Music historian and AudioCulture writer Chris Bourke tells Anna Thomas about the history of the word "chur" and its roots in the 1960s with showtime performers, like the Howard Morrison Quartet.
The Howard Morrison Quartet Photo:
Here is an extract of Chris's article about the evolution of 'Chur' for Audioculture:
" In the past couple of decades, “chur” has become common usage, taking over from the place “choice” had in the language in the early 80s. While the words can sometimes have a similar meaning – “thanks” or “that’s good” – they don’t always mean the same thing....
The phrase emerged from the Showtime Spectacular tour of 1961, a national tour headlined by the Howard Morrison Quartet at their peak, plus Toni Williams, Kim Krueger, and backing musicians such as Bob Paris and Bruce King.
It was invented by a magician/ventriloquist on the bill, Jon Zealando. The Quartet was fascinated by his ability to speak without moving his lips when working with his metal robot puppet....
In his 1992 memoir, Howard (ghost-written by John Costello), the singer explains that the “secret language” went further than chur, doy. He says that while socialising after a show one night, he and Merito were speaking in te reo to each other. “A woman in a group nearby said we were arrogant and rude for speaking Māori. We were so innocent – I’ll use that word rather than stupid – that we apologised. But as a direct consequence of that we started a language of our own.”
Chur turns up regularly in online farewells to deceased musicians from their peers. And in the last couple of decades, the word is now used frequently outside of the music community. Piripi Walker, manager of Te Upoko O te Ika – the first iwi radio station, in Wellington – noticed that the hosts in the 1990s regularly used the word on air and with each other, usually as “chur, bro”.
And now Chur is in the Oxford English Dictionary, an example of how language continually evolves, and how not just te reo but also vernacular Māori expressions are entering and shaping Aotearoa English."
- Extract from Chur Doy - A secret history written by Chris Bourke for AudioCulture.
