“I hear the roooolling thunder”. Sir Howard Morrison’s classic bilingual rendition of the popular hymn comes from an October 1981 Royal Variety Performance, in front of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Morrison's performance  at Auckland's St James Theatre of 'Whakaaria Mai' marked a comeback for the veteran entertainer, who had been out of the spotlight working in Māori youth development. Released as a single a couple of months later, it topped the charts for four weeks, and led to the commissioning of a televised Howard Morrison Special in 1982.

NOTE: This video is currently unavailable on NZ On Screen 'I'm in Heaven' was from the third and final Dave McArtney and The Pink Flamingos album The Catch (the song was later rerecorded, with Graham Brazier on vocals, for Hello Sailor album Shipshape & Bristol Fashion). In the original video McArtney looks moodily out a window over the city and falls into a pool in speedos, and the band plays the song amidst backlit dry ice. Fast cuts match the crisp drum beats and synth. Directed by Bruce Morrison, it won Best Music Video at the 1984 NZ Music Awards. McArtney went on to provide music for Morrison’s 1986 movie Queen City Rocker.

This soulful ballad highlights Chong-Nee on the mic, backed by horns and strings. The song is taken from his debut album Just Getting By On Love (2006). Inspired by classic singers like Al Green, Chong-Nee set out to record a number of songs live, including this one. Befitting the song's old school stylings, director Martha Jeffries uses an extremely narrow colour palette. Jeffries also helmed the music videos for Chong-Nee singles 'Black Widow' and 'Scenarios'. 

On ‘Lady Lywa’, Nathan Haines swaps his trademark saxophone for a flute, serving up a slice of sleekly sophisticated cool. The video captures a live performance at London’s Lovebuzz Studios, with a sharply suited Haines leading a five piece ensemble of seasoned players — including his long term collaborator, keyboardist/producer Mike Patto. The track was penned by Haines, and features on his 2013 long-player Vermillion Skies, which debuted on the local top five on release, and won him his third Best Jazz Album Tui at the 2014 New Zealand Music Awards.

Recorded at the Galaxy in Auckland for a Radio With Pictures special in May 1987, Hamilton rockers Knightshade perform ‘The Physical You’. The song made it to number 14 on the New Zealand charts as part of an EP of the same name. Soon after, the band signed an ill-fated deal with Australia's Mushroom Records, before finally releasing their self-titled debut album — featuring this song — in 1995. The band’s performance is archetypical 80s hard rock — which makes sense of their long list of support slots for acts including Guns N’ Roses, Bon Jovi and Jimmy Barnes.

"The season's old and the leaves have turned to gold / And the wind blows cold from the south ..." The song is mournful, dreamy and elegiac, and so is the music video, from Steve Young. The clip features amiably laidback performances by the band members, hanging out in various Dunedin locations — including synchronised guitar dancing (a la the Shadows) on a wintry-looking beach: grey clouds, pale blue sky and a charming "out now on Flying Nun" drawn in the sand as the closing shot. The orange $50 note in the busking bowl is a notable 80s relic.

In April 2011, singer Tiki Taane was handcuffed, arrested and spent a night in the cells after performing a number by American rappers NWA as police visited his performance at Tauranga’s Illuminati club. The charges were later dropped and Taane remained resolutely unapologetic. This defiant song, recorded a month later at the same venue, is his musical response to the ordeal. Armed only with an acoustic guitar — the protest singer’s weapon of choice — he asserts his refusal to be silenced while firing a broadside at police, the media and politicians.

Sitting in the Rain is a New Zealand pop landmark. One of the earliest music promo clips, filmed for television in 1967 by the NZBC, it is a cover version by a local band that became better known than the original (by UK blues stalwart John Mayall). The Underdogs were a powerful electric blues combo, but with 'Sitting in the Rain' they knew that less is more; the film clip, used to fill TV scheduling gaps, is similarly unfussy. Like a surly, underground Monkees, the anarchic Underdogs don't hide the fact that the performance is mimed.

'Maybe' was the title track from Sharon O'Neill's 1981 album and she wrung every drop of emotion out of the performance. The video sees her during a sad break up, wandering around the flat in satin pants and a cavalry jacket and slumping against walls as she ponders on exactly how things came to this. It's in glorious black and white apart from the relationship flashbacks during the bridge, which oddly look like a montage from a sitcom. 'Maybe' reached No.12 on the NZ Singles Chart.

Black, white and red exuberance abound in this award-winning music video from Supergroove. The band's funk-heavy live performance is intercut with scenes of the band clowning around at the Otara Market, on a Three Kings volcano, and crowded into the back of an open-top VW. The hairstyle of vocalist and future Cambridge classics scholar Karl Steven — shaved, aside from an extended fringe arrangement at the front — is a relic from another era. An alternative video made for the same song revolves around the band doing everything backwards.