Industrial Strength: One Night Stand rocks Mt Isa, licensing changes & more
TRIPLE J’S ONE NIGHT STAND: NO SLEEP ‘TIL MT ISA
Mt Isa was certainly buzzing by the time the acts for One Night Stand flew in from both sides of the country.
AGold Coast man cycled from his home on the Gold Coast over three weeks to the concert – a trek of 1880kmto raise $10,000 for North Queensland victims of Cyclone Debbie – and was greeted with a cheer on arrival in Mt Isa.
Joining him 3km out of town was local MP Rob Katter who’d earlier helped bring down airline fares to One Night Stand for punters. He gravely announced he’d ordered thousands of industrial strength ear muffs because his politician father, Bob Katter, had expressed a yearning to sing on stage.
Meanwhile the real action, before the crowd of 7000 at Tony Wright Oval, saw San Cisco debuting new song Kids Are Cool before inviting Thelma Plum on stage to perform a cover of Peter, Bjorn &John’s Young Folks.
Tash Sultana fought a nasty flu to deliver her hitJungle hit and brand new single Murder To The Mindwhich triple j had already pounced on.
The Smith Street Band’s sing-a-longs included Death To The Lads, Young Drunk and I Can’t Feel My Face, and had a chat about mental health before I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore.
Thundamentals, who hit town determined to meet as many Mt Isa music fans to thank them for their support, wound up their set with San Cisco and The Smithies jumping up on stage in fluoro tracksuits to bust out their best moves to their’ bouncy jam Sally.
AUSTRALIA, NZ TO GET TAKE THAT ON CINEMA
Australia and New Zealand look like getting a broadcast to cinemas of Take That’s Wonderland concert from London’s O2 Arena on Friday June 9.
It’ll be screened on 500 cinemas by event cinema specialist CinemaLive in partnership with Sassy Films.
The UK and Ireland cinemas are already announced, but CinemaLive’s website says details for Australia, NZ and Europe will be announced in due course.
LOGIES DRAW 972K
TV’s Logies last night on Nine Network drew an overnight metro audience of 972,000 – giving strong exposure to two awesome performances, a soul mash-out by Jessica Mauboy and an acoustic rendition by Casey Donovan of David Bowie’s Heroes during the roll-call of those who departed – both which received standing ovations from the crowd.
Other performers were James Blunt and Andy Grammer.
The talking point was the Molly series’ two wins (best actor, best drama), accentuated when Molly Meldrum felt compelled to barge in on actor Samuel Johnson’s Gold Logie acceptance speech to present him with a gold Molly hat “on behalf of the drama queen of Australia.”
SHEPPARD HEAD BACK TO UK
After three shows in Australia from late May to mid-June, Sheppard are touring the UK with Little Mix.
The tour is behind the overseas release of Keep Me Crazy, which has generated 2 million streams alone in Australia.
George Sheppardsaid, “Playing with Justin Bieber around Australia was a dream come true for us, so to get the opportunity to play to our UK fans with a band like Little Mix is yet another opportunity this year where we’ve had to pinch ourselves!”
INAUGURAL REGGAE RADIO AWARDS A SUCCESS
The inaugural Australia Reggae Radio Music Awards in Melbourne proved a success. They were held as part of Reggae On The Red Carpet 2017, at 24 Moons Bar, and voted on by radio personalities, promoters and artist managers from around Australia.
Blue King Brown’s Nattali Rize (right), who recently debuted at #2 on the US charts, took best reggae/ dancehall song with Natty Rides Again featuringJulian Marley. Friends and activists for West Papua, The Black Sistaz, collected the trophy on her behalf as she was in Germany on the night as part of a 5-week European tour.
Byron Bay’s 4’20’ Sound won both the sound system and rising star categories, Other winners were Ras Jahknow Band (performers), Zare Demus (DJ) and Chant Down presents More Fire by Chantdown (event). Lifetime achievement went to General Justice, radio presenter, booker, musician and founder of Corroboree Records.
CHANGES TO DRAMATIC CONTEXT LICENCE
APRA AMCOS is doing a review so it can revise the current definition of dramatic context “to deliver a licensing process that is less burdensome for all parties” from July 1.
It is likely that the current definition of dramatic context will be revised so that the overall context of a performance will be taken into account, rather than the strict application of the current criteria.
It will also be more consistent with definitions used in other major territories.
“This will mean that if a performance has been classified in, for example, the UK as not being dramatic context, it will likely be regarded the same in Australia.”
Note: This item had been updated to clarify that the definition is still under revision.
NEW GUITARIST FOR AIRBOURNE
Globally renowned Victoria-based hard rock band Airbourne announced that Matt ’Harri’ Harrison has replaced guitarist David Roads.
They said, “Roadsy has always loved rural Australia, his second passion being his family farm, and now he has decided to return to his roots to work alongside his father in the family business. We wish him well on his future endeavours.”
As part of last weekend’s Record Store Day they released a limited edition 12″ vinyl version of the track It’s All For Rock N’ Roll, with a gatefold sleeve, bronze coloured vinyl and a fold-out poster, dedicated to Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister.
L-FRESH GETS ‘CREATOR’ FELLOWSHIP
Hip hop act and social justice activist L-FRESH The Lion received a fellowship representing Australia in YouTube’s inaugural Creators For Change program.
