News about No Post Mortem printed in Leo

July 1997

Smokefree Rockquest Otago-Southland Regional Final
By Simon Baird and Luke Walton

Rockquest 97 kicked off with a folk rock song from last years finalists. This was a perfect start to get the crowds energy levels high, although a lot of the audience were already high due to prior activity's. The presenter, a really annoying bald guy in a leopard skin jacket, kept things pacing along steadily, but somehow his over enthusiasm for every band that came on, nearly killed the enjoyment of it all.

Not to worry though as we loyal Southlanders were there to support three talented bands from Invercargill. There were students from our school and other schools around Southland. The three bands were; No Post Mortems and The People's Court from Hargest as well as No Idea Monkey Monkey from Verdon college. No Post Mortems played with confidence and sincerity. We talked to a couple of members of the band before they went up to the finals. They told us that their major influences in their music were; Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins and Bush. This shines through in their original song Forever. As for The Peoples Court, the drummer can drum, the bass play can slap and overall their original songs were a break from the monotonous repetitiveness that a lot of the other bands showed. Unfortunately Verdon was the only band to get an award for the most promising guitarist.

It was a great night for some, and one of the highlights was watching the band Crucified from St Kevins College - a band that sounded aggressive and looked like hard core Satanists. This was quite ironic considering they come from an exclusive Catholic school, but they represented their school with pride, um, sort of.

All the bands displayed great originality in their song writing and stage image but only three would be awarded placings. First place winner was Deep Kick from Mt Aspiring College, a band whose music could be compared to early Red Hot Chili Peppers songs. Second place went to Angel from Queens High / Logan Park High School and third place went to Stoma from Otago Boys / John Maglashen College.

Overall it was a good night for trashing in the mosh pit, mellowing out to the soft songs and cheering for our own school bands. Hopefully next year Hargest will get the notice it deserves

November 1997

No Post Mortems History
By Stephen Reid and Steven Russell

The idea to form a band came at the start of last year, when Steven and Scott started to jam. Then along came the drummer Stephen who had been playing the drums for about six months.

In the paper one day, Steven saw a guitar, and wanted to buy it, so he did. Now we were able to have our first proper band practice. For amps we used a really hopeless speaker and for drums Stephen was banging away of pots, buckets and plastic containers. A month later, Stephen brought a drum kit for $460 (which by the way was the biggest bargain of the century). Now it was up to Scott to buy a guitar.

We wanted to play 'Time' by Hootie and the Blowfish for our school assessment at the end of the year. Then we played it in assembly - big mistake, it was a bad song. one major problem was that Scott didn't have a guitar so he had to borrow one.

Early this year we entered a talent quest which needed an original song. From somewhere deep in Steven's brain (assuming he has one) came the song known as "Forever". In the talent quest we won Best up and Coming Band. Scott didn't have a guitar.

We needed a bass guitarist. So Stephen called upon the highly talented (Ha Ha!) Tomi Svehla. Amazingly he almost immediately bought a bass, strings and a lead (unlike Scott!). We found out about the Rockquest and we thought it would be worthwhile if we went to a course for the Rockquest, run by Otago University. We learnt something there, that must of helped us, but even to this day we don't know what. Scott still didn't have a guitar.

After a year of long hard saving, Scott finally saved enough money to help his parents buy him a guitar. He gave his five dollars to his parents and they bought him one. Scott finally had a guitar!!

Now all we needed was a name, Scott and Steven rejected the main candidate, Four Play, because of obvious reasons. Little did we know that Scott had agreed on Ms Newel's name "No Post Mortems" and sent away the form.

We went to the Rockquest with our driver Mr Russell., In Dunedin we competed in the heats. It went okay, apart from Steven missing out a chorus. Later it was announced that we had made it through to the finals. The next week involved practices every night, Mercury interviews and lunchtime performances. We travelled to Dunedin again for the finals. We were the youngest there, but we didn't let that stop us. We played well and the crowd loved us, it was a good experience and we got a heap of free stuff. Since then we've played at the socials and a few gigs, but now we've decided to take a break for exams, but you can bet that we'll be back next year with more songs, more talent and a better name.

