"Anchor Me" is a 1994 single by New Zealand rock band

The Mutton Birds The Mutton Birds were a New Zealand rock music group formed in Auckland in 1991 by Ross Burge, David Long and Don McGlashan, with Alan Gregg joining a year later. Four of their albums reached the top 10 on the New Zealand Albums Char ...

. The song peaked at #10 in the New Zealand singles chart, and charted for nine weeks. The song was from the group's 1993 album '' Salty'', with three other album tracks used on the single. "Anchor Me" is a love song, written by the Mutton Birds' lead singer Don McGlashan about his wife. Songwriter Don McGlashan won the 1994

APRA Silver Scroll The APRA Music Awards are several annual and two-yearly award ceremonies run in New Zealand by Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills of its members. APRA hold the annual Silver Scroll Awards and song awards, ...

songwriting award for "Anchor Me", the first of his two Silver Scrolls. McGlashan was also nominated for Best Songwriter for "Anchor Me" at the 1995 New Zealand Music Awards.

Track listing

# "Anchor Me" (Remix Edit) – 4:27 # "When The Wind Comes Round" – 5:30 # "Esther" – 2:48 # "Don't Fight It Marsha, It's Bigger Than Both Of Us" – 4:38

Uses in popular culture

* '' Perfect Strangers'' (2003 feature film). With a new version of the song recorded for the film, McGlashan appears in the film as part of a fictitious band called The Blackouts who perform the song in a bar scene. * ''Boy'' (2004 short film) soundtrack * After the

2008 New Zealand general election The 2008 New Zealand general election was held on 8 November 2008 to determine the composition of the 49th New Zealand Parliament. The liberal-conservative New Zealand National Party, National Party, headed by its parliamentary leader John Key, ...

Television New Zealand Television New Zealand (, "Te Reo Tātaki" meaning "The Leading Voice"), more commonly referred to as TVNZ, is a New Zealand state-owned media company and Crown entity. The company operates a television network, TVNZ+, streaming service, and 1N ...

used "Anchor Me" in a montage of images showing people celebrating the

New Zealand National Party The New Zealand National Party (), often shortened to National () or the Nats, is a Centre-right politics, centre-right List of political parties in New Zealand, political party in New Zealand that is the current senior ruling party. It is one ...

's victory. McGlashan wrote an angry letter to the network expressing his displeasure with the song being used in this context, saying he had never voted National and "would rather have sex with a very ugly crayfish than let them use my music".

Charts

Greenpeace version

In 2005, a

charity supergroup A charity supergroup is a music group comprising famous musicians or other celebrities which is formed to raise funds or awareness for charities or causes. The supergroup is usually together only for a single album, performance, or single. T ...

of New Zealand artists recorded the song to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the bombing of the Greenpeace ship ''Rainbow Warrior''. The song peaked at #3 in the New Zealand singles chart. The idea of a commemorative song was decided in April 2005, with studio time booked before the song or singers had been selected. Songwriter Don McGlashan agreed for "Anchor Me" to be used, but chose not to be involved in the recording, as he felt doing so would put the emphasis on him, rather than the bombing commemoration. A group of young New Zealand artists was quickly gathered to record the song, which was eventually released on 4 July 2005.

Line-up

In order of performance: * Hinewehi Mohi *

Kirsten Morrell Kirsten Morrell (born Kirsten Maccoll Reade; December 1974) is a British-born New Zealand singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the band Goldenhorse. Morrell is a trained operatic singer and performed as a national singer in th ...

Che Fu Che Kuo Eruera Ness (born 1974), better known by his stage name Che Fu, is a New Zealand singer, songwriter and producer. A founding member of the band Supergroove, as a solo artist he has gone on to sell thousands of albums both in New Zeal ...

Anika Moa Anika Rose Moa (born 21 May 1980) is a New Zealand recording artist and television presenter. Her debut studio album ''Thinking Room'', was released in September 2001, which reached number one on the Official New Zealand Music Chart, New Z ...

* Milan Borich (

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

) * David Atai and Donald McNulty (

Nesian Mystik Nesian Mystik was a New Zealand hip-hop/ R&B group which formed in 1999. The cultural backgrounds of its members united a remarkable diversity of Polynesia by bringing together Cook Island, Tongan, Samoan and Maori ancestry. As well as prod ...

) * Nainz and Viiz Tupai (

Adeaze Adeaze are a New Zealand R&B/soul duo of brothers Nainz and Viiz Tupai. The group's debut album, ''Always and for Real'', was released in 2004 and topped the album chart in New Zealand. History Brought up playing music in the church, the broth ...

)

Charts

References

External links

Video of the Mutton Birds version at NZ On Screen

Video of the Greenpeace version at NZ On Screen
{{authority control 1994 singles 2005 singles Charity singles All-star recordings The Mutton Birds songs Songs written by Don McGlashan 1994 songs