McGlashan was also a member of Philip Dadson's percussion group From Scratch, and bands The Bellbirds, The Plague, and composed pieces for New Zealand's Limbs Dance Company.

Both his parents were teachers: his father Bain taught civil engineering at Auckland Technical Institute and his mother Alice was a schoolteacher.

McGlashan began working with Philip Dadson's percussion group From Scratch in 1979, while playing in the Auckland Symphonia.

On Standards, the album he jointly produced with Ivan Zagni for Propeller Records in 1982, he is credited as playing bass guitar, horn, whistle, percussion, marimba and vocals.

[7] In March 1985, a group formed for the purpose, Left, Right and Centre, released a single, "Don't Go", a protest against the proposed All Blacks tour of South Africa.

The duo (in their late stages a trio, thanks to the addition of actor Jennifer Ward-Lealand) won acclaim for theatre shows which combined music with physical comedy.

By now Sinclair was growing increasingly interested in directing, while McGlashan was keen to return to the live circuit.

After playing their first gig on St Patrick's Day 1991 with a session drummer, Steve Garden, they heard about Ross Burge and convinced him to move back to New Zealand from New York to join The Mutton Birds.

However, while the Mutton Birds received acclaim from UK critics and music magazines, they failed to achieve mainstream success.

The album is credited to Don McGlashan & the Seven Sisters, a band which had begun when he toured Warm Hand.

The album included a new version of McGlashan-penned hit "Bathe in the River", with McGlashan on lead vocals.

In 2005, "Anchor Me" was re-recorded by an ensemble of NZ artists to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing.

"[15] Soon after its release the album reached the top of the New Zealand Record Album Music Charts[16] McGlashan began contributing to soundtracks as early as 1980, when he was one of the trio who composed the music for New Zealand police series Mortimer's Patch.

McGlashan composed occasionally for the screen over the next two and a half decades, including work on Jane Campion's film An Angel at My Table; Cinema of Unease, a documentary about the history of New Zealand cinema; and long-running detective series Street Legal.

Since then he has composed the music for more than a dozen screen projects – predominantly feature films (including The Dead Lands and the orchestral soundtrack for Dean Spanley) – as well as short films (Tick) and television (Katherine Mansfield telemovie Bliss, TV series Orange Roughies).

The song "Bathe In the River" featured on McGlashan's soundtrack to acclaimed Toa Fraser film No.

[17] McGlashan is noted for writing lyrics that feature New Zealand imagery and vernacular, many involving his hometown of Auckland.