Industrial Strength: Splendour, TEG, Roady4Roadies, Vanda & Young and a few other things…

VANDA & YOUNG COMP EXTENDS CLOSING DATE

The Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition has extended its closing date to May 2 at 5 pm (AEST).

Organisers said this was due to late entries from Bulgaria, Brazil, Nigeria and Latvia.

The $50 entry fee is donated to the transformative work of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Australia (NRMTA).

The first prize is $50,000 courtesy of APRA AMCOS, Alberts and BMG.

Second place is $10,000 from AMPAL (Australasian Music Publishers Association) and third prize is $5,000 from Aon.

The Unpublished category prize, introduced last year and won by Mallrat for ‘Better’, is $5,000

FIRST ROADY4ROADIES EXCEEDS TARGET

The numbers were crunching, and it seemed that the inaugural national Roady4Roadies exceeded its original target.

The public charity walk/skills games/concerts initiative – held on March 10 in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth and March 24 in Adelaide, raised over $65,470.00, with net profit of $56,790.00 already going to the Support Act ‘Roadies fund’.

Organisers said that funds raised were not the only successful thing about the initiative: it raised awareness of the health and financial plight of road crews, but the wide range of public and industry members who came out in support.

The Melbourne event saw over 300 walk from The Palais Theatre in St Kilda to Point Ormond and back to watch the Mark Seymour, Dave Graney & the mistLY, J.R. Reyne, Sisters Doll and Jarosite perform.

Minister for the creative industries and minister for mental health Martin Foley announced the Victorian government’s $100,000.00 grant for Support Act’s roadie fund (a first for any government) before unleashing his lead rolling skills.

The day in Sydney was held at The Bridge Hotel in Rozelle.

Over 200 gathered to hear a few words from shadow minister for the arts Tony Burke MP, Lindy Morrison from Support Act, author and Roady4Roadies ambassador Stuart Coupe and shadow minister for music and the night time economy John Graham MLC

They were then entertained by Brendon Gallagher and FOK ROK, then Mark Callaghan & Buzz Bidstrup from GANGgajang, who were joined by Ollie Bailey – the late Chris Bailey’s son on The Angels’ ‘No Secrets’.

At the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, the walk meandered through bushland surrounds, before gathering at the specially built stage to listen to Tyrone Noonan (George), Robbie James (GANGgajang), Matt Turner, Pepper Jane and Joel Turner.

Tickets to Splendour In The Grass, Fleetwood Mac, Post Malone and KISS were raffled.

In Perth 350 met at The Lucky Shag to walk to The Camfield to see a family show featuring Darren Reid & the Soul City Groove, James Wilson and entertainers and musicians from many of the best known WA bands, past and present.

Adelaide drew 300 walkers., strolling from Adelaide Oval to the Entertainment Centre. Artists included Kelly’s Wayke, Dino ‘’Jag’’ La Vista and Pigsy while production legend Frank Castel was inducted into the SA Music Hall of Fame.

Guitars signed by Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Keith Urban and the Hoodoo Gurus, top-flight road cases donated by Design Quintessence and a rare 3 volume limited edition of Rockin’ Australia are being auctioned.

STOKE TRAVEL OFFERS UNSIGNED ACTS A CHANCE

Stoke Travel, Europe’s biggest festival travel operator, is giving an Australian unsigned band or DJ the chance to tour Europe with the Dune Rats at the Stoke Travel Soundcheck.

The winner plays London Big Day Out festival, San Vino, Running of the Bulls (Stoked in the Park Festival) in Pamplona, Spain, La Tomatina tomato fight in Spain and Oktoberfest in Munich.

Flights, accommodation and “as much beer as the winning band can drink” are offered.

The winner will be crowned at the first annual Stoke Soundcheck event at the Lansdowne Hotel, Sydney, on April 18 with members of Dune Rats, Art V’s Science and Delta Riggs in attendance.

Stoke CEO Tony Paramor said: “What really matters to the judging team and to us here at Stoke Travel, is that the artist has the ability to work a crowd…to move people in some way.

“There’s no status quo at Stoke Travel so feel free to be unashamedly honest on stage.

The successful musical geniuses will be experts in making our crowd, dance, think or feel something.”

VENUES UPDATE

* Melbourne band room Stay Gold teamed with former Lady Carolina head chef Blair Williams to launch Spitfire Brunswick tonight (Friday 12) to provide quality chow for the music lovers.

Stay Gold was started last November as a 400-capacity venue on Sydney Road by Destroy All Lines promoter Ben Turnbull and partners Paul Goddard, Jesse Barbera and Noah Honeywill.

