New Zealand Music Month - 30 May 2009

The month of May is fast drawing to a close, and with the end of May will come the end of our New Zealand Music Month challenge. Thanks to Ele from Homepaddock for laying down the challenge, and a big ups to her, Adam Smith at The Inquiring Mind and Rob Hosking at Rob's Blockhead Blog for entering into the spirit of things. It's been a blast, and I still have almost enough clips saved for another month's worth!

And today, in our penultimate contribution, we're staying local, and showcasing two Wanganui acts who have achieved success in the music industry, albeit 40 years apart.

First up it's Johnny Devlin - rather optimistically referred to as New Zealand's Elvis Presley, but something of a sensation in his day - here's a piece of video of Devlin performing in Melbourne in 1964 - we don't know who found this video, but we reckon it should be in the National Film Archives!





Now move forward to the 21st century. Wanganui bands have done very well in the Smokefree RockQuest, and this band has been the most successful of all of them. The Have formed at Wanganui High School, and Brodie, Peter and Mike are now based in Berlin, where they recently changed their name to The Sun and the Wolf. And we found this announcement, just prior to The Have heading offshore last year:

The Have began their career at High School and have achieved a lot in the short time they have been together. They have had 2 songs licensed for worldwide releases of EA Games (Rugby 2005 and Burnout 2007), plus have had songs licensed for movies (The Devil Dared Me To), TV advts (X Box, Canterbury for Rugby World Cup, Super 12's in Australia). Plus they have been accepted into SXSW 3 times! From SXSW they gained critical acclaim (Music Week Top 10 SXSW picks) and a US producer - Barrett Jones (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, The Melvins) who produced their critically acclaimed debut album 'Back to the Burning Wreck'

Here's The Have with The Fuzz - it's plug-your-ears rock!