ISBN: 9781869664879
Title: Backstage Passes: The Untold Story of NZ's Live Music Venues 1960-1990
Author: MATHERS JOANNA

New Zealand music was made on beer-stained stages, in grimy toilets and smoky back rooms. Backstage Passes charts the stories of the countries most celebrated live music venues. Hookers, heroin, cocaine, killings, sex in alleyways, punch-ups on dance floors - live music was the nexus around which a cultural history happened.

Backstage Passes has the inside story on what it was like to be part of a vibrant scene when New Zealand was a rural backwater. First-hand accounts from muscicians, fans and bar owners bring each chapter to life.

The beating heart of the book is the music and the spaces within which the music was played. Rock, pop, reggae, punk and hip-hop, every genre has its heroes and villians, it's successes and casualties. Backstage Passes is a tribute to all the characters whom sizzled up the stage, worked the doors, poured the beers and danced to the beat.

Format: Paperback
Price: $40.00

ISBN: 9780473521363
Title: Canons Complete Lyrics 2015-2020 Nadia Reid
Author: REID NADIA

New Zealand musician Nadia Reid has been widely celebrated for her intelligent, arresting and startlingly honest lyrics. Canons contains the entire catalogue of lyrics from Reid’s first three albums, Listen to Formation, Look for the Signs (2015), Preservation (2017) and Out of My Province (2020).

Nadia Reid is a musician from Port Chalmers, New Zealand, who gained breakout acclaim with her 2015 debut album Listen to Formation, Look for the Signs. Her subsequent two albums, Preservation (2017) and Out of My Province (2020) have continued a widely celebrated career, accompanied by multiple world tours and appearances on Later... with Jools Holland, BBC Radio 6 Music and Radio New Zealand.


Format: Paperback
Price: $27.00

ISBN: 9780316425315
Title: Do You Feel Like I Do? A Memoir
Author: FRAMPTON PETER; LIGHT ALAN

**Named a best book of 2020 by The Telegraph**

A revelatory memoir by rock icon and legendary guitarist Peter Frampton. Do You Feel Like I Do? is the incredible story of Peter Frampton's positively resilient life and career told in his own words for the first time. His monu-mental album Frampton Comes Alive spawned three top-twenty singles and sold eight million copies the year it was released (more than seventeen million to date), and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in January 2020. Frampton was on a path to stardom from an early age, first as the lead singer and guitarist of the Herd and then as cofounder -- along with Steve Marriott -- of one of the first supergroups, Humble Pie. Frampton was part of a tight-knit collective of British '60s musicians with close ties to the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and the Who. This led to Frampton playing on George Harrison's solo debut, All Things Must Pass, as well as to Ringo Starr and Billy Preston appearing on Frampton's own solo debut. By age twenty-two, Frampton was touring incessantly and finding new sounds with the talk box, which would become his signature guitar effect. Frampton remembers his enduring friendship with David Bowie. Growing up as schoolmates, crossing paths throughout their careers, and playing together on the Glass Spider Tour, the two developed an unshakable bond. Frampton also shares fascinating stories of his collaborative work with Harry Nilsson, Stevie Wonder, B. B. King, and members of Pearl Jam. He reveals both the blessing and curse of Frampton Comes Alive , opening up about becoming the cover boy he never wanted to be, his overcoming sub-stance abuse, and how he has continued to play and pour his heart into his music despite an inflammatory muscle disease and his retirement from the road. Peppered throughout his narrative is the story of his favorite guitar, the Phenix, which he thought he'd lost in a fiery plane crash in 1980. But in 2011, it mysteriously showed up again -- saved from the wreckage. Frampton tells of that unlikely reunion here in full for the first time, and why the miraculous reappearance is emblematic of his life and career as a quintessential artist.

