Video Q&A with Don McGlashan: “My yacht doesn’t actually have an anchor”

New Zealand Listener

13 Jan, 2026 05:05 PM2 mins to read

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Don McGlashan reacts when asked if NZ music’s gain was NZ sailing’s loss.

What’s like to be the son of a brass band rebel? Why is your rock-star yacht so small? What’s it’s like to have your life flash in front of your eyes and ears in the Shirley Horrocks documentary, Anchor Me: The Don McGlashan Story?

These
questions and more feaure in a Q&A with McGlashan conducted by Listener arts & entertainment editor, Russell Baillie.

It has been created to run with special screenings in select cinemas around the country when it releases on Thursday January 15. But Listener online subscribers can watch it here, courtesy of Vendetta Films.

Below is a timeline of the interview if you want to fast-forward to a specific topic. And below that, is a trailer for the film which Listener music writer Graham Reid describes as “A discerning portrait of a generous artist by a discreet documentarian in his ★★★★½ review.

2.01 How he found director Shirley Horrocks’ approach to the documentary refreshing after previous approaches.

4.55 How as a kid his enthusiasm for learning new instruments became a brass obsession – and how he befitted from a father whose own father forbade him from joining the colliery brass band in the mining town he grew up in.

8.09 The possible connection between his father’s status as a young brass band rebel and bringing the euphonium into his rock band career.

10.39 Growing up on Auckland’s North Shore in the days it was a hub for academics and figures in the NZ literary scene.

13.50 His long lasting passion for sailing and racing the one-man Laser class.

15.30 Memories of his first band in the pre-punk years as a teenager which had a residency at a Takapuna night club playing Bowie covers.

20.04 Reflections on the music he’s created for films like An Angel at My Table as a sideline to his songwriting career.

23.21 Thoughts about having any regrets about when or why some chapters in his career ended, including the demise of Blam Blam Blam, the Front Lawn, and The Mutton Birds.

28.46 That guy who could never get the title of one of the Mutton Birds’ greatest songs quite right.

31.10 The great McGlashan songbook geography and topography mystery.

33.40 On seeing the documentary for the first time.

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