Chris Bourke
What makes a good song?
Time for our monthly dip into our musical history with Audio Culture's Chris Bourke. Chris is looking at our great songwriters. Audio
AudioCulture: Ike Metekingi & the Maori Show Bands
AudioCulture's Chris Bourke's helps a Kiwi pop pioneer get his moment in the spotlight. Ike Metekingi is as much a New Zealand trail-blazer as Inia Te Wiata, Split Enz and Lorde, but most of us have… Video, Audio
Mr Lee Grant
Audio Culture's Chris Bourke takes us back into our pop-culture past for one of our first teen idols, Polish-born Bogdan Komanovski - better known to fans in the 60s as Mr. Lee Grant. Audio
When New Zealand bands met the Beatles
New Audioculture director Chris Bourke looks back on the Beatlemania years from a Kiwi perspective. Many local musicians were deeply suspicious of the Fab Four - it had to be a flash in the pan, they… Video, Audio
A Broader Tradition, a Broader Language by Chris Bourke
Marking the 100th anniversary of Lilburn's birth, music historian and 2015 Lilburn Research Fellow Chris Bourke discusses the place of local popular music in New Zealand. He considers the ideas… Audio
Happy Birthday Mr. Lilburn
Today would have been the 100th birthday of trail-blazing New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn - 2015 Lilburn Research Fellow Chris Bourke looks at Lilburn's ideas vis a vis popular music... Audio
Chris Bourke: Lilburn Research Fellow
Chris Bourke will deliver the 2015 Lilburn Lecture on Wednesday at the National Library in Wellington. He talks to Clarissa Dunn about that lecture and his current work as Lilburn Research Fellow at… Audio
Great NZ Concerts - Bob Marley 1979
We remember Bob Marley's New Zealand visit in 1979. Video, Audio
Great NZ Concert - Bob Dylan
Our Great New Zealand Concert series remembers Bob Dylan's 1978 gig at Western Springs. Audio
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American cultural commentator best known for his writing about rock'n'roll. In his most recent book, though, The History of Rock'n'Roll in 10 Songs, he uses 10 tunes as a set-list… Audio
The music of World War I
2015 marks the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign and historians are pouring through records from the First World War looking for new insights into the conflict. Chris Bourke is the award winning… Audio
Music 101 Pocket Edition 9
Sharon Jones meets local soul sister Tyra Hammond, RIP New Zealand rock 'n' roll pioneer Johnny Cooper and why New York wasn't working for Mulholland. Audio
Johnny Cooper - The Māori Cowboy
Johnny Cooper, who recorded New Zealand's first rock 'n' roll record, died this week. Chris Bourke, author of Blue Smoke, pays tribute to 'The Māori Cowboy'. Audio
The Beatles in New Zealand with Chris Bourke and Redmer Yska
Music writers Chris Bourke and Redmer Yska talk to Wallace Chapman about the Beatles tour of New Zealand 50 years ago. Yska and Bourke were young Wellingtonians at the time and they say the 1964 tour… Audio
Blue Smoke singer dies
The singer of one of New Zealand's best known songs, Blue Smoke, has died. Pixie Costello, also known as Pixie Williams, was 85. Audio
Blue Smoke: Christchurch After Hours
Before Ray Columbus and Max Merritt, who were the musical legends in Christchurch? Which New Zealand musician was told by Frank Sinatra to “Come to Hollywood”?
Chris Bourke looks at the music that… Audio
Blue Smoke: Golden Ears
Chris Bourke presents a tribute to one of the giants of New Zealand popular music, the blind Dunedin-born pianist, saxophonist, arranger and record producer Julian Lee, who would later work at Capitol… Audio
Blue Smoke: Heartland Hootenany
After the release of ‘Blue Smoke’ in 1949 launched the local recording industry, the fledgling studios were busy capturing the sounds of New Zealand artists. Audio
Best Christmas music with Chris Bourke
Refer to the nine to noon page for further details of his track selections. Audio
Blue Smoke: These Kia Ora Islands
New Zealand artists’ cover versions of overseas hits – and early original pop songwriting. Audio