Exciting recognition for King's High School's musicians

Roadkill - Ashane De Silva, Luca Macnee, Aidan Blair, Logan Scarf-Miller and Blake Hughes. Being the first band of the night, they set the bar very high for the rest of the bands with a blistering set, chock-full of their signature guitar harmonies, thunderous rhythm section and passionately yelled vocals. The only thing louder than Roadkill themselves were the crowd. Frontman, Ashane De Silva commanded the audiences attention, and when he sent out his calls of "let me hear you Dunedin!", Dunedin responded just as enthusiastically.

Sunspot - Ethan Kuriger, Riley Cooper, Ezra Solomon, Seth Souquet and Thilina Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage. These boys came on to the stage with their slick, professional package. Their brand of indie rock shows off a very different stage presence style to our metal bands but they were equally engaging and still managed to bust out a few tricks like Riley Cooper's behind-the-head guitar solo and Ezra Solomon sneaking in a Michael Jackson-inspired spin between keyboard parts.

They have two more gigs coming up soon, so keep an eye out for this name in future.

Holy Fire - Amos Bethel, Caleb McGuire and Kohl Goodfellow. Holy Fire wear their passion on their sleeve and on this night they were determined to put on a show that would be remembered. The Christian-metal trio were all over the stage, lunging down low, flying through the air, sharing vocal duties and all seemingly without missing a beat.

At the prizegiving Amos Bethel received the Musicianship Award for the prowess he showed on lead guitar for Holy Fire.

Sunspot took away the Best Song Award for their second song (a song they had written in a fit of inspiration four days before the show). 

We can be incredibly proud of the way these three bands represented our school, they were passionate and professional both on and off stage. There was such a high standard of performance across the city (one judge noted it was the highest quality Rockquest show he'd seen in his 28 years of attending) this means that unfortunately, our bands missed out on receiving a placing, despite giving worthy performances. This brings to an end another wonderful year of Smokefree Rockquest for King's High School, a huge thank you to all of the students who put in so much effort and to all of their support networks within their friends and families.