In late 1989 U2 played to 60,000 at Lancaster Park. Exhausted by a relentless schedule and criticism of their recent explorations of American music, the band hoped for a short, fun tour with BB King. These performances were shot for music show CV. Reaction to show opener ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ shows it was a good idea not to give up on the song during recording. After the classic ‘I Will Follow’, Bono invites a cool as a cucumber audience member up to play guitar on ‘People Get Ready’. U2 went on to reinvent themselves in Berlin with the acclaimed Achtung Baby.

This 1966 edition of National Film Unit’s magazine slot heads to Christchurch International Airport to explore weather measuring devices being launched there. Helium 'Ghost Balloons' are sent into the sky by an outpost of the United States' National Center for Atmospheric Research. Meanwhile Christchurch weathermen send up hydrogen balloons, read satellite data, and provide a flight plan for a U2 reconnaisance plane from the US Air Force. The pilot’s preflight routine involves breathing pure oxygen to prepare him for the ultrahigh altitude plane’s steep ascent into the sky.

In this clip from music show CV, young interviewer Robert Rakete breaks out his bass guitar for a jam with the king of the blues. Visiting New Zealand in November 1989 as part of U2's Lovetown tour, BB King sits down to talk about the value of "policing yourself" and paying your dues. Taking up the invitation to name some names, he lists a range of musical influences (the single string blues of T-Bone Walker made him go "crazy") and enthuses about some of those met along the way — from the "good at heart" Elvis Presley, to the positivity of U2. BB King passed away in May 2015.

This ambitious video for Head Like a Hole's cowpunk Bruce Springsteen cover was shot by commercials company Flying Fish — at vastly more expense than the low budget recording which supplies the soundtrack. There's more than a cursory nod to U2's LA rooftop video for 'Where The Streets Have No Name' (including fake radio coverage from Channel Z). But HLAH get a higher building, and, unlike U2's guerrilla effort, the apparent blessing of the city fathers (with Mayor Mark Blumsky on site). The video marked one of the last appearances of drummer Mark 'Hidee Beast' Hamill.

In this April 1989 excerpt from music show CV, local bluesman Midge Marsden interviews BB King between flights at Auckland Airport. Sitting with his beloved Gibson guitar Lucille, King reveals his dissatisfaction with his own guitar playing, his family's distaste for blues music while growing up, and his belief that the growing sophistication of blues has helped it win increased popularity. He also mentions Bono writing him a song ('When Love Comes to Town'), and his take on friends James Brown and Ike Turner getting in trouble with the law.  

Australian music video maestro Richard Lowenstein (INXS, U2, cult film Dogs in Space) directed this bouncy city-life clip for the song when Tim Finn first flew solo from Split Enz.  Bright colours, video scratching, an animated sausage dog — what more could you want? Finn walks along carrying a ghettoblaster in Wayfarer sunglasses; it must be the 80s. 'Fraction too Much Friction' got to number two on the Kiwi singles charts in 1983, and number eight in Australia. That year Finn recorded a last album with Split Enz, before leaving the band he co-founded roughly a decade before.

As band member Haddon Smith points out, "you get the feeling Richard Bell knows what he's doing". And having produced renowned music videos for the likes of Depeche Mode, U2 and Nirvana, you have to agree with him. Bell's captivating concept, astute editing and spectacular set unite to deliver a thing of pure delight.   "We designed our own rooms. Mine is essentially my room in Auckland recreated in a small cube in an old warehouse somewhere in Christchurch!" Haddon Smith - April 09

Richard Bell is best known as longtime producer of Anton Corbijn's music videos and films for the likes of Depeche Mode, U2, Joy Division, and Nirvana. This promo for the Shocking Pinks song details the immediate aftermath of a car crash, with the singer drolly delivering his lines from pole position, blasé as rescue efforts take place around him and his passenger.   "The clip was in a top five list in an American mag, and suddenly I was receiving hundreds of calls about it. Crazy!" Richard Bell - April 09

In the best traditions of the Beatles, U2 and Head Like a Hole, Die! Die! Die! takes to a rooftop in New York for this video made by London-based director and editor Rohan Thomas. They sing of an urban nightmare of burning roads and bridges, places to avoid and not being able to return home – but the song's title takes full responsibility. The clip was the result of a guerilla shoot with a generator in 2009 that had them moved on from a series of prospective locations until they happened on an unguarded rooftop – to the surprise of nearby office workers.