen Common in which South Island city?
A: Nelson
9. The late Bones Hillman’s New Zealand pedigree includes Suburban Reptiles and The Swingers, and he moved to Australia in 1985. Which successful Australian band did he join in 1987?
A: Midnight Oil
Eliza Keil, "New Zealand's Shirley Bassey" - NZBC photo
10. This singer left The Keil Isles in the mid-60s and became known as “New Zealand’s Shirley Bassey”. She released three LPs under her own name before departing for the United States in 1972. Who is she?
A: Eliza Keil
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, January 22, 2024
Dinah Lee in 1965
1. Dinah Lee burst onto the music scene in the 1960s with hits such as ‘Do the Blue Beat’. Which prominent female singer did she tour New Zealand with in 2023?
A: Tami Neilson
2. Julien Dyne is a key member of an Auckland jazz group who released an album in 2023 called Spirits – name the group.
A: The Circling Sun
3. What was Dave McArtney’s nickname in Hello Sailor?
A: Hook
4. Name the band who released the single ‘Maybe Tomorrow’, which became New Zealand radio’s most-played local song of 2003?
A: Goldenhorse
Goodshirt
5. Which South Pacific country is mentioned in a Goodshirt song?
A: Fiji (‘Fiji Baby’)
6. Which South Island city are the Feelers from?
A: Christchurch
7. Carly Binding was a member of which all-female singing group?
A: TrueBliss
8. What is the title of singer-songwriter John Hanlon’s 1975 No.1 hit?
A: ‘Lovely Lady’
Sisters Underground
9. Who produced hits for Sisters Underground and OMC?
A: Alan Jansson
10. Jazz musician Judy Bailey gained fame in Australia in the 1960s. What instrument is she known for?
A: Piano
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, January 15, 2024
1. Fur Patrol released two singles in a row titled after people’s names. The first one – ‘Lydia’ – was fictitious, the second was named after a band member at the last minute because they needed a song title in a hurry. What was the second song called?
A: ‘Andrew’
2. A band of home-schooled brothers had to make up a school name when they entered Smokefreerockquest in 2000. They won and became incredibly successful in Australia. After the band broke up, two of them went on to separately have co-writing credits on billion-streaming songs. What was the band?
A: Evermore
The New Loungehead - Came A Weird Way (Deep Grooves, 1997)
3. The cover of The New Loungehead's 1997 album Came A Weird Way shows a popular tourist spot on the Coromandel Peninsula. What is the location?
4. Which New Zealand pop singer of the late 1970s later became the lead singer of chart-topping Australian band Noiseworks?
A: Jon Stevens
5. Which New Zealand singer and songwriter won a 2018 Grammy award for Best Contemporary Christian Music?
A: Brooke Ligertwood aka Brooke Fraser
Sharon O'Neill
6. Sharon O’Neill met her future husband Alan Mansfield while supporting a New Zealand band. The pair soon co-wrote a song for the band, its final hit ‘Young Years’. What was the band?
A: Dragon
7. This HMV press release was written by a New Zealand band while recording at Abbey Road: “At a little before eight we came back from a short tea break and looked through the door of the adjoining studio to see singing at a piano a huddled figure. T’was the legendary McCartney. A voice said ‘excuse me’ from behind – it was Ringo, followed by George, and then John and Yoko (dressed identically in blue jeans and black jerseys) … To be quite honest we just couldn’t believe it was true! It was like a dream.” Name the New Zealand band.
A: Fourmyula
8. A 17-year-old trainee radio reporter was sent to a Wellington press conference given by Lou Reed. She later recalled that he “threw my tape recorder across the bloody room, and so I left after that thinking – this isn’t the life for me.” She moved to the UK and became a key member of an internationally famous pop band with multiple songs in the US Top 10. Who is she?
A: Alannah Currie from the Thompson Twins
9. In the early 2000s, Neil Finn brought together Johnny Marr, Eddie Vedder, Lisa Germano, and two members of Radiohead (Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway) to work on which project?
A: The 7 Worlds Collide live performances and accompanying album
10. Which bassist for two top New Zealand acts in the 1960s went on to produce Top 20 albums for Herbs in the 1980s and 1814 in the 2000s?
A: Wiremu Karaitiana aka Billy Kristian
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
AudioCulture Quiz, December 25, 2023
Harry Sinclair and Don McGlashan, The Front Lawn. - Publicity photo
1. Which beach is being referred to in these lines from The Front Lawn’s song ‘Andy’: “Let’s take a walk along the beach before the tide comes in / On ____ beach I can still see you.”
A: Takapuna Beach
2. Cut For Summer was a 2006 album by which Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara band?
A: Cassette
3. From 1994 to 2014, radio station 95bFM held the “Summer Series”concerts in which Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau park?
A: Albert Park (except for 2012, when it was held at Silo Park)
4. Which member of Hello Sailor wrote and sang their 1977 hit ‘Lyin’ in the Sand’?
A: Harry Lyon
5. ‘Hidden Bay’ was the b-side to which 1984 single by The Chills?
A: ‘Doledrums’
DD Smash with their 1983 haul of music awards.
6. In ‘Outlook For Thursday’ by DD Smash, Dave Dobbyn sings “Tell me where a weatherman should start / When he's miles from his ____” Where is he miles from?
A: Sunshine
7. In 1962, 14-year-old Gisborne school girl Julie Nelson charmed the country with a cute Christmas song about our national bird. Name the song.
A: ‘Sticky Beak the Kiwi’
Matty J Ruys, Johnni Sagala, Darryl 'DLT' Thomson and Danny 'Brother D' Leaosavai'i, at the 1999 APRA Silver Scrolls
8. Dawn Raid co-founder Danny Tanielu Leaosavai’I, aka Brotha D, started his music career in Lost Tribe. Complete the name of their single which went to No. 16 in the NZ singles chart in 1996: ‘____ In The Winter.’
A: ‘Summer in the Winter’
9. Which band – precursors to the Headless Chickens – was ‘Looking for the Sun’?
10. Which band describes their music as “Sunshine Reggae”, and released an album named BBQ Reggae in 2018?
[This week’s quizmaster: Renee Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, December 18, 2023
Kimbra. - Publicity image
1. Kimbra sings on the billion-streaming song ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ alongside which Belgian-born Australian artist?
A: Gotye
2. Nick Sampson’s Songwriter’s Choice is an excellent selection of New Zealand songs he loved in his youth. Which chart-topping Dunedin Ōtepoti-based band was he in?
3. Which record store did Chris Priestley co-found in the early 1980s in Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau?
A: Real Groovy, alongside Chris Hart
4. Name the rapper who began recording under the name Con Psy in the late 1990s before switching to his real name in 2008.
A: David Dallas
5. Name the Chris Knox song that was listed at No.13 on APRA’s list of Best New Zealand Songs Ever.
A: ‘Not Given Lightly’
The Merseymen. - Ken Cooper collection
6. From 1964 to 1965 The Merseymen had a residency at Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau club The Beatle Inn. The drummer played under the name Jett Rink, and he went on to be a beloved broadcaster. What was his real name?
7. Two New Zealand bands supported Nirvana’s show in February 1992 at Auckland’s Logan Campbell Centre. Can you name one of them? (Add a half point if you can name both)
A: The 3Ds and Second Child
Tomorrow People, left to right: La'i Lepou, Elia Feterika, Lio Fili, Liam Va'ai, Avina Kelekolio, Tana Tupa'i, Aaron Davey, Analote Faletolu.
8. Over the course of this year, Tomorrow People have been releasing a series of covers of much-loved songs, including ‘Best Of My Love’. Who did the original?
A: Eagles
9. In July 1985, Radio With Pictures filmed a “reggae special” at Victoria University's Union Hall. The bands in the TV special were Aotearoa, Dread Beat & Blood and Herbs. They went on a nationwide tour in 1986, adding which group to the line-up?
A: Ardijah
10. Which was the first New Zealand band to feature on the cover of Rip It Up? (Issue #3, August 1977).
A: Hello Sailor
[This week’s quizmaster: Renee Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, December 11, 2023
Ngoi Pēwhairangi
1. Ngoi Pēwhairangi wrote the lyrics for two No.1 hits in te reo Māori in the early 1980s. What were they?
A: ‘E Ipo’ by Prince Tui Teka and ‘Poi E’ by Dalvanius Prime and the Pātea Māori Club
2. Decades before he coached New Zealand’s national rugby league team, Graham Lowe was neighbour to which of our first rock’n’roll stars? He discusses the young singer and his family in the following quote: “They were really kind to me … He taught me chords on a ukulele. Queen Salote of Tonga was related to their mum and used to visit them … Everybody loved [him] and so did I. At one stage he drove around in a brand-new Hillman Minx ... We felt so proud because he used to take us for a drive around the block.”
3. Which esteemed New Zealand composer has also provided lead vocals for a Strawpeople single and was part of the Bellbirds with Sandy Mill, Sean Donnelly, and Don McGlashan?
4. John Harrison was the bass player in The Embers, The Sundowners, and Max Merritt & the Meteors. During a brief stint in Ray Columbus & the Invaders, he appeared in the video for ‘She’s a Mod’. What was his nickname?
5. In 1973, Split Ends lost the New Faces television talent competition to the Bulldogs Allstar Goodtime Band. One of the judges had been promoting gigs since the 1950s and explained that he thought Split Ends were “too clever” to win. Who was he?
A: Phil Warren
Mark Loveys (left) and Deane Sutherland, 1985
6. Mark Loveys and Deane Sutherland were in a hitmaking 80s band, before each going their separate ways and forming new versions of the same band on opposite sides of the Tasman. What was the band called?
7. In the 1960s, Diane Jacobs became a famous singer here and in Australia under what artist name?
A: Dinah Lee
8. Which Flying Nun act was nominated for best country album at the 1992 NZ Music Awards?
The 3Ds - The Venus Trail (1993)
9. How many people with a first name beginning with “D” played in The 3Ds?
A: Four. Dominic Stones, Denise Roughan, David Mitchell and David Saunders
10. Which former songwriter from a well-known Flying Nun band recorded his own version of the Beatles album Revolver (as Evolver)?
A: Matthew Bannister (as One Man Bannister) from Sneaky Feelings and Dribbling Darts
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
AudioCulture Quiz, December 4, 2023
Headband at Ali Baba's, 1971: Billy Kristian, Jimmy Hill, Dick Hopp, Tommy Adderley and Ron Craig
1. What Wellington venue was once known as Ali Baba’s?
A: San Fran, aka the San Francisco Bath House
2. Andrew Tolley and Brendan Moran performed and recorded as?
3. In 1983, Auckland-based guitarist Ivan Zagni put together two groups using a government fund for unemployed musicians. Name one of them.
A: Big Sideways or Avant Garage
Amelia Murray. - Frances Carter
4. Amelia Murray has been releasing music since 2014 under what name?
A: Fazerdaze
5. Who did ENZSO celebrate orchestrally?
A: Split Enz
6. The Circling Sun released their debut album Spirits on the UK Soundway label in 2023 to international acclaim. Who is the band’s drummer, percussionist and producer?
A: Julien Dyne
7. Who wrote the book Positively George Street?
A: Matthew Bannister of Sneaky Feelings
8. What city was the legendary Dunedin Double EP recorded in?
A: Christchurch – at Paul Kean and Rex Visible’s houses.
9. I was born in Christchurch but moved to Wellington to study jazz in the 1990s. I joined a band called Banshee Reel, but my next group had one of the biggest New Zealand hits of the early 2000s. Who am I?
A: Julia Deans
10. Which Māori entertainer was defined for decades by his early 1980s No.1 hit ‘How Great Thou Art”?
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
AudioCulture Quiz, November 27, 2023
BLERTA kids show at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth on the first North Island tour, 1972. Corben Simpson (vocals), Bruno Lawrence (drums), Alan Moon (Hammond organ), Beaver (vocals) and Chris Seresin (keyboards). - Photo by Helen Whiteford
1. What does the band name BLERTA stand for?
A: Bruno Lawrence’s Electric Revelation And Travelling Apparition
2. Sheelahroc’s 2000 single ‘If I Gave U Th’ Mic’ won them Most Promising New Act at the 2001 bNet NZ Music Awards. Tyra Hammond and Voodoo Child (Sarah Tamaira) were two of the three members. Name the other performer.
A: Ladi6 (Karoline Tamati)
3. Name the Dunedin-born drummer from 1980s bands The Idles and Crystal Zoom! who moved to London where he played with The Exponents and The Starlings (with Chris Sheehan), and was enlisted as a touring member of Scottish band The Jesus and Mary Chain before returning to New Zealand and becoming a tour promoter.
4. Name the Auckland-born, Onehunga-raised jazz-pop nightclub singer whose musical idol was Bobby Darin, and who won Australia’s Entertainer of the Year award in 1979 and 1980.
A: Ricky May
5. John Rowles, OMC, The Datsuns – these three Aotearoa acts all appeared on which UK music show?
A: Top of the Pops
6. Name the popular country music gentleman whose family created and ran the Whitecliffs Music Festival on their Canterbury farm for many years?
A: John Grenell
7. Vocalist Renee Brennan fronted which New Zealand band, who earlier this year re-released their 2000 album The Buddhafinger?
A: Tadpole
Voom: Nick Buckton, Murray Fisher, Mike Beehre, Buzz Moller.
8. What is the title of Voom’s second album, first released on Lil’ Chief Records in 2006 and re-released in 2021 on vinyl through Flying Nun Records?
A: Hello, Are You There?
9. On which song and short film by The Front Lawn is there “a man, at the bar, staring into space”?
A: ‘The Lounge Bar’
10. Name the song co-written by Fane Flaws and Arthur Baysting that hit No.17 on the chart and through its video clip brought singer Jenny Morris onto the nation’s television screens.
A: ‘Tears’ by The Crocodiles
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, November 20, 2023
The original Rockinghorse line-up in 1973 (L to R) Keith Norris, Clinton Brown, Wayne Mason, Bruce Robinson, Carl Evensen
1. In 1975, Rockinghorse won best group and best single at the New Zealand music awards, but their extended celebrations had an unfortunate outcome – what happened?
A: They stayed drinking after the ceremony, arriving late to a gig they had booked. An argument with the bar’s management saw them banned from the lucrative Lion Breweries circuit.
2. Which groundbreaking 1994 compilation had early appearances by Pauly Fuemana, Ermehn, and Dei Hamo?
A: Proud
3. Dave Baxter played hardcore music before suddenly going into acoustic pop in 2011 and writing ‘Love Love Love’, a love song that hit No.1. What artist name did he use?
4. After Supergroove ended, bassist Joe Lonie had a role in the careers of Tadpole and Goodshirt. What was his involvement with those bands?
A: He directed their breakthrough music videos: ‘Blind’ by Tadpole; ‘Blowing Dirt’ and ‘Sophie’ for Goodshirt.
5. In 1984, Gray Bartlett, Brendan Dugan, and Jodi Vaughan all left the television show That’s Country in quick succession. What was the controversy that led to their departure?
A: Suzanne Prentice was another regular on the show but her manager Trevor Spitz was also the show’s producer. This led to claims of favouritism, with her given far more screen time than the others. Bartlett was fired for complaining about it, Dugan was fired for backing him up, and Vaughan quit in solidarity.
6. In 1997, Mushroom Records took full ownership of Flying Nun. What act was label owner Michael Gudinski referring to when he said: “We’ve taken a Flying Nun band to England and toured them and put money behind them, certainly more than any other Flying Nun act ever. We’ve got a big deal for them now in America. They’re touring America now.”
A: Garageland
Kirsten Morrell - Photo by Georgia Schofield
7. Kirsten Morrell released her first solo album in 2010, before returning with new music in 2023. What was her former band?
A: Goldenhorse
8. Which singer-songwriter started in Dunedin, sang and played keyboards in prog band Ragnarok, then moved overseas and wrote million-selling hits for Sheena Easton and Bonnie Raitt. Who is she?
A: Lea Maalfrid
9. In the early 1990s, three members from glam rock group Bad Boy Lollipop decided to start a new, more grunge-influenced band and signed to Wildside Records. What was the new band called?
A: Dead Flowers: Bryan Bell, Damon Newton, and Rob Dollars all played in Bad Boy Lollipop first.
10. Which New Plymouth-born R&B musician hosted the NZBC radio show Blues Is News in 1969 and, in the 1990s, taught “bluesology” at the Waikato Institute of Technology?
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
AudioCulture Quiz, November 13, 2023
Supergroove. - Photo by Polly Walker
1. Supergroove originally had another name. What was it?
A: Lowdown Dirty Blues Band
2. Which well-known New Zealand film director directed the video for ‘Bad Note for a Heart’ by Straitjacket Fits?
A: Niki Caro
3. Failsafe Records is based in which New Zealand city?
A: Christchurch
A still from the opening credits of Radio With Pictures.
4. Name the member of BLERTA and The Crocodiles who created animations for Radio With Pictures.
A: Fane Flaws
5. What connects these musicians? Ladi6, Delaney Davidson, Maisey Rika, Shayne Carter, Ariana Tikao, Coco Solid, Rob Ruha, Richard Nunns, Chris Knox, Whirimako Black, Moana Maniapoto, Alastair Galbraith, Don McGlashan, and Phil Dadson.
A: They have all received Arts Foundation Laureate awards
6. What is the name of Lorde’s 2021 five-track EP of te reo Māori versions of songs from her album Solar Power?
A: Te Ao Mārama
Cassandra's Ears
7. Who was the lead vocalist for Cassandra’s Ears?
8. The Doublehappys originally had a drum machine. What was it called?
A: Herbie Fuckface
9. Who duetted with Samuel Flynn-Scott on the Phoenix Foundation song ‘Hounds of Hell’?
A: Nadia Reid
10. French for Rabbits, Julia Deans, The Bats, Lawrence Arabia, and Charlotte Yates were some of the artists who interpreted the poetry of a female New Zealand writer for a tribute album. Who was the writer?
A. Katherine Mansfield, Mansfield
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
AudioCulture Quiz, November 6, 2023
DLT, 2000
1. Darryl Thomson, also known as DLT, was an original member of which ground-breaking Aotearoa hip hop group?
2. Former prime minister Sir Robert Muldoon was a cast member in which famous sci-fi rock and roll musical?
A: The Rocky Horror Show – he played the Narrator in the 1986 production at Auckland’s His Majesty’s Theatre
3. Which local artist released a single in 2008 called ‘Paris Is Burning’?
A: Ladyhawke
Victoria Girling-Butcher. - Smash Photography
4. Lucid 3’s Victoria Girling-Butcher is a band member in which prominent New Zealand songwriter’s live show, a regular fixture on the summer live circuit?
A: Dave Dobbyn
5. 1971’s ‘Come to the Sabbat’ by Timberjack was the first big pop success for which local record label, started by Terence O’Neill-Joyce?
A: Ode Records
6. English graphic designer Storm Thorgerson of art design group Hipgnosis designed album covers for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, 10cc, and Bad Company, among many other acts. Thorgerson kept working on album designs until he died in 2013. Name the New Zealand rock act whose 2012 album cover was designed by him.
A: The act is Villainy – the album is 2012’s Mode.Set.Clear.
Villainy's 2012 album Mode.Set.Clear. with a cover design by Storm Thorgerson.
7. Which 1970s Dunedin band dressed in zany costumes as a bee, a baby, a mouse, a pixie and a ballerina?
A: Mother Goose
8. Who wrote and sings the anthemic reggae song ‘Thou We Are’ under the name Unity Pacific?
A: Tigilau Ness
9. Name the New Zealand saxophonist, active from the late 1950s until his retirement from live performing in 2022, who during his career was a regular at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London, toured with or backed acts such as the Four Tops, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Lulu, The Small Faces and T-Bone Walker, and had a double platinum selling album called Moonlight Sax.
A: Brian Smith
10. Which 1970s band “with a hint of disco” was tutored by drummer Frank Gibson Jr, bassist Billy Karaitiana (Billy Kristian), guitarist Tuhi Timoti, and opera singer Lynne Cantlon?
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, October 30, 2023
Th' Dudes at The Cricketers Arms, Wellington
1. Which longtime NZ On Air music manager appeared dancing in Th’ Dudes video for ‘Bliss’, sporting an Afro?
A: Brendan Smyth
2. Driving south out of Auckland, Kevin Hotu of Taste of Bounty heard a radio DJ disparage music from elsewhere in the country. This gave him the name for which Wellington band?
3. Which New Zealand singer had a No.3 hit in the UK with an English translation of the French song ‘Je n’aurai pas le temps’?
A: John Rowles, ‘If I Only Had Time’
4. Who is the third member of the trio Anika, Boh and … ?
A: Hollie Smith
5. Which musician, formerly a member of So So Modern, composed the soundtracks to the New Zealand dramas Shopping, The Most You Can Have Dying, and Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story?
Myele Manzanza in a publicity photo for his 2012 album, One.
6. What is the name of Myele Manzanza’s father, who helped introduce Afrobeat and Highlife music to New Zealand audiences?
A: Sam Manzanza
7. Which Wildside band featured in a NZ Truth scandal story headlined “Out of his tree: naked Kiwi rocker hits a real bum note …”?
8. Which Dunedin band wrote and recorded the song ‘Baked Beans’, a hit in Australia and a live favourite?
A: Mother Goose
9. Which female singer-songwriter, currently touring, was a member of Eb & Sparrow?
A: Ebony Lamb
10. Which Auckland hip hop band arrived at the 2012 NZ Music Awards walking up the red carpet “leading a goat and dressed like they were about to board Noah’s Ark”?
A: Home Brew
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, October 23, 2023
Jonathan Bree in 2023 - Chelsea Nikkel
1. Jonathan Bree’s 2023 album Pre-Code Hollywood features which famous US guitarist and producer on two tracks?
A: Nile Rodgers
2. Dianne Swann, Geoff Hayden, Brett Adams and Nick Yeatman were in a 1990s band whose lost, previously unreleased album has been released for the first time in 2023. What were they called?
A: Boom Boom Mancini
3. They started life as Father Time then Fragments of Time. What name did they use when they topped charts on both sides of the Tasman?
A: Mi-Sex
4. “In 2000 Steve and AJ began experimenting with the idea of being able to emulate turntable-style scratching of audio with a computer mouse”. What is the name of the world-beating software these Aucklanders invented?
A: Serato
The Wastrels' The Jenner Affair EP ( Hit Singles Records, 1983)
5. 1980s band The Wastrels came from which city?
A: Christchurch
6. The Hallelujah Picassos’ Peter McLennan also makes music, often Caribbean inspired, under another name. What is it?
A: Dub Asylum
7. What was the name of Kane Massey’s Auckland-based record label, formed in the 1990s?
A: Deepgrooves
8. Auckland 60s club The Galaxie, located in Little Queen Street, was formerly another club – what was it called?
A: The Shiralee
Micronism - Inside a Quiet Mind (1998)
9. Denver McCarthy aka Micronism is a devotee of which religious group?
A: Hare Krishna
10. The Mt Raskil Preservation Society was an alias featuring which vocalist?
A: Hollie Smith
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
AudioCulture Quiz, October 16, 2023
Opetaia Foa’i performing in Tahiti, 2005
1. Opetaia Foa’i of Te Vaka had chart success and won awards for his music on the soundtrack to which 2016 Disney animated film?
A: Moana
2. Originally by Diatribe, the song ‘Dangerous Game’ was covered by which artist on the Deepgrooves label?
A: Jules Issa
3. Named single of the week by Melody Maker magazine in 1990, ‘Heavenly Pop Hit’ is on which album by The Chills?
A: Submarine Bells (1990)
4. Which New Zealand Prime Minister attended a concert by Mi-Sex in 1980?
5. What was the name of Andrew Brough’s post-Straitjacket Fits band?
A: Bike
Roger Giles, former president of the Devonport Folk Club.
6. Roger Giles was President of the Devonport Folk Club for 50 years until he passed away in 2020. The venue for the club, based on Devonport’s Mt Victoria, is known by what name?
A: The Bunker
7. Pluto’s second album, released in 2005, uses the letters of the band name as an acronym for the album title. Name the album.
A: Pipeline Under The Ocean
The Datsuns in 2002: Dolf de Borst, Matt Osment, Christian Livingstone and Phil Somervell
8. The Datsuns’ 2003 single ‘Harmonic Generator’ is named after a New Zealand creation – the Prunes and Custard effects pedal. Who designed and builds the pedal?
A: Paul Crowther / Crowther Audio – full description is Prunes and Custard: Harmonic Generator-Intermodulator
9. The group Pacific Eardrum, who released two albums in the late 1970s, was fronted by which musical couple from New Zealand?
A: Dave MacRae and Joy Yates
10. Name the Wellington rock band who in the mid-90s released an album on Wildside Records called Double Your Strength Improve Your Health And Lengthen Your Life.
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, October 9, 2023
Myele Manzanza
1. Where does soul-jazz drummer Myele Manzanza live?
A: London
2. Which LA-based female New Zealand songwriter was almost signed to Geffen Records (the same label as John Lennon) and has connections to Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and Brian Eno?
3. What is the name of the music festival founded by photographer Ian Jorgensen (aka Blink), which is re-emerging in 2024 after a nine-year break?
A: Camp A Low Hum (sometimes Campus A Low Hum)
4. The original RDU studio was destroyed in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, but within six months the RDUnit was up and running. In which type of transportation was this temporary studio based?
A: A converted horse truck
5. “Little” Stevie McCabe sadly passed away in late September. Of which band was he a founding member?
A: AXEMEN
Victoria Kelly, 2011, photographed by Gareth Watkins. - Ref: 5090, PADL-000860. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand
6. Victoria Kelly was musical director or co-director for which music awards ceremony from 2003 to 2007?
A: APRA AMCOS Silver Scroll Awards
7. What was the name of Avalanche City’s 2011 hit single, which was used as a promo for TV2?
A: ‘Love, Love, Love’
8. In 1952, Auckland Council banned jazz musicians from playing the Auckland Town Hall’s Steinway grand piano – why?
A: Concern that it would be damaged: “For fears that their agitated playing might damage it.”
9. Alan Loveday was one of 10 violinists performing the string arrangement for a Beatles recording on Thursday 1 August 1968 at London’s Trident Studios. Name the song.
A: The elongated finale of ‘Hey Jude’.
10. Oakley Grenell’s song ‘Limited Time ft. J9’ is featured in The Nomad’s Songwriter’s Choice selection of 10 of his favourite Aotearoa songs. Who is Oakley’s father?
A: The late John Grenell
[This week’s quizmaster: Renee Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, October 2, 2023
Shona Laing won the APRA Silver Scroll for 'Mercy of Love' in 1992 - Photo by Murray Cammick
--
These are the first lines of 10 Apra Silver Scroll winners. All that was required was the song title. (In brackets are the writer/s, the original performer, and the year.)
1. “I know that window’s closed / why you gotta draw bad memories”
A: ‘All Your Ships Have Sailed’ (Troy Kingi, 2021)
2. “Flame, flash fire through heartland / And I wind up red, red anger yellow fear / Is there any other colour?”
A: ‘Belle of the Ball’ (Dave Dobbyn, 1993)
3. “Everyone else has left now / I bet that this got you stressed out”
A: ‘Glitter’ (Stella Bennett, Joshua Fountain, Djeisan Sukov; Benee, 2020)
4. “Full fathom five / Someday I’ll lie / Singing songs that come / From dead men’s tongues”
A: ‘Anchor Me’ (Don McGlashan; The Mutton Birds, 1994)
5. “I do my makeup in somebody else’s car / We order different drinks at the same bars”
A: ‘Green Light’ (Ella Yelich-O'Connor, Joel Little, and Jack Antonoff; Lorde, 2017)
6. “I know it’s late now, I know I ought to go”
A: ‘Drive’ (Bic Runga, 1996)
7. “Tapa reireia tapa / Konunua tapa / Tapa konunua koe ana tukua”
A: ‘35’ (Rob Ruha, Kaea Hills, Te Amorutu Broughton, Ainsley Tai, Dan Martin, Whenua Patuwai; Ka Hao, 2022)
8. “I feel your love, I feel time is up / When I was a child, I never knew enough / What that do to me?”
A: ‘The Barrel’ (Aldous Harding, 2019)
9. “Savage thoughts addictive, to your system / intervals of time make I selective / penetrate your earlobe and all of your protection”
A: ‘Reverse Resistance’ (Bill Urale; King Kapisi, 1999)
10. “If I want you / it’s purely that there’s nothing else / Or no one in this world I know like you”
A: ‘My Only Friend’ (Chris Knox, 2000)
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, September 25, 2023
Strawpeople: Fiona McDonald and Paul Casserly
1. What is the title of the 2023 album by Strawpeople?
A: Knucklebones
2. Which band, founded by members of Kora, had a 2020 hit with the song ‘In the Air’?
A: L.A.B.
