Industrial Strength: January 16

LANEWAY ADDS BLOCK PARTY TO ITS RANKS

Red Bull Music and record label I OH YOU have added a street Block Party to Laneway’s stops in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle.

Laneway co-founder Danny Rogers says it’s a homage to the spontaneity and excitement of the very first Laneway parties held out the back of Melbourne’s Caledonian Lane, circa 2004.

Stressing the spontaneity of the Block Party, he revealed, “We booked the line-up over three days and it came together perfectly.”

I OH YOU’s founder Johann Ponniah says: “As people who grew up attending the festival from a young age, it feels surreal to think that we are now going to be part of an event that has given so many of our favourite artists their first Australian festival slots.

“I OH YOU was spawned through a series of house parties that were thrown in my share house a few years back…I’m not exactly sure how we ended up here but in many ways it feels like Block Party is going to capture the same energy that those initial parties had.”

For full list of Block Party acts, see the Laneway website.

NGAIIRE REVEALS HEALTH ISSUES

Neo-soul singer Ngaiire has revealed to fans through Instagram that she is facing a serious health issue.

Her surgeon has found tumours in her liver. But even worse, the singer is pregnant with her first child.

“Because I’ve been blessed to carry this beautiful bodacious baby boy (surprise) it’s difficult for doctors to decipher if the tumours are malignant or benign at this stage which will mean a lot of progressive monitoring every week,” she posted.

“Baby boy is very happy and healthy at the moment but here’s hoping I won’t need to deliver him before he’s full term if the tumours end up being cancerous.”

DARWIN NIGHTCLUB CLEANS UP AFTER SUSPICIOUS FIRE

Darwin’s Discovery Nightclub expects to re-open to the public on Friday after a fire forced 500 patrons to be evacuated at 2 am on Sunday.

Using CCRV footage and ID-scanning technology police identified and arrested a man on suspicion of alleged arson within 15 minutes of being called to the premises.

Police Duty Superintendent James O’Brien told ABC Darwin, “Reviewing the CCTV footage, we’ve discovered that it appears that someone’s pushed a trolley or something similar up against the external laundry door, and it appears that at this stage that they purposely set that alight.”

The fire is estimated to have cost $50,000 worth of damage.

LIL PUMP DOES A LIL DUMP ON WARNER BROS

One of the biggest breakthrough acts of 2017 in America has thanked his record company – by dumping them.

Rapper Lil Pump’s debut single ‘Gucci Gang’ reached #3 on the U.S. chart, while his self-titled debut album arrived on the chart at #3 and generated for him 160 million followers on social media.

Now Pumpy’s legal folks have advised Warner Bros that he was only 16 when he signed the deal, and it was never certified by the court. So that puts it in the “nullified” basket.

Now the charismatic teenager is in the enviable position of either going the independent route or get trampled over in the inevitable rush as other record companies rush in to scoop him up.

‘SAPPHIRES’ MUSICAL GETS FUNDING TO TOUR

A new production of The Sapphires will travel to 33 regional towns through Victoria in 2019, thanks to $132,000 funding from the Victorian Government.

A free ‘pop up’ version of the show will tour to Aboriginal communities.

The musical will be directed by director and actor Tony Briggs who wrote the original screenplay for the award winning 2012 movie based on the adventures of his mother and aunt who performed in the indigenous act and toured Vietnam in the ‘60s.

The latest round of nearly $800,000 worth funding from Touring Victoria also saw a state-wide exhibition of Code Breakers: Women in Games highlighting the works of Australian and NZ women making their mark on the global digital games industry; and projects by Melbourne Recital Centre, Ilbijerri Theatre, Orchestra Victoria, Western Edge Youth Arts and Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.

$148,000 was marked for delivery of Just Shows to Go’s 2018 Café Culture Series (February to December, to 16 small communities).

The program includes Pacific Belles, featuring songs from the 1940s; the cabaret performance Red Dress & the Sugar Man, featuring music by Tom Waits; swing performers Dr Crask & His Swingin’ Elixir Band; and A Night of Bollywood, a celebration of Indian music and dance.

GRACE JONES MOVIE HITS CINEMAS MARCH 8

Grace Jones’ Bloodlight And Bami movie is set for cinema release on March 8 – a month after her tour through Australia and New Zealand.

Directed by Sophie Fiennes, it looks at her as a performer as well as a lover, daughter, mother, sister and even grandmother, and follows her on a holiday road trip across her native Jamaica.

PSYFARI FESTIVAL MOVES TO A.C.T.

After taking a hiatus last year, the PSYFARI festival returns this year. No longer staged in the NSW Blue Mountains, the latest incarnation of the event (dubbed “PSYFARI Jamboree”) arrives to Australian Capital Territory.

