Beyond The Black

Line-up finally announced!

I’m sure the 3 readers we have have already heard and seen the news that the final line-up has been announced but thought we’d go on about it on here as well.

So the final line-up looks a little like this:

Disentomb (Aus)

Shotgun Alley

Sinate

In Dread Response

Decortica

Indicator Dogs (US)

Tainted

Devilskin

Subtract

Sonic Altar

Molest The Episcopate

Whole Lotta Led

Of Blackest Oceans

Advocates

Bulletbelt

Draco Aerius

A bit of something for everyone yeah? We think so.

It’s been a tough few months organising this line-up and we’ve been overwhelmed by all the interest shown by bands around the country and in Australia. We are truly happy with this line-up and wish we could have included even more but we’ve already got a bigger line-up than we anticipated.

I’m really stoked about getting Shotgun Alley on board. I’m a little bit of a fan of theirs and will be aiming to sneak off from my duties to have a dance when they are on. I’m big fans of all the bands really but I love my rock.
I get shivers just thinking about how epic this even is going to be. I’m putting my faith in the rock and metal scene across NZ to get behind this event and do everything in their power to get there.

I’d like to hear from you, our 3 or so readers, on what you’d like in a rock and metal festival. What promo activities you think we should be doing, what stalls you think could be choice and what added extras would make your night just that bit more special.

Ready,

GO!

Beyond The Black Roadtrip

Hello fans of Beyond The Black,

It’s been a while but we’ve been on a roadtrip. We went up to Auckland to film for an interview on Juice (The Metal Bar) and decided to do a giveaway tour on the way. It was an awesome trip so I’ll just share the highlights with you.

First stop was in Palmy. There were a fair few metalheads walking The Plaza and it was easy to spot them (band T-shirts and long hair usually). Met a rather apathetic group (it was 10.30am in the morning so who can blame them) and then a really energetic bunch of people who were keen as anything to win tickets and tees. Did an interview with Terry McIntosh for Manawatu Metal and it went really well. I even admitted that I wasn’t a true metalhead (shock horror!!) but I think it was edited out. Good job :)

Hawkes Bay was fun. Dudes did some cool posing and climbing poles to win tickets

. It was pretty dead in the centre of Napier and we would have loved to have gone crazy with the general public. Next time perhaps.

When we got to Auckland (via Tauranga - don’t ask) we had a ridiculously rude dude checking us in at our hotel. I was annoyed. I was so annoyed that I thought of nicking a towel. Then I calmed down and thought of nicking a handtowel. Then I realised that I didn’t have the balls to nick anything so I had a cup of tea. Still, I totally took 2 really long showers so that’ll teach them.

Auckland is a funny place. I’m not sure if you are aware of this already. The weather freaks me out and I really didn’t plan for extreme downpours going to sunny going to rain again so I got pretty wet. It was fun hanging in Aotea Square while it was sunny and getting our fans to headbang right in the middle to win some t-shirts. Good stuff.

The highlight of the trip for me was hanging out with one of my music hero’s Paul Martin. I used to listen to The Axe Attack when I was much younger (and now too) and remember thinking how cool he was. He really is cool and so generous. He knows good music when he hears it and I’m glad we’ve got his full backing on Beyond The Black. He truly believes in our project and we wouldn’t be where we are right now if it wasn’t for him. He’s also bloody funny and that’s cool too.

There must have been some more whitty stuff in there somewhere. I’ll have a think on it for a sec. The following stories may be real or I may have made them up in the last 2 minutes. Either way, I’m still cool.

Oh yeah, there was this one time when we hung out in Maccas for nearly 3 hours because we had nothing to do and wanted to use their free Wifi and do work and I was so tired that I was all zoning out and then there was a fetus inside my milkshake (I may have made that bit up).

There was this other time when we decided that we were boycotting Hamilton (just for a few hours, don’t worry) so much so that we kept refusing to take any turnoffs there on our way to Auckland and then ended up in Tauranga. That’s what happens when you boycott Hamilton and let that be a lesson to you all.

