Address | (Formerly at) 11 York St, Parnell, Auckland |
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Coordinates | 36°51′04″S174°46′45″E / 36.8511°S 174.7792°E |
Owner | Glyn Tucker |
Opened | 1975 |
Founded in the early 1970s, Mandrill Studios was a recording studio in Parnell, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. [1] Many of New Zealand's prominent artists had their work recorded there. The Mandrill record label grew out of the name of the studio. [2] The studio stopped recording in October 1992. [3]
The studio was located in the Auckland suburb of Parnell on York Street. It was owned by former 60s pop singers Glyn Tucker, Dave Hurley, along with composer and producer, Gary Daverne. Around 1980, Hurley and Daverne pulled out of the business, leaving Tucker as the sole owner of both the studio and the label. [2]
In 1979, Kim Fowley, a producer from the United States, produced the five man group Streettalk at Mandrill Studios. [4]
During the 1980s, artists such as Dance Exponents, The Mockers, Pink Flamingoes and the Screaming MeeMees were recorded there. [5] The Mauri Hikitia album, which featured Rhonda, Ken Kincaid, and Deane Waretini was recorded there. [6]
In 1981, the cast recording of Eaton Magoon Jr and Sir Robert Helpmann’s musical Aloha starring Derek Metzger, produced by Carl Doy was recorded with a live orchestra at Mandrill with the show’s Musical Director, Derek Williams as arranger and conductor. [7] [8]
Glyn Thomas Johns is an English recording engineer and record producer. He has worked with many of the most famous rock recording acts from both the UK and abroad, such as the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Who, Led Zeppelin, the Kinks, Eagles, Bob Dylan, the Band, Eric Clapton, the Clash, Steve Miller Band, Small Faces, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Joan Armatrading. Throughout his career, he has generally preferred a live, natural approach to recording in the studio, and developed a method of recording drums sometimes referred to as the "Glyn Johns method".
The Runaways were an American rock band who recorded and performed from 1975 to 1979. Formed in 1975 in Los Angeles, the band released four studio albums and one live album during its run. Among their best-known songs are "Cherry Bomb", "Hollywood", "Queens of Noise" and a cover version of the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". Never a major success in the United States, the Runaways became a sensation overseas, especially in Japan, thanks to the single "Cherry Bomb".
Sir Robert Murray Helpmann CBE was an Australian ballet dancer, actor, director, and choreographer. After early work in Australia he moved to Britain in 1932, where he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet under its creator, Ninette de Valois. He became one of the company's leading men, partnering Alicia Markova and later Margot Fonteyn. When Frederick Ashton, the company's chief choreographer, was called up for military service in the Second World War, Helpmann took over from him while continuing as a principal dancer.
Mount Smart Stadium, currently known as Go Media Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the main home ground of the New Zealand Warriors of the National Rugby League and Auckland FC of the A-League Men, and occasionally hosts rugby union and international rugby league matches. Built within the quarried remnants of the Rarotonga / Mount Smart volcanic cone, it is located 10 kilometres south of the city centre, in the suburb of Penrose.
Kim Vincent Fowley was an American record producer, songwriter and musician who was behind a string of novelty and cult pop rock singles in the 1960s, and managed the Runaways in the 1970s. He has been described as "one of the most colorful characters in the annals of rock & roll", as well as "a shadowy cult figure well outside the margins of the mainstream".
Citizen Band were a New Zealand band formed by the brothers Geoff and Mike Chunn, both of whom had previously been members of Split Enz.
The Crocodiles were a New Zealand pop/new wave band formed in 1979 with lead singer Jenny Morris, who went on to commercial success as a solo artist in Australia; and later included drummer Barton Price, who subsequently joined Sardine v and then Models. The Crocodiles top 20 hit single in New Zealand was "Tears" in 1980 from debut album, Tears; a second album, Looking at Ourselves, appeared in November. The band relocated to Australia in February 1981 but disbanded in July without further releases.
Eileen Patricia Augusta Fraser Morison was an American stage, television and film actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood and mezzo-soprano singer. She made her feature film debut in 1939 after several years on the stage, and amongst her most renowned were The Fallen Sparrow, Dressed to Kill opposite Basil Rathbone and the screen adaptation of The Song of Bernadette. She was lauded as a beauty with large blue eyes and extremely long, dark hair. During this period of her career, she was often cast as the femme fatale or "other woman". It was only when she returned to the Broadway stage that she achieved her greatest success as the lead in the original production of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate and subsequently in The King and I.
Spinal Tap are a fictional English heavy metal band created by the American comedians and musicians of The T.V. Show, who wrote and performed original songs as the band: Michael McKean, as the lead singer and guitarist David St. Hubbins; Christopher Guest, as the guitarist Nigel Tufnel; and Harry Shearer, as the bassist Derek Smalls. They are characterized as "one of England's loudest bands".
Joe Layton was an American director and choreographer known primarily for his work on Broadway.
The mandrill is the world's largest species of monkey.
Sean Hape, known professionally as Iota, is a New Zealand-Australian singer-songwriter and actor. As a musician, he has released six studio albums and was nominated for Best Independent Release for The Hip Bone Connection (1999) at the ARIA Music Awards of 2000. He has won four Helpmann Awards: Best Male Actor in a Musical in 2007 for Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Best Cabaret Performer, Best New Australian Work and Best Original Score for his work in Smoke and Mirrors in 2010.
Gary Michiel Daverne is a New Zealand musical arranger, composer, conductor, director and producer.
Deane Waretini is a musician from New Zealand. He had a #1 chart hit in 1981 with the song "The Bridge", a Māori language song set to Nini Rosso's tune "Il Silenzio". He is also the son of a historically significant Maori baritone singer and recording artist. In later years, Waretini was featured in a New Zealand television production that was built around him.
13 Daughters was a short-lived Broadway musical with book, music and lyrics by Eaton Magoon, Jr, starring Don Ameche. It played for 28 performances in 1961. The story was influenced by the life of Magoon's great-grandparents Chun Afong and his wife Julia Fayerweather Afong and their twelve daughters.
Glyn Tucker is a New Zealand musician and music producer. Following an early career as a singer/songwriter in The Gremlins (1965–1968), he founded Mandrill Recording Studios in Auckland in 1975, and produced and engineered hundreds of New Zealand songs in the late seventies, eighties, and early nineties.
The Mauri Hikitia is a various artists album released in 1981. It reached no 4 on the New Zealand charts. It features Rhonda, Ken Kincaid, Deane Waretini, and the Lightwood family.
Alastair Riddell is a New Zealand singer-songwriter.
Derek John Metzger is a New Zealand singer and actor best known for his performances in musical theatre in Australia.
Derek Leslie Williams is a New Zealand-born Scottish composer, record producer, conductor and orchestrator known for his scores for Frauds, Come in Spinner, Children of the Dragon, Crush, The Crossing, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Thank God He Met Lizzie, Ring of Scorpio, The Other Side of Paradise, Visionaries, Bodysurfer, and for Glenfiddich, Sir Robert Helpmann, Grace Knight, Frank Bennett, Debbie Newsome, Torvill and Dean, and Caroline O'Connor. He is currently serving his 7th term as Chair of the Wagner Society of Scotland, a member of the International Association of Wagner Societies (RWVI) and at the 2024 Assembly of Delegates at Deutsche Oper Berlin, was elected to serve a 5-year term on the RWVI Presidium.