This year, 2024, the Play It Strange Trust (PIST) is moving headlong through its 21st year. With a...
Bill Moran, an economic adviser to Trevor Mallard, the associate Minister of Finance for the NZ Government, as well as Minister of Education (this was near the end of 2003) approached me in regards to the formation of a charitable trust. I took 5 to 6 seconds to see it as a real opportunity.
Stay with me.
Bill was and still is a serious music fan. But more than that, he is a Split Enz fan. We had written a song in 1977 titled “Play It Strange”. It was never recorded but Bill knew about it. And on we go…….
He and I talked on the phone. He was in a Beehive office and I was 400 miles away outside an inner city coffee bar where Auckland waverers grooved in a consistent 2003 fashion. We came up with a plan. We decided to start a national songwriting competition targeted to year 9 to 13 school students. Nationwide. And a funding drive was formulated and put into action.
On top of this overall mission, we sent information booklets to NZ schools along with entry forms for a songwriting competition and it flourished with more than 120 original songs sent in. We were away.
Alongside this modus operandi, Bill drew up a Trust Deed – the Play It Strange Trust - and we asked Neil Finn to be the Trust’s settlor. He agreed and signed the document. This was November 2003. Bill was appointed as the chairperson, and we approached various people to come on as trustees. Details please……. Who were they?
Here are the people we asked, and they all said ‘Yes’.
Brendan Smyth
Brendan spent many years as the music manager at NZ On Air. This brought him into the world of strategies for grant supports for NZ acts. And that included recording sessions, promotional activities, advisory functionalities and more. In 2011 he was awarded an MNZM for services to music.
Dave Dobbyn
Dave carved out a glorious music career as a songwriter, vocalist, guitar player and band leader. He had recorded a number of albums under his belt. It was a magical first signing of a trustee.
Sam Neill
I emailed Sam about it. Sam needs no introduction – well – he’s a global star of the screen ! And he has/had a close rapport with the Finn brothers and I suspect he queried them – “Hey boys. What’s this trust that Chunny is starting.’ They would have answered appropriately, and Sam was on board.
Sean Fitzpatrick
Those that know, know that successful music bods have huge respect for All Blacks and we also know that All Blacks have a huge respect for successful music bods. I asked Sean, an All Black legend, and he was in.
Dennis Rowe
Dennis was the chief executive of Aesthetics Lighting in Wellington. He was an acquaintance of Bill Moran and brought knowledge about how to access corporate and gaming funding from his activities in the voluntary sector. Dennis was in.
We had our first board meeting in late 2003 and we’re still having them almost twenty-one years later.
