Ahhh....New Zealand....

3 things you need to know about New Zealand:

1) They take their home-grown music more seriously than any other nation I'm aware of, and I mean that in a good way.

2) They have a uniquely liberal attitude towards the use of vowel sounds.

3) They don't have a Navy.*

*(My sister told me this in the pub. It may not be true)

Here's a fabulous story from that country this week.

Currently the number one song in New Zealand is a cover version of The Kinks' "You Really Got Me". The group who have covered it is a five-piece male pop group called BOYBAND.

BOYBAND are the deliberately cynical, tongue-in-cheek, ratings-week-focused creation of a radio station. They advertised for five guys who would be "Gay Boy, Hot Boy, Bad Boy, Mummy's Boy and Fat Boy", and promised that the winners would get "no big prize, major recording deal or guarantee of fame, just the chance to record a hit single, $500 cash, a 5th share in a 1994 Mazda Bongo van and enjoy a fleeting moment in the 'pop music' limelight."

Read more should you wish

http://secretpassage.livejournal.com/152734.html

Heaven forbid that UK music companies begin cynically putting together deliberately shit bands in order to score cheap chart hits. Imagine also if they did it on live telly and got the general public to not only unwittingly focus-group the whole thing for them, but also line the pockets of the organisers..

.....oh, hang on.