Back in the reel world with Give It A Whirl

Don McGlashan has sung Dominion Rd hundreds, if not thousands, of times, yet he doesn't fully understand what the song is about. This is one confession the former Blam Blam Blam and Muttonbirds frontman makes in the second series of the New Zealand music history show Give It A Whirl.

McGlashan, who features in the first episode about songs and songwriters, also says the same thing about his 1982 Blams hit Don't Fight It, Marsha, It's Bigger Than Both Of Us.

But, points out McGlashan, not knowing the full meaning of a song is a good thing because it means he keeps going back to sing it.

And Give It A Whirl producer Michael Higgins says: "I thought that was a really nice point [about songwriting] and I've never really heard it made quite in that way before." The songwriters episode uncovers the secrets to some of our favourite songs, including a look at New Zealand's "stadium anthems".

"You know, how we've got this phenomenon of going to the rugby and you hear Victoria [by the Dance Exponents], Bliss [by Th' Dudes], and [Dave Dobbyn's] Slice of Heaven? So it was good to go back and talk about the stories behind some of those songs," says Higgins.

Higgins says that although the first series of Give It A Whirl three years ago was a 50-year history of Kiwi music, there were gaps. In the second series the six episodes take in songwriting, women, 80s pop, music videos, the evolution of Maori music, and electronic.

It features music from 60s stars like Dinah Lee, Larry's Rebels, and The Fourmyula, to 70s bands like Blerta and Human Instinct to Mi-Sex and the Mockers in the 80s, through to Shihad and Anika Moa.

One episode is devoted to the changing role of women. "In the 60s women really were limited to being a singer up the front like Dinah Lee, and they didn't really start recording their own songs until Sharon O'Neill and Shona Laing in the 70s."

The show's creators also got some flak after the first series about the lack of footage from the underground rock scene of the late 60s and 70s.

But, says Higgins, during that time television covered only light entertainment and archive material of bands from the era, like Human Instinct, was rare. However, studio footage of Human Instinct, and a live concert by hippy outfit Blerta, were discovered at the ABC television archive in Sydney.

"To find some footage of Human Instinct in 1972 with [guitarist] Billy T.K. in full flight looking very much like the Jimi Hendrix of the South Pacific was great."

The Blerta concert shows the band performing Dance All Around the World - based on a book by Margaret Mahy - at a children's concert in a park.

Higgins believes there is hardly any old music footage left. "We didn't dredge up a lot for the first series and we didn't find a lot more for the second series, which makes me think that there's not a lot left out there."

So if you have old film reels sitting in a box under the stairs then give it a whirl. It could be the inspiration for a third series.

Give It A Whirl, episode by episode

Songs and songwriters (April 29)
The stories behind some of New Zealand's favourite songs are revealed - and sometimes not even the songwriters know what they mean.

Women (May 6)
This episode tracks the evolution of women in local music from being singers in the 60s to becoming songwriters, instrumentalists and band leaders.

80s Pop (May 13)
It wasn't just Jordan Luck's hair and Andrew Fagan's nail polish that made the 80s music scene a more colourful place - there were some good, and bad, songs too.

Music videos (May 20)
They have come a long way from the scratchy black and white days of the 60s.

Maori (May 27)
A look at Maori music from the shows bands of the 60s and 70s through to the fusion of traditional music and dance beats of today.

Electronic (June 3)
With the arrival of the synthesiser and drum machine, bands like Body Electric and Mi-Sex showed we could bleep, groove and get down. And we haven't stopped.

* Give It A Whirl starts on TV One next Saturday at 9.45pm and runs for six weeks.