Split Enz' Chunn a living legend
Western Leader
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It's official - Split Enz founder Mike Chunn is a living legend.
Mr Chunn, who formed the famous band with his university mates Tim Finn, Robert Gillies, Phil Judd and Noel Crombie in 1971, is now cultivating the musical talents of high school students in Auckland.
And that's why he's just been given a Living Legends Award by Auckland mayor Dick Hubbard.
The Bethells Beach landowner is the man behind Play it Strange, a charitable trust that develops musical and writing skills at secondary school level.
"Schools are set up for sporting excellence but music does not get the equivalent amount of support," Mr Chunn says.
"There are great song writers hiding in schools and we need to give them the spotlight because New Zealand music tradition will only be built on original songs."
The scheme started in late 2003 and Mr Hubbard is among its supporters.
"This is a highly successful school programme which encourages our young people to celebrate life through music," he says.
Mr Chunn was a bored teenager when he first teamed up with like- minded young musicians looking for ways to express themselves.
"I made friends with strange people who didn't establish a rapport with discipline, education, caning, and music was our escape," he says.
"It would take us to the most colourful exciting places imaginable in our heads."
Bethells, where he first started holidaying with his family when he was five, has always played a big part in his musical life.
Mr Chunn and his wife have their own place at the beach now and say it's often full of music.
His son - in his final year of high school - is a keen musician and his brother, former Split Enz drummer and fellow Citizen Band founder Geoff Chunn, often joins them there with friends for a jam, he says.
"Music and Bethells are inextricably tangled," Mr Chunn says.
"It's the ultimate retreat. The perfect place to escape."
