Each year, Rockstar Memoirs publishes hundreds of yearbooks for schools around Australia. The Yearbook of the Year Awards recognise excellence in the yearbook creation process, final design and print standard. Only the very best schools are able to tell the story of their schooling year to such a highly engaging standard.

This year’s winners won a prize pack including a Panasonic Lumix S1 Camera, which features 12.1 megapixels, 4x optical zoom, optical image stabiliser and long-lasting lithium rechargeable batteries. We can’t wait to see the photos taken with these little beauties in this year’s yearbooks!

Congratulations to all the winning schools!

• Beaudesert State High School Yearbook, edited by Taya Lindner
• Biloela State High School Yearbook Narina, edited by Jenelle Wood
• Carwatha College Yearbook, edited by Tanya Morey
• Catherine McAuley Westmead, Yearbook edited by Jacqui Hamilton
• Deception Bay State High School Yearbook, edited by Alex Gramotnev & Chantelle Eastwood
• Goroke P-12 College Yearbook, edited by Kylie Charlton
• Green Point Christian College Yearbook, edited by Stephanie McCarthy
• Greensborough Secondary College Yearbook, edited by Glenn Jenner
• Hoppers Crossing Secondary College Yearbook, edited by Natasha Forder
• Lilydale High School Yearbook Salamander, edited by Adam Sherwin
• Marian College Yearbook, edited by Natalie Micallef & Vito Milana
• Melrose High School Yearbook, edited by Jenni Evans, Beth Morris and Heath Cooper
• Mount St Benedict Yearbook, edited by Mary-Jane Trujilo
• North Lakes State College Yearbook, edited by Greta Creed
• North Rockhampton State High School Yearbook, edited by Tracie Salqvist
• Northside Christian College Yearbook, edited by Renee Wolfik
• Our Lady of Lebanon College Yearbook, edited by Harry Stephens
• Penrith Christian School Yearbook PhoCuS, edited by Sharon Tuft & Sherilyn Freeburn
• Penrith High School Yearbook The Towers, edited by Nathan Wilcox & Team
• PLC Armidale Yearbook Ad Astra, edited by Jenny Robinson
• Randwick Girls High School Yearbook Jirra ,edited by Mary Wren & Team
• Reservoir District Secondary College Magazine, edited by Melanie Gaylard
• Richard Johnson Anglican School Yearbook Footprints, edited by Rob Cohen
• Rockhampton Girls Grammar Yearbook, edited by James Lye
• San Clemente High School Yearbook, edited by Rosemary MacCallister
• Sebastopol College Yearbook Threshold, edited by Andrea Quayle
• St Catherine’s Catholic College Singleton Yearbook, edited by Lisa Peel, Renee Burns, Karen Earnshaw & Terry Holstein
• St Clare’s College Yearbook, edited by Natalie Dickie

Stay tuned for details about the 2011 Yearbook of the Year Awards! And don’t forget to order your Starter Pack to get started on this year’s yearbook project!

Our team at Rockstar have an eclectic taste in music – with die-hard fans of everything from Lady Gaga, to David Bowie, to Michael Buble, to Mozart. Me I’m a die-hard fan of an indie-pop garage-rock band, The Go! Team.

And finally after a long and painful 4 year wait, they’ve released a new album Rolling Blackouts!

And it’s the best thing ever!

Attempted description of The Go! Team…

The Go! Team are like nothing you’ve heard before. Their music can be described as an addictive up-beat sugar-hit melody trip of dandy, that beamingly awakens the fun-loving kid inside everyone! And that kid still is inside everyone.

The Go Team! is pop without the lame. Pop-rock without the “same old” vibe. It’s not for everyone, but everyone gets it. It’s flutes, trumpets, chants, hip-hop and cute-as-hell vocals that make so much sense! There are cherries there too. Yes. cherries.

The Album…

Rolling Blackouts is The Go! Team’s third gear. And while you don’t have to have heard their first 2 albums, you have to know that gear 3 is so much more smoother, faster, and slicker than the first 2.

Individually, almost every track has an original soul of it’s own, and when heard together back-to-back on the album, every track in their entirety and order makes so much sense. Unlike albums 1 and 2, nothing feels out of place, lost or boring. When the energy gets too much, in slows down. Not to a crawl, but a melodic peace that soothes your sense for your next joy-powered overload.

If I had to make a complaint about Rolling Blackouts, it would be the vocals. After all, with a lead vocalist called Ninja – you have to hear them right? Yes and no.

I’ve heard the album quite a few times now, and sometimes I wonder what the hell I’m tripping out to. Am I zinging along to a chant about doing big poos? Does it really matter? Not really… It just would have been nice to have a vocal anthem track on there like “Doing it Right“. But that’s not to say there are no athems.

If I had to pick a favourite, I’d say Tracks 2 (Secretary Song), 3 (Apollo Throwdown), 4 (Ready to Go Steady), 5 (Bust out Brigade), 6 (Buy Nothing Day), 8 (Voice Yr Choice), 9 (Yosemite Theme), 1o (Running Range), and 13 (Back Like 8 Track) are all tied as the favourite.

haha. seriously – they’re all that good! If I had to pick an absolute absolute, it would have to be 10 (Running Range), and 13 (Back Like 8 Track). Again – I can’t split them.

A few months ago, The Go! Team released track 1 on the net (T.O.R.N.A.D.O.). It’s probably the least representative track on there, so don’t pay too much attention when you first get started.

By now, you would have worked out that I’m pretty fanatical about this album. It’s the first time I’ve ever written an album review. On my business website. That creates yearbooks. Yeah.

