ScreenTalk

Rocker Ray Columbus, OBE, has been a headline act since 1961 when he appeared on Time Out for Talent at the age of 18. Since then, he has performed on or hosted a huge range of music and light entertainment TV shows including: Club Columbus, C’Mon, Happen Inn, Personality Squares and That’s Country. With his band Ray Columbus and the Invaders, he had two number one hits with ‘She’s a Mod’ and ‘Till We Kissed’.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Columbus talks about:

• How all tapes of his early days on TV in Club Columbus were destroyed
• Being squeezed into the newsroom in Christchurch to tape the show
• Bringing a TV studio to a standstill by dancing the ‘Mod’s Nod’
• The excitement of appearing on C’Mon and working with Pete Sinclair
• Why lurid costumes and psychedelic lyrics led to changes on Happen Inn
• How a damning TV review led to the axing of My Name is Ray Columbus
• Fearing the reactions of fans to him hosting That’s Country
• Selling the show to the Nashville Network in America
• Being grateful for his TV career

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

His favourite music videos include Joy Division’s Atmosphere and Tall Dwarfs’ Turning Brown and Torn in Two. And Brent Hansen has seen a lot of music videos. From producing famously eclectic Kiwi music show Radio with Pictures to rising up through the ranks to become head of MTV Europe, Brent Hansen has been a major player in putting music on screen.

In this ScreenTalk interview, the life-long music fan and ideas man talks about:

• first being invited to work as a floor assistant for television, while studying to be a teacher in Christchurch
• what made long-running Sunday night music show Radio with Pictures so special
• how RWP host Karyn Hay was “singularly independent and the first real New Zealand television presenter”
• how an O.E. with his wife Philippa Dann timed in with the European launch of music channel MTV, and revolutionary change in the way music was showcased on screen
• making sure the MTV playlists mixed mainstream acts like Madonna and more alternative artists like The Cramps
• early days at MTV Europe, and rising through the ranks to become Creative President and Editor-in-Chief of MTV International
• his achievements at MTV, including launching the MTV Europe Music awards, and enabling the channel to operate on a more regional basis
• where he sees music television going in an age where music has been tribalised and devalued

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Poetry, satire and music were the mainstays of Gary McCormick’s life, before he took his unique world view to television. His onscreen career began with the award-winning documentary Raglan by the Sea, on which he collaborated with filmmaker Bruce Morrison. McCormick’s best-known TV series was Heartland, which ran for four years and told the stories of communities across the country. In the mid 90s McCormick teamed up with his buddy and fellow poet Sam Hunt for a romp around New Zealand in the celebrated documentary The Roaring 40’s Tour.

In 1998 McCormick returned to his home town of Porirua to host The Bay Boys – a gripping documentary about life in the suburb. Since then McCormick has hosted other talk shows and was a guest host on Nightline. Now resident in Lyttelton, McCormick shares hosting duties on More FM in Christchurch with his mate Simon Barnett.

In this ScreenTalk interview, McCormick talks about:

• The pleasure of working on Heartland
• The challenge of interviewing the Rastafarian community
• Playing tricks on the director of Heartland
• Learning to dodge a knife attack with Sam Hunt
• Taking a nostalgic look back at his home town
• The on-set shower and other quirks of McCormick Country
• Being mistaken for other celebrities

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Brendan Smyth is charged with getting more New Zealand music on the airwaves. As NZ Music Manager at NZ On Air, he leads a team that funds and promotes Kiwi music and music videos.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Smyth talks about:

• the challenges of getting Kiwi music on radio during the 90s
• what funding agency NZ On Air does, and how it chooses which music videos to fund
• how English video makers have been impressed by the strong ideas shown in Kiwi videos, including one made for a song by Goodshirt
• how the music video for the hit Bathe in the River (from Toa Fraser movie No. 2) helped win over the enthusiasm of radio, which initially proved resistant
  
• how the music video has found a new life on the internet

This video is also available on YouTube to embed and distribute, via a Creative Commons licence.

Interview and direction by Ian Pryor. Camera and editing by Alex Backhouse.

Rock’n'roll couple Karyn Hay and Andrew Fagan have both had long and varied careers in New Zealand music and media. They are currently night-time hosts on Radio Live, but Fagan spent many years as the lead singer of pop band The Mockers, and Hay was the long-time host of iconic music show Radio with Pictures. Hay and Fagan are also both published authors.

In this ScreenTalk interview, the pair talk to James Coleman about:

• The trials and tribulations of getting a music video made in NZ in the 80s through TVNZ’s “sausage factory”
• Radio with Pictures and the decision to play the forbidden video – AFFCO by The Skeptics
• Hay’s work on her favourite music video of all those she has directed – Hey Judith by The Dribbling Darts Of Love in the 90s
• Fagan’s cameo appearance in the Hey Judith video

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits: Interview by James Coleman, Camera and Editing by Leo Guerchmann.