Heading to rehearsal at John McGlashan College are (from
left) Kiss of Death bassist Sam Snell (12), lead
singer/guitarist James Phizacklea (12) and drummer Noah
Linscott. Photo by Linda Robertson.
Sam Snell, James Phizacklea and Noah Linscott are like Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
They are all such good boys at school, hardly ever in any
trouble - until they get on stage, and then they are bad -
bad to the bone.
The boys laugh at their parents' assessment of them and their
band Kiss of Death. But no-one was laughing when the
ACDC-esque rock band was selected for the national finals of
the Rockshop Bandquest, after winning the southern heat of
the competition this week.
While a panel of judges listening to the band at Coronation
Hall in Mosgiel seemed to concur they were a winning
combination, not everyone agreed.
"My mum doesn't really like the name," Noah said.
"She wants us to change it."
"We're usually good boys at school. But we get in the zone
when we go on stage.
"As soon as we get a guitar in our hands, the bad boy comes
out. We don't really have a lack of confidence," he said.
The band won the southern heat after performing a partially
original piece they called Diamonds and Dust, which
was based on a guitar riff from Sin City by ACDC. They
also performed an original composition called Sing.
James said the band was "stoked" to reach the national final.
"It's insane. We made up our original song in less than a
week. We weren't expecting the success."
Kiss of Death was one of seven bands in the new competition,
which was hatched from the Smokefreerockquest competition.
Second place went to Clinton Rockers, who also won the best
original song award.
Arohanui Aoteroa, from Macandrew Intermediate, was third and
the best lyric award went to Tears of Madness from Dunedin
North Intermediate for their song Emotional Swings.
Smokefreerockquest founder and director Glenn Common said
Bandquest was for bands of two or more members, younger than
year 9, and was established in response to requests from
primary and intermediate school teachers for a contest to
encourage the younger age group.
Mr Common said the national final would be held via the
website bandquest.co.nz where video footage from the
regionals would be posted on December 2.
The results would be announced later that day, Mr Common
said.
- john.lewis@odt.co.nz
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