3. Name the Auckland band who in 2002 released their debut album Riverhead.
A: Goldenhorse
4. Name the New Zealand country pop singer-songwriter who in 2023 has been touring the US as opening act for Boz Scaggs?
5. Which alt-country singer-songwriter wrote and performed ‘29 Diamonds’ in tribute to the workers who died in the 2010 Pike River mining disaster?
6. Which notable Auckland rock venue of the late 70s/early 80s was formerly the Peter Pan Ballroom?
The 1975 Dr. Tree album.
7. Dr Tree was a New Zealand jazz band that released a self-titled album in 1976 on EMI and later evolved into Space Case. Name at least one member of Dr Tree.
A: The members of Dr Tree: Bob Jackson, Frank Gibson Jr, John Banks, Kim Paterson, Martin Winch, Murray McNabb
8. Which New Zealand band sang ‘How Is the Air Up There?’
9. What is the name of the musical collaboration between Trevor Reekie and Tom Ludvigson?
10. Which Aotearoa New Zealand artist covered The Cars’ ‘Drive’?
A: Strawpeople featuring Bic Runga
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, September 18, 2023
The Clean: Hamish Kilgour, David Kilgour and Robert Scott, 1982 - Photo by Craig McNab
1. Which song by The Clean was Flying Nun Records’ first chart hit?
A: ‘Tally Ho’ (No.19 on the New Zealand charts)
2. What was the name of the Flying Nun records showcase tour that featured The Chills, Children’s Hour, The Expendables, and Doublehappys?
3. Who sang on the Tanza recording of ‘Blue Smoke’?
4. Elton John interviewed two New Zealand musicians on his Rocket Hour show in 2020. Name one of them.
A: Benee and Matiu Walters (Six60)
The Phoenix Foundation on their first visit to London, 2007.
5. Three members of The Phoenix Foundation write film and television soundtracks under the name Moniker. Name one of them.
A: Luke Buda, Samuel F. Scott, and Conrad Wedde
6. Brad Fafejta and Vincent Lum were two members of the band Teenwolf. Who was the third member?
A: Chelsea Nikkel (Princess Chelsea)
7. The Veils performed a song on the soundtrack of which cult American television show?
A: Twin Peaks
Lisa Crawley
8. Lisa Crawley performed in a one-woman cabaret show at the Melbourne and Wellington Fringe festivals in 2017. What was the show called?
A: Elizabeth
9. Luke Rowell has two performance/stage names. Name one.
A: Disasteradio, Eyeliner
10. Name the musician who collaborated with Hamish Kilgour on the Hurtling Through EP.
A: Tiny Ruins
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
AudioCulture Quiz, September 11, 2023
Herbs - Songs of Freedom documentary poster, 2019.
1. Who played drums with the Hi-Marks showband, joined Herbs and wrote songs for their album Long Ago, and then formed the groups Mana and House of Shem?
A: Carl Perkins
2. What is the Māori name of ‘Now is the Hour’?
A: ‘Pō Atarau’
3. In 2004, a singer was chosen as a contestant on NZ Idol and went through the first few days of competition. However, the judges were not supportive of her representing her cultural identity on the show and she was eliminated for singing waiata in te reo Māori. Name the singer.
A: Maisey Rika
4. Which now-deceased singer-songwriter was, with her mother, a finalist for the APRA Maioha award (excellence in contemporary Māori music) for best waiata for their song, ‘Taku Kōtiro’?
5. “Jingajik” and the “party strum” are two of many synonyms for a rhythm guitar style that emerged from Aotearoa-New Zealand. What is it best known as?
6. Which group performed in te reo Māori at the 1992 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival?
7. Which female singer and writer has played taonga pūoro with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra?
A: Ariana Tikao
8. The documentary Solidarity (1992) begins with a single voice chanting “Detroit, Detroit, Detroit, Farrakhan, Farrakhan, Farrakhan.” Which group does it follow to the United States?
9. Whose song ‘He Whakapapa’ is described as using “the old pūrereheua, and poi slaps to set the scene, then flows in traditional Māori oriori lullaby form to deliver a Mahābhārata-like epic of the gods, events in Hawaiki and the early ancestors, down to the pain of colonisation and recent history”? (Clue: he is now Māori Language Commissioner.)
10. Which singing Dame recorded the song ‘Kia Ū’, written by Jay Dee (Ardijah) and Dr Hone Kaa? Its video was directed by Niki Caro (Whale Rider).
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, September 4, 2023
Ana Hato in the 1930s
1. What was special about the recording that Ana Hato and Deane Waretini did in 1927?
A: It was the first locally recorded commercial music to be released on record (a shellac 78rpm disc); it was pressed in Australia, and released by Parlophone.
2. Which New Zealand saxophonist player had a successful career in the 90s UK dance scene, which included releasing music through Goldie’s Metalheadz label (as Sci-Clone with drum’n’bass producer Jason Cambridge)?
3. New Zealand’s official music chart goes back to Friday 2 May, 1975. The first hit by a local act to top the chart was ‘Yesterday Was Just The Beginning of My Life.’ Who was the artist?
4. What were Holden, Gunn, Fountain, and Sonic known for making?
A: Amplifiers
Johnny Devlin and The Devils at Western Springs, Auckland, January 1959.
5. Which blind saxophone player started his career by backing Johnny Devlin, before becoming a regular on the Auckland live scene and recording two albums of standards on the Hammond organ in the early seventies?
6. Which New Zealand country singer has appeared twice onstage with Keith Urban?
A: Kaylee Bell
7. How did the following musical acts put themselves in danger in the late 60s and early 70s? Dinah Lee, the Quin Tikis, Tikiwis, the Māori Travellieres, the Māori Volcanics, the Māori HyMarques, the Māori Minors, the Māori Ambassadors, and the Māori Te Pois.
A: They all performed for the troops in Vietnam
8. Which rapper and poet wrote the Ockham-Awards-nominated novel Iceland?
9. In 1965, a band turned up to play the New Faces television show, but spent their allotted time dancing, shaking their long hair, rolling around on the floor, and smashing the percussion instruments they had brought with them. The producer told them they would never play on TV again. Which band was it?
A: The Pleazers
Peter Wadams AKA P-Money
10. One of the most popular tracks off P-Money’s album Big Things (2002) was ‘Synchronize Thoughts’. It featured Scribe alongside which legendary Hamilton rap group?
A: 4 Corners
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
AudioCulture Quiz, August 28, 2023
Split Enz - Time and Tide (1982)
1. What was the ominous instrumental track that segued into ‘Six Months in a Leaky Boat’ on the Split Enz album Time & Tide?
A: ‘Pioneer’
2. David Pine is the New Zealand High Commissioner to India and Bangladesh. Which 1980s Dunedin band was he a singer and guitarist in?
3. Which singer of Cook Islands ancestry has a father who was a recording artist in the 1960s?
A: Annie Crummer, daughter of Will Crummer
4. Which member of Jean-Paul Sartre Experience climbed aboard The Stereo Bus in 1997?
A: Dave Yetton
5. After Hello Sailor broke up in 1980, Graham Brazier formed The Legionnaires, and Dave McArtney formed The Pink Flamingos. Which very popular band did bassist Lisle Kinney join?
A: DD Smash
Peking Man: clockwise from lower left - Tim Calder, Pat Urlich, Neville Hall, Perry Marshall, Margaret Urlich, Jay Foulkes and John Fearon - Photo by Regan Cameron
6. Which early 80s label included releases by, among others, Peking Man, Pop Mechanix, From Scratch and Nocturnal Projections?
A: Hit Singles
7. Songs by which gravel-voiced female singer have appeared in US TV shows such as The Good Wife, Grey's Anatomy and Revenge?
A: Gin Wigmore
8. Which flamboyant hard-rock Wellington group’s debut album was described by the NZ Herald as “a mongrel mix of Kyuss, Neurosis, and the mighty Godflesh ...”
A: Beastwars
9. The 2017 documentary, A Memory Of Others, was about which musician and key figure in the underground music scene since the 1970s?
A: Bill Direen
10. After establishing herself as a vocalist on recordings by the likes of Cassette, Pitch Black, SJD and Magik Johnson, whose own releases include the singles ‘Giftbox’ and ‘Let It Go’, and the EPs A Piece Of Me and Lyrical Flight?
A: Sandy Mill
[This week’s quizmaster: Grant McDougall]
AudioCulture Quiz, August 21, 2023
3 The Hard Way, 2003
1. What’s the title of 3 The Hard Way’s No.1 hit single from 2003?
A: ‘It’s On’
2. Lonnie Donegan’s song ‘My Old Man’s a Dustman’ was rewritten to become which 1960s Aotearoa hit?
A: ‘My Old Man’s an All Black’ by the Howard Morrison Quartet.
3. SJD and Neil Diamond have what sort of “people” in common?
A: Tree People – in SJD’s song of the same name he used a sample from Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night live album where Diamond thanks the “tree people”.
Dave McArtney (on surfboard) and The Pink Flamingos at the beach, summer 1981-82. - Photo by Murray Cammick
4. Which Dave McArtney and the Pink Flamingos song is the following lyric from? “Getcha getcha getcha getcha feathers away from my nose ... ”
A: ‘Pink Flamingo’
5. Which well-known group was originally known as the Lowdown Dirty Blues Band?
A: Supergroove
6: In The Mutton Birds’ hit song, whereabouts along Auckland’s Dominion Road is the “halfway house”?
A: “Halfway down”
7. Which Wellington group released a cover version of The Equals’ ‘Michael and the Slipper Tree’ on HMV NZ in 1969?
8. What sort of recording setup did Chris Knox famously use to record the Tall Dwarfs and his early solo albums?
a. Pro Tools
b. Phonograph cylinder
c. TVNZ outside broadcast van
d. TEAC 4-track reel to reel
A: d. TEAC 4-track reel to reel
Hamilton's Founders Theatre in 1962, the year it opened.
9. In which North Island city is the Founders Theatre, which opened in 1962 and is scheduled for demolition?
A: Hamilton (Kirikiriroa)
10. What is Tim Finn’s first name?
A: Brian
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, August 14, 2023
House of Shem.
1. Carl Perkins from House of Shem was formerly a member of which chart-topping 1980s group?
A: Herbs
2. In the 1960s, Bill Ivory and Graham Rosling were two amateur musicians who visited the studios of Viking Records to record an instrumental they’d written. It was an international hit for which hit-making NZ guitarist?
A: Peter Posa (‘The White Rabbit’)
3. Tumanako Teka had a multi-decade career as a singer and band leader under what artist name?
4. What (chilled) fruit was a DD Smash album named after?
A: Cool Bananas (read Duncan Campbell’s review, 1982)
5. Which Māori country singer became one of New Zealand’s first rock ’n’ rollers with his version of ‘Rock Around The Clock’?
Upper Hutt Posse in Mount Street, Auckland, 1990
6. In 1987, Upper Hutt Posse released Aotearoa’s first rap single. In 2003, Scribe kicked off the golden years of hip hop with his first solo single. Lyrically, what do the titles of these tracks have in common?
A: They both exhort the listener to “stand up” (though Upper Hutt Posse said it in te reo Māori as ‘E Tū’).
7. Murray Fisher is a member of Voom and helped mix Fazerdaze’s breakthrough album, Morningside (2017). Name the band he started out in.
A: Goodshirt
8. Name the long-running dance/electronic label that released gold-selling albums by Concord Dawn and Pitch Black?
9. Which famous New Zealand promoter started his career as a dancer and compere before getting into running security at concerts? (Clue: he also owned Warrior Records.)
A: Hugh Lynn
Chris Knox at the Rumba Bar, 1982 - Murray Cammick Collection
10. Which early 1970s band is Chris Knox talking about in this quote? “They did two gigs in two nights, and I went to both of them. I’d never heard of them. They were just a New Zealand band with really long hair, really long jams, and this one song – ‘Going Down the Road’ or something like that [‘The Ride’] – the first night it went for half-an-hour and was really loud and the second night, it went for a bit longer but was really quiet. So that was interesting – oh, you can do two different things with the same song, woohoo.”
A: Highway
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
AudioCulture Quiz, August 7, 2023
The Hi-Five in Wellington in the early 1960s
1. What was the original name for the Māori Hi-Five?
A: Hi-Five Mambo
2. Sammy’s was a long-lasting music club in which city?
A: Dunedin
3. Who collaborated with DJ Dan Aux on the single ‘Slippin’ Yak’, using the name A^K?
A: Kings
Judy Bailey performing at the El Rocco in Sydney during the early 1960s.
4. In the late 1950s pianist Judy Bailey performed in which Auckland nightclub/ restaurant?
5. Steel City was a work of music theatre music by whom?
A: Tim Finn
6. Who replaced Cherie Mathieson as vocalist in the jazz band Shaken Not Stirred?
A: Lisa Tomlins
7. Which female country artist won the Gore Gold Guitar award in 2017, and the Tui for best New Zealand country music album (Wildfires) in 2019?
8. Which band exploded a papier-mâché effigy of Robert Muldoon on stage during a performance in 1984?
The 3Ds in 1996 - Dominic Stones, Denise Roughan, David Saunders, David Mitchell
9. The 3Ds closed the inaugural New Zealand Big Day Out in 1994. Which American band preceded them and played into The 3Ds’ allotted time?
A: Soundgarden
10. Julia Deans performed three songs on which 2017 Paul McLaney album of Shakespeare soliloqies?
A: Play On
[This week’s quizmaster – Amanda Mills]
AudioCulture Quiz, July 31, 2023
Peter Posa in a Viking publicity shot, 1964.
1. Peter Posa wrote and produced ‘Rose, Can I Share a Bed With You’, and it became a huge hit in 1976 for which Aotearoa singer?
2. Which member of the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience founded The Stereo Bus?
A: David Yetton
3. Songwriter/musician Simon Lynch co-founded Southside Records, and was the keyboardist in which New Zealand soul-funk band?
A: Ardijah
Kaylee Bell in 2018 - Publicity photo
4. Kaylee Bell’s 2019 breakthrough hit was about which Australasian country star?
A: Keith Urban
5. On August 4 this year, Paul Casserly and Fiona McDonald will release their first new album in 19 years – by what band/project name are they known?
A: Strawpeople
6. Complete this 1982 hit song’s title: ‘Shoop Shoop Diddy Wop …’
A: ‘Cumma Cumma Wang Dang’ (by Monte Video and the Cassettes, aka Murray Grindlay and friends)
7. In 1976, Dalvanius took an Aotearoa funk band to Australia, where they became one of the hottest acts in Kings Cross, Sydney. What was the band’s name?
A: Collision (Ali Morgan, guitarist and vocalist with Collision, passed away in July)
Deva Mahal. - Photo by Reef Reid
8. Aotearoa-based singer Deva Mahal’s father is a renowned US blues musician – who is he?
A: Taj Mahal
9. When Danny Mañetto joined Voom as their bassist, he’d already played a very different instrument on Straitjacket Fits’ ‘She Speeds’ and ‘Dialling A Prayer’ – what was the instrument?
A: Cello
10. In which Christchurch street did the Dance Exponents wait?
A: Cashel Street, in the 1985 single ‘Christchurch (In Cashel St I Wait)’
[This week's quizmaster – Renée Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, July 24, 2023
Deva Mahal. - Photo by Lucy Hammond
1. Deva Mahal and Sheba Williams are members of which duo?
A: Afronesia
2. Name the New Zealand songwriter whose song features on a 2023 Heinz Ketchup TV advertisement in the UK.
A: Chris Knox (‘It’s Love’)
Robert Scott
3. What was the name of Robert Scott’s comic fanzine and cassette-only record label?
4. The Mysterious Secrets of Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium is a collaboration between filmmaker Duncan Sarkies, illustrator Stephen Templer, and which musician?
A: James Milne (Lawence Arabia)
5. What award did the Headless Chickens win in 1987?
A: The Rheineck Rock Award
6. Which female Aotearoa musician formed a duo in the early 90s called Spinning Wheel, with Leraine Horstmanshoff, a multi-instrumentalist from Utah?
A: Kāren Hunter
7. Who created the label Urban Pasifika Records?
A: Phil Fuemana
8. A number of musicians associated with Lil’ Chief Records play in a Paul McCartney tribute band. What is the band’s name?
A: Disciples of Macca
9. What does the name of the record label TANZA stand for?
A: To Assist New Zealand Artists
10. Name the band in the above photograph.
A: Snapper (Dominic Stones, Christine Voice, Alan Haig, Peter Gutteridge)
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
AudioCulture Quiz, July 17, 2023
Zed Brookes at Tandys Recording Studio in the late 1980s
1. In which city did Zed Brookes open Tandys Recording Studio?
A: Hamilton / Kirikiriroa
2. Barry Leef was the singer and guitarist in which successful 1960s Wellington pop band?
3. Shihad’s 1996 single, a cover of Flesh D-Vice’s ‘Flaming Soul’, was a tribute to who?
A: Their late manager and mentor Gerald Dwyer, who was the singer in Flesh D-Vice
4. What was the Auckland punk band fronted by Sonya Waters?
A: Instigators
5. At age 11, I won the Lyttelton Primary School talent quest. I was a member of both the Christchurch Boys High School Choir and the Christchurch Cathedral Choir and formed my first band at age 15 with my best friend Ben Woolley. Who am I?
6. Which country-folk band was founded in 1979 by Cath Newhook, Martha Louise and Peter Madill?
A: Gentle Annie
Ruru Karaitiana examines an unknown 78rpm disc for a photographer, c1950.
7. When Ruru Karaitiana was looking for musicians to play on ‘Blue Smoke’, his first recording in 1949, he approached a local lap-steel guitarist to perform the intro. What was his name?
A: Jim Carter
8. The 2006 documentary Departure And Return, about last days of the Rainbow Warrior, features which Don McGlashan / Mutton Birds song as its final theme?
A: ‘Anchor Me’
9. Geordie McCallum, Eden Mulholland, Scott Sutherland, Will Mulholland were better known as?
A: Motocade
Shaft at Golden Dawn, 2013 - Photo by Matthew Crawley
10. In which city was the music club Golden Dawn?
A: Auckland
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
AudioCulture Quiz, July 10, 2023
The Mutton Birds.
1. Which of the following is the name of the second album from The Mutton Birds?
a. Sweetie
b. Tangy
c. Salty
d. Spicy
A: c. Salty
2. A popular Flying Nun band from the late 1990s named themselves after a song by The Clash. Who are they?
A: Garageland
3. Which remote North Island town did Herbs visit when they launched their 1987 album Sensitive to a Smile?
A: Ruatoria
4. Who recorded a cover of Gene Pitney’s ‘Mecca’ in 1981?
A: Otis Mace and Rex Reason
5. Which singer-songwriter established Wellington’s Slow Boat Records?
6. ‘Lipstick Power’ is the title of whose 1981 solo career debut single?
A: Dave Dobbyn
Jonathan Bree in 2023 - Publicity photo
7. Which famous US guitarist and producer is credited as co-writer on Jonathan Bree’s ‘Pre-Code Hollywood’?
A: Nile Rodgers
8. Whispering Afraid is the title of which singer-songwriter’s 1973 debut album?
A: Shona Laing
9. Which Flying Nun band in 1991 released an anagrammatically titled EP called Florid Dabblers Voting?
10. Complete the lyric from a popular 1979 punk song: “Met her outside the ..., true love works in funny ways.”
A: IGA (from ‘True Love’ by The Scavengers, on AK79)
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, July 3, 2023
Buzz Moller, Voom.
1. Buzz Moller of Voom hosted an early morning radio show on student radio station 95bFM from 1989 to 1997. What was the show called?
A: Buzz’s Kiddies’ Show
2. Tim Finn has had a solo career for 40 years, since the release of his debut solo album in 1983. What was the album called?
A: Escapade
3. In 2001, Lisa Tomlins’ band Ebb was putting on shows with two other Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington bands under the name Three-Piece-Suit. One of the bands was Fat Freddy’s Drop – what was the other?
A: TrinityRoots
Fane Flaws, 1979
4. As well as his musical contributions to BLERTA and The Crocodiles, Fane Flaws also created the opening graphics for which Aotearoa New Zealand television music show?
5. Which album was voted No.1 in the AudioCulture Classic NZ Album Readers’ Poll 2023?
A: Split Enz, True Colours (1980)
6. And what was No.2 in the poll?
A: Fat Freddy’s Drop, Based On A True Story (2005)
7. In Kirikiriroa Hamilton there is a statue of a character played by someone who created one of the most popular musicals of all time. Half a point each for naming the musical, and its creator.
A: Richard O’Brien, The Rocky Horror Show
8. In November 2013, Lorde had a “bed-in” in New York with which award-winning New Zealand author?
A: Eleanor Catton (illustration by Chris Grosz)
9. Doug Hood was recently named an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit, and Chris Knox was one of his closest collaborators. Doug remembers almost to the hour, the time and place that he first met Chris Knox. It was two or three in the afternoon on Good Friday, 31 March 1972 – but in which city did they meet?
A: Ōtepoti Dunedin
10. In December 1965 the former Shiralee nightclub in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland was refurbished and re-opened by new owner Eldred Stebbing, with The Pleazers as a resident band. What was the name of the new club?
A: The Galaxie
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, June 26, 2023
The 1984 Looney Tour poster - Chris Knox design; Jonathan Ganley Collection
1. Who ran the touring and promotion company Looney Tours?
A: Doug Hood
2. Who was the lead singer and guitarist of Chicago Smokeshop (later, just Smokeshop)?
3. “Queen of the banjo” Jenny Blackadder’s stepson is …?
A: Former All Blacks captain Todd Blackadder
4. Who wrote the soundtrack to the 1986 Footrot Flats movie?
A: Dave Dobbyn
5. “Chur doy” is a saying first popularised by which group?
A: The Howard Morrison Quartet
6. Who is the Whāngarei-born, Sydney-based jazz pianist that shares a name with a former television newsreader?
A: Judy Bailey
7. “Mercurial, jovial, Promethean, Dionysian, possibly definitely slightly Greek if you get my drift, he was considered extremely handsome by many, including himself.” Who was Rick Bryant describing?
A: His friend Graeme Nesbitt
Blam Blam Blam: Don McGlashan, Mark Bell, Tim Mahon. - Publicity photo
8. Blam Blam Blam recorded a cover version of the theme from a cult TV show – what was the show?
A: Dr Who (B-side of the 1981 single ‘Don’t Fight It Marsha, It’s Bigger Than Both Of Us’)
9. Which singer, later an actor, hosted the 1987 TV series Dixie Chicken?
Tim Finn. - Publicity photo
10. What was the name of the Tahitian navigator featured in Tim Finn’s opera Ihitai’Avei’a – Star Navigator?
A: Tupaia
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, June 19, 2023
Amelia Murray aka Fazerdaze. - Frances Carter
1. Before focusing on music, in which sport did indie singer-guitarist Amelia Murray from Fazerdaze represent Wellington?
A: Tennis
2. Which drummer and actor played off a zero handicap in golf?
Howard Morrison Quartet, from left: Noel Kingi, Wi Wharekura, Howard Morrison, Gerry Merito - Murray Menzies
3. Which song by the Howard Morrison Quartet subtly mocked the decision not to include any Māori players in the All Blacks 1960 tour to South Africa?
A: ‘My Old Man’s An All Black’
4. The song ‘Basketball Court’ features on which 2012 hip-hop album?
A: Home Brew by Home Brew
5. Which acclaimed 2001 album has a photo of Auckland’s Alexandra Park Raceway on the cover?
A: Dimmer’s I Believe You Are A Star
6. The 1982 New Zealand soccer team recorded a single of their official squad anthem ‘Marching Off To Spain’, that featured which singer, prominent in 1970s light-entertainment TV?
A: Ray Woolf
7. What was the name of the one-off group featuring, among others, Rick Bryant, Chris Knox, Don McGlashan and Annie Crummer, that recorded the song ‘Don’t Go’ in 1986, as a protest against a proposed All Blacks tour of South Africa?
A: Right, Left, and Centre
8. In 2009, which Auckland garage-rock band held its album launch in a boxing ring?
A: Luger Boa
9. Which Wellington band wrote and recorded the song ‘Big Mac (Run Rate)’ as a tribute to the New Zealand cricket team?
10. Which singer-songwriter released the 2019 album Sportsman Of The Year?
[This week’s quizmaster: Grant McDougall]
AudioCulture Quiz, June 12, 2023
Lorde - Solar Power (2021)
1. Name one of the two New Zealand male singer-songwriters featured as backing vocalists on Lorde’s 2021 Solar Power album.
A: Lawrence Arabia (James Milne) and Marlon Williams
2. Which music critic/writer also runs the record emporium Family Jewels in Nelson?
3. What was the name of the Flying Nun-associated “supergroup” featuring members of The Bats, Tall Dwarfs and The Clean?
A: Sundae Painters
Now I Am Me (Antenna/Virgin, 1998)
4. Now I Am Me was the debut album of which Auckland band in 1998?
A: Voom
5. What is the name of the band, featuring the Kaukau brothers, who recorded the classic 1977 disco-pop stomper ‘I Need Your Love’?
Herbs' 1983 album Light of the Pacific.
6. What was the name of Herbs’ hit single from their 1982 album Light of the Pacific?
A: ‘French Letter’
7. Credited as New Zealand’s first rock’n’roll recording artist, which self-styled ‘Māori Cowboy’ recorded a version of Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’?
8. What is the name of Kimbra’s new album?
A: A Reckoning
9. Mark Petersen replaced which original member of Straitjacket Fits for their final album Blow (1993)?
Split Enz - Mental Notes (1975)
10. Wally Wilkinson played which instrument in the Mental Notes-era Split Enz?
A: Guitar
[This week’s quizmaster: Jeremy Taylor]
AudioCulture Quiz, June 5, 2023
Prince Charles meets Max Cryer, Miss New Zealand (Carol Robinson), Corben Simpson and Bunny Walters. - Corben Simpson Collection
1. In 1970 Prince Charles and Princess Anne attended a special concert event at Western Springs Stadium, Auckland. The show was produced by Max Cryer and featured local performers including Corben Simpson, The Chicks, and Bunny Walters. What was the event called?
A: Superpop 70
2. Which famous Aotearoa New Zealand entertainer sang a bilingual version of ‘How Great Thou Art’ (‘Whakaaria Mai’) at the St James, Auckland, at the 1981 Royal Variety Performance attended by Queen Elizabeth II?
3. Name the band, formed in Auckland in the mid-1960s, which released a concept album in 1969 called The Happy Prince, based on a short story by Oscar Wilde.
4. In the 1960s who was named New Zealand’s “Queen of the Mods”?
A: Dinah Lee
Peter "Rooda" Warren at the Thank God It's Over Concert, Auckland, 1984. - Bryan Staff
5. Where was the 1984 Thank God It’s Over concert held at Auckland, which eventually turned into the Queen Street Riot?
A: Aotea Square
6. Name the Christchurch promoter who in the 1950s co-founded the Christchurch Teenagers Club and managed Max Merritt in his early years.
A: Trevor King
Kingdon Te Itinga Chapple-Wilson
7. Kingdon Te Itinga Chapple-Wilson has released four albums and his hits have been streamed in the tens of millions. What artist name is he better known by?
A: Kings
8. When the Beatles visited New Zealand in 1964, which hotel did they stay at while in Auckland?
A: The Royal International
9. For which early New Zealand record label did pianist Nancy Harrie record ‘Coronation Medley’ b/w ‘Queen Elizabeth Waltz’?
A: TANZA
10. Name the Aotearoa New Zealand-based, Canadian-born country-soul singer who released an album called Kingmaker in 2022.
A: Tami Neilson
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
AudioCulture Quiz, May 29, 2023
1. “Void” was the nom-de-plume for the singer of which early 80s Wellington punk band?
A: Riot 111
2. At the 2016 Vodafone Music Awards, which singer declined her award for best urban / hip-hop album, citing issues relating to stereotypes?
A: Aaradhna
3. Which Christchurch band’s debut album was a double called Three Virgins, Three Versions, Three Visions?
A: AXEMEN
Carl Perkins and his sons Isaiah and Te Omeka.
4. Which reggae band was formed by Carl Perkins and is now led by his sons, Te Omeka and Isaiah?
5. Which Wellington recording studio, established in the early 2000s, has been used by, among others, Trinity Roots, Shihad, Dave Dobbyn and The Phoenix Foundation?
A: The Surgery
6. Which 80s Auckland experimental trio released the EPs Yellow Read Aloud and Spit It Out?
Graeme Downes, The Verlaines.
