Forgotten Māori and Pacific Island Funk of the 70s is Coming Back

In the 70s, the sounds of soul, funk, and disco arrived in New Zealand against a backdrop of financial recession, social unrest, and political protest—people wanted to dance. Well, at least some of them. A generation of entertainers including Tina Cross, Mark Williams, Dalvanius & The Fascinations, Golden Harvest, Prince Tui Teka, and The Yandall Sisters, began performing live on television, touring the DB brewery pub circuit, and recording their own infectious versions of the big American and British songs of the day. It took a lot of hard work, but they became household names. Although their stardom dimmed in the decades that followed, in recent years there's been renewed interest in the blistering drum beats, smooth-as-silk vocals, and strutting small–town funk of the era.

Williams and Cross, in particular, were both on a tear. After impressing the nation on TVNZ variety show Top of The World, Cross won the 1979 Pacific Song Contest with ‘Nothing But Dreams’ (composed by Carl Doy) and released her debut album You Can Do It through the Philips label. The upbeat single ‘Everybody Let's Dance,’ was Cross’ most successful top-20 hit; but she really found her voice in the sultry groove of the title track. “I really felt like I could be a grown up in that song,” she says.

‘You Can Do It’ features on Heed the Call!—Whakarongo, Ngā Tamariki! 17 Prime Soul, Funk and Disco Cuts from Aotearoa 1973 to 1983, a new compilation assembled by Auckland record collectors John Baker and Alan Perrott. Juxtaposing Cross, Williams, and their peers with equally explosive but lesser-known acts like The Pink Family, Sonia & Skee, The Johnny Rocco Band and Collision, it’s a reminder that while Manhattan’s hedonistic Studio 54 scene was at its peak, whether in city nightclubs, small town pubs, or rural halls, we were interpreting the culture and sound in our own way down here.

"There were a lot of mixed Maori and Polynesian groups that were really brilliant. They'd do church music during the day, and play nightclubs at night, but you didn't hear much about them until later," says The Pink Family's Shona Pink-Martin, nowadays an ordained priest in the Māori Anglican Church. As Pink-Martin sees it, the rise of soul, funk, and disco in New Zealand occurred in tandem with the ascent of the art-rock sound of Split Enz and their peers, and later on, the arrival of Flying Nun Records and 'The Dunedin Sound'. "That stuff was just really high on everyone's playlists in a way where other local artists were never going to get a look in," says Pink-Martin. "There was something about all that Split Enz type music; it had a lot of political protest content. It was a good vehicle for that message, which was current at the time. Disco music just wasn't that way."

“In a lot of ways, disco was the commercial RnB and pop of today,” says Ashhurst's Damian McGregor aka DJ Dfresh, a longstanding advocate for vintage New Zealand jazz-funk and disco. “In that era, you had 14-year-old kids loving it.” McGregor isn’t being dismissive, far from it. While rock music critics weren’t really checking for it at the time, what pop music fans know now, and knew back then though, is the euphoria of a good party song can change lives.

Enter The Pink Family: a Christian family band, by the time they headed into Auckland's Mascot Studios in 1978 to record their independently-released album Just Ordinary People, they had been performing gospel music around the country for years. Pink-Martin and her now ex-husband Pale Sauni fell deeply in love with soul, funk, and disco. "When the whole disco scene erupted around the world, we recognised it as something we thought would connect a more contemporary generation in a way our family music wasn't," Pink-Martin says. “They were using rhythms and harmonies in a way we knew brown people would like.”

The couple were deeply concerned about suicide rates amongst young Maori and Polynesian people, an issue that has remained close to their hearts to this day. Inspired, Sauni wrote a song called 'Don't Give Your Life Away' to encourage young people to hold onto their lives. Assisted by session musicians, they recorded it in a sprightly disco-soul style and added it to the album.

Seven years ago, 'Don't Give Your Life Away' popped up on a YouTube channel run by Sydney's Mark Egan aka DJ Kinetic, a vintage Australian and New Zealand soul, jazz-funk, and disco specialist. His regular uploads coincided with a generation of New Zealand DJ's beginning to dig into our country's funky history. 'Don't Give Your Life Away' was pivotal. It leapfrogged from one side of the globe to the other and began appearing in the playlists of a new wave of open-eared European, British, and American club music DJs including Floating Points, Hunee, and Ge-Ology, opening up conversations far beyond our shores. Were rare New Zealand deep cuts a thing? What else was out there?

