NEEDLES AND PLASTIC: FLYING NUN RECORDS, 1981-1988

by Matthew Goody

Overview

In this remarkable tale of creativity and chaos, do-it-yourself innovation and extraordinary attempts at world domination, Needles and Plastic tells the inside story of one of New Zealand – and the world’s – great independent music labels. Hundreds of full color & black and white photos illustrate the story!

Founded in 1981 by Roger Shepherd in Christchurch, New Zealand, Flying Nun Records unleashed an extraordinary wave of music that had an impact around the world.Needles and Plastic is the first comprehensive history of the early years of the label and its bands covering the critical period from 1981–1988 when many of the most influential and critically acclaimed artists emerged on Flying Nun, bands like – from The Clean, The Chills, The Verlaines, Straitjacket Fits and Bailter Space. The influence of the obscure label became apparent in the 1990s, when big-time indie acts like Pavement, Cat Power or Yo La Tengo started covering Flying Nun bands.

In entries on over 140 records from The Clean’s ‘Tally Ho!’ 7" in 1981 to The Verlaines Bird-Dog LP in 1988, Matthew Goody tells the story through the records themselves. His book draws on years of in-depth research to reveal the stories of the bands, the recordings, the songs, and the audience, with a host of significant characters contributing along the way – Shepherd, Chris Knox, Doug Hood, Hamish Kilgour and many more.

In this remarkable tale of creativity and chaos, do-it-yourself innovation and extraordinary attempts at world domination, Needles and Plastic tells the inside story of one the world’s great independent music labels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781737382980
Publisher:	Third Man Books
Publication date:	11/22/2022
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Matthew Goody is a Canadian editor and publisher who has worked in the book industry for over a decade. A fanatical record collector and researcher, he has spent years combing through the archives and records stacks to compile this comprehensive discographic history of Flying Nun's early years. He currently lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Read an Excerpt

1981

At the start of the 1980s, it seemed to Roger Shepherd that the vibrant post-punk scene in Christchurch was going to come and go with no one stepping in to document it. ‘There was just so much great music around that was never going to be recorded,’ he said. ‘If it had been happening in London or New York people would have said, “this is where it’s AT.”’ Working as a manager at the Record Factory in Colombo Street and hanging around the Gladstone Hotel, Shepherd saw a bunch of good bands starting to blossom and it didn’t take long for him to ask why he shouldn’t get involved. With no musical talent to speak of, and some industry experience gained from his job, he decided the best way to do that was to start his own label. Up in Auckland relatively new independent labels like Ripper and Simon Grigg’s Propeller seemed to be having some success. Why couldn’t the equivalent work in the South Island where the options were non-existent?

The idea began as a chat in the pub. Shepherd’s record store colleague Roy Montgomery, who worked at the EMI Shop at the other end of Cathedral Square from Shepherd’s Record Factory, recalled:

Rather than sit back and let it all happen . . . the conversation moved to ‘you know well we’ve got a couple of bands and we could do things here.’ Roger and I knew how the industry worked so it was, oh well we can get things pressed. There are factories here and plants and we can get art work done, it can’t be that hard. Roger just jumped to the side of ‘I’ll stick to making the objects’ in terms of the real objects and ‘you other guys can go make the music.’

Some bands around town had already started to take action. The Gordons had recorded and self-released their own single and now The Playthings and The Newtones were planning to follow suit. After all the talk Shepherd felt compelled to act. ‘I put myself in the situation where I talked about it enough that I felt obliged to follow through,’ he said. He soon roped in his close friend Paul Smith as a prospective partner and to handle the artwork. Together they plotted out what the label would look like, taking cues from some of their favourite UK independents like Rough Trade, Factory and 4AD. Shepherd felt he had a pretty good grasp on some parts of the business from his work at the Record Factory, especially sales and distribution. He knew what things wholesaled for and what shops in the major centres could sell. ‘We will write to record shops we think would be interested in our records, ask them how many copies they want, and send them,’ was the rather simple way he sketched out the process just months before the first record launched.