7. About which composer did Graeme Downes of The Verlaines write a PhD thesis?
A: Gustav Mahler
8. Which singer starred in the 2019 movie, Daffodils?
A: Kimbra
9. Which 70s progressive rock band’s plans to tour Australia were derailed by tax issues relating to their New Zealand-made PA system?
A: Ragnarok
10. “Good evening, citizens” was the trademark opening greeting on each episode of Radio With Pictures – by which presenter?
A: Barry Jenkin
[This week’s quizmaster: Grant McDougall]
AudioCulture Quiz, May 22, 2023
1. The Human Instinct’s 1970 album Stoned Guitar has a worldwide cult reputation, thanks to the Hendrix-inspired guitar workout of which guitarist?
A: Billy TK aka Billy Te Kahika
Drinking With Judas (1993)
2. The artwork for The Hallelujah Picassos’ 1993 album Drinking With Judas was done by bassist John Pain. Which legendary New Zealand comic artist drew caricatures of the band members for the album?
A: Martin Emond
3. Complete the title of Flip Grater’s 2010 album When I’m Awake __ __ ___ (three words)
A: When I’m Awake I’m At War
Kings. - Damian Alexander
4. Near the end of 2017, Kings released his debut album, which produced a run of million-streamers – ‘Beat Us’, ‘HYLMN’, and ‘We’ll Never Know’. What was the album’s title?
A: Chapter One
5. Which band, featuring Ngahiwi Apanui, released an album called He Waiata Mo Te Iwi/ Singing For Our People in 1987?
A: Aotearoa
6. Split Enz released their follow-up album to True Colours in 1981. In New Zealand it was called Waiata – what was its title in Australia?
A: Corroboree
7. On which Headless Chickens album did Fiona McDonald first appear as a permanent band member?
A: Body Blow (1991)
8. Which record label released Shihad’s first four albums: Churn (1993), Killjoy (1995), Shihad (1996), The General Electric (1999)?
- Andrew Schmidt collection
9. The picture on the bottom of the shop counter in this cartoon is the logo of a 1990s Auckland-based record label. What was the label’s name?
A: Crawlspace
10. Caroline Easther was the drummer for The Chills between 1986 and 1988. Which of their albums did she play on?
A: Brave Words (1987)
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, May 15, 2023
To go with this month’s theme of classic New Zealand albums, this quiz links with AudioCulture’s Album Cover Location Map.
Al Hunter's 1987 album Neon Cowboy
1. “A country boy finding out the pitfalls of the city are extremely real.” On which street is Al Hunter buying his jeans?
A: Queen Street, Auckland (Al Hunter, Neon Cowboy, 1987)
Th' Dudes - Where Are The Boys (Key, 1980)
2. Across which bridge are Th’ Dudes walking in light?
A: Grafton Bridge, Auckland (Th’ Dudes, Where Are the Boys, 1980)
Whats' Be Happen? – the landmark 1981 mini-LP from Herbs.
3. On which Tāmaki Makaurau landmark is this historic incident taking place?
A: Takaparawhau/Bastion Point (Herbs, Whats’ Be Happen?, 1981)
The New Loungehead - Came A Weird Way (Deep Grooves, 1997)
4. Coromandel gold: where did The New Loungehead get ecclesiastical?
A: Cathedral Cove (The New Loungehead, Came a Weird Way, 1997)
King Kapisi - Savage Thoughts (2000). Cover photo by Stephen Langdon
5. On which lake is King Kapisi walking on water?
A: Lake Tikitapu/Blue Lake, Rotorua (King Kapisi, Savage Thoughts, 2000)
Upper Hutt Posse's groundbreaking E Tū, 1988
6. Upper Hutt Posse take it to the river. But which river?
A: Hutt River (Upper Hutt Posse, E Tu, 1988)
The Keil Isles in Wellington, circa 1964.
7. Herma and the Keil Isles twisting by the sea: in which bay is this band rotunda?
A: Oriental Bay, Wellington (Herma and the Keil Isles, 1963)
The Narcs’ debut album Great Divide, released on CBS in 1984
8. On which ski field near Wanaka were The Narcs left stranded?
A: Treble Cone (The Narcs, The Great Divide, 1984)
9. Who photographed Dave Dobbyn in Central Otago?
A: Robin Morrison (Dave Dobbyn, Loyal, 1988)
The second Lutha album, Earth, 1972
10. Lutha on Leith Creek – in which city?
A: Dunedin (Lutha, Earth, 1972)
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, May 8, 2023
Fat Freddy's Drop, 2019. - Photo by Kerry Brown
1. On which album did Fat Freddy’s Drop provide the horns to ‘Getting What You Give’?
A: You’ve Got to Hear the Music by Dimmer (2004)
2. Which rapper from Canterbury called his 2003 album The Crusader?
A: Scribe
3. Whose first solo album Inside Out (1982) was made while facing a date in court?
4. Whose 2007 album In Swings the Tide was mostly recorded at home in Western Springs?
A: Anika Moa
5. Whose 1987 album featured songs about the arms race, apartheid, Cambodian refugees, and a US president?
A: Shona Laing – South
6. Which self-titled album from 1997 is written mostly in the Tokelauan language?
A: Te Vaka
Tim and Neil Finn
7. Which Finn brothers’ album was recorded twice?
A: Everyone is Here (2004)
8. Whose 2008 album The Awakening opens with a line set in the Port Hills, “On a fine day / if Mum says ‘okay’ / I go out walking in the hills where I can play”?
9. Which album by The Chills features occasional REM sideman and dBs founder Peter Holsapple on guitar and keyboards?
A: Soft Bomb (1992)
10. Whose 1992 album Language contained two songs by Dave Dobbyn, neither of them called ‘Language’?
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, May 1, 2023
Mark Williams' third album Taking It All In Stride, EMI, 1977.
1. The cover photo for Mark Williams’ 1977 album Taking It All In Stride shows a party on a tennis court. Among the extras is an actor who soon became a major star. What is his name?
A: Sam Neill
2. The four members of early 80s Auckland post-punk band Children’s Hour were all subsequently members – but never all at the same time – of which band?
Aldous Harding. - Photo by Ebony Lamb
3. Aldous Harding had a big break when she was seen busking outside a Geraldine bakery and offered a support slot by which other singer?
A: Anika Moa
4. Which Auckland duo had a hit in 1989 with ‘She’s A Mod’ / ‘Mod Rap’, which featured a guest appearance by Ray Columbus?
Shayne Carter at Laneway 2012. - Photo by Jonathan Ganley
5. In his 2019 autobiography Dead People I Have Known, Shayne Carter describes the 1985 single ‘Randolph’s Going Home’ as “one of my greatest songs”. Who was his collaborator on it?
6. Emily Edrosa, aka Emily Littler, was the singer-guitarist for which sassy Auckland pop-punk trio, active from 2008 to 2017?
A: Street Chant
Tami Neilson - Dynamite! (2014)
7. Tami Neilson’s breakthrough 2014 album Dynamite! was produced by which fellow country musician?
8. Young Sid, Tyree and Deach were the members of which 2000s Auckland hip-hop band?
A: Smashproof
9. The Cabana is a long-running major venue in which North Island city?
A: Napier
10. Venus Is Home is the 2022 debut album by which singer-songwriter?
A: Erny Belle
[This week’s quizmaster: Grant McDougall]
AudioCulture Quiz, April 24, 2023
Finn Andrews, The Veils, Laneway 2017. - Stella Gardiner
1. Finn Andrews (of The Veils), Gin Wigmore, and members of The Checks all went to which high school in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland?
A: Takapuna Grammar School
2. In 1967 an Auckland band supported The Yardbirds, The Walker Brothers, and Roy Orbison on a whirlwind tour of New Zealand. Name the support act.
3. Who scored the music to the film Heavenly Creatures?
A: Peter Dasent
4. Rosalie Edmondson was a 1960s New Zealand pop star. What was her stage name?
5. INF and SPYCC are MCs in which hip hop collective from Onehunga?
A: SWIDT
6. Entrain was the precursor to which successful dance event that began in 1996/97?
Jamie McDell, 2022.
7. Jamie McDell dressed as which marine animal to raise awareness for it at the 2013 Vodafone Music Awards?
A: A shark
Troy Kingi.
8. With whom did Troy Kingi and Choicevaughan collaborate on The Panthers soundtrack?
A: Diggy Dupé
9. The 2012 album Sad but True: The Secret History of Country Music Songwriting was a collaboration between which two singer-songwriters?
A: Marlon Williams and Delaney Davidson
10. Name the supergroup Barnaby Weir and Mikee Tucker formed in 2004.
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
AudioCulture Quiz, April 17, 2023
Nadia Reid. - Alex Lovell-Smith
1. Which Wellington suburb gives its name to a song on Nadia Reid’s 2017 album Preservation?
A: Te Aro
2. How To Loiter In A Turf War is the acclaimed novel published last year by which Auckland rapper?
A: Coco Solid
3. Two major New Zealand musicians had significant roles in the 2010 New Zealand feature film Predicament. Name one of them.
A: Jemaine Clement (Spook), Tim Finn (Martin Williamson)
4. Plastic Bouquets is the 2020 collaboration album between Canadian duo Kacy & Clayton and which singer?
5. I was raised in Northland and came to prominence as a guitarist in the 1960s. Some of my songs were recorded by Human Instinct. An album I recorded in London in 1969 was widely bootlegged and finally officially released in 2012. Who am I?
Needles & Plastic: Flying Nun Records, 1981–1988, by Matthew Goody, Auckland University Press
6. According to Matthew Goody’s recently published book Needles And Plastic, what was the first 12" single (as opposed to an EP) released by Flying Nun?
A: Marching Orders’ ‘The Dancer’
7. Between 2005 and 2011 Annabel Alpers released one EP and three albums of electro-pop under what pseudonym?
A: Bachelorette
8. Green B Holiday was a concept album released in 1969 by which Upper Hutt band?
9. In 2003, which Auckland duo released two albums, Caterpillar and Butterfly, on the same day?
10. An anthology of landmark 1980s Dunedin fanzine Garage has just been published. Which song, originally by seminal Dunedin punk band The Enemy and recorded by Toy Love, is it named after?
A: ‘Pull Down The Shades’
[This week’s quizmaster: Grant McDougall]
AudioCulture Quiz, April 10, 2023
1. Which member of Shihad is the great nephew of a highly regarded New Zealand major-general in World War II?
A: Karl Kippenberger – his great uncle was Major-General Sir Howard Karl Kippenberger, KBE, CB, DSO & Bar, ED (28 January 1897 – 5 May 1957)
2. Which singer ruefully recalled about his homecoming tour, “Everywhere I went I was puffing on a big cigar, and I wore much more gold than the average man.”
A: John Rowles
3. New Zealand’s first prominent all-female quartet temporarily added “Plus One” to its name when they recruited a male drummer. What was the band’s original name?
4. Whose debut album The Private Life of Clowns was released on her own Raw Fish Salad label?
A: Kāren Hunter
5. Joe Wylie designed which iconic New Zealand album cover with a theme of Māori futurism?
6. When winning the best female artist award in 2015, who quipped “Up yours, Anika?”
A: Gin Wigmore
7. Whose first professional gig in Christchurch – performing her own songs – was with the band Chapta?
Amelia Murray. - Frances Carter
8. What is the name of the act fronted by Amelia Murray, which recently returned with the single ‘Come Apart’ and the support slot on Lorde’s 2023 New Zealand tour?
A: Fazerdaze
9. Which band emerged from Wellington High School acts such as Sprink and Komos, and eventually named itself after a fictional organisation in the TV show MacGyver?
The Crocodiles.
10. The Crocodiles’ keyboardist went on to write music for films such as Heavenly Creatures and Meet the Feebles. Who is he?
A: Peter Dasent
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, April 3, 2023
Chris Knox, Paul Kean and Jane Walker at Auckland's Gluepot, likely September 1980 - Anthony Phelps
1. Which long-standing group did Paul Kean join after Toy Love?
A: The Bats
2. Which drummer/ percussionist/ DJ was in The Newmatics, The Miltown Stowaways, Avant Garage, and UK band The Woodentops?
3. Which New Zealand album was released for the first time on vinyl last year by UK label Needle Mythology (run by former Melody Maker scribe Peter Paphides)?
A: Finn
4. The song ‘35’ is about the state highway around the East Coast of the North Island. Who did the group Ka Hao co-wrote it with?
A: Rob Ruha
Neil Finn
5. On which Neil Finn album was there a choir featuring, among others, EJ Barnes, Sean Donnelly, Harper Finn, Reb Fountain, Hollie Fullbrook, Victoria Kelly, Don McGlashan, Jimmy Metherell, Sandy Mill, James Milne, Amelia Murray and Samuel Flynn Scott?
A: Out of Silence (2017)
6. Who are the spa pool-ensconced duet partners on ‘The Cigarette Song’ (which has now clocked 89 million YouTube plays)?
A: Princess Chelsea and Jonathan Bree
7. Which female Wellington folk/ blues singer’s 1965 debut album was entitled My Way Of Singing?
A: Val Murphy
8. Whose 2008 album Anotherland was produced by On-U Sound’s Adrian Sherwood and Skip McDonald?
A: Dave Dobbyn
The 1975 debut album from Ragnarok, reissued in March 2022.
9. Which New Zealand reissue label last year re-released Ragnarok’s self-titled 1975 debut?
A: Grant Gillanders’ Frenzy label
10. Who was the featured vocalist on Savage’s 2005 single ‘They Don’t Know’?
A: Aaradhna
[This week’s quizmaster: Jeremy Taylor]
AudioCulture Quiz, March 27, 2023
Jane Walker, c. 1979 - Jane Walker collection
1. Jane Walker played drums for Christchurch punk bands The Basketcases, and Detroit Hemroids. However, she was more famous for playing what for who?
A: Keyboards for Toy Love
2. What was the name of Darren Watson’s 80s blues band?
A: Chicago Smoke Shop
Kurt Shanks - Photo by Mark Roach
3. Auckland promoter Kurt Shanks plays bass for which well-known band?
A: Stellar*
4. My bands include They Were Expendable, The Expendables, Breathing Cage, and The Matches. Who am I?
A: Jay Clarkson
5. Which duo released the 1989 No.2 ‘Mod Rap’ with Ray Columbus?
6. What is the connection between 90s Auckland club Squid and Push Push?
A: Mikey Havoc sings with Push Push and was the host/DJ at Squid
7. Who directed both the Skeptics ‘AFFCO’ and Snapper’s ‘Buddy’ acclaimed videos?
A: Stuart Page
8. Which Pacifican hip-hop act was fronted by Te Awanui Reeder, Donald McNulty, and Junior Rikiau?
Denys Mason visits Wellington, 2000s. - Costa Christie
9. What instrument is Denys Mason mainly known for?
A: Saxophone
10. Who wrote the book Stranded in Paradise?
A: John Dix
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
AudioCulture Quiz, March 20, 2023
The Bluestone Store at 9-11 Durham Lane in Auckland's CBD. - Wikimedia, CC BY 3.0.
1. In 1978 the Bluestone Store in Auckland’s Durham Lane became which legendary punk venue?
A: Zwines. The Bluestone Store’s heyday as a music venue was from the 1960s-70s.
2. Jenny Blackadder was crowned Queen of which instrument in 2008?
A: Jenny Blackadder was crowned Queen of the Banjo in 2008, at the 33nd National Old Time Country Music Festival in Iowa.
3. My Chemical Romance played in Auckland on March 11. Their local supports included producer/songwriter Joel Little’s first band – can you name them?
4. The musician pictured above sadly passed away in 2018. AudioCulture has published her 2003 interview for the TV series Give It A Whirl. Who is she?
A: Jane Walker of Toy Love, and prior to that, The Basketcases.
5. LEAO calls Auckland group Half Hexagon a “heavy trifecta of cool” – can you name one of the trio’s three members?
A: James Milne, Julien Dyne and Yolanda Fagan. Find out more about Half Hexagon here.
6. The finalists for the Taite Music Prize 2023 were recently announced. Who won the prestigious prize in 2002?
A: Anthonie Tonnon for Leave Love Out Of This (2021).
7. In 2003 this group had a No.5 hit with ‘For The People’, which won the 2003 APRA Silver Scroll Award. What is their name?
A: Nesian Mystik. Watch their 2003 Give It A Whirl interview here.
8. The pattern on the cover of Look Blue Go Purple’s 1985 EP Bewitched was taken from the fabric of a dress owned by which band member?
A: Denise Roughan
9. Which Christchurch venue, which was sadly closed following the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, was originally a historic home built in 1883?
A: The Dux de Lux (featured on the Christchurch Story Map)
10. At 17 Eddie Rayner, soon to be in Space Waltz and Split Enz, was expelled from school – what was the reason?
A: For having long hair.
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, March 13, 2023
Diatribe, 1983. - Simon Grigg Collection
1. What is the connection between Auckland bands Herbs and Diatribe?
A: Diatribe’s Ross France used to co-manage Herbs and wrote ‘Azania (Soon Come)’ for their debut mini-LP.
2. Which band was briefly known as Amplifier?
A: The Dance Exponents (in 1990, before becoming The Exponents)
Troy Kingi.
3. In 2016 Troy Kingi announced he was going to release how many albums in different genres over a decade?
A: Ten
4. We were formed by Mark Tierney and Paul Casserly in 1990 at 95bFM. We are?
A: Strawpeople
5. Which family band – called Brother when they first moved to Auckland – played support at the 1979 Bob Marley concert at Western Springs?
6. Our first two EPs were Bird and Bone and Hearts, and our debut album was Coral. Who were we?
A: Artisan Guns
7. Name the New Zealand drummer who has played with ... take a breath … Nat Adderley, Frank Foster, Johnny Griffin, Joe Henderson, Lee Konitz, Leo Sayer, John Scofield, Dusty Springfield, Sonny Stitt, the Temptations, Rick Wakeman, the Walker Brothers, Dionne Warwick, Ernie Watts, Jimmy Witherspoon, Lonnie Donegan, and Elton John?
8. He was raised in Hamilton where he was a big part of the 1960s scene, but is globally known as the singer of the 70s worldwide smash ‘Blinded By the Light’ and the co-writer of ‘You’re The Voice’ (He also has a Hamilton-born namesake who is more of a folk troubadour.) Who is he?
Tami Neilson, May 2013. - Wendy Collings / Tymar Lighting
9. Where was Tami Neilson born and raised?
A: Canada
10. Whose second band was The Unfaithful Ways?
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
AudioCulture Quiz, March 6, 2023
1. Which band titled its debut album Revival?
A: Katchafire
2. In the title of the Dance Exponents’ song ‘Christchurch’ which street name was added in brackets?
Renee-Louise Carafice in 2019
3. In the photo above, who is this Auckland-born artist, now based in Las Vegas, whose 2008 album Tells You to Fight was named as one of Nick Bollinger’s 100 Essential New Zealand Albums?
4. ‘Farewell to the Gold’, about gold-mining pioneers, was written by Paul Metsers while he was teaching at Hutt Intermediate. Which Nobel Prize-winner performed it live?
A: Bob Dylan
5. Who is the editor and publisher of New Zealand Musician magazine, founded in 1988?
A: Richard Thorne
6. Which member of When the Cat’s Away first emerged in the bands Everything That Flies and Perfect Strangers and more recently was in The Bads?
A: Dianne Swann
7. Which Christchurch record store was located in the former art-deco premises of Begg’s?
A: Echo Records
8. Which Tauranga band shares its name with a 1988 Beach Boys’ US No.1 hit, and recorded an entire album of Dylan interpretations?
A: Kokomo
Kim Krueger, 1961
9. Which early ’60s singing star, above, later became the Mayoress of Whangarei?
A: Kim Krueger
10. Name the Auckland location which hosted the Jumping Sundays protests/celebrations in the late ’60s, Radio Hauraki concerts in the 1970s, and the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival in the late 2010s.
A: Albert Park
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, February 27, 2023
1. Sharon O’Neill wrote the score and soundtrack for which classic 1981 New Zealand film?
A: Smash Palace
Assorted Netherworld Dancing Toys with their just-crashed van. - Nick Sampson collection
2. Which band was involved in this off-road moment while touring the South Island?
A: Netherworld Dancing Toys, seen here with their just-crashed van. Happily, nobody was hurt.
3. What is Otis Mace’s nickname/slogan?
A: “Otis Mace, Guitar Ace”
4. Dunedin music landmarks Sammy’s, Disk Den and the Crown Hotel have been/are owned by members of which Dunedin family?
A: The Chin family. Sam Chin bought Sammy’s in 1983 and ran the venue until it closed in 2016. Hing Chin, who already owned The Sunset Strip, purchased Disk Den in 1977. Jones Chin owns the Crown Hotel.
3 The Hard Way around the time they recorded ‘Hip Hop Holiday’
5. What group is pictured here, from our Music and 90s Style feature?
6. Which African country did Raiza Biza’s family flee in the early 1990s?
A: Raiza is the eldest child of a Rwandan couple who had the foresight to flee their homeland ahead of the Rwandan civil war.
7. Bachelorette sang with which robot band at Camp A Low Hum in 2011?
A: The Trons. These musical oddities were created by sound engineer Greg Locke (Hollow Grinders).
8. Name one of the three Peter Jackson films Peter Dasent composed the scores for.
A: Heavenly Creatures, Brain Dead and Meet The Feebles
9. Which New Zealand country music singer was given the opportunity to perform on the Grand Ole Opry by superstar Charley Pride?
A: Kylie Harris, who had toured with Pride. Twice he gave up performing one of his songs on the TV show to allow her a turn at the microphone.
10. What does Rob Ruha’s song ‘35’ refer to?
A: It celebrates Tairāwhiti and life on State Highway 35, on the East Coast of the North Island, from Ōpōtiki to Gisborne. It is a region that has been very hard hit by Cyclone Gabrielle. MusicHelps has grants available to musicians who have been affected by the cyclone, having lost gear, studios etc. If you’d like to chip in, you can donate here.
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, February 20, 2023
1. In the Warratahs’ early hit ‘Maureen’, she moves home. Where to?
A: Melbourne
2. For which TV series did Diggy Dupé co-write the music?
A: The Panthers
Matthew Hunter and Kim Willoughby in Queen City Rocker, 1986.
3. Which member of Hello Sailor wrote several songs for the the 1986 film Queen City Rocker?
4. Tim Mahon was bassist for which band when the van in which they were touring crashed?
5. Which reggae group got its name from the year missionary Rev Samuel Marsden arrived in the Bay of Islands?
A: 1814
6. Which New Zealand-invented instrument, sold in 80 countries, is a mix of a saxophone and a tin whistle?
A: The Saxmonica
Anika Moa and Mareea Paterson. - Mareea Paterson Collection
7. Kim Paterson is a renowned New Zealand jazz trumpeter. What instrument does his internationally known daughter Mareea play?
A: Bass
8. In the 1960s which New Zealand singer was known as a “folk queen and foot-stomping blues singer”?
A: Val Murphy
9. What 2003 TV series, viewable online at AudioCulture and NZ On Screen, covered New Zealand’s rock’n’roll history?
10. What are the first names of Bic Runga’s musician sisters?
A: Boh and Pearl
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, February 13, 2023
1. Who composed the music for the Geoff Murphy films Goodbye Pork Pie, Utu, and The Quiet Earth?
A: John Charles
2. What is the performing pseudonym of Steph Brown, who won the 2012 APRA Silver Scroll for ‘Everything to Me’?
A: Lips
3. Which future member of When the Cat’s Away starred in the 1986 film Queen City Rocker?
Karl Steven in the studio. - Paul Taylor
4. What band was film composer Karl Steven in during his teenage years?
A: Supergroove
5. Who was the jazz drummer often seen in the 1980s New Zealand films?
6. What band released the seminal New Zealand electro hit ‘Pulsing’?
7. Which 1960s Wellington band was named – by Dalvanius in a competition – after a hip TV show?
A: The Avengers
8. Which band’s song provided the title to the recent Flying Nun history Needles & Plastic?
9. Before 10 o’clock closing became legal in 1967, what time in the evening did pubs have to shut?
A: Six o’clock
10. Which New Zealand firm invented the music equipment Pitch’n’Time and Scratch Live?
A: Serato
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, February 6, 2023
1. The Last Resort Café was an important venue from 1978 to 1981 in which New Zealand city?
A: Wellington
2. Can you name one of the musicians who shared their memories in the Lewis Eady story?
A: Harry Lyon, Brent Parlane, or Mike Chunn
3. What was the name of the album that the Finn brothers released in 2004?
4. Which of the armed forces did Larry Morris join at the age of 15?
A: Navy
Spelling Mistakes poster, design by Warwick Fowler
5. Which Auckland reviewer responded to a gig by The Spelling Mistakes by writing, “I’m taken aback – I’ve just seen a band with a sense of history, a sense of the absurd and what sounds like a healthy dollars and cents future.”
A: Colin Hogg. Read the rest in The Tinnitus Years, Part Two
6. Which New Zealand artist impressed UK drum and bass legend Roni Size with her vocal skills at the 2001 Big Day Out in Melbourne?
A: Tali
7. Alisa Xayalith has just released a solo EP, Superpowers. Which band, formed in 2007, is she from?
Margaret Urlich - Second Nature (1999), painting by Justin Boroughs.
8. Which Shona Laing song did Margaret Urlich record on Second Nature, her album interpreting New Zealand pop classics?
A: ‘(Glad I’m) Not a Kennedy’
9. Goldenhorse was initially formed by Kirsten Morrell and Geoff Maddock. Which indie pop band was Maddock in at the time?
10. What is the artist’s name of Sāmoan indie-rock musician David Feauai-Afaese?
A: LEAO
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
AudioCulture Quiz, January 30, 2023
1. Name the family whose various members have been selling musical instruments in Auckland for nearly 140 years.
A: Eady
2. What was the name of Larry Morris’s most famous group?
3. Apart from the guitar, what instrument was Red McKelvie often called upon to play in recording sessions?
4. Name one of the two Auckland groups that received wages from a government PEP scheme in the early 1980s.
A: Avant Garage or Big Sideways
Hollie Smith. - Photo: Steve Dykes
5. Who wrote ‘Bathe in the River’, which Hollie Smith – and the Mt Raskil Preservation Society – took to No.2 in the New Zealand charts?
6. Two musicians surnamed Tumahai have profiles on AudioCulture: Charlie and …?
A: George
7. Which judge on the New Faces TV talent show declared his aversion to lurex costumes?
A: Phil Warren
20 Studio One Hits LP (1972)
8. Who sang ‘Love Bug’, a No.3 hit in 1973 after featuring in TV talent show Studio One.
A: Anna Leah
9. Who almost stole the show singing backing vocals on the Netherworld Dancing Toys’ ‘For Today’?
10. What is the connection between 80s band The Steroids and the OMC hit ‘How Bizarre’?
A: Alan Jansson, guitarist with The Steroids, produced the OMC hit
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
AudioCulture Quiz, January 23, 2023
Ticket: Eddie Hansen, Trevor Tombleson, Ricky Ball, Paul Woolright
1. Which two members of 70s blues-rock band Ticket went on to join Hello Sailor?
A: Ricky Ball and Paul Woolright
2. The preeminent event in the New Zealand pop calendar in the late 1960s and early 1970s, celebrating a public vote for best single, was sponsored by a shampoo company. What was the award called?
A: The Loxene Golden Disc
3. Name the musician whose first introduction to the music industry was in female vocal group Sheelahroc with her cousin Tyra Hammond and Sarah Tamaira (aka "Voodoo Child").
4. Name the tongue-in-cheek band from the early 2000s that released a single called ‘Today, Tomorrow, Timaru’.
A: Deja Voodoo
5. Which hip hop artist had a 2004 hit with ‘We Gon Ride’?
Claude Papesch, circa 1965 - Dave Ross collection
6. In the late 1950s I was band leader and saxophonist in Johnny Devlin’s band “The Devils” and in the 1970s I released a couple of Hammond organ albums, 1973’s Hammond Spectacular and 1974’s Hammond Electrique. Who am I?
7. Which popular New Zealand band of the early 80s made an extraordinary comeback in the early 90s with a string of hits? Clue: some of their song titles are posed as questions, and start with the words “Who”, “Why”, and “Whatever”.
A: Dance Exponents/The Exponents – ‘Who Loves Who The Most’, ‘Why Does Love (Do This To Me)’, ‘Whatever Happened to Tracy’.
8. Which Flying Nun artist released his first solo album, Here Come The Cars, in 1991?
Dave Dunningham.
