"Blaaack Fever" Continues To Sweep The Country

MEDIACOM-RELEASE-THE-MINSTREL-MUSIC-CO

"BLAAACK FEVER" CONTINUES TO SWEEP THE COUNTRY "UNFAIR" PUTS THE MINSTREL'S NAME IN SWITCHBOARD LIGHTS

The Minstrel's "Advance Australia Unfair" lit up switchboards all over the country when it went to air in the week before the first Bledisloe Cup rugby test.

Whether or not it inspired the All Blacks to their glorious ..-.. win over cup-holder Australia, the song, the first in a fortnightly sports-oriented series being released by The Minstrel, electrified listeners.

From Southland identity Boggy McDowall blasting Classic Hits out of Invercargill, to Paul Holmes compering his ZB breakfast show to stations all over New Zealand, radio hosts were staggered by the listener feedback from the unashamedly Aussie-bashing ballad. The Minstrel, Paekakariki-based entertainer and songwriter Mark de Lacy, today releases the second in the series.

"Farewell to Fitzy" celebrates the recently-retired All Black captain on the eve of New Zealand playing its - and Sean Fitzpatrick's - old nemesis, the Springboks, in South Africa. "South Africans regarded Fitzpatrick with a mixture of fear and loathing, so it seems appropriate that we air his musical farewell the week before the All Black-South Africa test," The Minstrel said. "Farewell to Fitzy" is the second of 16 tracks from an album, "Blaaack" that will be released in October.

A third song off the album will be released in a fortnight. It may be "The Fabulous Four'ce", a rugby ballad with special relevance to the second Bledisloe Cup match, to be played in Australia, or one of the dozen other patriotic songs The Minstrel has prepared to celebrate millennial New Zealand netball, track and field, boxing, yachting and bowls events.

Should David Tua, for example, get a world heavyweight boxing title shot, The Minstrel will release "The Fight Game Stinks", on which the rap is done by champion boxer (seven Australasian titles) and motivational speaker Billy Graham.

Topping the fare on "Blaaack" is an "Anthem for New Zealand" with featured guitarist Brian Ringrose, one of the original Invaders who backed New Zealand rock icon Ray Columbus. "Blaaack" was recorded in Ringrose's Christchurch studio.

The singles will be released every two weeks until the All Blacks depart in October for the Rugby World Cup in Britain, when the album will become available.

The singles are being distributed by Christchurch baker Cookie- Time, itself a champion with a flare for innovation: Cookie Time is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having baked the world's largest cookie (24.9 metres in diameter). A portion of the profits from the sale of the "Blaaack" album will go to the Life Education Trust, which operates mobile classrooms taking the anti-substance-abuse message into schools nationwide.

For further information please contact John Grant on ph 04 479

4302 or 021 351 922

Issued by:
The Minstrel Music Company Limited
15 Benares Street
Khandallah
Ph 04 479 4302
Email johngwlgxtra.co.nz

MEDIA RELEASE FROM THE MINSTREL MUSIC COMPANY LIMITED

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