Resting bitch face, actual cows, a red room, Catholic guilt, a scenic boat trip, forecourt drama, romantic Venice, an outdoor TV and and pre-millennium tension.
Continue reading Found videos from 1999
Category: February 1999
Missing videos from 1999
February 1999
Bailter Space “So Am I”
“So Am I” was Bailter Space’s final NZOA-funded video from the ’90s. They took a break and showed up again in 2012.
D-Faction “Take a Little Piece”
After having all their videos online, it’s sad that D-Faction’s final video, “Take a Little Piece” isn’t around. YouTube uploader slydogmania notes the group “disbanded in late 1997 before this final single was ever released”
Head Like a Hole “Hot Sexy Lusty”
Head Like A Hole have “Hot Sexy Lusty”, another single from their sex album, Are You Gonna Kiss It Or Shoot It? Guys, in googling for this video, I saw things I wish I hadn’t seen.
Mika “Angel”
Mika, last seen in Jan Hellriegel’s “Geraldine” video, has his own single “Taniwha Angel”. Here’s a live performance.
Director: Kerry Brown
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
April 1999
Brett Sawyer “When It Happens”
Brett Sawyer has the song “When It Happens”. I’m most interested to discover that he and Pearl Runga sang New Zealand’s official millennium anthem, “I’ll Meet You There”, written by sister Bic and James Hall.
Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Delta “Slather”
Delta! “Slather”! I saw them play a few times and I happily bought the “Slather” single. It was a fun burst of pop that should at least have enjoyed one-hit wonder success. But anyway, here’s Delta performing the song at a 2010 reunion show. Nice one.
Director: Garth Maxwell
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Ma-V-Elle “Angel”
Girl group Ma-V-Elle had lost a member (but weren’t renamed V-Elle). “Angel” was the first single from their new album as a duo. Here’s a Tangata Pasifika profile of the group enjoying their early days of success.
Strong Islanders “Shining On”
Kiwihits notes that Jonah Lomu’s cousin is in “Strong Islanders”. Their song “Shining On” is ok, but their main MC has a somewhat lacklustre delivery.
Director: Joe Lonie
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
June 1999
Ardijah “Do To You”
There’s no shortage of Ardijah videos from the ’80s, but the ’90s are AWOL, including “Do To You”.
Ma-V-Elle “Never Say Goodbye”
Ominous foreshadowing! “Never Say Goodbye” was Ma-V-Elle’s penultimate funded video.
Trip To The Moon “Sexual Healing”
The final NZOA-funded video for Trip to the Moon is their cover of “Sexual Healing”, a duet by Bobbylon and the ethereally voiced Rachel Weatherly. NZ Herald reviewer Russell Baillie dramatically described it as having “all the charm of a lavish STD-treatment jingle”.
August 1999
3 The Hard Way “Front Back Side”
Well, I dunno. This song is on the list of videos that were completed, but I can’t find any sign of a 3 The Hard Way single called “Front Back Side”, or indeed any releases from this time. But there might have been some shuffling – there’s a 3 The Hard Way video for their 2004 single “Girls”. It’s set in the same sexy club world as “It’s On (Move to This”), only it’s so much cheesier.
Bike “Gaze”
Bike’s final NZOA-funded single is “Gaze”, which also appeared on the “Scarfies” soundtrack.
Brett Sawyer “Where We Wanna Be”
“Where We Wanna Be” is Brett Sawyer’s ode to his partner for sticking out a decade in Britain with him.
Fiona McDonald “Wish I Was a Man”
Fiona McDonald gets dirty and grungy with “Wish I Was A Man”.
Moizna “Summer Goodbye”
Moizna’s final NZ On Air-funded video is aptly titled “Summer Goodbye”, a sweet tale of a break-up.
Satellite Spies “Please Never Leave”
Satellite Spies apparently had a song called “Please Never Leave”, but it’s ungooglable.
TrueBliss “Freedom”
TrueBliss’s third single was a cover of the Wham song “Freedom”. I’ve found an 2001 Australian documentary about the “Popstars” phenomena that shows a short clip from “Freedom” at 8:01. It features the group dressed in red, white and blue costumes, performing on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans.
October 1999
DNE “Be There”
DNE was a “cyber collaboration” between Aly Cook and David Horizon – their name for the now commonplace practice of online collaboration. Their old bio at Amplifier promised a fabulous web experience with “CLUBDNE interactive”, and directed viewers to NZmusic.com to watch their video for “Be There”. Sadly all is but a cyber memory now.