9. What was the name of the central Auckland venue run by promoter Dave Dunningham in the late 1950s/ early 1960s, where early rock ’n’ roll acts such as Johnny Devlin and the Bob Paris Combo performed?
10. Name either of the local acts that broke through with the singles ‘Maureen’, in 1988, or ‘Mo-reen’, in 1969.
A: The Warratahs recorded ‘Maureen’ and Larry’s Rebels recorded ‘Mo-Reen’
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
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AudioCulture Quiz, January 16, 2023
1. What do the video clips for Bailterspace’s ‘Splat’ (1995) and Goodshirt’s ‘Blowing Dirt’ (2001) have in common?
A: Both clips play with time, and have been filmed or performed in reverse.
2. Which former Auckland pub and live venue is rumoured to have gained its nickname from disgruntled housewives whose husbands were said to be “stuck” there?
A: The Gluepot
Steve Gilpin, 1974
3. Former cabaret singer Steve Gilpin was the lead singer of which internationally successful band of the late 70s and 80s?
A: Mi-Sex
4. The Others Way festival is named after a song by which early Flying Nun band?
A: Doublehappys
Bill and Boyd's self-titled 1975 album (Stetson).
5. Name the biggest hit of Bill & Boyd’s lengthy career, described by one reviewer as “cheerfully offensive”.
A: ‘Put Another Log On The Fire’ (1975).
6. Who famously yelled “Up the ’Pool!” – referring to Liverpool – to the Beatles when she was in the audience at their Auckland Town Hall show in 1964, prompting Paul McCartney to tell his bandmates, “We’ve got a Scouse in the audience, lads.”?
The D4 . - Jimmy Christmas Collection. Photo by Paul Raggity.
7. The D4 named their 2001 debut album after a classic 1960s New Zealand-designed Jansen guitar amplifier. What’s the title of the album?
A: 6Twenty
Emma Paki at the 1995 NZ Music Awards
8. Emma Paki’s first big hit, 1993’s ‘System Virtue’, was produced by Jaz Coleman. Who produced her 1994 hit, ‘Greenstone’?
A: Neil Finn
9. Name the musician who was in The Dizzy Limits, Timberjack, The Human Instinct, and the first Warratahs line-up?
10. Who was the singer-guitarist and band leader of Chicago Smoke Shop?
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
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AudioCulture Quiz, January 9, 2023
Split Ends performing onstage, Ngāruawāhia, January 1973: Mike Howard, Phil Judd, Brian Tim Finn, Jonathan Michael Chunn. - Photo by Larry Jordan
1. The La De Da’s, Split Ends, and Black Sabbath shared the bill at a festival held 50 years ago this week. Where did it occur?
A: Ngāruawāhia, at The Great Ngāruawāhia Music Festival.
2. Which New Zealand artist recorded a live session at London’s Abbey Road Studios in 2022?
3. Which Upper Hutt singer began in The In-Sect (precursor of The Fourmyula), joined The Castaways, performed in cabaret overseas, and hosted a New Zealand TV talent show?
4. In August 1977 Wellington’s first punk rock concerts were held at VUW’s Union Hall (now called the Hunter Lounge). Who were the two acts?
A: The Scavengers and The Suburban Reptiles
5. Which Auckland hip-hop act turned the Kanye West song title ‘No More Parties in LA’ into ‘No More Parties in Stoneyhunga’?
A: SWIDT
Herbs and Dave Dobbyn during the Slice Of Heaven video shoot
6. At which studio did Dave Dobbyn and Herbs record ‘Slice of Heaven’?
A: Marmalade, in Wellington
7. Brooke Singer’s early bands included folk act Ragamuffin Children and “pop-shoegazey” The O’Lovelys. Which band is she in now?
8. Whose album Leave Love Out of This was awarded the 2022 Taite Music Prize?
9. Woof! is a bar in Dunedin/Ōtepoti run by which “lapsed choir boy”?
10. Which 1970s prog-rock band had singer-songwriter Lea Maalfrid as a member?
A: Ragnarok
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
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AudioCulture Quiz, December 19, 2022
The Beths. - Mason Fairey
1. What is the name of The Beths’ 2018 Christmas EP?
A: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
2. Which New Zealand-born producer has worked with Lorde and Taylor Swift?
A: Joel Little
3. Which leading jazz-rock band of the mid-late 70s was named after a pub in Wellington (upstairs from Lambton Quay, downstairs from The Terrace)?
Upper Hutt Posse in Mount Street, Auckland, 1990.
4. New Zealand’s first rap record to be released was made by Upper Hutt Posse – what was its name?
A: E Tū (12" EP)
5. Which New Zealand music writer and mentor ran a store called Records Records for many years?
A: Roy Colbert
6. The bitter title of The Avengers’ biggest hit could come from the pen of Elvis Costello. What is it?
A: ‘Love Hate Revenge’, which reached No.2 in 1968.
7. My name is Julie Nelson; in 1962, as a 14-year-old from Gisborne, I recorded a Christmas song that became a perennial Yuletide favourite. What was its name?
8. Which New Zealand singer often performed as Santa in Auckland’s Christmas in the Park concerts?
A. Dalvanius
9. Which groundbreaking 1977 New Zealand film featured a soundtrack written by Murray Grindlay?
Jay Monds.
10. What was one of the stage names of DJ Jay Monds, who died in 2022?
A: DJ Pots or Jay Bulletproof
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
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AudioCulture Quiz, December 12, 2022
Hollie Fullbrook, 2018. - Ebony Lamb
1. Hollie Fullbrook used what alias when she started performing?
A: Tiny Ruins. It now refers to her band.
2. Who has released three albums of Songs for Bubbas?
A: Anika Moa
3. Which country singer released his debut album Neon Cowboy in 1987?
A: Al Hunter
4. Caleb and Georgia Nott, siblings from Nelson, had a viral hit in 2018 with ‘Peach’. What is the name of their duo?
A: Broods
5. Kas Futialo is better known by what name?
6. Hood Country Club was the 2017 album by who?
A: David Dallas
7. Brothers Logan and Jordan Bell are in which reggae band which had a massive hit with ‘Giddy Up’ in 2002?
A: Katchafire
'I Just Don't Understand' (1964) - Tommy Adderley on the Chess label. Adderley is one of very few white artists released on Chess, the Chicago-based blues and R&B label.
8. ‘I Just Don’t Understand’, on the Chess label in North America, was a radio hit in Canada for which New Zealand singer in the 1960s?
9. Paul Casserly and Mark Tierney were the production duo behind which 90s act?
A: Strawpeople
10. Who supported Gil Scott-Heron on a tour of Europe and UK?
A: Ladi6
[This week’s quizmaster: Graham Reid]
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AudioCulture Quiz, December 5, 2022
Split Enz, 1980 (L-R): Neil Finn, Tim Finn, Nigel Griggs, Eddie Rayner, Malcolm Green, Noel Crombie
1. On the 1982 album Time & Tide, which Split Enz song had an instrumental introduction by Eddie Rayner called ‘Pioneer’?
A: ‘Six Months in a Leaky Boat’
2. What was the name of the 1979 New Zealand music festival at which Split Enz lost all its musical equipment in a fire just before their appearance?
A: Nambassa
3. What’s the connection between Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass’ and Split Enz’s ‘I Got You’?
A: The Split Enz track was produced by David Tickle, who engineered the Blondie hit
4. Which Split Enz song opens “I don’t want to say I love you / that would give away too much”?
5. Name the two English members of the Split Enz rhythm section recruited in 1977, after the departures of Paul Crowther and Mike Chunn.
A: Drummer Mal Green and bassist Nigel Griggs
6. The cover of the Frenzy album was painted by Raewyn Turner – what was her role in the Split Enz technical crew?
A: Lighting director
7. Dave Russell produced Split Enz’s debut album Mental Notes. In which prominent New Zealand band did he play guitar in the 1960s?
A: Ray Columbus and the Invaders
8. What was the name of the short-lived band formed in the late 1980s by former Enz members Phil Judd, Noel Crombie, and Nigel Griggs?
9. The follow-up album to True Colours was called Corroboree in Australia. What was its New Zealand name?
A: Waiata
10. What major event happened elsewhere in Auckland on the night of Split Enz’s “final” concert at the Logan Campbell Centre on 7 December 1984?
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
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AudioCulture Quiz, November 28, 2022
1. Two Flying Nun bands have been inducted into Te Whare Taonga Puoro o Aotearoa NZ Music Hall of Fame. Name one.
A: Straitjacket Fits, The Clean
Jimmy Christmas, Big Day Out 2009
2. Name the band Jimmy Christmas formed after leaving The D4.
A: Luger Boa
3. What is the name of the Sami Sisters’ debut album?
A: Happy Heartbreak (2006)
4. Which major record company signed a distribution deal with Flying Nun in 1988?
A: WEA Records
5. Split Ends (before they were Enz) appeared on a television talent quest in 1973. What was the name of the show?
A: New Faces (Studio One: New Faces)
Pauly Fuemana at the 1996 NZ Music Awards.
6. Pauly Fuemana was the lead singer of which international chart-topping band?
A: OMC
7. Which well-known musician produced Anika Moa’s album Queen at the Table?
Die! Die! Die! - Photo by Georgia Schofield
8. Name the city Die! Die! Die! are originally from.
A: Dunedin
Tiny Ruins, 2018. - Ebony Lamb Photography
9. The Tiny Ruins song ‘Dream Wave’ was produced by a well-known Hollywood director. Who was it?
A: David Lynch
10. Name the local indie label that released the first two EPs by The Naked and Famous, No Light, and This Machine.
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
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AudioCulture Quiz, November 21, 2022
1. Which platinum-selling album by Salmonella Dub featured the cranking drum & bass track ‘Tha Bromley East Roller’?
A: Inside the Dub Plates (2001)
2. A number of international stars were interviewed on Radio With Pictures, and some even made videos here. One particularly cool video was for Iggy Pop’s ‘I’m Bored’. Which Wellington landmark building features in the video?
A: The Beehive
Split Enz - Mental Notes
3. Nick Bollinger says of Split Enz’s debut album Mental Notes, “While Tim Finn and Phil Judd deliver the songs like a pair of bewildered vaudevillians, it is the rhythm section … that provides the platform on which their performance takes place.” Which bassist and drummer made up this rhythm section?
A: Mike Chunn and Paul Crowther
4. Part of Jamie McDell’s childhood was spent somewhere quite unusual – where was it?
A: On a yacht exploring the Mediterranean
5. Jim Carter passed away on 2 October 2022 aged 103. In 1948, on his lap-steel guitar, he played the first notes on New Zealand’s first home-grown hit record. What was that song?
A: ‘Blue Smoke’
Ngoi Pewhairangi with copies of 'Poi E'. - Gisborne Herald
6. Ngoi Pēwhairangi was inducted into the 2022 NZ Music Hall of Fame this year. She wrote the lyrics for two te reo songs that were No.1 hits in the 1980s. One was ‘Poi E’. What was the other?
A: Prince Tui Teka – ‘E Ipo’
7. Which member of Big Sideways and Miltown Stowaways went on to play with popular UK band The Woodentops?
Steph Brown, Auckland, 2012.
8. Steph Brown won the APRA Silver Scroll in 2012 with her song ‘Everything To Me’. Under which name does she record, perform, and produce?
A: Lips
9. I have been a bassist for Fish for Life; designer for Rip It Up; directed more than 100 music videos; directed the feature film Black Sheep; and created the graphic novel The Inkberg Enigma. Who am I?
10. Which Tāmaki Makaurau-based radio host co-founded and played keyboards for the Able Tasmans?
A: Graeme Humphreys aka Graeme Hill
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
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AudioCulture Quiz, November 14, 2022
SWIDT at Roundhead Studios, Auckland.
1. The SWIDT collective are from which Auckland suburb?
A: Onehunga
2. Which South Auckland hip-hop label was founded by Danny Leaosavai’i and Andy Murnane?
A: Dawn Raid Entertainment (founded by Brotha D and YDNA)
3. Tim Finn and Eddie Rayner, formerly of Split Enz, released the Shades and Echoes album in 2022 under what name?
A: Forenzics
Aaradhna. - Rip It Up Archives
4. Why did Aaradhna refuse to accept a music award in 2016 for her No.1 album Brown Girl?
A: Because it was in the best urban/hip-hop category. She said “I’m a singer, I’m not a rapper, I’m not a hip-hop artist. It feels like I’ve been placed in the category of brown people.”
5. These are the first lines of a rap by which artist? “I’m from Christchurch, the place of my birth. My home on this earth, represent my peps and their worth”.
A: ‘Theme From The Crusader’ by Scribe, from the 2003 album The Crusader
6. ‘Billy Bold’ became the signature song for which New Zealand singer, who died in 2015?
7. Milan Borich was the lead singer of which band in the 1990s/2000s?
A: Pluto
8. White Sunday was the 2003 debut album by which rap artist?
A: Mareko (Mark Sagapolutele)
Mother Goose in a 1977 Mushroom publicity shot
9. Mother Goose celebrated which canned food with a song in 1977?
A: ‘Baked Beans’
10. Lil’ Golden Book was the debut album for which local artist?
[This week’s quizmaster: Graham Reid]
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AudioCulture Quiz, November 7, 2022
The Exploding Budgies - The Grotesque Singers EP (Flying Nun, 1985)
1. Released by Flying Nun in 1985, The Exploding Budgies’ one and only EP The Grotesque Singers features a track named after which renowned American avant-garde film director?
A: Kenneth Anger
2. Which Dunedin band released three EPs on Flying Nun before they went on to have a top 10 hit on another label?
A: Netherworld Dancing Toys. ‘For Today’, released on the Virgin label, reached No.3 on the national singles chart.
3. In 1988, Australian cow-punk band The Johnnys included a cover of which song by The Clean on their album Grown Up Wrong?
A: ‘Anything Could Happen’. Released as a single, it featured Te Awamutu-born Spencer P. Jones (1956-2018) on vocals and guitar.
4. Which Auckland venue was the location of a live album recorded in June 1983 and released on Flying Nun in 1984, featuring performances by Tall Dwarfs, The Stones, Children’s Hour and many more?
A: Rumba Bar – The Last Rumba (Flying Nun, 1984 – RUM001) was engineered by Doug Hood and Terry King.
Andrew Brough - Photo by Becky Nunes
5. Prior to joining Shayne Carter in Straitjacket Fits, Andrew Brough was in which short-lived trio that released the Fruit Salad Lives EP on Flying Nun?
A: The Orange
6. Which Auckland-based band did bassist Jane Dodd join after leaving The Verlaines, following the release of their 1988 Bird-Dog LP?
A: Able Tasmans
Doublehappys, 1984: Shayne Carter, John Collie, Wayne Elsey. - Photo by Jeremy Freeman
7. What was the name of the very mechanical drummer John Collie replaced when he joined Doublehappys?
A: Herbie Fuckface
8. What was the title of the Flying Nun compilation released in 1991, featuring a painting by The Clean’s Hamish Kilgour with flying saucers on the cover?
A: Pink Flying Saucers Over The Southern Alps
9. Which band had their debut single produced by Hamish Kilgour and their debut album produced by David Kilgour?
A: Strangeloves. Hamish Kilgour produced and played on their 1987 debut single ‘When Judy Gets Out’; David Kilgour produced their 1991 album See Your Colours.
10. Which Dunedin band is named after an Elvis Costello song?
[This week’s quizmaster: Matthew Goody, author of Needles and Plastic: Flying Nun Records, 1981-1988, Auckland University Press, 2022]
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AudioCulture Quiz, October 31, 2022
Greg Johnson
1. In 1992 Greg Johnson released an award-winning song about a woman living in Zagreb, Croatia. What was its name?
A: Isabelle
2. Which New Zealand jazz drummer recorded duets with famed US guitarist Emily Remler, who died shortly afterwards in Australia?
3. See Ya ’Round was the final album by which New Zealand band in 1984?
A. Split Enz
4. What were the titles of the paired albums in 2003 by Lil’ Chief band The Tokey Tones?
A. Caterpillar and Butterfly
5. Which popular 70s band – which had a No.1 hit with ‘L’amour est L’enfant de la Liberte’ – included the brothers Shade and Gerard Smith?
A. The Rumour
Dave Dobbyn
6. What was the title of the 1994 album by Dave Dobbyn, produced by Neil Finn?
A. Twist
7. Who played the nightclub singer in the 2005 Australian film Little Fish (starring Cate Blanchett and Sam Neill) singing Gene Pitney’s 1968 hit ‘Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart’?
A. Bic Runga
8. The 1960s pop star, born Bogdan Kominowski, covered the famous Jewish folk song ‘Hava Nagilah’ on his self-titled debut album. What was his stage name?
A. Mr Lee Grant
9: ‘Hashish’ was the title of an instrumental by which New Zealand group in 1962?
A. The Pictones, from Levin. The band had no idea what it meant.
10. Who recorded the 1998 spoken and sung ‘Moko’ which opened with words by Māori artist and activist Tāme Iti?
A. Moana and the Moa Hunters, on their album Rua.
[This week’s quizmaster: Graham Reid]
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AudioCulture Quiz, October 24, 2022
Lucid 3: Victoria Girling-Butcher, Marcus Lawson, Derek Metivier
1. Victoria Girling-Butcher of Lucid 3 is from which North Island city?
A: New Plymouth
2. Who Killed Colonel Mustard was an EP by which Dunedin band?
A: Bored Games
3. Auckland jazz band Bluespeak, fronted by Greg Johnson, included bassist Peter Scott. Who is his famous son?
A: Tom Scott from Avantdale Bowling Club (and Homebrew, @Peace, etc.)
4. I was born in Canada, grew up in Geraldine, formed my first band in Timaru before putting together my most famous one in Christchurch. I am in the NZ Music Hall of Fame twice, once with that band, and once as a songwriter. Who am I?
A: Jordan Luck
5. Whose first album was called Live At The Matterhorn?
6. What was the name of the music TV show that first broadcast in October 1976?
7. Who was the show’s first host?
A: Barry Jenkin (aka Dr Rock), who joined for the second series in 1977
8. Peter van der Fluit was the bassist in which 80s band?
Tali
9. MC Tali had a UK Top 40 hit in 2004 with a song produced by Roni Size, what was it called?
A: ‘Lyric On My Lip’
10. Who wrote Sonny Day’s hit ‘Saving Up’?
A: Bruce Springsteen
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
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AudioCulture Quiz, October 17, 2022
1. Name the pop singer who was the executive director of the Auckland Rugby Union in the 1980s, bringing live entertainment and crowds back to Eden Park, and the owner of several gay nightclubs in the city.
A: Lew Pryme
Southside of Bombay.
2. ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf’ by Southside of Bombay was from the soundtrack of which New Zealand movie?
A: Once Were Warriors
3. His record shop in Dunedin was called Records Records and enjoyed an international reputation. He was a pivotal figure that city’s music scene for decades and passed away in 2017. He is?
A: Roy Colbert
4. Who had a massive hit with ‘The White Rabbit’?
A: Peter Posa
Kim Willoughby.
5. What was the name of Kim Willoughby’s first band?
A: The Gurlz
6. In 2000 NZ On Air launched, as an adjunct to the Kiwi Hit Disc, a series of promo radio CDs mostly in te reo Māori. What did they call them?
A: The Iwi Hit Disc. There were 32 and they were issued until 2010.
7. Which act recorded the 2004 album Break It To Pieces, regarded as a New Zealand hip hop classic?
8. Sister Sina featured in the lyrics to which international New Zealand hit?
A: ‘How Bizarre’ by OMC
Street Talk's self-titled 1978 debut album.
9. Who produced Street Talk’s debut album?
A: Kim Fowley
10. Which US singer made a video for his 1979 single ‘I’m Bored’ in Wellington?
A: Iggy Pop for Radio With Pictures
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
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AudioCulture Quiz, October 10, 2022
Andrew Fagan, Rip It Up cover photo, August 1984 - Photo by Kerry Brown
1. What was the name of Andrew Fagan’s pre-Mockers high-school punk band?
2. What UK indie band did Benny Staples of Miltown Stowaways play with?
A: The Woodentops
3. What was the name of Ria Hall’s 2017 debut album?
A: Rules Of Engagement
How Was the Air Up There? (1980)
4. On what budget label was the seminal New Zealand compilation How Was The Air Up There? released in 1980?
A: K-Tel
5. Who was the head of NZ On Air Music until his retirement in 2016?
6. Ardijah was fronted by which husband and wife duo?
A: Ryan and Betty Ann Monga
7. Which Wellington indie/post-punk band famously jammed with The Cure at an after-show party on their 1981 tour?
8. What song featured on the second Dance Exponents album Expectations, but provided the name to their debut album?
A: ‘Prayers Be Answered’
9. Which group had a hit on both sides of the Tasman with ‘Hip Hop Holiday’?
10. Mark Tierney and Paul Casserly co-founded which electronica combo?
[This week’s quizmaster: Jeremy Taylor]
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AudioCulture Quiz, October 3, 2022
1. Jim Wilson is the founder of postering company Phantom Billstickers. Which annual literary event do they sponsor?
A: National Poetry Day
2. For which Crowded House album did Tim Finn join the band to record and tour?
A: Woodface
Princess Chelsea, 2022. - Frances Carter
3. Which independent New Zealand record label is Princess Chelsea signed to?
A: Lil’ Chief
4. In 1983 Margaret Urlich joined her brother Pat’s band, which morphed into Peking Man. What was its name?
A: Corners
5. Sonya Waters guested on an MTV Europe show with a UK trio featuring a New Zealander. What was the trio’s name?
A: The Thompson Twins. Waters says, “I wasn’t allowed to play with them on TV in England as I wasn’t a union member, so that ended that.”
6. Who engineered The Blue Stars’ ‘Social End Product’, The La De Da’s ‘Do What You Gotta Do’, and The Human Instinct’s classic album Burning Up Years?
7. Who is this?
8. And who is playing electric guitar here (at the back)?
A: Tami Neilson (with her brother Jay on bass)
9. Which massive 1980s TV show did Jodi Vaughan, Brendan Dugan and Gray Bartlett have residencies on?
10. Which band did Doug Hood sing with at Christchurch’s Mollett Street one Sunday night in 1978?
A: The Clean
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
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AudioCulture Quiz, September 26, 2022
Musicians featured on the Web Women’s Collective album Out of the Corners (1982).
1. Val Murphy was part of the Web Women’s Collective, which released the Out of the Corners album in 1982. Name another act on the album.
A: Mahinaarangi Tocker, The Topp Twins, Hattie St. John, Jess Hawk Oakenstar, Di Cadwallader, Mereana Pitman, Tracy Huirama, Clare Bear, or Hilary King
2. In which city did Leisure play its first ever live show?
A: Sydney, Australia
3. Renee-Louise Carafice recorded her debut album Tells You to Fight at Electric Audio Studios in Chicago. Who founded and owns the studio?
A: Steve Albini
4. Name the UK television series that used the PLAN remix of French for Rabbits’ song ‘Claimed by the Sea’.
A: Being Human
5. What was New Zealand’s first feature-length musical?
Andrew Spraggon, mid-2000s.
6. Andrew Spraggon from Sola Rosa played bass in which band in the early 2000s?
A: Dimmer
7. Who wrote the memoir Postitively George Street?
8. All Your Ships Have Sailed’ won the 2021 APRA Silver Scroll Award for which artist?
A: Troy Kingi
9. Alongside Elvis Costello, which New Zealand act topped the bill at the first Sweetwaters Festival in 1980?
A: Split Enz
10. Which female solo artist has also been in side projects such as Opossum and King Sweeties?
A: Bic Runga
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
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AudioCulture Quiz, September 19, 2022
1. The original theme tune for Ready to Roll was The Commodores’ 1974 track ‘Machine Gun’. In the early 1980s, the new futuristic computerised graphics called for a new theme tune. Who composed it?
A: Peter Blake
2. Darren Matthiassen and Nick Robinson are the rhythm section in which group?
A: Shapeshifter
3. A much-loved New Zealand hit was first performed in at the 1983 Aotearoa Performing Arts Festival in Hastings. What was the song?
A: ‘Poi E’
Corben Simpson with BLERTA - Photo by Helen Whiteford
4. BLERTA frontman Corben Simpson played the opening slot at the Great Ngāruawāhia Music Festival, 1973. What was particularly memorable about his performance?
A: He performed naked (he was charged with and convicted for “wilfully and obscenely exposing his person”).
5. Which 2011 Princess Chelsea song became a YouTube hit (80 million views and counting) – and a decade later went viral again on TikTok?
A: ‘The Cigarette Duet’
Nick Harte, Shocking Pinks. - Phil Platt
6. Which prominent New Zealand label released the Shocking Pinks albums Mathematical Warfare and Infinity Land?
A: Flying Nun
7. The Body Electric used new technology to create one of the biggest indie singles of the 1980s, which sat in the New Zealand charts for over six months without any mainstream airplay. What was the name of the song?
A: ‘Pulsing’
The Warratahs. - Trevor Reekie Collection
8. In 1988 The Warratahs had a hit with a song named after a woman. What was its title?
A: ‘Maureen’
9. Which classic album, first released in 2001, is Dimmer currently touring and performing?
A: I Believe You Are A Star
10. Whose bird songs played a role in the renaissance of te reo Māori?
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
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AudioCulture Quiz, September 12, 2022
1. What is the name of the group formed by Joe Lindsay of Fat Freddy’s Drop to perform well-known waiata and action songs in a vintage ska style?
A: The Yoots
2. ‘Po Atarau’ is a perennial Māori ballad, written to an Australian melody, recorded by Deane Waretini and Dennis Marsh and many others. What was it called when it was covered by Gracie Fields and Bing Crosby?
A: ‘Now is the Hour’
3. Who recorded the album Soul Sessions, featuring jazz and R&B standards in te reo, including ‘Raumati’ (‘Summertime’)?
4. Whose father, Uekaha, co-wrote the hit song ‘Tangaroa’ on the 2007 album Past Present Future?
A: Tiki Taane
5. Whose 2017 album Rules of Engagement included archival recordings of her great uncle speaking about the battles of Pukehinahina and Te Ranga?
A: Ria Hall
6. Whose single ‘AEIOU’ had the sub-title ‘Akona Te Reo’ (“learn the language”)?
7. Which All Black fullback recorded the song ‘Beneath the Māori Moon’ in Britain before the Second World War?
A: George Nepia
8. Which former Ngā Tamatoa member (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu) became well-known for his songs inspired by bird songs and the bush?
9. Whose song ‘Kariri’ retold a history of East Coast resistance to colonial forces, and won the 2016 Maioha award?
A: Rob Ruha
10. Whose fourth album Te Ripo (1997) was produced by Shona Laing?
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
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AudioCulture Quiz, September 5, 2022
Dave McArtney with Hello Sailor at The Windsor, 1977/78 - Photo by Murray Cammick
1. What was the name of Dave McArtney’s widely praised 2014 autobiography?
A: Gutter Black
2. Who wrote the book Dead People I Have Known?
3. Which late country-rock singer called his band The Inlaws?
4. Which New Zealand band had a smash Australian hit in 1969 with ‘Mr Guy Fawkes’?
5. Who coined the term “haka-soul”?
A: Rob Ruha
Patsy Riggir with engineer Tony Moan (left) and producer Rob Aickin at Stebbing Recording Studios in the early 1980s - Grant Gillanders Collection
6. Stebbing Recording Studios is in which Auckland suburb?
A: Herne Bay
7. I was a teenage sensation in the early 1970s, I sang with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and my album South was the 2020 Independent Music NZ Classic Record. Who am I?
A: Shona Laing
Unitone HiFi - Rewound and Rerubbed (1996)
8. Name one of the members of Unitone HiFi.
A: Stinky Jim, Joost Langeveld, Angus McNaughton or Eddie Chambers.
9. Which singer was known as “New Zealand’s country gentleman”?
10. The 2015 debut single ‘Got It Bad’ launched which band to an international audience?
A: Leisure
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
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AudioCulture Quiz, August 29, 2022
Ardijah filming for Ready To Roll at Avalon studios, Lower Hutt, 1985. - Simon Lynch
1. Who was the drummer in the classic late 1980s line-up of Ardijah?
A: A drum machine programmed by Ryan Monga
2. In their early 1970s, a very popular Wellington band featuring Rick Bryant, Bill Lake and Tony Backhouse gave themselves a zoological name. What did they call themselves?
A: Mammal
Charlie Tumahai at bottom left, 1976
3. Which UK 70s glam and prog band was Charlie Tumahai a member of?
A: Be Bop Deluxe
4. Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera produced the second album by which New Zealand band?