Format: Hardback
Price: $50.00

ISBN: 9780473565145
Title: From AK79 to The Class of 81
Author: PHELPS ANTHONY

In 1978 a young man began to take photographs of the bands that visited his school, playing lunchtime concerts.
From there, Anthony Phelps followed the bands to the other venues they were playing and over the next
five years, he visually documented one of the most exciting eras in Auckland’s rock and roll history, the punk
and post-punk years.
They were heady years, as punk created an explosion in new music in New Zealand with dozens of new venues
and literally hundreds of new bands, plus a nascent New Zealand indie recording industry that survives
today. Names like Toy Love, The Scavengers, Pop Mechanix, The Terrorways, The Spelling Mistakes and The
Screaming Meemees are all part of our musical history and Anthony photographed them all and many more.
Some of his images have become iconic in the decades since, images like the AK79 album cover which must
exist in thousands of New Zealand homes and homes around the world.

Format: Paperback
Price: $85.00

ISBN: 9781927249543
Title: Goneville: A Memoir
Author: BOLLINGER NICK

In his award-winning memoir, New Zealand writer and musician Nick Bollinger talks with complete candour about his unorthodox childhood, his obsession with music, the impact of a family tragedy, and the journey that would decide the course of his life. Bollinger was just 18 when he went on the road with the band Rough Justice and its smoky-voiced, charismatic leader Rick Bryant. The next two years were sometimes uplifting and exciting, other times enervating and depressing. It was the 1970s and pot was plentiful. Often, though, the band was short of other things: money, food, shelter, and petrol for its increasingly ramshackle, broken-down bus.

Goneville is both a coming-of-age story and an intimate look at the evolving music scene in '70s New Zealand. It shows how this music intersected - sometimes violently - with the prevailing culture, in which real men played rugby, not rock. Nick Bollinger draws on his own experiences, seeks out key players and unsung heroes and vividly portrays a divided country, set to shatter apart for a generation.

Winner of the Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing.


Format: Hardback
Price: $39.00

ISBN: 9781877551000
Title: How to Hear Classical Music #11 Ginger Series
Author: CADDY DAVINIA

Have you ever wondered why most classical music concerts are such stuffy affairs? Had to bluff your way through conversations about classical music? Want to get a handle on music by the modern composers? Tried and failed to convince teenagers of the merits of Beethoven or Bach? Or just want a great read on music you love? How to Hear Classical Music is all this and more. Davinia Caddy, an accomplished musician, historian and music writer, provides a thrilling and uplifting guide to classical music that's bound to cause waves. Like all the books in the popular Awa Press Ginger Series, How to Hear Classical Music opens a window into a fascinating world.

Format: Paperback
Price: $26.00

ISBN: 9781776562169
Title: Necessity for Consolation: John Cousins Speaks
Author: HOSKINS ROBERT & MEEHAN NORMAN



John Psathas has said that, of all New Zealand composers, John Cousins has ‘thrown the spear furthest’, meaning he is one of our most original artists, going beyond the edge. Provocative and penetrating and fundamentally true, Cousins remains absorbed and energised in and by creative work.

On the conversations, talks and reflections gathered in this volume, John Cousins speaks of landscape, family, himself, and shares a musical vision of consolation and hope.

John Cousins was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1943. He received training as a musician, graduating with an honours degree in music from the University of Canterbury in 1965, and taught there from 1967 to 2004. Over the years his work has evolved from conventional musical composition to sculptural performance, mixed-media and sonic art, and has been performed, broadcast and exhibited in New Zealand, Australia, Britain, Europe, Russia and the USA.

Robert Hoskins is a writer on music and the series editor of a number of musical projects. His specialised areas of research include eighteenth-century English music, colonial balladry, aspects of New Zealand music, and Robert Louis Stevenson; his most recent book is Douglas Lilburn: Memories of Early Years and Other Writings (Steele Roberts, 2014).

Norman Meehan, a pianist and composer, has collaborated extensively with New Zealand poet Bill Manhire. He is also the author of the books Serious Fun: The Life and Music of Mike Nock (VUP, 2010) and New Zealand Jazz Life (VUP, 2016).


