V.A. New Zealand Nuggets

Pues parece que esta serie de los "Nuggets" está animada, pues no hace mucho el amigo Butterboy nos presentó aquí su "Australian Nuggets", a la vez que el Daniel preparaba su "New Zealand Nuggets".

Al amigo Daniel, quizás lo recordéis, pues fué el autor de una, ya mítica colección, "Oceanic Odyssey", que pudimos disfrutar aquí hace unos años. Cuando le propuse la idea de hacer su propia colección, aceptó encantado y me consta que ha trabajado exhaustivamente para confeccionarla. Hay temas de bandas mas o menos conocidas, pero también hay algún tema que muy difícilmente encontraréis fuera de esta colección.

Mención aparte el trabajo de añadir un comentario personalizado de cada uno de los temas.

Sorprende que en un país tan pequeño y tan alejado de todo, hubiese tantísimos grupos, de todos los estilos y además con un nivel mas que notable.

Parece que cuando se habla de música oceánica, se piensa en Australia y dejamos de lado a Nueva Zelanda. Grave error, pues como podreis comprobar, no tienen nada que envidiar a su gigante vecino.

Pero bueno, nadie mejor que Daniel para que nos cuente algo de estos "New Zealand Nuggets":

In the late 50s New Zealand was influenced by   Rock n Roll.  This new sound became popular at the live dances especially in the main centres.  Early rock was influenced by the american stars such as Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley.  Soon after  there was a second wave of influential music with the introduction of the surf instrumental bands - especially The Shadows.  So by the early 60s came there was an active club scene based around groups with electric guitars.  Then in 1964 we picked up on the Beatles craze and this created another new wave of groups with combos now picking up vocalists and this was the point that music really boomed in this land.  Suddenly record sales were taking off and more and more of the younger generation wanted to see bands.

That is where this series begins.  Jose was interested in a nuggets style compilation and asked me to put one together for him.  It was a great pleasure to do this.  Until recently there really had been no extensive compilations on the NZ music scene of the era.  We did have some good CDs put out with garage era numbers (eg Wild Things) which gave a good introduction to the scene and just lately a 3 CD set called "How was the air up there" which up till now is the most comprehensive official release to date.  

As New Zealand has a small population there is a correspondingly small number of groups and recordings compared with other countries.  The result of this is that you tend to find the same set of songs reappear again and again on many of our releases.  In this respect I went out of my way to find some lesser known songs to add to the classic well known numbers which define New Zealand's contribution to 60s rock.   To this end I set myself a few ground rules:   

Limit the number of songs by any one band to 2 songs...just maybe 3 in one case.

Aim for a fair representation from each year from 1964 to 1969

Ensure all songs were fairly raw representatives of the basic beat/garage style.  So I avoided embellishments such as overt use of strings, horns or psychedelic effects. - with one exception because I really like it.

Most importantly I looked to introduce a good dose of original songs in preference to the "well trodden covers" so as to provide a degree of uniqueness in this set.

So we have a set of raw ravers and other interesting attempts to create songs to the new tastes of the public.  In this series there are a significant number of unreleased songs added to the set.  While some labels, notably Zodiac, were keen to encourage new sounds a number of other labels were reluctant to release uncommercial songs to a very conservative public.  So for a number of reasons related to this many songs were never given an official release.  All in all this all adds to my version of a "New Zealand Nuggets - style" release which is provided for anyone interested in what a small country can do.  

Daniel

TRACK-LIST:

