Zane Lowe, Lorde Help Launch Star-Studded BBC Music Initiative
Some of the biggest names in music, including New Zealanders DJ Zane Lowe and singer Lorde, have united to record a cover of the Beach Boys track God Only Knows for the…
Tag Archives: Guardian (The)
Kiri Te Kanawa Warns Britain Killing Talent
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, one of the world’s greatest opera stars, has made an impassioned plea for Britain to stop blocking the flow of young singers into opera houses so that the top quality…
Peter Gutteridge – One of NZ Music’s Spiky Heroes
In a scene of unsung heroes, one of the least sung will be making no more music, changing no more lives from his place on the periphery. Peter Gutteridge – described as “a true…
Rare Giant Squid a Spectacular Scientific Opportunity
The colossal squid hauled from the depths of Antarctica’s Ross Sea by a New Zealand fishing crew last year has local scientists very excited, as it is one of very few ever examined. The 350kg…
Christchurch’s ‘Cardboard Cathedral’ Symbolises Progress as City Rebuilds
Christchurch’s Transitional Cathedral, known as the ‘cardboard cathedral’, has ‘risen from the ruins’ to become the most recognised building in Christchurch, while ChristChurch Cathedral remains gripped in a battle between modernity and heritage. The ChristChurch…
St. John Regular Sam Neill Bemoans the French Wine List
Actor Sam Neill has been frequenting London’s St. John restaurant for nearly 20 years, and while he’s obsessed with the place his greatest passion is reserved for New Zealand vineyards. “Neill is an oenophile and…
Jemaine Clement Talks Conchords and Vampires
Conchord and vampire Jemaine Clement is interviewed by The Guardian’s Alexander Bisley on his new film What We Do in the Shadows, share homes, and his Maori heritage. Clement is one of the most noted…
Guardian Declares Kimbra’s Latest a Masterclass in Sheer Pop Joy
“The Golden Echo is less of a sophomoric follow-up and more of a bona fide pop classic from singer Kimbra …”, in fact declares the Guardian, it’s “a straight-up masterclass in sheer…
All Blacks Fend off Wallabies for Stalemate in Sydney
In a gritty encounter played out in a Sydney rainstorm, Australia held New Zealand to a 12-12 draw in their Rugby Championship opener to prevent the All Blacks from claiming a world record 18th…
Trygve Wakenshaw Has Audience Purring in Edinburgh
New Zealander Trygve Wakenshaw, of Squidboy cult fame, takes a skilful tour of an imaginary shape-shifting world at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “It’s hard to get Doctor Brown out of your mind when watching…
Supermoon Appears in New Zealand Skies
New Zealand was the first country in the world to see the dramatic supermoon. On Sunday, the full moon reached the point in its orbit that is closest to the Earth, known as perigee. The Guardian…
New Zealand Launches Biggest Ever Cultural Charge to Edinburgh Festival
The New Zealand contingent at Edinburgh 2014 includes around 240 actors, dancers, musicians, Maori performing artists, producers and writers. One of these acts is The Factory – described as “the Pacific Les Mis” – exploring…
Revisiting Jane Campion’s Haunting Classic The Piano
The New Zealand-born director Jane Campion won the 1986 short film Palme d’Or at Cannes with her nine-minute Peel, shared the Palme d’Or for The Piano (with Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine) in 1993,…
New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula Well Worth a Visit
“Bake in the sands of Hot Water beach, then take in the art, stunning views and craft beer of the Coromandel peninsula” says Will Macpherson in The Guardian’s Travel Guide. The Coromandel’s charms are no…
Effortless New Zealand Electro Making Waves
Electro-pop duo Broods, comprised of brother and sister Georgia and Caleb Nott, have helped draw the eyes of the music industry to a country that had only rarely troubled the international charts, Laura Barnett…
Literature and the Shopping Cart
“In a brilliant essay in New Zealand’s Metro, the writer Eleanor Catton, winner of last year’s Man Booker prize for The Luminaries – a remarkable and groundbreaking novel – defines the incompatibility of art…
First Place with iPhone Travel Photograph
New Zealand travel, portrait and lifestyle photographer Adrienne Pitts has won 1st place in the travel category at the 2014 iPhone Photography Awards. “My iPhone is the camera that is always on me, and is…
All Blacks Clinch Series Against England
New Zealand has wrapped up an unbeatable 2-0 series against England after staging a ruthless second-half comeback to win in Dunedin 28-27, the Guardian’s Robert Kitson reported from Forsyth Barr Stadium. “The home side, who…
New Zealand Win Their Second Ever Test in the West Indies
New Zealand has beaten the West Indies by 186 runs for only the second time in the Caribbean, thanks to some incredible bowling figures by Mark Craig. The hosts were bowled out for 216 after…
