''The Fourmyula'' were a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

rock group A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, ...

formed in 1967 in

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. Geography The Upper Hutt city cent ...

. They achieved considerable local success in the late 1960s, with ten of their fourteen singles reaching the New Zealand Top 20.

Career (1967–1971)

The group initially consisted of

Wayne Mason Wayne Ashley Mason (born 1949) is a New Zealand musician. Biography Mason was born in New Plymouth in 1949. He was a founding member of 1960s pop group The Fourmyula and later formed Rockinghorse and The Warratahs before embarking on a solo c ...

(guitar, keyboards, vocals), Martin Hope (guitar and vocals), Ali Richardson (bass and vocals), and Chris Parry (drums), who founded

Fiction Records Fiction Records is a British record label founded by Chris Parry in 1978, owned by Universal Music Group and based in the United Kingdom. It is best known for being the home of The Cure for over 20 years. It was originally a part of Polydor, ...

(UK) in 1978. They were joined in 1968 by Carl Evensen as lead vocalist. Their first release, "Come With Me" made it to number 2 in August 1968. They released fourteen singles (ten of which reached the New Zealand Top 20) and five albums and won the New Zealand Entertainers of the Year award in 1970. The Fourmyula's best known song, "

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

", written by Wayne Mason and produced by Peter Dawkins, reached number one in the New Zealand charts in December 1969. It won the

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, sales and airplay performance by its members. APRA hold the annual Silver ...

Award for the year.

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 Chart ...

released a rockier version of "Nature" in 1995, and in 2001 the original version was voted New Zealand's greatest pop song ever - becoming the title track of the best-selling ''

Nature's Best ''Nature's Best'' is a two-disc compilation album of thirty New Zealand popular music songs, selected by a panel as the top thirty New Zealand songs of all time. Selection The genesis of the idea was the 75th anniversary of the Australasian Pe ...

'' compilation.

Reunion (2010)

In 2010 the band reformed to promote the compilation ''The Complete Fourmyula'', a 4-CD set which includes a previously unreleased album ''Turn Your Back on the Wind'', originally recorded for

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

. They played two concerts, one in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

on 18 February 2010 and another in

, on 20 March 2010. The Fourmyula was inducted into the

New Zealand Music Hall of Fame The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame , Te Whare Taonga Puoro o Aotearoa is a figurative hall of fame dedicated to noteworthy New Zealand musicians. The hall was created in 2007 by Recorded Music NZ (then known as the Recording Industry Associati ...

at the 2010 APRA Silver Scroll Awards.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Extended Plays

Singles

Awards and nominations

Aotearoa Music Awards

The

Aotearoa Music Awards The Aotearoa Music Awards (previously called the New Zealand Music Awards), conferred annually by Recorded Music NZ, honour outstanding artistic and technical achievements in the recording industry. The awards are among the most significant that ...

(previously known as ''New Zealand Music Awards'' (NZMA)) are an annual awards night celebrating excellence in

New Zealand music The music of New Zealand has been influenced by a number of traditions, including Māori music, the music introduced by European settlers during the nineteenth century, and a variety of styles imported during the twentieth century, including b ...

and have been presented annually since 1965. ! , - , 1968 , , "Alice Is There" , , Single of the Year , , , , rowspan="2", , - , 1970 , , "Nature" , , Single of the Year , , , - , 2010 , , The Fourmyula , ,

, , , , , -

References

External links

The Fourmyula profile at AudioCulture

Collection of band associate Les Gruebner's Fourmyula recordings
at the

Alexander Turnbull Library The National Library of New Zealand ( mi, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (''Nat ...

APRA Award winners New Zealand rock music groups {{NewZealand-band-stub