Don McGlashan, one of New Zealand’s best-loved singer/songwriters, announces a one-off show at the Nelson Centre For Musical Arts this August.
Don will perform solo, playing songs from all corners of his remarkable catalogue, and may include a new one or two.
Don is currently at work on songs for his fifth solo album, to be released in early 2026, as well as writing music for the upcoming Kiri & Lou movie.
The same weekend as his Nelson show, Don will also perform with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra at the Christchurch Town Hall as part of their 2025 season.
Don McGlashan is one of New Zealand’s most highly regarded songwriters. He won fame with groups Blam Blam Blam, The Front Lawn, and The Mutton Birds, before going solo. He has also scored more than a dozen feature films and five TV series including Jane Campion’s An Angel At My Table, and most recently the BAFTA-nominated children’s show Kiri & Lou.
After a stint in his late teens with Philip Dadson’s experimental percussion group From Scratch, Don was drummer and singer with the legendary New Zealand band Blam Blam Blam, which had a string of top 20 singles and an album “Luxury Length”, which went to No. 4 nationally. His song “Don’t Fight it, Marsha, It’s Bigger Than Both Of Us” won Song of the Year in the 1982 NZ Recording Industry Awards.
After a year living in New York – and touring the world – as a drummer with avant-garde dance company Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians, Don returned to New Zealand and founded The Front Lawn with Harry Sinclair. An acoustic duo that combined theatre and songs, they toured internationally from 1985-90, picking up many accolades, including the UK Independent Newspaper Award for their show at the Edinburgh Festival, and being called “a superb duo” by New York Times music critic Jon Pareles. Their 1987 record “Songs From The Front Lawn” won three New Zealand Music Awards.
Through the 90’s Don was singer and main songwriter for the band The Mutton Birds, which released 4 NZ top ten albums, including two platinum, and two top five singles, one of them (“The Heater”) a No. 1. His song “Anchor Me” won the A.P.R.A Silver Scroll, New Zealand’s top songwriting award, in 1994. The group signed to Virgin records UK in 1995, and lived in London for four years, touring all over the world. The band’s third album, “Envy Of Angels” (1997), made the U.K. Sunday Times ten best records of the year list.
Since The Mutton Birds, Don has made several solo albums, “Warm Hand” (2006), “Marvellous Year” (2009), “Lucky Stars” (2015), and “Bright November Morning” (2022), the latter of which was his first NZ No. 1 album in a four decade career with top ten albums in each decade.
His 2006 gospel anthem “Bathe In The River” – sung by Hollie Smith – won Don a second Silver Scroll, and has become one of the biggest NZ singles of all time.
He was made an Arts Laureate in 2002, and was Michael King Writer In Residence in 2013. In 2023 he was inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame.
You may also like the following events from Nelson Centre of Musical Arts:
Also check out other
Music events in Nelson,
Entertainment events in Nelson,
Arts events in Nelson.
