They've had a few goodies in the past though - Tanya Donnelly, Supergrass etc. When I lived in Hamilton all those moons ago, the Waikato Uni orientation had stuff like Yo La Tengo, You Am I, the Dirty 3 and Regurgitator to name but a few. Not being a varisity student at the time, I couldn't go. The Auckland Orientation guys had better pull finger in the future!

I have nothing but fond memories of seeing the Lemonheads playing at Waikato Uni orientation in 1993. I even uttered a few words to Evan Dando as he was having a fag on a stairwell, but that's quite another story.

I guess bad orientation line-ups happen when the people involved are more student politicians than music lovers.

[ http://www.secret-passage.com/ ]

i know degrees.K are supporting Fur Patrol (i think) in Chch and Dunners. now there's a bit of good thinking from the ori organisers.

[ http://www.degreesk.com ]

Na - thats an out of date list

not sure but trusting lame Vic, it ain't.

(oops)
degrees.k are supporting ZED who are supporting Steriogram. Yeeehaaa go the 'gram.

Quote from that very site:

"Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, when Zed's Renegade Fighter comes on the radio, you'd better keep your guard up - because this song packs a punch! From the first chords of its overdriven guitars, to its clever harmonies, to the final echo of its hook-heavy chorus, the debut track from New Zealand's Zed is equal parts menace and vulnerability, charm and arrogance. In short, it's 100% pure rock 'n' roll, no imitations accepted"

They must be joking. "Clever harmonies"?

At least Chris Knox is playing Auckland. Yay!

whoa! Hang on a minute mate, not all the opinions expressed above are written by me. sheesh!
But I guess you're right - I attended those gigs at Union Hall between the years of '93 - 98 or thereabouts and they probably weren't all on during orientation. But it's still a shame that we didn't manage to secure an international act for orientation this year.

Have student demographics really changed so much? Perhaps if orientation organisers went for some more indie internationals they'd be able to get them here without breaking the bank. Not only that but a whole generation of new students get exposed to some great 'alt' music that they may not otherwise get to see. It's because of orientation and the union hall that I got to discover all those great bands and learnt to appreciate that there's more to music than the american top 40.
Hell those gigs changed my life!! And the pairing of a great NZ artist with a great international band put the whole thing in a global perspective for me and brought it home how great our own talent was.

What about the australian bands or smaller european bands breaking through ? How much does it cost to bring them over? What about hives, gerling, turin brakes, grinspoon etc? Surely we could get a couple of those for the price of Smash Mouth?

There's a huge student body outside of Auckland potentially with quite a different demographic. So few international gigs get outside of Auckland that orientation could almost be looked upon as a last hope. 'Well at least they'll make it down for orientation aye?' So if Auckland really are calling the shots on behalf of the student body across the country and not delivering any internationals further south, it's a bit of a worry and surely you can understand some resentment.

all together now,
"who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hitler..."

Yeah dude - I'm Julia Deans and my boyfriend said sex with the AK orientation controller was amazing.
I am unemployed though, you're a mind reader. And I lived in both Auckland and Wellington for a little while so your'e 25% right.
No problems here, just making observations on what I've heard (which of course could be completely wrong but it's always interesting seeing who gets their back up)
so chill