Industrial Strength: August 22
MOVE FORWARD FOR SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS TO GROW
Splendour In The Grass could increase its capacity to 50,000 and extend to five days.
The end of the community consultation period for its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) saw North Byron Parklands’ GM Mat Morris speak to 60 residents to bring them up to date.
The EIS is needed as Parklands now seeks permission from the Department of Planning & Environment to allow 50,000 punters per day (up from 35,000), and to expand it from four days to five days.
This does not affect Falls Festival ,which also stages at Parklands, and will remain capped at 35,000 patrons per day over four days.
Five community event days with a capacity of up to 5000 per day will also be proposed.
“We listened to a wide range of ideas and concerns from the community and have factored these into the application,” Morris said.
This is separate to the issue of the 20-month extension to the North Byron Parklands trial which is currently being determined by the Planning Assessment Commission.
As stated in TMN previously, consultants have recommended the extension be granted.
AUSSIE SPOTIFY USERS GET VOICE ACTIVATED
Australian Spotify free and premium users can now voice activate on Google Home speakers. It’s the first time it is available to Spotify’s free users on speakers, and was rolled out yesterday acrossthe US, UK, Canada, Australia, France and Germany.
To get starters, users must set Spotify as their default music service on their Google Home.
A few sample voice commands to get started are, “Ok Google, play Spotify”; “Ok Google, play Today’s Top Hits”; “Ok Google, play Rap Caviar”; or “Ok Google, play my ‘chill’ playlist.”
IF IT’S TUESDAY THIS MUST BE SOUTH KOREA
Ariana Grande’s South Korean promoter has sulkily apologised to fans after her recent concert, who felt she was “rude” and “disrespectful” by being “indifferent” to the crowd.
Promoter Hyundai Card’s CEO Chung Tae-Young added that Grande “arriving right before the concert and leaving immediately, avoiding the press” has left the impression thatthe concert itself was mechanical.
“If Korea’s current situation was worrisome, it would be good if she had shown the courage and sincerity she displayed at Manchester. Or it would have been better if she was just honest and cancelled the concert.”
Grande rushed to Twitter to write: “I cherish these shows and these very special times with you. I am enjoying every last moment and am eternally grateful for you. all da time.”
THE ACT COMMITS TO SOCIAL INCLUSION IN ARTS
The ACT Minister for the Arts and Community Events, Gordon Ramsay, has released the Social Inclusion in the Arts: 2017 Plan via a Ministerial Statement in the Legislative Assembly.
The Plan recounts what some ACT arts organisations are doing to connect with communities and open their spaces to share cultural values.
It also points out how collaboration, the strength of the arts sector, can be capitalised to create inclusion.
“Some organisations already work with other organisations to provide programs for people with mixed abilities, experience of mental illness, and groups who experience difficulty accessing the arts.
“Some organisations already work with not-for-profits, charities or community organisations to facilitate tailored programs to specific members of the community.
“Providing access to more people opens up the potential of developing artistic skills or individuals.”
The ACT Government can support organisations through information provision, funding and formal training.
It will begin to gather information from organisations to update the way it supports organisations to move toward accessibility and inclusion.
TINA ARENA CRIES FOR EVA
Tina Arena plays Eva Peron in the 2018 Opera Australia / GFO co-production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita. It opens at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre next September.
Arena was previously in Webber’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (1993) as well as Cabaret, Nine and Dynamite, and played Roxie Hart in the West End production of Chicago.
Madonna played Eva Peron in the Evita movie.
The Australian production will be helmed by 21 Tony-winner Broadway director Hal Prince. Auditions for the rest of the cast start next month, and more information can be found on the website.
WILL SYDNEY STILL HOST EUROVISION ASIA?
Eurovision Asia Pacific is finally on its way … although we’re not sure when and where.
Last March, when the news broke that the Eurovision peeps had tapped SBS and Blink TV to get the spin-off up and running, Sydney was mooted as the host city of the first event, before flip-flopping its way to other cities in subsequent years.
However 15 months later of negotiations, it seems that Hong Kong and Singapore are now also in the running alongsidethe Harbour City.
Organisers will have another problem. It is expected that China and South Korea will be among the 20 countries to compete. However, due to military issues, China won’t allow South Korea’s K-Pop to be broadcast or streamed within its borders.
ADELE PUSHES BEGGARS’ PROFIT TO £11.9M
That speeding bullet train called Adele led to UK indie group Beggars Group (which includes XL, which she’s signed to outside of North and South America) to hit revenues of £70.6 million (A$119.5 million) in 2016, with a net profit of £11.9 million ($19.3 million), Music Business Worldwide reported.
