The 2006 New Zealand Air
Guitar Champion is...
Ben Greaney aka 'The Hellmutt
Experience'
Strings
& dreams have been broken in a lead up to the 5th annual
2006 New Zealand Air Guitar Championships’ (NZAGC) National
Grand Final in order to find the ‘greatest guitarist in New
Zealand who never played’!
CLICK HERE to view Photo Gallery from
National Final.
The NZ
National Grand Final featuring special guest MC, Johno from
C4TV, was held on Thursday night 27/7/06, at the ‘Brownzy
Bar’, Auckland.
2005 &
2006 New Plymouth champ, Ben Greaney aka ‘The Hellmutt
Experience’, is the newly crowned 2006 NZ National Champ!!
‘Hellmutt’ went onto represent the nation at the 11th (one
louder then 10!) Annual
Air Guitar World Championships
(AGWC), Finland, 09/9/06 where he placed a very respectable
10th overall.
The
Ideology of AGWC is to promote world peace. According to
the AGWC ideology, all evil things disappear from the world
whenever people play the air guitar.
Whilst
the 2006 NZAGC win was sweet for ‘Hellmutt’ (49.5 points) it was
certainly not easy with very stiff competition from fellow
national finalists including; ‘Rrrroxy’ (Tauranga), ‘Jag-her’
(WELL), ‘Angus Riley’ (Palm Nth) & ‘The Dominator’
(CCH).
‘Hellmutt’s’ biggest threat on the night came from air
guitar stalwarts ‘Jack Axe’ (AKL - 49.0 points) second place
& ‘Rad Bad Rockin Jono’ (HAM – 48.0 points) third place.
2006 NZAGC National Final Competitor Profile:
*Auckland Champ - Jacob Slovak aka "Jack
Axe".
From the
very start it was obvious that the Queen of NZ Air Guitar,
defending Auckland & reigning NZ Champion and World no 2
‘Gizzy Guitar’ was the early favourite with the punters.
That said, with a plethora of new and old talent on display
it was always going to be a hard fought contest with
everyone in with a chance for ultimate glory. After an
intense competition the judges were left to deliberate and
after lengthy debate returned to announce that “Jack Axe”
was the competition winner dethroning the defending
champion.
*Hamilton
Champ -
John Gerrand aka ‘Rad Bad Rockin Johno’.
A
veteran of the NZ Air Guitar circuit, ‘Johno’ has been
knocking on the National Final door for three long years
having placed second to air guitar great and three times
Hamilton Champ, ‘Bradley Boy Holmes’. With Holmes out of
the picture this year due to a negative result to a pre comp
drug & alcohol test in late 2005, Johno tore the bag out of
the Hamilton Final to secure not just victory, but destiny!
*Tauranga
Champ - Roxy Wassenaar aka ‘RRRRRoxy’. Chick
rock, chick rock was the call from the vocal Tauranga crowd
as this 18 year old, left handed rock vixen acknowledged her
adoring, and recently acquired, fans after securing
victory. A student studying a diploma in music production
and performance, ‘RRRRRoxy’, the sole female competitor,
puts theory into practice when she takes to the stage &
plugs in her air axe.
*New Plymouth Champ - Ben Greaney aka ‘The
Hellmutt Experience’.
After a hard
fought contest ‘The Hell-Mutt Experience’, a car detailer by
day and absolute rock pig by night, took out the Naki title
for the second time. Victory was sweet but not easy with
stiff competition from seasoned veteran Scott "Noodles"
Fletcher (2nd) & ‘Danno da Manno’ (3rd).
‘Hell-Mutt's’ highly technical style and big game knowledge
(placing 3rd in 2005 Nat Final) could see him as an early favourite for the 2006 title.
*Wellington
Champ -
Mike Fisher
aka ‘Jag-ger’.
With stage
presence to match the name, ‘Jag-ger’ makes the stage his
domain and the music his biatch! With a love of good rock
music from old skool to modern tunes, ‘Jag-ger’ brings solid
air alive with his innovative and entertaining performance.
This is
‘Jag-ger’s’ first time on the national stage and to get here
he had to knock off very serious competition from some of
NZ’s immortal air guitarists.
*Dunedin
Champ -
Tapu Manea
aka: ‘Angus Riley’.
A fresh face
to the air guitar scene, ‘Angus Riley’ dominated the contest
from word go with a style that lead many to believe he had
been playing the air guitar all his life! ‘That guy’s
really at one with that air guitar’ a comment rings from the
enthralled audience witnessing the firsthand the birth of a
potential air guitar star! Like grains of sand through
an hour glass, time will tell…
*Christchurch Champ - Dominic Murphy aka ‘The
Dominator’.
Air Guitarists and fans once again gathered in the cauldron
to bare witness to challenge for the right to represent the
fine region of Canterbury. Alas only one winner could
progress and after a hard fought air assault & that was none
other then defending champ, ‘The Dominator’! With back to
back title under his studded black belt, ‘Dominator’ is set
to rock out big time at the national final.
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