6 THINGS I LEARNED AT THE VODAFONE MUSIC AWARDS

Every year I say I'm not going to go because I'll be out past my bedtime, but every year I go anyway. This time, someone actually asked me if it's my favourite night of the year. It isn't, although here's what I found out about Kiwi music in 2012...

1: Kimbra is exactly as awesome as I thought she was. Not sure if you can learn something you already knew, but it was gratifying to see everyone else at my table learning it after I'd been banging on about her all night.

2: Young people's music isn't all bad. They seem to really like Six60, which is good because they're actually a good band who play great songs really well. Way to go, young people.

3: Presenting an awards ceremony is a tough gig. If people like Ricky Gervais and Russell Brand can't always get it right, it's hardly surprising some of Ben Boyce's jokes fell a bit flat. He wasn't terrible though, which is about the best you can hope for, I reckon. Not having the mic's turned up loud enough to hear Jamie Ridge speak was a stroke of genius, by the way.

4: Taika Waititi is one of New Zealand's funniest men. Ignore everything I said in thing #3. Just hire him to host the whole thing next time. If his material was scripted like everyone else's was, he's even more of a genius than I thought, because he got genuine laughs and not just groans of vague disintrest.

5: Home Brew are a bunch of dicks. No talent. Can't rap. Can't dance. Swear too much. Think they need to talk like their idea of 1990's American gangsters. Dicks.

6: Chris Knox was in a band called Toy Love. I thought his legacy was the song "Not Given Lightly." After hearing some of Toy Love's music, I still think that.