shit thats long....sorry, but well worth the read, i reckon.

Yeah fair call i say. I agree, Evermore are doing great things and certainly deserve what they get from NZOA.

The only possible thing i could say in ZM's defence is that radio is a risky business, and you have to be kinda careful not to upset your listeners. By setting up this competition they were taking a huge risk and i'm sure if you asked those who organised it, their intention from the start probably would have been to get a band who actually fits the following criteria, rather than the ones they set out:

- Gets enough airplay on Channel Z (the only station who seems to give a shit about supporting kiwi music) for people who pay attention to know who Evermore are, but not enough that every man and his dog know who they are

- the band must have a style similar to that of Kelloggs breakfast cereal (not too heavy, not too light) to fit in with the ZM sound

- and be good enough and catchy enough that the fickle ZM listeners will actually be happy with the band they select, and won't tune into The Edge as soon as the song comes on.

And lets be honest, Evermore basically fit the bill here. Can you imagine ZM taking a risk like backing some unsigned band to appeal to the ZM audience? i strongly doubt it. And in some ways, that's fair enough.

The only good thing that has some out of this i guess is that a great kiwi band is getting some more exposure where they weren't originally getting it, and that's a good thing if you ask me, despite ZM not delivering on the promises made in the rules of their own competition.

Apologies for me implying that you think Evermore are a good band. obviously i read a little too much into what you said with regard to 'no dig at nzoa'.

// Can you imagine ZM taking a risk like backing some unsigned band to appeal to the ZM audience? i strongly doubt it. And in some ways, that's fair enough.

fair enough...ah, no...isn't that what the competition is about? taking an unsigned band and giving them a leg up?

I totally see your point and yes they SHOULD have got an unsigned band. But what you have to understand is that all ZM wanted out of this was to be seen in the public eye doing some good for kiwi music. Now i know that the likes of you and I know damn well that Evermore didn't fit the criteria for the competition, but do you think half of the ZM listeners realise that? no.

Personally, i'm a big supoorter of kiwi music and think there should be more competitions like this, and thank god we have a radio station like Channel Z who we should all take our hats off to because, while remaining first and foremost a commercial radio station, take on the added responsibility of promoting New Zealand music to the best of it's ability.

The thing you have to remember about most of these other stations is that they are a business. They don't care about the New Zealand music industry. Some people may think they do, but at the end of the day, all these stations REALLY care about is that when that survey time rolls around, they've got a really good competition running so that if you happen to be selected to take part in the radio survey, you're gonna listen in to havea shot at winning 50 grand, so therefore you're gonna tick their boxes, so they get the ratings to bump up the cost of advertising for their clients. why? cos it's a BUSINESS that's there to make money.

Commercial stations have NO RESPONSIBILITY to promote kiwi music as sad as that seems. that is why we should be thankfull that stations do make SOME effort, and, as i say, look at the bright side of this ZM debacle and be happy for Evermore that they are getting some more exposure.

I guess Evermore seem like prime ZM candidates, but by the conditions of entry it sounds a little unfair . And yeah, I think it is OK for young up&comers to get excited about entering these sorts of competitions (just look at what happened to Silverchair - minus the eating disorders and rheumatism). Being naive about competitions is what makes being in crap bands when you're 14 fun :)

But yeah, without taking away anything from NZOA or Evermore, if ZM said the criterea for entry excluded bands with prev. radio hits, and then gave the prize to a band with radio hits, they fucked up.

And in all seriousness, are bands like Evermore -that- hard to come accross? I'm sure some other presentable softrock outfit (or two hundred) entred this thing.

And does anyone hear listen to Zm anyway? ;)

are they signed to anyone?

if theres anything i can do... free recording time / mixing / loan of gear to another studio for recording ... let me know.

sounds like a good way to get some real decent kiwi stuff out there....

[ http://gherkin.vze.com ]

nah, I'm not complaining about anything. If ZM run a contest , they can choose the winner. (even if it contradicts their entry criteria) I just think that doing an independent contest / promotion thingey could be wicked in its own right, for a number of reasons.

I'm quite gutted.

NZM has never let me down in the past, usually when a post is made attacking a company, that company or organisation will 9 times out of 10 come and make a statemnet, its what i love about this site. I was kinda hoping someone from ZM might have something to say about this....or one of the evermore dudes..

maybe i'm making something out of nothing.

2039191 yeah!