A: Split Enz – Second Thoughts
5. Which New Zealand country musician and AudioCulture writer released the classic Somewhere In New Zealand Tonight album in 1995?
A: Glen Moffatt
6. In 2011, Flight of The Conchords’ Bret McKenzie contributed a song to a movie by which US children’s show?
A: The Muppets. He was also the music supervisor on the film, and its 2014 sequel.
AK79 cover, designed by Terence Hogan.
7. Which Scavengers song – later used for the name of a magazine – opened AK79, the legendary compilation of early Auckland punk bands?
A: ‘Mysterex’
8. My debut album was called Safety in Numbers and sold quarter of a million copies in Australia – which New Zealand rock band was I in?
A: Margaret Urlich was in Peking Man
9. Peter Wadams, one of our most successful record producers ever, is better known to New Zealanders as?
A: P-Money
10. In 1992, a group from Aotearoa was invited by the Neville Brothers to perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival. Who were they?
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
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AudioCulture Quiz, August 22, 2022
1. The song ‘Thank U Very Much’, used for several decades as the theme for New Zealand’s Telethons, was written by Mike McGear of British group Scaffold. What was his brother’s group called?
A: The Beatles – Mike McGear is Paul McCartney’s brother, his real name is Peter Michael McCartney.
Headband at Ali Baba's, Cuba Street, 1971.
2. In the 1960s, a nightclub in Wellington’s Cuba St was known as Ali Baba’s. What is its name today?
A: San Fran / San Francisco Bath House
Troy Kingi, Holy Colony Burning Acres (AAA Records, 2019)
3. Troy Kingi has set himself a challenge to record 10 albums in 10 years, each in a different genre. What is the genre of his 2019 album Holy Colony Burning Acres?
A: Reggae
4. Name the former Split Enz member who designed and makes the Hot Cake guitar distortion pedal.
A: Paul Crowther (Emlyn Paul Crowther)
5. Which New Zealand record label released Vera Ellen’s 2021 debut album?
A: Flying Nun
6. Who wrote a comedy skit in which a rugby union official announced a team of New Zealand artists, not rugby players: “Locks: B. T. Finn, N. M. Finn, King Country; wing three-quarters: D. Dobbyn, Auckland; centre: K. Te Kanawa, Auckland …”
7. In 1940 ‘God Defend New Zealand’ was declared New Zealand’s ‘national hymn’ in time for the centennial celebrations. What was the song declared in 1977?
A: The second National Anthem (God Save the Queen being the first)
Economic Wizards, Tepid Baths, Auckland, 1984. - Matthew McKee
8. The Economic Wizards’ song ‘Pakuranga Girl’ is an ode to the New Zealander who won which contest?
A: Miss Universe – Lorraine Downes won Miss Universe in 1983
9. Dudley Benson and Marlon Williams are both former members of which cathedral choir?
A: Christchurch
10. In the 60s, Christchurch band Chants R&B and Auckland’s The Underdogs both released covers of songs by which British blues bandleader?
A: John Mayall
[This week’s quizmaster: Nick Bollinger]
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AudioCulture Quiz, August 15, 2022
The Underdogs ham it up for the camera, circa 1967. - Simon Grigg collection
1. AudioCulture celebrated Blues in New Zealand last week, and Nick Bollinger put together a playlist of great moments in Aotearoa Blues. Which song by The Underdogs did he include?
A: ‘Sitting in the Rain’
2. SJD wrote a great “Songwriter’s Choice” for us, selecting 10 of his favourite New Zealand songs. The question is about one of his own songs: can you complete the title of this track? “....... You’re Crying”
A: Superman
3. Fat Freddy’s Drop recently returned from a triumphant European tour. Who is their producer/DJ/beatmaker?
A: Mu / Chris Faiumu / DJ Fitchie
4. Which music-related business does Jim Wilson own?
A: Phantom Billstickers
Still Bewitched - Look Blue Go Purple's 2017 compilation.
5. Who was the drummer for Look Blue Go Purple?
A: Lesley Paris
6. Following the initial years of Hello Sailor, which band did Dave McArtney form?
A: (Dave McArtney) and the Pink Flamingos
7. Who were the two lead singers in The Brunettes?
A: Jonathan Bree and Heather Mansfield
8. Which now-famous New Zealand actor stars in the 1994 video for Emma Paki’s ‘Greenstone’?
A: Cliff Curtis
9. Who sang the Shortland Street theme song in 1992?
A: Tina Cross
10. Who burst into the limelight in 2000 with a US album deal and the song ‘Youthful’?
A: Anika Moa
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
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AudioCulture Quiz, August 8, 2022
1. Who compiled the influential 1980 How Was The Air Up There? collection of classic New Zealand tracks from the 1960s?
A: Rhys Walker
Ngaire - To Sir With Love (Southside, 1990)
2. Ngaire had a No.1 hit in 1990 with ‘To Sir With Love’. Who sang the original?
A: Lulu
3. What are MC OJ and Rhythm Slave’s real names?
A: Otis Frizzell, Mark Williams
4. An AudioCulture story quotes Maureen Little, saying: “Who can forget that night? No mobiles in those days; just frantic parents driving to town in the hope of finding their kids.” What was night was Maureen talking about?
A: The Queen Street Riot, 7 December 1984
Zed's Andy Lynch and Nathan King, 2001 NZ Music Awards. - Recorded Music NZ
5. Zed guitarist Andy Lynch’s mother was half of a very famous 1960s duo. What was it?
A: The Chicks (Suzanne Lynch nee Donaldson, is his mum, and bassist Bruce Lynch is his dad).
6. Which globally regarded bassist’s early bands in West Auckland included The Avondale Spiders, The Metal Masochists, MM, The Vandals and The Masochists?
7. My single reached No.1 on the local charts and won the Loxene Golden Disc in 1968, and may be the biggest selling local single of all time. I was the New Zealand Entertainer of the Year in 1969 and went on to receive Australia’s “Queen Of Pop” award for Best Female Artist for 1969, 1970 and 1971. Who am I?
The Reduction Agents at Eden's Bar, Auckland, 2004
8. Eden’s Bar was a venue in which Auckland street in the 2000s?
A: It was at 335 Karangahape Road
Jeremy Taylor
9. Jeremy Taylor gave us a Songwriter’s Choice column in 2021, opening with ‘Don’t Talk About Leaving’ by Dating Godot. Which record shop in Wellington does he co-own?
A: Slow Boat Records
10. ‘Only I Could Die (And Love You Still)’ is a song by which South Island band?
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
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AudioCulture Quiz, August 1, 2022
Bailterspace in 1994. - Photo by Jeremy Pollard
1. He’s been in The Gordons, Skeptics and Bailterspace, and now he’s going on tour with his own band, Vörsen. Who is he?
A: John Halvorsen
2. Graeme Hill (aka Graeme Humphreys) is probably best known these days as a broadcaster. He has hosted shows on 95bFM, RadioLIVE and now Today FM. Which Flying Nun band was he in?
A: Able Tasmans
3. In 1983 Sharon O’Neill released a song that was inspired after noticing a working girl on the streets of Kings Cross, Sydney. What was the name of the song?
A: ‘Maxine’
4. In Trevor Reekie’s story on Jim Wilson, he says Jim “started bringing Dunedin bands to Christchurch before there was a Flying Nun recording label” – he booked The Clean at the Gladstone in 1981 and he always believed in the power of posters. Which company did Jim form in 1982?
A: Phantom Billstickers
Tali winning 'Best Electronic Artist' at the 2019 VNZMAS.
5. A New Zealand EDM artist has just released her eighth album, Future Dwellers. In 2004 her song ‘Lyric On My Lip’ was released on Roni Size’s Full Cycle label and entered the UK Top 40 singles chart. Who is the NZ artist?
A: Tali
6. Leisure is a supergroup of sorts, with each of the members having other previous – and current – successes alongside the band. One member is Jordan Arts, whose previous act had a big hit in 2009 with ‘My House’. What was the name of the group?
A: Kids of 88
7. John Grenell passed away last week. One of his biggest hits was a Jim Reeves song, used for a Toyota ad campaign to support the company's sponsorship of the 1990 Commonwealth Games. What was the song?
A: ‘Welcome To Our World’
8. In 1981 a proudly Christchurch band wrote one of the greatest songs about Auckland ever. Can you name the band or the song?
A: Androidss – ‘Auckland Tonight’.
How Was the Air Up There? (1980)
9. In 1980, a seminal compilation of 1960s garage rock acts, How Was the Air Up There? was released. Who owned the boots that were used as a guide for the cover art illustration?
A: Simon Grigg
10. Nick Bollinger included Tom Leggett and Amanda Cheng in his story on 10 More Great New Zealand Rhythm Sections. Which band are they from?
A: Wax Chattels
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
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AudioCulture Quiz, July 25, 2022
1. Who performs a duet with Willie Nelson on the 2022 song ‘Beyond the Stars’?
A: Tami Neilson
2. Which New Zealand band supported the Beatles in Hong Kong in June 1964?
Julia Deans performing with Anika Moa at the 2010 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards.
3. What gave a performance opportunity to Julia Deans, Anika Moa, Jason Kerrison, and Bic Runga early in their careers?
4. Who was New Faces judge Paddy O’Donnell talking about when he said, “This effeminate thing is very commercial in the heavy area.”
A: Space Waltz performing ‘Out On the Street’
5. Who released a full album of soul interpretations called Sweet Soul Music on Dawn Raid in 2008?
A: Aaradhna
6. Whose 1987 album includes a song about a US President and a South African Bishop?
7. Which 2011 hit featured the characters Johnny and Jesse in its lyrics?
A: ‘Don’t Forget Your Roots’ – Six60
8. Which student radio station organised a hugely successful series of Waitangi Day concerts in the early 2000s?
A: Radio Active
9. What do the 2011 songs ‘Rise Up 2.0’, ‘Love Love Love’, and ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ have in common?
A: They all reached No.1 on the New Zealand charts
John Rowles, c 1968-69.
10. What was the name of John Rowles’ breakthrough hit, which reached No.3 in the UK charts in 1968?
A: ‘If I Only Had Time’
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
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AudioCulture Quiz, July 18, 2022
1. Rumble & Bang is a documentary about which 1960s Christchurch R&B band (regarded as influential locally as the Pretty Things)?
A: Chants R&B
Moteo Jazz band, c. 1930.
2. In which province was the Moteo Jazz Band formed?
A: Hawke’s Bay
3. Bar Bodega was a popular venue in which city?
A: Wellington
4. What is the name of the bassist of Elemeno P, who originally played in Foamy Ed?
A: Lani Purkis
5. At a Wellington press conference, Lou Reed threw a tape recorder at which young New Zealand journalist, who later became an international pop star?
6. After asking how was the air up there, which band made a concept album called The Happy Prince?
7. Whose decision to sing the national anthem in te reo Māori before the 1999 Rugby World Cup caused controversy?
Whats' Be Happen? the landmark 1981 mini-LP from Herbs.
8. What is the location shown on the cover of Herbs’ 12" EP Whats’ Be Happen?
A: Bastion Point/ Takaparawhau (Ōrākei also acceptable)
9. Who went on a national tour called Rail Land, playing venues that were accessible by rail, and included a train journey as part of the ticket?
10. Early in her career, Sonya Waters sang for an Auckland band which released an acclaimed punk single called ‘Hope She’s Alright’ and a cover of Desmond Dekker’s ‘Israelites’. What was the band called?
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
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AudioCulture Quiz, July 11, 2022
Sharon O'Neill - Foreign Affairs (CBS, 1983)
1. In Sharon O’Neill’s 1983 top 20 hit ‘Maxine’ she mentions a “case” number – what is the number? Clue: it rhymes with “red and green tattoo”.
A: “Maxine, case 1352, a red and green tattoo”
2. Charley Gray started out as a drummer and later became a venue owner and band manager, among other things. Which prominent rock band from the late 1970s is he best known for managing?
A: Th’ Dudes
Craig Scott.
3. What was Craig Scott’s first No.1 hit?
A: ‘Star Crossed Lovers’ (1970)
4. Originally from Huntly, this group had a hit in 1971 with a song that is originally titled in French and translates to “Love is the Child of Freedom”. Name the band. (Optional: what’s the original title in French?)
A: The Rumour – ‘L’Amour Est L’Enfant De La Liberte’
5. This mid-80s band, released on the Flying Nun label, had two members named Ross and their songs include ‘Alien’ and Jaffa Boy’. Name the band.
6. Headband’s popular 1971 single ‘The Ballad of Jacques Le Mere’ was written by which former member of The Underdogs?
A: Neil Edwards
7. Hip hop artist Bill Urale, who once went by the name “Bran Muffin” and was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours list, is more commonly known by what professional name?
A: King Kapisi
8. Name the band, from Auckland and with two brothers in the line-up, who released an album in 2006 called Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!
9. Name the Whakatāne born singer-songwriter whose biggest hit was recorded at York Street Recording Studios with Jaz Coleman, and who won Best Songwriter and Most Promising Female Vocalist at the 1993 NZ Music Awards.
A: Emma Paki – the song is ‘System Virtue’
10. Which 1977 hit song, which charted in the Top 10 in both Australia and New Zealand, contains the lyric “snake eyes on the paradise” (sometimes heard/interpreted as “snake eyes on the pair of dice”)?
A: Dragon – ‘April Sun In Cuba’
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
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AudioCulture Quiz, July 4, 2022
Sean Donnelly (SJD), 2015.
1. What was the name of SJD’s post-punk influenced band?
A: The Love Popes
2. Who was the first female songwriter to win the APRA Silver Scroll?
A: Lea Maalfrid
3. Dallas Tamaira was on the inaugural cover of which Wellington-based music and popular culture magazine in December 1998?
A: Loop
Lorde at Coachella, April 2017. - Lorde Facebook collection
4. Jack Antonoff co-wrote and co-produced which albums by Lorde?
A: Melodrama, Solar Power
5. Who released the album (and book) Sportsman of the Year?
6. The Grapefruit Skies is the title of the first EP by which soul singer?
A: Teeks
7. In 2019, Tali won which Vodafone New Zealand Music Award?
A: Best Electronic Artist
8. Name one of the three Flying Nun bands who were part of the Noisyland tour of the US in 1993.
A: The Bats, Straitjacket Fits, Jean-Paul Sartre Experience
9. Who duetted with Princess Chelsea on ‘The Cigarette Duet’?
A: Jonathan Bree
The Datsuns, 2002: Dolf de Borst, Matt Osment, Christian Livingstone and Phil Somervell
10. The Datsuns performed ‘In Love’ on which UK TV show in 2002?
A: Top of the Pops
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills]
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AudioCulture Quiz, June 27, 2022
1. Name the chart-topping trio who in 1979 wore matching shirts with the New Zealand flag emblazoned across the chest and sleeves, said to be inspired by the riding gear worn by speedway motorcycling star Ivan Mauger.
A: The Swingers
Weta's 2000 album Geographica
2. Wellington band Weta released their sole album Geographica in 2000. The video for the lead single from their album was set in a sea of shipping containers. Name the song.
A: ‘Calling On’
3. Name the band that first gained popularity on the South Auckland nightclub scene in the early 1980s and had its first No.1 hit with a song written by Paul McCartney.
A: Ardijah – the song was ‘Silly Love Songs’
4. Name the long-running Wellington band of the 1970s who had a leaning towards horn section-based soul music, and whose name contains a synonym for jam or preserves.
5. Name the Northland-based musician who, after finding inspiration by staring into the night sky, in 2017 released a soulful, space fantasy-oriented concept album.
A: Troy Kingi – Shake That Skinny Ass All the Way to Zygertron (2017)
6. Name the music festival that for its first three years (1992-1994) was held near the North Island town of Woodville.
7. Name the country artist who in the early 1990s held a Saturday afternoon residency at the Kings Arms in Auckland.
A: Al Hunter
Dalvanius. - Photo by Guy Robinson
8. Dalvanius Prime described the label he released ‘Poi E’ on as “A Māori Motown”. What was the label called?
A: Maui
9. They released their first album Roofers in 1997 but didn’t have a real breakthrough until a song from their second album The Sound Inside caught on in 2005. Name the act and their song, which hit the Top 10 and was named Single of the Year at the 2005 Tui Awards.
A: Breaks Co-Op – ‘The Otherside’
The Suburban Reptiles in Queen Street, Auckland, 1977. - Simon Grigg collection
10. Which member of Suburban Reptiles, who went on to have a long and successful international career in other bands, took his stage name from the car he drove?
A: Bones Hillman (Wayne Stevens) – he drove a Hillman Hunter.
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw]
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AudioCulture Quiz, June 20, 2022
Bic Runga, 2010 Winery Tour. - Nick Chappell
1. What was Bic Runga’s first single called?
A: ‘Drive’
2. What do the “D” and the “T” in DLT’s name stand for?
A: Darryl Thomson (his middle name is Leigh).
Crowded House, 2021. - Kerry Brown
3. What is the name of Crowded House’s bass player?
A: Nick Seymour
4. In 1957, this group played one of their early gigs as part of a variety show at the Auckland Town Hall. Eight years later, they packed out the same venue for their own farewell show and recorded it to be released as an album. Name the group.
A: The Howard Morrison Quartet
5. Which local songwriter has co-written four songs that have surpassed one billion streams?
A: Joel Little: ‘Whatever It Takes’ by Imagine Dragons, ‘Young Dumb and Broke’ by Khalid, ‘Me!’ by Taylor Swift, and ‘Royals’ by Lorde.
6. Which five-piece (that’s a clue) recorded ‘Poi Poi Twist’ and appeared in the 1966 movie Don’t Let It Get You?
A: Rim D. Paul and The Quin Tikis
7. Held on Bob Marley’s birthday, One Love and other one day music festivals in Aotearoa coincide with which public holiday?
A: Waitangi Day
8. Jason Fa'afoi was a What Now! presenter and guitarist-member of which band, led by a former member of the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience?
Evermore.
9. Name the Manawatū town where the Hume brothers (Jon, Peter and Dann) from Evermore were raised.
A: Feilding
10. Before they moved to RCA, early ABBA hit singles including ‘Ring Ring’ and Waterloo’ were licensed and released locally by which New Zealand record label?
A: Family
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
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AudioCulture Quiz, June 13, 2022
Rob Aickin. - Rob Aickin collection
1. Rob Aickin produced albums by Golden Harvest, Hello Sailor, and Th’ Dudes at Stebbing’s in 1977-78. Who engineered them?
A: Ian Morris
2. Which female singer-songwriter, who broke through in the 90s, played drums with bassist Cass Basil in a rhythm section called King Sweeties?
A: Bic Runga
3. Which New Zealand feature film from 1964, starring future Radio Hauraki pioneer Colin Broadley and writer Barry Crump, had its title song performed by Rim D Paul?
A: Runaway
4. Beaver, Annie Crummer, and Josie Rika sang backing vocals on the 1985 hit ‘Savin’ Up’ – who sang lead?
A: Sonny Day
5. Who co-wrote ‘Exactly What to Say’ with her mother, performing it together on the latter’s album Clean Break, which won the Tui for best folk album in 2004?
A: Aldous Harding with her mother Lorina Harding
6. Which Auckland band – with a No.1 album in 2004 – was “fronted by an opera-trained singer with a penchant for Kate Bush-like flights of fancy”?
A: Goldenhorse
7. In 1982 Francisca Griffin and Lesley Paris were the rhythm section of a short-lived Dunedin group (with Shayne Carter and Peter Gutteridge) called the Cartilage Family. What was their next group?
8. Which guitar band’s debut album Future Me Hates Me had a past that included being part of the jazz band Sal Valentine & The Babyshakes?
A: The Beths
9. What was New Zealand’s first pop music TV series to be filmed in colour?
A: Popco
10. Whose song ‘The Cigarette Duet’ has now had over 77,000,000 views on YouTube?
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
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AudioCulture Quiz, June 6, 2022
Phil Judd, circa 1982
1. Name three acts that Phil Judd has recorded with.
A: Possible answers: Split Enz, Suburban Reptiles, The Swingers, Schnell Fenster, Mr Phudd.
2. Which popular New Zealand band has an asterisk (*) in its name?
A: Stellar*
3. Name two multi-platinum rock acts from the 00s that had a turntablist/DJ in their line-ups.
A: Blindspott, Tadpole
4. Which 90s pop act fronted by two female singers had their first three singles all reach No.1?
5. What is the name of the Christian organisation that gave its name to a long-running music festival (from 1992 to 2014), a band (from 1993 to 2015), and a recording studio (still operating)?
A: Parachute – Parachute Festival, Parachute Band, and Parachute Music studio.
6. Which local band went from busking on the streets of Wellington through to putting their track ‘Woke Up Late’ into the Top 30 of the US charts?
A: Drax Project
- Don McGlashan collection
7. Name three groups Don McGlashan has played in.
A: Possible answers: From Scratch, The Plague, The Whizz Kids, Blam Blam Blam, Right Left and Centre, The Front Lawn, The Mutton Birds.
8. The band Aunty Beatrice appeared on the Once Were Warriors soundtrack and consisted of a few brothers from the same family. What band would they go on to form?
A: Kora
9. One of the two rappers in chart topping act Misfits of Science went on to be the drummer of which internationally successful local pop singer?
A: Kimbra – Stevie McQuinn Jr played drums with her from 2011 onwards
10. Which platinum-selling local rapper started his career under the MC name “Con Psy” in the group Frontline?
A: David Dallas
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
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AudioCulture Quiz, May 30, 2022
Carol Davies EP, Prestige, 1959. - Chauncy Ardell collection
1. Carol Davies is one of New Zealand’s first female rock’n’roll stars. Which big New Zealand rock’n’roll artist did she tour New Zealand and Australia with?
2. What was the name of The Bats’ debut EP?
A: By Night
Billy Kristian in 1964. - John Yuile collection
3. Billy Kristian (Billy Karaitiana) was a pivotal member of two pioneering rock’n’roll bands that emerged from Christchurch. Can you name one of them?
A: Max Merritt and The Meteors, Ray Columbus and The Invaders
4. Peter van der Fluit & Michael O’Neill were in which popular 1980s Auckland band?
5. Which prestigious music award did Allison Durbin win with her song, ‘I Have Loved Me A Man’?
6. Justin Harwood played bass in two US bands – Luna and Tuatara. Which enduring New Zealand band was he also a member of?
A: The Chills
7. This band remained at the top of their game for a decade, with all four of their albums reaching the Top 20, and they had a record-breaking 11 Top 10 singles. They began as the “Tropical Penguins” for a talent quest at their school, Western Springs College – who are they?
Proud: An Urban-Pacific Streetsoul Compilation
8. Alan Jansson produced this year’s Taite Music Prize Classic Record recipient, Proud: An Urban Pacific Streetsoul Compilation and OMC’s ‘How Bizarre’, amongst many other big Aotearoa records. Before this, which ground-breaking Wellington electronica band was he in?
9. Mike Chunn was in two of New Zealand’s biggest bands of the 1970s: Split Enz and Citizen Band. In 2003 he founded which charitable music organisation?
A: Play It Strange
10. What sort of building was used as a recording studio for Goodshirt’s 2001 debut album Green?
A: A garden shed
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
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AudioCulture Quiz, May 23, 2022
1. Which drummer and bass player make up the long-standing rhythm section of Shihad?
A: Tom Larkin and Karl Kippenberger
Headless Chickens, 1989: Anthony Nevison, Chris Matthews, Michael Lawry, Grant Fell, Bevan Sweeney
2. Before Headless Chickens, three crucial band members – Grant Fell, Bevan Sweeney, and Chris Matthews (along with the late Johnny Pierce) – were in which band?
Jane Walker by Jane Walker, 2010 - Jane Walker collection
3. What instrument did Jane Walker play in Toy Love?
A: Keyboards (Walker was also a drummer)
4. Tex Pistol and Rikki Morris had a huge hit in 1988 with ‘Nobody Else’. What was Tex Pistol’s real name?
A: Ian Morris
5. Noel Crombie of Split Enz was known for designing many of their eye-catching costumes. Beside drums he also played a rather unusual instrument – what was it?
A: Spoons
6. Todd and Marc Hunter of Dragon were brothers – which one was older?
A: Todd Hunter
Upper Hutt Posse's groundbreaking E Tū, 1988
7. Upper Hutt Posse recorded ‘E Tū’ with the help of an unlikely alternative band – who was it?
A: Skeptics
8. Sandy Edmonds had a hit in 1967 about which time of the year?
A: ‘Daylight Saving Time’
9. What is the stage name of this big star of the 1960s? “I was born Bogdan Charis Kominowski in 1945 in Dusseldorf, Germany, just as the war ended, and my mother was a refugee.”
10. Who was the lead singer of 1970s blues rock band Street Talk?
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
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AudioCulture Quiz, May 16, 2022
1. Before he became a professional entertainer, what was Johnny Cooper’s day job?
A: Grave digger
2. Ray Columbus formed a close friendship with which member of The Rolling Stones when they toured together in 1965?
Ray Columbus on tour, with the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones and Keith Richards seated behind him - Grant Gillanders collection
A: Brian Jones
John Rowles shares a bill with Allison Durbin on 28 February, 1969 - Ken Cooper collection
3. In 1969 Allison Durbin returned from Australia (where she was crowned their “Queen Of Pop”) to tour which with other Aotearoa superstar?
A: John Rowles
4. Chris Parry of The Fourmyula remained in Britain after the band broke up and founded the Fiction record label. For over 20 years it was home to which hugely influential UK band?
A: The Cure
5. Shona Laing’s 1985 single ‘America’ was the first record released on which legendary New Zealand record label?
A: Pagan Records (Fun fact: Pagan was started by Trevor Reekie in 1985 as a division of the Larry Parr owned Mirage Films.)
6. Richard (Dick) Driver was Give It A Whirl’s producer. Before his TV career, he was in a number of bands in the 1980s – can you name one of them?
A: The Doomed, Splash Alley, Hip Singles, Pop Mechanix, and (briefly) Blam Blam Blam.
7. Which band is referred to here? “In a state of semi-disbandment, [This band] rallied when offered Christchurch support slots before Mark E. Smith’s The Fall in mid-August 1982.”
A: The Clean
8. Oscar Kightley asked members of which group to contribute music to the hit animated TV show bro’Town?
9. A member of Shayne Carter’s family features in the video for Dimmer’s ‘Evolution’. We don’t need the person’s name – but what is their relationship to Shayne?
A: His father
The Datsuns, 2003: Matt Osment, Dolf de Borst, Christian Livingstone and Phil Somervell
10. Before they were known as The Datsuns, what was their previous band name?
A: Trinket
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
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AudioCulture Quiz, May 9, 2022
Max Merritt and The Meteors at The Christchurch Teenagers Club, 1958
1. Max Merritt and The Meteors were a pioneering rock’n’roll band in which of New Zealand’s main centres?
A: Christchurch/Ōtautahi
2. Following the breakup of The La De Da’s, in 1976 Kevin Borich formed a new band, called the Kevin Borich _?
a. Machine
b. Express
c. Rollercoaster
d. Shredder
A: Express
3. Split Enz’s first festival appearance was at The Great Ngāruawāhia Music Festival in 1973, but under a slightly different name – what was it?
A: Split Ends
4. A groundbreaking Dunedin punk band had a similar name to an English music paper. Name both.
A: The Enemy / NME
5. After the late Andrew Brough left Straitjacket Fits in 1991, who replaced him?
A: Mark Petersen
Sisters Underground.
6. Sisters Underground had two tracks, ‘In The Neighbourhood’ and ‘Ain’t It True’, included on which groundbreaking compilation?
A: Proud – An Urban-Pacific Streetsoul Compilation
7. Who did the artwork for Dragon’s first album, Universal Radio, released in 1974?
8. What was the first New Zealand rap record to be released?
A: Upper Hutt Posse’s 12" ‘E Tu’, b/w ‘Intervention’ and ‘No Worries In The Party Tonite’ (Jayrem, 1988)
9. Allison Durbin’s ‘I Have Loved Me A Man’ was the biggest-selling release by a New Zealand recording artist in 1968, and won which prestigious music prize?
10. Who wrote the lyrics to Blam Blam Blam’s 1981 hit ‘There is No Depression in New Zealand’?
A: Richard Von Sturmer
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
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AudioCulture Quiz, May 2, 2022
Johnny Cooper - National Library of New Zealand Ref: PAColl-10069-11-06
1. Which sort of food outlet inspired a song by Johnny Cooper, thought to be the first original New Zealand rock and roll song to be recorded?
