Purest Form “If I Fell”

1995-purest-form-if-i-fellI previously said that “U Can Do It” was Purest Form’s last single, but I was wrong. They actually had one more single up their sleeves, and with it came the most ridiculous and therefore the greatest New Zealand music video ever made.

The song is a slowed-down cover of the Beatles’ classic. As expected, it is a perfect song to show off the boys’ vocal harmonies. Their previous music video, “U Can Do It”, had a bold Polynesian flavour, but “If I Fell” goes in the complete opposite direction, thoroughly colonising the boys.

They start sitting on the steps at Alberton, before jumping into a vintage car and hooning off to a waterfall, including a couple of the Form sitting on jump seats at the back. Watch out, guys!

Once they reach the waterfall, they stand around looking moody, dressed in what appears to be cricket uniforms. A young lady in a white dress moves about, also looking moody and romantic. Sometimes she plays a cello.

It’s all very good so far, but then at the two-minute mark, something amazing happens: the lead vocalist gets wet. Probably inspired by Peter Andre’s 1995 waterfall romp in “Mysterious Girl”, one of the Form (the fit one) casts off his colonial attire, dons a lavalava and stands under the waterfall looking really hot.

This sort of stuff doesn’t usually happen in New Zealand music videos. We get all shy and embarrassed and wonder what our parents would think and how this might affect our future employment opportunities. So I am super impressed that Purest Form were brave enough to do this, but that makes it a even more sad that this is their final music video.

Best bit: Of course it’s the bloody waterfall bit.

Next… a slow download via Netscape Navigator.

4 thoughts on “Purest Form “If I Fell””

  1. I suspect that the lake is Western Springs park (given the Alberton is just around the corner, plus the abundance of black swans). Where that waterfall is though… no idea.

    1. Good thinking about Western Springs! I did some googling and found a website dedicated to New Zealand waterfalls (waterfalls.co.nz, of course). It reckons there’s only one waterfall in Auckland city – Oakley Creek. That’s very close to the other video locations, but it doesn’t really look like the waterfall in the video. (There don’t seem to be any ponds or swans at Oakley, more evidence for Western Springs.) There are a whole lot of waterfalls in the Waitakeres, but nothing immediately strikes me as Purest Form Falls.
      http://waterfalls.co.nz/waterfalls-by-region/250-new-zealand-waterfalls/north-island/auckland/oakley-creek-falls

      1. Yep, as someone who lived right next to Oakley Creek and its waterfall for several years, it’d never have looked like that, even after a storm (as well as being far too much of a pain to get to for filming purposes methinks!). I would say bluescreen, but to be honest it looks far too realistic for a 90s NZ music video….

  2. Hi Robyn thanks for the nice review – it was fun to make. As the co-director with my colleague Ondrej Havas I can confirm that the lake was Western Springs. The first and last time I’ve seen a boat on that lake! The waterfall was just off the Muriwai Road about 5km before Muriwai. There used to be public access but the last time I tried to visit access had been restricted by the private land owner.

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