Category: 1993

The 3Ds “Man on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”

The 3Ds are grand. “Man on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” is David Mitchell’s grunty, crunchy, tense journey into the mind of a troubled man. The video is set in an industrial wasteland, both outside in a mound of rubble and in a derelict building.

With the previous two 3Ds videos fronted by David Saunders, it’s nice to have the wild-haired Mitchell taking the lead, with the quartet rounded out by Dominic on drums and Denise holding down the low end on bass, with workladylike concentration.

Then, like many great 3Ds songs, the song veers into a wild, feedback and sample-laced wig-out, and the video practically becomes sentient, threatening to actually have a nervous breakdown and leaving the band wondering where their video funding went.

The video starts at four minutes, but the interview with the band before that is worth watching, especially if you like crunchy Hot Cakes.

Best bit: Denise’s sensible sweater.

Director: Andrew Moore
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… ladies who write.

Maree Sheehan “Kia Tu Mahea (To Be Free)”

“Kia Tu Mahea” is positive, bilingual HI-NRG dance track, though it’s just hitting the end of this particular musical style’s life in the pop charts.

The video is great – bold, colourful and sometimes split into Mondrianesque segments. Maree is joined by kapa haka performers, children, an African man, dudes in fresh urban threads, and fly girls.

Maree Sheehan always comes across with great confidence in her videos. She’s never taken the traditional video babe route (no rolling around with/in silver spandex for her), but the early ’90s feels like a kinder, gentler time when no one with NZ On Air funding was doing the hard-sell sexy video. At least not yet.

Best bit: Maree and pals in casual shorts, doing casual dancing.



Director: Matt Palmer
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the bleak, urban wasteland that represents the soul.

The Exponents “House of Love”

“House of Love” is one of those Exponents songs that doesn’t get sing-shouted at rugby games. Tracking the demise of a relationship, where Jordan both walks in and walks out of the house of love, the video shows the Exponents playing the song in a doll’s house.

Actually, that makes it sound much cooler than it actually is, like some special effects have made it look like the Exponents are actually playing in the tiny rooms of a doll’s house. Actually, it’s just footage of the band superimposed over the front of a doll’s house. And it’s raining on the doll’s house and there’s some sort of straw strewn about in front of it. What a depressing house. No wonder Jordan’s leaving it.

The band are performing the song under colourful lights, and with window shapes projected behind them. Sometimes the band are wearing carnival masks, and sometimes Jordan takes his shirt off. I’m going to blame the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the rash of shirtlessness that started happening in music videos of the early ’90s.

Best bit: the tiny painting inside the doll’s house.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… casual shorts.

David Kilgour “No No No”

This is the David Kilgour video with a clear storyline. I like that. The “No No No” video images David Kilgour as an indie superstar, living like a rap star with his entourage of ageing boho friends.

Dave starts at his bohemian den, wearing his famous spotted shirt. Then he and a couple of pals get into a limousine where another boho fellow meets them. The three are driven around, drinking champagne and making phone calls on one of those giant old brick cellphones, only back in 1994 it wouldn’t quite have been hilarious old technology, but what a cellphone actually was.

All this action cuts between David playing at some sort of student gig. He’s also wearing his famous spotted shirt, so presumedly the gig is on the same night as the boho adventures.

Then it’s back to the boho den, where his boho posse is in full effect, drinking lots of wine and getting crazy. Why, one boho lady even takes off her shirt and dances around in her bra. Crazy!

Then Dave is out on the the street with all the unwanted attention of the paparazzi trying to get all up in his face because he is famous.

Best bit: David reading “L5 News”, the newsletter of the L5 Society, which promotes space colonies. Seriously.



Director: Stuart Page
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Jordan takes his shirt off in a tiny house.

Annie Crummer “Let it Shine”

It’s a Christmas single! Interesting that the funding was given in the same month as the song was released. The video must have been made with lightning pace, right?

“Let it Shine” is a delicate Christmas song, with the same sentimental theme that Annie’s other singles had (for the children, y’all).

The video is black and white, alternating between Annie singing the song, and shots of children. The kids are either outside playing, or in the studio, sitting on a lazy susan, rotating for the camera. This makes me imagine some production hand whose job it was to lie on the ground, out of camera shot, rotating the kids, trying not to get hit by their legs.

New Zealand has never had a strong tradition of Christmas songs, especially not the upbeat style that ravages the UK charts. It seems that if a Christmas song in New Zealand is going to do anything (like each number 11 on the charts), it’s going to be a serious song like this one.

Best bit: the slightly surreal array of rotating kids.