The PSYFARI Jamboree will be held on February 23-25 at the 500-acre Caloola Farm in Tharwa, and feature more than 100 music acts, performers, speakers and artists.

UK TICKETING FRAUD INCREASES

New figures from the UK’s Society of Ticket Agents & Retailers (STAR) show that the number of reported ticket fraud cases has increased to 3,973 from 2,885 in 2015, while the average value loss per victim dropped to £195 from of £205.

Despite warnings from police and the music industry, it seems that the public is not being vigilant enough, or merely careless when they want to get hard-to-get tickets.

KING GIZZARD TO NORTH AMERICA

After dropping five albums in 2017, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are heading off to North America for 19 theatre shows.

The tour begins on May 31 and weaves its way through a number of cities including San Francisco, Portland. Vancouver, Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, New York and Boston.

It winds up in the Deep South, picking up final speed in Atlanta and New Orleans and finishes off on June 22 in Austin Texas at an outdoor amphitheatre.

MUSIC PROGRAM FOR COMMONWEALTH GAMES SET FOR RELEASE

Festival 2018 – the music, arts and culture program to coincide with the Commonwealth Games in Queensland (April 4 to 15) – won’t be announcing its events for another few weeks.

But given that $20 million will be allocated for music and culture throughout the state – under the direction of Katie Noonan and most of it free – people are already jumping the gun.

Festival 2018 will join forces with the Bleach* Festival. There will be two entertainment hubs (Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise) where rock music, dance, physical theatre, visual art and indigenous arts will be showcased.

Broadbeach will host the Queensland Music Stage for the duration, where tourists can check out Kate Miller-Heidke. The Jungle Giants and Torres Strait Islander hip-hop act Mau Power.

Brisbane, Cairns and possibly Townsville will also be hosting their own live music events.

Rehearsal have already begun for the opening and closing ceremonies.

More than 4,000 people will be involved in these, under the direction of Noonan, Brisbane choreographer, Nathan Wright and Gold Coast tap dancer Drew Anthony.

NZ COPS FORCED TO LISTEN TO ‘FUCK THA POLICE’

Boy is someone going to cop if when the police get hold of them! The culprit hacked into law enforcement radio frequencies in Dunedin, New Zealand, and forced officers to listen to NWA’s original and Rage Against The Machine’s cover of ‘Fuck Tha Police’.

It didn’t help that some of this took place while the frequency was being used by officers to coordinate a response to a man pointing a firearm at motorists.

JADE BIRD TO VISIT

Rising British singer Jade Birdwill be making her first visit to Australia to promote her new single ‘Lottery’ for her local label Liberator/ Mushroom Group.

She’ll be in Sydney Wed Feb 21 to Sat Feb 24 (inclusive).

The single is off the 20-year old’s debut EP Something American.

CORONER: ROADWORKS CONTRIBUTED TO DEATH OF DARWIN MUSO

The NT News reported that Northern Territory coroner Greg Cavanagh has found that a road diversion set-up contributed to the death of Darwin musician and live sound engineer Peter Bonnell aka Pedro Swift.

The 43-year-old was was riding down Tiger Brennan Drive at about 2 am on April 30, 2016 when his motorbike crashed into road diversion barriers and he was thrown onto a trailer.

He had earlier in the night been mixing the sound for a band. According to the coroner he had consumed more than 10 standard drinks as well as smokedcannabis over the course of the night.

So while this had affected his judgement, the coroner criticised the set up of the traffic diversion: the 60kph speed advice was too high. The angle of the lane was too curved, and the set up was not compliant with Australian standards.

The matter has been referred to the Police Commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

AND, UH, ONE FOR THE MONEY, UH….

Melbourne’s Anthony Petrucci (and of course, his blue suede shoes) was crowned winner of the Parkes Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest during the Elvis Festival in the NSW town of Parkes.

He won $3,000 cash and will represent Parkes at the semi-final round during Elvis Week in Memphis, USA.

More than 20 Elvis tribute artists from across Australia and New Zealand tried their luck at the event, with second placebeing awarded to Brody Finlay of Townsville and third place to Melbourne’s Joe Piastrino.

HEADPHONES THAT GIVE YOU A BANG

Among the weird and wonderful products unveiled at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) meet in Las Vegas this month were wireless headphones from Sweden made from recycled firearms confiscated in South America.

The charging case and a band on the headphones themselves are made of a material branded Humanium.

The headphones are pricey at US$500 ,but Swedish manufacturer Yevo Labs’s CEO Andreas Vural pointed out that 50% is returned to the organisation that creates and distributes the metal.

