Look Blue Go Purple to Receive IMNZ Classic Record Prize

Independent Music NZ have just announced this year's recipient of the prestigious Classic Record. Look Blue Go Purple’s Compilation, released in 1991 via Flying Nun Records, takes out this year’s prize.

Dunedin based Francisca Griffin, Norma O'Malley, Lesley Paris, Denise Roughan and Kath Webster released Compilation as a collection of the best from previous releases Bewitched (1985), LBGPEP2 (1986) and This Is This (1988) EPs including the iconic tracks 'Cactus Cat', 'Circumspect Penelope' and 'I Don't Want You Anyway'. Compilation was later extended with unreleased live tracks on  Still Bewitched in 2017.

Look Blue Go Purple played a pivotal role in the second wave of the pioneering indie rock movement known as the "Dunedin Sound". In the overwhelmingly male-dominated Dunedin scene and wider indie music landscape, this all-female group stood out. Whilst the quintet certainly had the distinctive jangly, gently psychedelic, lo-fi Flying Nun sound, the combined vocals of Roughan, Webster and O'Malley created a synthesis that further set them apart.

The Classic Record prize will be presented to Look Blue Go Purple as part of the 2024 Taite Music Prize celebration at Tāmaki Makaurau’s Q Theatre on Tuesday 23rd April.