Help return the iconic AK79 album cover guitar to Dean Martelli

In 1978, Auckland punk band The Terrorways’ guitarist Dean Martelli walked into a downtown Auckland music store and fell in love with a guitar. He recognised the guitar from photos he’d seen of Marc Bolan and Slade, key figures in the UK Glam Rock scene, playing similar guitars back home in his native UK. That guitar was a Burns Flyte. Dean was a huge Glam Rock fan and knew this guitar was for him. Manufactured in small numbers between 1974 and 1977, the Flyte was made by Burns in the UK and was inspired by the iconic delta-winged design of the Concorde supersonic airliner as flown by British Airways and Air France.

Dean bought that guitar and played literally hundreds of gigs with it in The Terrorways over the next two years.

In late-1979, Bryan Staff’s indie label released the AK79 album, a compilation of 2 tracks each from 6 bands from that vibrant scene. The first pressing sold out within days and it has been reissued three time since – by Ripper in 1980, then Propeller/Flying Nun in 1993 (on CD) and again, on a semi-legal double vinyl in 2008. A double vinyl album of the CD edition is scheduled for late 2019 to celebrate the 40th anniversary.

Over the last four decades AK79 has attained a cult following worldwide and is often cited by musicians around the planet as an influence. With that in mind, in 2014 AK79 awarded the very first Independent Music Classic NZ Record at the 2014 Taite Music Awards, a sign of its accepted cultural importance.

The powerful cover of that album was designed by Auckland graphic designer Terence Hogan and featured a close up photo of Dean’s hand and that same Flyte guitar. The photo was taken by Anthony Phelps.

In the years since, the striking AK79 record cover has become one of the most recognised in New Zealand Rock ‘n’ Roll’s history and was featured heavily at the Volume exhibition at Auckland Museum in 2016 and 2017. Auckland Museum actually spent three months trying to track down a Burns Flyte for the exhibition. Even Burns Guitars in London didn’t have one in their own museum.

It’s an image that has appeared on literally thousands of T-shirts (both legally and bootlegged), on posters and magazine covers. It’s instantly recognisable and is perhaps *the* defining NZ punk graphic.

Dean has been constantly asked over the years ‘do you still have the Flyte? What happened to that guitar? Where is it now?’ He always thought he’d traded the guitar in against another guitar sometime in 1980.

Many rumours have appeared over the years as to the fate of the guitar. Someone saw it in a music shop in Auckland. Another person reported seeing it in a charity shop. A collector in the UK now owns it… Some guy in the U.S says a friend of a friend owns it…

Fast forward to 2019 and the week before the annual Punk It Up Festival.

A chance conversation before Punk It Up 2019 led to the first solid lead to the missing guitar’s whereabouts in 40 years. Dean did some investigation and followed that lead. Eventually he tracked down the guitar to West Auckland. It could have been anywhere on the planet. It could have been lost, damaged, modified or destroyed. But no, it’s been sitting in a cupboard, unplayed, for 40 years, in Auckland.

Dean met the present owner a few weeks ago, and saw this guitar for the first time in 40 years. The guitar is all original, with no modifications. There’s been some minor damage to the paintwork on the neck and on the ebony fingerboard, but overall it the instrument is in excellent condition.

The present owner has agreed to sell it and, reasonably, wants the current market rate of NZ$6,000.

Dean will be funding the restoration so it will be available for future gigs and NZ music history events and exhibitions.

All donations over $50 will receive a hand written thank you card from Dean.