4VF News – Daily News Channel

The dream is slowly coming true for a former Christchurch singer who was among the post-earthquake refugees seeking a haven in Nelson in 2011.

Rebecca Nelson stopped city shoppers in their tracks with her clear soprano voice belting out show tunes and operatics in the weeks after the Christchurch devastation.

She was 23 at the time, and told the Nelson Mail then she was hoping for a break in her bid to become a recognised classical crossover artist.

A few months later she had landed a debut album, Pure Imagination, a job and top billing at the Nelson’s Theatre Royal to launch the album.

It happened through the support of Nelsonians, including local theatre director Hugh Neill, who had heard her singing in the street.

Since she left here, Nelson has been busking in Auckland and then started working closely with the Royal New Zealand Navy band. She performed with them at events around the North Island and then joined the band to sing the New Zealand national anthem at Gallipoli at this year’s Anzac Day commemoration.

In June she was the official singer for England during their test matches against the All Blacks.

Nelson said the experience at Gallipoli was the “trip of a lifetime” which had inspired her to make a new album. She was now drumming up support to fund it through a PledgeMe campaign she has set up.

She did not start singing until she was 15 and first heard Welsh singer Charlotte Church. She worked as a personal assistant when she left school and decided to take up singing lessons then.

Nelson then set her sights on Europe and ended up busking in Dublin, where she made some inroads into the highly competitive music scene. She also took lessons with singing teacher Ben Slade in Ireland.

She returned to Christchurch in December 2010 to sing at her friends’ wedding, and to begin a tour with New Zealand classical crossover singer Will Martin, but the tour was cut short when the earthquake hit Christchurch two months later.

Nelson is about to head back on tour with the navy band on its forthcoming tour of the North Island.

• More information visit rebeccanelson.co.nz or facebook.com/internationalsinger

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– The Nelson Mail

Jeremy Redmore, former frontman of Kiwi band Midnight Youth, is releasing his debut solo album this Friday.

Clouds are Alive comes nearly two years after Redmore made his departure from the award-winning band in September 2012 for personal reasons.

Now 31-years-old, Redmore has ditched his curly mane and switched from arena-rock to a soulful tone.

He’s grown up, had time to reflect on himself and wants others to gain insight into that process.

“The title is a play on the idea that clouds are things people look at and everyone sees something different in them. If you use your imagination it’s sort of like they are alive.

“My songs are like that, everyone interprets them differently.”

Some of the tracks were written as far back as six years ago, when Redmore was with Midnight Youth but they didn’t quite mesh with the sound of a five-piece rock-pop band.

Redmore wanted a challenge, personally and musically. So he let go of all those he worked with in the past to start anew – no musicians, producers, engineers or studios that had any connection with his former life were allowed. He negotiated his own record deal (with Warner) as he couldn’t afford a lawyer.

He is nervous about reviews for the album since it was such a personal process.

“If I get horrible reviews on my record now when I’m starting from scratch that would be hard to take. When you’ve got four other people in a band to rally around you and bring you up when you have those down moods it’s easier. Now there’s no escape.”

His reason for leaving a band predicted for international stardom was that his heart was no longer in it.

“It got to a point where there wasn’t a unified feel to it anymore – musically and the way we related to each other. It wasn’t the gang we’d started out as. I wanted to do something positive and I wasn’t really feeling it in that situation.”

Midnight Youth released their debut album The Brave Don’t Runs in April 2009 which hit number two on the New Zealand album charts and went platinum.

It won the Best Rock Album, Best Group and Best Engineer (Andrew Buckton) at the 2009 New Zealand Music Awards.

The group were together for seven years and while Redmore wants to eventually make a name for himself he doesn’t want to forget his time with the band.

“The music speaks for itself. Midnight Youth are a part of my past and it’s a past I am proud of. I love what I did and I achieved so much with that band, this is just the next step.”

Redmore will be hosting an album release party next Thursday at The Tuning Fork in Auckland at 7pm.

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– Stuff

Kim Dotcom has pushed rewind on the Internet Party party, after Electoral Commission advice led to the last attempt being canned.

At the internet mogul’s second shot at hosting the event concertgoers will pay to see musicians including Sons of Zion, State of Mind, Optimus Gryme, Kamandi, PNC, L.A.B (Laughton and Brad Kora) and have the chance to meet “special guest” Dotcom.

The ill-fated party of January this year was cancelled after the Electoral Commission advised Dotcom free entry meant the purpose of the event could be “misunderstood” and seen as a bid to sway voters. More than 25,000 people had registered.

“Party Party is basically reborn,” Dotcom said.

“The last time it didn’t happen because the tickets were free and the Electoral Commission warned me that if the event would go ahead, even if I mentioned the Internet Party launch for just for a minute, it might be considered treating,” he explains.

After a pow-wow with his lawyers he pulled the plug for the party that had just been moved to the Vector Arena.

When Ned Stark’s head was chopped off by Joffrey on the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor, most

A tree planted in memorial to late Beatles guitarist George Harrison following his death in Los Angeles in 2001 has been killed by bark beetles amid California’s epic drought, a local official said on Tuesday.

The pine tree, which was dedicated with a plaque to Harrison at the head of a hiking trail in the city’s

New Zealand’s warrior princess is to join the cast of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

TV Guide

Justin Bieber’s neighbours reportedly filed six complaints to cops last weekend.

The 20-year-old Canadian pop star is currently staying at his Beverly Hills condo and apparently he threw a house party Saturday night.

Police officials confirm they responded to six different complaints called in by Bieber’s neighbours on Saturday and Sunday, four related to noise and two were concerns about a large amount of people congregating on the sidewalk.

“We are asking him to be a respectful neighbour,” Sergeant Max Subin of the Beverly Hills Police Department told ET Online. “We prefer Mr. Bieber be respectful of his neighbours and the community.”

The star wasn’t formally ticketed, as cops decided to leave him with verbal warnings.

According to TMZ, Bieber’s bash left his building’s rooftop lounge area completely trashed.

An alleged onlooker told the website there were “bimbos lining up to do drugs in the lobby bathroom”, although the outlet says these claims have not been confirmed.

Bieber is currently on probation after accepting a no contest plea deal on charges of misdemeanour vandalism. This case is related to accusations he egged his former neighbour’s house in Calabasas, California earlier this year, causing an estimated $20,000 in damage.

As part of his plea deal, Bieber must complete 12 weekly anger management sessions and five days of community service. Judge Leland Harris put him on two years probation and the star has been ordered to pay $80,900 restitution to his former neighbours for the damage his egg-throwing caused their home.

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– Stuff