They also run ‘The Brightside and Black Bear Lodge in Brisbane.

* Perth’s Amplifier Capitol, which opened as a live music venue in 2000, is tonight relaunching as Amplifier Bowl – offering live music and bowling.

The move is “more inclusive entertainment options to patrons across all ages”.

In January, the joint had to do a screaming U-turn when female staffers took to social media complaining they were asked to wear more revealing T-shirts, and some acts cancelled their bookings.

* The arts community put the heat on the NSW government to re-open Sydney’s Theatre Royal. But pro-audio site CX Media (https://www.juliusmedia.com/37-million-reasons-theatre-royal-will-stay-d) says there are 37 million reasons why it will stay dark.

The just-released tender for the operator contains “a poison pill” – any operator will pay Dexus, the owner, $37 million upfront as a construction contribution. They’ll also cough up a further $10 million to renovate the place, or $20 million to rebuild the dress circle and take the capacity up to 1,450.

* The owner of Downtown On Hindley, soon to ne Adelaide’s nightclub and entertainment complex, wants to have it open through the day as well as the night.

He’s applied to transfer his old venue licence from a Kangaroo Island motel to the new site which, incidentally, was where the popular R&B club XL Superclub was.

* Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre’s free live music series QPAC Live, returns on Saturday, April 27 showcasing up-and-coming artists from the Western Sydney region.

* In Yass, Neil Batterley took over as the publican at The Australian Hotel while Dan Meehan is new bar manager at Yazzbar and plans to introduce more live music.

TEG NAMED TICKETING BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

TEG, Asia Pacific’s leading ticketing, live entertainment and data analytics business, won Ticketing Business of the Year at the Ticketing Business Forum international awards in Manchester, UK.

TEG includes Ticketek Australia, Ticketek New Zealand, Eventopia, international ticketing platform Softix, which provides licensed services in Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East, and TEG-owned ticketing businesses TicketCharge in Malaysia, Ticketek Singapore and Ticketworld in the Philippines.

‘GOOD NEIGHBOUR’ POLICY FOR SYDNEY INNER WEST?

Sydney Inner West Council mayor and longtime live music activist Darcy Byrne wants to introduce a Good Neighbour program to protect Sydney’s Inner West venues from vexatious complaints.

He trialled such a scheme when he was mayor of the former Leichhardt Council.

He told Australian Hotelier he is proposing it at the next council on April 23.

He added that “We include all amenity impacts related to long-standing hotels, not just music venues.”

This comes after The Welcome Hotel in Balmain was forced to shut down its courtyard BBQ or face a $8,000 fine after a simple complaint from a neighbour.

THIS YEAR’S SPLENDOUR SOLD OUT IN FIVE HOURS

All 42,500 tickets to this winter’s Splendour In The Grass sold out yesterday in five hours.

Promoter Secret Sounds Presents put them on the market at 9 am, and all were gone just after 2 pm.

Mind you, this year was an increased capacity too, which means the festival has set a new attendance record.

Co-producers Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco said: “We’re absolutely thrilled (read relieved) that with the recent approval of North Byron Parklands, this year we’ve been able to open our event up to more music and arts lovers than ever before.”

The event is headlined by Chance The Rapper, Tame Impala and Childish Gambino.

DUAL DEALS FOR PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS

On the eve of international dates and the May 31 release of the And Now For The Whatchamacallit album, Perth band Psychedelic Porn Crumpets this morning announced a worldwide record deal with Marathon Records, and ANZ deal with Caroline Australia.

They’ve slowly been cracking the global market with eight sold-out shows through the UK (and radio airplay on BBC 1) and a US debut with 14 shows and a splash at SXSW.

New single ‘Bill’s Mandolin’ is an ode to band member Jack McEwan’s grandfather.

On his visit to the UK, he was given grandpa’s mandolin, which he remembers playing as a kid.

“It was such a nice gift that I had to take back to Australia, the only problem was it didn’t have a case and we had an entire tour in front of us which spanned most of Western Europe plus Australia.

“I carried it through plenty of customs, slept with it, took it out to pubs, navigated the streets of Amsterdam and passed out with it.

“It became the tour emblem and once I got back to Perth I felt like I’d done the old girl justice.”

ADELAIDE’S CLARITY SETS UP ONLINE STORE

Adelaide record store Clarity Records in Pulteney Street has opened an online store to take the vinyl renaissance and great Aussie releases coming out to a wider audience at https://clarityrecords.net.