Actually producing a slab of vinyl was still a complete mystery. ‘I knew nothing about how to get a record made,’ Shepherd said. Luckily for him, Montgomery was already using his company contacts at the EMI Shop to figure out what was involved. Montgomery’s band The Pin Group had recorded some songs for a proposed 7″ and were trying to self-release it when Shepherd proposed helping out. Making records was a hassle and it was financially risky. A label could help shoulder some of the burden and let the bands worry about the music. ‘Roger thought he’d start a record label and that was unheard of,’ recalled Pin Group drummer Peter ‘Buck’ Stapleton. ‘It was kind of like “Well what do you do to start a record label?” Nobody knew what you did. . . . So, Roger did this weird thing of starting a label and we were the first band on his label.’

In an attempt to understand the record business, Shepherd travelled up to Wellington to visit one of the two pressing plants in the country. EMI had a plant in Lower Hutt and PolyGram Record Services, where Shepherd went, operated in Miramar. For a 45 rpm 7″ single, the minimum run was 300 at PolyGram. Based on the cost for each unit, it made sense to press up and sell that many just to cover the costs, a priority given there was no real capital behind the whole endeavour.

The new enterprise still needed a name. After some drunken brainstorming with Paul Smith, Shepherd decided he would call his label Flying Nun, after the 1960s television show starring Sally Field. On 13 May 1981, he took $250 and officially registered the name as a limited liability company. It wasn’t long before he had some regrets about the choice. ‘The name was one of the last things. A desperation move,’ he said a few years later. ‘I always enjoyed the silliness of the TV programme. In some respects, I think the name’s really silly too.’

Local student paper Canta ran a short piece about ‘Christchurch’s first record company’ and was slightly baffled about how it was all supposed to work. ‘Flying Nun is a very informal enterprise; there are no written contracts or set percentages – it works on a very flexible basis and relies on ‘mutual agreement’ . . . I don’t fully understand it either, but there’s bound to be some method in [Roger’s] madness.’ Shepherd later wrote in his memoir that if he had actually stopped and plotted it all out ‘it could have seemed too daunting and nothing would have happened’. Besides, the whole point of the label was to document the bands he liked, not to sell records. ‘There is no way that you can make money from singles in New Zealand,’ he said before even releasing a record.

While Shepherd’s aims were modest, he still wanted to make a splash with the launch of Flying Nun. The Pin Group and a few other local bands had been lined up to kick-start things, but then in May ’81 a relatively unknown band from Dunedin came through the Gladstone. A captivating mixture of psychedelic/garage pop with jagged guitar and fun lyrics, The Clean were so good that Shepherd became convinced he needed them for Flying Nun. His pursuit of the band took him all the way up to Auckland before they agreed to come on board, but a month later they headed into a makeshift Christchurch studio to record Flying Nun’s first single on a shoestring budget.

A few short months later, Flying Nun officially arrived with the release of The Clean’s ‘Tally Ho!’ – a 7″ single with an opening that ‘starts stopped hearts’ in the words of Russell Brown. The record sent shock waves through the New Zealand music industry, turning The Clean and Flying Nun into overnight sensations. Over the following months the new label had multiple records in the charts and a smash hit with The Clean’s follow-up Boodle Boodle Boodle. With a record-store counter as a head office, and no sign of a business plan, Flying Nun Records suddenly and surprisingly became a major player in New Zealand music. And all it cost was $50.

The Clean – ‘Tally Ho!’ 7″ (YING 1/FN 002)

The best band Shepherd saw come through local hotspot the Gladstone in 1981 wasn’t a local act, it was The Clean. ‘They were very inspirational,’ Shepherd later told the Herald. ‘I don’t think I’ve seen any band quite like The Clean.’ A few years earlier he had travelled down to Dunedin to witness one of their early messy shows (‘A lot of people thought they were awful, but I thought: “This is unbelievable”, even though they played the same song four times’) and recognised that they had since morphed into a scorching band. He wanted them on the new label. ‘The Clean was the first one I wrote to, because I wanted to make a good start,’ he said in mid-1981.