He joins 27 others from around the world, who will create new projects to “help counter xenophobia, extremism and hate with stories promoting positive change”.
YouTube will not only fund their productions but also host YouTube Spaces in London, New York and Mumbai where they can increase their production skills and network.
FIVE MUSIC VIDEOS FOR SA SCREEN AWARDS
Up for the Best Music Video category in the 19th South Australian Screen Awards are Nakatomi’s Alive (produced and directed by Liam Somerville), Wasted Wanderers’ In Your Fire (pr/dir by Adam Lemmey), Abbey Howett (featuring Oisima)’s The Mother (pr/dir Liam Somerville), Loveover’s Hindsight (pr/dir by Kieran Ellis-Jones) and Thom Lion & The Tamers’ November (p/dir Tamryn Morriss).
Nominated in the Best Music category are Luke Altmann for Ambergris, Scott Illingworth for Lost In Pronunciation, Ken Stringfellow for Smashed, Andrew Scott for Split Me and Liam Harvey for Liberation Kitty Slayer.
The awards, run by the non-profit Media Resource Centre (MRC), are staged at The Mercury Cinema in Adelaide on May on 12.
FLOOD-HIT NORPA BEGINS CROWD-FUNDING
After devastated by damage from Lismore’s flooding to the tune of $300,000, Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA) has gone the crowd-funding way to get its theatre back into action. Donations have already reached $20,000 but that only represents 8% of the target.
Floodwaters reached up to 2 metres on the ground floor. Staff had to be evacuated so quickly that there was little chance to save any of the computers, office equipment, telecommunications systems, documents and archival material.
There was irreparable damage to the box office, administration offices, rehearsal and studio space, dressing rooms and green room.
NORPA is working out of offices outside the city until its own space is repaired. It also intends to increase its revenue by renting the theatre out to other community groups.
NEW LIVE EVENTS TRAINING FIRM
Behind The Wall is a new specialised live events training company in Perth. Its courses include all aspects of live production, pre production design, stage management, stage presence and live performance workshops, artist management, industry business skills and most importantly stress and fatigue management.
It launches officially on Wednesday May 3 from 6pm at the Hen House Live Room @ Badlands. A free masterclass called Save The Day is part of the deal.
MAX COUNTDOWN RESULTS
U2 remain the most popular act with MAX channel viewers. Its 1000 Greatest Songs Of All Time countdown, fronted by “Molly” Meldrum, saw the Irishmen lead with 14 entries. The poll included 11 Johns, four Georges, a King, a Prince and a Queen.
The artists who dominated included INXS, Michael Jackson, George Michael, Queen and David Bowie.
Music from the 1980s was the most popular (37%) followed by the 1990s (24%). Thirty one artists were only known by a mononym, including Cher, Madonna, Prince and Sia.
The Greatest Song was Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. At #2 was Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine,followed by Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, John Lennon’s Imagine, John Farnham’s You’re The Voice, Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven, Prince & The Revolution’s Purple Rain, AC/DC’s It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll), Michael Jackson’s Thriller and The Rolling Stones’ I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction rounding up the Top 10.
Full list at maxtv.com.au.
NOMS OPEN FOR NT ARTS ACCESS AWARDS
Nominations for the NT Arts Access Awards are open until May 31. They celebrate the contributions of individuals, groups, groups and organisations in the NTwho work to improve accessibility in the creative arts for people with disability across all genres of creative endeavour.
They are held on Saturday June 24 at the Darwin Community Arts –Chambers Crescent Theatre. A joint project of Arts Access Darwin and Alice Springs’ Incite arts, they have been running since 2009.
VALE EDNA WELLS
Edna Wells, former Station Manager at 2MG 1449 AM Mudgee, passed away, the station posted on Facebook. It marked the news by broadcasting an interview it did with her when she cut the cake at its 75th anniversary.
Wells, who played a large role in the Mudgee community, was 91.
AND A FEW OTHER THINGS …
- The Angels had to scrap shows last weekend when guitarist and co-songwriter Rick Brewster was admitted to hospital with an infection and received IV antibiotics. His brother John said he was expected to be out this week.
- The ABC Great Southern in Albany paid tribute to veteran broadcaster Eoin Cameron, who passed last June, by naming its main studio after him, and announcing a three-month paid radio internship in his honour.
- Newcastle City Council’s grants and sponsorship program has announced the inaugural Tip Jar project. It’s an on-line songwriting competition where votes from local music fans are turned into financial rewards or “tips”. More at tipjar.org.au
- After a 19-year hiatus, legendary New Zealand ‘80s band The Chills are back together and doing a 10-date NZ tour April 26 to May 13, Leader Martin Phillipps says he’s been through “a dark period” and last year was told he had no more than 12 months to live. But a new treatment has given the 59-year old a few more years, and he wants to do something “worthwhile”.
- This year’s Perth Airport Western Australian Tourism Awards, in its 45th year, announces that categories are also open to music festivals and events.
- Melbourne folk-pop duo Pierce Brothers follow up the May 19 release of their The Records Were Ours EP with an East Coast run (May 18—27) before heading off to Europe and the UK for 18 headline shows and festival appearances (June 3—August 11), plus supporting Tash Sultana across the USA and Canada for 18 dates (September 28—October 25).
- Jimmy Barnes and James Reyne play the Townsville 400 Supercars concert on July 8.