1  TERRY DEAN & NITEBEATS  Because She Loves You (1964)  

2  SONNY DAY & SUNDOWNERS  Baby Jane (1964)  

3  SUNNY DAY &  THE  SUNDOWNERS  Tell Me Why (1964)  

4  THE CHANTS  I Forget How It's Been (1964)  

5  THE FOUR FOURS  Barrow Boy (1964)  

6  RAY COLUMBUS & THE INVADERS  She's A Mod (1964)  

7  THE BLUESTARS  PLEASE BE A LITTLE KIND (1965)  

8  THE DEEP SET  LIVING IT DOWN (1965)  

9  HUBB CAPP & THE WHEELS  I'm Happy Too (1965)  

10  THE LIBRETTOS  Baby Its Love (1965)  

11  PETER NELSON & THE CASTAWAYS  Down In The Mine (1965)  

12  THE VIGILANTES  Everybody Come And Clap Your Hands (1965)  

13  THE DETOURS  My Girl (1965)  

14  THE DEEP SET  Living It Down (1965)  

15  THE RAYDERS  I'm Telling You (1965)  

16  THE BLUESTARS  Social End Product (1966)  

17  CHANTS R&B  I'm Your Witchdoctor (1966)  

18  RAY COLUMBUS  We Want A Beat (1966)  

19  THE CHICKS  The Rebel Kind (1966)  

20  THE GREMLINS  The Coming Generation (1966)  

21  JAY EPAE  The Creep (1966)  

22  LA DE DAS  How Is The Air Up There (1966)  

23  LA DE DA'S  Don't Stand In My Way (1966)  

24  MAX MERRITT & THE METEORS  I Want So Much To Know You (1966)  

25  THE MINUTEMEN  Lament Of A Clerical Worker (1966)  

26  PETER NELSON & THE CASTAWAYS  Goin' Out Of My Mind (1966)  

27  THE PLEAZERS  Is It Over Baby (1966)  

28  THE RAYDERS  A Working Man (1966)  

29  SANDY EDMONDS  Come & See Me (1966)  

30  THE SECRETS  It's You (1966)  

31  THE SIERRAS  She's The One (1966)  

32  THE SOUNDS  Face In The Crowd (1966)  

33  THE FOUR FOURS  Go Go (1966)  

34  THE CLEVEDONAIRES  He's Ready (1967)  

35  THE CLEVEDONAIRES  Lost Woman (1967)  

36  THE COSSACKS  Wednesday I'm Glad (1967)  

37  THE CRESCENDOS  Now She's Mine (1967)  

38  THE DEEP SET  The Devil Is A Woman (1967)  

39  THE HUMAN INSTINCT  The Rich Man (1967)  

40  IDENTITY  In Her Power (1967)  

41  LATTER RAIN  You Look So Beautiful (1967)  

42  LARRY'S REBELS  Painter Man (1967)  

43  MR. LEE GRANT  Love (1967)  

44  MARIA DALLAS  Ambush (1967)  

45  THE PRINCIPALS  I Can't Stop (1967)  

46  THE ROADRUNNERS  LSD (1967)  

47  RAY WOOLF & THE AVENGERS  Little Things That Happen (1967)  

48  THE SELECTED FEW  Get The Picture (1967)  

49  THE SMOKE  No More Now (1967)  

50  THE SURFIRES  Notice Me (1967)  

51  THE TUNESPINNERS  You Were Born For Me (1967)  

52  ABDULLAH'S REGIME  Sally I Do [1968]  

53  THE AVENGERS  Love Hate Revenge (1968)  

54  CONCRETE LAMB  Turn To Stone (1968)  

55  THE FOURMYULA  I Dig Your Act (1968)  

56  THE NEXT MOVE  Go Tell The Sun (1968)  

57  SEBASTIAN'S FLORAL ARRAY  Hey Joe (1968)  

58  ANDREW  Jordan Marsh (1969)  

59  THE AVENGERS  When I Was Six Years Old (1969)  

60  THE CHALLENGE  The Crunch (1969)  

61  THE GROUP  People In The Night (1969)  

62  THE KAL-Q-LATED RISK  Waiting On You (1969)  

63  SALVATION  I'd Rather Be Asleep (1969)  

64  THE TOP SHELF  Time Beyond (Can't We Still Be Friends)  (1969)  

65  GENE PIERSON  Come On In (1970)  

66  GENE PIERSON  Oh! Sweet Love (1970)

And as for my selection of 3 songs for a  taster.  I got it down to five and finally these are the ones- I would go for - 3 quite different representatives from NZ: Love the lyrics and love the atmosphere that each song sets.

Roadrunners - LSD

Cleavedonaires - He's Ready

The Human Instinct - The Rich Man

Pues aquí queda esta muy buena revisión de la música "kiwi", creo que es un trabajo muy concienzudo que creo que os puede acercar a la música de este país. Espero que es guste.

Muchas gracias al amigo Daniel, que me consta que le volveremos a ver por aquí con alguna fascinante aventura.

Hasta la semana próxima.

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