business

Rip It Up, Issue 212, 1 April 1995, Page 36

business

Platinum Discs for Headless Chickens and Supergroove As Headless Chickens album Body Blow gets a Platinum sales status for 15,000 sales, the Supergroove album Traction received a Triple Platinum certification for 45,000 sales. This makes Traction the biggest selling original popular music album in New Zealand history, only Piano by Candlelight exceeds this figure. It is likely that Traction will soon reach Quadruple Platinum status. Deepgrooves Publishing to Sony The Auckland indie label Deepgrooves has formed a publishing liason with Sony Music Publishing to assist the label to give local artists greater international access. “There’s a wealth of great talent there which deserves international recognition,” says Sony’s Paul Ellis. Deepgrooves artists include 3 The Hard Way, Grace, Fuemana, Urban Disturbance and Greg Fleming. Flying Nun Export Award The Tradenz Export Commendation Award was given to Roger Shepherd and Flying Nun on March 10 in recognition of Flying Nun’s growth in export sales in 1994 . The Flying Nun press release states that in 1994 “Flying Nun’s annual international sales of NZ recorded music reached over one million dollars.” Flying Nun Managing Director Roger Shepherd attended the Award ceremony in Auckland but has returned to London where he is based in the Mushroom UK office. The Melbourne based label Mushroom own 75% of Flying Nun NZ’s shares. New Auckland Studio Ground Zero is a new Auckland 16 track studio run by musicians aiming to offer good deals to bands. Their gear includes the former Writhe Studio 24 channel desk (Head Like A Hole’s 13 etc), a 16 track analog Otari 1”. Headless Chickens are doing demos there. Engineers are Shane O’Neill and Damien Lines. Studio manager is Rymann Chappell phone (09) 377-6969. Tauranga Link City Lights Academy are seeking to develop their role in bookings, production and promotion of touring bands who visit Tauranga. There are four Tauranga venues that bands can play. City Lights also has a small studio, a school of arts, hires light and sound gear and will soon start a label to release a posthumous album by Hard to Handle. Further info: Kevin Burrows (07) 577-0392. Uncharted Finalist in the Mobil Radio Awards Student radio weekly music news show is once again one of three finalists in the Best Daily or Weekly Series section of the Mobil Radio Awards. Uncharted is produced by Tiffany Ist Bass (04) 385-9558. Musical Chairs New 95bFM Programme Director is Bill Kerton ... Kim Martinengo has resigned as Assistant Promotions Manager at Sony Music to travel overseas. His replacement is Delwyn Rees ... 95bFM Advertising Manager Kate McCorkindale has left to work in sales at TV3 ... 95 bFM’s new production manager is Elmer Reitsma. Dates and Deadlines The RIANZ NZ Music Awards takes place April 12 at the Carlton, Auckland (ex Pan Pacific) . . . the Smokefree Composing Women’s Festival takes place in Wellington Sept 22-24. Women composers and performers are invited to submit proposals for consideration to the Artistic Directorate, Women’s Festival, PO Box 10873, Wellington by March 31 . . . the next NZ On Air Video Grant or Hit Disc application deadline is Friday May 12 for the mid-June meeting. For information write to NZ On Air, PO Box 9744, Wellington.