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: 9781869404550
Title: Blue Smoke: the Lost Dawn of NZ Popular Music 1918-1964
Author: BOURKE CHRIS

Bringing to life the musical worlds of New Zealanders both at home and out on the town, this history chronicles the evolution of popular music in New Zealand during the 20th century. From the kiwi concert parties during World War I and the arrival of jazz to the rise of swing, country, the Hawaiian sound, and then rock'n'roll, this musical investigation brings to life the people, places, and sounds of a world that has disappeared and uncovers how music from the rest of the world was shaped by Maori and Pakeha New Zealanders into a melody, rhythm, and voice that made sense on these islands. The accompanying audio CD wonderfully brings to life the engaging text, underscoring seminal moments in New Zealand's musical history.

Format: Trade paperback
Price: $60.00

ISBN: 9781776562213
Title: Dead People I Have Known
Author: CARTER SHAYNE

Best known for his bands Straitjacket Fits and Dimmer, Carter takes us deep behind the scenes and songs of these major bands, recounts life with his riotous teenage bands Bored Games and the Doublehappys, and traces an intimate history of the Dunedin Sound and the record label Flying Nun. His story follows the pop culture of the 70s, 80s and 90s and the broader culture of New Zealand through this period, especially the bleak and violent aspects of Dunedin that shaped his early life. The story ends in 2018, back in Dunedin, where Carter lives now.

In Dead People I Have Known Carter also writes of the other major force in his life: sport. He describes his love for harness racing, wrestling, basketball and football in rich and often very funny detail, finding a similar solace in these pursuits as he does in music.

Editor Ashleigh Young described the book as ‘a brilliant portrait of the people, places and social forces that are so tightly woven with Carter’s life in music. Carter is a gifted storyteller.’

Format: Paperback
Price: $40.00

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: 9780947493226
Title: Kiwi Pacific Records Story
Author: VERCOE TONY

These interviews trace Kiwi Pacific Records from its beginnings as a division of publishers AH & AW Reed Ltd to its independence as Kiwi Pacific Records, all under the direction of Tony Vercoe.

Format: Paperback
Price: $30.00

ISBN: 9781138195691
Title: Made in Australia & Aotearoa/NZ: Studies In Popular Music
Author: BRUNT SHELLEY & STAHL GEOFF (EDS)


Made in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive and thorough introduction to the history, sociology, and musicology of twentieth-century popular music of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. The volume consists of chapters by leading scholars of Australian and Aotearoan/New Zealand music, and covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of pop music in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Each chapter provides adequate context so readers understand why the figure or genre under discussion is of lasting significance to Australian or Aotearoan/New Zealand popular music. The book first presents a general description of the history and background of popular music in these countries, followed by chapters that are organized into thematic sections: Place-Making and Music-Making; Rethinking the Musical Event; Musical Transformations: Decline and Renewal; and Global Sounds, Local Identity.

Format: Trade paperback
Price: $63.00

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: 9781869403447
Title: Nga Moteatea the Songs Part 2 With 2 Cds
Author: NGATA A T & JONES PEI TE HURINUI

An essential text for anyone studying Polynesian music and culture or Maori, Pacific Island, or New Zealand history, this redesigned edition of the classic study of Maori music contains an annotated collection of traditional Maori songsthe waiata. Study of the waiata is enhanced by the included recordings of the songs performed by traditional Maori singers.

Format: Hardback
Price: $75.00

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: 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