Pretty soon we got bigger than we’d ever have dreamed possible. All the while working with a wonderfully diverse bunch of brilliant bands and crazy characters that were making music for like-minded people all around the world.
We started off with a simple, do-it-yourself post-punk attitude, which still remains. After all, who else was going to record and release the likes of The Clean, Chris Knox, The Chills, The Bats or The Dead C. It also happened that we were stuck on a couple of remote islands at the bottom of the world. So we were always going to be a bit different from the word go.
Today, Flying Nun continues to release new artists and music, as well as reissues from the catalog - some recent releases are here. In the past decade or so, new Flying Nun artists have had number one albums (Aldous Harding, DARTZ), won the Taite Music Prize (Vera Ellen, Reb Fountain, Aldous Harding and Street Chant) or won "Best Alternative Artist" at the NZ Music Awards. Here is a full list of all the artists signed to Flying Nun - listed in reverse from today, back to 1981.
In 2021 we celebrated our 40th Anniversary, which included some big parties. Many bands performed, both new and longstanding. Fuzzy put in an appearance, as did many other friendly and familiar faces. Here is the first of five short films made about the Auckland Town Hall and Wellington Michael Fowler events
Over the past decade or so Flying Nun has also gotten back into the record store game. These days, we have expanded out into three record stores - in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The original idea was to create a place where fans can go direct to the Nun-source, and also discover some other great new music while they are there. Every dollar you spend in an official Flying Nun record store helps us to support more local artists - both reissues and new releases.
We are truly independent (and locally owned) in the ‘music industry’ sense of the term, and Flying Nun Records - as it always was - is about the musicians and the fans, so feel free to say hi, spout an opinion, or simply let us know what you want to hear.
All in all, nothing’s changed really. We haven't travelled too far from where we started, just a little bit older and (maybe) a little bit wiser.
Watch below the Heavenly Pop Hits documentary, made in 2002.