'Voodoo Lady,' a silky disco number recorded in Sydney by Dalvanius & The Fascinations (backed by Collision) became a holy grail for DJs and record collectors. As did Collision's freakishly fun disco-funk single 'You Can Dance,' and Turangi band Golden Harvest's 1978 single 'I Need Your Love,' a shimmering original which wouldn't sound out of place on an Ariel Pink or Tame Impala album today The idea of a compilation collecting music from this era has had a sense of inevitability for years. With that said, while some of them were celebrated in their heyday, they faced serious difficulties as well.

At a rough count, at least nine of the acts on Heed the Call! spent time gigging and recording in Australia in pursuit of a level of success that just wasn’t possible in New Zealand. Ironically, signing to an Australian label didn’t always guarantee them a record deal at home, as was the case for Dalvanius Prime (who would later mastermind the Patea Maori Club and 'Poi E') and his vocal group The Fascinations; and Collision, a scorchingly funky six-piece from Tokora and Wellington. Without releases in New Zealand, many of the bands were forgotten as quickly as they left our shores. And, despite some promising exploratory jaunts to the US and the UK, very few of the bands secured releases beyond the antipodes. Back at home, it was a rocky ride, but with perseverance, clever management, and showmanship, talent still made its mark.

"What we were doing wasn't easily received at first," recounts Mark Williams. "New Zealand was a very conservative country back then. I couldn't stop though; once I was given a chance to sing, I had to take it further."

Williams was born in Dargaville and raised on soul music. When funk and disco arrived, he combined the sound with a Glam rock look. A singer of song with a golden voice, and a sewing machine packed in his luggage so he could make his own extravagant stage outfits, Williams attracted opportunities quickly. Soon enough, he was beaming live into homes around the country through regular television appearances and touring the pub circuit with gusto. “I was earning money, going from town to town, singing six nights a week, and rehearsing with a new band every Sunday,” Williams remembers.

"I got both ends of the spectrum," Williams admits. "Kids loved me, and construction workers had a field day when I walked past. When I went to clubs, rock guys would come up and call me every name under the sun. They'd try to make out they were going to have their way with me. I couldn't fight back because I was in shock. I was extremely sensitive. What I was doing wasn't sexual, it was a performance thing. I'd been dreaming about doing this since I was five, so I wasn't going to let go. I wouldn't think about it. I just wanted to do it, and be in the absolute moment."

Williams had a run of number one hits in New Zealand in the mid to late 70s, before relocating to Sydney, where amongst other accomplishments, he went on to record Australian soap opera Home & Away's original theme song with Karen Boddington. Although he's probably best remembered here for his chart-topping version of 'Yesterday Was Just the Beginning of My Life,' Heed the Call! showcases two of Williams' deeper cuts, 'Disco Queen' and 'A House For Sale.' 'A House For Sale,' in particular, took on a life of its own in the English Northern Soul DJ scene, becoming a holy grail of sorts in the UK. “About 10 years ago in Sydney, this guy walked up to me on the street and told me he’d heard some of my songs in a club in London,” Williams remarks incredulously. “I didn’t know that they would keep going, keep on moving like that. This whole thing was done in absolute innocence at the time. America and the UK were ruling the charts, so we could only do what we did in New Zealand, and do it our way, I guess?”

As the 80s arrived, things changed. Williams, well and truly ensconced in the Sydney scene, began working as a session musician and backing vocalist, while Cross attempted to reinvent herself in 1980 with her second album Tina X. “The second album was tougher and didn’t work for me,” she admits. “I was trying to break out of the girl next door image I’d had on TV, but that what the public here preferred.” Afterward she headed to Australia, where she found commercial success for several years in technopop duo Koo De Tah, before settling into a long-lasting career in musical theatre in the 90s.

In 2007 Tina was awarded the Queen's medal, Order Of New Zealand Merit, for her services to the local music industry. These days, she works with charity organisations, and runs music workshops in prisons. “I always wanted to help the underprivileged and the disadvantaged,” she reflects. “When I was younger, I was hungry for success, but once I reached my 40s, I started thinking more about giving back again.”

With the passing of time, music and culture changed, and the groups came and went. Platform shoes, sequinned jumpsuits, and wigs were packed away in closets. In thrift shops around the country, records slowly gathered dust and value. Forgotten, but not forgotten by everyone. In Pink-Martin’s words, “It just goes to show, you never know how what do you do might have an impact years later.”

Heed the Call! - Whakarongo, Nga Tamariki! 17 Prime Soul, Funk and Disco Cuts from Aotearoa 1973 to 1983 is out now.