So go buy it kids.

Finally, the bestest bestest thing about the album are the trumpets on the last track. If there was a theme for “winner!”, as in “WINNER!!! – I told you so!“, and “WINNER = the good guy wins the heart of the pretty girl“, – it’s that track. It’s triumph at it’s best. It’s The Go! Team saying “we’ve been away for 4 years, and now we’re back”. And it was certainly worth the wait.

Emmanuel College

John Paul College

Murwillumbah High School

North Lakes State College

Aitken College

Doncaster Secondary College

MacRobertson Girls High School

Methodist Ladies College

Melbourne Girls Grammar

Mount Waverley Secondary College

St Ignatius College

St Michael’s Grammar School

University High School

Moss Vale High School

Orara High School

Sefton High School

Springwood High School

St John’s College Woodlawn

St Catherine’s College Singleton

Taree High School

Wauchope High School

Young High School

To all the classes of 2010, the Rockstar team wish you all the best for the future! It’s bright and sparkling, we promise!

Bomaderry HS

Blacktown Girls HS

Bossley Park

Barrenjoey High School

Canley Vale High School

Carlingford High School

East Hills Girls Technology HS

Goulburn High School

Elizabeth Macarthur Girls High School

Henry Kendall High School

Lake Illawarra HS

Lismore HS

Liverpool Girls HS

The Women’s College

The University of Newcastle Medical Students

Australian National University Medical School

University of Notre Dame Law Students’ Society

LCC Saints Ice Hockey Club

Today the office is rather empty with only Christine, Emily, Ellie, Nathan, Chris and I present… I would’ve loved it if more of the team were here so that I can say my goodbyes to a few more people but I guess if there were more people here I’d be bawling my eyes out when I’m leaving. I practically spent the day on InDesign, helping out the lovely Christine (Indo Pride BTW ) My past week at Rockstar has definitely been one that I will treasure for a very long time, I know that not many people has had the amazing opportunity to work at a place that they then grow to love so much for work experience so I’m definitely very grateful for such a lovely week at Rockstar. I don’t think that my past week at Rockstar would be as amazing as it was if it wasn’t for the people here and I have them to thank for one of the best weeks of my life.

To Nathan… Thank you soooo much for everything. Thank you for opening your company’s doors for me to do my work experience in and thank you for arranging my work experience in the first place You’re such a great boss whose leadership skills is such a treasure for both you and your employees, I hope that they realise how lucky they are to have a boss like you. After my many lunchtime discussions with the team at Rockstar team I can tell that they really appreciate and love to have you as a boss. I’m so sorry for any mistakes from the past week and thank you for the help in hand when I was Ironing .  Good luck for any future endeavours and hopefully I will see you sometimes in the near future

To Amelia… It’s such a shame that I didn’t get to know you any better but thank you so much for everything that you have done for me. Thank you for arranging my work experience here at Rockstar, for guiding me along the way and for taking me under your wings even in the busiest of times. You’re such a lovely person and I wish you the best of luck for anything you want to conquer in the future

To everyone else here at Rockstar thank you for such a mindblowing week. Each and everyone of you are such unique and talented individuals and I know that you all will go far in the future. Thank you for letting me into your office and putting up with my many questions.

To Emily, Lewis, Chris, Sabina, Ellie, Annalise, Dane, Michael S, Jeremy (sorry if I forgot anyone )… Thank you so much for letting me tag along during your lunch breaks and making sure that I find my way back to the office every single lunchtime I’m going to miss you all and your fun and fearless personalities.

To Michael S and Jeremy… Thank you for letting me help out with the video set, it was soo much fun! You both are so hilarious, most of the time I tried not to laugh because if I did I woudn’t be able to stop.

To Dane… Thank you for teaching me the tips, tricks and basically the art of Final Cut Express, I can’t say that I’m a pro yet but at least I can say that I’m not such a dummy at it .

To everyone else at Rockstar… Thank you for your warm hospitality and I’m going to miss you all very much xx

So I guess that is all from me. Lots of love, hugs and kisses…. this is Nisa, signing out.

I’ve just realised that over the past week that I have spent at Rockstar Memoirs, it  has been highly focused around videoclips and today was no diffrent. When I say it was no diffrent, I don’t mean that I got to master more skills in the art of Final Cut Express but I did get involved in a videoclip shoot. Jeremy, Michael S and I got to spend the whole day shooting  video snippets  (I think it’s for the Rockstar website?) where the staff of Rockstar Memoirs got to dress up in a ‘high school stereotype’ and answer a bunch of questions in the way that their character would. It was quite amusing to see a few of the Rockstar crew get into character because beleive it or not, alot of these graphic designers/creative consultants make amazing actresses/actors.  I got the opportunity to hold the ‘boom mike’ (I know, cool name eh? ) while Jeremy shot each take. You never really appreciate the art of being a director of photography for a video when you’ve never been on a set before but now that I have it actually seems like a tough job because sometimes there are interruptions in the background noises and etc that you just can’t avoid. Today was definitely the best day that I’ve had at Rockstar so far. It was really good to get active after sitting down infront of a laptop for the past two days (even though I missed editing videos today ). Jeremy and Michael S… If you’re reading this I have to say that it’s been such a pleasure working with the both of you, you both make me laugh so much with all your jokes and quick wit!

To top off what was already such a lovely day… The Rockstar crew gave Amelia and Emily a very sweet birthday surprise filled with lots of laughs and the all important banana and chocolate cake. So to Amelia and Emily, Happy Birthday! I hope all your dreams come true and always remember to reach for the moon but even if you fail, you’re still a star in the sky .