Matthew Bannister’s book ‘The Front Lawn’s Songs From The Front Lawn’ goes on tour with Don McGlashan

Matthew Bannister’s new book Songs From Songs From The Front Lawn is heading out with Don McGlashan on his Take It To The Bridge tour, which begins on Waiheke Island this Saturday 26th August, visiting 20 centres and finishing in Glenorchy on Saturday 7th October.

It was also announced yesterday that McGlashan is to be inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame Te Whare Taonga Puoro o Aotearoa at the 2023 APRA AMCOS Silver Scroll award ceremony, Wednesday 4th October.

Songs From Songs From The Front Lawn is the latest release in Bloomsbury Publishing’s new 33 1/3 Oceania series. While writing it, author and musician Matthew Bannister interviewed The Front Lawn trio of Don McGlashan, Harry Sinclair and Jennifer Te Atamira Ward-Lealand to uncover the stories behind each song on the album. He analyses each track’s musical inspiration, and looks at the group’s origins, and what became of each band member after this record.

The Front Lawn was a multi-award-winning and much-loved New Zealand duo-turned-trio made up of Don McGlashan, Harry Sinclair and, eventually, Jennifer Te Atamira Ward-Lealand. All three have continued with exceptional artistic careers in the years since (and before) The Front Lawn.

A 1980’s variety act, The Front Lawn was part of an Aotearoa/New Zealand alternative tradition of duos that combine music, comedy, theatre and film. Their debut album Songs From The Front Lawn (1989) distilled McGlashan and Sinclair’s stage shows and groundbreaking short films – Walkshort and The Lounge Bar – while also thrusting the band into the burgeoning New Zealand indie music scene.

The Songs From The Front Lawn album is a snapshot of ’80s New Zealand, a turbulent, creative period for indie music, film and musical theatre, celebrating local identity in new ways.

Graham Reid of Elsewhere and the NZ Listener calls Songs From The Front Lawn a “thoughtful, analytical, provocative and mostly enjoyable insight into one of our landmark groups who changed the musical and intellectual landscape, spoke to us in our own vernacular and left us wiser . . . and laughing at ourselves.” Read the full review here.

Songs From The Front Lawn: Bloomsbury link