The Good Shepherd

Rip It Up, Issue 68, 1 March 1983, Page 14

The Good Shepherd

"Roger Shepherd is God," the graffiti went. Today God has manifested himself in a Christchurch record shop. He is serving customers politely and helpfully. He speaks quietly, often with droll humour. It is a Saturday morning. The Nun first flew in 1981 with the Clean's Tally Ho!', a single that now seems like a battle cry for South Island music bright, confident, great tune and who gives a stuff about the recording quality? Flying Nun's star has faded a little since the heady days of Boodle Boodle Boodle and Great Sounds Great but the fact remains that most of the best New Zealand music of the past two years has been on Roger Shepherd's record label. And it can't be called "minority interest" music either last year Boodle was the largestselling local rock/pop 45. It is the proceeds from the two Clean EPs that have kept the label going. Most other releases including, ironically, records from Christchurch bands have lost money to some degree. (A notable exception has been the Gordons' album, which Nun helps distribute. It paid for itself in this country and has gone on to sell in America and Germany. Substantially completed in one midnight-to-dawn shift at Auckland's Harlequin, it is an object lesson in the dynamic, economical use of a big studio.) Shepherd grins at the suggestion that Nun has been more of a Dunedin label than a Christchurch one. "Yes. Christchurch has been a bit funny over the past couple of years. There are some very talented people about but things just haven't been working. "It's just a matter of somebody motivating things enough. Christchurch was relatively buoyant when the Clean were here last year but it fell apart almost the day they broke up."

He believes a venue, like the Gladstone "working properly as it used to" is also a "very important" factor in a healthy music scene. "A club if it was done properly would be helpful. But there'd be all sorts of problems. It needs a couple of people with real drive." Around the city at the moment

he sees Lyndon and the Liars, a rejuvenated Ballon D'essai and the group formed by former Clean bassist Robert Scott as good prospects. "And I see the Bill Direen album as a very significant happening." Further afield there is a "superb" Verlaines single awaiting release, one from Sneaky Feelings and the recently released Fetus Productions record. This year should be very interesting. I'm quite optimistic, even though people's spending power will be down because of the state of the economy. "I think the Stones will do well, but they'll obviously never have mass appeal. Depending on what happens with the Chills they could be the next big thing. And the Verlaines should come through in the long run." So at this point, with at least partial success behind him, is there anything Shepherd would change if he did it over again? "Just the way it's been run, perhaps. It's depended on a group of interested people around the country helping out for nothing. I'd like to develop the idea of reimbursing them." Shepherd recently rented out a "suitably sleazy" office in the central city and is seeking labour Department assistance to employ Flying Nun's first full-time worker. He has someone in mind for the job but nothing can be said yet. The employee would do the work that has nearly flooded Shepherd over the past year. Even (perhaps especially) on a small operation like Nun there are dozens of bills to be paid, orders to be dispatched and accounts to be chased up things Shepherd has had to fit in with managing a busy record shop. He hopes it will improve the label's distribution, especially overseas. "We've sold some Clean EPs in Australia. You only have to sell a few overseas to make it worthwhile." He thinks the sound quality of Nun records is gradually improving (as Chris Knox learns how to use

his TEAC?) but it's not easy. "Usually neither the band or myself are in a position to afford high-quality recording. It would be great if I could afford to have everyone go into Harlequin but I can't." There's no great worry. For all their hisses and squeaks Flying Nun recordings often have more presence and demand more attention than the big-budget stuff. The label has already become bigger than he had envisaged - his initial idea being to simply help local bands release small quantities of records for those who wanted them. "I don't really want to run Flying Nun full-time." Could he ever see himself taking the kind of financial plunge Propeller Records did with the Meemees and Blams albums? He pauses, thinks. "I've got a lot of admiration for them doing that but perhaps it's a risk I wouldn't be prepared to take." Russell Brown