The music of New Zealand has been influenced by a number of traditions, including Māori music, the music introduced by European settlers during the nineteenth century, and a variety of styles imported during the twentieth century, including blues, jazz, country, rock and roll, reggae, and hip hop, with many of these genres given a unique New Zealand interpretation.
The Mutton Birds were a New Zealand rock music group formed in Auckland in 1991 by Ross Burge, David Long and Don McGlashan, with Alan Gregg joining a year later. Four of their albums reached the top 10 on the New Zealand Albums Chart, The Mutton Birds (1992), Salty (1994), Envy of Angels (1996) and Rain, Steam and Speed (1999). They had a number-one hit with "The Heater" (1994), while their two other top 10 singles were a cover of "Nature" by the Fourmyula (1992), and an original, "Anchor Me" (1994). From 1996 to 2000 the group were based in England; they returned to New Zealand and then disbanded in 2002.
Blam Blam Blam were a New Zealand pop/rock/alternative band. Tim Mahon (bass) and Mark Bell had been members of The Plague and The Whizz Kids. After losing their drummer Ian Gilroy to The Swingers in 1980, Tim and Mark joined up with Don McGlashan, a multi-instrumentalist who played drums and sang many lead vocals.
Donald McGlashan is a New Zealand composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist who Is best known for membership in the bands Blam Blam Blam, The Front Lawn, and The Mutton Birds, before going solo. He has also composed for cinema and television. Among other instruments, McGlashan has played guitar, drums, euphonium and French horn.
The Front Lawn was a New Zealand musical/theatrical duo founded by Don McGlashan and Harry Sinclair in 1985. In 1989 and 1990, they were joined by actor Jennifer Ward-Lealand. The Front Lawn were known for their live performances, and toured extensively in New Zealand, Australia, Europe and America. They released two albums and made three short films.
Fane Michael Flaws was a New Zealand musician, songwriter, and artist.
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is a song by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult from the band's 1976 album Agents of Fortune. The song, written and sung by lead guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, deals with eternal love and the inevitability of death. Dharma wrote the song while picturing an early death for himself.
The Fourmyula were a New Zealand rock group formed in 1967 in Upper Hutt. They achieved considerable local success in the late 1960s, with ten of their fourteen singles reaching the New Zealand Top 20.
"Anchor Me" is a 1994 single by New Zealand rock band The Mutton Birds. The song peaked at #10 in the New Zealand singles chart, and charted for nine weeks. The song was from the group's 1993 album Salty, with three other album tracks used on the single. "Anchor Me" is a love song, written by the Mutton Birds' lead singer Don McGlashan about his wife.
Envy of Angels is the third album by the New Zealand rock band The Mutton Birds. It was released in 1996.
Too Hard Basket, subtitled B Sides and Bastards, is a limited release compilation of B-sides and unreleased tracks by the New Zealand band the Mutton Birds. The album was released via the band's website and gig sales.
The Mutton Birds is the first album by the New Zealand band The Mutton Birds. Released in 1992, it remained on the New Zealand album charts for more than a year and was named Best Album at the 1993 New Zealand Music Awards. It was among the records selected by the author Nick Bollinger for his 2009 book, 100 Essential New Zealand albums.
Salty is the second album by the New Zealand rock band The Mutton Birds, released in 1994. Four songs — "The Heater", "Anchor Me", "In My Room" and "Ngaire" — reached the top 20 in the New Zealand singles chart with "The Heater" reaching No.1.
Tiki Taane is a New Zealand musician, experimentalist, musical activist, producer, and live engineer. He was a member of leading New Zealand band Salmonella Dub but left after eleven years on 1 January 2007 to pursue a solo career. His debut album, Past, Present, Future, was released on 22 October 2007 in New Zealand and has since gone two times platinum, achieving a number one single, "Always on My Mind", which became the first digital single to reach platinum sales and also held the record by staying in the NZ Top 40 Charts for 55 weeks. Taane is also the exclusive live sound engineer for New Zealand drum and bass act Shapeshifter since their first gig in 1999. Taane has also produced multi platinum albums for bands such as Six60, Shapeshifter, Salmonella Dub and Tiki Taane.
Michael David Rosenberg, better known by his stage name Passenger, is an English indie folk singer-songwriter. From 2003 to 2009, Rosenberg fronted a band by the same name; he opted to keep the Passenger moniker for his solo work after the band dissolved. Rosenberg is best known for the 2012 song "Let Her Go", which topped the charts in 16 countries and accumulated more than 3.3 billion views on YouTube. Because Rosenberg was based in Australia at the time of release, it is the most-viewed Australian YouTube video of all time. In 2014, the song was nominated for the Brit Award for British Single of the Year, and he received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Most Performed Work.
"Nature" is a 1969 single by New Zealand band The Fourmyula. The song peaked at number one in the New Zealand singles chart in 1970, won the APRA Silver Scroll songwriting award the same year, and in 2001 was voted the top song in APRA New Zealand's Top 100 New Zealand Songs of All Time. "Nature" was notably covered in 1992 by New Zealand rock band The Mutton Birds.
"Can't Get Enough" is a 1994 single from New Zealand funk rock band Supergroove. It peaked at number one in the New Zealand singles chart and later charted at 36 in Australia. The song was included on Supergroove's debut album Traction. Long-time TVNZ 2 continuity announcer Warren Thomas made a spoken cameo appearance part way into the song.
Nature is a compilation album by the New Zealand rock band The Mutton Birds. The album, a selection of songs from the band's first two albums, was released in 1995 in the UK.
In early 2012 the original line-up of The Mutton Birds reunited after 10 years for a series of concerts in New Zealand. This album 'Free Range – The Mutton Birds Live 2012' is a record of an intimate show at the King's Arms in Auckland.
"Dominion Road" is the debut single by New Zealand rock band The Mutton Birds. The song was released in 1992 as one of four singles to promote the band's debut self-titled album. Despite only spending ten weeks on the New Zealand singles charts and peaking at #31, the song has since become a New Zealand classic, being rated as the 23rd best New Zealand song of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association in 2001. The song has resulted in the installation of a brass plaque in the footpath approximately half-way down the song's namesake street, in a reference to the song's lyrics.
