Mike's Minute - Play It Strange in the passage of time

This year, 2024, the Play It Strange Trust (PIST) is moving headlong through its 21^st year. With a primary vision of enhancing the lives of young teenagers through songwriting competitions, it’s an ideal time to stand back and absorb the special moments and serendipitous events that have pushed PIST to its successful place in the world of youthful imagination..

Imagination?

Indeed.  A song is a unique construction of the imagination.

1. Words that speak to us and we hear them and absorb the language.
2. Music – the mystery of which is so mysterious that we don’t want to know why we are so moved by it. 
3. And then we merge them together and the magical entity of a song’s reality is brought to life. And the world is a better place. And teenagers in their writing and entering the PiST song competitions proffer the exposing of their hearts and minds and from that we, the listeners, have much to learn.

And so in early 2004 the PiST came to be and we (Debbie Little and myself) printed up an explanatory booklet and mailed them out to the music department of virtually every secondary school. And waited. Where?

Well, Neil Finn had heard of our Play It Strange activity and he offered us a room in his Grafton Building to work from. And we did. Neil Finn is like that. A man of warmth and generosity and we salute him right here, right now.

We also sent our explanatory booklets to philanthropic bodies such as gaming societies, government entities and the like . And then in August 2004, with financial support from the Scottwood Trust in Hamilton we opened our PIST Songwriting Competition across NZ with enough funds to record 20 songs from those sent in.

After a few weeks, Debbie went to the post office and looking like Santa Claus returned with a mailsack bulging with cassette tapes, CDs and a flurry of video tapes …each one arriving with a completed entry form. They came from all over NZ. We were away. What did we do? We listened to them. There were a number of judges invited to take part and they included Feleti Strickson-Pua (Nesian Mystik), Brooke Fraser, Rodney Hewson (Sony Music)  and Hamish Jackson (the Rockshop). And they listened and listened in their own time. So did I. While not an official judge, I needed to know what the quality of those songs was like. How best to describe it?  Like this.

One songwriter from Hillcrest High in Hamilton sent in a tape of her singing her song titled “It Takes Time”  and as we played it, all the windows in Neil Finn’s building burst out into the street. The song, the voice, the energy. It was wonderful. Her name? Kimbra. It was when we played that track that we knew – original songs were out there in their power and glory. Nothing was going to stop us. We wanted them to be sent in. And every year from then on – in they came. And in every year there have been more than the year before.    

October 2004 we invited cool, professional NZ artists to do their own interpretations of the Top Five songs as judged in the PiST list of finalists. Artists like Dave Dobbyn, Buzz Moller. They brought unique versions to the stage and it was a highlight.  And with that we thought – “Let’s have an Awards Ceremony each year!”  Both Debbie and I had been working for APRA prior to Play It Strange and it was there that we ran and found real success with its Award Show  – the APRA Silver Scroll. So we copied it and our own Award Show was held in December 2004. It was a success and that event is still held near the end of every year. And the songwriters have surged forth in our competitions.

In 2006, a young farmer’s daughter from the bottom of the South Island sent in a song called ‘Blue Butterfly”. She won.  We thought “She has to take the top spot in the annual Award Show.”  So we flew her up to Auckland with her father as chaperone. As they exited the arrivals lounge a film crew came out of hiding and Annah’s dad ran off and hid. Farmers aren’t known for being extroverts! Annah stood her ground and took the whole thing in her stride. At the Award Show the next day her performance of “Blue Butterfly” was triumphant. Annah Mac proved to be a magical songwriter. A couple of years after leaving school she took her song “Girl In Stilettos” to second place in the NZ singles chart. Unforgettable.  Since Annah Mac’s success there have been a number of success stories. Louis Baker, Georgia Knott (Broods), Elizabeth Stokes (The Beths), Jesse Sheehan (played with Neil Finn and Eddie Veder), Graham Candy.

The onwards momentum of the PiST songwriting competitions relied on funding and one of the most clever and successful events in that respect was the National Anthem. I went to Tony Holden at TVNZ to see if they were interested in running a Telethon for us. He looked at me and started thinking. After a while he said “I’ll get back to you”. A short while later he drew me back in.

 “Here’s what we’ll do” he said. “TV2 will cancel all programmes and advertising for a 24 hour period between a 6pm Saturday and a 6pm Sunday in May 2005 (NZ Music Month) and we will film and broadcast live videos of nothing but NZ artists in that time. Live cameras from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. All comperes will seek donations as the period runs. Donations for Play It Strange.

The end result was a magnificent roll-out of the top NZ acts of 2005 and a sum close to $80,000 was raised. It was a giant step for PiST. A major broadcaster had backed our enterprise. All broadcast songs will be original!

And so the PiST engine room was run with an increasing momentum and the years rolled by. NZ recording studios jumped on board with a cool array of producers, engineers and supporting musicians. There was a true sense of achievement in the air. Then came one of the most enthralling fund-raising events of this very cool journey. It all started when I was introduced to David Higgins of Duco Events. David was manager of the pro boxer Joseph Parker as well as running Q&A events with a pointer to raising funds for specific charities from the revenue that was secured.

Higgins contacted me and asked

“Mike. Can you meet me at the Sofitel Hotel coffee bar on Thursday. At 10am ‘

"Of course,’ I answered and on the day, at that time I turned up. Who was there?  Sir Bob Geldof! I was shocked. This was quite simply a very cool, potent meet-up. To cut to the chase. David Higgins was able to hire Geldof to take part in one of his Q&A sessions. David wanted the revenue to go to Play It Strange. I said “David. You are very cool.’ Sir Bob was keen on it.

Higgins continued.

“Mike. Now Fleetwood Mac are going to be in Auckland at the same time as Geldof. Let’s ask Mick Fleetwood to come on the Q&A as well?”

“But of course,” I replied. So Higgins secured Geldof and wrote a letter to Mick Fleetwood’s manager in Los Angeles to see if he’d join in. And there, the waiting began. A few weeks later David rang me. ‘Mike I can’t get Fleetwood’s manager on the phone. I don’t get put through. Now that Neil Finn is in Fleetwood Mac do you think …….’

 "I’ll give it a shot," I said and the next day I dialed the Fleetwood Mac manager. A voice answered and I asked to speak to Mick Fleetwood’s manager. A fairly long silence ensued. Then a voice……

‘Who is speaking?’

"Mike Chunn from Play It Strange in New Zealand. I’m ringing regarding a Q&A event in NZ. I believe Duco Events have approached Mick about this.’

"I’ll put you through to Mick’s manager’ he said. Another long silence.

The manager came on and said "Ah yes. The Q&A in New Zealand. Let me see. It’s here somewhere. I do know that he wants to do it."

I screamed !  “He wants to do it!!!!!"

And so it came to be. I was asked by David Higgins to hop up and ask Higgins and Fleetwood some questions about life etc and in September the event titled “Playing It Strange’ was held in South Auckland and Play It Strange earned a cumulative donation of $100,000. Beautiful. Bob Geldof and Mick Fleetwood were just brilliant. And during the event more than 240 secondary school students took to the stage to play and sing.

In the end, it is the people who take the time to assess Play It Strange and see the worth of its programmes. As each year goes by, there are more and more of them and the net progress increases upwards.

From grants bodies such as the Lion Foundation to the likes of Mick Fleetwood and Sir Bob Geldof; from Mick Webb and the Rockshop to Neil Finn,  And many more……. They believe in us.

We salute them all as we maintain our spirits and charge on.