More nostalgia from Hello Sailor. The lyrics examine the sacrifices and the achievements made.
The video is centred on Hello Sailor playing on the street down the road from their old stomping ground of the Gluepot bar in Ponsonby. This is cut together with archival footage of memorable moments in New Zealand history – Olympic athletics wins, the Howard Morrison Quartet, World War II newsreel footage, the Beatles tour and Hillary on Everest.
The video seems like quite a strong effort to create something that is a very emotional experience for New Zealanders, but it’s hard to equate dying on a battlefield with winning a medal for the long jump.
The song is about remembering past glories and not letting them fade from our collective memory. But as I’ve discovered already with this project, it’s very easy for things to fade from memory.
Best bit: the sinking realisation that I can’t recognise all the notable Kiwis.
Next… holiday videos from Japan.