Music 101 for Saturday 5 July 2025

13:20 You’re invited: Princess Chelsea’s Midwinter Ball

Chelsea Lee Nikkel, AKA Princess Chelsea, will host a fantasy-themed Midwinter Ball at The Civic’s Wintergarden, Auckland.

The ball, titled Swords and Sorcery: Fantasy on The Big Screen, will be hosted by comedian Tom Sainsbury. Tāmaki Makaurau-based guests The Circling Sun & The Golden Axe will support Princess Chelsea & The Dream Warriors.

The Ball will include ‘medieval sword fighting’, portraits and prizes for the best dressed. Attendees are encouraged to dress up in fantasy attire.

Nikkel joins Tony Stamp live on Music 101 to mull it over.

Princess Chelsea’s Midwinter Ball:

• July 18 – Wintergarden, The Civic, Auckland - tickets

14:20 Melo and Bass: The new Melodownz EP

Aotearoa rapper and poet Bronson Price, AKA MELODOWNZ, joins Tony Stamp for Music 101 to discuss the release of new EP MELO & BASS.

For Price, it’s all about the groove. He told Tony Stamp the nine tracks on the EP have an uplifting feel.

The EP is a collaborative project featuring artists like Caru, Romi Wrights, Halfsing, deadforest and PANIA.

It’s the first MELODOWNZ release since 2022’s long player LONE WOLF.

Price also announces he’s got another EP in the works called MELO & CRUISE.

15:15 DJ Al’Goodie brings home the goods

Alfred Aholelei, AKA DJ Al’Goodie, has worked for years as a Music Director at Niu FM platforming Pasifika musicians and mentoring young presenters.

Aholelei is renowned for his work DJing a number of historic, sold out Mate Ma Tonga games of 2018, his selections of Tongan hymns at times moving members of the crowd to tears.

Producer and Al’Goodie former student So’omālō Iteni Schwalger visits him at home to discuss the origins of his love for music, his mahi in radio and how he came to be a DJ.

16:00 The Mixtape: Alex Casey

Alex Casey is a senior writer at The Spinoff, having been involved on-and-off since its launch in 2014.

Casey enjoys writing on a wide range of topics from long-form investigative pieces – recent examples include a piece on Botox use in Aotearoa – to pop culture phenomena. 

She selects a triptych of song pairs from each decade of her life for the RNZ Mixtape.

Songs Played:

1pm-2pm

• Supergrass – Coffee in the Pot

• Womb – One Is Always Heading Somewhere

• Fabiana Palladino – Stay With Me Through the Night

• Lihmal – Never Ending Story

• Princess Chelsea & the Dream Warriors – Floating (Live)

• Klaus Doldinger – Fantasia

• Giorgio Mordor – Ivory Tower

• Princess Chelsea – Come As You Are

• Princess Chelsea – Dream Warrior

• Golden Axe – Free Time

• The Circling Sun – Bones

2pm-3pm

• Kimchi – Windsurf (Kraak and Smaak Remix)
• Birdlings Flat – Spirit Bear
• Hannah Everingham – Maria
• Ugly Duckling – Introduckling
• Melodownz – MELLOW CALM & CHILL
• Melodownz – Lyrical Hypnosis
• Melodownz – Directions
• Melodownz – High Vibrations
• Melodownz – Chocolate
• Young Fathers – Promised Land
• Christoph El Truento – Hold On to Your Mind
• Luscious Jackson – Naked Eye

3pm-4pm

• Tricksi – Pill Collins
• Tessa de Lyon – Offend You
• Bonobo, Bakja – Days to Come
• The Jets – Crush on You
• Nightmares on Wax – Give Thx
• The Lemonheads – If I Could Talk I'd Tell You
• Pickle Darling – Human Bean Instruction Manual
• Falle Nioke – Fa Le Le Le
• Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer

4pm-5pm

• Wannabe – Spice Girls
• The Fear – Lily Allen
• Life of the Party – Chelsea Jade
• Jump Rope Gazers – The Beths
• Light of a Clear Blue Morning – Dolly Parton
• In My Life – The Beatles