Industrial Strength: August 2
Sia continues winning streak in UK, US
As reported in TMN yesterday, Sia is one of Sony Music’s biggest selling international acts. She continues to make further waves in the UK and the US.
In the UK she is one of four non-Brits listed who dominated music streaming service Amazon Prime Music’s all time streams in the first 12 months of the service’s arrival in the British market. Sia had the third most amount of streams, after Coldplay and Ed Sheeran. The Adelaide-born singer songwriter beat The Beatles, One Direction, Taylor Swift Little Mix, Fleetwood Mac, David Guetta and David Bowie.
In the US, as also reported in TMN, Cheap Thrills gave Sia her first #1 Stateside, (fourth for Sean Paul who featured on the track). Billboard noted that she is the first female over 40 to reach the top since Madonna and Cher. Madge was 42 when Music stayed on top for four weeks in 2000. Cher was 52 when Believe reigned also for four weeks in 1999.
A number of Australian acts are also making noise in the US Top 100, with the latest being 5 Seconds Of Summer’s Girls Talk Boys entering at #68. Troye Sivan is #1 on the Twitter Top Tracks chart. Hillsong United’s Of Dirt and Grace: Live From The Land is at #7 on Digital Albums.
Flume’s Never Be Like You, featuring Kai, is #3 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, while just behind, at #10, is Cookin’ On 3 Burners vs Kungs’ This Girl, now breaking into America after its success in Europe and the UK. Nervo’s Let It Go is up to #4 on Dance Club Songs. Flume’s Skin is #3 at Top Dance/Electronic Albums in the US. Alas after an impressive US debut at #27 with Wildflower, The Avalanches dropped to #199.
Melbourne getting a $10 million hub in Collingwood
$10 million is put aside to transform a partially derelict site in Melbourne’s suburb of Collingwood to be transformed into a new creative precinct. The site of the former Collingwood Technical School on Johnston Street will be turned into artist studios, rehearsal spaces, galleries, artisan workshops, cafes, and venues for performances and public events. It opens in late 2018, and will provide support for non-profit small to medium sized creative organisations and individuals.
Aussie execs speaking at NZ’s Going Global summit
A number of Australian executives are tapped as speakers for New Zealand’s Going Global summit in Auckland. Held on September 2 and 3, it is organised by IMNZ (Independent Music NZ) and aimed at showing emerging acts how to make their mark on the world with words of wisdom from people who are already on the international stage.
The first round of speakers sees Inertia Group CEO Colin Daniels providing a keynote speech. Other Aussie are producer, engineer and audio mixer Anna Laverty; WME Music’s Head of Asia Pacific and major booking agent Brett Murrihy; Bedroom Suck Records owner and founder Joe Alexander; Richard Moffat, music booker for Falls Festival and Groovin’ The Moo; Tim Price, partner and Head Publicist at Collision Course; and Tom Larkin, founder/owner of Signal Agency Group and Homesurgery Management, and also Shihad’s drummer.
Anna Laverty
There are also execs from the US, China and Germany announced, with more to be unveiled in mid-August.
Tasmanian music acts receive Northern Exposure grants
Out of eleven recipients of the Tasmanian Government and Tasmanian Regional Arts’ $42,000 worth of grants (for its regional Northern Exposure initiative), three went to music acts. Launceston four-piece The Saxons received $4,000 towards recording their debut album, singer songwriter Emma Anglesey $4,000 towards a music video, and The Captives received $3,557 towards performing at BIGSOUND in Brisbane next month.
Record producer inducted into SA Hall of Fame
Record producer, engineer and mentor Brett Sody was the latest to be inducted into the South Australian Hall of Fame. Sody, who runs SodyPop Productions in Norwood, has been working on SA releases for the past 25 years. Last Friday’s sole induction was held at the Jade (not the usual Goodwin Institute), and marked a change in direction for organiser, the Adelaide Music Collective (AMC).
