The year was 1981. New Zealand was in turmoil.
The Springboks were touring.
In Wellington, police strapped on batons for a gig by a Dunedin band, The Clean.
Despite a groundswell of music produced that year, the Australasian Performing Right Association never presented its annual Silver Scroll Award.
It was the ''lost scroll''.
Fast-forward 34 years to 2015.
Apra is to present the 1981 music award, and The Clean has been shortlisted in the nominations.
Extensive research provided no answer to why there was a ''lost scroll'' in 1981, Apra New Zealand operations head Anthony Healey said yesterday.
But Mr Healey said he suspected the reason was the social and political unrest at the time.
''New Zealand was in turmoil and that created an environment ripe for some of the greatest music ever made in this country.''
Mr Healey said The Clean had been nominated for its ''cracking'' 1981 song Tally Ho.
The Clean guitarist David Kilgour was not convinced by Mr Healey's theory about why the award was never presented, saying it was ''tenuous'', despite 1981 being a tumultuous time.
''We toured while the Springbok tour was on, so we were very aware of it,'' Kilgour said.
At the band's first tour gig in Wellington, the police wore batons for the first time at a public event other than a rugby match, he said.
Bassist Robert Scott said it was ''weird'' having a song nominated retrospectively.
''Would we have been nominated at the time?''
Kilgour said it would have been nicer to be nominated for a song recorded last year but the band would happily accept the award.
''If it's a pat on the back, I'll take it. Even if it's for something I did [nearly] 40 years ago.''
The song was the band's debut single and was the second release on the Flying Nun Records label.
The song was born on a Christchurch afternoon, when the band was returning to Dunedin after touring.
Scott played a three-chord riff on a keyboard and Kilgour and Dunedin musician Martin Phillipps wrote lyrics on a napkin.
Kilgour said he wrote the lyrics after nearly having a mental breakdown from taking a hallucinogenic drug.
The lyrics were about the yearning for a connection.
''It's a very confused lyric, which is the state I was in when I wrote it,'' he said.
Scott said the song cost about $50 to record.
Drummer Hamish Kilgour was today living in New York and had not responded to the news yet, brother David said.
Mr Henley said about 45 singles were considered for the 1981 award by an anonymous panel of expert songwriters to find the top five songs.
Apra members could vote for the 1981 and 2015 awards.
The song Special, by Dunedin band Six60, was among the 20 nominations this year.
The awards for both years would be presented in Auckland on September 17.
2015 nominees
Songs nominated for the 2015 APRA Silver Scroll Award
• Special, Six60
• Back Into Your Life, Clap Clap Riot
• Call The Days, Nadia Reid
• Can't Keep Checking My Phone, Unknown Mortal Orchestra
• Collarbones, Thomston
• Cool It, She's So Rad
• Dark Child, Marlon Williams
• Do You Remember, Jarryd James
• Get Out Alive, Mel Parsons
• Just In Case Allelujah, Eyreton Hall
• L.A.F., Broods
• Little Pieces, SJD
• Multi-Love, Unknown Mortal Orchestra
• Naomi, Martin Andrews
• Perfect Health, Mulholland
• Touch, Maala
• Unplugged, SJD
• Water Underground, Anthonie Tonnon
• Welcome Back, King Kapisi
• Yellow Flicker Beat, Lorde
