Music

Music will definitely be numero uno at this festival, the 1977$10 Deal. We want every musician to get his axe loose before the rising tide departs. Bands that want to play the festival had better get in touch with the officials straightway because we don't want a heap of screw-ups when August comes around. When you write, give us a kind of label to help with programming and planning best use of venues; keep the categories fairly wide if you want to avoid compromising yourself. For instance, rock, folk, blues, jazz are big words but will help our technical manager to get his switches turned with minimum hassle. At the end of April we will announce details of how a highambition group can take part in a rock composer's contest — this is for original material only. Success in this contest will lead to auditions for recording companies. We are looking for the group to replace the faltering Split Enz.

We want to have a lot of practical information on hand as well. We will show you the business angle and the options that are open to a new group looking for exposure. We hope to be able to clearly explain employment opportunities for the student musician. You will know if it's time for you to be thinking about the copyright laws, or about copy writing for commercials, for instance: or you may be thinking about demo tapes and the like. This is a serious business. Alistair Riddell, a regular at Arts Festivals in the north, has just been offered interest by the manager of over-night sensations, Boston.

There is also classical music, a chance for everyone to hear the most experiemental as well as the most revered works of the classical mode. For people who want to make music, concepts like 'church performances', or 'festival choir' come to mind. We will have room for spontaneous ventures like scratch orchestras and large jazz aggregates. Bands will be offered jobs in the socials and dances, and the like, which will be another big feature of $10 Deal.

If you are thinking about music at all you will be considering the entire environment as an area in which to play. Socials and parties will be spliced by musicians but if we hint at Bizarre happenings around the peculiar streets and curious by-ways of Wellington. Masked figures of angels on the sides of an insurance building as a quartet plays Ludwig Van. It's a loose thing, this sort of festival, so you can expect to see your Ideal as you suck mint leaves in a city park watching a high yellow lady cutting Que Sera on a violin.