Cut off from the ‘swinging’ innovations of 60s London, a generation of New Zealand musicians forged an underground scene that propelled the nation’s modern identity
is widely hailed as home to a progressive Labour government, a hi-tech film and TV industry, formidable wineries and sagacious singers Lorde and Aldous Harding, alongside much else. It’s a far cry from the 1960s when the conservative National Party government maintained “rule Britannia”: little television – and zero film – was homemade, local brewery DB’s tasteless beers were the nation’s tipple and popular musicians tended to faithfully replicate British stars.
By documenting the first stirrings of an underground rock scene, Jumping Sundays has spurred interest in the musicians who soundtracked this remarkable era. At the turn of the 70s, says author Nick Bollinger, bands on the lucrative brewery circuit served as human jukeboxes forced to play Top 40 hits. Meanwhile, “the psych bands played on campus or at a few clubs dedicated to hippies, or in back yards at parties.
The band who made the biggest impact were Blerta . Formed in 1971 as an improvised music and theatre cooperative led by Lawrence, an extrovert jazz drummer, Blerta’s anarchic performances featured homemade 8mm films directed by trumpeter Geoff Murphy with Lawrence in leading roles. Broadcaster Television New Zealand commissioned Blerta to make short films and, in doing so, launched the collective as pioneers of independent Kiwi cinema.
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