22 May 2012

Nun flies to 30th birthday

2/11/2011 10:12:00 a.m.

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Roger Shepherd (left) started Flying Nun Records merely to document the local music scene.

Roger Shepherd (left) started Flying Nun Records merely to document the local music scene.

WHEN Roger Shepherd began Flying Nun Records, he hoped there would be enough people interested to buy just enough to enable him to go another round. They were humble expectations from the “cheeky, irreverent” record company, quick to prove itself as the Little Label That Could.
The solo project began in Christchurch in 1981 when, with a strong music scene in the city, Shepherd was keen to document what was going on. He is celebrating his 30-year journey with a series of concerts from signed bands in November, artfully rechristened ‘Nunvember’.
“I’m an enthusiastic fan who wanted to help out in a delusional way,” laughs Shepherd.
Delusional indeed - but the time was right, the people were right, and business exploded.
“We got shot out of the water with The Clean, a remarkable band,” explains Shepherd, whose musical history began with a school holiday job at a music store, “They rolled through town at just the right time.”
After signing The Clean, who were “the biggest band in New Zealand,” the label then dominated the eighties, according to Shepherd: a big turnaround from a small set up designed just to record what was going on in the music scene. The success was also through friends in a post-punk era characterised by a do-it-yourself attitude.
“Music was reinvented to some extent,” says Shepherd, “Anyone could pick up an instrument and play. Anyone could start a band. Anyone could make a record.”
Strong, driven personalities helped keep Shepherd on his toes, including Martin Phillipps from The Chills, Shayne Carter from Straightjacket Fits and the colourful Chris Knox, with “bucketloads of personality.”
It wasn’t all plain sailing for Shepherd, who sold half the label to Australia’s Mushroom Records in the late eighties and was promptly squeezed out when James Murdoch’s News International bought Mushroom.
“Flying Nun ended up without its own identity,” laments Shepherd, who had been running the label for a while from Mushroom’s London offices.
He returned to New Zealand six years ago with his family and settled in Wellington. After he was asked to compile a box set for the 25th anniversary of Flying Nun, relationships with the new owners started to repair themselves.
“In Wellington I was bumping into old friends and getting reconnected to the music,” says Shepherd, “At the end of 2009 I asked, ‘Look, would you be interested in selling me back Flying Nun.’ They said, ‘Yes.’”
Now Shepherd’s back at the helm and he couldn’t be happier.
“We’re just going to go for it. I’m not interested in mainstream, commercial music and I never have been. I’m looking forward to maintaining that.”
Nunvember shows, assorted Wellington venues, November 5-25.
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Cover Story

Best of Wellington 2011

Briefs

  • A question of nutrition

    Controversial Washington-based nutritionist Sally Fallon-Morell is to speak in Wellington on March 29.
    Fallon-Morell is the co-founder of the American food lobby group the Weston A. Price Foundation and the author of Nourishing Traditions. She advocates for the consumption of nutritionally dense foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, stocks and broths, and whole raw dairy products.
    Fallon-Morell will speak at St Patrick’s College Hall on March 29.

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    A total of 88 teams, made up of 10 to 500 members, plan to take part with a further 25 teams on the waiting list.
    The 24 hour relay, the Cancer Society’s biggest fundraising event of the year, takes place at Frank Kitts Park from 4pm on March 31.

  • Osteoarthritis awareness

    Arthritis New Zealand has launched a nationwide campaign raise awareness about osteoarthritis. 
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    The campaign features television commercials and an interactive website.


  • Wild walk

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    Walkers can choose a two, five or 10 kilometre walk catering to all fitness levels.
    Money raised will go to the Foundation for Youth Development.

  • School pool

    The opening of the new Khandallah School pool this week means hundreds of children will be able to continue their swimming lessons.
    The pool was the first to receive a grant from Wellington City Council’s Schools Pools Partnership Fund, a fund set up in 2010 to help schools improve their pool facilities.
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  • Ze upgrade

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    The job will take four weeks.

  • Newlands Moves

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  • Baring Head

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  • Festival treats

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    For a perfect first theatrical experience White tells the story of friends Cotton and Winkle who live in a world where there is no colour and everything is startlingly white. That is until a brightly coloured egg tumbles out of the sky and changes their world for ever.
    White plays at Capital E from March 7-11.
    The tale of Peter and the World also promises to be a magical night for all ages. Sergei Prokofiev’s classic children’s tale is told through film and live music from the NZ Symphony Orchestra at the Michael Fowler Centre on March 9.
    March 11 is Young Writers and Readers Day and readings from children’s writers and illustrators Lynley Dodd and Gavin Bishop.

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