Arts school friends hit the high notes together

By REBECCA BARRY entertainment reporter

NZ Idol Ben Lummis and pop duo Adeaze have just made New Zealand music history.

They are the first bunch of mates to go to number one in the New Zealand charts simultaneously.

Lummis' debut single They Can't Take That Away went straight to number one this week, while the debut album of rhythm and blues duo Adeaze, Always and For Real, topped the album chart. It is only the second time New Zealand artists have reached number one on both charts simultaneously, after hip-hop star Scribe managed it in November last year.

Lummis became friends with Adeaze brothers Nainz and Viiz Tupa'i when they attended the Excel Performing Arts School in New Lynn, where he was a year ahead of the brothers.

Later all three became teacher aids at Arohanui Special School in Te Atatu, where they worked with intellectually disabled students.

"I'm real happy," said Lummis, who was lunching with his record company in Wellington yesterday before heading to an in-store signing.

"It's really good to have New Zealand music on the charts. ... I'm just so happy for [Adeaze] too. They deserve it, they've worked hard."

Adeaze had been celebrating their mother's birthday in Auckland when they heard the news.

"We just kind of looked at each other and fought back the tears," said Nainz Tupa'i. "We were just really grateful, just honoured.

"It's a good feeling being number one. We're happy for Ben at the same time. It's a mates thing. He's cool, man. We voted for him from day one."


Arts school principal Jeff Todd, who taught all three musicians, was "thrilled" at the news.

"A lot of students want to be singers but they're not prepared to put in the hard yards."

He said Ben did do the hard work. "Nainz, too, but Viiz played around and he actually failed the first year.

"He got a bit of a fright and he really pulled his finger out and got stuck in and was top vocalist the second year."

Arohanui Special School principal James Le Marquand joked he would have to hold a talent contest at the school. "We've probably got the number twos and threes here."

He described Lummis as a "genuine, lovely bloke" and Adeaze as "very appropriately named. They were very easygoing, so laid back they were horizontal."