“It’s the most valuable material in the world because you can’t set a price on a human life,” he said.

CYGNET FOLK BREAKS RECORD

After setting a new attendance record last year, Tasmania’s Cygnet Folk Festival broke another on the weekend, with promoters saying that the final tickets were sold a day before the event.

AMPAG TAKES ANTI-HARASSMENT STAND

AMPAG (the Australian Major Performing Arts Group) is the latest arts association to take a stand on harassment and bullying.

It has set up a new Code of Behaviour, which emphasises that this kind of behaviour is “totally unacceptable” and the importance of supporting those who come forward to report past incidents.

AMPAG, made up of 28 companies, said in part, “The performing arts rely on the talent, generosity and creative spirit of the people who have chosen this path as their life.

“We value and admire their contribution to our lives and will work with our own members and the broader arts sector to ensure we offer safe and fair creative working environments”.

AMPAG is also holding discussions with the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Human Rights Commission on what more advice and support they can provide to the sector.

AUSSIES GET NOTICED AT U.S. SONGWRITING COMP

Three Australians songwriting teams were among those getting “honourable mentions” in the USA Songwriting Competition.

They were the alt-rock Melbourne band Coellegians for ‘Vaccine’, Gold Coast-based Mark Watson & Paul Guerin’s ‘History’s Gift’ in the Gospel/ Inspirational category, and Albury’s Vanessa Selwyn & James Hoppe for their country music composition ‘Tequila’d’.

VALE

Frankie T Thatcher began presenting his Monday morning Aussie Country Music show on Sydney community radio station 2MCR on January 21, 1998 and served as Treasurer for Macarthur Community Radio and hailed by the Country Music Association of Australia as a supporter of its works. He was also an ambassador for research into prostate cancer. Thatcher was 87.

AND A FEW OTHER THINGS…

The whisper on Twitterland – always a reliable source! – is that Lorde is dating Bleachers frontman Jack Antonoff after he split from Girls star Lena Dunham after five years. Antonoff helped Lorde produce her Melodrama album. Last June, Dunham posted on Instagram, “Ella (Lorde) and Jack worked on most of this album together in our apartment and it was a privilege to watch her create and feed her little snacks.” The post has now been deleted.

Despite heavy storms through Victoria, 8,000 people attended A Day On The Green at Mt Duneed Estate near Geelong to see Bryan Adams, Daryl Braithwaite and Thirsty Merc and danced away in their ponchos.

Kissrecently forced an interviewer to take off his Iron Maiden T shirt before they would chat to him.

S Club 7 member Paul Cattermole put his BRIT award for Breakthrough Act on eBay because “I have bills to pay.” Most recent bidding was at £66,000 (A$114,309).

R&B singer Chris Brown could be facing jail time, after U.S. authorities realised that he had no permit for the baby capuchin monkey named Fiji which he bought for his three year old daughter Royalty as a pet.

Brothers-in-law Jimmy Barnes and Mark Lizotte have been doing the family thing. Barnes threw a huge bash for wife Jane’s 60thbirthday for all their showbiz and sports friends at their Southern Highlands estate, and posted on Facebook “As we canoe down this river of life, I’m so glad I am in the same boat as you. Happy birthday to the love of my life.”

Meantime, the Lizotte clan is this week meeting up in Tasmania to commemorate their late mother and saxplaying father. Joining the celebrations were elder brother and soon-to-be-grandfatherBrian Lizotte, who runs the Lizotte’s music venues.

New Zealand record producer Kody Nielson’s (Mint Chicks, Unknown Mortal Orchestra) next album Birthday Suite is set for a global release through Flying Nun on May 9(his birthday). The first single ‘Bic’s Birthday’, featuring singer songwriter Bic Runga(whose records he produces), was out on January 13, which was Runga’s birthday.

One of the original cast members of the first Australian Idol, Cosima de Vito, is expecting her first child and releasing an album of love ballads called The Power of Love to coincide.

More details on the Flight Of The Conchords one-hour TV special. HBO in America revealed it will be filmed during their March tour through the UK and will hit the screens in May.

David Bowie’s widow Iman and their 17-year old daughter Alexandria “Lexi” Jones celebrated the second anniversary of his death last week by getting tattoos. Iman’s was a kris on her ankle, Lexi’s was jewelled moon with the word “Daddy xxx”, and the years of Bowie’s life (1947 – 2016).

Earl Sweatshirthas cancelled Australian dates after the death of his father.

Glassjaw pulled out of this week’s round of dates late last week, Refunds are offered while promoter MJR Presents’ Scott Mesiti said, “We’re currently waiting on more information from the band and their ability to re-schedule the tour.”