Tonite's guest on the Adventures of the CoffeeBar Kid - Donovan Bixley

It's a Kiwiana theme!  Tonite we talk to the wonder Donovan Bixley, illustrator and designer about his wonderful new 'Where's Wally style kid's book. His design company, Magma Design, is based in Taupo. Donovan has illustrated more than 100 stories and book covers as well as over 50 books, including Harry Hobnail & the Pungapeople and Mr Tanglewood & the Pungapeople by beloved New Zealand author Barry Crump. Donovan was the illustrator of the bestselling children's book The Wheels on the Bus (2010) and Old Macdonald's Farm (2011). He has also written and illustrated half a dozen books of his own, including Faithfully Mozart which was a finalist in the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Hours of fun for the kids - and the adults! The Looky Book is a puzzle book mostly for young children with 11 different puzzles all with colourful New Zealand landscapes, birds and animals. Find the numbers with the crazy All Black lambs, spot the difference: the mischievous keas have changed around somebody's campervan, find the animals hidden deep in the bush, match the farmers to their animals. Plus spot what's wrong in the weird and wonderful scenes: Should a kiwi be flying? Could a sheep round up the dogs? And why is there a penguin at the top of that tree? For the under 8s.

Available through Hachette - $20.00

Check Donovan's Website: http://www.donovanbixley.com/

Also on the show, we feature music from the wonderful new collection: Kiwiana goes pop! 

Kiwiana Goes Pop is a unique celebration of all the sounds we have grown up with and is the soundtrack to every Kiwi's life (young and old). It encompasses and embraces over 60 years of classic Kiwiana, from the fifties right through to Kiwiana 2012 style. The compilation album will be released on November 16.

78 tracks which have been rounded up and herded into their appropriate pens - farm songs, pub songs, Rugby songs, Kiwi telly themes, Kiwi comedy, politics and just about everything in between.

The unique stories behind the songs are also told in a mini encyclopaedic 20 page booklet, filled with enough trivia to win you 10 meat packs at your local pub quiz.

While the track listing rings with instant recognition, over two thirds of the tracks appear on CD for the very first time.

The Contacts unreleased performance of ‘Ten Guitars' was recorded just weeks after Engelbert's version, and is the very first local outing of this imported kiwi party staple. The Chesdale Cheese ad was saved from a skip bin at the 11th hour and takes its place in our alternative national anthem chapter.

Music lovers can rejoice, as Ashley Clinton and his Sheep's Choir baa and bleat their way through ‘Pokarekare Ana,' while The Waikato Dairy Lab Singers advise us on how to treat our herd's teats (in song).

Barry Crump's ‘A Dog Named Blue' makes its CD debut ("Bought a dog off a bloke who was passing through, for a retread tyre and a beer or two"). And one of Kiwiana's most revered and well known tracks, Lou & Simon's ‘A Maori Car', has never been available since its original release in the mid-sixties. It now takes its place alongside Fred Dagg's ‘Gumboots', the stand-up comedy of Billy T.James, McPhail and Gadsby, Brian Edwards, Rod Derrett, Ash Burton, Gerry Merito (with and without The Howard Morrison Quartet), while Justin Brown puts a new twist on Kiwiana with his 2010 track ‘Good Keen Metrosexual'.

Kiwi TV themes such as ‘Country Calendar,' ‘C'mon,' ‘Graham Kerr- The Galloping Gourmet' and ‘Fergie Fang' (the first indigenous local kids show) also feature.

There's more Kiwiana on ‘Kiwiana goes Pop‘' than you can shake a stick at.

Kiwiana Goes Pop is released November 16.

Full Tracklisting below...

KIWIANA GOES POP - THE ULTIMATE KIWI COMP

Chris Bourke (writer, historian & broadcaster) "Kiwiana Goes Pop is authoritative, scholarly and fun."

Murdoch Riley (Viking Sevenseas) "I have been in the New Zealand music industry for 55 years. Kiwiana goes Pop is the best compilation of local material that I have ever seen."

John Clarke (aka Fred Dagg) "Aahh yeah...she looks pretty interesting."

Richard Wolfe (writer & Kiwiana expert) "From Barry Crump to the National Anthem, taking in gumboots, Rob Muldoon and the State House, nothing is overlooked (not even the hu hu bug) in this mesmerising muster of essential Kiwi culture."

Max Cryer (Entertainer, writer and broadcaster) "The New Zealand Encyclopaedia provides history for the eye ... Kiwiana Goes Pop brings instant history to the ear."

http://nzmusic.org.nz/news/artist/kiwiana-goes-pop-is-the-ultimate-kiwi-comp/




See you at 7.30 Tonite only on Groove 107.7FM.