Man on The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown - by Roger Shepherd — Flying Nun

Schwimmen in der See is an integral part of Bill Direen’s oeuvre and sits at the heart of a substantial body of recorded work that stretches from Six Impossible Things right through to 1983’s Beatin Hearts album and beyond. These are songs that are both complex and unique in themselves, but are also a part of a cohesive timeless body of work.

The name says it all. Ballon D’essai or a “balloon trial”, which is a fancy French way of saying “floating an idea”. This is exactly what happened back in 1980 in Christchurch with a young band. Ballon D’essai were a beginner band of arty schoolboys taking up the music thing to see how it would fly and to where.

The band were back with Flying Nun and no one there knew what was coming, apart from a few good but vague words from people in the know. When Skeptics III arrived back from the pressing plant, everyone knew from the opening bars of 'Affco' that this immense musical noise was something special. 

Soon after telling a few friends that I was going to start up a record label, Roy Montgomery of The Pin Group approached me about releasing a single he planned to record. The Pin Group fitted the idea perfectly as they were a key band in our local Christchurch indie music scene that loosely orbited around the music venue that was - The Gladstone Hotel.