APRA Silver Scroll 2004 Winners

28th October 2004

Scribe and P-Money have won New Zealand's most prestigious music award - The APRA Silver Scroll.

The award, for the song Not Many, was presented tonight to Malo Luafutu (Scribe) and Peter Wadams (P-Money) at an exclusive awards ceremony at Wellington’s Town Hall.

The Silver Scroll Award, presented since 1965, is the pre-eminent award for song-writing in New Zealand. The anonymous judging panel consider only the creative distinction of the song, assessing both the musical and lyrical content in equal proportion. The commercial success of the song is irrelevant.

"The winner was a stand-out, from the killer opening bars to the brattish bravado of the chorus. As songwriting goes, it ticks all the boxes: a hip hop track that people who don't get hip hop have latched onto; a testosterone-laden sermon that girls love chanting; a young man's verbal diarrhea that middle-agers rock to," says one of the judges.

"It's not just hip hop - Not Many is a poetic spoken word celebration of youthful excitement. The answer to that question ("Not many, if any") has entered the NZ lexicon and will stay there for many, many years."

With a record number of entries received this year, the judges nominated an unprecedented six finalists for the award. The five othernominees were -

Shayne Carter, Andy Morton and Ned Ngatae (Dimmer) for Getting What You Give

Liam Finn (Betchadupa) for The Bats of Darkwell Lane

Rodney Fisher, Murray Fisher, Michael Beehre and Gareth Thomas (Goodshirt) for Fiji Baby

Warryn Maxwell (Trinity Roots) for Home Land and Sea

Marshall Smith (The New Freedom) for Grey Boy

A unique aspect of the APRA Silver Scroll Award evening is the performance of the finalists songs by other artists, under the musical directorship of composer Victoria Kelly. The invitation-only audience at the Town Hall enjoyed interpretations of The Bats of Darkwell Lane by the Phoenix Foundation, Home Land and Sea by Mahinarangi Tocker and Shona Laing, Getting What You Give by Rhombus, Not Many by Paselode, Fiji Baby by Gareth Farr and Grey Boy by Minuit.