Here's Five: Annabel Kean Features For UTR

Whether typing up a storm in the UTR news room, cooking up cutting edge feature ideas or throwing interview curveballs at Aotearoa's brightest musical talents, Annabel Kean has been a key member of our team for the past three years. It's a tearful occasion as we wave goodbye to Annabel, who's going full time with her mega-prolific video production crew Sports Team (co-founded with Callum Devlin) and continues to co-host the 95bFM Top 10. Happily we'll still be working with Annabel on the forthcoming Trash Recital season 2 (filmed in our offices), but in appreciation and thanks for her boundless energy during particularly turbulent times for our music community, we've picked out a few highlights from her tenure as UTR Assistant Editor plus some related activities...

• Pickle Darling's ten favourite pickles is a feature deserving of the inaugural NZ On Air Outstanding Music Journalism Award — read HERE.

• Annabel's 2020 interview with Bic Runga "about the absolutely shit storm of a year we are all having" is an insightful chat with the multiple award-winning member of King Sweeties and Opossom, touching on the issue of environmentally sustainable touring — read HERE. 

• Annabel's highly caffeinated Marlon Williams interview is an enjoyably casual and informative chinwag with the "Lyttelton dreamboat" — read HERE.

• Annabel's conversation with Sit Down In Front singer Cory Newman, who uses a wheelchair due to Cerebral Palsy, highlights ongoing issues surrounding accessibility in Aotearoa's music venues — read HERE.

• As co-founder of Sports Team, their UTR Trash Recital video series has been a consistently inventive joy to behold. 2021's concluding episode starring The Beths was the icing on the cake...

Bonus picks:

• Asking various celebs at the 2021 Taite Music Prize ceremony to "rotate for the Taites" will stand out in my mind as completely ridiculous, fun and totally worked as an Instagram video feed idea — watch HERE.

• Not for UTR, but who couldn't be inspired by Annabel Kean eating eight cheeseburgers in one go while dressed as burger icon J. Wellington Wimpy, to celebrate Sports Team reaching 100 subscribers (subscribe HERE)...