Awards, awards, awards: I must confess I'm not really one for awards ceremonies.
I went to the Vodafone NZ Music Awards last week and was over the whole thing after about the first 10 minutes.
What was it like, people have been asking?

Well, pretty much exactly the same as on television, except it seemed to go on much longer. Gin Wigmore and the Phoenix Foundation played great music in between lots of other stuff. Anika Moa seemed to be taking the mickey out of the whole thing and John Michaelz, the first Tauranga artist in history to be nominated (as far as I can tell) didn't win the gospel award.
It wasn't really a surprise. It hasn't been a particularly good couple of weeks for Bay artists as far as winning stuff is concerned. The National Battle of the Bands 2010 finals were held at the Kings Arms in Auckland at the end of September and although there were three bands from here competing, none of them came home with a prize.
The three Bay finalists were – for the record – The Mellow Drops, Enercia, and those serial reprobates of the music scene, D.I.C. Sadly, none of them reached the top three and the prize distribution, but we offer our serious congrats to all involved. I hope the bands go from strength to strength.
Hopefully, for starters, The Mellow Drops will get back into a studio and start recording again. Enercia are threatening to do the same thing and, if you haven't heard them before, you can check out the video for their last single, ‘Broken Home', on their MySpace page: www.myspace.com/enercianz. You can also find D.I.C. via MySpace but - as usual for the band - their site comes with an R18 warning and the usual myriad of obscenities. What, after all, should one expect of a band whose last album was called Kindergarten Crackwhore?
The music awards, of course, were much tamer and featured Stan Walker prominently, singing and picking up all sorts of awards. Whether the gloss of winning Australian Idol will last much longer is anyone's guess and the boy sure has a sweet voice, but if I never have to sit through another one of his songs or acceptance speeches again I'll be a happy man.
The highlight of the award ceremony was actually the goody bag. OK, so it wasn't exactly the Oscars, and there were no Naomi Campbell-sized diamonds lurking in there but there were a couple of cool things amongst the padding. For those with a little curiosity about such things, let me list the contents:
Pick of the bunch was a CD/DVD with a selection of the winners featured. I'll give it away through the paper at a later date if anyone's interested in a potentially historical collector's item. There was also a $50 spa voucher; a $65 Pacific Blue voucher (if you spend more than $718); a $10 bandit.fm voucher; a photographic session voucher ($300 value for only $95!); and some hair gel…
I'm just about sold on the voucher for the glam photography session. The blurb tells me, 'We're all about making the most of your own unique look be it curvy or straight, subtle & classic or vibrant & innovative so that you look and feel as beautiful as you really are.” Does that come with extra cheese and fries?
Oh, and there was one more thing. Actually three things and they were the coolest of the whole bunch. Three temporary tattoos – one of Gin Wigmore, one of Holly Smith and one of (a very slim-looking) Anika Moa. Now isn't that groovy? I'm saving them until I crack that curvy, subtle, classic, vibrant, innovative look and I just know they'll come in handy for some occasion.
I think we need more of them in Tauranga too. Why no temporary tattoos for the recent local body elections? Then supporters could really show their colours. I can't believe there isn't a market for the 'Butch” Bill Faulkner tat, or perhaps the Murray Guy Moko. I once ran across 'Smiling” Stuart Crosby wearing an Ozzy Osbourne wig and glasses. I bet he's got a few tattoos hidden under that mayoral gown.