Industrial Strength: August 14
AUSSIES ABROAD #1: PRESETS OFF TO NORTH AMERICA
In the wake of their sold out HI VIZ Australian tour and headlining set at Splendour in the Grass, The Presets are getting prepped for a 15 date run, starting on September 2 in Las Vegas and winding up on October 9 in Brooklyn.
They just dropped a new single Martini.
Julian Hamilton enthuses, “Martini was a dancer I used to know. She was everything I wasn’t – cool, clear, strong, and with a razor sharp edge I found impossible to resist.
“In the end, she left me completely undone; a crumbled wreck of a man. “But was it worth it?” I hear you ask … every second.”
AUSSIES ABROAD #2: THE CHURCH HEAD OUT WITH STARFISH
The Church extend their Starfish 30th anniversary run to North America, taking in 19 shows from September 30 to October 26.
The album was recorded in LA while the signature song Under The Milky Way, co-written by Steve Kilbey and Karin Jansson of Curious (Yellow), took its name from Amsterdam venue, Melkweg (Dutch for “Milky Way”).
AUSSIES ABROAD #3: TROYE SIVAN TAKES BLOOM
While Troye Sivan takes his Bloom album to North America (26 shows, September 21 to November 8), EMI Music reports that combined streams for the album and three singles have gone past 500 million.
In the meantime, combined streams from his 2015 debut album exceeded 2.5 billion. It topped iTunes charts in 66 countries, sold more than 2.5 million adjusted albums worldwide while video views have topped 500 million.
GANG OF YOUTHS FESTIVAL SELLS OUT
Gang of Youths’ self-curated festival in Brisbane, A More Perfect Union at the Riverstage, didn’t take long to do what the rest of their Australian tour did – sell out.
Will there be a second festival in Brissie? The band advised, keep an eye on the official Twitter and Instagram.
NEW MUSIC VENUE CATEGORY FOR ALIA AWARDS
This year’s Australian Liquor Industry Awards (ALIAs) includes a new category, best live music venue, in recognition of the resurgence of live music as a form of entertainment that pubs are focusing on.
The ALIAs will be held on Wednesday, October 31 at Royal Randwick in Sydney and will have a Halloween theme.
Voting closes on Friday, August 17.
POST MALONE BEATS MICHAEL JACKSON IN US CHARTS
Billboard noted that Post Malone‘s Stoney has notched up 77 weeks in the Top 10 of its Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart.
It overtakes the previous champ, Michael Jackson‘s Thriller, which had 76 weeks in the top 10 in 1983-84, for the longest stay in the top 10 since the chart began in October 1965.
The top 10 longest charting albums are as follows:
77, Stoney, Post Malone, 2016-18
76, Thriller, Michael Jackson, 1983-84
64, Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston, 1985-86
63, The E.N.D., The Black Eyed Peas, 2009-10
59, The Heist, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, 2012-14
58, Recovery, Eminem, 2010-11
58, Can’t Slow Down, Lionel Richie, 1983-84
56, Control, Janet Jackson, 1986-87
55, Rapture, Anita Baker, 1986-87
54, 24K Magic, Bruno Mars, 2016-18
MELBOURNE GUITAR SHOW ATTENDANCE UP IN 4TH YEAR
In its 4th year, the two-day Melbourne Guitar Show had its biggest audience, exceeding the 5000-mark for the first time, to check out the latest products from 80 exhibitors.
UK guitar whiz Albert Lee drew the biggest crowd. Diesel also drew axe devotees as he launched his limited edition Signature Stratocaster for Fender, putting it through the paces with a set that included a fiery version of Hey Joe and
finishing up with Cry in Shame, off his album Diesel 30, his new greatest hits package.
RUBY ROSE ON BATWOMAN
“Growing up, watching TV, I never saw someone on TV that I could identify with, let alone a superhero”, Ruby Rose talked about her new role as Batwoman on The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon.
Batwoman appeared in DC Comics in 1956 as a love interest to Batman after the controversial book Seduction of the Innocent (1954) alleged Batman was a homosexual.
