Chris Mason has been chosen to compete in the heats of the 2006 Next Big Thing WA competition, with the first heats starting mid-June. NBTWA is Western Australia's richest band competition and one of the state's major musical events. With heats held all around the state, competition is fierce. Each band/artist competes in their initial heat for a chance to advance to one of two Major Semis, and then the Grand Final (to be held Saturday July 29). Only 49 artists were chosen to compete out of more than 160 entries by a panel of WA music industry heavyweights – including Luke Rinaldi, Tenille Elkins and Steph Edwardes - which Chris admits is a little daunting.

"Yeah, guess I better practice a bit so I don't make a complete fool of myself. The quality of bands is usually pretty good for this competition, so I'm not going to go in with any expectations, really. It should be great fun, though, and a bit of an honour to play such a prestigious event in front of some pretty influential people."

Each heat winner will be included on the NBTWA 2006 Compilation CD(distributed nationally) with the winner of the grand final to receive a prize package which includes recording time, production and promotional material. Heat placements will be announced later this week.

The Hidden Shoal Recordings catalogue is now up and playing on the popular net radio site, Last FM. Head on over and have a listen.

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Chris Mason will be playing solo at the Swan Hotel, 201 Queen Victoria Street Fremantle on Saturday 27th of May from 2pm. Chris will be playing songs from his recent album release "Up Down Up", as well as some new material that is yet to be recorded.

My Majestic Star’s new album “Too Late, The Day” is currently in production and will be completed within the next four months for release early 2007. The album will contain ten tracks and will continue the process of exploring mood and emotion through music. The process, as ever, is not restricted to one singular theme or expression, and the music is allowed to grow and metamorphose of its own volition.

“It’ll pick up where Ideas left off, lots of lush guitars and ambient sounds, with a few keyboards and the odd strange vocal thrown in as well. I’ve been playing with samples and some other weird sounds. There are some longer, more explorative tracks but also a couple of pop numbers. It’s not finished yet, though, so it might end up to be country rock by the time I’m done with it.” My Majestic Star a.k.a Chris Mason.