A: Pie cart – ‘Pie Cart Rock and Roll’
2. For which TV show was Hello Sailor’s ‘Gutter Black’ the theme song?
A: Outrageous Fortune
3. In the Swinging Sixties in New Zealand, Dinah Lee was known as “Queen of the ?”
A: Mods
4. Nesian Mystik won the “Stage Image Award” at which national music competition?
A: Smokefreerockquest, 2000
5. One of Citizen Band’s biggest live songs was ‘I Feel Good’. Which New Zealand band recorded and performed it earlier?
6. Who was the singer for the pioneering punk band Suburban Reptiles?
A: Zero
Dalvanius - Photo by Guy Robinson
7. Dalvanius co-wrote ‘Poi E’ with which Māori language expert?
8. Which band, led by Tommy Adderley, had a hit with ‘Good Morning Mr Rock and Roll’?
A: Headband
9. The title of Herbs’ song ‘French Letter’ was seen as a bit rude by local radio stations. What name did they ask the song be changed to?
A: ‘(A) Letter to France’
10. Which is the only Flying Nun song (so far) to have reached No.1 on the Official Singles Chart?
A: Headless Chickens – ‘George’
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones]
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AudioCulture Quiz, April 25, 2022
1. Which female New Zealand singer toured Vietnam twice in the mid-60s to entertain New Zealand and Australian troops?
A: Dinah Lee
Johnny Cooper and Pat McMinn entertaining in the mess, Korea. - Pat McMinn collection
2. In this singalong with New Zealand troops in Korea, who is on guitar, beside Pat McMinn?
George Bissett's bugle, punctured by bullet holes, Gallipoli. - National Army Museum Te Mata Toa, Waiouru
3. Where was this bullet-damaged bugle, belonging to the New Zealand soldier George Bissett, found on 27 April 1915?
A: Gallipoli
4. Who was doing his three-month’s national service in 1971 while his anti-war hit single ‘Today I Killed a Man I Didn’t Know’ came out?
John Hore joins the army, 1966 - Redmer Yska Collection
5. Who – on the left in this photo – is about to put his music career on hold for three months while conscripted in the NZ Army?
A: John Grenell, known at the time as John Hore
6. Don Richardson, saxophonist with the post-war Kiwi Concert Party, arranged the lush orchestration on which 1969 New Zealand hit eulogizing Paul McCartney?
A: ‘St Paul’ by Shane
Peter 'Rooda' Warren in Waiouru, 1986. - Chris Bourke
7. Where is drummer Peter Warren test driving this tank?
A: Waiouru Military Camp
8. Where did Tadpole play to New Zealand peacekeeping troops in 2002, recording the video for ‘Just Not Rock’n’Roll’ while there?
A: East Timor
Lynda Topp in the Territorial Force Signals Platoon, Nelson, 1977 - MS-Papers-11685-09, Alexander Turnbull Library
9. The trainee on the right, seen while doing a stint with the Territorials in 1977, would become well-known as a member of which duo?
A: The Topp Twins (pictured is Lynda Topp)
10. Who had a No.1 New Zealand hit in 1971 with a song that lamented “Smiley, you’re off to the Asian War /and we won’t see you smile you no more”?
A: Craig Scott
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke]
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AudioCulture Quiz, April 19, 2022
DJ Tee Pee, 1982.
1. Tee Pee was a pioneering club DJ in which city?
A: Wellington
2. Who said: “Bass players and drummers are so hard to get along with. The bass player’s always the real muso of the group and thinks he knows everything, and the drummer is just a fuckwit, so it’s much easier to be without them.”
A: Chris Knox
3. She was one of the great studio and club singers of the 70 and 80s and was the backing voice on DD Smash’s ‘Outlook For Thursday’. Can you name her?
A: Josie Rika
4. Billie Farnell passed away earlier this year. He was a nightlife institution in Auckland for 70 years. What instrument did Billie play?
A: Piano
5. ‘Doctor, I Like Your Medicine’ was a hit for Coup D’etat. Which Hello Sailor member co-founded that band?
A: Harry Lyon
6. Saint John Divine is an album by which accomplished multi-instrumental composer?
A: SJD
7. St Jerome’s Laneway Festival started in which Australian city?
A: Melbourne
8. Andrew Spraggon records and releases music under what name?
A: Sola Rosa
9. In 1969, in Kawerau from the UK, I said to a TV reporter, ““I’ve never been homesick for home, though I often think about it. There’s too much to do.” Who am I?
A: John Rowles
10. Which city is home to the Caledonian Hall, used as a live venue for many years?
A: Christchurch
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
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AudioCulture Quiz, April 11, 2022
Sean Donnelly, Sharon Finn, Neil Finn and Alana Skyring - Pajama Club.
1. Name three members of the Pajama Club.
A: Neil Finn, Sharon Finn, SJD, Alana Skyring
2. What was the name of Alien Weaponry’s 2018 debut album?
A: Tū.
Dudley Benson, 2022. - Alex Lovell-Smith & Ayesha Green
3. What kind of business is Woof!, co-founded by Dudley Benson in Ōtepoti, Dunedin?
A: A bar (hospitality)
4. Name the Canadian singer-songwriter Mel Parsons duetted with on her 2015 album Drylands.
A: Rox Sexsmith
5. In what year was the Laneway Festival first held in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland?
A: 2010
Ebony Lamb.
6. What was the name of the band which included Ebony Lamb, before she went solo?
A: Eb & Sparrow
7. Bic Runga wrote the song ‘Black Silk Ribbon’ with which Scottish musician?
A: KT Tunstall
8. The Mutton Birds covered a Blue Öyster Cult song for The Frighteners soundtrack. Name the song.
A: ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’
9. Celia Mancini was part of which Flying Nun band in the 1990s?
A: King Loser
10. Brendan Perry of UK/Australian duo Dead Can Dance was a key member of which New Zealand punk bands?
A: The Scavengers, Marching Girls
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills, music curator at the Hocken Library, Dunedin.]
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AudioCulture Quiz, April 4, 2022
Dave McArtney in a 1984 CBS publicity photo
1. Name the band that came together as a collaboration between Dragon’s Paul Hewson and Hello Sailor’s Dave McArtney.
A: The Pink Flamingos
2. The lyric “rhythmic feedback noise from electrodes” comes from which 1983 electronic pop hit?
A: The Body Electric – ‘Pulsing’.
3. Which Aotearoa funk band of the 1970s opened for the Commodores, Tina Turner, and Osibisa after playing a nightclub residency in Kings Cross, Sydney?
A: Collision
These Wilding Ways - Simon Grigg Collection
4. Which studio engineer – later a video director and television presenter – is also credited as producer on releases from the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience, These Wilding Ways, The Greg Johnson Set, and Matty J Ruys?
A: Mark Tierney
5. Name the student radio stations in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
A: 95bFM, Radio Active, RDU, Radio One.
6. Which former member of Red Mole, Midge Marsden’s Country Flyers and Coup D’Etat, is now known as one of Australasia’s finest boogie-woogie piano players?
A: Jan Preston
7. Many New Zealanders have performed at the famed Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Bar in London, including Brian Smith, Dave MacRae, Joy Yates, Nathan Haines, and Tali – but who released an album called Live At Ronnie Scott’s in 1988?
A: Beaver
8. Which singer, appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to music and television in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours, is a former member of both Upper Hutt Posse and Moana and the Moahunters?
9. Which 1980s band, initially on the Flying Nun label, took its name from a lyric in a Roxy Music song?
A: Netherworld Dancing Toys. It’s a line from ‘Spin Me Round’ on Roxy Music’s 1979 album, Manifesto.
10. Which promoter was involved in early 1970s international concerts at Western Springs such as Elton John and Led Zeppelin, signed Black Sabbath to play the 1973 Great Ngāruawāhia Music Festival, and issued early Split Enz releases via his White Cloud record label?
A: Barry Coburn
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, March 28, 2022
Phillip Fuemana at the 1995 NZ Music Awards.
1. In which Auckland suburb was legendary Polynesian music trailblazer Phil Fuemana born?
A: Otara
2. Tom Scott of the Young, Gifted and Broke collective has been in several influential groups. With which of these groups did he win the Taite Music Prize in 2019?
A: Avantdale Bowling Club for their album Avantdale Bowling Club
3. From 1998 to 2010, Radio Active ran an annual Waitangi Day event which attracted up to 15,000 people – what was it called?
A: One Love
4. Who was the first woman in Aotearoa New Zealand to release a full-length hip hop album?
A: Emcee Lucia
5. Name the five members of When The Cat’s Away who sang on ‘Melting Pot’?
A: Debbie Harwood, Annie Crummer, Margaret Urlich, Dianne Swann, Kim Willoughby
6. Which song about a household appliance reached No.1 in the New Zealand singles chart in February 1994?
A: The Mutton Birds’ ‘The Heater’
Kevin Borich in the 1970s.
7. Kevin Borich was the guitarist and vocalist for which popular New Zealand band of the 1960s and 1970s?
A: The La De Da’s (nice work if you included the apostrophe)
8. What was the name of the song Bic Runga and Dan Wilson (from US band Semisonic) collaborated on for the American Pie soundtrack in 1999?
A: ‘Good Morning Baby’
9. Can you name the four bands that featured on 1982’s legendary Dunedin Double EP?
A: The Stones, The Chills, The Verlaines, and Sneaky Feelings
10. Who sang lead vocals on the 2006 Don McGlashan-penned song, ‘Bathe in the River’, which featured on the No.2 soundtrack?
A: Hollie Smith (the Mt Raskil Preservation Society feat. Hollie Smith)
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, March 21, 2022
Steriogram. - Mark Seliger
1. Name the 2004 international hit by Steriogram that was used as background music on an advert for the Apple iPod.
A: ‘Walkie Talkie Man’
2. Who wrote ‘Bathe in the River’?
- Phil Warren Collection
3. Mark Williams’ first band, from Dargaville (pictured above), also featured Mack Tane and Willie Hona. What was the band’s name?
A: Face (or The Face)
4. Which band appeared on the late 1960s C’mon television series wearing German military and fireman uniforms, raising the ire of the RSA and fire service?
5. Complete the song title: ‘Don’t Fight It Marsha, ___ ______ ____ ___ __ __’
A: ‘Don’t Fight It Marsha, It’s Bigger Than Both of Us’ (by Blam Blam Blam)
6. Name the Upper Hutt band formed in 1966 that took its name from an early 20th century invention often used for food packaging.
A: Cellophane
7. Which hip hop song won the APRA Silver Scroll in 1999?
A: ‘Reverse Resistance’ by King Kapisi (Bill Urale)
8. Name the London born, Christchurch-raised musician who replaced Bruno Lawrence on drums in Quincy Conserve, helped Kate Bush to programme her brand new Fairlight CMI sampler, and produced Spandau Ballet’s debut album Journeys To Glory?
9. Which artist released an album of soul covers on the Dawn Raid label in 2008?
A: Aaradhna
10. Who sang ‘Daylight Saving Time’?
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, March 14, 2022
Bic Runga - Belle (Sony, 2011)
1. With which other New Zealand singer-songwriter did Bic Runga co-write ‘This Girl’s Prepared For War’ on her 2011 album, Belle?
A: James Milne (Lawrence Arabia)
2. Name the David Kilgour & The Heavy 8’s/ Shifting Sands bassist who now runs Chick’s Hotel Recording Studios in Port Chalmers?
A: Tom Bell
3. South Auckland funk-soulsters Ardijah are led by which husband and wife duo?
A: Ryan and Betty-Anne Monga
Ria Hall. - Jess Dewsnap
4. What was the name of Ria Hall’s most recent, Taite Prize-nominated album?
A: Manawa Wera
5. Which renowned UK record producer has overseen the last two Aldous Harding albums?
A: John Parish
6. Which ‘Out On The Street’ hitmakers reformed in 2021, and were scheduled to play at the (cancelled) Others Way festival?
A: Space Waltz
7. Which notable band was Mara TK in? And his father Billy TK’s most notable band was?
A: Electric Wire Hustle and The Human Instinct.
8. Brother D and Andy Murnane founded which record label?
A: Dawn Raid
9. Pagan Records was started by which broadcaster, also a member of Car Crash Set and the Greg Johnson Set?
10. In what city was the cover of Scribe’s debut The Crusader photographed?
A: Auckland
[This week’s quizmaster: Jeremy Taylor]
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AudioCulture Quiz, March 7, 2022
Split Enz, 1980.
1. Which member of Split Enz was previously in Space Waltz?
A: Eddie Rayner
2. Which New Zealand songwriter/producer has worked with Sam Smith, Tinie Tempah, and Future, as a sideline to his main career in broadcasting?
A: Zane Lowe
3. Which highly successful local label emerged out of the ashes of a Wellington magazine?
4. Two members of which Auckland group created the music for Bro’ Town?
A: Nesian Mystik. David Atai and Donald McNulty created the music.
5. Which UK band did the feelers cover for the 2010 Rugby World Cup held in Aotearoa?
A: Jesus Jones (‘Right Here, Right Now’)
6. What do Alec Bathgate (The Enemy, Toy Love, Tall Dwarfs), Edmund Cake (Bressa Creeting Cake), Shaft, and Voom all have in common?
A: They have all released albums through Lil Chief Records.
7. Name a local act who commissioned orchestral arrangements for their own music from Beach Boys collaborator Van Dyke Parks.
A: The Chills, Lawrence Arabia, Kimbra
8. Name a New Zealand musical act whose artist name includes the word “lemon”.
9. Jonathan Pearce from The Beths, Alex Freer (aka AC Freezy) from Tiny Ruins, and multi-million streaming pop singer Matthew Young were formerly together in which band?
A: Artisan Guns
10. Which musician was the first to work full time at Flying Nun Records?
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
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AudioCulture Quiz, February 28, 2022
When The Cat's Away, 2001: Debbie Harwood, Kim Willoughby, Annie Crummer and Margaret Urlich - Photo by Anthony O'Dwyer
1. When a member of When the Cat’s Away couldn’t take part in an early 2000s reunion, which solo singer filled in?
2. Whose career was revived by a hit cover version of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Saving Up’ in 1985?
A: Sonny Day
3. Brenda Makammeoafi and Hassanah Iroegbu are better known as which duo?
4. The name of which top 1960s Auckland pop venue was re-used – spelled slightly differently – for which Auckland nightclub in 1986?
5. ‘She’s a Mod/Mod Rap’ was a collaboration between Ray Columbus and which group?
6. Which musician was, for a short time, a RNZ deejay in Blenheim called Bill Diamond?
A. Bill Direen
7. In 1999 which expatriate solo singer released an album interpreting classic New Zealand pop songs, called Second Nature?
8. Which drummer connects The Chills with Barry Saunders (via The Verlaines, Circus Block Four, and Let’s Planet)?
9. Who won an international songwriting prize after her older sister entered her song called ‘Hallelujah’ in the competition?
A. Gin Wigmore
10. Sweet Tooth was an appropriate album title for which band?
A. The Electric Confectionaires
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, February 21, 2022
Chris Parry in 1969 - Photo by Revelle Jackson. Upper Hutt City Library [P1-3444-5834]
1. Chris Parry first moved to the UK in 1969 as drummer for the Fourmyula. By the end of the seventies, he was managing, producing, and releasing albums on his own label for which hugely successful UK band?
A: The Cure, on Fiction Records, originally part of Polydor. Parry also co-produced the first three albums by The Jam.
2. Which local reggae band put four albums and two singles into the Top 10 and named themselves after a Bob Marley album?
A: Katchafire
3. Which drummer, formerly from Citizen Band and Space Waltz, went on to join legendary Australian band, The Angels, and these days runs one of Aotearoa’s biggest touring agencies?
A: Brent Eccles
4. Which New Zealand rock’n’roller wrote Australia’s first-ever surf hit ‘Surfside’ for Sydney group the Denvermen in 1962?
5. Which New Zealand electronic act has often included an ex-member of UK chart-toppers The Streets as both a live performer and a featured vocalist on half-a-dozen tracks?
A: Sola Rosa (the vocalist in question is Kevin Mark Trail)
6. Metro editor Henry Oliver played bass and toured in which internationally successful New Zealand post-punk group?
7. Which Aotearoa hip hop group had all the copies of their debut album destroyed after they were sued, by lawyers representing the Eagles, for an uncleared sample?
A: Fast Crew
8. Music journalist Grant Smithies was the one of the founders of which music festival?
A: The Gathering. Grant gives his own musical tour of Nelson and the surrounding area (where the Gathering was held) in this story map.
9. Which band was originally called Lazy Boy and was fronted by the son of a very famous New Zealand musician?
A: Betchadupa – Liam Finn was the lead singer.
10. Which reggae group started in 1988 and continues to perform and record, with its biggest hit being the gold-selling single ‘What’s The Time Mister Wolf?’ from the Once Were Warriors soundtrack?
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
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AudioCulture Quiz, February 14, 2022
1. What caused Dave Dobbyn to jokingly nickname a much-loved song ‘Soiled’?
A: The over-exposure of ‘Loyal’ through its use in an America’s Cup campaign.
2. Who played a lounge singer in the Cate Blanchett film Little Fish, covering Gene Pitney’s ‘Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart’?
A: Bic Runga
3. I began by singing into a Dictaphone at the age of nine; my first public performance was singing at a horse racing event; and at 12 I sang the national anthem at a NPC rugby final, to 27,000 people. Who am I?
A: Kimbra
4. The song ‘Nature’ was voted No. 1 in APRA’s Top 100 New Zealand Songs of All Time in 2001. Which song was No.2?
A: ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ by Crowded House.
5. Who co-wrote the song ‘Tears’ and created a multi-media work called The Underwatermelon Man?
A: Fane Flaws
6. What do these singers have in common: Fiona McDonald, Stephanie Tauevihi, Leeza Corban, and Bic Runga?
A: All have been guest singers for Strawpeople
7. Which Flying Nun musician received a MNZM honour last year?
8. Who directed the music-related films Mt Zion; Poi E: the Story of Our Song; and Herbs: Songs of Freedom?
A: Tearepa Kahi
9. During his late-80s stint as an afternoon TV host, which singer-songwriter interviewed BB King, Poison, Roxette, and “Weird Al” Yankovic?
A: Rikki Morris
10. Who was busking in Geraldine to buy a ticket to see Anika Moa in concert, when Moa walked by and offered the singer the support slot at the gig?
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, February 8, 2022
1. Who painted this album cover?
Split Enz - Mental Notes (1975)
A: Phil Judd.
2. Who painted the album cover for The Clean's 1990 release Vehicle?
The Clean - Vehicle (1990)
A: David Kilgour.
3. The Book of Bifim was a magazine created by bFM, which included some great pieces of art, including this cover design. Name the musician who illustrated it.
Book of Bifim, #1 1986.
A: Chris Knox.
4. One of the most striking things about the music TV show Radio With Pictures was the surrealistic credit sequence that kicked off each episode. Which musician created the art for it?
A still from the opening credits of Radio With Pictures.
A: Fane Flaws.
5. People sometimes refer to the “four realms” of hip hop – DJing, MCing, turntablism, and graffiti art. The artist shown posing with his work in downtown Auckland became a key figure in Aotearoa hip hop. Who is he?
6. The guitarist from which band appears on the cover of this legendary album?
The front cover of AK79.
A: The Terrorways – the guitarist is Dean Martelli.
7. This artwork, by Philip Kelly, is the logo for which record label?
A: Tangata Records.
8. Which legendary New Zealand photographer took this promotional shot of Fat Freddy’s Drop when she was nearing 80 years old?
Fat Freddy's Drop, 2005 - Photo by Ans Westra
A: Ans Westra.
9. The following panels are taken from a longer piece about the rise of New Zealand rock in the early 2000s, which local artist wrote and drew it?
A: Toby Morris.
10. The cover of New Zealand music history book Stranded In Paradise by John Dix was painted by David Ortega. Name the singer featured on the cover.
Stranded in Paradise, 1988.
A: Rick Bryant.
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute]
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AudioCulture Quiz, January 31, 2022
1. Before Flight of the Conchords, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie formed a band two years after meeting. What was it called?
A: Moustache
Flight of the Conchords
2. The Swingers’ song ‘Counting the Beat’ featured in ads for which supermarket chain from 2014 to 2018?
A: Countdown
3. Which New Zealand artist had a track feature on the soundtrack to the Julia Roberts’ film America’s Sweethearts?
A: Anika Moa with ‘Falling in Love Again’
4. In 2020 what New Zealand act gave permission to a US act to use their name?
A: The Chicks (when the Dixie Chicks dropped “Dixie”)
5. What project linked Annie Crummer, Warren Maxwell, Don McGlashan and Scribe?
A: They all participated in TV series Songs from the Inside for Māori Television.
The Beths (L-R): Ben Sinclair, Jonathan Pearce, Elizabeth Stokes. - Mason Fairey
6. During the Covid lockdown The Beths put together a live-streaming event called?
A: Live From House
7. What instrumental was used for the opening titles of TV pop show Ready to Roll in the late 70s/early 80s?
A: ‘Machine Gun’ by The Commodores
8. “Put your clock back for the winter” is the opening line of which New Zealand rock song?
A: ‘Home Again’ – Shihad
Marlon Williams, 2017. - Rebekah Parsons-King/Radio NZ
9. When he was considering a career in classical music, what opera singer did Marlon Williams study with?
A: Dame Malvina Major
10. What New Zealand band broke a three-year drought of a local song reaching No.1 in the New Zealand singles charts in February 2020?
A: L.A.B. (with ‘In the Air’)
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, January 24, 2022
Alannah Currie, mid-1980s. - Ian Chapman Collection
1. Before Alannah Currie was in the Thompson Twins, she was a journalist. Which famous rock star allegedly threw Currie’s tape recorder across the room during a press conference?
A: Lou Reed.
2. Which music festival was first held above Karioitahi Beach, near Waiuku, over New Year 1998/1999?
A: Splore.
Aldous Harding.
3. Which Lyttelton band did Aldous Harding sing with before she branched out on her own?
A: The Eastern.
4. Who sang the New Zealand National Anthem entirely in te reo Māori before an All Blacks test in 1999?
A: Hinewehi Mohi.
5. Which New Zealand band played Big Day Out in Auckland 14 out of the 19 times?
A: Shihad.
6. Which much-loved Wellington record retailer was born in Manchester and emigrated from the UK to New Zealand in 1963?
A: Colin Morris.
7. The title of which No.1 hit song, sung in te reo Māori, translates to ‘My Darling’ in English?
A: ‘E Ipo’ by Prince Tui Teka.
Broods, 2016: Caleb and Georgia Nott. - Publicity photo
8. Which Aotearoa city is Broods originally from?
A: Nelson.
9. Which renowned producer/songwriter was previously in the band Goodnight Nurse?
A: Joel Little (Sam McCarthy is correct too).
10. What location is described in these lyrics, and by which band? “__________ is bending, under its own weight. Shining like a strip cut from a sheet metal plate.”
A: ‘Dominion Road’ by The Mutton Birds.
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, January 17, 2022
Tiki Taane at Womad. - Michael Flynn
1. Tiki Taane’s No.1 hit from 2008 is one of the biggest-selling Aotearoa singles of all time – can you name the song?
A: ‘Always On My Mind’
2. A Memory of Others is a 2017 film by Simon Ogston documenting a 2016 New Zealand tour by which musician?
A: Bill Direen.
3. They formed in Christchurch in 1983, the line-up has included members Stevie McCabe, Bob Brannigan, Stu Kawowski, Dragan Stojanovic, and William Daymond – and they still perform. Name the band.
A: AXEMEN.
4. Simon Bendall (aka Nothingelseon aka DJ Bill E) hosts a long-lasting Wellington club night that mixes genres, styles, and decades, featuring a wealth of New Zealand music. What are the events called?
A: Atomic
Jane Dodd.
5. Acclaimed contemporary jeweller Jane Dodd played bass in several prominent Flying Nun bands in the 1980s and 90s. Name one.
A: The Verlaines, The Chills, Able Tasmans.
The Underdogs' classic debut album (Zodiac 1968).
6. The Underdogs shot the cover photo of their 1968 debut album in which South Island city?
A: Invercargill.
7. Danny Tanielu Leaosavai’I and Andy Murnane met while doing a business course at Manukau Polytech. What was the record label they formed together?
A: Dawn Raid.
8. Name the Invercargill singer who was a household name in New Zealand in her teens, sang at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and for the Queen, and is possibly the biggest-selling New Zealand country artist of all time.
A: Suzanne Prentice.
9. New Zealand record mogul Hoghton Hughes famously told his salesmen that they were not in the music business, they were in the plastics business. What was the name of his record label?
A: Music World.
Monte Video, 1982.
10. Which legendary New Zealand musician had a massive 1980s hit under the name Monte Vidéo?
A: Murray Grindlay.
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
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AudioCulture Quiz, January 10, 2022
Abbasalutely - various Flying Nun artists pay tribute to the poptastic Swedes. Cover by Alec Bathgate (1995)
1. For Flying Nun’s 1995 Abba tribute compilation Chris Knox originally suggested the title Abbarant. What was it actually called?
A. Abbasalutely
2. The title of Nadia Reid’s third album Out of my Province is a quote from which famous New Zealand author?
A. Janet Frame
3. Neil Finn wrote the soundtrack to which 2001 New Zealand film?
A. Rain
Christine Voice and Peter Gutteridge
4. Name the two bands Christine Voice was part of before she joined Snapper.
A. The Elevators, The Delawares
5. The Avengers released their second album after they split up in 1969. What was its name?
A. Medallion
Medallion, by The Avengers (1969)
6. Ladi6, Tyra Hammond, and Sarah Tamaira won most promising new act at the 2001 bNet music awards with their song ‘If I Gave U th’ Mic’. What was their group called?
A. Sheelahroc
7. What was the name of the “supergroup” project featuring Connan Mockasin, Liam Finn, James Milne, Eliza-Jane Barnes, Will Ricketts, Seamus Ebbs, and Jol Mulholland?
A. BARB
The NZ Musician magazine team, 2013: Amelia Murray, Silke Hartung, Richard Thorne, and Stephen Heard (web manager). - NZ Musician
8. As Fazerdaze, Amelia Murray has had local and international success as a musician. What was one of her earlier roles in the music industry?
A. Assistant editor of New Zealand Musician magazine
9. Who were the members of Christchurch folk duo the Ragamuffin Children?
A. Brooke Singer (French for Rabbits), Anita Clarke (The Eastern)
10. What was the name of the record label founded by Bruce Russell, with partners Alastair Galbraith, Peter Jefferies, and Peter Gutteridge?
A. Xpressway Records
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills, music curator at the Hocken Library, Dunedin.]
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AudioCulture Quiz, December 20, 2021
1. Name the original bass player for Split Enz and later Citizen Band, who these days is the CEO of the Play It Strange Trust encouraging the work of young songwriters?
A: Mike Chunn.
2. Name the musician and songwriter who was a one-time member of Blam Blam Blam, The Front Lawn and The Mutton Birds before going solo?
A: Don McGlashan.
3. Which female singer and songwriter won the Taite Award for her solo album called Iris in 2021?
A: Reb Fountain.
4. What is the name of the group produced by Dalvanius Prime who had a massive hit in 1984 with the song ‘Poi E’, sung in te reo?
A: Pātea Māori Club.
5. Who invented the New Zealand-made guitar distortion foot pedal called the Hot Cake, which has featured in the recordings of Crowded House, Noel Gallagher of Oasis, and Ed O’Brien from Radiohead?
A: Paul Crowther (former drummer for Split Enz).
6. Name the artist inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame for international achievements and a recorded catalogue that includes the early hit single ‘Black Pearl’?
A: Moana Maniapoto from Moana and the Moahunters and Moana and The Tribe.
Rip It Up No.1, June 1977.
7. Which music industry icon co-founded Rip It Up magazine and later established the record labels, Southside (which released Ngaire’s version of ‘To Sir With Love’) and Wildside (with artists such as Dead Flowers and Shihad)?
A: Murray Cammick.
8. Name the band best known for their 12” EP E Tū, released in 1988 and hailed as Aotearoa’s first rap record?
A: Upper Hutt Posse, formed by Dean Hapeta aka D Word / Te Kupu.
9. Name the act which became the first New Zealand band to play sold-out concerts at Western Springs Stadium in 2019, and Eden Park in 2021?
A: Six60.
Hot Licks magazine.
10. In 1975 Auckland magazine Hot Licks described which local band as “vamp rock not to be confused with camp rock”?
A: Hello Sailor.
[This week’s quizmaster: Trevor Reekie]
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AudioCulture Quiz, December 13, 2021
1. ‘Brother’ sat at No.1 in the New Zealand Top 40 for almost three months, a record stay. Who was it by?
A: Smashproof featuring Gin Wigmore.
