Te Awamutu Intermediate band – Lost Property
Dave Dobbyn might say your guess is good as mine, but these Waipā youngsters are hitting all the right notes.
Maraeroa Te Kanawa, Zita Harpur, Ronan Hinchliffe, Frances Bowmar and Ryan Tonks make up Te Awamutu Intermediate School band Thursday’s Cancelled – and they have just completed a double. Thursday’s Cancelled stared at last week’s Rockshop Bandquest for the Waikato region – having already won the Band Slam regional competition last month.
A Waipā band has continued a successful year by starring at last week’s Rockshop Bandquest for the Waikato region.
Te Awamutu Intermediate’s Thursday’s Cancelled earlier won the Band Slam regional competition in August.
It is the first time a school has won both band competitions in a calendar year and Thursday’s Cancelled now moves on to the Bandquest national final, among the top 22 intermediate aged bands in the country.
Band members are Maraeroa Te Kanawa (vocals, guitar), Zita Harpur (vocals), Ronan Hinchliffe (guitar), Frances Bowmar (bass) and Ryan Tonks (drums).
Their winning Bandquest set featured a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way, as well as their own original song Against the Wall. Te Awamutu Intermediate’s other band this year, Don’t Feed the Bassist, has also picked up a range of awards, including the Star Vocalist award for Erin Stinton at Bandquest, first place in the ‘other instrument’ category at Band Slam for Cadence Pheng (violin) and a second in the keyboard section at Band Slam for Loretta Shaw.
The Te Awamutu Intermediate music programme has had a run of success – its jazz band and symphonic band, under the direction of Sue Germann, both received gold awards at the recent Waikato Primary and Intermediate Band and Orchestra Festival.
Teacher in charge of the Rock Bands Logan Kimber said it had been an exciting time to support and mentor children in music.
“Being in a band, making music and writing songs fosters creativity, teamwork, critical thought, relating to others, as well as the obvious instrument and performance skills. In a rapidly changing world these skills are more important than ever,” he said.
Waikato – 1st Place – Lost Property