Update: It looks like Annie Crummer’s videos are no longer available on the New Zealand MTV website. Until someone uploads them somewhere else, there’s currently nothing to watch.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… David’s big night out.

Mana “Jah Son”

Mana’s cover of Herbs’ ode to Jesus takes place at the Otara markets, with the band performing live in a corner of the car park to a modest audience.

But much more exciting is market life. The camera sweeps over the jam-packed Saturday morning market, and then almost seems to have to fight its way through the bustle. But the video captures some interesting scenes of ordinary people doing their weekly veggie shop.

There’s also a brief montage of South Auckland scenes, including the dole office. Presumedly when Jesus comes, He will make everything ok. Hm, the markets look a little too crowded. Do you suppose Jah Jr will ease the congestion?

Best bit: the really serious looking woman who samples an orange segment.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a bit of bogan.

Kantuta “April Sun in Cuba”

The one good thing about this song – the band pronounce Cuba like “kooba”, not “kyewba”. Apart from that, it’s a novelty hit – a Latin flavoured cover of Dragon’s pub rock hit. Not that there’s no place in the world for novelty cover versions, but this one is just a little uninspired.

The video action takes place on a suburban Auckland beach, where the band and their friends have a big beach festival. Things then move to a night club where the band set up, before it all explodes into a giant ‘April Sun in Cuba cha-cha-cha sexy senorita dances the forbidden dance’ fest.

I wonder if the band (and NZ On Air) imagined this would be an accessible gateway into getting the world of Latin music in the pop charts, only for Kantuta to evolve into their natural form as event entertainment. Well, perhaps they paved the way for the Buena Vista Social Club.

Best bit: the April sun in Mission Bay.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… preaching at the markets.

3 The Hard Way “Hip Hop Holiday”

Every time you play this song, 10CC’s giant swimming pool of money gets a few more gold doubloons. Remember, kids: always clear samples.

Directed by Clinton Phillips and filmed in lovely warm sepia tones, “Hip Hop Holiday” evokes a hot city summer. This is not the New Zealand of going to the beach. It’s the New Zealand of inviting all your friends around to hang out in your backyard.

The lads cruise Aucklandtown in a convertible before arriving at their slightly less urban destination – a suburban house (but it’s a proper New Zealand state house bungalow). Bobbylon from the Hallelujah Piccasos shows up for some guest MCing, and the suburbs erupt into a game of touch rugby and hip-hop-loving.

Fun and charming, “Hip Hop Holiday” is a perfect slice of the early ’90s Auckland hip hop sound. It was the first single with an NZ On Air-funded video to reach No.1, where it happily remained for three weeks in early 1994.

Best best: cruising down that cinematic stretch of Queen Street between Wellesley Street and Mayoral Drive.

Director: Clinton Phillips
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a forbidden dance of desire in seaside Auckland.

Wayne Gillespie “Living in Exile”

I started to google this song title and it alarmingly autocompleted as “wayne gillespie living in prison”. A bittersweet twist of fate? No, it turns out “Living In Prison” is a book on the history of correctional facilities written by another Wayne Gillespie.

The real Wayne can be found in the video playing in a Sydney nightclub, with the most enthusiastic video miming I’ve yet seen. It’s a really straight performance video, with the camera never swaying from the stage. At one point there’s a shot of the drummer, who looks like Dave Grohl with a perm, but that’s about the most exciting thing that happens.

Considering that seven years earlier Wayne gave us the sexy urban cool in his “Losing One” video, “Living In Exile” seems really low budget and disappointing in contrast. The lyrics suggest something epic on the open road (and Australia has plenty of epic open roads). Perhaps Wayne has been exiled to the confines of the night club, never to leave.

Best bit: Wayne’s laid-back blue steel.

Next… party on the front lawn.

Strawpeople “Trick with a Knife”

When Fiona wasn’t being Fiona From The Headless Chickens, she was bringing the gift of songcraft to the Strawpeople. “Trick with a Knife” is a dark and moody song, and Fiona lets her voice get really high.

The video is a crazy noir, where a smoking man in a chair awaits the arrival of a woman who transforms her boyish looks with the help of a sequinned catsuit and a boofy blonde wig. There are many meaningful glances between them, including an incredible slow zoom into the man’s crotch.

Mark and Paul from the Strawpeople make cameos in flashes of grainy film, and I don’t think Fiona even appears in it, making things even more mysterious.

Best bit: a close up of a 50 cent coin (the old giant chunky one), with which the man nervously plays.

Directors: Mark Tierney, Paul Casserly
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… exile in videoville