Don McGlashan

Don McGlashan
Don McGlashan at the Raglan Club in 2015
Background information
Birth name	Donald McGlashan
Born	(1959-07-18) 18 July 1959 (age 57) Auckland, New Zealand
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer
Instruments	Vocals, euphonium, piano, guitar, drums, percussion
Years active	1979–present
Labels	Arch Hill
Associated acts	Auckland Sinfonia From Scratch Blam Blam Blam The Front Lawn The Mutton Birds The Seven Sisters The Bellbirds
Website	www.donmcglashan.com

Don McGlashan (born 18 July 1959) is a New Zealand composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist who won fame with bands Blam Blam Blam, The Front Lawn, and The Mutton Birds, before going solo. He has also composed extensively for cinema and television. Among other instruments, McGlashan has played guitar, drums, euphonium and French horn.

McGlashan has played with percussion group From Scratch, and bands The Bellbirds, The Plague, and composed a number of pieces for New Zealand's Limbs Dance Company.

McGlashan's first hits were with band Blam Blam Blam in the early 1980s. He later released four albums as lead singer and writer for The Mutton Birds.

McGlashan was born in Auckland, New Zealand. Both his parents were teachers: his father Bain taught civil engineering at Auckland Technical Institute and his mother Alice was a schoolteacher. McGlashan was actively encouraged to pursue music from a young age by his father, who bought him bought parts of various musical instruments to learn on. McGlashan wrote the song 'Envy of Angels' as a tribute to his father. At age seven McGlashan began on cello and piano, "then gradually added more instruments to that. [I] went through the tune-a-day for whatever instrument it was, for just about every instrument I think." McGlashan attended Westlake Boys' High School, on Auckland's North Shore. While at high school he began playing keyboard in local bands. "I carried on sort of following those two strands - of learning how to write songs, learning how to be in a band, learning all the sort of extra musical stuff that you have to learn - and on the other side I was learning the French horn."

At Auckland University he studied English and Music, and played French horn and percussion in the Auckland Symphonia (later called the Auckland Philharmonia) from 1979 to 1982. McGlashan began working with percussion group From Scratch in 1979, while playing in the Auckland Symphonia. McGlashan played a number of eclectic percussion instruments, such as PVC piping struck with jandals; the name of the group came from the fact that they produced their own instruments 'from scratch'. On Standards, the album he jointly produced with Ivan Zagni for Propeller Records in 1982, he is credited as playing bass guitar, horn, whistle, percussion, marimba and vocals.