The AMC was set up primarily by drummer Enrico Morena two years ago to rush through as many inductions while – and there’s no diplomatic way to put this –the pioneers were still alive. Now most of the names have been lauded, so Morena figures the AMC can pull the pedal back a mite. The AMC is looking at taking its accompanying showcases (last Friday’s was Don Morrison and Troy Loakes, ex-Huckleberry Swedes) to regional areas.
New radio station for Wellington
Wellington in New Zealand has got a new indie radio station. Rough Peel Radio is in fact set up within the Rough Peel record shop on Cuba Street. Its playlist of non-commercial indie music is streamed at www.roughpeel.fm.
National Jazz Awards go for sax appeal
This year’s National Jazz Awards, held as part of the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues, will spotlight the saxophone. The festival (October 28 to 30) will be headlined by James Morrison, with other sax names including US tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana with her Crash Trio, and an ad hoc band made up of past awards winners. Full details at www.wangarattajazz.com.au.
More Festival Updates: leaks, returns, rumours, expansions
* The first Laneway 2017 leak has happened. In her cover interview with Sydney weekly The Brag, East London soul/electronic singer Nao let on she had been invited on to the January bill “and that is really exciting for me.” She added, “My band and I never thought we’d get this far, to be touring or have the opportunity to come out to Australia, and I’ve just got to find the money [laughs], but I think we’ll be coming out in January.”
* Sydney’s all-ages festival The Plot returns for a third year to Parramatta Park on November 19. There will also be food, drinks and clothing stalls.
* Paradise Music returns for a fourth time, held November 25 – November 27 at Lake Mountain Alpine Resort. It remains capped at 2,000 people and maintains a BYO policy. But this year sees an expansion of the amphitheatre, an indoor nightclub, and a secret late-night room.
* There’s some raising of eyebrows over the arrival of UK’s hard rock festival Download to these shores within the next two years. Its UK booker Andy Copping has said it ain’t happening. But owner Live Nation has bought the Australian domain rights to the festival’s website.
* New Zealand gets a new country music festival, Top Paddock, to be held on New Years Eve outdoors at the Lake Hawea Hotel. It replaces the three-year-old The Branding whose owner axed her event over issues with the date.
* There was another strong turnout for the weekend’s Devonport Jazz Festival in Tasmania, with many events sold-out or standing room only.
* The Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville has started to sell out events, Executive Director Justin Ankus reported. The opening night was one of these, while the good weather expected for the free community Queens Gardens concert could see it exceed its 4,000 attendance last year.
* The blues/country bands and BBQ Meatstock, which made its bow in Sydney earlier this year to 10,000 is expanding next year. It goes to Auckland in February, Melbourne in April and returns to Sydney in May.
* Silver Gem, promoters of the Cairns Annual White Party – Illumination on October 22 had a win from the council which allows it to sell 10% of its tickets at the door to bring in late-comer punters. Mayor Bob Manning revealed that the vote was unanimous because Silver Gem had run an “exemplary” event last year and deserved to be encouraged.
MTV returns to future with ‘90s themed channel …
Viewers of MTV Australia should keep an eye on its website for changes in programming. Yesterday (August 1) marked the 35th anniversary of MTV’s launch in America. Changes announced to coincide, included transforming of VH1 Classic to MTV Classic, which will focus on the ‘90s and early 2000s. It will include Total Request Live and the best of the Unplugged series. A new weekly live music and comedy performance series Wonderland is on its way.
… with Foxtel to launch Binge channel
Foxtel is launching the Binge channel on October 1, to meet consumer demand for box sets entertainment. It will feature a curated selection of complete seasons of great drama, comedy and entertainment.
Flume swells after Splendour, goes Platinum in the US
Flume’s Never Be Like You has gone Platinum in the US for sales of 1 million, after strong steaming sales and a cross over into the Top 100. It comes just as Flume kicks off a 70-date world tour which has already shifted 280,000 tickets. It kicked off last week in New Zealand with three shows to almost 20,000 fans. It heads to America (September 4 to 27) where 14 of the 32 shows are sold out, then on to ten European shows in November, before returning to Australia for a major run.