Greg Johnson “Beautiful Storm”
Greg Johnson gets drench in meteorological metaphors with the upbeat “Beautiful Storm”. Nga Taonga describes the video as, “Greg Johnson tours an Asian city and sings “Beautiful Storm” to camera as the surroundings move rapidly around him.”
Director: Bernadine Lim
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Ma-V-Elle “Don’t Be So Shy”
Ma-V-Elle have “Don’t Be So Shy”, described by the Kiwi Hit Disk as a “cool slice of original, soulful pop”. It’s the final Ma-V-Elle track funded by NZOA. The duo was to eventually disband, with Lavina ending up in the Australian Idol final 12 in 2006, among other achievements.
December 1999
Ardijah “Way Around You”
I’m pretty used to Ardijah videos not being online, and indeed “Way Around You” isn’t available. It’s a breezy house jam
Breathe “Sick & Tired”
“Sick & Tired” is another track from Breathe’s second album, the one that seemed really big at the time, but has now faded into history.
Fiona McDonald “Bury Me”
Described in a review I found on a vintage website as a “edgy, emotionally charged” song, “Bury Me” is another single from Fiona McDonald.
Garageland “Good Luck”
Garageland have the blusey “Good Luck”, another track off their second album “Do What You Want”.
The D4 “Come On!”
Another early track from The D4. “Come On!” is an typical piece of energetic rock. Here’s a fan video, setting the song to clips of rally cars sliding around corners.
Director: Alex Johnson
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
The Exponents “Big World Out Your Window”
“Big World Out Your Window” was the final Exponents track funded by NZOA. It was a single off their 1999 album “Hello, Love You, Goodbye”, a half-studio, half-live collection. There’s no sign of the “Window” vid, but I do know it was filmed on Mt Eden.
Director: Andrew Moore
Instead…
Here’s a video from the world of non-NZOA funding. Director Marc Swadel made the “Crystal Chain” video for Flying Nun group The Subliminals for “300 bucks and one re-used 100 foot reel of 16mm film”. As a NZ On Screen commenter notes, 100ft of film is only two minutes, 45 seconds. The solution? “A lot of repeats, keying over footage with footage, and other lo fi tricks”. It’s a moody delight.
Director: Marc Swadel
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
Zed “I’m Cold”
Here’s the thing – this video is hosted on the YouTube account for Universal Music New Zealand. The description says it’s the “official video”. But it’s not the official video. I think this is just a live performance from Ice TV.
The proper video itself isn’t currently online, though Nga Taonga enticingly describe it as: “Zed begin playing “I’m Cold” at indoor gig before fleeing from itrate barman/ club owner. They resume on city rooftop.” (Director: Scott Cleator, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision)
But it’s Zed. Zed are strangely growing on me so I feel compelled to properly review this video rather than just throw it in the remainder bin with the other missing videos.
The video starts with some shadow hands announcing that Zed are about to perform on Ice TV. We then meet the band sat in a bare studio, still a three piece, geared up with acoustic instruments. They all look so young and so innocent (polar fleece vest!), and yet there’s Nathan King belting out feelings of emotional numbness. Though he does a little self-conscious eyeroll when he sings “The night is cold and someone’s taken my bed.”
And just when the song threatens to get too moody and too mature, bassist Ben breaks out the rap. It’s a semi-nonsensical ditty (for which I will blame the Red Hot Chili Peppers) and manages to be a delightfully weird counterpoint to Nathan’s big chorus.
So there they were. Three young dudes with a number one album and some decent songs. The only way was up.
Best bit: Nathan’s polar fleece vest – keeps out the cold.
Next… a farewell to the Faction.
The Mutton Birds “Pulled Along By Love”
It’s the Mutton Birds penultimate single, but before I leap into “Pulled Along by Love”, I should jump back to ’96 and ’97. That’s when the group released their single “She’s Been Talking”, first in New Zealand, then a year later in the UK, complete with a video for each release. Both were filmed in the UK, but neither were funded by NZ On Air. It’s a good song (with a killer McGlashan melody on the verses), so go on, have a watch.
But back to the main attraction. “Pulled Along By Love” is an upbeat pop number, which seems to be part of the Mutton Birds long-running plan to break the UK. As the Wikipedia entry for their fourth studio album notes, they tried really hard but it just didn’t happen.
The video is shot in England (London, I guess) and is focused on Don. He’s either wandering the city streets, taking in his surroundings, or superimposed over other footage of the city.
