Silver Scrolls: Lorde and Little

Lorde and Joel Little. Photo:Topic photography

The Apra Silver Scrolls were held last night at the Vector Arena, a departure from their usual venue, the Auckland Town Hall. They managed to squeeze in between One Direction and Beyonce, one presenter pointed out, which explains why it was on a Tuesday night.

The evening kicked off with an introduction from Apra's Anthony Healey, who mentioned the success of having a New Zealander at the top of the US charts for the first time. What a BIZARRE thing to say. HOW very BIZARRE. Maybe I misheard him.

The first of the cover versions of each of the finalists, as is Apra's tradition, was Rackets [watch] taking to Thames Soup by the Phoenix Foundation giving it a rough, noisy edge, but not really bringing anything new to the song.

The Sounz Contemporary Award went to Karlo Margetic for Lightbox, which was performed by the MPC Trio [watch], a delightfully leftfield combo of Jeremy Toy (She's So Rad), Lewis McCallum, and Johnnie Fleury. That was some out-there space rock.

Then we got to the induction for the latest NZ Music Hall of Fame recipient, Dave Dobbyn. Warren Maxwell delivered the speech, toasting Dave, his songs, and his life.

Maxwell talked about Dobbyn's place in our history saying that "Your Wikipedia bio is ingrained in New Zealand folklore." Maxwell talked of reading through Dobbyn's  lyrics, and choosing a few of them to read out.

He recited Beside You (which won Dobbyn the Silver Scroll in 1998), and Lap Of The Gods, adding in a few asides to lines he particularly liked. Maxwell said of Dobbyn that "You are living the dream, of being a successful human."

Then there was a video presentation, of Dobbyn's musical friends and mates talking about him, like Chris Bourke talking about Loyal, saying even the America's Cup couldn't kill it - intercut with voxpops from people on the street, talking about his music and what it meant to them.

Dobbyn came up and accepted the honour, to a standing ovation. He worked thru his thank you list, chronologically, and said he'd thank the big guy at the end. He commented on the kind words said about him in the video, saying "It's like being at your own funeral, and you get to talk to everybody." He also said "To the record companies and labels, thank you. It's over!" And then he laughed.

The musical tributes to Dobbyn [watch] came from country singer Tami Neilson singing with harpist Weiting Shyu doing Language, a very sparse, spooky version; Mark Vanilau (who often plays in Dobbyns current band) with Scribe doing It Dawned On Me, which started with Scribe rapping, then joining in singing in beautiful harmonies with Vanilau, and totally nailing it -  NZ Herald's Russell Baillie said "it was "one of the all time great #silverscrolls performances"; and the closer of this section was Shihad rocking out on Be Mine Tonight, an energetic photocopy of a rendition.

[The day after the awards, I saw someone on Twitter congratulate Scribe on his singing, suggesting the singing lessons had paid off. Scribe replied "I've never had singing lessons. I take it as a compliment! I hate singing. I did it for Dave Dobbyn! #TheMan". I also remembered later that Scribe sang on his debut The Crusader, like the hook on Dreaming, for example.]

The Maioha award was next, presented by Te Awanui Reeder. He talked a bit of the history of the award, and listed some Maori performers, from Tui Teka and Dalvanius, to Pieter T "and our favourite Maori, Lorde!" Then he got serious for a second and congratulated her on her success.

The finalists were Iwi, Maisey Rika, and Ngatapa Black. Maisey Rika, along with co-writers Te Kahautu Maxwell, and Mahuia Bridgeman-Cooper, won for their song Ruiamoko.  
 
It was then performed by Tama Waipara [watch] with University of Auckland percussion ensemble and guests, which included Godfrey De Grut, who also acted as musical director for the evening. Cos doing that job wasn't enough for him. Super busy dude. Respect!

Apra board member Don McGlashan took the stage, and talked about the recently departed Dave McArtney, then shifted to congratulating Lorde, peering out into the crowd  saying "I hope I'm looking at you - there's a lot of people here with big hair - I could be looking at Lorde, or Laughton Kora."

Later the MC for the evening, Dai Henwood, talked the house band into singing Happy Birthday for Jordan Luck, and everyone joined in. The house band onstage was a nice touch.

After a million years, someone other than Neil Finn won the award for most performed NZ work internationally. Brooke Fraser took this out (and also the prize for most played NZ song in NZ), and her manager, Campbell Smith, got up to accept it, saying "I spent the last two years drunk in Paris while this song did its work."

