The Good Fun Win The 2010 Smokefreerockquest

The Smokefreerockquest finals where held on Saturday night in Hamilton with eight acts from around the country vying for the top spot. The winner in the end was local act The Good Fun who take home a mega prizepack including $10,000 worth of gear from the Rock Shop, a video grant and guaranteed airplay on C4, recording time and more - full details below.

We had a sift through some of the past winners on the rockquest site and traced some of the musicians to their current projects - here are a bunch of particular interest:

Hallucian (1993): featured Marcus Joyce and Anthony Pompeous who went on to form The Demi Whores with Ed Gains and Markus is currently in The Drab Doo Riffs.

Son of Spank (1999): featured Graeme Cummack who went on to form The Accelerants and is currently in Family Cactus and Daniel Burmester who is now in The Outsiders.

Carriage H (2001): featured Andrew Wilson and Mikey Prain from Die!Die!Die! and Tim Smith is now part of our latest interviewees Idiot Prayer.

Neil Robinson (2006): featured Chris Young who went on to form The Insurgents who now go by the name No Aloha.

Head to the rockquest website for more past winners and this years entrants: www.smokefreerockquest.co.nz

PRESS RELEASE:

The Good Fun are the winners of the 2010 Smokefreerockquest National Final, held at The Founders Theatre in Hamilton on Saturday night in front of a sell out crowd of over 1100.

The quirky four piece indie rock band triumphed over seven other high school acts from all over New Zealand to receive the coveted first prize, which includes a NZ On Air New Recording and Music Video Grant worth $10,000, a place on the Kiwi Hit Disc and radio promotional support for a single, musical gear to the value of $10,000 from NZ Rockshops, recording time at York St Studio, the NZ On Air airplay award with the opportunity to be played on The Edge, video play on youth music channel C4, a photo shoot sponsored by Schick and a promotional package from Myspace New Zealand, a trip to Fiji from Unleashed Travel and mentoring from a NZ music industry legend.

“Did we expect to win? Hell no! We were blown away by all the other bands,” said The Good Fun’s lead singer Leroy James Clampitt.

The Good Fun’s performance of two original songs highly impressed the judging panel of Peter Hume, the bassist from Evermore (2000 winners of Smokefreerockquest); Ross Flahive, Programme Director from The Edge radio network; Matt Barthow, Assistant Programme Director at C4; Joel Little, lead singer from Goodnight Nurse; Scott MacLachlan from Universal Music and Tania Dean from NZ on Air.

“The Good Fun have a great sound that is very relevant to today’s music market, I can see us playing this band on C4,” said C4’s Matt Barthow.Smokefreerockquest Director Glenn Common said the night was not just about the winner.

“They are doubtless a standout, but there are seven other bands from a range of genres who are also capable of success in the Kiwi music industry just like finalists from previous years,” said Common. “And we should not forget the other 800 bands who entered the competition this year – they all gained experience from the opportunity Smokefreerockquest gives young people to perform their original music to a live audience.”

Second place in the final went to Peasants Of Eden from Garin College, Nelson, and third place to Malcolm Jack from Otumoetai College,Bay Of Plenty.

Other prizes awarded were the MAINZ Scholarship for outstanding musicianship which went to Luke Aekins-Reilly from Kamo High School in Whangarei; The APRA Lyric Award which went to Theo Jacobsen from St Kentigern College in Auckland; the Lowdown Best Song Award which went to Massad Barakat-Devine from Auckland ; and the Smokefree Women’s Musicianship Award which went to went to Mahalia Simpson from Marian College in Christchurch.

This year was the first of three years that the Smokefreerockquest national final will be in Hamilton, this year at the Founders Theatre and from next year at Claudelands, New Zealand’s newest purpose-built 5000-seat music arena. Hamilton sponsorship and events marketing executive Karen Watkins says each year Hamilton comes even more into its own as a youthful and dynamic city. “This is an iconic event that has been turning out kiwi music legends for the past 20 years - we are thrilled to be hosting it in the city,” said Watkins. Youth music channel C4 will screen a five part series following Smokefreerockquest through to the regional finals, culminating in one hour special of Saturday night’s final to be aired on the 6 November, from 5pm.