2. In November 2021 a tribute single by The Hillmans was released in Australia by members of Midnight Oil. Who were they paying tribute to?
A: Bones Hillman, on the first anniversary of his passing.
Anthony, Paul and Jason Ioasa.
3. Brothers Paul, Anthony and Jason Ioasa released an album in 1996 for the Deepgrooves label. What did they call themselves?
A: Grace.
4. Andrew Spraggon is better known professionally as who?
A: Sola Rosa.
5. My bands include Electric Haka Boogie, the Galactic Chiropractors, the Clutch and the Upperclass. Who am I?
A: Troy Kingi.
6. David James from Relics Records in Dunedin used to play bass in an Auckland band in the 1990s. Who were they?
A: Dead Flowers.
7. Who was the vocalist on Strawpeople’s 1994 hit ‘Trick With A Knife’?
A: Fiona McDonald.
Herbs reunite on the eve of their induction into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame, 2012. Left to right, Spencer Fusimalohi, Dilworth Karaka, Toni Fonoti, Willie Hona.
8. Toni Fonoti wrote the hits ‘Dragons & Demons’ and ‘French Letter’ for Herbs, but only officially appeared on a mini-album as a member. Which one?
9. She was a member of Upper Hutt Posse and Moana and The Moahunters, and in 2021 was appointed a MNZM for services to music and television. Who is she?
A: Teremoana Rapley.
Max Merritt, 1970s.
10. Max Merritt released at least eight albums in his six decades as a professional musician, but is probably best known for one song, from 1975. What is it?
A: ‘Slipping Away’.
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
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AudioCulture Quiz, December 6, 2021
1. This guitarist later became one New Zealand’s most well-known songwriters, who is it?
Dave Dobbyn in his peroxide phase. Th' Dudes, Island of Real, May 27, 1979. - Murray Cammick
A: Dave Dobbyn.
2. The keyboardist in the next photo has a music video on YouTube with 70 million views – under what artist name?
Chelsea Nikkel (now Princess Chelsea) and Brad Fafejta in Teenwolf- Photo by Petra Jane Smith
A: Princess Chelsea, photographed at Eden's Bar.
3. Which of these musicians below later became a TV star?
The Māori Volcanics, mid 1970s. From left: Charlie Te Hau, Billy T James, Mahora Peters, Dean Ruscoe, Billy Peters.
A: Billy T James (second from left).
4. What band is this young man from?
Finn Andrews.
A: The Veils.
5. The chap on the far left later released a solo album under what MC name?
Rough Opinion: Kas the Feelstyle, K.O.S., and Mikki D - Publicity photo
A: Tha Feelstyle.
6. The young punk kneeling at the left of this picture later played in which Auckland funk/jazz/hip hop band?
Sommerset in Australia. Back row, L-R: Stefan Thompson, Nathan Icke, Kelly Lovelock (Australian surf pro), Ryan Thomas. In front: Jeremy Toy, Jay Dougrey. - Jeremy Toy collection
A: Opensouls (the photo shows Jeremy Toy).
7. Hiding behind the microphone on the left singing with The Eastern is one of New Zealand’s most internationally successful solo artists – who is she?
The Eastern's Hannah Harding, Hadassah Grace, Jess Shanks.
8. This photo is at the launch of the Lord of the Rings movie, Return of the King – what band is shown?
The Black Seeds on Courtenay Place, Wellington, about to play on the red carpet for the launch of the Lord of the Rings movie, Return of the King. - Mike Fabulous collection
A: The Black Seeds.
9. Who is DJing (with the Chemical Brothers in the background) in this photo?
Mikey Havoc DJing with the Chemical Brothers, Feel, January 2000. - Allan Roberts
A: Mikey Havoc.
10. What band is shown here while on a break from a set at the Peppermill nightclub in Auckland?
Ardijah at the Peppermill nightclub, 1982. From left: Paul Drury, Jay Dee, Ryan Monga, James Tuiara, Betty-Anne Monga, Ritchie Campbell. - Ryan Monga collection
A: Ardijah.
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute, AudioCulture writer]
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AudioCulture Quiz, November 29, 2021
1. Name the hit band of the early 2000s who evolved out of a covers band called the “Trouser Weasels”.
A: Goodshirt.
2. Who sang the winning song ‘Nothing But Dreams’ at the Pacific Song Contest in 1979? Who wrote the song?
A: Tina Cross (ONZM) sang the winning song; Carl Doy wrote the song.
Andrew Snoid, The Plague. - Richard von Sturmer Collection
3. Andrew Snoid was a member of several bands including the Plague, Whizz Kids and Pop Mechanix. What is his real surname?
A: McLennan.
4. During the late 1970s what genre of music was played at Auckland’s Windsor Castle on Saturday afternoons?
A: Punk.
5. Which Flying Nun band from the late 90s/early 2000s had the Velvet Underground’s John Cale play piano and mix one of their songs?
A: Garageland.
6: Name the comedy-music singing trio that Charlotte Yates was a member of.
A: When the Cat’s Been Spayed.
The Furtive label.
7. Which musician and artist drew the design for the Furtive record label and logo in 1981?
A: Chris Knox.
8. Complete the following names: Bill & …. , Eb & …. , Lou & ….?
A: Bill & Boyd, Eb & Sparrow, Lou & Simon.
9. Author Rachael King was in which band with Graeme Jefferies and drummer Robert Key?
A: The Cakekitchen.
Avantdale Bowling Club album, 2018.
10. The cover image for the 2018 Avantdale Bowling Club album was photographed where?
A: Avondale Racecourse.
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, November 22, 2021
1. The first two records released by LOOP Recordings Aot(ear)oa were Rhian Sheehan’s Paradigm Shift and the Black Seeds’ debut album. What was the Black Seeds’ 2001 debut album called?
A: Keep On Pushing.
Shapeshifter, 2021. - Tom Grut
2. Shapeshifter began inviting guest vocalists and MCs to perform on stage with them at shows. One of their guest MCs became a permanent member of Shapeshifter in 2003 – who was that MC?
A: P Digsss.
3. Prior to Cassette forming, Tom Watson was in a few other Wellington bands. Can you name one of them?
A: Funk Mutha, Baconfoot, Head Like A Hole/HLAH.
4. Rob Ruha’s new track ‘35’ has recently blown up on Tik Tok. On which 2016 film soundtrack was he a consultant and performer? (To clarify, he performed on the soundtrack, not in the film.)
A: Mahana.
Foamy Ed; Lani Purkis at left.
5. Which band was Lani Purkis in when she first played the Big Day Out in 1999?
A: Foamy Ed.
6. The drumming in ‘Cactus Cat’ by Look Blue Go Purple was recently highlighted by Wayne Bell in ‘Ten More Moments in New Zealand Drumming’. Who was the drummer?
A: Lesley Paris.
7. The Crocodiles are best known for their classic song ‘Tears’. Who was the band’s lead singer?
A: Jenny Morris.
8. In 2009, Bic Runga brought in a new producer to work on her new solo material. They subsequently formed a duo. Who was it, and which band was he in previously?
A: Kody Nielson, The Mint Chicks.
9. Which New Zealand artist was named by public vote as 2001 Queer Musician of the Year, and performed to sell-out shows at the 2002 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras?
John Hanlon - Garden Fresh (1974)
10. John Hanlon was one of the first New Zealand artists to write songs about environmental issues. What was the big eco-conscious hit from his 1974 album, Garden Fresh?
A: ‘Damn the Dam’.
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, November 15, 2021
1. Name the Samoan-born singer who, after shifting to Auckland and working at Farmers Trading Company, moved to the US and was signed to Capitol Records and then Frank Sinatra’s Reprise label.
A: Mavis Rivers.
Blam Blam Blam - 'Don't Fight It Marsha, It's Bigger than Both Of Us' (Propeller, 1981).
2. Which well-known New Zealand artist designed the cover for Blam Blam Blam’s ‘Don’t Fight it Marsha’ 7" sleeve?
A: John Reynolds.
3. Which female singer-songwriter had her fourth No.1 album in 2021?
A: Hollie Smith with Coming In From The Dark.
Sharon O’Neill.
4. Sharon O’Neill’s 1980 touring band included which famous New Zealand songwriter/musician on guitar?
A: Dave Dobbyn.
5. ‘Donde Esta La Pollo’ is the title of a well-known 1992 song by which Auckland band?
Bressa Creeting Cake.
6. What was the original band name of Bressa Creeting Cake?
A: Breast Secreting Cake.
7. Name the early 1980s Taranaki post-punk quartet fronted by brothers Peter and Graeme Jefferies.
8. Name the MC, singer and promoter from the Christchurch scene who impressed UK drum ’n’ bass legend Roni Size in 2001 with her a cappella performance.
A: Tali.
9. Billy T James and Prince Tui Teka were both members of which famous Māori showband?
10. Which future member of Herbs was part of the Dargaville band Face, along with Mark Williams?
A: Willie Hona.
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, November 8, 2021
Ringo Starr and George Harrison on the NAC flight from Wellington to Auckland - Photo by Morrie Hill. National Library of New Zealand
1. When The Beatles arrived at Wellington airport in June 1964, what were they presented with when emerging from the plane?
A: Large tiki.
2. The New Zealand independent record label Flying Nun is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary. In which city was the label founded?
A: Christchurch.
Dave Bulog.
3. Recently Auckland electronic musician Dave Bulog sadly passed away – which New Zealand band did he record with when he was starting out in the 1980s?
A: Car Crash Set.
4. “Watch Out Young Love” was the opening line of an iconic pop song released in 1974 by which New Zealand band?
A: Space Waltz; the line is from ‘Out On The Street’.
5. Which popular Australian music festival, launched in 1994 in New Zealand, went on to become one of the most successful annual events on the New Zealand music calendar?
A: Big Day Out.
Chris Knox.
6. Chris Knox formed his first band in Dunedin in 1977. It never recorded but had a seismic effect with its live shows. What was the band’s name?
A: The Enemy.
7. Lorde’s third album features the hit single ‘Solar Power’ – where was its video filmed?
A: Waiheke Island (Cactus Bay).
8. Joe Walsh from the Eagles came to New Zealand in the late 1980s and produced an album for which Auckland band?
A: Herbs; the album was Homegrown.
9. New Zealand guitarist Kevin Borich has carved out a very successful solo career in Australia, playing live with the Kevin Borich Express. Which 1960s and 70s New Zealand band did Kevin Borich play for?
A: The La De Da’s.
Shona Laing, 1972 - Shona Laing collection
10. Shona Laing’s first single was released in 1972. What was it called?
A: ‘1905’.
[This week’s quizmaster: Trevor Reekie]
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AudioCulture Quiz, November 1, 2021
An album cover/location special – clues available here.
Herbs - Whats' Be Happen?
1. Which historic event in 1978 is on the cover of Herbs’ 12" EP Whats’ Be Happen?
A: The eviction of protestors from Bastion Point.
2. In The Mutton Birds’ song, what was halfway down Dominion Road?
A: A halfway house.
Foothills (2020).
3. This recent album, called Foothills, has no information on the cover. Who is it by?
A: The Bats.
4. Who photographed Dave Dobbyn outside a South Island community hall for the Loyal album cover?
A: Robin Morrison.
Home Brew's debut album (2012) - Guy Brock
5. On the cover of Home Brew’s debut album a shopfront is being graffitied. Which Auckland suburb is it in?
A: Avondale.
6. What is Shayne Carter doing on the cover of Dimmer’s 2001 album, I Believe You Are a Star?
A. Driving a sulky at the Alexandra Park harness racing track.
Garner Wayne’s Country Style LP (Viking, 1962). Photo by George Kohlap.
7. Which harbour is pictured on the cover of Garner Wayne’s Country Style album?
A: Akaroa Harbour.
8. What are Upper Hutt Posse standing on for the cover of their E Tū 12" EP?
A: A bridge (in Māoribank, Upper Hutt).
Split Enz, Frenzy (Mushroom, 1979).
9. Raewyn Turner, who painted the image on Split Enz’s Frenzy album, had another role in the band’s live shows. What was it?
A: Lighting designer.
Max Cryer and the Children - Town Cryer (Zodiac, 1966). - RNZ collection
10. Which mountain did Max Cryer and the children climb for the cover of their 1966 Town Cryer album cover?
A: Mt Eden, Auckland.
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, October 26, 2021
Kimbra. - Publicity image
1. On which New Zealand children’s TV show did Kimbra perform at the age of 11 years old?
A: What Now?
2. ‘Look What You’ve Done/Lonely Blues’ was sung by Jake and Beth Heke in Once Were Warriors. Which Māori singer wrote and originally recorded it in the 1950s?
A: Johnny Cooper.
The Māori Hi-Five in June 1964 in Hong Kong with The Beatles: Paul McCartney, Wes Epae, John Lennon, Kawana Pohe, Paddy Te Tai, George Harrison, Robert Hemi Te Miha, Solly Pohatu and the local booking agent Frankie Blair. In front is the assistant manager of the Hotel Escalante.
3. Which New Zealand band supported the Beatles at their Hong Kong concert in 1964?
The Pelicans, 1984. - Nick Bollinger collection
4. Who is the connecting factor between these Wellington bands: the Windy City Strugglers, Mammal, the Red Hot Peppers, the Pelicans, and the Living Daylights?
A: Bill Lake.
Jessica Hansell. - Photo by Milana Radojcic
5. Jessica Hansell is an Auckland-born rapper, singer and songwriter. Under what name does she record and perform?
A: Coco Solid.
6. Which two Tongan-born musicians were legendary lap-steel guitarists in Auckland from the 1950s?
A: Bill Sevesi and Bill Wolfgramm.
7. Which member of the Māori Volcanics later became better known as a comedian?
A: Billy T James.
8. The “infuriatingly catchy” ‘Love Bug’ reached No.3 in the New Zealand singles chart in 1973. Who sang it?
A: Anna Leah.
9. Which singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer has worked with Tami Neilson, Marlon Williams, and Barry Saunders?
A: Delaney Davidson.
10. Which duo met in a Victoria University theatrical production and formed a band called Moustache before going on to international success?
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, October 18, 2021
1. The name of this Dunedin group reads like a simplified version of their wonderful song title, ‘The Strange and Conflicting Feelings of Separation and Betrayal’ – who are they?
A: Sneaky Feelings.
2. Hidee Beast was the stage name of a former drummer in which Wildside Records band?
A: Hidee Beast – aka Mark Hamill – was the first drummer in Head Like A Hole.
3. Name the New Zealand-born performer who shifted to London in 1977 and found fame with an emerging pop band that was named after characters from Hergé’s Tintin comic books.
A: Alannah Currie, the Thompson Twins – named after Thomson & Thompson, the bumbling detectives in Tintin.
Bill Wolfgramm and Bill Sevesi. - Chris Bourke Collection
4. What record label do the recording artists Maria Dallas, Herma Keil, Bill Wolfgramm, and Bill Sevesi have in common?
A: Viking Records.
Crowded House, March, 2021. - Photo by Kerry Brown
5. Name the successful US producer whose long association with Crowded House came full circle when he performed as a member of the band on their recent New Zealand tour and album release?
A: Mitchell Froom.
Jules Issa. - Photo by Sonoma Message
6. Jules Issa’s ‘Dangerous Game’ and Herbs’ ‘Azania’ were separately written by two friends who formed their own band in 1983 after playing in the horn section for Herbs at Sweetwaters. Name their band.
A: Diatribe – the friends are Ross France (‘Azania’) and Rafer Rautjoki (‘Dangerous Game’).
7. His father played in UK bands XTC and Shriekback and one of his first performances was at the Devonport Folk Club. Name the internationally known band he formed with friends from Takapuna Grammar.
A: The Veils (Finn Andrews).
8. Who had a No.1 hit with a cover of ‘The Game of Love’, a 1965 hit by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders?
9. In 1994 Flying Nun alumni David Kilgour, Martin Phillipps, Mike Dooley, Noel Ward and Alan Starrett joined together to release a CD EP featuring cover versions of 1960s favourites, including the Avengers hit ‘Everyone’s Gonna Wonder’. What did they name the group?
A: Pop Art Toasters.
10. Name the well-loved performer who in 1952, aged 15 and without advising his whānau, shipped out to Sydney to join a travelling circus, where he started out as cleaner of the elephants’ quarters.
A: Prince Tui Teka.
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, October 11, 2021
Aldous Harding. - Photo by Ebony Lamb
1. Aldous Harding appeared on her mother’s 2004 album, Clean Break. What is her mother’s name?
A: Lorina Harding.
2. Fatal Jelly Space supported which international acts?
A: The Fall, Babes in Toyland. Bassist/vocalist Jacinda Klouwens also supported Kristin Hersh and Lydia Lunch on their solo tours.
Hinewehi Mohi.
3. Dame Hinewehi Mohi works in music and television. What was the name of the television show she began working on as a reporter in 1986?
A: Koha.
4. Electric Wire Hustle formed in 2007. Apart from Mara TK, name another founding member.
A: Myele Manzanza or David Wright.
5. Dunedin venue Arc Café established a record label in early 1998. What was it called?
A: Arclife.
6. Name a musician or band who appeared on the label established by Arc Café.
A: Musicians included Mëstar, David Kilgour, Cloudboy, Jay Clarkson, Heka, Kitset.
7. Connan Mockasin wrote the song ‘Out of Touch’ for which French actress and musician?
8. Name the Minuit vocalist and songwriter, who has also written a book of poetry and lyrics called I Felt Like a Fight, Alright?.
A: Ruth Carr.
9. In the 1990s Shayne P. Carter occasionally recorded as a duo called Rim Shot Frenzy with a well-known record retailer and writer. Who was the other member?
A: Roy Colbert.
Jay Clarkson.
10. Name Jay Clarkson’s first band.
A: The Playthings.
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills, music curator at the Hocken Library, Dunedin.]
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AudioCulture Quiz, October 4, 2021
1. Starting his career as a journalist, he co-founded Radio Hauraki, managed Hello Sailor during the 1970s, and in 2019 he was named Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to broadcasting. Can you name him?
A: David Gapes.
Mark Williams, circa 1975 - Phil Warren Collection
2. From 1974 to 1977 he was the in-house producer at Wellington’s EMI studio. He produced albums by Mark Williams and many others at EMI. When he relocated to Australia he produced Mark Williams again, this time for CBS. Who is he?
A: Alan Galbraith.
3. Name the sound engineer who has been recording live sessions at Radio NZ for over 25 years, and who has recorded albums with Anika Moa and Bic Runga.
A: Andre Upston.
4. Her blues singing style has been described as formidable. At the 1973 Great Ngāruawāhia Music Festival she played directly after headliners Black Sabbath and in 1995 she played the lead role in an Auckland production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. She died earlier this year. Can you name her?
A: Mahia Blackmore.
5. Name the Flying Nun band that opened for Nirvana and U2 in the early 1990s.
A: The 3Ds.
6. Which Nielson brother, formerly in The Mint Chicks, went on to start a new project called Unknown Mortal Orchestra?
A: Ruban started the project, although Kody joined in along the way, notably on the third album, Multi-Love.
Karyn Hay interviews Tim Finn at Sweetwaters 1983 - Photo by Murray Cammick
7. How many times was the Sweetwaters festival held?
A: Six times – 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1999.
8. What do Peter Posa’s ‘White Rabbit’, The Four Fours’ ‘Theme From an Empty Coffee Lounge’ and The Warratahs’ ‘Bruno’s ‘Last Ride’ have in common?
A: They don't have lyrics – they’re all instrumentals.
Herbs in 1990 - clockwise from bottom left: Gordon Joll. Thom Nepia, Dilworth Karaka, Charlie Tumahai, Tama Lundun, Morrie Watene.
9. Which member of the Eagles worked in the studio with Herbs?
A: Joe Walsh produced and played guitar on the 1990 Herbs album Homegrown.
10: Name the independent music television channel that launched in Auckland in 1993.
A: Max TV.
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, September 27, 2021
1. ‘Cruising on the Interislander’ became a well-known song for which band after its use in a 1990s TV commercial?
A: The Warratahs.
Ruban Nielson, Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
2. Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s 2018 Silver Scroll-nominated song ‘Hunnybee’ is about whom?
A: Ruban Neilson’s daughter.
3. Complete the phrase: Ray Columbus devised a dance called the “_____ Nod”.
A: Rocker’s Nod.
B: Widgie’s Nod.
C: Mod’s Nod.
D: Hippy’s Nod.
A: Mod’s Nod.
4. What was the name of Mara TK’s previous band?
A: Electric Wire Hustle.
The Beths. - Mason Fairey
5. The members of The Beths all trained in the same musical genre at University of Auckland – what was it?
A: Jazz.
6. Which song did Sir Dave Dobbyn recently release in te reo Māori to mark its 30th anniversary?
A: ‘Slice of Heaven’ (‘Hine Ruhi’).
7. Who is the drummer for Avantdale Bowling Club?
A: Julien Dyne.
8. In which country was the late, legendary Soane born?
A: Tonga.
Rob Ruha.
9. Rob Ruha was musical director and translator for the te reo Māori version of which movie?
A: Moana.
10. Which New Zealand band supported Bob Marley at his legendary 1979 Western Springs concert?
A: Golden Harvest.
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, September 20, 2021
1. Which platinum-selling solo artist, who is also known for many collaborations with other musicians, won best jazz vocalist at the National Jazz Festival of New Zealand at age 16, and has recorded an album of Celtic music?
A: Hollie Smith.
Anna Coddington.
2. Name Anna Coddington’s two prior bands before going solo and releasing her debut album in 2008.
A: Handsome Geoffrey, Duchess.
3. Polyfonk maestros Ardijah made a cameo performance appearance in which New Zealand feature film? Can you name the song?
A: Queen City Rocker. The song was ‘Give Me Your Number’.
4. She moved from Mount Roskill to London when she was 19, worked as a waitress, and tried to join the anarchist party. Later, her band became one of the biggest pop acts of the 80s. Name the artist.
A: Alannah Currie.
5. What was the last music video played on 1990s Auckland regional music channel Max TV before the station went permanently off air?
A: Chris Knox, ‘Not Given Lightly’.
Concord Dawn.
6. What was the name of the heavy metal band Evan Short played in before co-founding drum and bass duo Concord Dawn?
A: Day One.
7. The bands Paselode, Grand Prix and Fly My Pretties all have someone in common. Who is it?
A: Nathan ‘Nato’ Hickey from Beastwars has played in all bands.
8. What year did the first Big Day Out festival take place in New Zealand?
A: 1994.
9. In 2009, a chart-topping, all-vegan metal band created a music video to rival that of the Skeptics’ ‘AFFCO’, as it followed a steer’s journey from farm to supermarket. Name the band.
A: 8 Foot Sativa.
King Kapisi. - Simon Grigg collection
10. King Kapisi began rapping under which name as part of the group Gifted and Brown?
A: Hot Cakes
B: Bran Muffin
C: Date Scone
D: Buttery Biscuit
A: It’s B – Bran Muffin.
[This week’s quizmaster: Leanda Borrett, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, September 13, 2021
1. The te reo Māori lyrics of ‘E Ipo’ and ‘Poi E’ are by the same songwriter. Who?
A: Ngoi Pēwhairangi.
2. Stuart and Brad Kora were two of four brothers who founded Kora. They left in 2013 to start what other very successful band?
A: L.A.B.
Mara TK.
3. Which iwi is shared by Ruru Karaitiana, Johnny Cooper, Kahu Pineaha, and Mara TK?
A: Ngāti Kahungunu.
George Nepia with songwriter Kingi Tahiwi, c1935. Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/2-C-22477-F
4. ‘Beneath the Māori Moon’ by Walter Smith, was recorded by his cousin, George Nepia, and released on Decca in the UK in 1936 (listen to it here.) In what role was Nepia most famous?
A: All Black fullback, 1924-1930.
Maisey Rika - Tira album cover photo, 2017.
5. In 2012 Ruia Aperahama, Maisey Rika, Anika Moa, and Warren Maxwell fronted a music series on Māori TV. What was it called?
A: Songs from the Inside.
6. Which Māori singer’s mother recorded an EP of songs in te reo called Kahu?
A: Sir Howard Morrison.
7. Which singer, after winning the emerging artist award at the Waiata Māori Music Awards in 2015, supported himself by teaching te reo Māori night classes at Unitec?
A: Teeks.
8. Who began their career singing in Upper Hutt Posse and Moana and the Moahunters, and was appointed a MNZM in 2021 for services to music and television?
A: Teremoana Rapley.
9. Who played piano for The Shevelles, gave The Avengers their name in a competition, and produced the hit medley ‘Māoris on 45’?
Whirimako Black.
10. Which award do Rob Ruha, Alien Weaponry, Whirimako Black, Ruia Aperahama, and Te Awanui Reeder have in common?
A: They have all won the APRA Silver Scroll Maioha Award for contemporary Māori music.
[This week’s quizmaster: Chris Bourke, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, September 6, 2021
1. Two now well-known singers first met each other at Lyttelton’s Wunderbar when they were double-booked to play on the same evening. Who were they?
A: Delaney Davidson and Marlon Williams.
2. Name the Dawn Raid act who released their No.1 album Always & For Real in 2004.
A: Adeaze.
3. “Dr Rock” was the alias of which well-known broadcaster of the 1970s?
A: Barry Jenkin.
4. Name the Aotearoa New Zealand singer who in the 1970s had a local hit with a song that was also recorded under a different title by American singer Barry Manilow.
A: Bunny Walters – ‘Brandy’ aka ‘Mandy’.
5. Name the first album (and the associated act) that was recorded at Auckland’s York Street Recording Studios.
A: Churn (1993) by Shihad.
6. Who wrote and released a series of award-winning albums of music for “bubbas”?
A: Anika Moa.
7. Which of the following titles is the name of Brooke Fraser’s hit 2003 album?
A: What To Do With Sunshine
B: What To Do With Moonlight
C: What To Do With Good Times
D: What To Do With Daylight
A: D: What To Do With Daylight.
8. Name the experimental electronic artist who founded Victoria University’s Electronic Music Studio in 1970.
A: Douglas Lilburn.
9. Name the rope-jumping Auckland band that takes its name from their lead singer/guitarist and was formed by players who met through jazz school and in jazz band Sal Valentine and the Babyshakes.
A: The Beths.
10. Which “theatrical experience” and musical group had a promotional touring car named the “Lawnmobile”?
A: The Front Lawn.
[This week’s quizmaster: Steven Shaw, AudioCulture]
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AudioCulture Quiz, August 30, 2021
1. Name at least two Aotearoa New Zealand acts who have appeared on the prestigious Later With Jools Holland show?
A: The Phoenix Foundation, Aldous Harding, Nadia Reid, Crowded House, Marlon Williams, Lorde, Liam Finn.
2. Which singer from New Zealand had a hit with her cover of Lulu’s ‘To Sir With Love’?
A: Ngaire.
3. Name a Bob Dylan song featuring The Byrds’ 12-string legend Roger McGuinn that Crowded House released a live cover of.
A: ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, ‘Eight Miles High’, ‘So You Want to Be a Rock’n’Roll Star’.
Human Instinct: Maurice Greer, John Donoghue, Martin Hope
4. What is the name of The Human Instinct’s fourth, most sought after and valuable, LP?
A: Snatmin Cuthin? (1972)
5. What is the name of the New Zealand-born jazz pianist who released a (now very collectable) album called My Favourite Things, and shares her name with a so-called “mother of the nation” newsreader?
A: Judy Bailey.
Ticket's Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, 1972
6. Which celebrated New Zealand artist created the cover artwork for Ticket’s second album Let Sleeping Dogs Lie?
A: Dick Frizzell.
7. Which Flying Nun frontman received a MNZM in the Queen’s Birthday honours list this year?
A: Graeme Downes (The Verlaines).
8. Name the successful New Zealand solo artist whose early band was called Two Lane Blacktop.
A: Ladyhawke (Pip Brown).
Roy Colbert.
9. Roy Colbert’s Dunedin record store had several names over the years. Name one.
A: Records Records, Records Records Records, Acme Records, Astral Weeks Records.
10. What is the name of the Fijian funk group whose 1973 album, Turn On To Music, is now a much sought after psych-funk collectable?
A: Mantis.
[This week’s quizmaster: Jeremy Taylor]
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AudioCulture Quiz, August 23, 2021
1. Who has a long running radio show called Land Of The Good Groove and was co-founder of music magazine Rip It Up?
A: Murray Cammick.
Peter Coleman and friend, 1977 - Ian Morris Collection
2. Which 70s band did Peter Coleman play bass for?
A: Th’ Dudes – he was their first bassist.