Format: Paperback
Price: $40.00

ISBN: 9781776560929
Title: NZ Jazz Life
Author: MEEHAN NORMAN & WHINCUP TONY

Drawing on 39 interviews with leading New Zealand jazz musicians, New Zealand Jazz Life is a ground-breaking survey of the vibrant local scene. In best jazz style, eight solos – first-person portraits of major musicians – alternate with ensemble passages that enlarge on the key themes:
• discovering jazz
• learning to play
• starting a career
• living and working as a musician overseas
• what it means to play black American music in New Zealand
• the emergence of a New Zealand sound
• the state of jazz in contemporary New Zealand
• what jazz in New Zealand needs to go forward
New Zealand Jazz Life is essential and inspiring reading for musicians and fans, and a fascinating insight into the opportunities and
predicaments encountered by practitioners of any art form in New Zealand.
Norman Meehan is a Wellington-based composer, pianist, writer and teacher. His many releases include five collaborations with
the vocalist Hannah Griffin and Bill Manhire and other poets. He is the author of Time Will Tell: Conversations with Paul Bley and
Serious Fun: The Life and Music of Mike Nock.
Tony Whincup (1944–2015) was a leading New Zealand photographer whose longterm relationship with Kiribati and its people led
to several award-winning books.



Format: Paperback
Price: $40.00

ISBN: 9781990007019
Title: Perfection of Sound: The Maxwell Fernie Organ at St Mary of the Angels
Author: FERNIE GRETA ED

Describing in detail how a revolutionary new organ in Wellington was brought to life from a flat in Pimlico, London, this book draws on a vast archive of collected correspondence between Maxwell, the church and the organ and pipe builders.

Format: Hardback
Price: $80.00

ISBN: 9781988547138
Title: Sharp Left Turn: Notes on a Life in Music, from Split Enz to Play It Strange
Author: CHUNN MIKE

A rollicking yarn about the early days of ground-breaking band Split Enz, but also the powerful story of how Mike Chunn dealt with a crippling mental health issue and went on to become one of our most influential music identities.
This is a gripping read that works on several levels:

It's the sliding-door story of someone who might have become a world-famous pop star had he not suffered from agoraphobia.

It's the story of a group of very young musicians trying to find their feet as a band in the late 70s and early 80s, and the associated euphoria and craziness of that life.

It's Mike's story of finding out what agoraphobia is, learning how to cope with it and eventually finding a way through and going on to make a huge contribution to the New Zealand music industry.

Told in Mike's own words, this is also a loving evocation of a 50s and 60s New Zealand childhood, and a beautifully written memoir that will resonate with many.

Author bio:

Mike Chunn was a founding member of Split Enz and then in Citizen Band. He suffered from high levels of anxiety, which he later found out was in fact agoraphobia, and had to stop playing in bands because he couldn't travel outside Auckland. He then worked for a record label and for APRA before starting an organisation called Play It Strange, a very successful and highly respected organisation that encourages school students in their song-writing ambitions.

Format: Hardback
Price: $45.00

ISBN: 9780473456399
Title: Where's My Room: The Neil & Liam Finn Summer 2018 Tour of Aotearoa
Author: JORGENSEN IAN

In the summer of 2018 Neil & Liam Finn teamed up with A Low Hum for a tour that took them to spots even the most ardent of Kiwi nomads would be hard-placed to point out on a map - communities such as Purekireki, Tauhei, Tirohanga, Himatangi Beach and Absurdistan. It was a way to connect with audiences often neglected by touring musicians combined with an epic summer road-trip.

Format: Paperback
Price: $50.00

ISBN: 9781988538112
Title: Wired for Sound: The Stebbing History of NZ Music
Author: GILLANDERS GRANT

For the first time ever, discover the story behind the Stebbing recording legacy. From pioneering violins and 78 records, to the singers, songwriters, engineers and producers who have graced Stebbing’s famous three recording studios. Come inside the mid-1960s Galaxie nightclub, the evolution of the Zodiac record label and the Stebbing family’s fearless response to industry politics, changing technologies and financial risk.

This is the untold Stebbing story of resilience, enterprise and an ancestral restless spirit has underpinned the Stebbing family’s generational legacy, from the pioneering days of recording in New Zealand to the digital age. Against a backdrop of New Zealand’s vibrant social history, this 75-year-long story is about the bands, the artists, the singers, the songwriters, the engineers and the technical know-how that is uniquely Stebbings.

Richly-told and lavishly illustrated, this warts-and-all nostalgic read is told through the artists, the musicians, the bands, the songwriters, the engineers and the wider Stebbing family itself.

Format: Hardback
Price: $90.00