Batgirl was dropped in 1964 after a new DC Comics editor swept out a bunch of support characters.
The Batshiela returned in 2006, as a Jewish lesbian to reflect the readers’ diverse tastes.
Rose told the American show she found out she got the role an hour before the premiere of her latest flick The Meg.
“I was so nervous doing the red carpet so I basically skipped everybody because I kept spontaneously crying”.
Rose has axed her Twitter account in the wake of some members of the queer community voicing their disapproval over the canonically lesbian role going to Rose.
“Where on earth did ‘Ruby is not a lesbian therefore she can’t be Batwoman’ come from — has to be the funniest most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read,” Rose wrote in her last post on Twitter.
“I came out at 12? And have for the past 5 years had to deal with ‘she’s too gay’ how do y’all flip it like that? I didn’t change. I wish we would all support each other and our journeys.”
REVENUES, PROFITS UP FOR JB HI-FI
JB Hi-Fi’s full year revenue to June 30 jumped 21.8% to $6.8 billion while net profit soared 12.3% to $233.2 million.
In May, the group had forecast a profit of $230 million citing tough retail conditions.
During the year, JB Hi-Fi Australia opened eight new stores with five more in the coming year, and closed one in New Zealand where sales slumped 1.1% with another to be shuttered in the next year.
NEW CHAIR FOR MIAF
Leading strategist and corporate consultant Tim Orton will take on the role of chair of the Melbourne International Arts Festival Board, which will celebrate its 32nd year in October.
He replaces Maureen Wheeler, who will retire from the position at the conclusion of the 2018 festival.
Orton is managing director and founder of Nous Group – Australia’s largest locally-founded management consulting firm.
A Rhodes Scholar with a Master of Arts from Oxford University, he has provided expert strategy and planning advice to companies and government departments Australia-wide – consulting on projects across the creative, technology, health, environment, education, financial services and economic growth sectors.
He was on the board of the Australia Council and chaired the Geelong Performing Arts Centre and also worked with
Melbourne Fringe, Snuff Puppets and Back To Back Theatre.
DARWIN FESTIVAL WORKER HOSPITALISED WITH BURNS
A Darwin Festival worker ended up in hospital after what was thought to be a defective fire effect device blew up as she was cleaning post-event.
The device failed to go off during the Limbo show at the Aurora Spiegeltent.
It blew up afterwards burning her face, arms and chest.
NT Worksafe is investigating, while the SAFEX-FLAMEJETT device has been dropped from all future performances.
ACCUSED PERTH DJ KILLER CLAIMS SELF DEFENCE
As the murder court case of Perth DJ Jaime Rodolfo Fernandez started in the Supreme Court, the accused Victor Amaya claimed self defence.
The court heard that Amaya stabbed the DJ eight times and left his body in a cold shower for four days until a neighbour called police after hearing the sound of the water.
Amaya’s legal team said that the dead man was a drug dealer who got his client involved in selling cocaine.
Fernandez accused Amaya of stealing his customers and telling people where he lived. A fight broke out and Fernandez had pulled out a knife.
INXS AND ALL THAT JAZZ
The INXS catalogue gets the jazz treatment via an album by jazz performer Cam Giles.
He was there at the time. In 1987, a young Giles and a friend were recording demo songs at Sydney studio Rhinoceros with engineer Paula Jones.
INXS were there recording the Kick album. Michael Hutchence was also recording a few demos of his own and looking for collaborators. Jones suggested that maybe Michael and Cam could do a track together.
Cam says, “A short time later we did a new original track called Nail It Down, which was recorded over a weekend.
“Then I collaborated on a few more demo recordings with some of the other guys in the band.
“It was the experience of a lifetime singing with Michael and absorbing his great phrasing and unmatchable timing”.
“It has been my great pleasure and a complete labour of love to reinterpret some of the best Australian pop songs ever created, I love performing them live and bringing them into 2018, while simultaneously reliving the heartbeat of that ground-breaking musical era.”
VALE
*Jazz drummer and Conservatorium teacher Roger Sellers was born in Melbourne to a musical family, who bought him a kit in his early teens. After a stint in Sydney, he moved to New Zealand and joined the Mile Walters Trio.
