Happy Birthday Barbara Manning!

Cheers to singer/songwriter deluxe Barbara Manning on her birthday! Here's a few stellar performances worth checking.

The Verlaines, Flying Nun turn 30

Believe it or not, three decades have passed since Roger Shepherd started up New Zealand's fabulous Flying Nun label. Coincidentally, it was also in 1981 that Graeme Downes founded The Verlaines in Dunedin. With word now that Downes is putting the finishing touches on a new Verlaines album, it seems worthwhile to look back at the development of the Dunedin scene which spawned many of the amazing groups that helped launch Flying Nun globally, inspiring countless artists, from Pavement to Guided By Voices and Barbara Manning to the late Jay Reatard. Here are a couple of clips which document the South Island origins of New Zealand's influential musical exports The Clean, The Chills, The Bats and The Verlaines whose members are still musically active today.

Friends Of The Enemy



Getting Older by The Clean 1981



Flamethrower by The Chills 1982



Pyromaniac by The Verlaines 1984


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