04 October 2006 - 0 Comments

New Zealand, meet your new Tui.

Twenty-five of these 9ct gold plated little beauties are being handed out this year to the country’s top musos, 18 of them on October 18 at the New Zealand Music Awards 2006.

New Zealand Music Awards Tuis have been presented since 1996. Prior to that, winners such Th’ Dudes and Hello Sailor would have taken home to mum anything from a fluorescent Perspex monstrosity to alloy blocks or an imitation record.

Then in the mid-90s the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand decided the native Tui bird would be a good cultural and musical symbol on which to base the design of a new trophy.

Perhaps the good folk at RIANZ had been reading an early version of Wikipedia, which says Tuis “are known for their noisy, unusual call, different for each individual, which combines bellbird-like notes with clicks, cackles and wheezing sounds”!

Sound like any Kiwi musician you know?

Whatever the motivation, the term Tui has stuck and today even the award ceremony itself has become known as the Tuis.

Previously a bronze statuette, the new Tui is now made from 9ct gold plated aluminium with real paua shell inlay all on a black chrome base. It is designed and manufactured by Three Sixty Limited in Albany near Auckland.

If you’re quick, you’ll be able to see this year’s trophies handed over at The Aotea Centre - THE EDGE® on October 18. For the first time in many years a limited number of tickets have been released for public sale. Go to www.ticketek.co.nz or trundle down to Real Groovy, Sounds or Marbecks. They’re $47.50 a piece, a pittance when you consider you get to see the cream of the country’s music industry in action.

Thanks to www.nzmusicawards.co.nz for this story.

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