---
title: "Mike’s Musings: It’s All About People, The Heart of Play It Strange"
description: Discover the magic of Play It Strange as Mike Chunn reflects on the evolution of New Zealand's youth songwriting competition and its impact on emerging artists.
image: https://info.playitstrange.org.nz/hubfs/20-11-25-mike-chunn-feature-691e767222676.webp
---

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 Oct 12, 2026, 12:52:07 PM

# Mike’s Musings: It’s All About People, The Heart of Play It Strange

[Mike Chunn](https://info.playitstrange.org.nz/mikes-musings/author/mike-chunn)

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Mike’s Musings: It’s All About People, The Heart of Play It Strange

5:54

![20-11-25-mike-chunn-feature-691e767222676](https://info.playitstrange.org.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/20-11-25-mike-chunn-feature-691e767222676.webp?width=1140&height=641&name=20-11-25-mike-chunn-feature-691e767222676.webp)

Some years ago, I received a phone call from one Al Brown. A renowned restaurateur, he had started writing recipe books which brought forward his culinary skills and the success of these colourful works spread into a NZ wide focus. And ….we have a side tale about this.

“Hi, Mike. This is Al Brown. You don’t know me.” I responded “Ah, but l I know of you” And I did. He continued. He told me he was writing a new range of recipe books that focused on NZ cuisine - territory by territory - and he was onto his latest one. It was one where each chapter brought regional foci to his cuisine choices. That’s right. He might be writing a chapter which brought clever and colourful fish recipes from the north of the South Island territory. Or maybe the Waikato River fresh water fish. And so on - all bright and magnetic as he tripped around New Zealand - the brilliant captor of territorial cuisine. And we met up and he told me of his concept of a territorial recipe book in which he wanted a CD attached of teenage songs that featured from each of their own territories.

One Troy Scott, aged 14, from Lincoln High School in Christchurch entered his song “Good Old Canterbury” and it was brilliant. It had a wonderful, sympathetic leaning to the Christchurch earthquake and proved to be a hit with the judges. He was flown up to Auckland to record it and then invited onto the stage where he performed it. He did that at the Sky City Casino. There was a deep, respectful silence and not a dry eye in the place. As the balance of finalist songwriters were announced and then celebrated Al Brown concluded formalities by walking onto the stage and saying this. “Okay everybody. This is a unique occasion and it is this - IT’S ALL ABOUT PEOPLE.!”

I was hugely impressed by him. And I agreed with his delivery and in bringing a philosophy forward. It got me thinking. It’s the same with Play It Strange. We are all about PEOPLE as well. What Al does is special. What we do is special….. And unique. It’s not a scientific force in action. We are all about opening the doors to welcome young songwriters out onto the planet. We embrace them. And this now takes me to another story which I feel follows Al Brown’s. Let me tell you.

A few years ago after a considerable time as CEO of Play It Strange the time arrived when a new CEO was required to take my place. And that process began. A new CEO was to be called for and those applications voted on. Our Board of Directors approached a recruitment agency - Kerridge & Partners, and a large number of potential candidates stepped forward-:virtually a hundred of them. It was a vibrant time. I can tell you that. A young lad with special needs that I know, Sammy Fitzpatrick, used a wheelchair to get around and with that in place his mother, Katie, booked him a “seat for the disabled” at an upcoming rock concert at Spark Arena. When Sammy went to Spark to uplift his ticket for the show, a complication arose whereby the special seat for him wasn’t available. I was contacted by Sammy’s mother, Katie who explained the situation and that led me to this. I contacted a managerial Spark member, Stephanie Brown, who took a warm sympathetic response to Sammy’s plight. She made an effort to identify an appropriate spare disabled seat in an appropriately high value position. Sammy and his mother made it to Spark and Sammy wheeled up to that seat location, took his position and had the night of his life.

In very much the same way that Al Brown had spread his arms out to those young songwriters who were destined for his Get Fresh CD, Stephanie had adopted the same generous spirit and philosophical brief. - It’s all about “PEOPLE” - and this led to Sammy relishing the performance spirit in that special concert seat at Spark Arena. Hence, when Play It Strange opened up the call for CEO applications for the CEO role at our Trust and Stephanie applied I made sure my support for her application was strongly embraced. That was done with spirit and when the votes were counted, Stephanie was voted in and she became the new, worthy CEO of the Play It Strange Trust. And from that day, she has maintained her role as a vibrant and worthy CEO .

She, like AL Brown, knows that Play It Strange is ALL ABOUT PEOPLE and the truly successful management of staff, competition details and the appointment of competition judges has led to the evolving success of our Trust such that the momentum is unstoppable.

Stephanie Brown gets it. And as it stands, this worthy trust looks likely to roll on forever.  

 

[Music](https://info.playitstrange.org.nz/mikes-musings/tag/music), [Song Writing](https://info.playitstrange.org.nz/mikes-musings/tag/song-writing), [Performance](https://info.playitstrange.org.nz/mikes-musings/tag/performance)

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---

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