Matthew Bannister on The Front Lawn: How Don McGlashan and Harry Sinclair defined a watershed decade

Musician Matthew Bannister, author of a new book on 80s musical comedy duo The Front Lawn. Photo / Mike Scott

THE VIEW FROM MY WINDOW: Matthew Bannister looks back on life in 80s New Zealand through the songs of musician Don McGlashan and actor/director Harry Sinclair’s short-lived but much-loved duo, The Front Lawn

New Zealand in the 80s was quite blokey. There was a kind of compulsory manliness. Coming from Scotland, I noticed this a lot. In general, British society is much more about class divisions. In New Zealand, what was important was gender. If you were a man, you were expected to behave like a man. The pub culture was very masculine as well.

In many ways, the 80s was a watershed decade. There was a lot of change going on, with anti-nuclear protests and issues around the Treaty of Waitangi. New Zealand was finding its identity in terms of who it was and what it stood for. Some of that was quite traumatic but people were hopeful about the future, that perhaps the old New Zealand was dying and a new one was being born.

I first met Don [McGlashan] in 1982 when our band Sneaky Feelings played support for Blam Blam Blam in Dunedin. When we were recording our second album, David [Pine] wanted percussion on one of his songs so he asked Don. We were kind of surprised when he turned up at the studio with an iron skillet. He could get a tune out of anything.

McGlashan (left) and Sinclair challenged ideas around masculinity and what it meant to be a Kiwi bloke.

The context of the skillet, of course, was The Front Lawn’s live show The Reason for Breakfast, which opened with Don and Harry [Sinclair] playing percussion on a series of kitchen implements: plates, forks, knives, milk bottles … I’d seen a few New Zealand plays and they were all about dark, nasty things; that whole “cinema of unease” tradition of puritan repression and seething resentment. Here were two guys on stage just messing around, having fun, singing songs and making jokes. It was a relief to see something positive and happy. Not stupidly happy. Thoughtfully happy.

From the Topp Twins to Flight of the Conchords, The Front Lawn was a multimedia variety act in that pioneer tradition of being a Jack of all trades, rather than the European tradition of the expert or virtuoso. [In 1989, Jennifer Ward-Lealand joined for a theatre show, The One That Got Away, which went to the Edinburgh Festival. A music video and three short films, including Walkshort, a clever comic piece filmed on Karangahape Rd, are on the NZ on Screen website.]

Both Don and Harry had taken lengthy OEs and been living in New York and London and Paris, which gave them a refreshing, outside perspective and the distance to talk about things in a more nuanced way. Calling themselves The Front Lawn said something about the fact that they were relocating ideas of New Zealand from the idealised countryside to a more urban setting. It implies conformity because you have to keep your front lawn looking nice and under control, just like you have to control your emotions. But it also had a positive meaning that the real New Zealand is in the suburbs, where most of us actually live.

In Dunedin, most of the Flying Nun groups I was involved in were quite apolitical. To be political was seen as not being arty enough. Andy, one of The Front Lawn’s relatively well-known songs, not only references the death of Don’s brother in a boating accident but the whole economic revolution that was happening in the 80s, the corporatisation and commodification of the world that we’re still seeing the effects of today: “They’re making money out of money, They’re making buildings out of glass. Their kids look like they stepped out of fashion magazines. None of it’s going to last.” And, of course, it’s set on Takapuna Beach.

It’s a good example of Don using a short-story narrative to create tension. Andy was an emotional subject for him and the song originally had quite a complicated scenario. Harry took a look and told him to simplify it, to create some distance from the experience by getting rid of all the unresolved grief. They could be honest with each other like that without either of them getting offended, which is really important in any creative partnership. One of the things that came across in their stage act is this fantastic mutual understanding. When I interviewed them for the book, it was such a pleasure because they’re still like a double act. Their repartee was exhilarating and a lot of fun to witness.

– As told to Joanna Wane

• Musician Matthew Bannister, founder of the 80s Dunedin band Sneaky Feelings and now a researcher/tutor at Wintec in Hamilton, is the author of Songs from the Front Lawn, the latest in Bloomsbury’s 33⅓ Oceania series. Copies will be on sale at all venues for Don McGlashan’s 22-date Take It To The Bridge tour, which kicks off tonight on Waiheke Island. McGlashan, who lives in Vancouver, and Sinclair, who lives in Los Angeles, are still collaborating, most recently on music for the New Zealand claymation children’s show Kiri and Lou, screening on Nickolodeon and TVNZ+.