The sound of the underground

New Zealand's short-lived counterculture scene threw off conservative constraints and laid foundations for the nation's modern identity

- By Garth Cartwright

Modern New Zealand is widely hailed as home to a progressive government, a hi-tech film and TV industry and formidable wineries, alongside much else. It's a far cry from the 1960s when a conservative government ruled, entertainment was imported and popular musicians tended to replicate stars of the British charts. But towards the end of that decade a homegrown counterculture sprang up thanks to the government's support for the US war in Vietnam. Rock music developed into a vehicle for dissent.

For a nation attuned to re-evaluating its postcolonial history, there has been little attention paid to this period when youthful energy disrupted society via protest, humour, poetry and music. A new book, Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand, documents the first stirrings of an underground rock scene, and has spurred interest in the musicians who soundtracked the era.

At the turn of the 70s, said author Nick Bollinger, bands on the lucrative brewery circuit were forced to play Top 40 hits. Meanwhile, "the psych bands played on campus or at a few clubs dedicated to hippies, or in backyards at parties.

They were largely ignored by media and record labels... but, for a few years, they captured something fresh and exciting."

Few of them recorded, but those who did loosely divided into two camps: the likes of Space Farm, The Human Instinct and Doug Jerebine were inspired by the acid-blues firepower of Cream, Jimi Hendrix and Rory Gallagher; while Mammal and Blerta used jazz and R&B to create a more freeform, improvised sound. Psych folk (Tamburlaine) and boogie (Highway) rounded out the scene.