There was something serendipitous about Roger Shepherd and The Clean coming together to launch Flying Nun. ‘It is just luck really,’ admitted Clean co-founder Hamish Kilgour at the time. For just as the new label boss was getting serious about his plan he found a band in search of someone who would release their music but let them do it on their own terms. The Clean’s DIY spirit had been shaped by their tumultuous first few years as a band. After feeling unsupported in Dunedin, and nearly falling apart in the process, the deal with Flying Nun validated years of hard work, especially for founders Hamish and David Kilgour.

Table of Contents

Preface viii

Notes on the Discography: A Decryption Guide xii

1981 1

The Clean - 'Tally Ho!' 6

Pin Group - Ambivalence' 15

The Pin Group - 'Coat' 19

The Clean - Boodle Boodle Boodle 21

The Gordons - The Gordons 27

1982 30

Ritchie Venus and The Blue Beetles - 'Bleeding Heart' 36

25 Cents - 'Don't Deceive Me' 38

The Pin Group - Go To Town 39

Die Bilder (Builders) - Schwlmmen In Der See 41

The Clean - Great Sounds Great, Good Sounds Good, So-So Sounds So-So, Bad Sounds Bad, Rotten Sounds Rotten!! 43

Ballon D'Essai - Ballon D'Essai 45

Various - Dunedin Double 48

Mainly Spaniards - 'That's What Friends Are For' 56

Tall Dwarfs - Louis Likes His Daily Dip 59

The Clean - 'Getting Older' 60

Naked Spots Dance - New 63

This Sporting Life - Show Me To The Bellrope 65

Bored Games - Who Killed Colonel Mustard 66

The Chilis - 'Rolling Moon' 69

The Jessels - 'Bobzilla' 71

1983 72

Bilders - Solomans Ball 78

Fetus Productions - Felaimania 78

Chris Knox - Songs For Cleaning Guppies 80

Netherworld Dancing Toys - Netherworld Dancing Toys 81

Sneaky Feelings - 'Be My Friend' 83

The Verlaines - 'Death And The Maiden' 84

The Clean - Odditties 86

The Stones - Another Disc Another Dollar 88

Builders - Beatin Hearts 90

The Great Unwashed - Clean Out Of Our Minds 93

Netherworld Dancing Toys - 'The Trusted Ones' 94

They Were Expendable - Big Strain 96

Victor Dimisich Band - Victor Dimisich Band 98

Tall Dwarfs - Canned Music 100

Children's Hour - Flesh 102

Marie and the Atom - Yellow Read Aloud 104

Ballon D'Essai - Grow Up 106

The Skeptics - Chowder Over Wisconsin 108

The Fall - Fall In A Hole 111

1984 116

This Sporting Life - In Limbo 122

Netherworld Dancing Toys - Song and Dance 123

The Great Unwashed - Singles 125

Marching Orders - 'The Dancer' 129

Various - The Last Rumba 130

The Great Escape: Flying Nun Arrives in Europe 132

The Chills - 'Pink Frost' 136

Children's Hour - Ya! Ya! Ya! 138

Sneaky Feelings - Send You 140

This Kind Of Punishment - This Kind Of Punishment 142

Eight Living Legs/Flak - Emigration 144

Verlaines - 10 O'Clock in The Afternoon 147

The Bats - By Night 149

