Offensive record dumped

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 3

Offensive record dumped

PA Auckland A Maori singer, Deane Waretini, has dumped 500 copies of his new single on the tip z because they contain Samoan swear words. Waretini, who hoped the record would help pay off a $17,000 debt from a failed national tour, discovered he had mispronounced the tamaiti, the Samoan word for children, only days before the single was to be released. Instead, he had sung a similar word he described as offensive.

When he learned of his mistake, he refused to release the record and offered the C.B.S. recording company a “clean” version, remixed at his own expense. However, the product manager of C. 8.5., Mr Gilbert Egdell, said repressing the single would not have been economic.

The C.8.5.-Waretini contract was then dropped and Mr Waretini dumped the dud copies on a local tip. Mr Waretini had since signed a contract with R.C.A. records to release the single? which the promotions manager, Mr Dave Jordan, said should be on sale next month.