One of the seminal composers of the Dunedin Sound has praised the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum for capturing a generation of Kiwi music in danger of becoming a distant memory.
It has been more than 30 years since the Dunedin Sound first hit the airwaves, and the Chills singer-songwriter Martin Phillipps was pleased the history of 1980s Dunedin bands such as the Bats, the Chills, the Clean, Sneaky Feelings, Straitjacket Fits and the Verlaines had been recorded.
The bands exuded confidence in their ''alternative'' approach to musicianship and do-it-yourself recording, making them popular all over the world.
''It's great that they are treating it as history now - what we all did.
''It was a key era,'' Phillipps said.
''It's very timely. People of the era are still alive making music and [the museum] is recording the moment in history before it all gets lost.''
Along with sound and video recordings of Dunedin Sound bands, the new exhibit at the museum features a display of band equipment, such as Phillipps' Fender electric guitar which was used to play the hits Pink Frost and I Love My Leather Jacket.
Other items include the Clean songwriter David Kilgour's guitar, an amplifier used by the band's bass guitarist Robert Scott, and an example of the equipment used to record them.
The museum reopens on Saturday.
