Soundtrack to your studies - 1977

Rip It Up magazine was started by two students from The University of Auckland - Murray Cammick and Alastair Dougal. The city’s main music magazine Hot Licks had just folded leaving a gap in the market, so Cammick brought in friends from Craccum and even asked one of the cooler lecturers (William Dart) to help with writing the magazine. It was given out for free and funded entirely by advertising and became a must-read for local music fans.

Disco was on the airwaves and Mark Williams reached No.1 with a funky cover of Buddy Holly’s ‘Doesn’t Matter Anymore.’ Yet it was punk getting all the headlines and a few students at Elam Art School formed one of New Zealand’s first punk groups, Suburban Reptiles (which included Trish Scott, mum of Lorde-collaborator Joel Little). The Reptiles arranged to play outside a gig by Th’ Dudes at the Uni Cafe by getting lead singer Peter Urlich to run a power cable out to them. However they only managed two songs before the caretakers shut off the power.

In March, folk-rock group Waves were supported for an afternoon show at the Maidment Theatre by After Hours - the first group fronted by Neil Finn. The band also included Geoffrey Chunn who would form Citizen Band once Neil decamped to join Split Enz.

The Student Arts Council brought two US acts to university campuses across the nation - psychedelic musician Country Joe McDonald (from Country Joe and the Fish) and English alt-blues act Kevin Coyne. These were followed by a tour by Auckland band, Schtung.

The most popular international album of the year was Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.

What was on the turntable while you were on campus? Suggest songs to add to our 1970s playlist, and you could win $100 Flying Out voucher.