NZMM Day 27 – Opshop

Today’s band, Opshop, has made some of my favourite pop songs of the past few years. As this series winds down, that’s a good thing to focus on.

The video above, “One Day”, was the third single from their second album, Second Hand Planet. It peaked at Number 4 on the NZ singles chart and went Platinum. It’s an example of one of their slower songs, and was a favourite of mine at the time. I bought it on iTunes back then.

Their first album was You Are Here (2007), which reached Number 17 on the album chart and went Platinum. The highest-charted single from that album was “No Ordinary Thing” (2007, below), which reached Number 22.



Their second album, Second hand Planet, went to Number One on the Album chart and was Triple Platinum. The first single from that album was “Maybe” (below), which I also bought on iTunes. It hit Number 3 on the singles chart and went Gold. “Maybe” took the band to #1 on iTunes New Zealand, the first New Zealand band to hit that position. Apparently, I helped them achieve that.



Their third album (and most recent) was 2010’s Until The End of Time, which reached Number 1 on the NZ album chart. It produced three charted singles: “Pins and Needles” (Number 20), “Madness and Other Allergies” (29) and “Love Will Always Win” (11).

Their most recent single, released in January (below) is “All I Ask”. It didn’t chart.



Opshop is fronted by Invercargill-born, Christchurch-raised Jason Kerrison. We saw him in real-life when he attended a Star Trek benefit premier screening we attended back in 2009. I knew who he was—I recognised him from his videos—but I could NOT remember his name. So, as has nearly always been the case when I’ve run across well-known people, I said nothing.

A few years later, Kerrison got in the news because he planned on building an underground “ark” in preparation for the end of the world with the end of the Mayan calendar. Yeah, I know. He later said he never said it was about that calendar, or even the end of the world, but rather the end of time and, anyway, most people aren’t prepared for disasters. Which is true. But the whole thing made him seem, well, kind of flaky—or, maybe that’s what the media wanted to portray?

At any rate, I’ve enjoyed Opshop music. That’s enough for me.

All the videos in this post, and ones for the songs I mentioned but didn’t include, can be found on Opshop's YouTube Channel.