Editorial - One Hundred Thanks
Author: Richard Thorne
Perhaps the nicest thing about reaching this one hundred issue milestone is that it coincides with a period of extraordinary success for New Zealand music at home, and also overseas.
For those of us working in support of our own music in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, it was the dream of widespread exposure and adoption of Kiwi music by Kiwis that kept us motivated. A couple of years ago now it dawned on me that those basic goals I had set had been realised - NZ music had crossed a threshold of acceptance. I was left wondering what the next target might be.
There have been plenty of times over the last 16 years when it seemed unlikely NZM would survive to see 100. As a free magazine it relies entirely on advertising for survival and our music economy has not always been buoyant! The current profusion and breadth of excellence in our music scene does make it hard to imagine there have been times when it was a struggle to find enough new music to feature in particular issues NZ Musician magazine.
Time has proven that the creative talent was always present, it had simply gone into hiding. Commercial radio play was the lost key to unlocking the potential of our music. Few pieces of non-legislation can have been as successful as radio’s NZ music code which, in just a few years, has driven NZ music play across all commercial radio formats close to the 2006 target of 20%. A hundred issues ago that dream did seem an impossibility.
Actually, the nicest thing about the magazine turning 100 is the people who have helped it get there. To Mel, Geoff, Renee and Mark in particular, huge thanks. And the next target? For New Zealand music it is the global market and
NZ Musician magazine will continue to have a valuable role in extending the dream offshore.
One Hundred Thanks
After 100 issues you might well expect there would be a lot of people to thank. Indeed there are, although I confess it required a trawl through some of those early issues to remind me of some important names!
Many of the contributors over NZM’s 16 years have done so free of charge, spurred only by their enthusiasm. Thank you all for making a free magazine dedicated to New Zealand music and musicians possible.
My first issue as editor of New Zealand Musician featured Crowded House on the cover, with articles from Bruce Morley, Mark Wirepa and Dave Berry - all of whom continued to support the magazine for some years. Taura Eruera, Paul Crowther, Dave Bridgman, Shelby Grant and Brendan Power joined the team as regulars just a few issues later, Daniel Stowers adding his creative and comic illustrations.
Simcha Delft’s contributions started back in 1990 and continue to this day in the guise of the extraordinary ‘Delft’s Workshop’. Thank you Simcha for such generosity.
Allan MacDonald first added his valuable skills as cover photographer in 1990 and about then too Russell (Tenzin) Shipman started as NZM’s designer, continuing to subject himself to the trauma of poor quality copy, low pay and all-night design sessions for almost a decade. Russell’s calm influence extended further than simply the magazine’s design.
Kenny Pearson provided a number of great bass reviews until his unnecessary and untimely death on the way home from a gig in late 1992. Bizarrely his role was later taken up by the wonderfully enthusiastic Willy Seiffert who was also to tragically lose his life in a road accident.
Graham Conmee began his Deep South column in 1990 and it seemed to grow increasingly hilarious with each issue. Barry Draper and Jeff Donaldson, Wayne Steward, Jonathan Reid and Chris Sinclair became regular columnists, generously sharing their specialist knowledge. Truda Chadwick joined up in ‘92, as did reviewers Paddy Free, Chris Lloyd and Tony Parker. Frank Gibson Jnr also began offering drumming tips in ‘92, returning after some years overseas to again take over from Barry Young, and is our regular drumming writer today.
Malcolm Black was the first lawyer to offer musicians free advice through the pages of NZM, subsequently followed in that role by Jairsino Wahid and Chris Hocquard. Accountant David Feehan provided a series of useful articles on book keeping for musicians. Busy professionals who have taken time to share their valuable knowledge.
Similarly Charlotte Yates, Matt Hennessy, Graham Hughes, Robyn Hill, Mark Dennison and doubtless a few overlooked others contributed valuable series of articles from their areas of musical interest. More recently NZM has been graced with regular input from Johnny Fleury, Sam Airy, Stephen Small, Peter McLennan, Kevin Downing, Stephen Jewell, Rick Hobbs and Mikhal Norriss. Great people.
Then there are the many musicians who have given of their time to evaluate musical equipment, as regular reviewers or special guests. Thank you all. And of course our Fresh Cut section CD reviewers - it’s not all easy listening fun for them you know!
It was 1994 before the magazine was established enough to be able to afford the valuable services of Alice Shopland as editorial assistant. Melinda Olykan later added her charms selling advertising and subsequently took over as assistant editor. Robyn Pett, Greg Cotter, Andrew Polson, Drew Cheesman, the hugely talented Mark Bell and the inimitable Dominic Blaazer have all provided fantastic editorial assistance over the years. For this 100-page bumper issue Zoë Hooper, Chris Leggett and Christian Nicolson pitched in.
After nearly 20 issues Milly passed the increasingly challenging assistant editor role to Jennifer Scott who made NZM look efficient. Jennifer was in turn replaced by Emma Philpott. Today the excellent Melanie Selby is resident in NZM’s hot seat, continuing the magazine’s lucky lineage of extremely capable, hard-working and wonderfully likeable assistant editors.
Mark Grimes did a huge amount of work developing the first NZM website. The current excellence of www.nzmusician.co.nz is largely attributable to the hard work of Renee Jones, with respect to Blackpepper Interactive for the site itself.
Thanks to Tony Nyberg and Ian McRae who have both provided some excellent cover photographs over the years. Tony Richards safely steered the design of NZM through the late ‘90s until our current resident bass-playing designer Geoff Fitzpatrick took over that role.
There could not be another issue of New Zealand Musician without advertisers, so thanks too, to them. Without those companies which consistently advertise we could not possibly hope to keep NZM alive, let alone free.
Finally, thank you for reading and supporting this important magazine. We hope you will enjoy this 100-page celebration of New Zealand Musician magazine’s past and present.
Richard Thorne
