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April 8, 2025 • 13 mins

The list of finalists for this year's Aotearoa Music Awards is out - and while there's fewer household names than in previous years, there's plenty of finalists who are making waves overseas. Who are they? 

Also, an international pop star of the 1980s has announced he is on his way to Wellington this year - who is it? 

Wellington Mornings' music man James Irwin joined Nick Mills for Music Time. 

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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk said b Higgs, new releases and keeping
tabs on local artists. Is music time on Wellington Mornings.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
James Irwin joins us every couple of weeks. He's our
music man in the whole station for all the stations
and puts all the music, put some pieces together we
have on our station. Say nobody, nobody I know knows
music like James Irwin. No one, James, Uh. I know
that you're a little bit kind of strange about something

(00:44):
that happened between me and you on the show.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
So you want you, I quite like you to give
me an upper cut to start the show off.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, we got it, we got it wrong.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
But you tell us why we get Well, I got it,
I got it a little bit wrong. We did briefly
talk about the Hoodoo Gurus gig a couple of weeks
ago when I was in here and then and then
and I kind of I parpooed them a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Maybe well you just thought they were kind of they
didn't really crack it, And they.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Were, they were, And I kind of might have compared
them to a B grade Midnight or Earl or a
B grade hunters and collectors, and and I remember going.
I went home that afternoon, and you and I had
a chat again later in the day and I was
still a bet, like you know who do gurus And
got home. The wife was pretty upset with me. She

(01:31):
she I've got a big vinyl collection, and she started
hauling out all the Hoo Doo Guru records she's got
and started playing them. And and so I decided, I
decided I'd go along to the Geek because I thought, well,
maybe I've got this wrong. Well, oh my days, Nicke
Nick Mills, I totally got it wrong. It was an
absolute killer show. So I know this, and on radio

(01:55):
we should never look backwards, we should always look forwards.
But I just want to I think it's a good
time for people to say just because I think something
or just because I say something doesn't mean it's right.
And I got it so so so wrong.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
That's just your opinion. And yeah, yeah, And I know
the problem was that they say didn't really have that
one song where you went, you know.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
I thought that, but at the show, I thought I
knew all the songs they had. So they were one
of those bands that did. They played all these songs
that were really anthem like and there was lots of
ey and the crowd were, Now what a terrific crowd.
Mio nui down on the new venue on Vivian Street.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
I love to talk about that.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
Oh my goodness, it was good. It was packed to
the rafters.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
I don't reckon. There was many people under fifty there. Now,
this is a great audience. They were about eight deep
at the bar. The bar could handle it, tons of
bar star f so the drinks were flowing. The merch
table just about every second person had a T shirt
on of Hohodo gurus. There were people holding albums and
the crowd were dancing and having a good time and

(02:56):
loving it. And I was seeing people.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
It was packed.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
There was about eight hundred to one thousand people there,
I reckon. And I could see people walking through the
crowd with three or four beers packing them back to
their mates, and everyone was moving for them. There was
no you know, there was not a great gig. It
was a great gig. And there was this incredibly tall guy.
If you went to Huda Guruz, you know what I'm
talking about. There was a guy who's about six foot
eight right in front of the lead singer having the
time of his life.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Didn't matter that he was the tallest.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
He was like, I love this band, I'm gonna do it,
and and it was just a great gig. So you know,
I'm sorry, I got it wrong. I'm sicking and ashamed
of self reported to HR. And I'll be dealing with
the HR fall out after this show today. So if
we don't see me again, it's because HR's okay.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, I mean, I know we've got a lot to
get through it. But I do want to talk about
the venue because I love the idea of it. Wellington's
been screaming out for a cream for a venue of
a thousand people.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah, yeah, and it hasn't had it. It's and it's
just really good. It's easy to move around, there's a
couple of different doors you can get in on the sides,
You're not miles away from the stage. You feel like
you're totally there with the band. This band they put
on the killer show. I've been to a couple of
gigs there now and just really really good. Easy to
get to the bar, easy to get to the toilet's

