Television
Auckland’s Spark Arena will be alive with drum and bass, metal and r’n’b performances by acts vying for this year’s gongs.
There was a time when the New Zealand Music Awards (Three, Thursday, 8.30pm) were handed out in humdrum hotel ballrooms in front of a couple of hundred record company reps, retailers and – if they were lucky – musicians. These days, they’re an annual spectacle at Auckland’s largest indoor arena and the bands arrive to a red-carpet welcome.
This will be the 15th year of the awards’ partnership with Media Works and the fourth year that the event will go out live on Three. All seven live performances will be televised.
Of particular note: Che Fu and the Krates’ tribute performance to this year’s Legacy Award honorees, Upper Hutt Posse. New Zealand’s spiky, rebellious original rap act have never been part of the mainstream but, says Recorded Music New Zealand chief Damian Vaughan, that’s not what the award is about.
“It’s about the lasting impact on New Zealand music,” he says. “We also thought that most of the Hall of Fame inductees so far have been in the rock and pop space and it was high time we looked at other areas.”
That won’t be the only hip-hop on the night – breakthrough rapper Jess B is also performing. Teenage metal sensations Alien Weaponry have returned from a remarkable Northern Hemisphere tour to play at home. There’ll also be reggae band Sons of Zion; jazzy r’n’b act Drax Project; Nelson electronic popster Robinson; and chart titans Six60, in their only local appearance outside their sold-out Western Springs show.
As for the awards, Drax Project, Six60, Alien Weaponry and Unknown Mortal Orchestra all have four nominations each, including Best Group.
There are new hosts this year in singer-songwriter Stan Walker (who co-hosted back in 2013) and The Project’s Kanoa Lloyd and, says Vaughan, something of a new layout
at Spark Arena, with several active stage areas.
“We’ve reduced the numbers on the floor – it’s about two-thirds of what it has been in previous years. One of the driving ideas for that is that we wanted everyone in the room to be close to some of the action at some stage. We wanted to make it a bit more immersive.”
He concedes it’s “always tricky” making the event work for those in the room and watching at home, “but I think the awards have steadily got better over the years”.
There’s one more innovation this year: winners will receive a new trophy designed by artist Dick Frizzell, himself no stranger to the music scene.