Fishy when a Finn is missing

Mark Dawson, Editor of Wanganui Chronicle

Congratulations to Wanganui reggae roots band House of Shem whose latest album was last week nominated in two categories for the New Zealand Music Awards.

The country's premier music prizes covering 26 categories will be handed out in November.

But there was one surprising omission from the list of nominees. New Zealand's finest songwriter, Neil Finn, and his excellent album Dizzy Heights failed to make the cut. His son, Liam, is in there, and so are a bunch of others not quite good enough to lace Finn senior's musical shoelaces.

Okay, music is in the ear of the beholder and one man's Beethoven is another man's Stockhausen, but the former Split Enz and Crowded House frontman is a master craftsman of song who, I suggest, will still be doing the business when many of this year's crop of hopefuls are wowing them at Christmas In The Park.

Probably it doesn't matter (Mr Finn likely doesn't give two hoots) - Lorde will win just about everything regardless of who is put up against her.

But the absence is curious.

The nominations come from record companies, managers and, quaintly, the artists themselves, and then 150 "industry" people sift through the detritus to find the nuggets.

Perhaps they are busy looking for the next big thing rather than the big thing that's been around for years. In fact, Finn has been around for 56 years which makes him old enough to be the father of many of those wannabes up for gongs - and, of course, he is "Dad" to one of them.

So are the judges simply ageist, too commercially minded or deaf? We may never know.

Memo to Lorde: Have a chat with Neil about how to overcome that second-album hurdle - he's a lovely bloke.