Split Enz — One Step Ahead (1980)

JUL 01 1980 · 12:00

Split Enz — One Step Ahead (1980) (1980) Director: Noel Crombie Era: New Wave Transition Era (1980) - Antipodean art rock pivoting to pop new wave at the dawn of the music video age, coinciding with MTV's launch programming Exceptionally high. This video is a multiply significant early music video artefact: it is among the first clips ever aired on MTV (documented as the 28th video on launch day, August 1, 1981), it preserves a performance of the pre-moonwalk 'Marche sur place' mime technique by Eddie Rayner, and it stands as a rare example of a single-take, theatrically staged promo clip by a director (Noel Crombie) who was also the band's percussionist and visual designer. The extreme darkness (brightness 30.39/255) and near-maximum saturation (99.77) create a visually distinctive fingerprint that encapsulates the band's art-school aesthetic. Essential for any archive of early music video history, Australasian pop culture, or the genealogy of music-video performance conventions. Context: Released November 1980 as the lead single from Split Enz's sixth studio album Waiata (also released as Corroboree in Australia), 'One Step Ahead' arrived at a pivotal moment in Antipodean pop: the band had already scored a landmark international hit with 'I Got You' earlier in 1980, establishing New Zealand pop on the global stage. The video became a significant early artefact of the nascent music video medium, airing as one of the first clips ever screened on MTV when the channel launched on August 1, 1981, and specifically documented as the 28th video played that inaugural day. Split Enz were regarded as the first New Zealand band to gain significant recognition outside Australasia. The clip's mime-theatre vocabulary—particularly the 'Marche sur place' illusion walk performed by Eddie Rayner—connects the video to a lineage of physical theatre stretching from French mime tradition to, subsequently, Michael Jackson's moonwalk (1983), giving it an outsized cultural legacy relative to its modest production scale. Director notes: Crombie directed 'One Step Ahead' with a single-take, no-edit approach (avg shot length equals full runtime: 183.56s; scene changes: 0), consistent with early promo-clip conventions of the period. The video premiered December 1, 1980, and was among the first batch of videos screened on MTV at launch on August 1, 1981, documented as the 28th video played on the channel. The set design—a black void etched with coloured lines, coloured staircase, and tinted silhouettes of band members—reflects Crombie's background in visual costume and set design for the band. A key documented production detail is Eddie Rayner's performance of the 'Marche sur place' pantomime illusion walk (a technique originating with Decroux and Barrault, visible in the 1945 French film Children of Paradise), which Michael Jackson is reported to have used as the basis for the moonwalk in 1983. The single was produced/engineered by David Tickle, recorded at AAV, Australia, and mixed at Farmyard Studios, UK.