The Doublehappys - Double B-Side 152

The Gordons - Volume 2 155

The Rip - A Timeless Peace 156

The Jumblies - 'Stuff Of Dreams' 158

Expendables - 'The Flower' 159

The Chills - 'Doledrums' 160

Phantom Forth - EEPP 163

Tall Dwarfs - Slugbuckethairybreathmonster 165

1985 168

Scorched Earth Policy - Dust To Dust 173

Expendables - In Between Gears 176

Crystal Zoom! - 'Uptown Sheep' 177

The Bats - And Here Is 'Music For The Fireside' 179

The Chills - The 'Lost' EP 180

Look Blue Go Purple - Bewitched 182

This Kind Of Punishment - 5 By Four 185

The Exploding Budgies - The Grotesque Singers 188

The Doublehappys - Cut It Out 191

Sneaky Feelings - 'Husband House' 194

Tall Dwarfs - That's The Short & Long Of it 196

Tall Dwarfs - Three Songs 198

Vibraslaps - Vibraslaps 199

The Fold - The Fold 200

Not Really Anything - Watched A World 201

Various - Tuatara 202

Fetus Productions - Perfect Product 204

Marie and the Atom - Spit it Out 206

From Scratch - Pacific 3,2,1, Zero (Part 1) 209

This Is Heaven -200 Variations 211

1986 214

The Verlaines - Hallelujah All The Way Home 220

Able Tasmans - The Tired Sun 222

Bird Nest Roys - Whack It All Down 224

Various - Outnumbered By Sheep 226

Shayne Carter and Peter Jefferies - 'Randolph's Going Home' 230

The Weeds - 'Wheatfields' 231

Scorched Earth Policy - Going Thru' A Hole In The Back Of Your Head 233

Fetus Productions - Luminous Trails 235

The Orange - Fruit Salad Lives 236

Sneaky Feelings - 'Better Than Before' 238

Playthings - Live '81 240

The Clean - Live Dead Clean 242

The Chills - Kaleidoscope World 244

The Alpaca Brothers - Legless 248

The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience - The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience 250

The Verlaines - 'Doomsday' 253

Goblin Mix - Goblin Mix 254

The Eric Glandy Memorial Big Band - Adrenal Glandy: Songs Of Love, Hate And Revenge 256

The Axemen - Three Virgins, Three Versions, Three Visions 258

The Puddle - Pop Lib 261

Peter Arnold With Claire Timings - Rarer Than Radium 265

Flying Nun UK/Flying Nun Europe: A Brief History 266

The Bats - 'Made Up In Blue' 270

Jay Clarkson - Jay Clarkson 272

Stiff Herbert - 'I Could Hit The Ceiling' 273

Able Tasmans/Raucous Laughter - 'Buffalos'/' Relapse' 274

Bird Nest Roys - 'Jaffa Boy' 274

Sneaky Feelings - 'Coming True' 274

The Fold - 'Woman In Red' 275

Look Blue Go Purple - LBGPEP2 276

The Chills - 'I Love My Leather Jacket' 278

1987 280

Tall Dwarfs - Throw A Sickle 286

Sneaky Feelings - Sentimental Education 287

Headless Chickens - Headless Chickens 289

Kim Blackburn - Lizards In Love 292

The Fold - The Fold 294

The Max Block - The Max Block 295

Dead Famous People - Lost Persons Area 297

The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience - 'I Like Rain' 299