Long May the Embassy Theatre Prosper
Wellington’s “architecturally indulgent” Embassy Theatre, which was built in 1924 and restored “to its former glories” in 2003, is included in the Guardian’s Cine-files series. Thomas Page of The Guardian describes the Embassy Theatre is the perfect shop…
Director Firmly Back in the Game
As Jane Campion returns to the Riviera chairing the jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the Palm d’Or-winning filmmaker tells the Guardian’s Andrew Pulver about surviving as a woman director. Campion was the first…
Selling Rugby to the Americans
The iconic Soldier Field, America’s oldest gridiron stadium, is to host the All Blacks in a test against the USA Eagles in November in a game sponsored by AIG. The insurance behemoth’s…
The Excuses Begin
A month is a long time in sport, apparently. As spring thaws English soil and the domestic Aviva rugby competition reaches its zenith, the British press are beginning to air doubts about the Red…
Attica Chef Making Magic and Global Top 50 Lists
Australia’s best restaurant Attica stands out from the rest because the “magic” comes from New Zealand-born chef Ben Shewry, according to Guardian reporter Oliver Milman. “The Melbourne eatery is the only venue in…
Nirvana Collaboration Masterful Stroke of Musicianship
Lorde, who performed Nirvana’s All Apologies at the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, may not have seemed like an immediate choice for the evening, but then Ella Yelich-O’Connor is not your…
Twigg Sets Season Benchmark Beating World Champ
Upset by fast-finishing New Zealand rival Emma Twigg in a thrilling Sydney International Rowing Regatta final, sculling world champion England’s Kim Crow says she’ll become a smarter tactician. Crow looked set to cruise to her…
Royal Visit Shines Global Light on Maori Traditions
News outlets worldwide have lately been splashing a bare bottom on their front pages – but it’s not what you think. Upon their arrival to New Zealand the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge received…
Lamingtons Are Ours Beyond Doubt
Lamingtons are definitively of New Zealand origin, with an 1888 watercolour painting by New Zealand landscape artist JR Smythe showing that the coconut covered cake is not really Australian and only an imitation of…
Crowe Impressively Grounded as Enigmatic Noah
Russell Crowe’s performance in Noah alongside Jennifer Connelly in Darren Aronofsky’s “audacious adaptation of one of the Bible’s best-known but still enigmatic chapters,” is “impressively grounded” and “powerful,” according to Washington Post reviewer Ann…
The Female Punchline: Don’t Ask that Question
A little bit of comedian Michele A’Court dies when she is asked this question: Are women funny? A’Court is asked this question so often that deep inside her, nestled somewhere near her heart, is…
Yumi Zouma Instantly Poignant and Placeless
“Assembled via email, at night, from far-flung corners of the globe is the debut EP from these ex-pat New Zealanders,” Guardian reviewer Paul Lester writes, including Yumi Zouma in the publication’s “Band of the…
MAC Makeup Range in Lorde’s Name
Lorde’s signature dark purple lipstick and sweeping eyeliner has landed the Grammy award-winning singer, 17, her own MAC range, following in the footsteps of Rihanna, Ru Paul and Lil’ Kim. Lorde said: “I have loved…
Dame Kiri Returns to Covent Garden Stage
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has returned to Covent Garden after 17 years for performances of Donizetti’s comedy La Fille du Régiment in the role of the Duchess of Crackentorp. Te Kanawa celebrated her 70th birthday…
Visit the City Reinventing Itself with Art
For those fancying a long-weekend getaway in Christchurch, the Guardian recommends the best places to stay, eat and visit, “touring the extraordinary renewal of the city that survived an earthquake”. “There’s no camouflaging the damage,”…
Creation Is a Completely Divine Concept, Says Catton
Ahead of appearances at Perth Writers Festival on 22 February and Adelaide Writers’ Week on 1 March, the Guardian’s Vicky Frost met with Booker prize-winning author 28-year-old Eleanor Catton to talk about her next…
Prince George’s First Royal Trip to Be New Zealand
Prince George will take part in his debut public engagement next month when he accompanies the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to New Zealand, Kensington Palace has announced. The Prince, who will be…
Pioneering People Who Value Community Rebuild a Theatre
How the Court Theatre rose from the rubble of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake is described by its chief executive Philip Aldridge for the Guardian’s “Culture Professionals Network” series. “[After the earthquake on the morning of…
Friends Bid Farewell to an “Outstanding Human Being”
