New Zealand Music Month gets flying start
03 May 2010
New Zealand Music Month - national
May 2010
Kiwi music is celebrating the 10th anniversary of New Zealand Music Month.
The annual May festival of home-grown talent is a chance for Kiwis to get behind the local music scene. Local pubs and venues across New Zealand will host a series of gigs that showcase their region’s best - from pop, rock and jazz to hip-hop and R’n’B.
NZ Music Month kicked off on 1 May with a series of events - including a quick-fire one-day flying concert tour by Kiwi rock band Opshop, and 10 concerts featuring new and established Kiwi musicians.
Kiwi musos who played 10 gigs at venues around the country included the Jordan Luck Band, Polynesian hip-hop group Nesian Mystik, Wellington songstress Iva Lamkum, Christchurch band The Transistors and Palmerston North metal band Just One Fix.
One-day flying concert tour
Popular Kiwi rock band Opshop hired a 50-seat plane and took on the challenge of performing 10 gigs in one day at 10 different venues around New Zealand.
The band started their marathon 17-hour day with a concert in Christchurch, in the South Island, at 6am. The plane flew on to Timaru for the second concert, circled Mt Cook while Opshop played in the air, landed at Hokitika, then Nelson before flying to the North Island.
In the North Island, they played at Wanganui, Hastings, Gisborne and Auckland but the Hamilton stop had to be cancelled because of a plane problem.
Apart from the Auckland show, each gig lasted for 20 minutes and was free to the public.
Opshop was formed by Christchurch vocalist Jason Kerrison - now based in Auckland. The band also consists of Bobby Kennedy on drums, Matt Treacy on guitar and Clint Harris on bass. Opshop came to fame with their single One Day and was the first Kiwi band to have a No 1 hit single in the history of iTunes New Zealand with the song Maybe.
Bay of Islands Country Rock Festival
The Bay of Islands Country Rock Festival (7 - 9 May 2010) comes of age during NZ Music Month - celebrating its 21st anniversary with a show headlined by Māori country rock veteran Eddie Low.
The festival boasts an international line-up including Terry Gordon, Donella Waters, Stephen Cheney and Kel Anne Brandt from Australia, and Joni Harms from the US. Fifty-two local Kiwi musicians are also scheduled to play throughout the weekend.
A special highlight of the festival is the street dancing programme, which takes place at various public locations around Paihia and the Opua waterfront.
The Bay of Islands - which includes the tourist hot spots of Kerikeri, Waitangi, Paihia and Russell - is in Northland, at the top of New Zealand’s North Island. Outdoor activities in the Bay of Islands include some of the world’s best diving around the Poor Knights Islands, game fishing, sailing, dolphin and bird watching.
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