Rock school says you can be born to run in Masterton

Rock is running hot in Masterton with a School of Rock workshop now coming only days after the first Smokefreerockquest final in the town for six years.
School of Rock director Thomas Goss said the three-day school holiday workshop is to be held at the Masterton Town Hall with a fourth day featuring a live performance event.
There is also to be a three day Rock Camp at Rathkeale College in the week before Christmas this year, which was outlined in an earlier Times-Age story.
Places have already been booked for the July workshop ?V to run from July 4 to 7 - which still has about 15 vacancies available at $125 each.
To register for the July workshop or December Rock Camp go online to www.schoolofrock.co.nz and "fill in the blanks", he said.
Audition times will either be set during the coming two weeks or an audition will be conducted by telephone.
"I usually like to meet personally with vocalists and guitarists but it can be done over the phone, as with bass or keyboards."
Workshop players can expect to be split into two large bands ?V with some amplifiers and performance equipment supplied ?V and will work through three hours on each of the three days of "intense" mentorship in the art and craft of rock music.
"Everybody gets a chance to learn four or five songs in their group
"We're not just taking people's money and patting them on the back and it's not a slight on the permanent and itinerant music teachers who are doing a great job out here ?V but teaching only reaches so far ?V they can't really apprentice a player."
Players at the workshop will be taken through the basics of song composition, band rehearsal and performance, and survival in the heady world of hit discs and big dreams.
Mr Goss earlier said he developed his training methods around the concept of mentoring "that works on the apprenticeship model" and provides players with a safe and supportive way of interacting with other musicians their own age.
The school offers programmes tailored to suit individual skill levels, he said, that range from the holiday workshop programme to apprenticeship, journeyman and master classes spread over three years of study, he said.
"Participation at the workshop means a player won't have to audition for a place at the School of Rock or at the Rock Camp in December. And we have no ownership over the band or artists we mentor ?V they do well, which is great, or when they learn what it is they escape. Either way the road is theirs to take."
Mr Goss said there is the possibility that there may be a performance at the workshop finale by Wellington School of Rock band The Philosophers ?V who this year released their debut album after two years in the school.
Smokefreerockquest spokeswomson Jacquetta Bell has said that 12 Wairarapa bands are to fight it out at the Masterton Town Hall on June 30, with two acts going on to join 46 other bands in a national final.
Smokefreerockquest competitors to take the stage in Masterton Friday week include Wairarapa College bands Spit Shine, Foetal Position, and Obsidian, Tararua College band Insala, Rathkeale College band Felix Theorum, Makoura College band S.K.U.X., Kuranui College bands Genuwine Saints and Switchblade, St Matthews Collegiate band Shoolayces, and Dannevirke High School band Maskara.
??The Masterton Smokefreerockquest final starts at 8pm on Friday June 30 at the Masterton Town Hall with tickets costing $15 at the door.