There was another time when we bought Weetbix for breakfast because we are forward planning females (and I’m a Jew) and we realised that of course the hotel didn’t have bowls so we put our Weetbix in cups and then poured over their ridiculously tiny milk things. It was basically like eating dry Weetbix and pretending to be a giant with a tiny bowl situation and it wasn’t that cool. Still, the comic value is priceless right now.

Totally wafting now so gonna go. Updates on festival:

• Buses getting sorted to take people from around North Island to Festival
• Tickets now being sold at Music Machine Napier and Music Works New Plymouth
• Last two acts being finalised (this has been a bit like eating Weetbix out of a cup)
• Stage and backline getting booked as we speak
• VIP room goodies being sussed
• Promo video nearly completed
• Still waiting ridiculous lengths of time for some people to get back to us
• Tickets selling very steadily which we like a lot

That’s it for now my dears. Check out our YouTube channel for videos from our roadtrip: www.youtube.com/beyondtheblackfest

More links:

Tickets - www.1-night.co.nz/beyondtheblack

Facebook - www.facebook.com/beyondtheblack

Website - www.beyondtheblack.co.nz

This really cool site - www.lemonparty.org

\m/

BTB Crew

First Post.

Dear The World,

We’ve decided to do something a bit wacky and let you behind the scenes with Beyond The Black, NYE Festival 2011/12. We’ll be leading you through our adventures of organising a festival and you’ll be mostly listening to me ramble on (Tamara) but I’m hoping my partner Jenny will jump on (you’ll like her) as well as some other contributors.

Firstly, what is Beyond The Black? Most of you reading this will probably know already but it’s a brand spanking new New Year’s Eve Festival catering to those who like things a little heavier. We are talking rock and metal of all different genres. We came up with this idea while brainstorming about how we’d like to help develop the rock and metal scenes in NZ and boom! here we are. Check out www.beyondtheblack.co.nz

I’m sure you are all aware of some of the challenges facing both of these scenes and especially the metal scene in NZ. We find it under-supported, under-valued and many people have very set ideas about what they think the scene is about. I must admit that I too had these ideas of it being rough, violent and altogether not very pleasant but that was back when my main job was of professional opera singer and yes, banker (try saying it with your fingers pulling your mouth wide). I shortly realised that this is not the case at all. With metal and heavy rock comes a group of people so passionate, dedicated, loyal, well-behaved and supportive which I am still blown away by. So this is why we are here. We intend to make this a festival that the bands will love, the festival goers will love and also that eventually the mainstream media will love so we can really show them what it’s all about. The more people we have coming to these events and the more media support we get, the bigger the international bands we can bring over and obviously that would rule.

Anyway. Let’s catch you up on what we are working on.

It’s 12.18am and I’m just starting work for the evening. I’m actually on holiday but that hasn’t stopped me. The show must go on! My main job has been sussing out the bands (nearly there!), promo and generally the more fun side of organising a festival. It’s also very stressful hence why I’m on holiday. Anyway I am very prone to rambling so let’s press on.

Tonight I am working on some press releases to send out AGAIN to nationwide media, finalising our sponsorship details and getting logos for our graphic designer (who is fantastic btw), sending off email to some music shops around the country in the hopes that they will sell tickets for us and then probably playing Angry Birds for a bit. Obviously.

The last few months have been a bit crazy. I’m lucky to have Jenny who is rational, calm, a very hard worker and who has a great eye for detail. I’m not even sure why I’m here but there ya go. I’ve been making more phonecalls than I’ve done in my entire life and I’ve perfected my phone voice. You can even test it if you want. I’ve also perfected the sucking up type emails, had to be quite stern in tone despite it being way against my nature and spent half my waking hours waiting and waiting for people to get back to me. Oh it’s a tough life. 

So that’s a bit of what’s been going on but follow us and I’ll be updating fairly regularly. You may even come across a funny anecdote or three although I’m MUCH funnier in real life, I promise.

Ta ta for now,

Tamara
Beyond The Black Crew
My Parent’s Couch
My Parent’s House
Havelock North
Hawkes Bay
New Zealand
Earth