The Front Lawn is a multi-award-winning, much-loved New Zealand duo-turned-trio made up of Don McGlashan, Harry Sinclair and, eventually, Jennifer Ward-Lealand. A 1980s 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 theatrical stage show and their groundbreaking short films, Walkshort and The Lounge Bar, while also thrusting the band into the burgeoning New Zealand indie scene. The album is a snapshot of '80s New Zealand, a turbulent, creative period for indie music, indie film and musical theatre, celebrating local identity in new ways.
Starting with a social and cultural background of New Zealand in the late 1970s, the book covers McGlashan and Sinclair's upbringing on Auckland's North Shore, early artistic influences and overseas experiences leading to the formation of the group. Much attention is paid to the duo's philosophy, early performances, the process of recording the album - including The Front Lawn's collaboration with Wellington avant-garde/cabaret group Six Volts and the addition of Jennifer Ward-Lealand as the group's third member - and analysis of each of the album's 10 songs. In parting, Matthew Bannister discusses the group's second and final album,
More Songs from The Front Lawn, as well as the individual members' subsequent artistic careers
Bannister, Matthew: - Matthew Bannister is a postgraduate theory supervisor in the School of Media Arts at Te Pukenga, Kirikiriroa/Hamilton, Aotearoa/New Zealand. He has written three previous books: Positively George Street: Sneaky Feelings and the Dunedin Sound (1999), White Boys, White Noise: Masculinities and 1980s Guitar Rock (2006) and Eye of the Taika: New Zealand Comedy and the Films of Taika Waititi (2021). He lives in Kirikiriroa/Hamilton with his partner Alice Bulmer and has two sons
Dale, Jon: - Jon Dale is a writer and researcher based in Melbourne, Australia. He teaches across a number of fields (popular music, experimental writing, media studies, criminology, sociology, screen studies) at a number of institutions. He also writes for the English music magazine Uncut, and contributes liner notes and essays to a number of record labels and other publications. He is currently working on several books about DIY and post-punk music, and texts on experimental film and diary film making. He also runs the record labels Tristes Tropiques and Rose Hobart.
Stratton, Jon: - Jon Stratton is Adjunct Professor in UniSA Creative at the University of South Australia and a member of the university's Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre. Jon has worked at universities in the UK and Australia and held a Rockefeller Fellowship at the University of Iowa in 1998. His areas of interest include Popular Music, Cultural Studies, Australian Studies, Jewish Cultural Studies and Media Studies. He is the sole author of 12 books and has co-edited four. In 2002 he published Australian Rock: Essays on Popular Music. His most recent books include Black Popular Music in Britain since 1945 (edited with Nabeel Zuberi, 2014), When Music Migrates: Crossing British and European Racial Faultlines 1945-2010 (2014) and An Anthology of Australian Albums: Critical Engagements (edited with Jon Dale and Tony Mitchell, 2020).