Store owner Matt Horvath also runs a record label and the

A Day of Clarity festival.

CAROL LLOYD NOMINEES NUMBER FIVE

Sahara Beck, Ella Fence, Angharad Drake, Andrea Kirwin and Asha Jefferies are the 2019 finalists of the Carol Lloyd Award out of 55 entries.

Presented as part of the Queensland Music Festival, it will give an emerging Queensland female singer-songwriter a $15,000 grant to acquire suitable resources to help with touring, music production, promotion, publicity and marketing so that they can present their project to the Australian music industry and help broaden and grow their existing fan bases.

The award, now in its third year was won by Leanne Tennant in 2018, and Georgia Potter (Moreton)in 2017.

The judging panel featured Qld industry luminaries Katie Noonan, Joc Curran, Leanne de Souza, Sean Sennett, John Willsteed and Annie Peterson.

The winner is announced on May 20.

NUMBER CRUNCHING

$100,000 donated by Taylor Swift to a Tennessee project fighting a series of anti-LGBTQ bills in the state.

250,000 Game Of Thorns playlists created by Spotify users with thousands centred around their favourite characters.

1 million US sales for the A Star Is Born soundtrack.

715,000 overnight metro viewers tuned in to the ABC’s The Seekers: A World Of Their Own.

$4 million to be paid by a sound engineer to the Prince estate for releasing an unauthorized EP of songs.

9 year old beats Year 12 Sydney students in a jazz competition.

230,000 tickets sold by Ed Sheeran in South Africa, the biggest tour in the country’s music history.

3 million downloads generated by YouTube Music in less than a week in India.

$1.3 million fee paid to Madonna to perform two songs at the Eurovision grand finale in Israel, paid for by a Canadian billionaire who is keen to counter the boycott.

56.7 million YouTube views in the first 24 hours for K-Pop sensations BLACKPINK’s ‘Kill The Love’.

MUSIC NSW ANNOUNCES PT 2 OF ‘NEW AND THE NOW’

MusicNSW’s second series of New & The Now all-ages gig series programmed by its youth committee returns to 107 Projects, Redfern on May 4.

It will see garage rock outfit Sunscreen joined by Western Sydney locals DJ Kilimi and electro-soul artist Clarissa Mei, as well as Sydney duo Greenwave Beth (one half of Flowertruck).

CHRIS CUFFARO BRINGS PHOTO EXHIBIT TO SYDNEY

Los Angeles-based music photographer, director and producer, Chris Cuffaro is bringing his second exhibition in Australia at the Blender Gallery in Paddington (NSW) as part of the Head On photo festival.

It is called Greatest Hits: Grunge (May 3—June 1) and features 59 shots of Nirvana, Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden.

Cuffaro was right in the middle of the Seattle scene and captured it as it spread globally.

His previous Australian show was the sold-out Greatest Hits: George Michael exhibition

MUSICAL CHAIRS

The founders of Pedestrian Group, Chris Wirasinha and Oscar Martin, are leaving the business. It’s now owned by Nine Network, and Nine’s director of sales for publishing, Matt Rowley, takes over as CEO. Wirasinha and Martin started the business in 2005, and sold 60% of the business in 2014 for a reported $10 million.

Australian Radio Network appointed Rich Howells as national digital commercial director, developing further strategies for all station sites, The Roar and iHeartRadio.

Sydney Festival’s Amy Maiden is joining the Australian arm of global entertainment marketing agency AKA, as chief strategy officer.

Cassandra Cazzulino is new general manager of Southern Cross Austereo in Townsville, Far North Queensland, heading the operations of Hit103.1FM and Triple M 102.3FM.

BBC Studios ANZ appoints Deb Tod head of content sales and co-production She’s been acting in that role since the departure of Irene Read.

Global recorded music organisation IFPI appointed Jenny Wong as Asia regional director, representing the interests of IFPI’s 1,300 record company members and, working in collaboration with IFPI’s National Groups, she will be focused on driving the continuing evolution of the music markets in Asia.

Based in Hong Kong Wong will oversee IFPI’s work in the region in the areas of legal and policy engagement, licensing operations, content protection, market analysis, and charts and certification.

MUSIC DOCO ON OZFLIX

Filmmakers KEWL Studios aka Tobias Willis and Marcus Rimondini released their music documentary Now Sound on Australian film streaming service Ozflix.

Premiering to a sold-out crowd at the 2018 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), Now Sound explores the wealth of Melbourne’s music community.

It features the city’s identities including Kaiit, Sui Zhen, Courtney Barnett, Neil Morris (DRMNGNOW), RRR, Helen Marcou, RVG, Nkechi Anele and Client Liaison.