3. Who said that he wanted his record label to be the “Māori Motown”?
A: Dalvanius.
Maureen Gordon.
4. Which famous Auckland venue did the late Maureen Gordon own and run?
A: The Kings Arms.
5. Who was the first act to play at The Kings Arms – and played the final weekend there?
A: Al Hunter.
6. Which Auckland trio from the 2000s started life as Mean Street?
A: Street Chant.
Wide Mouthed Frogs. - Matthew McKee
7. What do How’s Your Father, Wide Mouthed Frogs, The Crocodiles and INXS all have in common?
A: Jenny Morris sang with them all.
8. Simon Ogston’s 2013 documentary Sheen Of Gold is about which Palmerston North band?
A: Skeptics.
9. Mareko, Savage, Devolo, and Alphrisk were all members of which Auckland crew?
A: Deceptikonz.
10. I was born and raised in Katikati, my given name was Miha, I was discovered at a talent audition by Benny Levin and my biggest hit was ‘Brandy’. Who am I?
A: Bunny Walters.
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
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AudioCulture Quiz, August 16, 2021
1. As a publicity stunt in the late 1960s, which local pop star jumped from a yacht into the sea in order to “rescue” a young “Miss South Pacific” who had been deliberately pushed overboard?
A: Larry Morris from Larry’s Rebels.
Timberjack in 1971 with Steve McDonald, Frits Stiger, John Donoghue and Stu Johnstone.
2. In 1971 one of the weirdest locally recorded singles, ‘Come To The Sabbat’, which included the line “Come to the Sabbat, Satans’s there”, was recorded by which band?
A: The band was called Timberjack, led by John Donoghue, who later went on to name and play bass for The Warratahs.
3. Music Nation was a mid 90s television show devoted to Kiwi music. Which high profile singer-songwriter hosted it?
A: Bic Runga.
4. Singer, songwriter and guitarist Shayne Carter formed his first band when he was a student at Kaikorai Valley College in Dunedin. They released an EP called Who Killed Colonel Mustard? and then broke up. Name the band.
A: Bored Games.
5. In the mid-60s a pop star named Bogdan Kominowski achieved massive success with No.1 hits ‘Opportunity’ and ‘Thanks To You’ before relocating to London. What was his stage name?
A: Mr Lee Grant.
Glyn Tucker Jnr in his Mandrill office, 1986.
6. The Mockers, Dance Exponents, and Pink Flamingos made some of their best records at Mandrill Studios, a recording studio in Parnell formed by three musicians, one of whom was Glyn Tucker. Before he embarked on this period of his career, in which successful band did Glyn Tucker perform during the 1960s? (They had a big hit with a song called ‘The Coming Generation’.)
A: The Gremlins.
7. A first-generation New Zealander from Niuean parents, Tigilau Ness was a member of the Polynesian Panthers protesting the Dawn Raids in the 1970s. He was later an activist and protester during the 1981 Springbok rugby tour. His son is a well-known musician and has had a number of hits over the years – can you name him?
Paul Ubana Jones, 1989.
8. Name the wonderful London born singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist who migrated to New Zealand in 1987 and released a number of albums here, as well as touring schools and supporting artists such as BB King, Joan Armatrading, Bob Dylan, Norah Jones, and Crowded House?
A: Paul Ubana Jones.
9. What was the original name of the band that eventually had a No.2 single in America with the song ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’, written by Neil Finn after he left Split Enz?
A: The Mullanes, later renamed Crowded House. It was Neil and Tim Finn’s mother’s maiden name and is Neil’s middle name.
10. Murray Cammick recently received the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to NZ music. As well as publishing New Zealand’s most revered music publication, Rip It Up, he was owner of two significant record labels. Name the two record labels.
A: Wildside and Southside Records: Wildside released rock records from Head Like A Hole and Shihad; Southside released more R&B flavoured artists such as Ngaire, who had a smash with a cover of Lulu’s big hit ‘To Sir With Love’.
[This week’s quizmaster: Trevor Reekie]
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AudioCulture Quiz, August 9, 2021
1. Complete the following lyric: “I found myself a blue lady ...”
A: “To help me through the night”. (From Hello Sailor’s ‘Blue Lady’)
Kimbra.
2. Which New Zealand city is Kimbra’s hometown?
A: Hamilton.
3. Shayne Carter’s memoir won the 2020 Ockham NZ Book Award for best non-fiction book. What is the book’s title?
A: Dead People I Have Known (Victoria University Press, 2019).
4. What do the following band names have in common? The Avengers, The Phoenix Foundation, Hasselhoff Experiment.
A: They are all associated with popular television shows or personalities – The Avengers (1960s); MacGyver worked for an organisation called the Phoenix Foundation; David Hasselhoff starred in Knight Rider and Baywatch.
Grace.
5. What do Grace, Evermore, and Broods have in common?
A: They’re all acts with siblings in the group – the Ioasa brothers, the Hume brothers, the Notts siblings.
6. Former members of the bands Blindspott and Tadpole teamed up in 2008 and formed a successful band that toured internationally and lasted for 10 years. Name the band.
A: I Am Giant.
7. Name the title of the 1987 Skeptics video that was banned from broadcast by TVNZ.
A: ‘AFFCO’.
8. Name the 1990s independent Auckland record store and label specialising in punk and underground genres whose international customers included Jello Biafra and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore.
3 The Hard Way.
9. What is the title of 3 The Hard Way’s 2003 No.1 hit?
A: ‘It’s On’.
10. Name the Gisborne-born vocalist and solo artist who has sung with SJD, the Bellbirds and Pitch Black.
A: Sandy Mill.
[This week’s quizmaster: AudioCulture editor Steven Shaw, Auckland]
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AudioCulture Quiz, August 2, 2021
1. Aside from Flight of the Conchords, name two other Wellington bands that Bret McKenzie has played in.
A: Any two of the following: Wellington Ukulele Orchestra, The Black Seeds, The Video Kid.
2. Which studio engineer/producer has worked with TrinityRoots, The Black Seeds, Phoenix Foundation, and L.A.B.?
A: Lee Prebble.
3. Which young musician is shown here DJing at bFM? The photo is taken from the station’s magazine, the Book of BiFiM.
A: Greg Johnson.
4. Which local musician-turned-actor is shown at far right playing Eddie in this New Zealand production of the Rocky Horror Show?
A: Russell Crowe, aka Russ le Roq.
5. Which editor of Rip It Up magazine later became programme director at Mai FM?
A: Phil Bell aka DJ Sir-Vere.
6. Who is shown in the above photo?
A: Shona Laing.
7. Which New Zealand rapper went on to start his own line of jewellery and watches?
A: Dane Rumble, aka Kid Deft from Fast Crew.
8. Which singer started her career at 14 years old by being the soloist on a double-platinum selling album of Māori love songs released by her school?
A: Maisey Rika sang on E Hine: An Anthology of Māori Love Songs (1998) with the choir from Hato Hohepa, aka St Joseph’s Māori Girls College. She also appeared on the album’s cover.
9. Which chart-topping metal band features a bassist who was a former member of classic New Zealand hard rock groups Knightshade, Tyrant, and Blackjack?
A: Devilskin bassist Paul Martin played in the above bands.
10. Elizabeth Stokes from The Beths was in a high-school band with which indie pop musician?
A: Chelsea Jade.
[This week’s quizmaster: AudioCulture writer Gareth Shute, Auckland]
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AudioCulture Quiz, July 26, 2021
Ray Columbus.
1. Which English musician did Ray Columbus befriend during an Australian/New Zealand tour in 1965?
A: Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones.
2. Which Wellington band, whose debut album appeared 20 years ago, has had songs featured in TV series such as Weeds and Breaking Bad?
A: The Black Seeds.
3. “Karanga, rangatahi, whakarongo! whakarongo!” are the opening lyrics to which song?
A: ‘E Tū’ by Upper Hutt Posse.
4. Which band released New Zealand’s first ever punk single?
A: Suburban Reptiles with ‘Megaton’ b/w ‘Desert Patrol’. It was also the first 12" single released by any label in New Zealand (Phonogram).
John Rowles.
5. Who was John Rowles’s hit ‘Tania’ about?
A: His sister, Tania. Cheryl Moana Marie was also dedicated to his sisters, merging their names, Cheryl Moana and Tania Marie.
6. Which Dunedin band sang about ‘Baked Beans’?
A: Mother Goose.
Teeks.
7. Teeks is known for his masterful soul vocals – but what musical genre did his first band play?
A: His high-school reggae band, Ahomairangi, which performed at Pacifika Beats and Smokefreerockquest in 2011.
8. The lyrics to BLERTA’s hit ‘Dance All Around the World’ are inspired by a book by which famous children’s author?
A: Margaret Mahy – the book itself isn’t named in the article, but it’s most likely from her 1969 book The Procession.
9. In 2001 an upbeat 11 year-old girl appeared on What Now?. She was filmed while recording a single, and said, “Hi, I’m ****, and one day I’d love to be a pop star.” Who is she?
A: Kimbra.
10. What was the first New Zealand record that was wholly produced in Aotearoa, from composition to pressing?
A: ‘Blue Smoke’
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones from AudioCulture, Auckland.]
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AudioCulture Quiz, July 19, 2021
1. Which NZ artist co-wrote and sang on a song by Grammy-nominated, US-based Samoan reggae singer J Boog?
A: Aaradhna.
Blam Blam Blam. - Murray Cammick Collection
2. In which now reformed art-punk band did Tim Mahon cut his teeth prior to forming Blam Blam Blam with Don McGlashan?
A: The Plague.
3. Which former Chills drummer released a solo album in 2019 entitled Lucky?
A: Caroline Easther.
An early photo of the Deceptikonz from 2002 - Mareko (top), Savage, Devolo (middle), and Alphrisk. - Rip It Up Archives
4. Name the four members of Deceptikonz.
A: Mareko, Savage, Devolo, Alphrisk.
5. What connects the late Richard Nunns and Scott Walker?
A: They both recorded with British experimental/ free jazz saxophonist Evan Parker.
6. What was the name of the Hamilton hard rock/ metal band who had an 80s hit with ‘The Physical You’?
A: Knightshade.
The Knobz’ 45 cover for 'Culture'.
7. Which former New Zealand Prime Minister is impersonated on The Knobz’ 1980 hit, ‘Culture’?
A: Robert Muldoon.
8. Who authored hefty New Zealand music tome Stranded in Paradise?
A: John Dix.
9. What were the two tracks on The Mockers’ 1980 debut single?
A: ‘Good Old Days’ and ‘Murder on Manners Street’.
10. What is the name of the (yet to materialise) supergroup mooted between Julia Deans, Anna Coddington and Anika Moa?
A: Allusionz.
[This week’s quizmaster: Jeremy Taylor of Slowboat Records, Wellington.]
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AudioCulture Quiz, July 12, 2021
1. Sam Hunt has performed or recorded with at least four New Zealand acts. Can you name two?
A: Mammal, ENZSO, David Kilgour, The Warratahs.
2. Auckland band Paul Agar from Marginal Era wrote a song called ‘This Heaven’ which became the opening theme for which New Zealand TV music show?
Dragon, 1977. Left to right: Kerry Jacobson, Robert Taylor, Marc Hunter, Todd Hunter, Paul Hewson
3. Which high-profile member of trans-Tasman rock band Dragon ended up in Auckland band The Pink Flamingos with ex-Hello Sailor member Dave McArtney?
A: Paul Hewson, who wrote Dragon’s ‘Are You Old Enough? (1978) and ‘Still in Love With You’ (1978).
4. Si Si Es are an Auckland-based electronic band who were big in the 1980s under which name?
A: Car Crash Set.
Bluespeak at Cause Celebre, mid 1990s. - Simon Grigg collection
5. Greg Johnson used to play trumpet and sing in an Auckland jazz band before he went solo. Name that band?
A: Bluespeak.
The Datsuns, 2003: Matt Osment, Dolf de Borst, Christian Livingstone and Phil Somervell
6. In over 20 years The Datsuns have only had one line-up change. What instrument did the new band member play?
A: Drummer Ben Cole replaced drummer Matt Osment.
7. The legendary drum sound on Hello Sailor’s 1977 single ‘Blue Lady’ was engineered at Stebbing Studios by which Auckland pop star?
A: Ian Morris from Th’ Dudes.
8. Before they changed their name to The Mockers they were known as:
A. Squashy Peas
B. The Ambitious Vegetables
C. Steak Knives
D. The Serviettes?
A: B – The Ambitious Vegetables.
Peter "Rooda" Warren from DD Smash, Aotea Square, 1984 - Photo by Bryan Staff
9. The infamous Queen Street riot erupted at the “Thank God It’s Over” free concert on 7 December 1984 in Auckland’s Aotea Square. Who said, “I wish those riot squad guys would stop wanking and put their little batons away,” only to be charged with inciting the riot?
A: Dave Dobbyn – now Sir Dave. He was eventually cleared of all charges.
10. Which New Zealand musician had an international hit with the song ‘(Glad I’m) Not a Kennedy’ in 1988?
A: Shona Laing.
[This week’s quizmaster: Trevor Reekie]
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AudioCulture Quiz, July 5, 2021
1. Who were the founding members of The Julie Dolphin?
A: Dianne Swann and Brett Adams.
A 1980s Jenny Morris publicity shot - Simon Grigg collection
2. Who wrote Jenny Morris’ 1988 single ‘You I Know’?
A: Neil Finn.
Sam McCarthy and Jordan Arts, Kids of 88. - Publicity photo
3. The band Kids of 88 was formed by which member of Goodnight Nurse (and his friend Jordan Arts)?
A: Sam McCarthy.
4. Which New Zealand songwriter, instrumentalist and vocalist also worked as a summer camp lake lifeguard and speedboat driver in the US?
A: Hollie Fullbrook (Tiny Ruins).
5. Julia Deans has performed the songs of which Canadian singer-songwriter in her show ‘Both Sides Now’?
A: Joni Mitchell.
6. Who were the members of Gasoline Cowboy?
A: Jol Mulholland, Scott Mason and Greg Hillier.
7. Name the New Zealand musician that joined UK group Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 1981.
A: Shona Laing.
8. Polyfonk is a fusion of reggae, R’n’B, and Pasifika music. Who created the genre?
A: Ryan Monga of Ardijah.
Anika Moa.
9. In 2011 Anika Moa and two other New Zealand musicians formed a trio. Who were the other two members of the trio, and what was their album called?
A: Boh Runga and Hollie Smith. The album was called Peace of Mind.
10. Robert Scott formed a band with Jane Sinnott, David Mitchell, and David Saunders. What was the name of the band?
A: The Magick Heads.
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills, music curator at the Hocken Library, Dunedin.]
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AudioCulture Quiz, June 28, 2021
1. Who wrote Zed’s 2003 Top 20 hit ‘Starlight’?
A: Rivers Cuomo from Weezer.
2. In 2020 who posted a photo on social media, announcing a new album was underway, with contributions from the NZSO and Sol3Mio?
A: Hollie Smith.
3. Name the Flying Nun band associated with this famous person.
A: Jean-Paul Sartre Experience / Jean-Paul Sartre (Photo: Moshe Milner, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons).
4. Name the Flying Nun band associated with this famous person.
A: The Verlaines (Paul Verlaine).
5. Former Chills bass player Justin Harwood formed an instrumental group with which member of R.E.M?
A: Peter Buck. The group was Tuatara.
6. Name the Flying Nun band associated with this famous person.
A: Able Tasmans / Abel Tasman (Image: Archives NZ: AAQT 6539 32 / A1111 R21010205).
7. Dianne Swann guested on vocals and keyboards for which English band in the mid-90s?
A: Radiohead.
8. What was title of the feature film starring Kimbra?
A: Daffodils (2019).
9. Name the Flying Nun band associated with this famous person.
A: The Hasselhoff Experiment (David Hasselhoff).
10. Which member of a prominent post-punk NZ band “returned to good old rock’n’roll organ” in the London psych/garage band The Purple Gang?
A: Jane Walker, Toy Love.
[This week’s quizmaster: Mark Roach, Recorded Music NZ]
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AudioCulture Quiz, June 21, 2021
1. In 1965 Wayne Fontana had a big hit with ‘The Game Of Love’. Which New Zealand producer had a number one single in the 1980s with a cover of it? Either his real name or the name the record went out under is correct.
2. Which of the following was not a member of the showband The Māori Volcanics?
A: Dalvanius Prime
B: Billy T. James
C: Prince Tui Teka
A: Dalvanius Prime.
3. What is the connection between the Suburban Reptiles and Joel Little?
A: Joel’s mum Trish Scott was in a very early lineup of the Suburban Reptiles.
When The Cat's Away in New Plymouth, 1988: Annie Crummer, Debbie Harwood, Kim Willoughby, Dianne Swann and Margaret Urlich
4. James Brown, Bob Geldof, The Chills, The Pogues, When The Cat’s Away, Roy Orbison and the Patea Māori Club were all advertised to play just south of Auckland in early 1988. What happened?
A: It was the Neon Picnic festival which collapsed hours before it started, under a ton of debt and controversy.
5. What do Supergroove, Drab Doo Riffs, Cambridge University, the Low Down Dirty Blues Band, the Apra Silver Scroll, and the movie Come To Daddy all have in common?
A: Karl Steven. He was either a member of, a graduate of, a winner of, or a composer for all of these.
6. “Karanga, rangatahi, whakarongo! Whakarongo!” are the opening words to which NZ hip-hop classic?
A: ‘E Tu!’ by Upper Hutt Posse.
7. Who said: “I’ll probably end up doing cabaret, ‘Found … my-self … a blue la-dy …” and on the trombone we have …’. I fancy the Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin approach: stool, tall martini, cigarette burning in the ashtray.”?
A: Graham Brazier (to Rip It Up in 1988).
8. My debut album was called Safety in Numbers and sold 240,000 copies. What is my name?
A: Margaret Urlich.
The La De Da's: Brett Neilson, Bruce Howard, Kevin Borich, Trevor Wilson and Phil Key in Herne Bay, Auckland, 1966
9. They came from Rutherford College in Te Atatu, they had the first local single ever to go to No.1, their second single is a much covered New Zealand classic, they went on to be one of the biggest bands in Australia in the early 1970s and their guitarist is one of the most celebrated guitar players in the history of Australasian rock, winning Best Guitarist twice in Australia. They were … ?
A: The La De Da’s. The first No.1 was ‘Hey Baby’, the New Zealand classic is ‘How Is The Air Up There’. The guitarist is Kevin Borich.
10. Which Auckland singer/producer/studio owner based on Auckland’s North Shore mentored and recorded Lorde, The Checks, Finn Andrews (The Veils), The Mint Chicks, The Electric Confectionaires and Gin Wigmore in the first years of this century?
A: Richard “Rikki” Morris at his studios The Depot and The Bus in Devonport.
[This week’s quizmaster: Simon Grigg]
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AudioCulture Quiz, June 14, 2021
1. Name the New Zealand saxophonist who was a regular at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London and in 1990 became the only local jazz performer to top the New Zealand charts?
A: Brian Smith topped the New Zealand charts with Moonlight Sax.
2. Which New Zealand song from the 1970s is about the writer’s infatuation for Hollywood great Henry Fonda?
A: ‘Yesterday Was Just the Beginning of My Life’ by Mark Williams
B: ‘L’amour est L’enfant de la liberté’ by the Rumour
C: ‘1905’ by Shona Laing
A: C – ‘1905’ by Shona Laing.
Buster Stiggs, Bones Hillman, Phil Judd - Photo by Murray Cammick
3. Which members of the Swingers played with early New Zealand punk band Suburban Reptiles?
A. Buster Stiggs
B. Bones Hillman
C. Phil Judd
D. The first two (Stiggs, Hillman)
E. All of the above
A: E – all of the above. Phil Judd produced ‘Saturday Night Stay at Home’ (written by Buster Stiggs) and played in the Suburban Reptiles as an invited guest.
4. Name the New Zealand artist who studied music in Dunedin and, after shifting north, maintained his musical career while working as a tour guide, radio journalist and eventually, public transport advocate.
A: Anthonie Tonnon.
5. Name the stage production written in London by a rock’n’roll loving bodgie from Hamilton that finally made its New Zealand debut in 1978, with the cast including Zero (Clare Elliott) from Suburban Reptiles and future Warratahs vocalist Barry Saunders.
A: Richard O’Brien’s the Rocky Horror Show opened in Wellington’s State Opera House on 28 July 1978. Zero played Columbia, and by the end of the national run, Barry Saunders was on board as Rocky.
6. Name the Auckland-born musician who became famous as a child drummer in the 1950s and went on to play with Leo Sayer, Nat Adderley, and Dusty Springfield.
A: Frank Gibson Jr.
The Fourmyula.
7. Name the much-loved New Zealand song that was a hit twice – for The Fourmyula in 1970 and The Mutton Birds in 1992.
A: ‘Nature’, written by The Fourmyula’s Wayne Mason.
8. Which New Zealand song from the 1970s is about the writer dreaming of being in a band after seeing The Beatles as a child?
A: ‘When Jo Jo Runs’ by Craig Scott
B: ‘Saturday Night Stay at Home’ by Suburban Reptiles
C: ‘Good Morning Mr Rock N’ Roll’ by Headband
A: B – ‘Saturday Night Stay at Home’ by Suburban Reptiles, writer Buster Stiggs.
9. Name the Dunedin-born drummer and promoter who in the early 1990s toured the UK and Europe as drummer for the Jesus and Mary Chain.
A: Barry Blackler.
10. In 1969 a Christchurch-born bassist became the sole New Zealander to perform at Woodstock, and in 1972 he joined English rock group Uriah Heep, playing on four albums and touring with them during their most successful period. Name the bassist.
A: Gary Thain played Woodstock in 1969 with the Keef Hartley Band and joined Uriah Heep in 1972.
[This week’s quizmaster: AudioCulture’s Steven Shaw]
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AudioCulture Quiz, June 8, 2021
1. What New Zealand act sang with Ronan Keating on his album Duet?
A. Adeaze
2. Which local group lost all their publishing royalties from their No.1 single to English band 10cc?
Phoenix Foundation, 2020. - Ebony Lamb
3. What UK TV show has featured appearances by both Nadia Reid and The Phoenix Foundation?
A. Later With Jools Holland
4. What chart-topping New Zealand band found their singer after seeing him perform on the TV show Good Morning?
A. L.A.B.
5. Which New Zealand pop star co-wrote one of the songs on John Legend’s US Top Five album, Love In The Future?
A. Kimbra
6. What movie did pop singer Stan Walker star in?
A. Mt Zion
7. The son of Suzanne Lynch from The Chicks was in what chart-topping local band?
A. Zed
8. Which New Zealand indie act appeared on Fat Boy Slim’s The Brighton Port Authority album?
Smashproof with Rihanna, from left to right: Young Sid, Rihanna, Tyree, Deach, Ethical.
9. Which local hip hop act is shown in the above photo with Rihanna?
A. Smashproof
Ella Yelich-O'Connor (Lorde) and Louis at Devonstock - Auckland, 2010. - Michael Cranna, speculator.co.nz
10. Name the young singer shown in the above photo.
A. Lorde
[This week’s quizmaster: Gareth Shute.]
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AudioCulture Quiz, May 31, 2021
Ladi6, 2018. - Garth Badger
1. Name the above solo artist’s first band
A: Ladi6 – Sheelaroc
2. What was the name of Broods’ frontwoman Georgia Knott’s all-female side project?
A: The Venus Project
3. Lani Purkis played in which punk band before joing Elemeno P?
A: Foamy Ed
Anna Coddington, 2020. - Publicity photo
4. Name this solo artist’s first band
A: Anna Coddington – Handsome Geoffrey
5. ‘You’re Welcome’ is a song written for the film Moana by Te Vaka’s Opetaia Foa’i. Who sang it?
A: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
Ladyhawke. - Publicity photo
6. Name this solo artist’s first band
A: Ladyhawke – Two Lane Blacktop
7. What was the title of TrueBliss’s debut album?
A: Dream
8. Supergroove’s Karl Steven is a doctor of what subject?
A: Philosophy
9. Name this artist’s first band
A: Julia Deans – Banshee Reel
10. The Chicks’ first album was called The Sound Of The Chicks. What was their second album called?
A: Second Album
[This week’s quizmaster: Mark Roach, Recorded Music NZ.]
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AudioCulture Quiz, May 24, 2021
1. In what 2018 Hollywood film did Marlon Williams play an up-and-coming country singer?
A: A Star is Born
2. Lorde’s song ‘Green Light’ won which local music award in 2017?
A: The APRA Silver Scroll award
3. In 1997, the first Dimmer EP features a cover of a Canned Heat song. What is the song’s title?
A: On the Road Again
4. Which member of Look Blue Go Purple was also in The 3Ds?
A: Denise Roughan
5. At age 11, Kimbra appeared on a children’s television show with a segment on becoming a pop star. What was the television show?
A: What Now?
6. Jonathan Bree and Scott Mannion formed which New Zealand record label in 2002?
7. Name three of the well-known musicians in Bic Runga’s backing band for her 2005 album, Birds.
A: Any three of the following: Anna Coddington, Anika Moa, Neil Finn, Shayne P. Carter, Ben Maitland, Riki Gooch, Conrad Standish
8. Dons Savage of Dead Famous People was briefly part of which English dance-pop band in the early 1990s?
A: Saint Etienne
9. In 1990 there were two female winners of the Gold Guitar Awards. Who were the winners?
A: Kylie Harris and Camille Te Nahu
10. How many Māori Hi-Five bands were there? How was each band configuration identified?
A: Three. Each configuration in the 1960s was known as 1, 2, or 3, and had the Roman numeral of their configuration on their band blazers.
Blazer pocket of the Māori Hi-Five uniform. - Lou Kewene-Doig collection
[This week’s quizmaster: Amanda Mills, music curator at the Hocken Library, Dunedin.]
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AudioCulture Quiz, May 17, 2021
1. Before choosing music as his lifelong passion, Graham Brazier (Hello Sailor) had a serious chance for success in which sport?
a. Cricket
b. Rugby League
c. Football
A: b. Rugby League
2. Before they formed The Beths, all four original members were in which Auckland band?
A: Sal Valentine & The Babyshakes
3. Which New Zealand songwriter and producer has co-written songs with Taylor Swift, Khalid and Imagine Dragons?
A: Joel Little
4. Who had a global hit after their song was featured in Judd Apatow’s movie Knocked Up?
A: Savage
5. Who has set themself the goal of recording 10 albums in 10 different genres in 10 years?
A: Troy Kingi
6. L.A.B. was formed by two brothers. Which band were they in before?
A: Kora
7. Which singer/songwriter has also written cookbooks and owns a vegan store named Grater Goods?
A: Flip Grater
8. In the 1970s, Suzanne Lynch from The Chicks became the backing singer for which hugely popular UK artist?
A: Cat Stevens
9. Che Fu’s father is also a prominent musician – who is he?
A: Tigilau Ness
10. Patea Māori Club’s ‘Poi E’ received this year’s Classic Record Award at the Taite Music Prize ceremony on April 20. Who co-wrote the song with Dalvanius?
[This week’s quizmaster: Renée Jones from AudioCulture, Auckland.]
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AudioCulture Quiz, May 10, 2021
1. Name two of DJ Mu’s two most notable musical pre-Fat Freddy’s Drop projects.
A: Bongmaster, The Crackhead Experience, and Roots Foundation.
2. Which British musician produced Shihad’s debut album Churn?
A: Jaz Coleman
3. With which Irish band did Julia Deans enter the public eye prior to success with Fur Patrol?
A: Banshee Reel
4. Which actor/comedian starred in the music video to The Phoenix Foundation’s 2015 track ‘Give Up Your Dreams’?
A: Bret McKenzie
5. Which Kiwi music legend performed guest backing vocals on country singer Al Hunter’s 1987 album Neon Cowboy?
A: Dave Dobbyn
6. Who were the four bands showcased on Flying Nun’s Dunedin Double EP?
A: The Chills, The Verlaines, Sneaky Feelings, The Stones
7. What connects Zed/ Feelers guitarist Andy Lynch with the late, great Scott Walker?
A: Andy Lynch’s father Bruce Lynch was a session musician on some of Scott Walker’s 1970s records
8. What was the name of Pluto’s 2001 debut album?
A: Red Light Syndrome
9. Which Christchurch group gave an early platform for Aldous Harding, Motte and Reb Fountain?
A: The Eastern
10. Which member of Straitjacket Fits previously logged time in Dunedin bands The Blue Meanies and The Orange?
A: Andrew Brough
[This week’s quizmaster: Jeremy Taylor of Slowboat Records, Wellington.]
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