Hirini Melbourne, kaitito
Greetings to all iwi, all languages, all people everywhere. Hirini Melbourne (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu) was a composer (kaitito), singer, univer...
Ngahiwi Apanui
Songwriter's Choice: Maree Sheehan
It was hard to narrow my song choice to just 10 songs, but these songs continue to be on my playlists. I like a real variety in music genres. If I ...
Rob Ruha
Aotearoa: He Waiata Mo Te Iwi
Wellington, 1987: Heads turn when Aotearoa strike up their rendition of Nina Simone's 'Young, Gifted and Black'. Ngahiwi Apanui, the Wellington...
Big Day Out memories
Big Day Out was the biggest annual musical event on the New Zealand music calendar during the 1990s and 2000s. Aside from international superst...
Big Day Out in pictures
A selection of photos of New Zealand acts – and their fans – performing at the annual Big Day Out music festival in Auckland, between 1994 and 2014...
AudioCulture Quiz
Welcome to the weekly AudioCulture Quiz. Clue: answers are on the site or, for those in a hurry, at the link below. AudioCulture Quiz, September 1...
Big Day Out: New Zealand bands on the bill
Poster for Big Day Out 1994. "Hello Auckland!" Saturday, February 5, 1994 Straitjacket Fits Loves Ugly Children Headless Chickens The 3Ds H...
Alannah Currie
The Chicks: Teen Beat exclusive
The Chicks revealed their personal tastes in popular culture in the October 1966 edition of the Wellington pop magazine Teen Beat. Which Chick ...
Ten more moments in New Zealand drumming
It must be at least four years since AudioCulture first asked me to put together a list of 10 New Zealand drum tracks. A lot has happened since the...
Rock & Roll Rendezvous: Alannah Currie
Alannah Currie and Lou Reed He was a rock'n'roll animal who took no prisoners, but all journalists were prisoners in the presence of Lou Reed. I...
Auckland nightlife: the 1960s in colour
A selection of photos, mostly from the Rykenberg Collection at Auckland Libraries, that show some after-hours possibilities for adults during the 1...
The Hi Diddle Griddle
Menu from the Hi Diddle Griddle, 1959. Situated at 507 ("food from heaven”) Karangahape Road, the Hi Diddle Griddle was once considered Aucklan...
Jackie Bristow
Bic Runga on Bic Runga, 2012
Bic Runga has been a mainstay of the New Zealand music scene since she was 20 years old, when she released her chart-topping album, Drive. In 2012,...
Max Cryer
Ten house hits of the early 2000s
New Zealand clubs really started booming in the 1980s and 1990s, but the party people were mainly grooving to imported tunes – with a few notab...
Rock & Roll Rendezvous: Tex Morton
Tex Morton and Gene Autry When it came to yarn spinning, Tex Morton's aim was true. So many characters populated his colourful life that it's a ...
Monitor magazine
Emerging from the chrysalis of The Book Of BiFiM and lasting a little over two years, Monitor Magazine reflected an Auckland that was increasingly ...
Dave Maybee
Raze the Roof
AudioCulture's first gallery of Brian Murphy's images of Auckland's alternative music community is anchored in the mid-1980s and at places like the...
Farmyard
Aldous Harding
Rock & Roll Rendezvous: the Moahunters
Moana & the Moahunters and the Neville Brothers When the Dave Brubeck Quartet first visited Wellington in 1960, riding high on 'Take Five', ...
Wellington catches rock’n’roll fever
When Don Richardson framed up his first "festival of jazz” in 1955, little could he have known that his live concerts would become the vehicle – le...
Don Richardson
King Kapisi
Fatal Jelly Space
The La De Da's concept album 'The Happy Prince'
In late 1966 Bruce Howard and Trevor Wilson of The La De Da's had a vision for a rock opera based on Oscar Wilde's 1888 short story 'The Happy ...
The La De Da's
Sonya Waters
Ten Flying Nun treasures
1. Pop-up press kit for The Clean's 'Boodle Boodle Boodle' 12" EP From what I'm aware, only approximately 50 of these pop-up press kits were eve...
Disasteradio
Rock & Roll Rendezvous: Mike Walker
Mike Walker et al & Thelonious Monk It's around midnight, and Thelonious Monk is looking for distraction. On High Street in Auckland's CBD i...
Māori Hi-Five: a memoir of the early years
Rob Hemi-Te Miha was an original member of the Māori Hi-Five, playing rhythm guitar, bass, and singing. Before he died in November 2007 he wrote a ...
Rock & Roll Rendezvous: Benee
Benee and Elton John Elton John is no slug. In early 2020 on his Rocket Hour radio show he plays "something exciting from New Zealand … 'Supalon...
Mara TK
New Zealand Musician
Launched in 1988, New Zealand Musician was the last local music magazine standing when it stopped regular print runs in 2017. It continues online a...