(04:08):
great toilets, lots of toilets, you know, everything you want.
And there's some other venues around town that could give
themselves an uppercut along with the upper cut you're going
to give me with the state of their toilet.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
So yeah, really just really good.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
Hey quickly, then we've got a couple of things I
want to talk about today. There's a gig coming up
with called Atomic two point zero. It's These, it's these,
one of these supergroups, New Zealand supergroups. They've been doing
shows like they've Redone Fleetwood, Mac Rumors and other great
Neil Young Harvest. This time it's the wah He Need Toller,

(04:39):
the strong female leads from our New Zealand music industry.
So we've got Julia Dean's. We've got Diane Swan who
was in When the Cat's Away, and she's also in
a new band at the moment called Haiku Redo, which
is really terrific. Vera Allen who works down at Flying
Nunn and Cuba Street. We've got Bo Runger who was
in the band Stella, and they're doing this terrific show
playing all female artists. So Blondie, Eurythmics, Patty Smith, A

(05:02):
Larnis Morrissette, whole Jones Jet Garbage. It's gonna be terrific
to it's at Ticketmaster. Let's have a listen to the girls.
So we're gonna hear a little bit from Julia and
bow Runger. If you're not sure who they are, you
will know them.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
When we hear it.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
And then one little small clip of a live rendition
of one of the songs they're going to be doing.
So Julia Dean's from Further Troll.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
We all know this song, don'ts.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
And here's a bo Runger from Stella.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
I played this club too Old in Love. We all
know this as well, I reckon. Of course they've been
back around.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
The road celebrating their vinyl release. And this is the band.
So this is I think Julia is singing, and it's
a whole song from you know, Corney Lark. So that's
gonna be banging.

Speaker 4 (05:59):
That's gonna be a great gig. That's May twa.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
What did I put May May ticket? That's the Opera
House at the Opera House ticketmaster dot com. That will
sell out. All of those shows sell out and they
are world class all right. A Music Awards were announced
this morning and old mate Ethan and the booth over
there reminded me.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
So that was great. So we thought, well, let's have
a quick look.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
We've got, you know, there's there's the usual suspects. So
stan Walk is up for five awards. But Nick, I've
given you a thing over there. See that printed piece
of paper. These are the finalists. So initially you look
at that photo and this is probably a whole of
people you don't recognize, right, Yeah, So I was kind
of ye, we reconized stand and and I was kind of.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
Like, oh, who are these people?

Speaker 3 (06:40):
But there is some actually some great New Zealand artists
here and a lot of people who are doing really
successfully offshore. So we've got you know, the likes of
Anna Cottings and Kaylee Bell and the Country Awards, Tammy Nelson,
who's doing stuff back on to it, off to the
Grand Old Opry to play with Willie Nelson again in
the next about three weeks. So there's a whole lot

(07:03):
of artists who are doing great stuff, and a whole
lot of local art us doing really good stuff. When
you when you drill down into these awards, it's gonna
be a great night. But let's have a listen to
some of the finalists. First up Darts from Ononnington, lad
Rock from Wonnington. Now this is Chai. She's up for

(07:24):
five awards. She's a Persian rapper and she's made big
in roads in the gaming market.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
I believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Red Fountain beautiful new album and this.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
Is Phaser Days.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
I've spoken about her before, Huge Overseas at the moment.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Huge sort of from Wellington.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
Well she lives in Auckland or Raglin. Tammy Nelson with
Willie Nelson there and one of my favorites, Mel Parsons,
who's back around the road next month. I reckon you

(08:09):
should get her on the show. She is terrific. She
sells out thousand seat venue. She played before Chris Isaac.
If you're at the Chris Isaac concert, which was superb
last year. Mel Parsons, she's up for some awards. She
is magnificent. She's got a gig coming up. I think
it's May twenty six. I'll talk about it when we
get closer to it. She is superb. She sells out.
You know, she will sell out Meo Nui if it's there,

(08:31):
but I don't think it is. She will sell a
thousand seat venue.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
She is a grafter.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
She's a woman with four young kids under about six
years old, and oh my days. She put on a
great show. Hey, and hopefully we've got some some time.
We got some more time. I can keep talking away,
you can, Hey, thirty years there's thirty years since. A
whole lot of things have been released. Now where in
my notes?

