APRA Silver Scroll Awards 2003

There was more than one emotional outpouring at the 2003 APRA Silver Scroll Awards ceremony held at the Auckland Town Hall in October.

This year celebrated the first APRA Maioha Award, but also farewelled Mike Chunn from the position of Director of NZ Operations of APRA after an efficacious 11 year stint at the helm.

Resplendent in new matching trackies, the Naked Samoans started and 'hosted' the evening, their bumbling presentation both concealing and revealing a lack of preparation.

The five finalists for this year's Silver Scroll represented local pop (Goldenhorse and Damien Binder), and hip hop (Nesian Mystik and Ill Semantics), with Blindspott's reggae-influenced album oddball giving nu metal a sideways look in.

This year's re-interpretations of Silver Scroll finalist songs by other musicians were arranged by composer Victoria Kelly. The performances were ambitious, diverse and fitting to the grand old room.

Fifty-or-so Auckland University Singers joined the SJD Band and Heather Mansfield (Brunettes) on stage for Damien Binder's Til Now. Down-home girls Anika Moa and Anna Coddington tackled Goldenhorse's Riverhead, while the spotlight was on the Town Hall organ for a gothic cover of Blindspott's Phlex - played by Indra Hughes with solo vocals from a recently returned Jordan Reyne. Augustino injected some sonic pop-rock into Ill Semantics' Highway.

One of the evening's highlight performances was Tim Beveridge, introduced as 'NZ's Frank Sinatra', who crooned Nesian Mystik's For The People with some musicianly help from Nick Gaffaney, Aaron Coddell and the New Zealand Trio in undeniable style. Helen Medlyn later stole the show and showed most wannabe singers present a thing or two with a commanding vocal performance of Alice by this years' Sounz Contemporary Award winner (and regular finalist) Gillian Whitehead.

The inaugural APRA Maioha Award went to Ngahiwi Apanui for his song Wharikihia.

Neil Finn's Don't Dream It's Over again won the award for most played song overseas - no surprise to him or the audience. In his acceptance speech he pleaded for someone to take this off him next year.

Goldenhorse accepted the award for the work most played in NZ for Maybe Tommorrow, from their debut 'Riverhead,' which must have helped to heal the wounds of being finalists for the Silver Scroll but missing out on the trophy for the third year running.

The coveted Silver Scroll songwriting award went to the whole of Nesian Mystik for their single For The People. The song, from their debut album 'Polysaturated', has of course been hugely popularised as the backing track to a television commercial, but for the Silver Scroll the judges' decision is based on an equal mix of lyrial and musical excellence, rather than any measure of commercial success.

The Nesian's were unable to accept the award in person because they were in the UK where they have been performing showcases and gigs as well as establishing links with the London industry and media.

Their absence took away a lot of the excitement but it was always going to be Mike Chunn's farewell night, despite his apparent intentions that it not be. The APRA office staff presented him with a public/private video tribute, reinforced by APRA Chief executive Brett Cottle.

Chunn's speech, mostly concerned with how little he knows about songwriting and how much he admires those who do, earned him two standing ovations - The Naked Samoans having to literally drag him back on stage for the second.