Spotlight on young musicians
Young original up-and-coming artists around the country will get a chance to shine at the regional finals of Smokefreerockquest. The Central Otago finals will happen this weekend in Wānaka, showcasing some of the phenomenal musical talent from the schools of our region.
First starting in 1998, Smokefreerockquest is now a bit of an institution among musicians in New Zealand. It includes events held in 21 regions, playing host to thousands of young artists 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.
First coined as a radio promotion that was cancelled after a year, Pete Rainey and Glenn Common, two high school teachers from Christchurch, took it over as they saw the benefits in providing a platform for students. By 1990 the competition went nationwide, and it’s since helped to develop some great Kiwi bands.
“The original competition went moderately well, not as well as they’d expected – there was about eight or nine acts, and they were under the impression there’d be a lot more than that,” Common explains. “Originally, back in the day, most of them were playing cover songs but within three or four years, bands were playing their own songs and that had a flow on effect.”
By the late 90s, there were almost no covers in the competition, and the performers were so talented that hardly anyone noticed. They started moving the competition around the country, and its popularity continued to grow. Now, there’s plenty of exciting programmes on offer for students.
“We’ve added something called Smokefree Tangata Beats, which is for performances that contain a cultural element. We’ve also split the competition so the bands compete against bands and solo/duos compete against solo/duos. It’s definitely been more of an evolution, rather than an intended construction.”
While other regions have run heats, Central Otago is small enough to showcase all 20+ acts who've stepped forward at Saturday's 'regional final' event. The best bands and soloists / duos on the night will then be asked to submit video of themselves performing three of their best original songs. The top 30 from around the country will be selected, before judges pick the best 10 to compete at the national finals in Auckland later this year. In our region there are four schools represented; Dunstan High School, Cromwell College, Wakatipu High School and Mount Aspiring College.
Common says with such a large number of acts to get through, representing all the main population areas of Central Otago, the event will have an early 6pm start. "It’s going to be quite a big night," he says. "We haven’t seen any of them yet – this is part of the exciting thing – we don’t know exactly what it’s going to be until we get there on the day. Previous experience shows that there will be quite a range of music representing whatever the kids are listening to and wanting to perform at the moment.”
One of the earliest winners of the competition was an early iteration of the band Kora, going by Aunty Beatrice in those days. Alien Weaponry were another to take the stage and win – they’re a heavy metal band who've seen international success, singing in Te Reo. Local success stories include Wakatipu High School rock band Haven, who took out second place.
Common says one of his favourite parts of the competition is seeing fresh new songs, some of which will go on to become part of the fabric of our society. Being able to follow artists through from their early days and see their transition is a really special thing, one that he’s proud to be able to assist with.
“There’ll be a range of performances – ones that are from acts that are effectively at a professional level through to some acts that it may be their first time ever performing on stage to a live audience like this. What that does is give you quite an exciting array of emotions through the night,” Common says.
The Central Otago Smokefreerockquest will take place at Lake Wānaka Centre on Saturday, 14 June with the action kicking off at 6pm. Tickets, priced $14 for students and $25 for adult, will be available at the door or can be purchased at smokefreerockquest.co.nz.