For Splendour, Flume recruited some of his favourite local talent (Vera Blue, Jess Kent, Ngaiire, Remi, Baro and Kučka), who lent their vocals and stage presence to bring Skin tracks to life. Flume told triple j: “I’m a fan of these people and we thought ’you know what? Why not, for Splendour, we do a one-off show, get some of my fave Australian artists. See if they’re up for coming on stage and singing some songs’.”
Ball Park Music: When The Whip Comes Down
The 6,000 who were in the G.W. McLennan Tent at Splendour In The Grass on the Saturday night were treated, not only to an awesome acoustic rendition of their fan fave It’s Nice To Be Alive but the debut performance of new single Whipping Boy which is due for streaming and downloading later this week. It’s the second track off the August 19-due album Every Night The Same Dream on Stop Start.
Frontman Sam Cromack explains, “It’s a basic song but it represents all I enjoy in good indie music: it’s fun and simple with some wacky sounds and some fascinating lyrics. I wrote the lyrics after reading about some famous scapegoats throughout history. It seemed so sad that blameless people can take the fall for others. Thinking broadly about the topic of blame was what lead me to that chorus lyric; I kind of subvert that old trope of ’Will you miss me?’ by putting in the context of blame by asking, ’If I become a target, will you miss me?’”
The band’s Every Night The Same Dream 2016 Australian Tour is taking in 18 dates of theatres, outdoor and clubs between September 3 to October 29. The Brisbane Triffid and Melbourne 170 Russell St shows have sold out, with a second show added in Melbourne at the Corner.
Venue Updates: fund raisers, winners, new arrivals, scams
* Melbourne’s Palais Theatre is for the 9th year hosting the Heart of St Kilda Concert on September 6. Palais’s outgoing CEO Neil Croker and RocKwiz co-host Brian Nankervis are presenting the fund raiser for the Sacred Heart Mission’s Meal Program, which delivers 160,000 meals each year to those in need. Ella Hooper, Paul Dempsey, Ross Wilson and Deborah Conway are on the music/comedy bill.
* The Highway won best live music venue at the 2016 AHA (Australian Hotels Association) South Australian awards. The best overall winner of the night was Moseley Bar in Glenelg, which took out best entertainment venue, as well as best bar, best bistro metropolitan and best bar presentation.
* Melbourne’s Cherry Bar has begun hosting 1am gigs every Fridays in its 33-capacity Jenni Bar at the rear.
* Perth band Gyroscope’s Rob Nassif is launching the 100-capacity Hen House Live (an extension of the same-named rehearsal studio next door) to showcase local acts on Fridays and Saturdays, as part of the new Badlands Bar. Each session starts at 8 pm and 10 pm, with plans to showcase 32 acts a month.
* Victorian hospitality group Sand Hill Road unveiled Garden State Hotel at 101 Flinders Lane in the Melbourne central business district. The site, a textile mill in the 1880s, was the home of Rosati nightclub in the 1980s and 1990s.
* Lantern Hotels is selling the Courthouse Hotel in Cairns to Pelathon Pub Fund for 6.25 million. Contracts have been exchanged, and they are waiting until October once approvals come through from the Queensland Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation.
* Four venues within Melbourne’s Abbotsford Convent will host 12 concerts featuring 27 classical musicians, as part of the intimate showcase project Music In The Round.
* A 23-year-old patron of Surfers Paradise nightclub The Bedroom was busted for passing counterfeit money. Bar staff got suspicious because he kept paying for drinks with new $100 notes each time, instead of using change, and only bought one drink each time. They called police, and the man faces Southport District Court early this month.
Australia builds arts bridges with India with grant
As part of greater arts links between Australia and India, the Federal Government announced a $250,000 grant for the Confluence Festival of India. The first, and largest, of its kind in Australia, the festival will showcase a wide range of India’s arts and culture (including rock and Bollywood) and includes collaboration with local talent. The 10-week-long festival is held across seven cities – Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Alice Springs, Adelaide and Brisbane from this month.