He said he felt like he was in a Trivial Pursuit question - Neil Finn won this award for 100 years, Ella  (Lorde) and Joel will win it for the next 100 years -which song won it in between? Nice touch.

Anna Coddington's Bird In Hand got a big, beaty, bouncy treatment from Sola Rosa [watch], with Cherie Mathieson on vocals, killing it.

Royals got a suitably radical take [watch], starting with Lionel Reekie wandering onstage singing and playing accordion, then joined by splendid soul diva Bella Kalolo, and a young Asian beatboxer by the name of Phillip Fan. He even did a beatbox solo half way thu, then switched up the tempo and it went drum n bass for a second. Brilliant.

Tattletale Saints' Complicated Man got covered by Jesse Sheehan [watch] with Chip Matthews and Tom Broome, rocking it up in a brisk fashion.

And the last finalist, Aaradhna's Wake up, well how do you make a funky song even funkier? Get three drummers to perform it. That was just monstrous.

The drummers were Nick Gaffney, Scotty Pearson, and Katie Everingham [watch]. They were lit from behind in silhouette mostly, hammering away like they were auditioning for the Glitter Band (hat tip to Russell Baillie for that reference). Pounding good time.

I wanted Aaradhna to win the Silver Scroll, her song Wake Up is such a gorgeous pop tune, but Lorde and Joel Little took it out. Did the final voting process happen before or after the song started to take off? Who knows. But it is unlikely to slow down its trajectory any time soon.

The top five finalists were voted on by Apra's 10,000 members in August from a long list of 20 decided by a judging panel (all of whom are significant APRA writer member themselves) - voting started on July 25 and closed August 18, and that list of five finalists was announced on 12 September.

Lorde's speech [watch] was warm and goofy: "What's cool about this is I'm so new to this, and everyone has really accepted me, which is awesome." Then Joel had a brief natter, saying that it took him ten years to get on that stage, and Lorde did it in ten months. He also said to her "the scary part of it is you definitely haven't written your best song." The winner gets to keep the Silver Scroll trophy for 11 months, and a $5000 prize.

I observed Little doing an endless string of interviews in the media room before the event, with Lorde and manager standing 6 feet away, back to the media. I saw a journalist approach them and get rebuffed - Lorde is not doing any interviews tonight. And then at one point, Lorde turned around, pointed at Little and laughed, and then went back to her company. Watching her boy do all the work. Answering the same questions over and over, And people wonder why she doesn't want to do media.

Then we had the closing number. I heard a whisper about this a few weeks ago, and I couldn't really quite believe it was gonna happen. Hats off to whoever pulled this off.

The closing act was,... Sisters Underground, doing In The Neighbourhood, their big hit from 1994 [watch]. With a choir. It was so freaking rad. People jumping up and dancing all over the arena. And Greg Semu's video playing behind them, with scenes of South Auckland playing out. What a blinder of a finish.

This year and last year, I noticed a trend is starting to emerge - the calibre of the presentation and performances around the NZ Music Hall of Fame inductees seem to be so high now that they are overshadowing the awards, to a certain extent.

This is also happening with the NZ Music Awards - see the level of excitement generated around Toy Love's induction last year. It's a fascinating problem to have. The outcome may be that it makes everyone raise their game across other areas of the awards, to meet this. And that can only be a good thing.


Review: The Corner's Gareth Shute on the night, with video 

Public Address - Russell Brown on the Silver Scrolls

ADDED MC for the evening Dai Henwood, filled in some time mid-show by asking the house band to improvise some music based on his random descriptions, watch house and member Sam Allen's video here.

Via NZ Herald - Dave Dobbyn's induction, in full, below...

WATCH: Royals by Lorde,covered by Lionel Reekie, Bella Kalolo and Phillip Fan
WATCH: Bird in the hand by Anna Coddington,covered by Sola Rosa w Cherie Mathieson 
WATCH: Wake up,by Aaradhna, covered by Nick Gaffney, Scotty Pearson and Katie Everingham 
WATCH: Sisters Underground perform In the neighbourhood

Dave Dobbyn: Twist

Dave Dobbyn’s induction into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame is on tonight, as part of the Apra Silver Scrolls awards. The NZ Herald will be streaming the event, watch it live this evening here.

Here's an interview I digitised from 1995 (off Frenzy), with Dobbyn talking about his album Twist, his first since moving home from Australia after a decade away. Dobbyn talks about working with Neil Finn, who produced the album. Like Finn, Dobbyn was working through on reconnecting with his homeland, and making sense of his place here.

