Homecoming of sorts for Flying Nun
Flying Nun Records is coming home, sort of.
Roger Shepherd founded the legendary Christchurch independent music label with $250 in 1981 while working behind the counter at the Record Factory on Colombo St, roughly where the EntX complex sits now.
Go north a couple of blocks and you have the site of the new Flying Nun record store in Terrace Arcade near Scorpio Books. When the store opens on May 31, it will be the third in a chain. Auckland was first, and then Wellington. But the opening of a Christchurch branch brings the story of the South Island label full circle. It warrants a look at the top 10 moments in the label’s history, and they aren’t all nostalgic.
1 Ambivalence
The first Pin Group single was also the first Flying Nun single, hence the label number FN001. It was murky-sounding and the Christchurch band were unhappy with it, but history knows better and an original copy now will cost $1000, if you can find one.
2 Beatnik
The Clean’s Tally Ho (FN002) was the hit that established the label, but The Clean’s wacky video for Beatnik fully revealed their 60s-inspired sense of humour. TVNZ transformed an ordinary Christchurch coffee shop into a groovy hippie den.
3 Pink Frost
One of several brilliant early singles by The Chills, this melancholy tribute from songwriter Martin Phillipps to a dead friend and former drummer is a sentimental favourite, as it might be the first Flying Nun record I ever bought. Spooky video, too.
4 She Speeds
The debate still rages. Which was the best Flying Nun video of the 80s? Was it Johnny Ogilvie putting Straitjacket Fits on a trailer that went back and forth through the Lyttelton tunnel as they mimed She Speeds? Or was it Stuart Page directing Snapper’s Buddy clip as the band rode motorbikes in Otago? It’s close, but Ogilvie wins.
5 Nelsh Bailter Space
This mysterious and short-lived band was a transition of sorts between The Clean and Bailter Space, sparked by a chance meeting on a Christchurch street between
Alister Parker and the late, great Hamish Kilgour. I only wish they’d reissue the record.
6 Not Given Lightly
Chris Knox was the spiritual godfather of the label in the first decade, although he would hate such a pompous title. He dropped his trademark sarcasm and abrasiveness for this wonderfully sincere love song that even got him played at weddings.
7 George
This dark yet catchy Headless Chickens track was Flying Nun’s first number one single, 13 years after the label started. It may still be the label’s only number one single, although Aldous Harding’s Warm Chris topped the album charts in 2022.
8 Nunfest
In 1996, 15 years after the label started, celebratory concerts were staged in Auckland and Dunedin. A special beer was brewed, called Roger’s Ruin. Even the UK music paper Melody Maker flew in to cover the shows, such was the reverence for Flying Nun. “As musical hotbeds go, Dunedin in the early-to-mid 80s was positively thermal,” it wrote, although it did concede “it all started up the road in Christchurch”.
9 Look Blue Go Purple
The all-female band from Dunedin were recently honoured when their 1991 album Compilation won the 2024 Independent Music NZ Classic Record Award.Their track Circumspect Penelope is also understood to be the best New Zealand song ever inspired by Homer’s Odyssey.
10 Vera Ellen
It’s not all old stuff. This younger singer-songwriter’s 2023 release Ideal Home Noise is literate slacker-folk in the spirit of Courtney Barnett. It won her the prestigious Taite Music Prize, on the same night Look Blue Go Purple got their award. Fun fact: Ellen worked in the Wellington Flying Nun store.