| EELMAN
RECORDS© was conceived by John Niland in the early 1980's,
after seeing a cartoon by fellow HULAMAN Andrew Clouston.
With a technical and enthusistic assistance from Nigel Stone,
EELMANRecords put a stamp on Wellington, New Zealand music.
It was a particular group Wellington and Auckland people who
loved Soul, R&B, Funk, Jazz and Pop music. The label kicked
off with the highly successful HULAMEN, BEER & SKITTLES,
vinyl EP. EELMAN
Records underwent a period of change in the late 80's and
90's. This left a large gap in the identity of who was administrating
EELMAN. John Niland had moved to Sydney, Australia in 1985
initially to study music at the Conservatorium of Music, Sydney
but ended up pursuing an Art & Design education completing
a National Art School, Diploma of Art (Ceramics - Major) 1987
-89 and a University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts,
B Des (Hons) 94 - 97 graduating 99.
'It was always my intention to return to EELMAN and develop
the ARCHIVES that had been languishing. The first project
in this direction was the EELMAN COMPILATION which began 1999
with the collection and digitisation of a section of the tape
archive fondly looked after by Nigel Stone and a design relationship
with Andrew Clouston, creator of the eelman character'
'My art and design education has given me powerful skills
in both Print & Web Site design and production. As well
my experience in both Live and Post Production Television
allowed me an opportunity to experience the power of broadcast
media. It was during this period that I began to realise the
importance of utilising intellectual artistic assets and their
conservation for developing a sense of one's own history and
a shared group history. EELMAN Records became an important
focus for me in the late 90's wereupon I decided to take up
my previous role and provide direction.'
'Subsequently
I have been working on a project called 'Big Picture' tracking
down Film and Video materials developed during the 80's. From
this a showreel of EELMAN bands and music is to be established,
and will be featured on the website. It is also my intention
to feature audio tracks as well.'
'The
EELMAN Records website was established to bring together all
the valuable artistic development and the individuals who
embraced the concept of EELMAN and breathed life into it.
This project for me is a lot of fun and also keeps me in touch
with my musical roots and freindships I developed in the 80's.'
John
Niland
February 2002
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