Auckland-born television personality and former model Charlotte Dawson who has died in Sydney, aged 47, was “outrageous, outgoing and outspoken”, said sports presenter Ben Fordham, who worked with Dawson at Channel Nine. “More than anything…
Fledgling Party Giving a Voice to New Zealanders Living Overseas
An estimated one million New Zealanders living overseas will become a serious political force if the newly formed Expatriate Party of New Zealand gets its way, says the Guardian. Based in Perth, the party says…
Neil Finn’s Latest Solo Album His Funkiest
“Neil Finn makes pop music, and good pop music at that. He can’t help it,” espouses the Sydney Morning Herald’s senior music writer Bernard Zuel, and he “makes the oddest and, to these ears,…
Large Numbers of Australians Flocking to NZ to Wed
31 January 2014 – More than a quarter of all same-sex marriages in New Zealand are couples from Australia, according to the Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages’ first release of statistics since same-sex marriage…
Clark Tipped for Top UN Job
Introducing UN Secretary General … Helen Clark? The Guardian is tipping the former prime minister is the prime candidate to replace incumbent Ban Ki-Moon when he steps down in two years. Clark was New…
NZ and UK Leading the Public Sector Digital Revolution
At the Open Government Partnership (OGP) summit in London in November 2013, New Zealand became the 61st member of a rapidly expanding global movement. The OGP is all about making governments more transparent, accountable…
Dotcom Has His Own Party, and Dance Moves
New Zealand-based Megaupload.com entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, 40, is launching two ventures this month: a new political party to contest in the country’s next general election and a debut dance album, Good Times, to be…
19th Century Plate Depicts Extraordinary Set of Birds
“No country on the globe can offer such an extraordinary set of birds as are here depicted,” wrote British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace of “the peculiar Ornithology of New Zealand” in The Geographical Distribution…
Brooding Synth-Pop Makes Sadness Sound Lovely
Auckland brother-sister duo Broods, aka Georgia, 19, and Caleb Nott, 21, “make, ahem, brooding synth-pop that makes sadness sound quite lovely,” according to the Guardian’s Michael Cragg writing for the publication’s “New Music” blog. “
Travelling the Inked Map of Her Father’s Life
A coloured butterfly, a pseudo-celtic armband, a giant spiral: the tattoos on New Zealander Nell Frizzell’s father are an inky historical record of his lifetime’s journey through continents, relationships, families, marriages and deaths. Ahead…
Like a Weird Untitled Mixtape They Beguile
The songwriting savant behind Unknown Mortal Orchestra, New Zealander Ruban Nielson, 33, spends many of his nocturnal hours locked away in the basement of his Portland, Oregon home, creating beguiling, hypnagogic psych-pop, the Guardian’s…
Lowe Is ENERGY Personified at BBC 1
In the studio of the BBC’s Radio 1 station, the boisterous New Zealander Zane Lowe is a few minutes into his own show, Peter Robinson reports for the Guardian. “RIDICULOUS SOUND!” Lowe honks over…
Movie-Making to Rival Lucas and Spielberg
“Peter Jackson has picked up the pace … The Desolation of Smaug is a cheerfully entertaining and exhilarating adventure tale, a supercharged Saturday morning picture: it’s mysterious and strange and yet Jackson also effortlessly…
Bungee Celebrates 25 Years of Adrenaline
To mark the 25th anniversary of the world’s first organized bungee jump made in New Zealand, the Guardian has picked the 10 best adrenaline dives on the planet, including naturally, Queenstown’s 43-metre drop over…
Kiwi Women Lead Cultural Renaissance
Once upon a time New Zealand cultural values were based on the unholy trinity of rugby, racing and beer. Then the marketing concepts – clean and green; 100% Pure – were added to the…
Wine for the Discerning but Diet-Conscious
New Zealand has announced its intention to become the world’s leading producer of “lifestyle wines” – those with fewer calories and lower alcohol levels – for the discerning but diet-conscious drinker. The government has decided…
She’s a Huge Fan of Her Mother Jane Campion
Alice Englert, the actor and daughter of New Zealand screenwriter, producer and director Jane Campion, talks choosing passion over cash and whether her mum makes sexy films with the Guardian’s Alex Godfrey. She’s only 19…
Skjellerup to Make a Stand For Equality
New Zealand speed skater, Blake Skjellerup, intends to throw the spotlight on Russia’s anti-gay propaganda laws if he is selected to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympic in Sochi, which would also make him…
Adventurer’s African Queen Back on the Nile
The boat thought to be the original African Queen used in the film starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn has been restored by owner, New Zealander Cam McLeay. There’s no sign of the 2000 cigarettes…