Study: Personal growth drives social media in Australia
78% of Facebook conversations in Australia are based around personal growth, covering success and health & success –almost double that of a global 49%. Australia was one of ten countries where international social data intelligence agency Pulsar studied 33 million posts in five languages over the month of May on behalf of online fashion retailer The Outnet.
Social media use shows that people want to express their individuality and discover things on their own, but also yearn to be part of a larger community and share their discoveries. In fact selfies, the new status symbol, are no longer about one’s self: one third of these have two or more people, indicating part of a group. The figures for Australia show that the conversations (the study also includes Twitter and Instagram) are lead by women aged over 25. (Younger generations are sharing more open feelings on Snapchat). The study found that conversation themes were belonging (6%), discovery (6%), everyday beauty (6%) and expressing individuality (4%).
CX digital goes free
Australian pro-audio trade print and digital magazine CX will from this week offer the digital component for free at www.cxnetwork.com.au. Publisher Julius Grafton says all editions to 2012 can be downloaded, with plans to have 26 years worth of stuff available.
Cloher, Barnett, pull supergroup to save Merri Grasslands
Jen Cloher and Courtney Barnett are among musicians who’re throwing their weight behind a new campaign in Melbourne to protect Merri Creek’s endangered grasslands. It is the home of the head-banging insect called the Blue Banded Bee. It ‘buzz pollinates’ by banging its head in flowers at a staggering 350 times per second. Buzz pollination is critical for the long-term survival of many wildflowers in the grasslands. The Blue Banded Bee can only travel short distances and struggles to take pollen between distant wildflower patches growing within Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
Cloher joined the Friends of Merri Creek this year. “Having lived in the northern suburbs for the past 15 years, I’ve come to appreciate the Merri Creek as a green space to treasure. It’s a shared backyard for cyclists, dog owners, sports enthusiasts and all sorts of community groups. I’d often see the Friends of Merri Creek out collecting rubbish or planting trees, and so I made the decision to join this year and become an active member. It’s been a great antidote for what can sometimes feel like a sad and difficult time for the planet. It feels good to be doing something and learning about what’s just outside my front door.”
The Friends of Merri Creek began a Pozible campaign yesterday at https://pozible.com/project/the-rockin-bee. The funds are to increase wildflower populations connecting existing patches so the bee can easily get from plant to plant. Cloher has assembled The Blue Banded Bee Band including Barnett, Fraser A. Gorman, The Orbweavers and Steph Hughes for a one-off concert at the Northcote Social Club on Saturday December 3.
Catalyst funding workshops
With WA’s Catalyst Community Arts Fund closing on September 30 for projects starting on January 1, a number of free workshops will be held this month. It will assist applicants seeking funding for their community arts project, or community artists seeking research and development grants. The Catalyst workshop is on Thursday August 11, August 10am – 2pm. An artist forum is on Thursday August 18 between 5.30pm – 7pm.
Perth rockumentary Meal Tickets to premiere
Meal Ticket, the West Australian-made rockumentary about Perth punk band Screwtop Detonators by one time music video director Mat de Koning, makes its premiere this week (August 4) at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Filming began ten years ago, starting from the band members as high school skateboard freaks to forming themselves into a band which soon became the next big thing.
Screwtop Detonators had a lot of international interest. They were mentored by one-time UK executive Dave Kavanagh, who had worked with The Libertines, counted Tommy Ramone among their fans (he spread the word on them) and flew out UK producer Morgan Nicholls (Muse, The Streets, Gorrilaz) to work on their first album. US indie Gig Records offered to sign them but only on the condition they could finish off a 30-day US tour, which much of the doco is based around – as part on-the-road experience and part rites-of-passage. Their roadie at the time, Will Ferrier, quit some weeks in and later formed Will Ember & The Stokers.
