First of all, congratulations to the Green Party on their unexpected election landslide.

Yes, it's official! Here at the Watusi Spiritual Retreat our incredibly advanced political polling methods have already calculated the election results. After the final leaders debate it seems that so many of the electorate were completely turned off by the vacant sloganeering and empty posturing of the two major parties that there was an overwhelming exodus of voters to the Greens.
The Weekend Sun will in future be printed on recyclable flax leaves.
In other news, Gray Eatwell's surprising victory in Tauranga means there will be a citizen's initiated referendum to amend the anti-smacking legislation. You still won't be able to hit your kids but if you see MPs in public you can take a couple of free shots, just as long as you use reasonable force.
There is, of course, in our polling data, a fifty per cent margin of error, as well as a three drink minimum, so it is vaguely conceivable that our results forecast is mildly inaccurate. There will be no refunds.
Moving along from the political tsunami about to envelop New Zealand let's talk about music.
Firstly, following up on The Weekend Sun's review of Hard To Handle's Live @ The Colosseum album, there will now be a gig to launch it.
The original show that spawned the album took place a year and a half ago. Hard To Handle and Brilleaux both played and while Brilleaux broke world speed records to release a CD of their set with a week of its recording, Hard To Handle took a little longer (as you can if you disbanded over a decade ago). Still, two live album – and ones of such quality – from a single show is remarkable.
Now they're going to do it again to launch the Hard To Handle album. Both bands will be playing, along with guitarist Grant Haua's new group and a slew of guests. I mention it here solely as an advance warning and because tickets go on sale next week for $20 at The Colosseum, Bay City Music, and Mayers Music. The gig will be on December 5 at The Colosseum. CDs will be available on the night and can already be found in Tracs and Jim's Music Room.
And while the crew of those bands may be seasoned old-timers, one of the great advances the Bay has made in recent years is the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic's Diploma in Music Production & Performance. The musical skills that students are gathering there are already beginning to feed into the music scene here and it looks likely to only go from strength to strength.
Next week they will be putting on the third of a tri-annual showcase to feature the best talent coming out of the course. The end of year bash - Sum It Up - will be held on Wednesday, (November 12) at the Colosseum. It will feature four of the Polytech's top bands plus up and coming singer/songwriter Glen Goldsbury.
And there should be plenty of variety on display.
Gun Jah are a duo comprising James Kawha and Sam Leamy (who also plays with local heavy metallers Adrenechrome). They perform with two guitars and a drum machine. Continuing a Rasta theme are Soul Jah (which is certainly enough 'Jah” puns for one concert), a reggae-influenced band who played a chilled laid-back set with a dub groove earlier this year at the Littleweed Festival.
Then there's hip-hop outfit Nytmare, who have been making waves around the country. They are Hera Tamati and partner/producer/publicist/manager/audio engineer Jayson Gardiner, though they employ various different musicians' to join them on stage. Hera was placed in the Top 5 for MTV's Who Wants To Be a Rockstar? competition, and went to the MTV Music Video Awards with her 'Ghetto Princess” video clip, which also had high rotation on C4, Juice TV, and MTV. A new single and video 'Snap Back” has just finished recording and will be released soon, as well as a planned full album.
The night concludes with Triple JJJ, already a well-established covers band in Tauranga. They are a three piece, with Joel Shadbolt singing and playing guitar, Jason Crawford on drums and Jeremy Harker on bass. They can certainly do the bizzo.
If you want to check out the music scene of the future, look no further. There's a modest $5 door charge.
watusi@thesun.co.nz