1994 – Page 6 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Dead Flowers “Home”

In their previous music videos, Dead Flowers have disguised their long-haired metal origins with visual trickery (grape-eating gothesses, sinister science labs!). But “Home” is taken from genuine live performance and there’s hair galore.

But that’s good. The band are enjoying themselves, the crowd is too, with the video ending on a slow-motion stage diver. It’s rare to see an actual proper live crowd in a New Zealand music videos. Not that bands aren’t capable of drawing real crowds, but lots of videos are made with fans of the band gathered to move enthusiastically on cue, shot low to disguise the lack of a large audience.

I think by this stage the Dead Flowers had gathered enough of a fan base that they could just release a music video of themselves without mucking around with any art concepts.

Also noteworthy – the video starts and ends with the band’s logo, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ star, but with Maori koru features and a face.

Best bit: the rotating logo, as branding is important.

Director: Kerry Brown
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the early adventures of Don.

Supergroove “Sitting Inside My Head”

Supergroove, average age 19, get soulful. “I walk around this town. There’s buildings closed, the windows are boarded,” Che Fu murmurs, while the band struts around a very lively looking Queen Street. Irony?

Che is given a pebbly beach to walk along, and also joins the band on a quarry, as a digger digs. The quarry scenes are filmed by a swooping helicopter. Yeah, why not? All this is cut with shots of a long-haired girl washing her hair and legs in a bowl. Doesn’t she have a bathtub? Is Che’s girlfriend a Depression-era street urchin?

Wait – the city street, the beach, the quarry, the waif – “Sitting Inside My Head” is like a drinking game of music video cliches. And yet, again, Supergroove pull it off because they totally believe in it. They are young and all they know is how to absolutely throw themselves into their work.

Best bit: the faceless hairwashing girl, like a hipster Cousin Itt.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… getting in touch with one’s metal roots.

The Mutton Birds “Anchor Me”

“Anchor Me” was released two months after “Ngaire” but they were funding-round buddies. And like “Dominion Road”, there was also a UK version of “Anchor Me”.

The UK video sees a leather jacketed Don with his golden curls hair tamed back into a solid rock barnet. He gives the camera video sex-face while the Mutton Birds do their best to break into the lucrative UK music scene. In the foreground, goldfish swim.

Meanwhile, back in 1994, the New Zealand version is totally Don-centric, with the rest of the band absent. Don is dressed as a salty seadog, but then the nautical theme goes overboard (ha!), with blobbing lava lamp action, a boat, a rained upon car, before Don gets totally wet for the chorus.

There’s also a naked swimming lady, with visible nipples. I don’t remember there being any controversy around this video. Perhaps because no one expects there to be boobs in a Mutton Birds video, no one sees it when it happens.

I don’t quite find this video to be satisfying. The UK video make it feel like a Stereosonic song, while the original seems like a student film project.

Best bit: the faux rainy car driving.

Director: Fane Flaws
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a hard day’s work down at the quarry.

Grace “Black Sand Shore”

The Ioasa brothers return, and this time they’re spending a night at the museum. Using the grand marble halls of Auckland Museum as a dramatic backdrop, the trio pose and generally look awesome as they stand in a variety of symmetrical formations. The only other people in the museum are two very glamorous-looking women, who are probably security guards trying to track down the source of the smooth Pacifica soul they can hear wafting from the top floor.

Much of the band’s intense posing takes place outside the entrance to the exhibit formerly known as Centennial Street (later Auckland 1866, later demolished). The exhibition included replicas of ye olde Auckland business premises, and – frankly – would have made a brilliant setting for a music video. I wonder if Grace had a look around it when they were shooting the video.

The “Black Sand Shore” video is filmed in sepia tone, with a stylish and respectful feeling. I bet they were all absolutely on their best behaviour, and probably had a stern museum director saying that if anything was broken, the museum would be closed to all musicians forever.

It’s a really successful video (and probably relatively low budget) and I like to think it marks a turning point for New Zealand music videos. Don’t need no green screen.

Best bit: how incredibly amazing Auckland Museum looks.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Captain Don’s nautical adventure.

Sulata “Never”

There was something odd with this video and I couldn’t work out what. Then suddenly I realised – there are only two close-ups of Sulata. Most of the video is a wide shot of Suluta and her band – a double-bassist, drummer and oboe player. And it’s an awkward wide shot. The oboe player doesn’t have a lot to do and jigs about, at one stage raising the oboe to his lips, before realising there’s still a few more bars left until the oboe kicks in.

I can see what the director was trying to achieve with this video – basically, a video as cool as the very cool song. But it comes across more like CCTV footage of a band rehearsing, suddenly interrupted by a guy in a bar doing a rap.

What I’m coming to learn though the 5000 Ways project is that while it is possible to make a music video for only $5000, it takes skill to make a really good music video on that budget.

Best bit: the sudden change of setting for the rap.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a night at the museum.

The Mutton Birds “Ngaire”

A man, played by actor and comedian Alan Brough, is stood up at an airport when his Ngaire doesn’t make her flight. The airport footage captures the simultaneous tedium and excitement of airports. But where is Ngaire?

