5000 Ways to Love You – Page 82 – Exploring the world of NZ On Air music video funding

Dead Flowers “I Don’t See Anyone At All”

So far, most music videos have been filmed in New Zealand, but occasionally a video will manage to have an exotic international location. Hong Kong! New York! Miami! And now the Dead Flowers have their music video OE moment in London, filmed when they were on tour with Greg Johnson, the Exponents and Mental as Anything.

But rather than the slick look of other videos in overseas locations, this one looks like it’s been shot on a home video camera. The screen is split into three, usually with the left and right panels mirroring each other.

We meet the band being proper tourists on the top of an open-top double-decker bus. The bus tours around London, passing by familiar attractions – Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Abbey Road Studios, Oxford Circus and the Underground. It’s an odd fit with the lyrics. The song is about being a poetic drunkard, so it’s hard to link that to a group of young New Zealanders enjoying a guided tour of London.

The really disappointing thing is that this is a really good pop song. The poor quality video (both technically and artistically) really detracts from what could have been a brilliant single. It didn’t need to be shot in London.

The band’s third album had a slicker, more poppy sound, and seemed to have some serious backing by their record company. But yet that support didn’t stretch to the production values of the music video.

Best bit: the video’s double use as a quickie tour guide to London.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… going for a drive up the hill.

Bike “Welcome to my World”

Bike finally cheer up and have a bit of fun in one of their music videos. “Welcome to my World” is based around a Kiwi caravan holiday, set some time in the late 1970s.

There’s Dad, played by Ian Hughes, wearing walk socks, Stubbies and a towelling hat for period authenticity. He’s joined by Mum and their son, and with a caravan in tow they head off to a seaside motorcamp.

But it turns out there are three stowaways on board. We discover Bike inside the caravan, playing the song as they’re tossed about with Dad’s distracted driving. A policeman notices and pulls the car over, where we discover – gasp – the cop is played by Shayne Carter!

Jonathan King has directed other videos for Bike, and his treatment for this video works well. It manages to add humour to the video, cleverly letting the band be the straight men in a world of comedic chaos.

The happy campers eventually arrive at Sunnyglade Camping Ground but – uh oh – there’s a gas leak in the caravan. Oh guys, always disconnect the gas bottle when in transit. And always check your caravan for stowaway indie bands, especially ones who like to smoke. Kaboom!

Best bit: Dad’s messy attempt at eating his ice cream. Hey, we’ve all been there.

Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the Flowers hit London town.

Bic Runga “Suddenly Strange”

We meet Bic Runga in an empty white room. She’s just hanging out, playing her guitar, singing a song. It’s all very ordinary, but suddenly the camera zooms out and – whoa – Bic’s white room is an open-sided cube inside a supermarket. That’s, like, suddenly strange.

But the supermarket isn’t the only location we’ll find Bic’s cube. Again the camera zooms out and suddenly the brand new Sky Tower is visible through a window. The cube is now in the location now known as the Wynyard Quarter, plonked in front of the tank farm.

It’s all a bit Doctor Who. Maybe the cube is Bic’s TARDIS, but rather than fighting aliens, instead she travels around Auckland, singing songs. Where’s a sonic screwdriver when you need one?

The cube also appears in a cathedral and on a beach. There’s something about the supermarket location as stacks of jars keep appearing next to the cube in other locations. It reminds me of the scenes in “Exitenz” where the real world bleeds into the virtual worlds.

But despite all the scifi vibes, it’s essentially a sweet Bic Runga video for another single off her seven-times Platinum debut album.

Best bit: the old couple pashing.

Director: Wayne Conway
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… we’re all going on a summer holiday.

The Narcs “Hopeless Friends”

The Narcs, now looking like a bunch of dads, have an enjoyable road trip. Starting off in Raglan, the two main Narcs jump in a vintage car and head north. Heading past the Meremere power station (back when it was a power station), they stop off for some petrol, taking the opportunity lark about on the forecourt. This seems appropriate behaviour for middle-aged men on a road trip.

But it’s not all recreation. As musicians, they have professional responsibilities. Passing a yellow mini (hello, pork pie!), the pair make it to Auckland where they meet the rest of the band for a gig down by the Viaduct. There’s a big Volvo logo behind the stage, which dates this to the 1997/98 Whitbred Around the World Race, newly sponsored by Volvo. Further evidence of extreme dadness.