It took two years for de Koning, who won Young Filmmaker of the Year at the WA Screen Awards in 2011, to carve the documentary from 700 hours of footage, with 20 different drafts and ScreenWest funding. There was so much left over that a separate documentary will be made on visual artist Matt Doust, who attended the same high school as the band and whose career criss-crossed with theirs until his death in in 2013 from an epileptic seizure.
eOne expands into UK
eOne Australia’s parent company eOne is setting up an office in London to break into the UK market. eOne is involved in film and TV production, artist management, label and publishing, It also has office in Canada, the US, Ireland, Spain, the Benelux, France, Germany, Scandinavia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Maori music gets promo push in Australia
Maori music and artists is set to get a promotion in Australia through August. It is part of the first Waiata Māori Music Month, which will also put the spotlight on the genre in its native New Zealand. Workshops will be held with ambassadors Maisey Rika along with Rob Ruha, Taisha Tari and Tama Waipara giving emerging artists the opportunity to showcase their talent.
Ellison Huata, Executive Director for the Waiata Māori Music Awards, said that it was hoped that the genre would make a bigger splash in New Zealand. “We just want to see this whole country flourish with Māori music we want the quota increased on mainstream radio we want our youth to be embraced by the industry, so that’s why we have our ambassadors who are there to help nurture.”
Up The Guts trialling regional touring circuit
Up The Guts is currently trialling a 15-date regional touring schedule that takes in a number of states with camping gear and in an old bus a la Priscilla. The trek began in Hobart on July 22, winds through Victoria, SA and Northern Terrtiory ends up in Darwin on August 7. The bands involved in the first run are ScotDrakula, Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, Ali E, Ben Wright Smith, Jack and Jo’s Juke Box Explosion (members of Big Scary and The Pretty Littles) and a local artist from each town. Ten workshops on music for schools and community groups are held en route during the 7500 kms.
Virgin Mobile fills in Guvera exit
Virgin Mobile has reassured its customers that the exit of Guvera from Australia will not affect its free gig data offer for another four months at least. Under the earlier deal, Virgin Mobile customers were gifted 1GB of data to use for whatever purpose as long as they listened to Guvera once per month. They didn’t have to use the GB for Guvera purposes; just had to listen once. A new offer around of music is now given until November 2.
Video Updates: Broods, Urthboy
* The Broods spent a searing hot day in the Californian desert shooting the video for Heartlines, which they co-wrote with Lorde. They used a device called the Microsoft Band, which tracks heart rate, calorie burn, sleep quality, and exercise. During singer Georgia Nott’s performance, the team translated her biodata and energy – as captured by her Microsoft Band – into stunning “heartline” visuals in the video.
Amy Sorokas, Strategic Partnerships Director of Microsoft Brand Studios, pointed out, “As part of the Music x Technology program we’ve been working with artists to push the boundaries of the music experience. The collaboration with Broods was particularly exciting as the band were eager to explore how Microsoft technology could create a more intimate and engaging experience for their fans.”
* Urthboy’s The Arrow feat. Timberwolf was written about the ups and downs of his Elefant Traks label for its 18-year existence to date, and his pursuit of a sense of purpose. The line ’where does my arrow land’ came up in a business meeting where someone used it to describe a campaign strategy. The campaign never eventuated, and the poetry of the phrase was “uncoupled” from its corporate beginning. The video is animated by artist Dominic Aldis, a long time fan, who contacted Urthboy earlier this year to show his interest in collaborating. The timing was perfect. With pencil and paper Aldis created a unique visual, with over 2,700 images drawn for four minutes.
Musical note for Autism conference
The Autism New Zealand national conference in Wellington on August 19 and 20 gets a musical note. Local young musician Kane Chong will perform his debut single We Are One. It was written about a school friend who had ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and which Chong hopes will change the way people think about those who have it.
