French Letter

Radio stations had a problem with the title. A French letter is British slang for a condom, so when Herbs released French Letter in 1982, DJs who played it at all tended to call it A Letter to France. The song itself was dead serious. Vocalist Toni Fonoti wrote it to protest France's nuclear weapons tests at Mururoa and Fangataufa, and Dilworth Karaka later recalled seeing relatives from Tahiti and the Cook Islands fall ill and come to New Zealand for treatment. Herbs were a multi-ethnic band of Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island, Māori and Pākehā members, with ties to the Polynesian Panthers through their manager Will 'Ilolahia. He helped the single along by targeting stock at the record shops used to compile the charts and sending friends to buy it there. It climbed to number 11 and stayed 15 weeks in the top 40. France banned it in all its territories. The band played a show in Tahiti anyway, sang it regardless, and remembered British members of the Foreign Legion, on leave from Mururoa, singing along. When France announced new tests in 1995, Herbs re-recorded the song as French Letter '95, with a video made with Greenpeace New Zealand, and it reached number 9. The song is credited with raising awareness in the campaign that led to New Zealand's nuclear-free zone in 1987, and APRA members later voted it among the country's best songs. Gentle Pacific reggae with an awkward title became part of how New Zealand sees itself: a small country that said no to the bomb.