There’s a quick stop at a radio station, then it’s time for some recreation. Everyone heads to the beach and enjoys a dip in the ocean. There’s a bit of messing about on the beach, including some ukulele playing, back when ukuleles were a tropical comedy instrument.

“Hopeless Friends” is a laidback, country tinged song, and it feels like the Narcs are just being themselves in this video. There’s no attempt to dress up their lives like they’re super cool rock stars. They’re just some guys in a band, playing gigs, doing promo and hanging out with their mates at the beach.

Best bit: the beach-appropriate shirtlessness, quite refreshing after all the urban shirtlessness of videos in the mid ’90s.

Director: Chris Mathews
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… what I really want.

The Exponents “Close”

The second track of the Exponents’ final studio album, “Close” is an uplifting love song, but the video takes an interesting approach. The video has a dark, blue-grey palette, going for a gloomy look in a bleak warehouse setting. It’s a styley look, but it seems at odds with the lyrics.

Occasionally song lyrics are shown spelled out in colourful magnets letters on the side of a fridge. And the fridge shows up again, with individual band members shown inside the fridge, lit with a cold, blue tones. Are they meant to be corpses, rocking out from beyond the grave? Or are they just, you know, chillin’.

Clocking in at five minutes, the song is about a minute too long, losing momentum along the way. It feels like the band were going for the epic songs Oasis were doing on “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?”, but just ended up stretching out a shorter song.

Likewise, it feels like a video for a shorter song that’s been edited into a longer version. But then, maybe it’s a metaphor for life beyond the grave and/or love.

Best bit: Jordan’s sequinned top, a hint of glamour in a bleak world.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the dads’ day out.

The Stereo Bus “Don’t Open Your Eyes”

Four years after the last JPS Experience video, Dave Yetton returns with a new band, and curiously enough, the video for “Don’t Open Your Eyes” feels like an old JPS Experience vid.

Directed by Andrew Moore, the video follows a lone spaceman exploring a barren yellow-tinged environment (played by Bethells Beach). It’s very similar, in fact, to the look of David Kilgour’s “Beached” video from 1994. But while the “Beached” spaceman wanders about on the bleak, sinister planet, the Stereo Bus spaceman is having a bit more fun. For a start, he’s wearing gumboots.

The spaceman staggers about the alien world and eventually hits a golf ball, as that is what spacemen do. The golf ball takes us to Dave Yetton standing in front of a wall covered with silver foil, again very reminiscent of JPSE videos.

Dave seems to be in some sort of control room, with quickly cut glimpses of switches, lights. Combined with the bright colours and shots of Dave’s eyes, it feels like a homage to “2001: A Space Odyssey”. There’s also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot helpfully captioned “Illuminati. Secret US Government Installation Security Camera Film”.

Eventually the camera calms down and we can make sense of Dave’s new surroundings. His control room is full of crazy music electronics – reel-to-reel tape recorders, speakers and monitors. And next to that, Dave hangs an electric sign reading “The Stereo Bus”. It has arrived.

Best bit: Dave holds an object that looks like a giant tin foil donut.

Director: Andrew Moore
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… chillin’ with Jordan.

Supergroove “If I Had My Way”

Supergroove had creative differences. The lively pop-rock-funk group of teens had turned into a rock band of serious young men, average age 22. The band was downsized (sending Che Fu out into the world on his own, where he did just fine) and adopted a new sound, less funk and more rock.

At the time, I came across a Supergroove fan site, kept by an enthusiastic Australian fan who was really excited about their new album. But her excitement turned to disappointment when the album was released. Who were these miserable bastards and what had they done with Supergroove?

“If I Had My Way” was the first single of “Backspacer”, a showcase of the band’s new sound. The song has some really fine moments (the opening hook is sweet), but its weaknesses are apparent. Karl’s singing voice isn’t strong enough to carry the song, the group’s vocal harmonies sound like a new trick they want to show off, and the song is about a minute too long. But what about the video?

Directed by bass player Joe Lonie, the video is based around a faux TV show. Clad in their trademark black, the ‘Groove assemble infomercial exercise machines and then ride them in crazy sped-up footage, while the lyrics repeatedly ask “Who would you kill?”

The band also leave the confines of the studio and play in a pigsty (with real pigs and real mud), an ice skating rink (while ice hockey players hoon around them) and the dramatic finale – playing on a desolate beach with a flaming piano as the tide comes in.