He later studied in the US, and moved to London and toured with jazz fusion outfit Nucleus before returning to NZ in the 1980s. He continued to play and teach, before diagnosed with an illness three years ago and died at 79.
*Ian Larkin ran a host of pubs in Ballarat in country Victoria which supported live music, and was a guiding force in setting up of the Ballarat Liquor Accord. He served as president of the Australian Hoteliers Association in the region, and remembered for the way he would welcome every new publican to the region He died at 65.
AND A FEW OTHER THINGS …
Are 50 Cent and Eminem recording together?
Snoop Dogg has written a musical based on his life.
Cub Sport‘s Tim Nelson and Sam Netterfield have married. As a wedding presents, a group of fans raised $1,343 for the LGBTIQ youth organisation Minus18. When they played Splendour last month, they refered to it as, “our last show as an unmarried couple.”
When Guy Sebastian and manager Tutus Day of 6 Degrees parted ways late last year after 12 years, they couldn’t agree how much commission Day was owed. Sebastian thought it was the nice round figure of $0. Day told the Daily Telegraph he is owed $800,000 for work done for Guy, his stylist wife Jules and the Sebastian Foundation. They’re regretfully taking it to court to sort it out.
Accusations made in May against Marilyn Manson of sexual assault in 2011 have been dumped.
A Gold Coast man accused of raping and sexual assaulting a woman at a triple j 100 party was cleared on all counts.
For Baker Boy, it wasn’t just the thrill of winning three trophies at the National Indigenous Music Awards in Darwin on Saturday night. It was the first time most of his family saw the one-time dancer perform as Baker Boy.
After Weezer covered their song Africa, Toto have returned the favour by covering Weezer’s Hash Pipe.
A Montreal fan is suing the Osheaga festival because Travis Scott came on 1½ hours late, and the festival should have kept him to its schedule.
Wolf Alice are “definitely gonna say goodbye for awhile” once their current round of tours ends.
Jack Strom, who discovered Vanessa Amorosi and had a hand in the early career of Delta Goodrem, is putting his stunning pad in Caulfield, Melbourne, for sale for around $2 million. Strom was also the producer of Red Faces and toured with the Bay City Rollers making a documentary on them.
Broods told the New Zealand Herald that after they were dropped from their US label Capitol for not being a pop band, they battled depression and things were looking bleak until New York-based Neon Gold signed them, as reported by TMN last week. Caleb Nott said, “We had no money. I was in debt for a month, just before the changeover. It was perfect timing; I thought I was going to have to move back to Nelson (in NZ) and live with my parents.”
Sydney music video makers Tom Fletcher and Liam Mahoney from Teel Studios have opened an office in Wollongong.
Adelaide’s DJ Jesse Liguoro, resident spinner at HQ club, will play a 24-hour set on Sunday to raise money for long time cancer battler Cristina Simeonakis who found out last month she needs more treatment. The set will be livestreamed on Facebook. To donate, head here.
Nada Katana, winner of the EGM Records competition in partnership with Energy Groove Radio and SAE Creative Media Institute, has released his debut single Ghost Town. The Tasmanian native took out the competition from over 100 entrants consisting of SAE Creative Media Institute students and alumni. The prize included global distribution via EGM’s media channels, including guaranteed airplay on the Energy Groove Radio network, broadcasted digitally around the world, and added to the music rotation on Emirates Airlines.
Foxtel is expected to phase out its streaming platform Foxtel Now and replace it with new entertainment (code-named Project Jupiter) and sports (Project Martian) services to take on Netflix, Stan and Optus, reports the AFR.
In the second publishers quarter in the US, Sony/ATV topped the list for a third quarter in a row (and 23rd of the past 24 quarters), with 25.81% market share. Billboard reported Kobalt moved up to 19.06% from 11.68%, Universal Music Publishing Group remained at #3 with 17.21%, Warner/Chappell Music with 15.65%, BMG a 6.54%, Round Hill (2.36%) and Pulse Music Group (1.28%).
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