Your New Zealand music memories

During Music 101's live broadcast from Auckland Museum's VOLUME exhibition, host Alex Behan asked for your best NZ Music moments - here's a selection of your answers.

"I have still got the tickets to the Radio Hauraki 'Christmas Pantomonium' show - Split Enz at His Majesty's Theatre in Auckland - (Adults $1!!!! Children -50c!!!!).

What was most memorable about it was the music of the day being acted out on a stage with props to dress each segment -one was two deck chairs with musicians lounging with guitars (I think with knotted kerchiefs on heads), stage lighting to suggest the sea and a blazing sun, and a recording of waves rolling in onto the shore. The guitars started up sedately then pandemonium started when the rest of Split Enz burst onto the stage in a pretty loud manner. This was a new concept to me as a teenager and I liked it!

The ticket says Sunday 22, so I presume it was December. My five year diary goes from 1969 to 1973 and I did not make an entry for the show, so not sure which year it was." (Ed: It was in 1974)

- Chris

"The completely unforgettable experience of seeing The Gordons for the first time sometime in 1980 at the Hillsborough community centre Christchurch.

Astonishment that three quite unassuming looking blokes could create such a mind blowing hurricane of noise that literally forced the audience towards the back wall of the hall. Brilliant and never to be forgotten."

- Gordon

"I won a radio competition and tickets to see Dave McCartney and the Pink Flamingos at the soundshell at Mt Maunganui one summer (many years ago) but I was only 14 at the time so my mother said I couldn't go as needed an adult to accompany me! I borrowed the next door neighbour without the knowledge of my parents and went to see the band. Best live act I've seen and still live with the memory - I am now 53!!"

- Robert

"I've a bitter-sweet memory.
It was 1996 and Crowded House did their final concert on the steps of the Sydney Opera house. The day before the concert my friend banged on my door with a ticket to the concert did I want to go?
I was so poor and couldn't afford the airfare to Sydney so sadly had to turn down the ticket.
The following night on TV One news my friend was interviewed at the concert!
I was so happy for him as he loved the band as much as me but I was gutted.
I still love Crowded House and always associate their music with my student years at Otago."

- Katie

"The Muttonbirds performing at the Powerstation in Auckland in late 1990s before they headed off on their O.E. Loved the use of a full brass band as support. The power of the sound was immense. A great night out with friends when we actually danced and probably one of my last pre-children, hence it's specialness to me!"

- Annette

"I still recall Golden Harvest and The Dudes playing live lunchtime concerts at Fairfield College circa 1976.. Formative musical experiences for a then 13-year old girl.. still remember Dave Dobbyn's strange white afro, and lusting after Ian Morris in his tight white jeans, and the snake-hipped multicultural boys of Golden Harvest with their long hair and flares. Rock music was busting through the restrictive rules and regs and protocol of high school - we had to sit (!) and watch the shows but looking back, I thank the good burghers of FairCol for allowing them in to play for us. A lifelong love of music ensued. All these years later, still going out to gigs every opportunity, big and small, and supporting local music.. Shayne Carter and Don McGlashan last night, Leisure last week…

We are blessed in this tiny nation with a rich, musical heritage of extraordinary depth and breadth… past, present and future. Rock on …. Decades later, much older, I still am!"

- Karen

"Imagine the late 1970's and most kids have the famous autograph book!!

I think I must have been a music geek even then as most of my friends were excited about getting their mates to sign the traditional "Roses are red etc....

But I was super excited to get a visiting John Hore Grenell in mine!! (I think he was delivering a horse to our neighbour?).

Lately I have been super blessed to have been involved in bringing some incredible artists to my beautiful home town of Okarito (town of 35).

You just never quite know who you are cooking dinner for!

Donovans Store has had some amazing visitors in the last 10 years. Tiny Ruins, The Eastern, Marlon Williams, The Bads and Don McGlashan to name just a few, sooo lucky!"

- Ed

"My favourite memory was seeing Split Enz at the Auckland Town Hall in 1976 I think. I had only just come to live in NZ from London and was blown away by the concert. Still here after 40 years!"

