Tuesday 16 November 2021 1:22pm
Ian Dalziel, (b.1957), The Original Collage, 1981. Photo: Hocken Collections.
The record label synonymous with the Dunedin Sound marks its 40th anniversary this year and the Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena is set to celebrate.
Flying Nun Records, the independent record label founded by Roger Shepherd, has a special significance to Dunedin as several of the city’s most revered musical acts from the 1980s and 1990s were signed to the label.
The Chills, The Verlaines, Bored Games, The Stones, Look Blue Go Purple, Sneaky Feelings, Straitjacket Fits, Snapper, and 3Ds, to name a few, released singles, EPs, and albums with Flying Nun which are beloved by local, national, and international fans and audiences.
“It presented an opportunity for local artists to release music to a wider audience, with much of their work now considered national classics, and the musicians celebrated as New Zealand music legends.”
To mark the occasion, Hocken Collections has put together an exhibition highlighting the impact of Flying Nun on the Dunedin music scene over the last 40 years, and the local artists whose music was vital to the developing sound of the label.
The exhibition – Kaleidoscope World: 40 years of Flying Nun in Dunedin – highlights the depth and breadth of the Hocken’s Flying Nun material, using items from across the collections, alongside some significant loans from personal collections (and a couple of surprises).
Amanda Mills, Curator Music and AV, says Kaleidoscope World will tell stories from local music scenes and display some well-loved – and some forgotten – treasures.
“Flying Nun was one of the first independent local record labels to focus on music made in the South Island, and especially ‘alternative’ music made by Dunedin artists, who were largely un-represented on labels at that time.
“It presented an opportunity for local artists to release music to a wider audience, with much of their work now considered national classics, and the musicians celebrated as New Zealand music legends,” she says.
These musicians include Dr Graeme Downes, Martin Phillipps, Lesley Paris, Shayne Carter, Jane Dodd, Michael Morley, Robert Scott, Francisca Griffin, Bruce Russell, Alastair Galbraith, and the late Wayne Elsey and Peter Gutteridge.
Ms Mills says Hocken Collections holds significant content relating to Flying Nun and the Dunedin Sound.
“We have over 500 published recordings on CD, LP, and cassette, and over 150 unpublished live performances on cassette. There are also a large number of recordings related to non-Flying Nun artists from Dunedin."
Katherine Milburn, Curator Ephemera, says much of the exhibition material is visual, from the Music, and Posters collections. Aside from album/EP/single covers and posters, there is ephemera, archives, photographs, artwork, and publications relating to Flying Nun and the Dunedin Sound which will be featured.
"Mutant Hillbilly Orientation 1990" Dunedin: Otago University Students’ Association, 1990. Photo: Hocken Collections.
“The Hocken holds hundreds of posters relating to both the label and the Dunedin Sound, with many others for non-Flying Nun Dunedin bands,” she says.
Archival highlights include the Xpressway Records material – Xpressway Records was founded in Port Chalmers, 1988 by Bruce Russell (from the band The Dead C) to release music from former Flying Nun artists no longer on the label in the late 1980s and 1990s. Pictorial highlights are numerous but will include the 1991 Flying Nun logo collage by Ian Dalziel.
Ms Mills believes Kaleidoscope World will appeal to a wide range of music-lovers from around New Zealand.
“The exhibition will attract musicians, people in the music industry, and visual artists who have an interest in the design and artwork of band posters and album covers, as well as contemporary fans and people involved in the Dunedin music scene in the 1980s-1990s, to younger fans discovering the label and the musicians involved.”
Kaleidoscope World: 40 Years of Flying Nun in Dunedin runs from Saturday, 4 December, 2021 to Saturday, 19 March, 2022.
Exhibition highlights include:
A large-scale commissioned work by musician and designer Robert Scott, showing the legendary Dunedin performance venues.
The influence and impact of female musicians on Flying Nun and throughout the wider Dunedin music scene will be woven through, and highlighted throughout, the exhibition spaces. A chance to view live performances of Flying Nun bands from the 1980s and 1990s.