Don't Fight it Marsha, It's Bigger Than Both of Us
Blam Blam Blam’s second hit from 1981 was angular and artsy, hook-filled but unsettling: all qualities captured in a theatrical video, directed by Andrew Shaw. Clowns, magicians, fire-eaters and trick cyclists join the band, while actors play out the saga of ‘Don’t Fight It, Marsha’. The actors — including Phillip Gordon (Came a Hot Friday), Michael Hurst and Donogh Rees (Constance) — were directed by Harry Sinclair, who would later join Blam band member Don McGlashan in The Front Lawn. The Len Lye-style scratch effects were by Jenny Pullar, the Blams’ lighting designer.
The Don McGlashan Collection
Don McGlashan has played drums, horns, guitars and PVC pipes, created memorable songs with Blam Blam Blam, The Mutton Birds and as a solo artist, and won a run of awards for his soundtrack work. As Nick Bollinger puts it in this backgrounder, his songs are good for occasions big and small.
Live at Mainstreet - Blam Blam Blam
A bittersweet Auckland 'goodbye' from Kiwi post-punk band Blam Blam Blam, after bad luck stopped them in their tracks. In 1982 bassist Tim Mahon was seriously injured in a van accident and the band decided to call time. In 1984 they briefly reunited and recorded this Radio with Pictures special for a live album. The footage is intercut with reviews tracking their career, and a brief interview with Don McGlashan and Mark Bell. The euphonium takes centre stage for 'Don't Fight it Marsha...' and McGlashan takes over drums for alternative anthem 'There is No Depression in New Zealand'.
Andrew Shaw
Andrew Shaw has experience of both sides of the camera. After debuting in his teens as a popular children's TV host, Shaw went on to spend time as producer and director, on a variety of music programmes and live shows. These days he is a TVNZ executive, responsible for commissioning and buying programmes.
Phillip Gordon
Phillip Gordon began his screen career with 70s soap Close to Home, then won fame in the mid 80s with two different roles: playing conman Cyril Kidman in hit period comedy Came a Hot Friday, and starring in Wellington-set TV series Inside Straight. He went on to act on both sides of the Tasman.
Harry Sinclair
Harry Sinclair first won fame as a member of beloved 80s multimedia duo The Front Lawn; whose shorts included Walkshort, Linda's Body and The Lounge Bar. Starting with Topless Women Talk about Their Lives, the first of three features exploring 'modern love', Sinclair displayed his talent for offbeat humour and improvisation, and his belief in the creative importance of the actor.
Michael Hurst
Actor and director Michael Hurst is a Kiwi creative institution. Even leaving aside his work as a director and stage actor, Hurst's screen resume runs to 50 roles and counting: including playing everyone from painter Toulouse-Lautrec, to Hercules's sidekick Iolaus, to politician Rodney Hide.
Donogh Rees
Donogh Rees began her long theatre and screen career after graduating from Auckland’s Theatre Corporate. Fresh from 1982’s Pheno was Here, the first of many shorts, Rees stole the screen as the image-obsessed Constance, for director Bruce Morrison. Since an award-winning turn as the injured writer in Alison MacLean’s Crush, her roles include three years on the nursing staff of Shortland Street, and Marilyn Waring in Fallout.
Don McGlashan
Don McGlashan showed his screen talents early, as one half of offbeat multimedia group The Front Lawn. Since then he has composed for film and television, alongside his own music. His score for Jane Campion's An Angel at My Table won acclaim; his screen awards include film No. 2 — which spawned number two hit 'Bathe in the River' — Katherine Mansfield tale Bliss, and TV series Street Legal.