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We've marked 2024 in music with our Retro Now Music Awards on Boxing Day

Richard Phelps has wrapped up 2024 on Boxing Day, with a look at the best from the best, over the last 12 months.

The Winners for 2024 

BEST REMASTER

We look for the best remastered album, box set, expanded or anniversary edition

• WINNER: Green Day: ‘American Idiot’ (8LP + 2 x Blu-ray; 4CD + 2 x Blu-ray)

• INXS, All Juiced Up Part 2 (x9 12” LP)

• Thompson Twins - Into The Gap (40th anniversary edition, 3CD, red vinyl remaster, blu ray)

• Chaka Khan: ‘Chaka’ (black vinyl, red vinyl, CD)

• Seal: ‘Seal: Deluxe Edition’ (black and “milky white” 2LP, CD + Blu-ray)

• Tim Finn - Escapade 2024 Remaster (Red LP)

Green Day’s seventh record was a critical and commercial success – a concept album which features the singles ‘American Idiot’, ‘Jesus of Suburbia’, ‘Holiday’, ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’, and ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’.

Two box sets share the same audio and video content, with a 4CD + 2 x blu-ray set and an 8LP vinyl + 2 x blu-ray super deluxe both offering 15 unreleased demos, a 15-song 2004 concert featuring 9 previously unreleased songs, and 14 B-sides and bonus tracks.

Now THAT is how you treat your fans to an unmissable package!

BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHY OR BOOK

Penned either by the subject or authorised publisher

• WINNER: John Farnham, The Voice Inside

• Rick Astley, Never

• Tupac Shakur: The Authorized Biography

• Boy George, Karma, My Autobiography

• Jimmy Barnes, Highways & Byways

• Cher, The Memoir, Part 1

• Alex Van Halen, Brothers

• Neneh Cherry, A Thousand Threads

• Elton John, Farewell Yellow Brick Road

The Voice Inside is John Farnham's first ever memoir, written with Poppy Stockell who directed the 2023 documentary Finding The Voice. 

The list of accolades and achievements is long - so, at first glance, the John Farnham story is one filled with remarkable highs. 

It is the story of the resilience John found when his stellar career stalled, record companies turned their backs, and he faced financial ruin.

We also learn a cat once bit him on the penis, and Aussie PM Bob Hawke once offered him a counterfeit watch.

BEST LIVE ACT

The tour, and who brought the best bang for buck

• Pearl Jam, Dark Matter Tour

• Foo Fighters, But Here We Are Tour

• WINNER: Coldplay, Music Of The Spheres World Tour

• Thom Yorke, Everything Tour

• Crowded House, Gravity Stairs Tour

• Matchbox 20, Slow Dream Tour

We last saw Coldplay in NZ back in 2016 and it’s no surprise that more than 10 million tickets have been sold for the Music of the Spheres world tour, which began in 2022 and is undoubtedly the biggest tour that was seen in NZ during 2024.

Coldplay originally announced just one Eden Park show on November 13 but there were reportedly more than 200,000 people waiting in the digital pre-sale queue the day tickets went on sale - more than four times the venue's capacity.

BEST FEMALE ARTIST

A woman who has inspired us in the year

• Mariah Carey

• Suzanne Vega

• WINNER: Kylie Minogue

• Gabrielle

• Mary J Blige

• Tina Arena

As Kylie enters her fifth decade in the music industry, she has had an incredible run over the last 18 months, with one of the most viral songs of last year – the addictive and sexy “Padam Padam”.

She found appreciation from the newer generation of listeners, and followed up last year's album TENSION, with TENSION II which has been a solid followup, especially in AUS and in the UK where both albums topped the charts.

BEST MALE ARTIST

A guy you’ve started a bromance with

• Sting

• Billy Joel

• LL Cool J

• WINNER: Lenny Kravitz

• Boy George

• David Byrne

It’s been a very good year for Lenny, releasing his 12th album Blue Electric Light, lighting up social media with his casual and fun posts as he announced and kicked off his 18th tour firstly in Europe, over to South America and back to Europe through the first half of 2025. He also named one of his new songs after a Star Wars droid, he was a nominee for the Rock Hall of Fame, but did walk away with an MTV video award for Human.

BEST GROUP

Hands down have nailed it in 2024

• Duran Duran

• WINNER: Tears For Fears

• Bon Jovi

• New Kids On The Block

• Pearl Jam

• Green Day

Tears for Fears are survivors. Tipping Point, their first album in 17 years, was informed by the death of Roland's wife as well as his newly forged bond with Curt. They went Top 10 across the globe for the first time since 1989.

The resulting tour was completed in two stages after Curt broke four ribs in an accident that pulled them off the road for a year.