We don’t see much of airport man, but we do get glimpses of a Roman statue. Horrific flashbacks to the “Blink” episode of Doctor Who aside, the statue appears to be Miss Ngaire in another form. “Oh, Ngaire,” the Mutton Birds wail.

Suddenly we’re faced with Catholic sacred heart imagery (with a gooey red centre). And Statue Ngaire is seen at the 3 Guys supermarket, down the local for a pint, at a service station, and finally bobbing in a swimming pool. If Ngaire is a statue, maybe airport guy only missed her because she had been taken to the cargo area.

I like Mutton Birds videos that are a little bit strange and don’t try to be a proper grown-up rock band. Maybe that’s why they never conquered England, but it’s meant they have a whole lot of really good music videos.

Best bit: Ngaire being ignored by the man at the pub, even though she’s standing there with her boobs out.

Director: Mairi Gunn

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… some smooth grooves.

Purest Form “Message To My Girl”

As the cruel hand of history would have it, Purest Form are best known for their barbershop quartet performance in the Rainbow’s End ad.

But then they weren’t singing the praises of the Motion Master, they were having a go at a proper pop career. Their first single was a sweet cover of Split Enz’s “Message to my Girl”.

Dressed in suits of the ’90s power palate (deep red, teal green, sky blue) the quartet perform the song on a west coast beach. It’s a fine day, with plenty of golden sunshine, but the jagged rocks on the beach don’t quite make it as romantic as perhaps the band intended.

The song is ok, but the arrangement tends to overegg the pudding. “I don’t wanna say I want you,” one singer croons. But that’s not enough. Another comes in with a sensually whispered, “I want you.”

The song has a really ambitious, epic quality to it, complete with a spoken break that starts with “Giiiirl, you know me…” But where were Purest Form when vocal harmony groups like Backstreet Boys and Nsync were tearing up the charts around the turn of the millennium? The Form came too soon.

Best bit: the smooth velvety spoken bit.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a trip to Taumarunui.

Eye TV “Eye TV”

The song and the band have the same name because the band used to be called the Nixons and took their new name from their album (and song) called Eye TV. I don’t remember the band from this stage. They had quite a different vibe from their later work.

For a start, Sean the lead singer had long black hair (goth!), and the drummer was Mark, who I used to work with at dirty old Ihug back in the ’90s. In fact, the whole song has a much gothier tone than their later stuff.

The video takes place in a slightly unusual house, where the band hangs out. A box is opened, emitting a mysterious bright light. The video also introduces the ubiquitous mid-’90s colour palate of forest green, deep red, mustard yellow and sky blue. (I had a duvet with these colours.)

The band end up posing as thugs, before dragging the lead singer away. They then assemble for one final rock-out in the colourful room. Then – lol – the lead singer eats a flower.

Best bit: the smashed house of cards. Yeah, take that.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a smooth boyband.

Mana “Ain’t Gonna Stop”

It’s a dilemma of music videos – how to film the band performing in front of a (fake) audience when no one wants to give up their weekend pretending to go mental over the same song again and again. Add children into the mix and you’re just asking for trouble.

“This is for the choowdrun!” And with that a hoarde of kids burst into the Freemans Bay Community Hall where the band play their latest single. The song starts with some synthesizer strings, hilariously brought to life by getting a teen string quartet (minus one) to “play” the string parts.

The lead singer of Mana is wearing a drive-through mic, which means he can engage in daggy dancing while he sings. The rest of the band look swamped on the large hall stage. Perhaps this is the largest gig they’ve ever done.

It seems like the original idea of this video was to have the band play the song at a concert full of children. But in the big group shot, I can only count about 16 kids plus a few grown-ups. Obviously Mana are not the reggae Wiggles and don’t have the pulling power for that demographic.

The children can be seen dancing along with a slight self-consciousness, and the ones who end up dancing on stage seem to be doing so like a under-rehearsed school production, rather than a spontaneous get-down.

I can’t help think that this song would have been better served by a family fun day at the beach setting.

Best bit: the spotty string section.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… eating a flower.

Greg Fleming “Codeine Road”

Nurofen Plus – it’s my wife and it’s my life. I’m not sure what this song is about. It might be about homebake, or it might be about debilitating lower back pain. All I know is that only Auckland could produce a gritty life-is-tough song based around an over-the-counter analgesic.

Regardless of the dramatic lyrics, the video is still pretty interesting. It’s shot around Karangahape Road when it was still seedy and grimy, a good decade before it started to get gentrified and all the pink bits moved away.

K Road regulars can be seen hanging around, and there’s even a shot of the old McDonald’s before K Road became too cool for a McDo. Another ’90s memory – the mural by the Baptist tabernacle that was all “No one comes to the father except through me”. Cut with this footage, Greg Fleming mooches around the area, sometimes with his bros, other times on his own.

I’m trying to think – was K Road scary and dark back then? Maybe it only felt that way if you were luxuriating in a warm blanket of Panadeine.

Best bit: the wistful looking lady holding an elaborately wrapped gift.

Director: Bruce Sheridan
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… for the children.