Judges
On the 31st March we will announce the Taite Music Prize 2010 winner. In March our ten judges will meet to discuss who that eventual winner should be. We have assembled a crack team of music people to decide the prize and you can check out who they are below:
John Taite - Taite Family
John Taite is Vice President of Programming for BBC Worldwide's International channels. Based in London for the past 8 years, he previously headed up programming for MTV's nine channels in the UK. In New Zealand John was a Programmer at TV3, the voice of TV4 (now C4), a writer for Real Groove, Rip It Up and The NZ Herald as well as a DJ and film reviewer for 95bFM. He started his career in production where he produced and directed the documentary "Flying High With Flying Nun: The Roger Shepard Story".
Dean Cameron - ElevenfiftySeven Records and PPNZ
Dean is the owner of ElevenfiftySeven Records. New Zealand's premier Hardcore, Punk Rock N Roll label home to such artists as Antagonist A.D, Bleeders, Cobra Khan, Kitsch & Los Muertos. Dean also works as Distribution and Member Services Manager for PPNZ, and is a current member of the IMNZ board.
David Farrier - TV3
David is an entertainment reporter for TV3, filing stories for 6News, Campbell Live and Nightline. He covers movies & television; however his main passion lies with music. In his spare time he is a freelance writer, mainly working for Rip It Up magazine.
Ross Flahive - The Edge
Ross is the Assistant Programme Director at The Edge Network. He started radio during his last year at high school in Hamilton in 1998. Among various radio jobs, he has also worked as Music Programmer for C4 and Promotions Manager for Sony Music
Bernie Griffin - Flaming Pearl Records
Bernie is the director of independent record label Flaming Pearl Records and former owner of independent music distribution company Global Routes Music. Bernie is a founding member of IMNZ and held the position of chairman for many years.
Kirsten Johnstone - Radio New Zealand
Kirsten presents and co-produces Radio New Zealand National's flagship music programme Music 101 on Saturday afternoons. She has a degree in classical performance, spent time DJing for Radioactive in Wellington, working as a session musician, and going to many loud gigs. She now has earplugs, and is learning to play the banjo.
Scott Maclachlan - A&R for Universal Music.
Scott has worked with artists as diverse as Groove Armada, Basement Jaxx, Sharleen Spiteri and Dragonette. He also has a publishing company called Stirling Music and a music consultancy company called Culture Lab. He feels too old for this shit.
Jim Pinckney - Round Trip Mars
Jim is a radio (Stinky Grooves 95bFM) and club DJ, owner of the Round Trip Mars record label (SJD, James Duncan, Jefferson Belt, Unitone HiFi, The Naked And Famous etc) and a music writer for Real Groove magazine, The Listener and other local and international publications.
Francesca Rudkin - Freelance music journalist
Francesca has avoided getting a real job since starting out at Max TV in 1996. Since then she has worked as a music television presenter and producer, and film and music reviewer for various print, radio and television shows, including an eleven year stint on TV One's Breakfast Show.
Sam Wicks - Real Groove
Sam is the new editor at Real Groove, and has written for the magazine for four years. He graduated to the print world from radio, where he was a music producer at Radio New Zealand National.