At the event’s awards winner, Chong will play acoustic guitar, accompanied on ukulele by Mike Chunn, of Split Enz and Citizen Band, who these days runs the Play it Strange Trust. Chong approached him about helping him with the single, and Chunn pulled the right strings. On August 8 and 9, We Are One will be recorded at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios in Auckland. The Exponents’ Jordan Luck will handle lead vocals, 30 of Chong’s school friends offering choral background and the Enz’s keyboard player Eddie Rayner taking on sound engineer duties.
More small bars for Adelaide suburbs?
Greens South Australia MP Tammy Franks has introduced changes to the Liquor Licensing Act to “bring down the hipster-proof fence” and allow small bars to spread to the suburbs. Small bar licences were first introduced to SA in 2013 but confined to Adelaide city only. More than 70 new bars have popped up as a result.
Number Crunching
$123 million gross so far in the opening run of Beyonce’s Formation World Tour in North America. It drew 972,719 attendees from 23 sold out performances.
$10,000 per venue is what will cost each Adelaide venue if a SA Government proposal goes through that all licensed venues which trade after 1am must install ID scanners.
5,000 people turned up for WA’s Holi Festival of Colours festival, instead of the 300 who have come in the past two years, overwhelming organisers who had merged with another association this year.
19,000 people have checked out an ad for 300 music boomboxes from the 1980 sold by a Dunedin man from his collection. Each machine starts at $20,000.
$250,000 turned down by Father John Misty to do a Backstreet Boys cover for a Chipotle advert
And A Few Other Things …
When the first contingent of the Australian Diving team arrived in Rio and held their first training session, the music powering them on was from Hilltop Hoods. Olympic debutant Grant Nel admitted, “It was pretty cool to have an Aussie hip hop song playing whilst we were practicing.”
A 52-year-old homeless man has been charged over two fires at 6PR Perth’s building on the morning of July 24.
Wollongong’ band Hockey Dads, set to begin their American tour in San Francisco on August 10, found that the title track of their upcoming Boronia debut album debuted at #1 on the highly influential Sub Modern Radio charts.
On Peter Garrett’s current solo tour with the Alter Egos, aside from all the songs from his A Version of Now album, sees the lanky one pull in versions of Skyhooks’ Ego Is Not A Dirty Word, Kev Carmody’s Thou Shalt Not Steal and The Divinyls’ Back to The Wall. The Midnight Oil ditties pulled out, at least for the Brisbane show last Friday, included Section 5 (Bus to Bondi) and Dead Heart.
A Newcastle Herald profile of Silverchair bassist Chris Joannou’s The Edwards store (which he set up in 2014 with business partner Chris Johnston) found that it has expanded from a bar and restaurant to include a coin laundry, motorcycle workshop and a record store. Joannou told the paper, “We’ve always tried to look beyond offering just a cold beer and a burger, and really tried to create something where you could come three times in the same week and not have the same experience.”
Palace Cinemas is opening in a third Sydney location, on Cross Street in Double Bay in 2017/18. It’s already in Leichhardt and Paddington.
With a third album recorded and having signed to Capitol USA last year, three of the five members of New Zealand band Six60 have set up home in an apartment in Studio City in Los Angeles. They’re asking fans on social media to send photos of NZ art to put on the wall and lamenting they’re missing Marmite! Two of them make it to the UFC bout between Mark Hunt and Brock Lesnar in Las Vegas and managed to get backstage for the weigh-in at the T-Mobile Arena.
After Melbourne’s The Bennies wind up Aussie dates in September, they head to Europe to tour with US band Less Than Jake.
A second benefit is being held in Melbourne for ailing ‘60s muso Colin Cook. Playing are Normie Rowe & The Playboys, Ronnie Charles, Marcie Jones, The Heebie Jeebies, Les Stackpool Band with guests for a jam session. It’s on Sunday August 7 from 2 pm at Lucky 13 Garage, 8 Cochranes Road, Moorabbin. Tickets from www.colincook.org.
Woman’s Day tells us that Nova Entertainment Programming Director Paul Jackson and actress Emily Symons have split after four years. They have a year old son Henry.