The Moas - Spaz Out! 299

The Spines - Idiot Sun 300

The Verlaines - Juvenilia 301

In the Region of Tucson: Flying Nun Arrives in America 302

Sonic Youth - Sister 304

Able Tasmans - A Cuppa Tea And A Lie Down 307

The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience - Love Songs 308

Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos - River Falling Love 310

Goblin Mix - The Birth And Death Of Goblin Mix 312

The Rip - Stormed Port 313

This Kind Of Punishment - In The Same Room 314

All Fall Down - My Brand New Wallpaper Coat 317

The Bats - Daddy's Highway 320

The Chills - Brave Words 323

1988 328

Bird Nest Roys - Bird Nest Roys 334

Nick Smith - Skin 336

Straitjacket Fits - Life In One Chord 337

Graeme Jefferies - Messages For The Cakekitchen 340

Peter Jefferies and Jono Lonie - At Swim 2 Birds 342

The Bats - 'Block Of Wood' 342

The Strangeloves - 'When Judy Gets Out' 343

Bailter Space - Nelsh Bailter Space 344

The Dead C - DR503 347

Bailter Space - 'New Man' 349

Tall Dwarfs - Dogma 350

The Chills - 'Wet Blanket' 351

The Terminals - Disconnect 352

The Verlaines - Bird-Dog 354

Epilogue 356

Cassette Collections of Note 358

Notes 360

Select Bibliography 372

Acknowledgements 374

Index 376

Editorial Reviews

"With his gratifying archive, Matt Goody details one of the most successful eras in the history of rock music – Flying Nun Records, formed in 1981 by Roger Shepherd in a Christchurch record shop. Shepherd and his brilliant cohorts served up the legendary output of not only kingpins like The Clean, The Chills and Tall Dwarfs, but also captured the best from favourites of mine like Able Tasmans, Bird Nest Roys, Look Blue Go Purple and The Verlaines. Goody provides the most comprehensive presentation yet of Flying Nun’s rise from Shepherd’s notepad to international underground rock sovereignty – and a vital part of one nation’s collective art history." — Bob Nastanovich, Pavement

"Matthew Goody's Needles and Plastic  tells detailed stories about each record and artist, from the Chills to Tall Dwarfs to the Bats, and unearths a sparkling wealth of photos and ephemera, building a rich document of how exciting and resourceful this scene was." — Pitchfork's Best of Music Books 2022

"Molecular research into every release on the groundbreaking label." — MOJO

"Needles & Plastics is a heroic piece of research, 436 large-format pages of extraordinary detail and rare photos, flyers, posters and memorabilia." — Louder

"Leaves no stone unturned ... Needles And Plastic is useful as a nearly academic-level reference to the '80s Christchurch/Dunedin scene and is also eminently skimmable - the work of a patient researcher sure, but a fan and a completist collector as well." — Dave Mandl, The Wire

"Needles and Plastic] looks so cool. I can’t wait to devour it. When you go through the trials and tribulations of an independent record label, you are immediately a champion of every other label. You know how hard it is." — Multi-Grammy winning musician Jack White

“Bruce [Pavitt, Sub-Pop co-founder] and I were huge fans of the Flying Nun model, a regional scene pulling itself up by its bootstraps with compelling personalities, a sense of place and musical continuity. The ‘Dunedin Sound’ wasn’t as catchy a tag like grunge but there was most definitely a sound, something dark and breezy at the same time, and it continues to resonate. The Chills’ ‘I Love My Leather Jacket’, The Clean’s ‘Tally Ho!’, The Verlaines’ ‘Death And The Maiden’, it’s all great. It’s the biggest mystery to me why Flying Nun has yet to really be discovered.” — Jonathan Poneman, co-founder of Sub Pop

“Needles and Plastic is so thoroughly and lovingly researched and written, it reads with the narrative drive and immediacy of a first-hand account. This from a writer and fan who came to the Flying Nun story two decades later and from half a world away. It is a remarkable achievement, and another bizarre twist in the Flying Nun story that its first meticulously written history should be produced in such circumstances.”— Richard Langston, Founder of the Garage fanzine and author of PULL DOWN THE SHADES: Garage NZ fanzine compendium 1984-86

“When anyone writes about New Zealand music, they mean Flying Nun records.... In its prime, Flying Nun's embrace of all post-punk's manifestations – exquisite psych-pop, cantankerous quasi-goth, warped folk, experimental synth warfare –  meant it was New Zealand's Rough Trade, Factory, Postcard and Mute rolled into one.” — Martin Aston, The Guardian

“There doesn’t seem to be anything on Flying Nun Records that is less than excellent.” — Billboard

"A fascinating and edifying book that is drenched in a wealth of fabulous photographs and illustrations throughout. And Matthew Goody really gets it: rather than simply expressing exasperation at the idiosyncrasies of the label in its early incarnation, he determines to untangle conundrums presented by them. His inspired methodology and meticulous research have resulted in this marvellous story – told as a series of stories – that is absorbing from go to woah." — Denise Roughan, Look Blue Go Purple and The 3D

"There have been insider accounts of the Flying Nun story: how this ramshackle indie changed the game with a do-it-yourself alternative New Zealand music. Yet it is a Canadian record collector rather than an insider who has written the most detailed and palpable account of those reverberant early years, by using the records themselves as portals to the stories in this energetic, exhaustive review of the label’s Christchurch years." — Nick Bollinger

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