The nightmare of building a new online repository to both contain and more fully expose 20 years of local music coverage and commentary came to an end at the stroke of 5pm on October 31, 2016 with the unveiling of NZ Musician magazine’s brand (spanking) new website.

Speaking at the exclusive caffeine- and sugar-saturated launch of the new site, Dr Frank N.Thorne surprised the barely-present revellers with the news that, “It’s just a jump to the left…”, when his assistant Magenta Hartung had evidently convinced those still on the dancefloor that it would, in fact, be a step to the right.

The truth, perhaps lies somewhere in the middle…

Dr Thorne went on to explain that while the building stage of this striking new site (‘Rocky’ as he mysteriously kept referring to it) is indeed now complete it should be considered more as a skeletal framework upon which the domestic staff of NZM will in future months work to populate with the flesh and various organs of past articles, reviews, news and other features.

“This process will require many full moon cycles, who knows, perhaps even years, as the vaults of NZ Musician magazine are cavernous in the extreme. In full they date back to 1988. In terms of what was previously available in the horror show that our previous site had become over time they go back as far as the turn of the century.”

As much as it is a detailed receptacle of the recent history of NZ music, nzmusician.co.nz is very much a place for fresh blood, added Hartung.

“With this new site NZM now has an almost insatiable appetite for new releases, albums, EPs, videos and more. We have galleries for event photos, live gig reviews, blogs, multimedia content – much of which will require unsuspecting new donors.”