Stranded in Paradise: New Zealand Rock and Roll 1955 to the Modern Era

John Dix

Auckland: Penguin Books 2005

ISBN 0 14 301953 8

Reviewed by Tony Mitchell

I still remember the shock of amazement when I first discovered John Dix’s massive, encyclopedic history of New Zealand rock and roll in the now late and lamented Rhino Records in Westwood, Los Angeles, in 1992. Published in A4 in an edition of 10,000 copies in 1988 by the one-off imprint Paradise Publications, weighing two kilos (in paperback – there was also a hardback version) it contained a continuous stream of  vivid historical photographs of a plethora of Kiwi bands and musicians from the ‘Maori cowboy’ Johnny Cooper in 1955 to Flying Nun’s international push in 1988. Also containing dense historical commentary and analyses of most of three decades’ worth of important gigs, hits and recordings, it was an extraordinary achievement, not just in musical history but in social history as well. No one has ever succeeded in producing anything remotely like its equivalent in Australia, and it has inevitably become a cult item across the Tasman, with second hand bookshops selling copies for over $200.

This ‘fully revised and updated’ reissue of ‘the original classic’, released to mark 50 years since the release of Johnny Cooper’s version of Rock Around the Clock in 1955, is very welcome, especially for younger readers, but alas, a pale shadow of the original. The photographs  - many of them still unknown and uncredited - are pallid, lacklustre reproductions of those in the original edition (which was on glossy paper), some of which are missing, others reduced in size. The wonderfully vibrant full page shot of Johnny Cooper playing his guitar together with one of his band members, for example, is reduced to two-thirds of its original size and a flat finish.

Dix’s historical updates from 1988 to the present are largely perfunctory overviews of an admittedly diverse and complex range of musical history, from the phenomenal rise of Maori and Polynesian hip hop and R&B, to successive waves of independent rock,  pop singers such as Bic Runga, and internationally successful groups like the D4, the Datsuns and Evermore, and lack the rich detail and the sense of being there that emerged from almost every page of the original book. In his introduction, Dix offers no apologies, offering his close observation of the rise of Che Fu as evidence: ‘My finger may no longer be on the pulse, but I haven’t been totally out of touch … if the original was an attempt to paint the big picture then the second edition is even more so … The new chapters at the end of the book are not as detailed as the earlier chapters, and, in effect, this is very much the story, highly subjective at times, of the growth of the New Zealand music industry before the advent of NZ on Air and government assistance’ (p.11).

He opens with a moving description of the launch of the original book at the Gluepot, Auckland’s most famous music pub which was demolished shortly afterwards, MC’d by the late Bruno Lawrence, with Chris Knox performing his abrasive attack on the New Zealand music industry ‘Statement of Intent’ to an industry who’s who, challenging them to get their act together. This has since happened, and Dix points to the 52 albums and 56 singles which have topped the NZ charts, most of them since 1988 - documented in an appendix - and more than 20 books have appeared on different aspects of New Zealand popular music. These include David Eggleton’s 2003 historical overview Ready to Fly (Craig Potton Publishing), which followed in Dix’s footsteps both in format and concept, but focused in more detail on post 1980s developments.

Eggleton and Dix inevitably give pride of place to Split Enz, Crowded House and Neil Finn, with both ending with  a quote from Tim Finn’s Six Months in a Leaky Boat (which of course had the distinction of being banned on radio during the first Gulf war): ‘Aotearoa, rugged individual/Glisten like a pearl/ At the bottom of the world/ The tyranny of distance/ Didn’t stop the cavalier/ So why should it stop me’ …  Dix retains this from his original volume, updating his epilogue with a list of obituaries including Phil Fuemana and Paul Hester of Crowded House, and a list of rock progeny such as Liam Finn of Betchadupa. Arguably the tyranny of distance is no longer such a constricting factor, and the success of New Zealand musicians around the world is testimony to supportive government policies, radio and television airplay, and above all staunch listeners who have kept the faith.

