Road to Netherworld Dancing Toys began at Otago

After finishing high school in December 1980, Nick Sampson told his parents he had no plans for future study. He’d been offered a place in local punk rock band Nocturnal Projections and was planning a career in music.

Rather than getting angry, his parents used reverse psychology and just said “that’s a pity”.

Soon after, his Oamaru-born mother Catherine said, “Why don’t we go to the library and have a look at the ODT [Otago Daily Times]”.

She opened the paper and showed him the back two pages, which were full of bands performing in Dunedin. And just like that she had sold him on life at Otago, he says.

In addition, his seventh form common room at New Plymouth’s Francis Douglas Memorial College, boasted a poster that said, “Otago needs you”. And on top of that, he had several cousins studying at Otago as well.

Late to enrol, he was thrilled to be offered a place to stay at University College (Unicol).

On his second day at Otago, Nick was walking past St Joseph’s Cathedral School in central Dunedin and heard a band practising. Drawn inside, he saw three guys playing who told him to come and watch them rehearse. It was only later that he realised they were Dunedin legends The Clean.

In 1981, during his first year at Otago, he lived in “the Dungeons” at Unicol where he made “many friends for life”.

From 1982-84 he was in a variety of Dunedin flats.

“Flatting was good fun. A bunch of five of us from Unicol flatted in our second year in a 1920s bungalow in Queen Street.

“There was an outdoor toilet and you didn’t muck around there in the middle of winter, as there was permafrost on the front lawn.”

Nick Sampson

Strongly influenced by UK band Dexys Midnight Runners, Nick was a foundation member and singer/guitar player for the Netherworld Dancing Toys (NDTs), alongside some of his Unicol friends and other students.

“The whole band were Otago students apart from one art school student and he did all our artwork.”

Nick says bass player Graham Cockroft (MCom, Marketing, 1990) put an advert in the ODT for a lead singer, and Malcolm Black (BCom/LLB, 1984) auditioned.

“Malcolm was well known in the Dunedin music scene, as he was in After Dark and Strictly Blues.

“I remember Malcom coming to an audition in the garage of Graham’s parents’ house in London Street.

“Many years later I asked him why he had joined the NDTs and he said it was because it was something completely different and that he enjoyed the energy and enthusiasm of the band.”

The band’s name came from a lyric in the Roxy Music song Spin Me Round – "A nether world dancing toy/I'm wired for sound..."

The NDTs played their first-ever concert at the Dunedin Orphan’s Club Hall in Clyde Street in June 1982.

“Tickets were $8 for a single or $14 for a double and our debut show went down incredibly well. We were booked the next week at The Oriental pub and played to full houses.”

Nick’s father, long-term New Plymouth District Council CEO Kinsley Sampson, had always wanted to study Law, but had joined his local council in Waitara as an “office boy”.

Nick originally enrolled in an LLB/BA but says his study ethic was not what it could have been and he withdrew halfway through his first year studying first-year course The Legal System.  He went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1985.

And what about their iconic song For Today, which went to number three in the New Zealand music charts?

The band was touring nationally and was in Ashburton when the chorus came to him out of the blue, Nick says.

However, the band then took a month off and he returned home to Waitara, where he worked at the local freezing works.

On returning to Otago, the band was rehearsing in a room in the former Rosyln Woollen Mill.

Nick and one of the other members went off for 40 minutes to get fish and chips, and when they came back, legendary Kiwi singer Annie Crummer had already come up with her iconic solo.

Nick says Malcolm thought some of the verses were too busy and asked if he could take the song away and simplify it.

“It was the only time we ever co-wrote a song, I wish now we had of worked together more."

“He went home and listened to Van Morrison all night and then revised the lyrics.

“It was the only time we ever co-wrote a song, I wish now we had of worked together more. Malcolm passed away in May 2019.”

Given the band’s local success, talks took place with Virgin Records UK, but nothing happened.

They recorded a second album in the late eighties and were still touring New Zealand, but all had jobs by this time. Nick was working in Wellington, Malcolm was a music industry lawyer for Russell McVeagh and Graham was working for BNZ.

CBS in the United States was planning to release the band’s second album in the US market in 1990, but were taken over by Sony Records, which put a complete freeze on hiring any new acts.

One day Graham said “Let’s go to London” and he paid for air tickets for both of them to go to the UK.

Nick worked in London for five years. His first role was for an IT firm.

“After two weeks I asked them what IT meant.”

On his return he worked many years in brand strategy, but has since returned to music. He’s currently playing in three music projects  – The Black Flames, Department of Propaganda and Dirt.

Dirt includes Barry Blackler, former drummer with Glasgow band The Jesus and Mary Chain and Mark Bell from Blam Blam Blam.  
Department of Propaganda members include Kim Willoughby, from When the Cat’s Away (and who at times toured and recorded with the NDTs), Ross Burge (drummer with The Muttonbirds and Dave Dobbyn) and Narcs bass player Tony Waine.

The NDTs reformed for one last performance together at the Silver Scrolls in late 2018.

“We only had time to rehearse for an hour, but it all came flooding back to us all and it was a very emotional performance.”

–  Kōrero by Kerry Dohig, Communications Adviser Development and Alumni Relations Office