Other big sellers for the group were Daughter’s Not To Disappear (4AD), Anohni’s Hopelessness (Rough Trade), Sampha’s Blood On Me (Young Turks) and Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool.
USURPER APP BRINGS ALBUM COVER ALIVE
Perth band Usurper of Modern Medicine has created the first music-based app of its kind, allowing listeners of the vinyl format of their Everything is Nothing album to bring alive its artwork created by surrealist painter Liam Dee into 3D.
UOMM frontman Steven Aaron Hughes, who designed the app with Dee and coder Steve Berrick says the original plan was for Dee to build sculptures of the cover artwork to be scanned into 3D objects to be used in the virtual world.
That proved difficult so Dee opted to use a HTC Vive to sculpt some objects in VR using the new Kodon software. This allowed him to sculpt in virtual reality then move objects into the game itself.
Extensive code was used to track the record, which is in constant motion and makes the objects move correctly in the 3D space.
“We had to use quaternion mathematics to do this – pretty much the same sort of maths that NASA would use to geo-sync a satellite – pretty trippy stuff,” Hughes says.
“Different modifiers are activated by tapping buttons on the side of the screen in the form of letters from the name of the album ‘E – V – E – R – Y ….’ which are all mysteries and do certain things like change the colours, style of audio reaction, size and shape of the creative forms that people draw.
“Users will be able to take photos and share their own art online resulting in a very interesting painting game that can be wildly different every time someone plays it.”
POTBELLEEZ’S SONIC SELLS STUDIO
The Potbelleez’s frontman Jonny Sonic sold his Surfers Paradise recording studio as he is moving to live in Melbourne. The studio, on the 39th floor in Circle on Cavill, went for $445,000.
He bought it in 2013 for $380,000 and, he says, wrote 16 Potbeleez songs there as well as numerous productions.
MEDIA THRASHES MUSOS IN HOBART RECLINK CUP
The second Hobart edition of the Reclink Community Cup saw the media’s Ramonas beat out the musicians’ Van Diemen Dogs at Queenborough Oval. Official attendance figures and monies raised were not immediately available.
Last year the national events drew a total of $250,000.
TV/FILM STUDIOS BLOW HEAT ON MORE PIRATES
The Federal Court blocked 42 piracy sites from Australian access, in the latest court victory for film and TV studios.
The case was brought by Village Roadshow, backed by Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal, Disney, 21st Century Fox and Foxtel. It was heard by Justice John Nicholas.
It alleged sites as KissCartoon, Putlocker, GoMovies, EYNY, Kinogo and Prime Wire. Had infringed copyright of 13 films and TV series including The Lego Movie, Kingsman: The Secret Service and The Big Bang Theory.
Another case, initiated by Foxtel saw Federal Court Justice Stephen Burley making orders blocking a further 17 sites.
Creative Content Australia estimated that the blocks covered “95% of traffic to infringing sites:” and that “a significant number of sites that will be shut down from providing pirated content.”
MTV, SONY, BATTLE OVER DESPACITO VIDEO
Another reason why MTV is struggling to be relevant:Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s’Despacito’ clip has set a new record for YouTube views with 3.2 billion.
Yet MTV is not playing it on the major MTV or MTV2, only on its Latin channel MTV Tres. Even worse, the clip didn’t make it to the nominations of the August 27 MTV Video Music Awards.
When quizzed by media MTV pointed the finger at Universal Music Latin Entertainment, saying it hadn’t submitted the video for consideration.
The label in turn sniffed that MTV didn’t ask for them to submit the video until two weeks after it announced its VMA nominees. The timing of this is curiouser and curiouser.
HOW MANY NOISE COMPLAINTS DID BRISBANE VENUES GET?
A report from Brisbane City Council showed that music venues and events generated 289 complaints about noise volume.
Which is pretty high, but not when you consider that venues only rated fifth in the list of grumbles.
Animal noise complaints, including yapping dogs and squawking chickens, numbered 7,245.
Then came builders working out of hours (1,661), power tools (396) and general noise (322). Council gets 30 noise complaints a day.
RADIO DELIVERS PROFITS
Commercial radio revenue for metropolitan markets was flat at $773.849 million for the financial year ended June 2017.
But financial posts by two major corporations showed that their radio assets were still kicking.
Seven West Media’s Spirit and Red FM networks in WA posted a revenue rise from $9.2 million to $9.4 million this financial year.
The Fairfax Media’s financials showed that its share of Macquarie Media indicated that the radio asset returned $137 million (down from $138.6 million) but profits had grown by 28%.
