North & South – June 2019

NORTH & SOUTH| JUNE 2019| 89

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Best Offers

MurrayThom’sgreatNewZealand“hymnbook”,a

surprise Kiwi duo – and Norah Jones’ new beginning.

Above:Kimbraperforms
ata concertinBarcelona
earlier this year.

Monthly Review

INTHEEARLY1980S,whenI

firstmetMurrayThom,he

wasthe23-year-oldheadof

CBSRecords(nowSony)in

NewZealand.

A formerchampionyachts-

manwholaterwona world

masterstitleintheLaserclass,

Thomwasthena humanRo-

mancandle,ideasfiringoff

himlikea showerofsparks,

withenergylevelssohigh

theycouldlightupthenation-

al grid. So it wasn’t too much

ofa surprisethathisnextven-

ture,in1986,washugelysuc-

cessful:a businesssellingper-

sonalisedplatesforcars.

Butmusicwouldremaina

fascinationforThom,andhis

ideaswerewideranging.He

marketedthemostmaligned

genreofall,cocktaillounge

music,ina seriesthatwould

eventuallybegatheredto-

getherina beautiful,120-

pagehardbackphotographic

book containing 10 CDs,

calledTogether. OprahWin-

freynameditasoneofher

“favouritethings”of2002.

SevenyearslatercameThe

GreatNewZealandSongbook,

alsosuperblypackaged.It had

aniconicDickFrizzellcover

oftheFourSquareManplay-

inga guitar,withhand-writ-

tenlyricsprintedonglossy

paper,andtwoCDswith 42

tracksofgreatKiwimusic.

A21st-centuryentrepre-

neur, Thom has one very

MUSIC
PHIL GIFFORD

MUSIC, BOOKS, FILM, SCREEN

June 2019