Speaker 4 (08:55):
I've got some notes here.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
Maybe GA gave me a bit of a fright. So
I think nineteen ninety five britpop was in full swing.
Oasis were jeweling with Blur. Joan Osborne was singing about
what God was one of us? We're all using Netscape
on our on the world Wide Web. That was the
most popular world word that year, world Wide Web. Clinton
was in his second term.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
He was feeling normal.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
We had Bulger in charge here, Blumpski was in charge.
I think there was a flip over between him and
fran Wild. That year TV one and TV three went
to twenty four hour broadcasting. This is this is ninety five,
So I thought that was well before that. And there
were a whole heap of amazing albums released and I
kind of was like, wow, this kind of made me

(09:38):
feel a lot older than I am. Well, well, I
am probably that.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Old, So you're going to play us anything?

Speaker 4 (09:44):
Yeah, let's have it.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Listen to these albums, so first up, Duel Pieces of You,
Next Time, thirty years.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
Jacket, Little Pearl and Armis Morris The Out.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Probably played this in some of your clubs, Shaggy Bombast
This Jangs, Paradise, I Love, Coolier Love. I think Coolio's
Cat came back two years and he thirty years ago

(10:28):
Radio hit the Bends, this second album, food Fighters first album,
because I don't know how many they've done since. But
and then of course the banger What's the Story Morning
Glory Oasis? So that made me feel incredibly old when

(10:49):
I when I saw that.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
When are those orass concerts they coming gone? You know
they're big ones. They're doing Wembley we sold out, Wimley.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Sold out, and then they're doing the States and I
don't think they've sold as well in the States as
they were expecting.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
I think they're doing more than one night at Women.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yeah, yeah, they're doing a whole big, big run.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
Are they possibly playing Sydney? I should know that. I
don't know. We'll find out. Let the people. Do you
want to get rid of me yet? Or do you
want me to.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
I want you to tell me about the next couple
of gigs.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
There's a couple of rocks. Rocks we've been we're supporters
of that. Saturday Made the Third, that's gonna have that's
gonna be good fun. That's taking over. That's gonna be
the new home growing. It's gonna get bigger and better.
Bat's Theater. There's a good show coming on this week.
It's called in the Green. It's a new show. It
starts this weekend. It's gonna be good fun.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
What about this midjew is Scotland, Scottish band. What do
you got? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (11:42):
Madere So a lot of people will know Madure.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
You know listen, do you know these.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Two hundred million hits plays on Spotify thirty years old
and you'll know the song courses So Madure. He was
in Ultravox. He was a super sub. He kind of
filled in for Thin Lizzie. Not in their probably their
biggest moments, but he came in off the bench, filled

(12:16):
in for Thin Lizzie and then was gone again. He
was there for one hot minute. He was in a
band called Rich Kids with Sex Pistols Glen Maddock. So
he's had a huge career and this morning on the
website plus one dot code Audience d they've done the
pre sales have started at nine am and you can
get tickets for Midge Ere and he's coming later in

(12:37):
the year. So yeah, and I reckon he'll want to
be on your show. Probably he's the kind of guy
who want to be on and talk to your listeners
because he's got an extensive rock and roll career and
he is one of the good guys.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
They reckon.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
James Erwin, thank you very much for joining as always,
You're a blooming legend and a blooming good guy and
I love having you on the show. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks they'd be Wellington from nine am week days,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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