We also see plenty of shots of an Indian woman in traditional dress. She’s busying herself with coconuts, grains, flowers and brightly coloured Indian sweets. It’s an unusual visual to have in a music video, but it’s a very Mutton Birds thing to do and the gorgeousness of her world fits perfectly with the tone of the song.
There are plenty of shots of Don wandering around a train station, alone in the commuter bustle. With the passing of time, this footage ends up being a reminder that the Mutton Birds never quite managed to be household names in the UK, not reaching Oasis-like levels of fame. For all their effort, on the everyday streets they were still just a bunch of ordinary guys with some great songs.
Best bit: the extreme eyebrow acting at the train platform.
Director: Paul Oremland
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Next… cold and hot.
Tadpole “For Me”
From memory, this song was written in the style of a suicide note. While the music is somewhat uplifting, the lyrics have dark undertones and the music video treads that line.
The video takes place in two locations – a men’s toilet and a fancy apartment. The toilets are the magnificently green-tiled toilets at Hotel DeBrett (thanks to Peter at DubDotDash for IDing these!) and they’ve previously featured in the Cicada “Future Folds” video and in Joint Force’s “Static (Part 1)” vid. But this is the first time a girl has ventured into the men’s room. The band perform the song in sped-up mode, as confused businessmen make their way through the band on their way to have an executive pee.
Meanwhile in the apartment, Renee Tadpole plays a spoiled diva. She’s just won an award and is throwing a party. Her apartment is full of people who are partying like they just don’t care. The diva receives some flowers but she just rips up the card, throws the flowers down and laughs.
In the middle of it, there’s a shot of a man sitting on a toilet, wearing sunglasses, talking on the phone. Who is he? Who is he talking to? Why is he wearing sunglasses?
But soon the party gets out of hand. There’s a tussle over the diva’s award trophy and soon she’s angrily kicking out her guests. She goes to the bathroom to take off her makeup and we discover: one man collapsed in the shower, another man luxuriating in a bubble bath, and another man passed out under a glass coffee table. The diva, blissfully unaware, lays down in her comfortable diva bed and snugly curls up with her trophy.
Whenever I see a video like this, I figure the band probably had a lot of fun making all the party scenes, but yet I think the performance footage in the toilet is a lot more effective.
Best bit: the teen-style gluttonous pizza pig-out at the posh party.
Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Next… Don meanders.
Stellar “Part Of Me”
Stellar’s second music video from their debut album takes the band out of the performance setting of previous music videos and instead introduces a science-fiction scenario.
It’s a world of modern architecture, high ceilings, light spaces and escalators with guard rails to stop kids riding down in the gap. The band are clad in white hooded boiler suits and they enter the futuristic building (with the entrance played by That Building On Greys Ave With The Round Door).
After passing through security, we see what top secret plan they’re working on. It involves plants that are being converted into a gooey green liquid (probably Palmolive) and then pressed into pill form. It’s like one of those awesome sci-fi films from the 1960s. Hey, it’s a new and improved form of Soylent Green, now 100% people-free!
There are two sides of the workers. Outside of the white boiler suits, they wear tailored black clothes and all have bright red hair. So what was attention-grabbing on Boh in the “What You Do” video is now run-of-the-mill.
Worker Boh is a little miserable. Almost anonymous in her white uniform, it seems like she’s holding on to one thing that makes her happy. And there it is – through the cracks of a busy concours, the lone shoot of a plant emerges. That’s what kept Boh happy. Let’s just hope a hungry citizen doesn’t snack on it.
Best bit: the green goo – softens hands while feeding the masses.
Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Next… drama party.
Salmonella Dub “For the Love of It”
By 1999 Salmonella had taken a form that would lead them on to many successes. They’d acquired a new singer Tiki Taane, a charismatic, handsome and cool dude to front the less remarkable band. But most importantly, they’d stumbled across their sound, what Wikipedia terms “a unique Pacific style of dub/drum ‘n’ bass/reggae/hip hop and groove-based rock” and what others may unflatteringly call barbecue reggae.
The “For the Love of It” video is like a manifesto of what the new Salmonella Dub is all about. The opening shot in the video is a wide panorama of a pristine lakeside area, empty of people. It’s the way New Zealand has been portrayed in tourism propaganda for over a hundred years.
We soon meet the band as they travel through rural New Zealand, hanging out at the beach and by waterfalls. They finally arrive at their destination – music festival the Gathering. This lets the band engage in the very modern, very manmade act of performing amplified music, but keeping it in a natural setting.
There’s lots of random footage of the Gathering, which is a nice record of that period of the late ’90s. And with that context, it seems obvious why Salmonella Dub would have appealed to a field full of loved-up festival-goers.