So this year, after releasing Songs for a Nervous Planet, their first official live album, it includes fan favorites, songs from 2022’s The Tipping Point and four new studio tracks. The show was also filmed and screened in theaters, which elevates the band's history up to now, in 22 songs.

They are set to run a few dates in Vegas early in 2025.

BEST NEW ZEALAND RELEASE

The song or album the world needs to hear

• Zed - Play

• Rikki Morris - Before You Go

• Jon Toogood - Gravity

• WINNER: Crowded House - Teenage Summer

• Nathan Haines - Love You More

• Head Like A Hole - One Foot In The Grave

• Pluto - Liquorice

Neil Finn and his bandmates, who now include his two sons Liam and Elroy Finn, along with Mitchell Froom and Nick Seymour, released Gravity Stairs this year, their 8th studio album. We’re so proud of them for picking up the second ever Rolling Stone Icon Award early in the year. Neil’s acceptance award was truly memorable.

SINGLE OF THE YEAR

Gauging critical and commercial success

• Pet Shop Boys - Dancing Star

• LL Cool J, Eminem - Murdergram Deux

• Lenny Kravitz - Human

• WINNER: Billy Joel - Turn The Lights Back On

• Pearl Jam - Wreckage

• New Kids On The Block - Kids

After not writing any new music for decades, a chance encounter with a young record producer put Billy Joel back into the spotlight in February for a new single. The song, born out of his long lost demos and an unlikely friendship, created the opportunity for Billy to write a new song, about his relationship with songwriting.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

The one you should have on repeat over summer

• Pet Shop Boys - Nonetheless

• New Kids On The Block - Still Kids

• WINNER: Duran Duran - Danse Macabre: De Luxe

• Lenny Kravitz - Blue Electric Light

• Kylie Minogue - Tension II

• Tears For Fears - Astronaut

By all accounts, Duran Duran are in a great phase in their career. In 2023 they released a Halloween-themed album, Danse Macabre which not only reunited them with long-time collaborator Nile Rodgers, but also former member, Roger Taylor. In 2024, they followed up the album in a DeLuxe edition which included a number of cover songs, that were brilliantly arranged, including New Moon, Ghost Town, Super Freak, Psycho Killer and Evil Woman.

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR

Who has stayed relevant, and top of mind?

• WINNER: Bon Jovi (Forever)

• Billy Joel (Turn The Lights Back On)

• New Kids On The Block (Still Kids)

• Crowded House (Gravity Stairs)

• Tears For Fears (Songs For A Nervous Planet)

• Duran Duran (Danse Macabre: De Luxe)

Things have been tough for Jon Bon Jovi, his determination to keep doing what he loves has been evident in a number of ways, and we got to see it all this year in the docuseries ‘Thank You, Goodnight’ which shows us that yea, even Jon Bon Jovi is not immortal. 

He has undergone vocal chord surgery that allows him to give 100% of the 80% his vocals will allow, his strict physical routine allows him to stay in shape and perform to 100% of what his body will allow him, to write and record the latest Bon Jovi album ‘Forever’, then tour it - is a huge testament to him and all close to him. His bandmates, his family, his fans know he has not pushed himself through, rather he has pulled himself up through hard work to be where he is. 

That is quite a comeback, it’s living proof.

REMIX OF THE YEAR

Retro Hits that have been remixed or re-invented 

• Jamiroquai - Canned Heat, by Dimitri From Paris

• Tina Arena- Chains, by Shouse

• WINNER: Roxette - Fading Like A Rose, by Roxette

• Round and Around - Jaki Graham, by Duck Sauce

• Mariah Carey - Rainbow’s End, by Mariah Carey

• Celine Dion - I’m Alive, by Majestic

• Alphaville - Forever Young, by David Guetta, Ava Max

When we lost Marie in 2019 as a result of health issues stemming from her brain tumour, her bandmate, Per Gessle has had his own solo career on the side whilst keeping the Roxette legacy alive by finishing unfinished songs, writing new music, looking after the catalogue by reissuing and remastering it all, releasing demos and remixes, and moving the story forward in a similar way that Queen have done with Adam Lambert, Roxette is touring with Per and Lena Philipson who joined Roxette this year, as a live proxy for Marie, and likely for new songs.

You can tell Per has been a careful custodian of the Roxette legacy too, especially this year where he was closely involved in a fantastically creative idea by original Roxette producer Clarence Öfwerman together with Roxette bass player Magnus Börjeson, by mashing up 5 classic Roxette tracks into one: Dangerous, Listen To Your Heart, Fading Like A Flower, Joyride and Dressed for Success - and it’s our remix of the year!