Cause for celebration

‘‘We were quite post-punk and staunch when we started — and also a little silly. It’s hard to imagine that all coming together, but it did.’’ Photos: supplied.

Three decades since splitting up, Look Blue Go Purple has a retrospective album that celebrates the overlooked Dunedin band, writes Shane Gilchrist.

It’s been four years since Francisca Griffin arrived at the idea to collect and collate Look Blue Go Purple’s studio recordings and fuse them to several live tracks, an intense but rewarding process that has resulted in the aptly titled Still Bewitched.

Yet this was no solo effort. In keeping with the former Dunedin group’s democratic philosophy, the bass-playing co-founder found herself involved in some rather enjoyable conversations as the archives were trawled.

1980s Dunedin band Look Blue Go Purple (clockwise from left) Francisca Griffin (then Kathy Bull), Denise Roughan, Lesley Paris, Kath Webster and Norma O’Malley.

Comprising LBGP’s three EPs, Bewitched (1985), LBGPEP2 (1986) and This is This (1987), as well as previously unreleased live songs that span its history, the double album will be officially released on Friday (although purple and blue coloured vinyl versions were sold as part of Record Store Day on April 22).

Formed in 1983, Look Blue Go Purple were part of Flying Nun’s "second wave" (along with Doublehappys, Straitjacket Fits and the Abel Tasmans).

Inspired by British bands such as The Slits and The Raincoats and wanting to play with other women, Griffin and keyboardist and vocalist Norma O’Malley, who were both in the band Permanent Tourists with Martyn Bull (The Elevators, The Chills), drafted guitarists Denise Roughan and Kath Webster and drummer Lesley Paris.

They honed their sound in a practice room under a record shop, where they developed a folk-pop style that featured layered vocal harmonies, keyboards (and even flute) over strummed electric guitars and the solid, almost tribal, beats provided by Paris.

Although the quintet had a jangly, gently psychedelic sound synonymous with other Dunedin acts of the time, the combined vocals of Roughan, Webster and O’Malley provided it with a point of difference.

Look Blue Go Purple released its debut EP, Bewitched, in 1985. Recorded and produced by Terry Moore, it reached No21 on New Zealand’s pop charts and remained in the top 50 for eight weeks. Propelled by the infectious folk pop of single Cactus Cat, the group’s second EP, LBGPEP2, reached No 26 in January 1987 and stayed in the pop charts for five weeks. Its third EP, This is This, was released late 1987 around the time the band broke up.

The distance of time has provided the band members with a wider view of the part they played in Dunedin’s music scene in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Back then, all-women groups were a rarity, not that LBGP ever sought to identify their music by gender, Griffin (formerly Kathy Bull) says.

"Of course, the climate in New Zealand back then meant some people would make assumptions about us. But, by and large, we shrugged them off. And whenever we got harassed at gigs by drunken yobbos we would give back what they gave."

Look Blue Go Purple played music largely for enjoyment, Griffin asserts.

"It was a case of, ‘here are our songs; we hope you like them’. I loved Look Blue Go Purple. We were very democratic and some people might claim that was to our detriment. But everyone got to have a say.

"We were interested in lots of different types of music. I loved The Ramones and we all loved our fellow Dunedin bands. We liked Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, lots of ’60s music, but our tastes did differ."

Paris concurs: "I think if we were attempting to sound like anything, it would be the latest, greatest thing from 1967," she says with a chuckle.

"It wasn’t purposeful. We used to listen to lots of different music from our big brothers and sisters’ record collections.

"Some of the bands that inspired us included The Slits and The Raincoats, lots of bands for whom it was as much about attitude as how they sounded.

"We were quite post-punk and staunch when we started, and also a little silly. It’s hard to imagine that all coming together, but it did."

Paris, who is manager of Otago Access Radio and thus responsible for disseminating the music of other musicians nowadays, says the process of assembling the new double album rekindled her affection for Look Blue Go Purple’s material.

"Recording was quite an organic process. It helped that we knew producer Terry Moore. People were also recommended ... it was a case of let’s see what we could do in the studio.

"I don’t always listen to those songs. But it was about listening to them in a less critical way. It was more of an historic thing. The addition of the live tracks gives more of a sense of what we were like.

"It also brought back some of the events" she says, referring to the fact LBGP performed frequently and toured New Zealand extensively, often with label mates which included The Chills, The Bats and Straitjacket Fits.

In recent years, Flying Nun has re-released a range of seminal albums on vinyl, including The Chills’ jangle-filled Kaleidoscope World, David Kilgour’s solo effort Sugar Mouth and Chris Knox’s Seizure. Now the members of LBGP can enjoy similar respect.

"Flying Nun were doing a good job of re-releasing some pretty amazing vinyl packages and we thought we’d like to be among those," Paris says.

The group also sought external expertise to realise Still Bewitched’s potential. The songs from the three EPs were remastered by Auckland-based engineer Angus McNaughton, "who did a stellar job". And the extra live tracks — originally recorded on cassette tape — were caressed and mastered by Dunedin musician and engineer Stephen Stedman.

Says Griffin: "We had to make decisions based on how good those live songs sounded, because you don’t want crappy songs officially out there.

"We have sat back and taken a look at the bigger picture.

"We were all pretty astonished at the start that anyone would want to revisit our material. I put my hand up to organise it, because I love what we did. In fact, I think I love it even more now.

"And seeing people buying the album, reading how we have influenced others ... that’s amazing. It’s not something one ever sets out to do."

A Dunedin naturopath, Griffin continues to write and perform.

Following the demise of LBGP in the late ’80s she formed Cyclops (with Bruce Blucher, Andre Richardson and Peter Jefferies), then teamed up with Sandra Bell and Jefferies, and has performed with Shayne Carter.

"I remember playing at the Empire in the 1990s and David Kilgour saying to me afterwards, ‘so when are you going to record?’. That was quite instrumental in me thinking my songs were good enough to record. I made a CD in 1998 but didn’t really do much with it," Griffin explains.

"I’m still playing and writing songs. In the past two years I’ve been recording an album, the spaces between, with Forbes Williams and Deidre Newall cheerleading me on. It’s due out this winter on vinyl.

"I still play music. I kind of have to. If other people love it, then fabulous."