NEW CATEGORY FOR ACMF SONGWRITING COMP
In its 15th year, the Australian Children’s Music Foundation (ACMF)’s songwriting competition for age groups from 5 to 18 has added a new category.
The Allan Kendall Special Award will be awarded for the most original and creative entry across all age groups.
The competition encourages young writers to submit an original song to win prizes including musical equipment and tuition. Details at www.acmf.com.au, deadline is October 20.
SAFE DRIVING APP PLAYS PARENTS’ MUSIC IF TEEN SPEEDS
Toyota has introduced a new Safe & Sound app in Europe which deters teenagers from speeding or yacking on their phones while driving.
The app needs to be downloaded by the teen and parent(s). Using Google Maps API technology it detects when Junior exceeds the speed limit.
First, it stops all social media notifications and incoming calls at this point. Even worse, Ma and Pa’s music cuts in to their music.
Ease off the pedal, though, and Metallica and P!nk replace ’Tiptoe Through The Tulips’ and ’Sugar Sugar’.
EVENT SAFETY & SECURITY SUMMIT LAUNCHED
The inaugural Event Safety & Security Summit is held in London in October. It is presented by the organisers of the International Live Music Conference (ILMC).
It’s bringing in experts from around the world to, through presentations and panels, look at behavioural detection (by Gatwick Airport’s Behavioural Detection Team), planning ahead to prevent attacks, methods of screening, managing high density crowds and advances in festival security.
VALE
- Gary O’Callaghan was one of the first, and best, purveyors of the breakfast radio format. He was on Sydney’s 2UE between 1956 and 2003. In that time, he topped the ratings 138 times and, in one, snared 46% of the audience. It was his talent to speak to the widest demographic, helped by his long time alter-ego Sammy Sparrow. He was inducted into the Commercial Radio Hall of Fame. After he retired in 2003, he kept his hand in with a show with son Nicholas at the local Port Macquarie station. O’Callaghan was 83.
- Stuart James Thompson was born in Sydney and grew up in Adelaide where he studied drama at Flinders University and working in arts administration in Australia. After moving to New York in 1980, he went on to produce or manage over 70 Broadway and West End productions and won six Tonys. He kept his ties with Australia, co-producing the local version of Book of Mormon and being the US rep for theatre companies in WA, SA, Qld and Vic. He passed in his home in New York.
AND A FEW OTHERF THNGS …
Another reason for those Spotify-to-float reports. According to Sky News, such is the high-pitched demand by current investors of the Swedish streamer to acquire more shares, that multi-billion dollar hedge fund Goldman Sachs Investment Partners (GSIP) has sold out $75 million worth of shares to them.
The start of Katy Perry’s Witness Tour, set for September 7 on the US East Coast, has been delayed due to delays in the design of the stage. Six shows were postponed, with the tour now to kick off on September 19 in Montreal.
In the meantime, Metropolis Touring announced that Ministry axed their first headlining tour, set for September and October. The shows, with Filter, will not be rescheduled.
The Avalanches have started work on album number three. No news as to which century it’ll be when it sees the light of day.
Hip hop artist MC Scribe faces the Christchurch District Court today (Tuesday 22) to face charges involving drugs and weapons (a baseball bat), and failing to appear in court. A warrant was issued on July 25 for his arrest when he failed to front up to court, but withdrawn after he turned himself in. He could not leave Wellington, his rep told the judge, because his sickness benefit had been cut off. Scribe, whose 2003 debut album Crusaders sold 100,000 units in Australia and 5 x platinum in NZ, reportedly entered rehab this year.
In Fairfax’s latest financials, its SVOD Stan posted a 150% rise in subscription revenue and near 800,000 active subscribers.’
The Brisbane Courier Mail reported that hit105 breakfast co-host Stav Davidson opened up on air to being addicted to ice for almost a year 13 years ago when he was running a coffee shop. He said he got turned on to it by his pot dealer and stopped after throwing up a litre of blood one day.
A musician from Lismore, NSW, was the sole winner of $1 million in Lotto last week. He’s been playing the same numbers each week. The buckeroos will go towards a cruise, a house and his next album.
Two deathcore Perth bands Make Them Suffer and Cursed Earth head off to the UK in late October to play seven shows together. Make Them Suffer are playing behind their Worlds Apart through Rise Records, and Cursed Earth currently have a video out for War March/Broken.
Monique Brumby’s been busy of late. After producing Melbourne band Best Sister (best known for their single Sid & Nancy), she’s been in the producer’s chair for the debut EP for electro/pop artist Marcella Wright due in September.
Music retail chain Sanity founder Brett Blundy sold his 57 hectare Hawkesbury River weekender property Sweven for a reported $18 million.