Maggie Hunt, Eve Parker-Groves, Grace Smith, Manu Brand-Holt of the Picnic List, Isabel McKenzie, Theo Almazan of Just Peachy, and Luke Squire of The Amps.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Maggie Hunt, Eve Parker-Groves, Grace Smith, Manu Brand-Holt of the Picnic List, Isabel McKenzie, Theo Almazan of Just Peachy, and Luke Squire of The Amps.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Young musicians have done Whanganui proud in the 2022 Smokefreerockquest regional finals.
Whanganui High School (WHS) made a clean sweep in the band category, taking first, second and third places.
The Picnic List, with Maggie Hunt (guitar/vocals), Eve Parker-Groves (vocals), Grace Smith (drums), and Manu Brand-Holt (keyboards), were placed first.
The band impressed judge Omega Levine with how well they worked together.
"I loved the dynamic in both singers' vocal harmonies and tones… Creative melodies and great chord progressions," he said.
Three-piece WHS band Just Peachy, with Theo Almazan (guitar/vocals), Isabel McKenzie (vocals), and Nat Kirk (guitar/vocals), won second place, and eight-piece band The Amps placed third.
Musicians from other Whanganui schools excelled in other categories, with duo Ata and Ngarimu of Whanganui Girls' College and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Tupoho winning both the solo/duo category and the Smokefree Tangata Beats award.
And Te Ata Hāpara Rerekura of Ata and Ngarimu also collected the APRA lyric writers' award.
Protagonist from WHS placed second in the solo/duo category, Monkfish won the best vocals award and Neon Deluxe received the ZM Best Song award.
Whanganui City College band Strïthe and the drummer of Cullinane College band Veto were jointly awarded the prize for musicianship.
The Picnic List: Manu Brand-Holt, Eve Parker-Groves and Maggie Hunt performing at Smokefreerockquest.
Photo / Supplied
All first and second-place winners are now in the running to become top-30 national semi-finalists to be announced on August 5.
They will then be invited to perform at one of the three semi-finals held from August 19 to 23, and Ata and Ngarimu go into the national final of Smokefree Tangata Beats in September.
Rockquest Promotions general manager Matt Ealand said running the programme this year felt hugely significant.
"This year we really feel how much living through the pandemic has affected our rangatahi," he said.
"Not only in Smokefreerockquest but across all our programmes we are seeing themes of mental health, connection through social media, and also just Covid in general pop up again and again.
"Having this creative outlet is just so important. It's fantastic seeing how resilient these young people are if they have a space to express themselves."
WHS head of music and performing arts coordinator Jeanette Jones said she also applauded the resilience of students.
"We've had so many absences due to Covid and flu, and working through the orange traffic light restrictions has been really challenging because there are restrictions on blowing instruments and singing in confined spaces," she said.
"Working in the recording studio where you can't open windows was really difficult, but the students have all pushed through and we're especially proud of how well they have done."