- Janet

"My favourite New Zealand music moment is my father taking me to my very first concert - Split Enz Time and Tide show, supported by Dance Exponents, at the packed Dunedin Town Hall. I remember the crowd exploding to the opening guitar of "Victoria"… We were seated in the upstairs circle, and when everyone started stamping for the encore at the end of the show, "the Gods"/upper circle above us started shaking and moving up and down in time to the stamping… very exciting for a first-time concert goer!"

- Rahna

"Split Enz at St James Wellington in 1980. Tim Finn doing endless push-ups on stage and everyone going ballistic"

- Anon

"Seeing the 3Ds playing at a 'wet lunch' at Otago Uni 1988 when they were still learning their songs and a couple came to a grinding halt midstream. Followed by a few years later playing David Mitchell's wah wah pedal by hand from front stage at a gig at the Gluepot until he figured out what was going on and stomped on it. :)"

- Stephen

"Working with Herbs, Shona Laing and Joe Walsh on a TVNZ special in the late '80s. Listening to these guys jam in between recording the segments was magic. We lost Joe Walsh at the beginning of one record day. We found him again. That's another story.

I had to get heaps of air freshener for Herbs' dressing room - that's another story too."

- Ali

"Favourite New Zealand music memory: a wonderful night at La Cava - long-since closed, sadly) in Auckland in the early 80s. I was having a lovely time already when a couple of young women started singing, accompanying themselves on the guitar. They were just great. I loved their voices and harmonies and enjoyed the way they could cover old standards I'd grown up with, like Goodnight Irene and Dear John, without making them sound old fashioned or cliched.

I talked to them afterwards and realised they weren't quite the sweet young things they had first seemed by the glow of candle light and a few wines! Giving a glimpse of the steel we would see in the future. I saw them again often, either busking on Queen Street or at the protests of the 80s, but have always cherished the memory of that intimate evening with the Topp Twins before any of us knew who they were."

- Helen

"My best memories are the Topp Twins busking in Queen Street and Hello Sailor live at the Glenfield tavern. Raw and fantastic sounds."

- John

"I used to hang out with a group of women in Dunedin which included the Topp Twins in the days when they were regulars at Governor's Cafe. I remember great pot luck dinners at their lovely home on the Peninsula which always ended in an impromptu concert and hilarious story telling. Ahhh......sweet days of youthful freedom."

- Lynne

"Kia ora, My favourite NZ music memory is coming across Crowded House playing outside a music shop in Berlin in the mid-1980s. We stopped and talked to them and they told us how they had just formed the group and were doing promos."

- Michael

"Going to the Gluepot to see live New Zealand bands when I was 15 with my dad. My love of live music started there."

- Renee

"Watching King Loser set fire to the cymbal & dance round it at the Union Hall in orientation at Otago uni in 1997."

- Chris

"I was at the Radio Hauraki Albert Park Auckland Sunday concerts witnessing Space Farm with Harvey Mann and Eddie Hansen on twin guitars, Jan 1970..."

- Frank

"My father owned the pie cart in Whanganui which Johnny Cooper sang about on the 1957 hit 'Pie Cart Rock n Roll'."

- Anon

"Being a high school kid and seeing Th' Dudes at the Gisborne YMCA. They were rock gods with attitude and tight leather trousers. Think Dave Dobbyn had a ginger afro. So loud my ears bled."

- Graham

"Hey folks. My pre-teen years listening to Radio B when it was still AM and religiously tuning into Radio with Pictures every Sunday with Ms Hay and later Mr Driver as well as Ready to Roll every week. These were among the most influential sights and sounds of my burgeoning youth and helped steer me along the path of musical deliciousness."

- Ian

"As a child. Sitting in the gutter outside the Valley Inn pub in Heathcote valley on a sunny Saturday afternoon listening to Howard Morrison Quartet playing in beer garden. We weren't allowed inside."

- Lynne

"My favourite memory is coming off stage after playing at the power station in my band Not Really Anything, when we supported the SKEPTICS and feeling all important in the VIP room. Graham Brazier came up to me and said " that was a kiwi classic mate"."

- Peter

"After Herbs got inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame the Ngati Whatua at Bastion Point put on a celebration at Orakei marae. Hugh Lynn, their manager told a very funny and astute account of Herbs tours of the Pacific etc. Then over a dozen Herbs members, present and past, broke out with a stunning performance of many of their great iconic songs. Unforgettable."

