Rocking school students
The rising young musicians of our region are amping up for the regional finals of Smokefreerockquest. This Saturday Queenstown Memorial Centre will be taken over by the phenomenal musical talent coming out of local schools.
For almost 40 years, the competition has toured across the country, with events held in 21 regions, playing host to thousands of young musicians each year. The rules of participation are simple; you must be a school-aged student. Entrants will get to perform their original music onstage with a full set up including lighting, a sound engineer, a projected backdrop and technical support.
“It came out of an idea to provide high school music students with an opportunity to take what they were learning on a really professional stage,” Evie Bamford at Smokefreerockquest says.
Each show, from the regional heats all the way to the national finals in Auckland, is a full-blown production with gear provided from the Rock Shop. The competition initially started as a radio station promotion in 1988 that was cancelled after one year. Pete Rainey and Glenn Common, two high school teachers from Christchurch, took it over as they saw the benefits in a platform for students. By 1990 the competition went nationwide, and it’s since helped to develop some great Kiwi bands.
“One of the early winners was a band called Kora,” says Common. “Well, they were called Aunty Beatrice then – they went on to become Kora and some of them are now in LAB, still doing quite a lot nationally. Alien Weaponry are a heavy metal band that sing in Te Reo. They were national winners in 2016 or so, and they’re doing a lot internationally – they’re a big band playing massive festivals.”
On Sunday, 17 May, thirty-six talented young acts took part in the Central Otago Regional Heat. This year’s top 12 bands for our region are:
1. ¿ ‡‡ ? (Pronounced Garbled Glyph) - Mt Aspiring College
2. Littles Road - Wakatipu High School
3. Monkey Foot - Wakatipu High School
4. Instant Referral - Mt Aspiring College
5. Sped-A-Sourus - Wakatipu High School
6. Solitary Confinement - Cromwell College
7. Offshore - Cromwell College
8. Gen-Eric - Mt Aspiring College
9. Dilemma - Dunstan High School
10. Locomotive - Dunstan High School
11. STOLEN RINGS - Dunstan High School
12. Explosive Monkeys - Mt Aspiring College
“At the regional finals, those 12 bands will perform and first and second place – and sometimes also a third place will be awarded – with first and second place going through to the video submission stage. Before the national finals we have the first and second place from all of the regional finalists come together, and they submit a three song video performance,” Bamford says.
This video gets judged twice, and then eight from around Aotearoa will be selected to participate in the national finals. At the regional heat, the top two solo/duo acts that received gear vouchers at the regional heats and have progressed to the video submission stage for a chance to progress to the National Finals are:
1st place: Juno Gerlach - Mt Aspiring College
2nd place: Leila Franklin - Wakatipu High School
“The performers here will go on and have great music careers. I think it’s a fantastic opportunity to see them when they’re still in that formative stage – their enthusiasm is high, their skills are remarkable, and it’s a great chance to see what the community has,” says Common.
The The Smokefreerockquest Central Otago Regional Final will take place on at 7pm on Saturday, 13 June at Queenstown Memorial Centre. Tickets will be available on the door and at smokefreerockquest.co.nz
