i n t e r v i e w   w i t h   D o n
 
   The Front Lawn
 

"Basically The Front Lawn had a natural shelf life, because it didn’t work when we did it into microphones. It didn’t work to try and make the venues bigger. So when we did a New Zealand tour we’d do ten-night seasons in 400-seat theatres. As we got more popular the only thing you could do is extend the runs so that you’re doing 12-night and 15-night seasons. 

It was kind of obvious that we couldn’t just keep doing that, it’s pretty exhausting to do that. To move to a bigger audience the natural thing would be to make films, so we made the short films that we made and then the idea of TV came up. But after about a year we both realised our hearts weren’t in it. I was writing songs in my spare time. Harry was really keen to get into directing his own stuff. So it was sort of inevitable that we’d separate and head off on our own paths at that stage. 

I’d been away from the band scene for about six years, because that’s pretty much how long The Front Lawn lasted and it was a full time job for six years. I hadn’t been into a sweaty pub, standing on stage, so I was keen to know what it felt like and complete the circle I’d started on with Blam Blam Blam that I’d broken in ‘82 or whenever it was."
 
 

   

ã Copyright  Radio New Zealand Ltd 1998.  All rights reserved. Used with permission.