Nearly Christmas. We're on present watch – this week it's tickets.

Yep, tickets are cool presents and with the veritable flood of touring acts coming to New Zealand in the next few months, still I assume courtesy of the continuing high dollar, there are plenty to chose from.
First of all though, a couple of quick bits of good news.
Local radio station, and the only radio station in the Bay that's actually dedicated to playing music from the Bay, Kiss-FM, is back!
Mt Maunganui's own is on air with a new frequency, new mobile phone apps and new programmes. Founder Max Christoffersen says: 'It's been a while between FM transmissions but Kiss remained on-line in the years between and we've built a solid global following through the tunein.com streaming network with listeners worldwide coming to Kiss-FM for its on-line rock music.”

Tuning in
The station is using low-power FM frequency 106.9FM which means listeners will be able to pick it up in the car everywhere around Mt Maunganui and parts of Tauranga but at home will need a dedicated aerial for their FM tuner. Mobile apps can be downloaded at tunein.com
'I decided to turn everything back on. I love sharing the music of our local musicians and recent feedback from listeners as far away as Brazil, Japan and Europe confirms that others love our bands too. Today, I believe that broadcasting local music from Brilleaux, Swamp Thing, Enercia, Kokomo, Grant Haua, John Michaelz and Luke Thompson on LPFM is better than not to broadcast at all.”
More about Kiss-FM in the new year...

Local talent abounds
Secondly, a couple of local albums have just been finished, too late to review (again, I'll get to that in the New Year) but worthy of a mention in case anyone wants them for Christmas pressies. From Christian singer Janneke comes Perfect Day, a collection of easy-listening pop recorded at The Colourfield in Welcome Bay. Find out more at
www.jannekemusic.com.
And artist/musician Dave Roy has not one but four new CDs out. Seriously. They are: Walk-a-Bout (travel songs); Vent-My-Spleen (each song featuring a different Bay guitarist); Blue Elephant (moody soundscapes); and Wothell (songs that wouldn't fit on the others). Recorded at the Boatshed Studio in Whakamarama they're available from [email protected].
So...tickets. Astonishingly enough, and not including the many summer festivals, the following lot will all be touring in the next few months: Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, Arctic Monkeys, Lionel Richie and John Farnham, Kodaline, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Paco Pena, Mango Groove, Brian McKnight, Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails, Michael Bublé, James Blunt, Ellie Goulding, Jake Bugg, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Starship and 10CC, John Butler Trio, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis...
Okay. Get on-line. The tickets are there somewhere...

Three choices
Closer to home, here are three ideas:
High-energy blues trio The Hipshooters, fronted by sensational guitarist Anton Tipi Elkington, are playing at Drivers Bar on January 3. $10 tickets are available at the bar (ph: 579 0502).
Kokomo play one of their legendary summer twilight shows at Mills Reef Winery on Wednesday January 8. The band are just finishing a new album - provisionally titled Bigger Than Brando – and are about to launch the first single. This will be an ideal chance to see their first local show since the sold-out concert at Easter's Jazz Festival, and a good way to showcase some great Tauranga music in a lovely outdoor winery setting for visitors to the Bay. A special menu will be available; numbers are strictly limited. Tickets are $25 from Mills Reef (ph: 576 8800).
And Auckland's Beyondsemble will play at the Tauranga Art Gallery on Saturday, January 18. The entire quartet are multi instrumentalists and the band eclectically mixes Celtic, Eastern European music and Gypsy jazz with Latin and tango rhythms. Tickets are $30 ($25 for Friends of the Gallery or students), available at the Gallery (ph: 578 7933).
And I leave you with this Christmas message: the best and easiest mix for a pina colada is one measure of rum, two measures of coconut cream and three measures of pineapple juice. Add a little sugar or sugar syrup to bring it alive.
Shake with ice. Strain. Serve.
Merry Christmas everyone!