LOCAL NEWS KIWI CLASSIC MADE HERE IN PONSONBY THE THIRD RELEASE OF WHAT IS FAST BECOMING AN ICONIC PIECE OF Kiwi music folklore is about to hit the shops, and it seems only appropriate that it is produced right here in Maidstone Street, Ponsonby. The Great New Zealand Songbook Souvenir Edition is a special 4 CD collection that brings together classic Kiwi tracks from the last thirty-plus years. It’s manufactured by Forge Media. Based in Maidstone Street, Forge is New Zealand’s only complete inhouse CD pressing and offset print capable company. “Several of the bands featured on The Great Kiwi Songbook performed live at the Gluepot back in the days,” says Forge Key Account Manager Phil Rose. “So the fact that we’re producing the album just up the road has a nice symmetry to it.” The Great New Zealand Songbook truly is a 100% Kiwi-made product. Forge produce the CDs from small plastic pellets that are then melted and pressed against a metal pressing master to create the CD. A silver foil is applied and the CD is then screenprinted. While this is all happening (to the tune of around 20,000 CDs being produced a day), the offset printing press in the next room is producing the full colour covers and CD sleeves. Everything is then assembled in-house and dispatched to distribution centres.
Quality Control. Forge printer DYLAN BOLLAERT and Key Account Manager PHIL ROSE check the covers as they come of the press The first Songbook saw the light of day in 2009 and was originally promoted to homesick Kiwis living abroad. It was such a hit (both here and overseas) that it begged a sequel, which duly came along as The Great New Zealand Songbook Volume Two in 2010.
The Great Kiwi Songbook is the brainchild of St Heliers-based music publisher Murray Thom of Thom Music. Murray started his career working for CBS Records and at just 23 became the company’s Managing Director for New Zealand. Suffice to say he knows about music. “Murray has an almost uncanny instinct of knowing what the music-buying public want,” says Phil. “The compilation albums we’ve produced for him here at Forge over the last nine years or so have all been big sellers.”
With the latest Great New Zealand Songbook Souvenir Edition, which is slated for release in August to tie in with a certain high profile rugby event, Murray Thom wanted to create something extra special. He looked to Forge to make it happen. “It’s been designed as a collector’s piece,” Phil Rose says. “There are four CDs in special slipcase packaging, along with booklets and a cover that features silver foiling.”
It’s an eclectic mix that covers the full gamut of musical tastes, with titles that include Espresso Guitar, Music for Wine Lovers and albums featuring Carl Doy, Rob Guest and Nathan Haines. Out of them all, the Great New Zealand Songbook, with it’s cheeky reworking of Dick Frizzell’s classic Four Square character on the cover, has been the big one. To date, over 150,000 copies have been sold.
Murray Thom and co-producer Tim Harper were involved in the production every step of the way, checking colours with the team at Forge as the sheets literally came off the press. “I had a very clear vision of what I wanted,” Murray explains. “As usual, Forge has delivered. It looks and sounds great. Keeping everything 100% Kiwi is the icing on the cake.” www.forge.co.nz PN
SOHO — AT LEAST THE HOLE WILL BE FILLED IN! Locals are pleased a new development for the Soho hole has been proposed. The general feeling is that Progressive will do a good job developing the site. But a number of questions remain. Other than a Countdown Supermarket what else will Progressive put on the site? Even the largest Supermarket would not take up 40,000 sq. Metres. Why would Progressive want two Supermarkets – one on each end of Williamson Avenue? Progressive owns K-Mart. Will they turn the Foodtown Supermarket into a K-Mart? Will their development at Soho Square include other shops? Will it be like 277 Newmarket? What are their plans for traffic mitigation? Is a cinema still a possibility? And so, you see, there are still as many questions as there are answers, and it is very important that Progressive do the local consultation that the Marlin group refused to do. It will certainly do our hearts good to see that hole filled in, but we aren’t out of the woods yet, and it’s still possible that Marlin’s mixed use proposal, albeit demanding much greater site coverage than resource consents allowed, may have been a good option - much scaled down. Let’s hope we don’t have to cry, “come back Marlin, all is forgiven.” Just remember Progressive, its all about, “consultation, consultation, consultation”, if you want to keep locals onside. (JOHN ELLIOTT) PN
SEARCH FOR TOTO - JO COTTON FROM MORE FM - IN THE WET AND WINDY WESTERN PARK! 'My dogs are cute enough to try out for Toto but if one got it and the other didn't.. It would be all kinds of awkward. Kind of like when those ginga twins were on New Zealand’s Next Top Model that time! Panic attacks and tears. Plus they couldn't be trusted not to relieve themselves all over the yellow brick road so... They're gonna sit this one out'.
30 PONSONBY NEWS+ August 2011
PUBLISHED FIRST FRIDAY EACH MONTH (except January)