Peter Blake: making music, and getting Ready to Roll …

Interview – 2013

Music is Peter Blake's passion. Blake's career has encompassed jazz, Hendrix covers, keyboards for Hello Sailor – and quite a lot of television. After time at radio station 2ZA he began working on TV music show Grunt Machine, then got the job of musical director, and later producer of the high-rating, hit-making Ready to Roll. Soon he was commanding a stable of music shows that included RTR, Radio with Pictures, Heartbeat City, and stereo simulcasts of rock concerts.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Blake talks about:

Eclectic early music show Grunt Machine
Abolishing cover versions, when he became producer of Ready to Roll
Having to look after glam rocker Gary Glitter for a day
The arrival of music videos, and commissioning videos by both TVNZ staffers and freelancers
RTR's golden age in the 80s, when it ruled both the TV and music charts
How he moved into composing soundtracks, with drama series Marching Girls
Composing for himself, versus composing for the screen

This video was first uploaded on 3 April 2013, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview and Editing - Ian Pryor. Camera – Marty Lang

It became a real hit machine . . . It was powerful in the sense that I was sort of plagued by record companies kind of wanting their clips on. I would arrive in the morning and there would be someone waiting on the line from CBS or Festival or wherever, trying to get in my ear as to potentially what to playlist the next week. But really it came down to for me the music, the quality of the tune, the quality of the clip...
– Peter Blake on choosing which music videos screened on the high rating Ready To Roll

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