Photo via Audioculture

Back in 1984 Russell Brown was a journalist at Rip It Up magazine, and his reporting on the Queen St riot is here (scans one and two). He's written a piece for Audioculture recalling those events, with great photos from Murray Cammick and Bryan Staff. Dobbyn's band DD Smash was playing when the riot kicked off. He was accused by Police of inflaming the crowd with his alleged comments from the stage. There's a transcript of a tape recording of that on Audioculture too.

Dobbyn ended up getting hauled in front of the courts over the riot. He told NZ Herald's Greg Dixon the case cost him $12,000 in lawyer's fees. His lawyer was Peter Williams.

Russell writes "... The truth was that although he said one thing he still regrets, the Queen Street riot was not Dave Dobbyn's fault. Alcohol certainly played a major part (laws on public drinking were changed as a consequence). So did an unruly public mood that had grown during the Springbok tour and brewed in the dying days of the Muldoon government.

But, overwhelmingly, the cause of the riot was a series of disastrous decisions by the police. A dark era of policing – the one of Gideon Tait's team policing units and their provocative raids on pubs where bands played – met its end in disaster. My reporting later went to the commission of inquiry on the riot, where I gather it was of interest.

Christmas of 1984, at a barbecue at my parents' place in Upper Hutt, I was talking to a senior Māori policeman, a friend of the family.

"So," my dad piped up, "Russell says you guys blew it at Aotea Square." I cringed and inwardly cursed my father for raising it.

"Yeah," said the policeman, sadly, looking at us both. "We did."

Ripper Records' Bryan Staff (top right) taking photos in Queen Street - Photo by Bruce Jarvis, via Audioculture

Dobbyn joins NZ music hall of fame

Dave Dobbyn has been announced as the latest inductee to the NZ Music Hall Of Fame, and will get the nod at the Apra Silver Scrolls, next Tuesday. The Silver Scrolls traditionally feature unique cover versions of the finalists and a musical tribute to the inductee - at last year's event, Kora played a tribute to inductees Herbs. Dobbyn performed Slice of Heaven at the close of that evening, and put up with Herbs referring to him jokingly as Yoda, from the stage. The musical director for this year's event at Vector Arena is Godfrey de Grut.

Dave Dobbyn's music has featured previously at the Silver Scrolls - in 1998, Phil Fuemana and his Urban Pacifika crew (incl AKA Brown, Lost Tribe and Dei Hamo) performed Dobbyns' Beside You at the Silver Scrolls, joined by Dobbyn. The song was later released as a single.

Beside You won Dobbyn his third Silver Scroll that year - he'd previously won it for You Oughta Be In Love (1987) and Belle of the Ball (1993).

The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame was created in 2007, with inductions shared between APRA and Recorded Music New Zealand. Inductees to date are Jordan Luck, Johnny Devlin, The Topp Twins, Straitjacket Fits, Hirini Melbourne & Richard Nunns, Ray Columbus & The Invaders, The Fourmyula, Shihad, Hello Sailor, Dragon, Toy Love and Herbs. Unfortunately the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame exists in name only  - it's not a place you can visit.


Apra's press release:

Dave Dobbyn to be inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame

"The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame pays tribute to those musicians who have had a significant impact on New Zealand life and culture through music. APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) is proud to announce that Dave Dobbyn will be inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame at the 2013 APRA Silver Scroll Awards.

“Music brings us together, in both our everyday lives as well as at times of special celebration and commemoration. Dave Dobbyn’s music is very much at the heart of New Zealand’s national soundtrack, and it is APRA’s privilege to honour him by welcoming him into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame” says Anthony Healey, Director NZ Operations APRA|AMCOS.

Through his career of nearly 40 years, Dobbyn’s music has made its way into virtually every New Zealand home and heart, his songs now woven into the fabric of New Zealand life and culture. Dave Dobbyn will be inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame as a part of the 2013 APRA Silver Scroll Awards. The night will mark a return for Dave, who has been awarded the APRA Silver Scroll Award three times in his career – the most of any songwriter in the award’s 47 year history.

“Dave Dobbyn’s songs can be many things: devotional, angry, playful… but most of all they’re generous and brave. They can be whispered stories of hope and longing, or anthems bellowed by happy drunks along empty streets after the last bus has gone. Often one song can be both those things. Dave’s songs are deep inside every New Zealander. We’re lucky to have him.” says Don McGlashan, APRA New Zealand writer director.

The 48th annual APRA Silver Scroll Awards - Tuesday 15th October at Vector Arena. The event will be streamed live via NZ Herald Online."