Some fantastic new staff members have joined the Nightlife team during 2003, and sadly there have been one or two departures. Rarely does one person have such an impact on staff, clients and suppliers alike, as did Jilly Graydon. So it is with deep regret that we farewell our Jillypops, who has been with us for over 9 years and is now returning to the UK for family reasons. We wish Jilly lots of luck in her ‘new/old’ life. The new manager of the growing team in the Customer Support Centre is Steve Allen, who comes to us with bucket loads of experience and is already proving a popular choice amongst his peers.

In the meantime, the seasonal rush seems to be more full-on than ever, and our manufacturing elves have been busily working day in, day out to build enough HDMS™’ to fill all the Christmas orders. We had naively thought things might slow down after the onslaught of the Rugby World Cup, but we were wrong – and happily so!

Our progress into the USA has been encouraging, and if you’re wondering why you haven’t heard much about this lately, it’s because we have been producing a US version of this newsletter more specific to their music market. Meanwhile, Nightlife New Zealand experienced a World Cup sales boom similar to that in Australia and continues to grow solidly.

As for the future: The role we play in the entertainment industry, both you as venue owners and Nightlife as suppliers of music video, is not only helping to shape the industry, but dare we say it, popular culture as well. Nightlife will continue to develop the best possible entertainment solutions to ensure this role is not compromised.

Don’t forget, we’ll be here for you over the entire Christmas and New Year period. The office will be closed on the statutory holidays, but fear not, the 24/7 emergency tech support hotline 1800 773 468 will be operating as always.

Team Nightlife hope you have a safe and happy Christmas and wish you all the best for a fantastic New Year.

	The silly season is upon us once again and with that comes a sackful of new tunes. We’re receiving so much music this month, but you can rest assured that, as always, you’re getting the cream of the crop.
	Firstly, a band that has been together for around 17 years and (as well as being one of my personal faves) are still on top of their game. No Doubt look back for the first time this month with their new ‘best of’ compilation Singles 1992-2003. Gwen and the boys have also included a new recording of the 1984 Talk Talk hit It’s My Life. Featuring a cool 80’s flavour and a clever video to boot, the song is an instant radio hit. We released it two weeks ago on CRX93.
	Kelis is probably the most interesting woman in hip-hop at the moment and the one who every producer would love to work with. Here the honour goes to The Neptunes and the result is Milkshake... a sneakily left-field, hook-laden, sultry, siren-like playground chant that is incredibly addictive and will not leave your head. Check it out from CR93.
	Over the past few years almost no one in urban music has shown more ambition than Wyclef Jean. Rapidly approaching legendary status, the ex-Fugee returns to the mainstream this month with Party To Damascus, the 2nd offering from his 4th solo album The Preacher’s Son. Missy Elliott provides her rap and vocal skills to this party anthem. It’s on CRX93.
	CRX93 also features probably one of our most requested hip-hop songs ever. After being an underground smash for around 4 years (and Nightlife receiving about a billion requests) Fatman Scoop’s Be Faithful finally sees a full commercial release with a clip and everything! The song features Crooklyn Clan and a sample from Faith Evans’ Love Like This. Even though this version has been edited quite a bit, I am sure it will satisfy all the DJ’s (for a little while at least).
	The Cat Empire is one of the most exciting new Australian bands this year. Their music is unique, they sell-out gigs in Melbourne by word of mouth and they have just released their self-titled debut album. The song getting all the airplay (and it even beat Justin Timberlake on Channel V’s clip of the week) is Hello. This is one very cool track where you can almost feel the excitement and energy of their very talked about live shows. Throw it in with your party list, from CRX93.
	Still on the homegrown theme, December’s updates also bring you the very best Australian talent this country has to offer right now. Powderfinger, Alex Lloyd, George, Silverchair, Kate Ceberano, Magic Dirt, Delta Goodrem and, of course, afro’d Idol winner Guy Sebastian all have brand spanking new videos and they’re all right here to fill out your playlists for Summer.
On that note, I am going to sign off for the year and wish you a busy and successful Christmas and a deadset cracking New Year. I look forward to writing next year and receiving your feedback.

	Author - Ben Preece
Back to Top

	DJ Disco Goblin - Royal Hotel, Queanbeyan, NSW. DJ Dogg, AKA Jamie is the man who makes it all happen on the dancefloor at the Grumpy Mole Saloon in Tauranga, New Zealand.

Jamie, 28, started out relief DJing and doing the hard yards at weddings, parties, anything until he was discovered by the guys from the Mole where he’s been fulltime DJ for 4 years now. He loves working with the HDMS™ and describes it as “way cool”!

His interests are diverse, ranging from Playstation 2 through to fishing, “LOTS” of fishing. Current favourite song is Du Riechst So Gut from Rammstein, and fave song of all time is Led Zeppelin’s Dazed And Confused. It’s no surprise then that Jimmy Page is the person Jamie would most like to meet. Why? “For starting up the best rock band in the world, that’s why”!

Top 5 from 5

5,4,3,2,1 COUNTDOWN TO A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Now is the time to reinstate your New Year’s Countdown Billboard so that your customers can start counting down to the party of the year.

The first thing you need to check is that your Nightlife Music Video system is showing the correct date and time. If not, then go into Utilities, arrow down to Set Date and Time and follow the prompts (handy hint – use [Shift][Enter] to scroll backwards).

You will also need the New Year’s Countdown Billboard to have a display time to ensure it appears on the televisions. To do this, press [Ctrl][B] to the billboards program and press the [SPACEBAR] to access your individual billboards. Arrow through them to the New Year’s Countdown. Press [T]ime and the display time in the bottom right hand corner will be highlighted in blue. Enter the time that you wish this billboard to be displayed for, eg 10 seconds, and then press [ENTER].

Don’t forget to then press [Ctrl][H] for any changes to be activated and to get back to the Nightlife program or [F]reeze if you want only this billboard to display. Use the [F6] function to permanently show billboards on your TVs.

We also recommend that you do a New Year’s Countdown test run now by setting the date and time to a couple of minutes before 12am on 31 December to ensure the Countdown is working. Don’t forget to then change the date and time back to the present!

Meanwhile, have you checked your updates using our Music Update Survey enclosed with this month’s new music? If you didn’t receive this survey form or you think your new music is not installing correctly, please contact us on toll-free 1800 773 468.

Be good, have fun, party hard, but remember, we know if you’ve been naughty or nice!

Merry Christmas from the Customer Support Centre

News From NZ

By now you would have received the first of the NZX releases, which we trust you have enjoyed. The plan is for this to become a regular monthly update as of next year.

The NZX release caters for two important music components. Firstly, New Zealand music video - both latest release and classic. Bear in mind some of the classic music is difficult to find and is often unusable, but we have been digging around for you.

With regard to the latest release and current chart music, we need your help to ensure that we are chasing up the right music for you and that we release it when the music is hitting the charts. So DJs, talk 2us by phone, email, or return the DJ feedback forms which we send out with every update.

The second part of NZX is the release of great classics by international artists. Now New Zealand is a little unique in, not only our ability to obtain the licence to play such music video, but also in the fact that the classics are in such demand in so many of our bars. We believe this has a lot to do with our liberal licensing laws and a strong ‘party bar’ emphasis nationally. Patrons of all ages love to dance and sing to the oldies but goodies and we have some beauties coming up. So stay posted and don't forget to keep those feedback forms rolling in.

Seasons Greetings
From all the Team at
Nightlife New Zealand
Ph: Whangarei 09 430 3035