STRAIGHT TALK

Quiz time: bet you can recognize this song from the lyrics — “Now look at them yo-yos / That’s the way you do it / You play the guitar on the MTV / That ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it / Money for nothin’ and chicks for free.” You got it — Dire Straits and Money for Nothing, off their fantastic 1985 Brothers in Arms album. You don’t win anything if you got it right, because everyone knows that song — well, everyone over 45, at least. But — do you know what Mark Knopfler was talking about? He was writing from the perspective of a normal working-class guy watching the wealthy musicians on Music Television — better known these days simply as ‘MTV’. Knopfler says, from the perspective of a hard-grafting workingclass guy: “We got to move these refrigerators, we gotta move these color TVs / I shoulda learned to play the guitar / I shoulda learned to play them drums” as he looks across at the stark contrast between his life and that of some of the music celebrities he describes — controversially at the time — as “That little faggot got his own jet airplane / That little faggot he’s a millionaire”. I know, I know — this has nothing to do with cars, and this is a car magazine. You’re right. Just hang in there with me for a bit, though, because I reckon you’ll find this story really interesting — for two reasons. Reason one: most car people I know are into music; reason two: you’re probably a New Zealander, and this is a truly amazing — and little-known — story about New Zealand innovation. MTV — music television; we watch it on various Sky channels (I’m sooo pissed off with Sky TV for dropping the MTV Classic and Juice 2 channels) — and it’s even on free-to-air TV these days through a channel called ‘Edge TV’. Edge TV music is complete crap, but it’s music, being played, with video, to the masses. MTV — it must be one of the world’s biggest industries. OK. Now — next quiz: what was the name of a New Zealand TV show back in the ’70s and ’80s that showed music clips? That’s right! Radio With Pictures. Well done! Radio With Pictures was an early music video show that TV2 ran from 1976 through to 1989. Back then — before the advent of MTV — record companies were providing a lot of music videos to TV producers for free — even to conservative 1970s two-channel Television New Zealand. Among the clips was a lot of stuff that it would have been considered ‘inappropriate’ to show kids back then, with bands such as the Sex Pistols and scantily clad young ladies included in the props. So, a guy at TV2 by the name of Peter Grattan came up with the idea of producing a weekly late-night music show and put the proposal to his boss, Kevan Moore. Kevan had an interest in music on TV from his time producing a New Zealand TV show called C’mon in the 1960s — if you remember C’mon, you’re as old as I am! — and he ran with the idea. The new show — aptly and simply called Radio With Pictures — got going in 1976, and not only showed music from overseas but also had a strong ethos of including a lot of non–mainstream music that we wouldn’t get to hear on radio. The show also became a platform from which to showcase up and coming New Zealand artists, which was a great thing. The Red Hot Peppers — not to be confused with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers — was the first Kiwi band to be shown on this new TV programme. I remember, as a teenager, being glued to Radio With Pictures, because, for the first time ever, we weren’t just hearing music from all around the world; we were seeing it. It was fantastic! We got to see — not just hear — what the bands we’d always listened to looked like and what was going on in the world of music. Travel was expensive then, and comparatively few bands from overseas came all the way to ‘God’s own’. For music lovers, this was amazing stuff. Do you remember who the Radio With Pictures hosts were? There were a few, but the ones most closely associated with the show were Karyn Hay and Dick Driver, who hosted it through most of the ’80s. On every episode, they looked and sounded as if they were stoned — but hey, why not? It was, after all, the ’80s. At the beginning of Radio With Pictures, during the ’70s, the show didn’t have a host because it didn’t have a budget. However, as this latenight ‘radio with pictures’ TV show gained popularity and momentum, it gained a budget and could start doing more. Record companies realized that the supply of clips to the show was resulting in TV watchers buying records; when the artists featured on Radio With Pictures toured New Zealand, the viewers went to see them. It worked on me, for one — in 1975 or thereabouts, I went and saw the Red Hot Peppers at the Royal Wanganui Opera House because I knew who they were — from Radio With Pictures. It was probably the first live concert I went to. Can you see where this story is going? This is where it gets interesting — and it surprised the shit out of me when I learnt about this. Remember that in the 1970s MTV hadn’t been thought of. If you’re old enough to remember Radio With Pictures, then you’re also old enough to remember the American TV show called The Monkees — you know: “Hey, hey, we’re The Monkees …” The show was based around four young guys forming a band and trying to find stardom. Anyway, it was a cool TV show, and I always thought The Monkees was a cool band — even if the band was a 1960s made-for-TV boy band. The members were Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones. Slightly ironically, The Monkees had some fantastic songs — Day-Dream Believer, Last Train to Clarkesville, I’m a Believer — and became a big hit on the charts, reaching number one in the US with each of their first four studio albums. Anyway, to get to the point of the story: in November 1976, only months after Radio With Pictures had started, Michael Nesmith was doing a solo tour throughout New Zealand, playing I have no idea where — The Monkees had long since disbanded. One night, Nesmith turned on the black and white TV set in his motel room and found Radio With Pictures. He was enthralled. As soon as Nesmith got back to the US, he went and saw media guru Robert Pittman and told him about what he had observed in ‘Nooo Zee-land’. Pittman was a radio and TV programmer, marketer, investor, and general media entrepreneur, and he was quick to see the potential in what Nesmith was describing to him — music with visuals; radio, but with pictures; music television. Pittman grabbed the concept with both hands and went on to oversee the creation and the continuous growth of MTV for many years, until its massive momentum took hold and spread it throughout the world to become the household product it is today. I thought that was an amazing story: that this world-wide MTV phenomenon was conceived right here in New Zealand, and, for me, at least, it makes my memories of watching Radio With Pictures as a teenager on a black and white TV set in Mum and Dad’s living room all the more special. Lastly — a final interesting little anecdote: when MTV Europe went live on August 1, 1987, Mark Knopfler’s song Money for Nothing — taking a poke at the high life enjoyed by music celebrities (like him!) — was the very first music video that went to air! “Lemme tell ya, them guys ain’t dumb …”

a truly amazing and little-known story about New Zealand innovation