Mike's Minute - The Lion Foundation National Secondary School Songwriting Competition

July finds our small work force of three diving into the exciting details of our principal songwriting competition. It is :

The Lion Foundation National Secondary School Songwriting Competition

As the year 2024 moves to toward the busy time of year, the three of us here at Play It Strange are gearing up for the final details of this twenty - year – down – the – line competition - the National Secondary School Songwriting Competition - which has grown since its inception in 2004 to a buoyant, popular programme which currently draws approximately 350 entry songs a year.

The Play It Strange Trust itself came to be in November 2003 when Bill Moran a financial bureaucrat in Wellington – who is/was a huge fan of Split Enz and NZ music approached me with the concept of forming a charitable trust.

‘Great idea’ I responded.

‘What will it do? ‘ asked Bill.

‘I’ve always wanted to see songwriting competitions for secondary school teenagers  ‘ I said. ‘The school is a competitive environment and I’m sure recording studios would come on board in support of it. The main move forward is finding grants to pay for the recording sessions. And we talked and agreed on the concept. Bill came up with a name - ‘Play It Strange’ and it came to be. 

A board of directors was put in place with the likes of Dave Dobbyn, Sam Neill, Moran, Sean Fitzpatrick and others, with Neil Finn as the settlor of the trust.

Funds were sought to enable the management of the songwriting competition and in 2004 the Scottwood Trust in Hamilton made a substantial grant enabling a ‘year one’ competition to take place. The funds provided enough revenue for the recording of twenty songs chosen by a judging panel and a schedule was put in place for those songs to be recorded professionally.

The resulting album was manufactured on CDs and the response from music teachers, students, parents and music industry personnel was very positive. By 2010 the Scottwood Trust merged with the Perry Foundation and that Foundation then merged with the Lion Foundation. The new board of the Lion Foundation proved to be very supportive of the Play It Strange vision of songwriting via competitions and substantial grants were made enabling national competitions to be undertaken.

This supporting structure that the Lion Foundation provided to Play It Strange has played a major, significant part in the expansion and recording results whereby a total of more than 1,100 original songs have now been professionally recorded and released on many online platforms thus enabling them to be heard all round the world.