- Bob

"The Dudes playing in the hall at Naenae College in 1980 when I was 17. We leaped about on the dance floor and were blown away."

- Helen

"Friends and I started a venue in New Plymouth called the Blue Room in the late 60s. We had local and NZ bands playing. No alcohol license just toasted sandwiches and coffee. The Killing Floor was one band I remember among many others. It was from Auckland."

- Anon

"Going to see Spelling Mistakes at St George's Church hall. So exciting and lively. Also scary was the menacing presence of boot boys one of whom had filed his teeth shark like!"

- Rob

"Have so many good memories of NZ sounds, I'm always saying to people to support NZ sounds - we have huge talent in all genres. I truly believe NZ is up there with the best in the world. Fav gig was Shapeshifter playing Papakura Stampede Bar with Sola Rosa and Issac and Ladi6. I have a signed CD cover from the Shapeshifter boys. Awesome memento and epic night of awesome sounds - a magic moment I treasure!"

- Rachael

"Space Waltz concert in the 70s. Had been at intermediate and played rugby with drummer Brent Eccles so was cool to see him in different light. Later I managed hotels around the South Island and hosted likes of Mockers, Hello Sailor, The Narks etc."

- John

"1986 anniversary of punk gig at Gladstone Tavern, legendary fight between skinheads and Mohawks , we were 16 and my friend had Mohawk...gig continued unabated awesome !?"

- Anon

"Remember working nightshift across the street from the old Empire warehouse in Te Aro wellington where HLAH lived/practiced, opening up the windows and bouncing round to this incredible music, wondering who were these guys, hearing riffs become songs that are now kiwi classics."

- Rob

"Getting into Head Like A Hole gig in Wellington (upstairs off Chews Lane in 1992) for free if you went in the nude. They played a lot of gigs nude."

- Kristelle

"My favourite NZ music memory is the first Time I saw Head Like a Hole play live. Great new music and nakedness on stage. An enduring memory that can't be unseen!!"

- BJ

"My favourite NZ musical moment: Student Arts Festival, Auckland Uni, August 1972: Split Enz playing their 1st ever gig in the Student Cafe as the police raid the offices of Radio Bosom (now bfm) to close down what was, in those days, an illegal private radio broadcast. The crowd barricaded the door to the studio to stop it being forced open...the revolution had begun!"

- Robert

"Sir John Kirwin getting 200 health workers (who didn''t know each other) to get up and boogie to 'How Bizarre'. It was soooo good, and very bizarre!"

- Sue

"My favorite nz music memory was EST, Pumpkinhead and Supergroove at the University of Canterbury ballroom. The broken glass on the floor sparkled like rubies in the lights. It was an all-ages show and along with the normal gig goers were little 12 year olds with their pretty horrified parents. But it was an amazing show with massively positive energy from three bands at the absolute peaks of their powers. Love the show today!"

- Anon

"My favourite music memory was driving hell for leather through potholes, road works, avoiding checkpoints etc to be on time to interview 'Kimbra' before performing at WOMAD. And when we got there sweaty and puffed she was calm and composed. I was too rattled so my 12 year old daughter did most of it. So this is her memory too."

- Tim and Mckenzie

"One of my favourite kiwi musical experiences was seeing the Newmatics at Sweetwaters [Festival] and spurring me on to play in bands myself. Keep it down its the riot squad!"

- Pete

"The first time I heard 'Bad Note For a Heart' by the Straitjacket fits. About 1.30 secs in ... the 12-string chord changes blew my mind and opened my ears up to nz music as a young teenager."

- Anon

"Being in the fifth form, sitting on the cold gymnasium floor and having The Mockers and Dance Exponents perform at lunchtime. Best lunch ever!"

- Andrew

"Stomping to 'Can't Get Enough' at the Civic Theatre with Supergroove. The old timber floor was moving up and down and it felt like we would shake the place down."

- Spencer

"Being 13 at a Dance Exponents concert at the Dunedin town hall and a tall stranger popped me on his shoulders."

- Victoria

"My fave NZ music memory is Blerta - dance all around the world- it was the soundtrack of the 70s for me, such a story and let's face it so bloody trippy!"

- Kim