Industrial Strength: Aug 28, 2013
Ad watchdog bans Fuck Me I’m Famous Guetta poster
The Ad Standards Board (ASB) has ruled against David Guetta’s F*** Me I’m Famous poster to promote an album through Neon Records. It shows the bare-chested DJ/producer standing behind his wife and fondling her breasts. The ASB received a number of complaints, citing the fact that it was on a large outdoor sign next to a busy road where it could be seen by the wider community including children. The ASB agreed, saying “The content of the advertisement is not appropriate for viewing by children.”
Although the word “fuck” was put in asterisk in the poster, the ASB found it was used in a sexual context, especially when accompanied by a near-naked couple. “The Board considered that a reference to “fuck me” is strong and would be considered obscene by many people and its use in outdoor media is not appropriate.”
Pink sets (another) new record in Melbourne
Pink this week broke her own record in Melbourne, playing her 18th(and final) show at the Rod Laver Arena. The previous record, for most shows at the venue by any artist during a single tour, was set in 2009 by Pink herself during her Funhouse Tour with 17 shows.Michael Coppel, president and CEO of Live Nation Australia, said that since playing her first show on April 30, 2004 at the Rod Laver, she has played 42 shows there and shifted over 500,000 tickets. “Without doubt, Melbourne now provides the biggest audience for Pink in any city worldwide,” he said. The Australian leg of The Truth About Love Tour boasts 46 shows and more than 600,000 tickets sold nationally.
Certifications …
Jason DeRulo’s former ARIA chart topper, Talk Dirty, featuring 2 Chainz, has gone platinum, as has Ellie Goulding’s Burn andSamantha Jade’s Firestarter … Avicii and Aloe Blacc’s Wake Me Uphas notched up its third platinum while Tomomatic’s Parachutecollected its double platinum even as it drops out of the Top 20 … theCedric Gervais remix of Lana Del Rey’s Summertime Sadness is gold … Passenger’s Let Her Go is 7 x platinum.
VA Music launches with three acts
Australian/Asian company Valleyarm digital music distribution has set up its own VA Records, which it launched last week at the Evelyn with sets from Melbourne hard rock act The House Of Honeys (currently in the studio with producer Steve James) and Sydney’s This Sanctuary. Their third signing is Adelaide boy band At Sunset which has a strong social media presence. Valleyarm CEO Gary Mackenzie told us that VA will focus on breaking the acts in Oz as well as in Asia where it has media assets and label and festival partners. This Sanctuary has just released from playing Jakarta with Suicidal Tendencies and Gossip and last year played Music Matters in Singapore. At Sunset, which this month finished recording an album, also signed a record deal in the Philippines with the RGMA division of the GMA media network.
Scouts leaders cause name change for Cub Scouts
Brisbane band Cub Scouts have changed their name to Cub Sports,bowing to the demands of the scouting movement. They’ve used the name for two years and, indeed, played a Scouts Jamboree earlier this year. But the scouting movement got concerned as the band’s new Paradise EP started to cause waves abroad. “It is a shame to lose the name we’ve worked so hard over the last few years building, but as we make our inroads to the US and UK markets, it’s important that we make the change now,” said singer Tim Nelson. “We’re pretty positive about it all to be honest. The new name sounds so cool it needs a racing stripe and for our fans, we continue to be and will always be the Cubbies.” The new name is used on the video for theParadise track, out this week.
Gibb, Urban, in Queensland’s Entertainment Rich List
Queensland’s Entertainment Rich List, compiled by The Sunday Mail, is topped by Brisbane game app developer Halfbrick Studios founders Shaniel Deo and Daniel Vogt. The success of their Fruit Ninja app, downloaded by 500 million players, has earned them an estimated combined $284 million. At #2 is Barry Gibb, the last survivor of the UK-born Bee Gees who got their start in Queensland, with $102 million. Also in the list are NZ-born Caboolture-raised Keith Urban ($49 million), Harvey Lister & Rod Pilbeam of major venue owners and/or operators AEG Ogden, Gold Coast based Billy Crossof the Manpower and Thunder Down Under male revues, music search and share We Are Hunter founders Stephen Phillips, Michael Doherty & Richard Slatter, and kiddies group Hi-5’s Lauren Brantwho rounds out the Top 20 with a $2 million fortune at the age of 24.
Liberation Music caught up in copyright flap
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig have taken to the US courts over a video take down demand by Australia’s Liberation Music. During a June 2010 Creative Commons lecture in South Korea, Prof. Lessig used amateur clips of people dancing to the Phoenix song Lisztomania. The lecture was posted on YouTube this June. Liberation, which distributes Phoenix in Australia and NZ, demanded YouTube yank it off. Lessig and the EFF insist the use of the song was a “classic example of fair use” and did not constitute copyright infringement. Prof. Lessig has got YouTube to put the clips up again. The two asked a Massachusetts court to declare it “fair use” and to stop Liberation from legal threats.
Festivals #1: Tamworth to pay tribute to Slim Dusty
January’s Tamworth Country Music Festival will pay tribute to Australian country music pioneer Slim Dusty to mark the 10thanniversary of his passing. Events include the unveiling of a bronze statue of Dusty and wife Joy McKean in the town, an exhibition of Dusty’s personal memorabilia, footage and photos at Festival Headquarters and a tribute concert. “Slim left behind an incredible legacy through his music, his numerous awards and the artists that he mentored and supported,” said Tamworth Region mayor Col Murray. “It is a lasting legacy that continues to grow and this is our way of acknowledging and honouring a pioneer of the country music industry and our great festival.”