There doesn’t seem to be any logic behind these locations, other than they look interesting. It almost feels like the band didn’t have enough confidence in their new sound and so were trying to distract viewers with a crazy music video.

This video won Best Video at the 1997 New Zealand Music Awards, beating the videos for Shihad’s “La La Land” and Dam Native’s “Behold My Kool Style”. It was the third win in a row for Joe Lonie, and the second for Siggi Spath, but I’d say those other two videos are more beloved and have held up better over time.

I feel a bit sorry for “Backspacer” era Supergroove now. From all accounts, they weren’t in a good place at this stage and they broke up soon after. But despite all the misery, “If I Had My Way” still has a hint of the playfulness and energy that infused their first album. Karl wearing lipstick and singing with pigs? Go on, lads!

Best bit: the pigs, happily nomzing on scraps, oblivious to the band playing in their shed.

Directors: Joe Lonie, Sigi Spath
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Loves Ugly Children “Voodoo Girl”

Because it’s the 1997, Loves Ugly Children get cinematic in the form of a fake trailer for an exploitation flick also named “Voodoo Girl”. Directed by Peter Bannan, the video opens with a warning – “the film this trailer advertises contains adult concepts”. What, like getting a mortgage or caring foran aging parent? No, like a scantily-clad young woman suggestively playing with a model aeroplane.

We meet plane woman and a man who gaze at aeroplanes and end up together in a wood-panelled room. He slowly puts his hand on her bare stomach. They then retire to their individual rooms where there’s a bit of carry-on involving the model plane and some hand-down-pants action.

How about getting out of the bedroom? Ah yes, the man walks around meaningfully and plane girl runs through a post office box lobby and discovers a gun in her box. Well, I guess if it had a stamp on it, NZ Post would deliver it.

Gun in bag, plane girl goes to a diner and makes a glass move through telekensis. If she could do that, why would she need a gun? Couldn’t she just make bullets fly into people? Then it all gets a bit hectic. There’s blood, water, meaningful gazes and bullets galore.

As far as fake trailers go, this doesn’t quite make me want to see the fake film, but yet as a real music video from 1997, it’s moody and stylish enough to satisfy me.

Best bit: the visual power of the bright red post office box lobby.

Director: Peter Bannan
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a space oddity.

Joint Force “Burntime”

MC OJ, Rhythm Slave and DLT return with the dub-influenced “Burntime”. Rather than the ambitiously cinematic “Static” video, “Burntime” keeps it much simpler with basic hip hop culture.

The video Ross Cunningham-directed video focuses on graffiti and breaking, letting Joint Force’s MCing and DJing take a back seat. And there’s graffiti art galore, with Otis and Mark rapping in front of giant murals, no green screen required.

Vinyl offcuts are laid down on the studio floor for some B-boy moves from the Megazoid crew. You know, there’s something very pleasing about seeing some classic breakdance moves.

There’s also good timelapse photography of a giant piece being painted by OJ, DLT and DT (aka Dan Tippett). A mural of scenic New Zealand is covered up with a new work proclaiming “BURN TIME”. It’s all very symbolic, with the great outdoors covered up with some fresh urban style.

The whole video serves as a valentine to New Zealand hip hop culture without forcing it like Scribe’s “Stand Up”. Here were a bunch of guys doing what they did and doing it well. And it worked – they’re still all part of New Zealand hip hop culture today.

Best bit: the headspin.

Director: Ross Cunningham
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Headless Chickens “Second Time Virgin”

The Headless Chickens returned with another single off their final album, “Greedy”. “Second Time Virgin” is a filthy, dark song, far removed from the sweet edges of Fiona-era Chickens.

The formerly sprawling band is now a tight three-piece, and they play the song whole surrounded by racks of mysterious colourful chemical substances. The world of colour goes underwater, with Chris donning some swimming google and going underwater with some colourful balloons.

A rubber ducky bobs sinisterly in the water, reminiscent of the ducky on the cover of “Greedy”. But I wonder if it just seems a bit evil because of the dark world of the Chooks. And speaking of fine feathered fiends, an actual chicken makes an appearance in the video.

I’m going through a similar experience to what I felt watching “Magnet”. I like the Headless Chickens and I really like this song, but this video just seems a little lacking. “Go! Go! Second time virgin! You want to!” No, it doesn’t convince me to give up my second-time-virginity.

Best bit: Chris’ head appears in one of the mysterious jars.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… fun with model aeroplanes.