Peking & Pagan Swamp Awards

Rip It Up, Issue 112, 1 November 1986, Page 6

Peking & Pagan Swamp Awards

As expected, Peking Man romped home at this year’s Music Awards, held in Auckland on November 2. They won all but one of the categories they were nominated in, only missing out on the video of the year. If it seems that every year one band has a clean sweep of the awards, that's mainly because each yearso few bands receive radio play, and therefore commercial success. So each year that radio exposure causes one band to dominate — DD Smash (1983), Dance Exponents (1984), Netherworld Dancing Toys (1985) and this year, Peking Man. Nevertheless, at this year’s awards, there was plenty of good news for New Zealand music. Presenting the award for top international performer to Herbs, Minister of Broadcasting Jonathan Hunt told the radio and music industries to watch out — a local quota was on its way, ‘‘at least 10 percent.” Ironically, a special award for services to NZ music was presented to Johnny Douglas, head of Radio New Zealand’s commercial stations. Douglas introduced pop music to staid New

Zealand radio with the Sunset Show in the early 60s. “We’re making progress on New Zealand music,” he said, “the latest survey says NZ content on RNZ stations has risen from 6 percent to 11 percent.” Special mention must be made of the achievement of Pagan Records, who received 12 nominations — second only to CBS, Peking Man’s company, and remarkable for an independent company in operation for less than two years. It will be interesting to see where the nominations lie next year, as more major companies prepare for the arrival of a New Zealand music quota. CB And the winners were: Single of the Year: ‘Room That Echoes,’ Peking Man. Album: Peking Man. Male Vocalist: Pat Urlich, Peking Man. Female Vocalist: Margaret Urlich, Peking Man. Top Group: Peking Man. Jazz Record: Iris, Phil Broadhurst Trio. Country Record: Patsy Riggir Country, Patsy Riggir. Classical Record: A Song of Islands (Douglas Lilburn) NZSO. Polynesian Record (award shared): Flower of Samoa, Five Stars, and Little Tui, Mahia Blackmore. Folk Record: Send the Boats Away, various artists. Gospel Record: Matou Te Fia

Sauna, Christian Church Choir. Most Promising Group: Ardijah. Most Promising Male Vocalist: Tex Pistol (lan Morris). Most Promising Female Vocalist: Tania Rowles. Producer: Bruce Lynch Peking Man. Engineer: Graham Myhre, Peking Man. Sleeve Design: Phil O’Reilly, Peking Man. Video: Kerry Brown, ‘As the Sun Goes Down’ (Everything that Flies). Special Awards: John Douglas, Radio NZ; the BNZ ‘Sailing Away’ team. Top International Performer: Herbs. Song of the Year: ‘Slice of Heaven,' Dave Dobbyn and Herbs. Forthcoming Videos Several releases shine from the bunch this month. From Premiere comes the acclaimed Letter to Brezhnev about love in decaying Liverpool to the beat of the Bronskis. CIC release last year's crowd pleaser Back to the Future in which Michael J Fox imitates Eddie Van Halen; the classic saccharine bio-pic The Glenn Miller Story, in which some facts have been “re-arranged;” plus, for Clint Eastwood voters, The Beguiled directed by Don (Dirty Harry) Siegel. Just as clever and witty as Repo Man is Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, this month’s classiest comedy from Warner’s; there’s also Spies Like Us.