GREEN MUSIC REPORTS ON SUCCESSFUL 2018

Green Music Australia’s 2018 report showed that it helped 32 festivals across Australia avoid over 1 million plastic bottles and cups through our #BYOBottle campaign.

Co-CEO Berish Bilander added, “Nearly 2000 people have now signed our petition to end single-use plastic water bottles, and 98% of punters we talked with believe plastic free initiatives are the way to go.”

“Our advocacy and education programs are supported by over 260 highly regarded musicians and music industry workers, reaching over 6 million audience members across Australia.”

“It’s fantastic to see popular festivals and artists throw their support behind the #BYOBottle campaign, such as Splendour in the Grass, Falls Festival and Lost Paradise, as well as artists like Montaigne, Birds of Tokyo, Lior and Jack Johnson,” Bilander said.

This year sees a new National Clean Campsite Alliance, focused on reducing and eliminating campsite litter and promoting a culture of respect amongst audiences.

AND A FEW OTHER THINGS …

Viagogo executives led by managing director Cris Miller were in Canberra to talk to politicians to put their side of the story. They said they didn’t trade on customer ignorance, insisted that only 1% of customers have problems, and argued against Labor NSW’s push to put a 10% cap on resale transactions.

Australia’s Eurovision entry Kate Miller-Heidke says she is rejecting Roger Waters’ plea that she will not attend the competition in Israel next month. “I absolutely respect his point of view,” she said, but as for blocking off an entire people “I just can’t see how that is going to advance that part of the world towards solution.”

A 21-year old man ended up in hospital with a shattered jaw and teeth after an incident at the Rancho Relaxo festival at Hastings, Victoria. He’d gate-crashed the event with friends and asked to leave. When he left clutching a bag with bottles of beer, a 36-year old man accused him of nicking it from a tent. A skirmish followed. The 36-year old handed himself to police and was charged.

Parents who accompany their schoolie kids to the Gold Coast in November are getting a three-day festival of their own.

1970s NSW singer-songwriter John J. Francis would like to inform ABC Radio that its reports last week he had died at 74 of a suspected heart attack were a little incorrect as he’s still up and about. US-born Francis moved to Newcastle and made an impact with ‘Play Mumma, Sing Me A Song’ and ‘Simple Ben’ from the Morning of the Earth surf soundtrack. He retired from the music industry in 1974.

Music publicist Chris Maric is returning to the UK once again to take part in Heavy Metal Truants VII. It involves cycling 300kms to raise funds for children’s charities from London to the hard rock Download Festival on June 12-14.  He’ll be joined on the ride by agents, managers, promoters, publicists, record labels, media organisations, artists and fans from the hard rock sector. Each has pledged to raise A$2500. You can donate here.

Some legal letters were exchanged when a former member of the Gipsy Kings was being promoted for an Australian tour as “The Gipsy Kings by Andre Reyes. Founding members Nicolas Reyes on vocals and Tonino Balliardo on lead guitar were upset as Reyes left the band in 2014. A cease and desist letter was issued, and the promoter has changed the marketing to ‘Andre Reyes formerly of The Gipsy Kings” and all ticketholders will be advised.

In 1969 Normie Rowe was marched off to Vietnam to serve in the Australian army, after being conscripted. There was always the suspicion that something sneaky happened, and that as Australia’s top male singer with 13 hits under his belt, he was roped into the army by the government of the day as a PR exercise for an increasingly unpopular war. Fifty years later, Rowe recalls the times with a cover of ‘Compulsory Hero’, which was written by Garry Frost and was on the 1927 debut album …Ish.

Songbroker Music Publishing now represents the music of the late celebrated New Zealand classical composer Douglas Lilburn, for the benefit of the Lilburn Trust.

Adelaide-based house producer Flash 89 is relocating to Europe. Before that he’ll do a run through Australia and New Zealand and festival slots on Groovin The Moo and Mouvement. He is also curating an open-air event in Adelaide called The Body Talk. It will be held at a secret location, with free entry available via registrations at flash89.com. Guests are encouraged to make a donation at the door, with all proceeds going to Beyond Blue.

A gym in Melbourne has got into hot water after playing a Kanye West track loudly during a workout. A woman counted the use of the fuck word 26 times, recorded it on her mobile, and complained.

A Whitsunday beach resort which hosts an annual music festival is up for sale.

Adelaide City Council has released for public feedback a plan for a rejuvenated Rymill Park which will include an amphitheatre and plaza.