Envy of angels

Don McGlashan is this year's inductee into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame. Russell Baillie pays tribute to the songwriting great.

- Don McGlashan 

To those who have followed New Zealand music for the past 40 years, Don McGlashan is a man who needs no introduction. Though he’s always done good introductions. Because if there was an introduction, it would have to mention many things. Beautiful Things. Things Well Made.

Things like his time as the drumming singer in Blam Blam Blam, one of Aotearoa’s greatest groups of the postpunk era, and his time in From Scratch, the country’s strangest pipe band.

Or his time as half of the Front Lawn. Never heard of them? Well, you know how Flight of the Conchords was New Zealand’s “fourth best parody folk duo?” The Front Lawn was the first.