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

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

...if Chris had sung 'Cruise Control' alone, it wouldn't have been as poppy as introducing a female vocalist with a very pop voice which I have. So you bring in that other instrument, that other colour. It changed what the sound of the band had been.

– Fiona McDonald on singing on Headless Chicken chart topper 'Cruise Control'

It just caught the subconscious of people I guess. It just yeah, sort of got in there and bedded in, and you couldn't get it out. I always remember singing that hook over and over and over again to myself, and thinking 'gosh this is fantastic, it really works'.I think it was just the melody and the hook.

– 'How Bizarre' producer Alan Jansson on the song's appeal

...good on my brothers from Herbs saying it first, and allowing us younger kids to come after and say it again — the truth: don't get too comfortable in your little island-thinking there cousin. Soon there'll be no fish left to eat.

– DLT (Darryl Thomson) on the shared message between 1996 single 'Chains' and Herbs' 'French Letter'

I was just sick of chest-beating rock'n'roll. I'm sure it's definitely an age thing, and all that kind of thing, but just...writing that rock music that I'd written in the Straitjackets just seemed too easy and obvious ... I didn't want to be the guy endlessly repeating himself for the rest of his life. I just feel you've got to evolve and keep moving places.

– Shayne Carter on forming Dimmer in the late 1990s, and exploring new sounds

Teenage death, solo mums, male violence, crime, poverty, bad health, bad diet — come on! A hundred and sixty years of that shit. 'E tū, stand proud, kia kaha, say it loud'.

– DLT (Darryl Thomson) from Upper Hutt Posse, on the passion behind the Posse and their breakthrough single 'E Tū'

I just had this notion in the back of my head that if we entered it we would win. I mean Flying Nun, being Flying Nun, never had any damn money. So, we really wanted to record an album and we didn't have any money, they didn't have any money and...so we entered it, and we won, much to the chagrin of various people in the upper echelons of the New Zealand music industry at the time.

– Headless Chickens member Chris Matthews on the band winning the 1987 Rheineck Rock Award

Someone said that there's a darkness in New Zealand's character, that they talk about in short films and stuff ...that's in our art forms, and is in our country as a people. And I think we're still coming to terms with who we are as a country, and our music has to reflect that in some ways.

– Songwriter Wayne Mason on how New Zealand expresses itself in music and other art forms

Yeah, it all clicked. And I remember listening to that track and getting goose-bumps, and thinking "gosh, if this is what music's about, I'm in...'

– Producer Alan Jansson on following a suggestion from Sisters Underground to combine their loops with acoustic guitar, on song 'In the Neighbourhood'

There I was cleaning up downstairs, and I heard Casey Kasem say ...'our number one song across America this week is by OMC, and it doesn't stand for 'Outboard Motor Club'. He said "they're all the way from New Zealand, and a place called Ōtara". And man, I just felt like a million bucks.

– Producer Alan Jansson on hearing American radio legend Caset Kasem announce 'How Bizarre' being America's number one song

I guess we're lucky because we were brought up with that from a young age. Unfortunately for some of the brothers overseas ... I mean hip hop was formed because these people had lost their roots, and it's one of their reasons to express themselves...

– Te Awanui 'Awa' Reeder from Nesian Mystik, on the band feeling connected to their Pacific heritage

..our perspective was international right from the beginning. Like right when we were at high school it was like 'yeah nah, we want to play in America, we wanna play all around the world.' It wasn't just 'we want to do it here.'

– Tom Larkin from Shihad on the band's early ambitions

Definitely seeing bands like Bailter Space and The Skeptics as far as New Zealand music live, and the Headless Chickens, were definitely intense experiences for us, because they were very loud, and they were also very emotional. And we sort of realised you could actually play rock with real emotion, and not saying stupid things, and you don't necessarily have to have a guitar solo after the second chorus.

– Shihad singer Jon Toogood on getting inspiration from other Kiwi bands

You're not going to get rich, you're not probably going to get that famous here, you know. So there really is no other reason to do it. And I think in New Zealand that people here do it purely because they love playing music.

– Headless Chickens member Chris Matthews on the reality of playing in a band in New Zealand

We suddenly started getting a lot of young women coming backstage. But they didn't want to talk to us; they wanted to talk to Fiona.

– Chris Matthews on one of the effects of having Fiona McDonald join Headless Chickens

It's one of those records you hear once in a lifetime, and you just know it's a massive hit.

– Huh! label boss Simon Grigg on hearing OMC's 'How Bizarre' the first time

..it did epitomise the South Auckland sound, but it was put together by a white guy from Wellington.

– Huh! label boss Simon Grigg on 1994 compilation album Proud, produced by Alan Jansson