Music Forum Vol 12 No 3

John Dix

Auckland: Penguin Books 2005

ISBN 0 14 301953 8

Reviewed by Tony Mitchell

I still remember the shock of amazement when I first discovered John Dix’s massive, encyclopedic history of New Zealand rock and roll in the now late and lamented Rhino Records in Westwood, Los Angeles, in 1992. Published in A4 in an edition of 10,000 copies in 1988 by the one-off imprint Paradise Publications, weighing two kilos (in paperback – there was also a hardback version) it contained a continuous stream of  vivid historical photographs of a plethora of Kiwi bands and musicians from the ‘Maori cowboy’ Johnny Cooper in 1955 to Flying Nun’s international push in 1988. Also containing dense historical commentary and analyses of most of three decades’ worth of important gigs, hits and recordings, it was an extraordinary achievement, not just in musical history but in social history as well. No one has ever succeeded in producing anything remotely like its equivalent in Australia, and it has inevitably become a cult item across the Tasman, with second hand bookshops selling copies for over $200.

This ‘fully revised and updated’ reissue of ‘the original classic’, released to mark 50 years since the release of Johnny Cooper’s version of Rock Around the Clock in 1955, is very welcome, especially for younger readers, but alas, a pale shadow of the original. The photographs  - many of them still unknown and uncredited - are pallid, lacklustre reproductions of those in the original edition (which was on glossy paper), some of which are missing, others reduced in size. The wonderfully vibrant full page shot of Johnny Cooper playing his guitar together with one of his band members, for example, is reduced to two-thirds of its original size and a flat finish.

Dix’s historical updates from 1988 to the present are largely perfunctory overviews of an admittedly diverse and complex range of musical history, from the phenomenal rise of Maori and Polynesian hip hop and R&B, to successive waves of independent rock,  pop singers such as Bic Runga, and internationally successful groups like the D4, the Datsuns and Evermore, and lack the rich detail and the sense of being there that emerged from almost every page of the original book. In his introduction, Dix offers no apologies, offering his close observation of the rise of Che Fu as evidence: ‘My finger may no longer be on the pulse, but I haven’t been totally out of touch … if the original was an attempt to paint the big picture then the second edition is even more so … The new chapters at the end of the book are not as detailed as the earlier chapters, and, in effect, this is very much the story, highly subjective at times, of the growth of the New Zealand music industry before the advent of NZ on Air and government assistance’ (p.11).

He opens with a moving description of the launch of the original book at the Gluepot, Auckland’s most famous music pub which was demolished shortly afterwards, MC’d by the late Bruno Lawrence, with Chris Knox performing his abrasive attack on the New Zealand music industry ‘Statement of Intent’ to an industry who’s who, challenging them to get their act together. This has since happened, and Dix points to the 52 albums and 56 singles which have topped the NZ charts, most of them since 1988 - documented in an appendix - and more than 20 books have appeared on different aspects of New Zealand popular music. These include David Eggleton’s 2003 historical overview Ready to Fly (Craig Potton Publishing), which followed in Dix’s footsteps both in format and concept, but focused in more detail on post 1980s developments.

Eggleton and Dix inevitably give pride of place to Split Enz, Crowded House and Neil Finn, with both ending with  a quote from Tim Finn’s Six Months in a Leaky Boat (which of course had the distinction of being banned on radio during the first Gulf war): ‘Aotearoa, rugged individual/Glisten like a pearl/ At the bottom of the world/ The tyranny of distance/ Didn’t stop the cavalier/ So why should it stop me’ …  Dix retains this from his original volume, updating his epilogue with a list of obituaries including Phil Fuemana and Paul Hester of Crowded House, and a list of rock progeny such as Liam Finn of Betchadupa. Arguably the tyranny of distance is no longer such a constricting factor, and the success of New Zealand musicians around the world is testimony to supportive government policies, radio and television airplay, and above all staunch listeners who have kept the faith.

Music Forum Vol 12 No 3