But the live performance almost takes a backseat to the footage of the band enjoying the great outdoors. There’s a game of beach cricket, skateboarding, fishing, riding an inner tub in a river and, yes, even a barbecue. “Stripping it back to the roots,” declares Tiki in the lyrics, and that’s exactly what this video it all about.
Occasionally there’ll be a glimpse of the band indoors, recording stuff in dark rooms. But that never lasts for long. This is a sunny, summery video to remind people of the real wicked-as time they had on their holidays.
Best bit: the stilt-walker performance artist at the Gathering.
Director: Rongotai Lomas
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Next… eat your greens.
Fur Patrol “Beautiful”
“Beautiful” is a sweet love song with a dark edge and delightful lyrics like “you are the best thing that’s happened to me / since I fell on my face on Tuesday”. But Fur Patrol being Fur Patrol, they’re not going to make a cute, quirky video. No, they’re going to get a little weird.
Lead singer Julia plays a truck who’s singing the song in ode to her driver. To this effect, she’s strapped to the front of the truck, wearing a sort of black body suit, with bright red hair and matching eye make-up. And oddly it works, in a Thomas the Tank Engine way. It’s Julia the truck!
Her other half is a tattooed truckie who finished up his cup of tea then gets inside his truck, whereon a look of bliss appears on her face. She likes it when he’s all up inside her.
Also in the truck are the rest of the band. They’re in the trailer, suspended from the ceiling, swinging from side to side as the truck travels along. And that’s cool, but it’s not as cool as Julia the truck. When the truck starts moving, it genuinely looks like it’s her on the truck, not a stunt double.
The “Beautiful” video has a splendid sense of humour but it makes a much more compelling companion to the song than a straighter, more typical music video would have achieved. I just hope that the truck driver take his truck out more often.
Best bit: the truck driver’s diner is played by the much missed Kenny’s on Courtenay Place.
Director: Greg Page
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Next… barbecue, reggae.
Dimmer “Evolution”
Finally, Shayne Carter has figured out how to use ProTools and has turned Dimmer into a fully fledged musical project, if not a band. The video takes its inspiration from Elvis’ ’68 Comeback Special. There’s a black background with red light spelling out DIMMER and Mr Carter wears a white suit with a brilliant crimson tie.
But Shayne is not alone. The video starts with a boy version of Shayne, later coming a teen Shayne, and later Shayne as an old man (played by his dad). It’s a bit like the end of “2001: A Space Odyssey” – a film about evolution – where astronaut Dave ends up in the weird white room and keeps seeing and becoming as older versions of himself.
So does this mean Shayne is going to evolve into a star child (or even more alarmingly, a Star Boy)? Nah, the video ends with Shayne shuffling off into the blackness, like he’s retiring back into his den to make some more tunes.
It’s a very simple video but is perfectly lit and has great performances from all the Shaynes. While there’s a lot of technical skill behind this video (directed by Darryl Ward), it’s a reminder that videos don’t need to be fancy and epic, that a single location with a great performance can work just as well.
Best bit: the swagger of youngest Shayne.
Directors: Darryl Ward, Shayne Carter
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Next… keep on truckin’.
Baitercell “Prototype”
YouTube uploader HeisW140 notes that the video came off a Baitercell CD-ROM, the first released by label Kog Transmissions. And it seems fitting that at least one music video from the ’90s should have had the CD-ROM treatment, blocky low-res image and all.
The video starts with images of static and burst of electric crackle before emerging into the streets of Auckland. Hey, there’s the block of Symonds Street after all the old buildings had been pulled down but before all the dull apartments were erected in their place. Circuit boards are given the same treatment, neatly suggesting the artist is at home with the computer as he is in the city.
The images are very strongly related to the music. It’s not just cutting to the beat, but it’s almost the feeling that the stuff we see is dancing to the music. In a way, it’s like an accidental predecessor of the Chemical Brothers “Star Guitar” video.
A lot of attention is put on a microscopic creature and the efforts of a pair of pliers and a piece of wire that seem to want to poke the creature. I feel a little sorry for the creature and I wish the wire would stop bothering it. The video is full of contrasts – the microscopic world of bugs versus wide open city spaces. Computer generated graphics versus a club full of sweaty people dancing.
And it’s those contrasts that make up the world of electronica – digital and analogue. A pixelly music video from a late ’90s CD-ROM given new life on a website of the ’10s.
Best bit: the lone hand reaching for itself in the reflective tunnel.
Next… the ages of man.