By the way, seeing that in this article we've hassed everyone except Stephen, it must be said that drummers drool

May 1999

No Post Mortem Strives to Succeed
By Scott Hughes

Bands such as Slayer, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam ring a bell in most students heads. When they hear these bands they think of rage, stage diving, drugs, drink and heroes. However, what do you think of when you hear No Post Mortem? Puzzled? So you should be. No Post Mortem is not a big, well known band. It is a bunch of 6th form Hargest guys striving to succeed in the music industry.

I talked to a band member, Scott Herriott, on how they all met, what their goals are and who their idols are.

How did you guys meet?

"Steven Russell and I have been playing the guitar for quite some time now, starting when we were at Rosedale. We discovered Stephen Reid in the holidays before we started at Hargest. We had been going to Hargest for a couple of years when we decided to go to the Rockquest in Dunedin. However we needed a bassist so we asked Tomi Svehla and he was willing to take up the challenge. Before Rockquest no one could really think of a good name which suited us, so we had to resort to Mr Russell asking teachers in the staff room to make one up for us which was really cool."

What are your goals for the future?

"Obviously, to make a name for ourselves. We are on the way to doing that especially when we were performing in front of lots of people in the Summer Festival. We were moving down the streets of Invercargill on the back of a truck. We are also hoping to get a CD out next term. The main goal in my eyes, and probably the other guys as well, is to pursue our careers as far as we can - preferably until we are millionaires."

Who are your idols?

"For me it would have to be Jimi Hendrix. He not only influenced me but inspired us to play music and to show people how far you can go with music. There are a lot of idols for me - really anyone who plays music ranging from classical to techno"

July 1999

Rockquest a resounding success
By Tony Milne

This year Southland was privileged to have its own regional final of Rockquest, thanks to the hard work of the "Mockquest" committee last year. This year's Rockquest was held at Hargest on Saturday May 22 and was a night enjoyed by all who were there. Fourteen bands strutted their stuff at the final and of those, eight were from Hargest.

The audience was made up of mostly Hargest, Boys' High, and Girls' High students, as well as proud parents and relatives of band members. There were also teachers and members of Southland's performing community, checking out the up-and-coming talent. Because of a lack of room backstage, band members got to join the audience and enjoy watching the competition. In fact there wasn't a feeling of competition from most bands. Instead, everyone simply enjoyed performing for a supportive audience and enjoyed the night and company of people with a similar interest in music.

There was a wide range of music. The audience responded positively to all styles, singing along to covers, listening intently to lyric-based originals, moshing and stage-diving to the heavier music, and dancing to the various pop styles. The enthusiastic audience was evidence that a smoke free, alcohol free and drug free event can be enjoyed by all.

The Smokefree and Pepsi sponsors came to the fore, with free Pepsi being handed out. It also appeared that Nick Smith had a good time compering the evening and giving away several T-shirts and bags.

One could feel sympathy for the two judges having to decide between the bands. By the end of the night there was a clear winner, though all the bands excelled. The first, second and third place-getters now go on to complete several set tasks including recording a single at the Southland Polytechnic. They then send that in and will hopefully go on to the New Zealand final in Christchurch in September.

The results of the Southland Rockquest 1999 finals were:

Top group:

• 1st - No Post Mortem, James Hargest High School (Invercargill).
• 2nd - Masonic Park, Southland Boys' and Southland Girls' High Schools (Invercargill)
• 3rd - Penguin Rally, James Hargest High School (Invercargill).

• 1st - Michelle Nunn, James Hargest High School.
• 2nd - Roanna Cranstoun, James Hargest High School.
• 3rd - Michelle Nunn, James Hargest High School.