Festivals #2: Adelaide Festival Centre takes over Come Out
Troubled youth arts festival Come Out, is now managed by Adelaide Festival Centre. It is part of its activities including the International Guitar, Adelaide Cabaret and OzAsia festivals. The move is the result of an Arts SA review ordered by the then Minister for the Arts, John Hill, following the controversial sacking of artistic director Noel Jordan in May 2012. The Centre has advertised for a Come Out producer for 2015 and 2017, and work with an “external consultant’’ to be appointed as the event’s artistic director. Michael Hill, who served as creative producer in 2013 has not applied for the role.
TRIPPING
Which staffers at a venue which showcases live music turned up to find the place had closed and the owners had returned to England?
Which radio guy grumbled about have to go to a charity bash to his on-air partner, without realising the mic was live?
Nine Inch Nails are still headed to Australia, although not on Soundwave after negotiations broke down. “Sadly Trent wants to be mainstream now and reach Justin Timberlake’s audience,” Soundwave head honcho AJ Maddah tweeted. NIN’s frontman Trent Reznor responded he “didn’t feel Soundwave was the right vibe for us or our fans – working on a better scenario.”
Will Big Day Out stage in Tasmania one day? “Why not, absolutely there’s a chance of it,” CEO Adam Zammit replied when posed the question at the TasTAFE Drysdale campus’s sixth Tasmanian Event Exchange in Hobart last week. He was speaking about revenue and relationship project building. The Big Z added that if BDO went into Tasmania it would use a business model where it wouldn’t rely exclusively on audience attendance. Also speaking at the event were MONA marketing manager Brooke Copping, Junction Arts Festival director Natalie De Vito and Falls event manager Abby Allen.
Which journo riding around the US south on holiday stopping at whim in different cities, couldn’t get a hotel room in Memphis and had to sleep on the road next to his bike? Umm, arriving in the city on the day of Elvis Presley’s death memorials might have had something to do with it.
Which exec had to cancel a schedule of media commitments to plug a new initiative when his new daughter decided to be born six days ahead?
Which ‘70s rock star hasn’t lost his humour? When David Cassidywas nabbed for alleged drink driving, he noticed that the arresting cop’s name was Tom Jones. So he burst into (the other) Jones’ hitWhat’s New Pussycat? The cop, a rookie, didn’t make the connection, alas.
Could you accuse Brisbane chart makers Sheppard of “elevator music?” BarRat & Jess, the new breakfast show at Sea FM Sunshine Coast, had some fun setting up their studio in an elevator, and interviewing anyone who wanted to use the thing. They roped in Sheppard to perform in the elevator.
There’s a clash between clans as to where Yothu Yindi frontman Dr Yunupingu should be buried, The Australian reported. The Gumatj clan met last Friday and decided the site should be his father’s land Gunyangara. But his wife Yalmay’s Rirratjingu clan objected saying Dr Yunupingu had specifically asked before his death to be buried at Yirrkala. A split within the Rirratjingu over mining royalties has meant Yalmay faces problems paying for her husband’s funeral although the Gumatj clan says it’s already paying for it.
Not celebrating his #1 ratings win was Kyle Sandiland, who blubbered to listeners that his dog Astro had been run over in front of girlfriend Imogen.
Shihad took to Facebook to dispute a report in a Sunday newspaper that they were flying to war-torn Cairo to record an album. They had intended to do so a month ago before Egypt exploded, and that their manager contacted the paper to advise plans had changed. The band added, “Given the recent events Shihad cancelled plans and wholeheartedly support the Egyptian people in their pursuit of a peaceful and lasting solution to the current unrest.”
LIFELINES
Ill: Peter Dick, breakfast co-host of 4BC Brisbane, is leaving the station after nine years citing health reasons. He’s been on sick leave since May.
Recovering: Judith Durham of The Seekers has left hospital and continues rehabilitation as an outpatient following a cerebral hemorrhage after a Melbourne show in May. Graham Simpson, manager of her company MusicCoast revealed to TMN her speech and writing is almost back to normal and “in a couple of weeks we’ll make a decision about the Seekers’ Golden Jubilee Tour.”
Charged: a man attending the Gympie Muster festival, who allegedly threw a knife at a nearby campsite after an argument, faces two charges. Police said he was drunk, and was evicted from the site.
In Court: former radio FIVEaa Adelaide drive producer Andrew Knoller Pearce, 59, will be sentenced this week after being found guilty in the District Court for sexually exploiting two male victims aged under 17. The offences took place between 1994 and 2002.
NUMBER CRUNCHING
66% rise in ratings for last weekend’s MTV Video Music Awards to 10.1 million, mostly due to Justin Timberlake’s appearance, some contend.
306,100 tweets per minute during Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke’sduet at the MTV awards – a new record for the most tweets per minute, said Twitter. The finale of Justin Timberlake’s set got 219,800 Tweets per minute.
2500 attended the Newcastle Jazz Festival, some from afar as Melbourne and New Zealand, organisers revealed.
333rd album to debut at the #1 on the ARIA chart was Boy & Bear’sHarlequin Dream this week. It’s the first time the word ‘Harlequin’ has appeared at the top of the Australian charts, but the twelfth ‘Dream’, the most recent being Harrison Craig’s More Than A Dream (The Gavin Ryan Report).
$18 billion to be generated this year by online retail sales in Australia, says a survey conducted by Frost & Sullivan for NetSuite and the Australian Retailers Association. The figure is tipped to rise 39% to $25 billion in 2015.
30 million singles and 18 million albums sold by contestants on X Factor UK in the past decade, estimated Music Week.
$48,959.57 raised by 2MCFM in Port Macquarie NSW, for its 2013 Give Me 5 for Kids campaign, a new record for the station.
47% of Rhapsody users listen on smartphones exclusively, the firm revealed.