Give It A Whirl 6 - Land of Plenty (Episode Six)

The final episode of pop music series Give It a Whirl finds the 1990s New Zealand music industry in a confident position, with a range of acts either cracking international charts or making music that expresses Aotearoa's Pacific character. Fiona McDonald adds her pop sparkle to Headless Chickens' dark vibes and 'Cruise Control' hits number one. Wellington rockers Shihad mix metal and Flying Nun, and Upper Hutt Posse fly the flag for homegrown hip hop that is blatantly political, and proud of it. In 1997 OMC make Kiwi history when their genre bending, slow burn single 'How Bizarre' cracks the UK and America. 

They were definitely ahead of their time, and I think that's why the audience, why people in New Zealand responded to them so well. It's unfortunate that by the time they got to thinking about going overseas that I think everything had moved on. They weren't quite as groundbreaking by that stage, and they didn't quite click into what I guess the market wanted ... Again it's that timing thing — it doesn't mean the music's no good, it just means that the timing's wrong, which is what happens with music all the time: crap bands get lucky, and good bands sort of get the timing wrong...

– Flying Nun's Roger Shepherd on Headless Chickens' run of success drying up

Key Cast & Crew

Steven Orsbourn

Cinematographer

Mark Everton

Director, Writer, Interviewer

Richard Driver

Producer, Series Development

Colin Hogg

Writer, Story Consultant

Samuel Richards

Sound Mix

Neil Finn

Subject