Industrial Strength: January 23
RUMOURS RE-IGNITE: ELECTRIC DAISY CARNIVAL FOR AUSTRALIA?
Rumours from three years ago that the Las Vegas-based global EDM festival Electric Daisy Carnival – which in 2015 drew 400,000 over three days – was to be staged in Australia, have reignited.
The latest speculation comes after promoter Insomniac CEO Pasquale Rotella announced that after expanding to Japan last year, EDC would mark its 25th anniversary by moving into China.
He also teased that a couple of international dates could be added – which set the Australian EDM sector in rumour overdrive.
In 2015, Insomniac did apply to trademark the name in Australia to run “live music concerts, disc jockey concerts, dance parties, music tours, musical and artistic performances and night clubs.”
But at the time another promoter was disputing ownership of the name in America, and the Australian application got tangled up in that.
INAUGURAL ROAD TO ULTRA CLOSE TO SELL-OUT
The inaugural EDM festival Road To Ultra at Myer Music Bowl on Saturday February 24 is close to a sell-out.
At least 90% of the tickets had gone by last Friday, promoters PSV Group Australia and Lucky Ent / WAO said.
The bill includes headliners Afrojack and Axwell v Infgrosso, along with Will Sparks, Timmy Trumpet, Tigerlily, BRB, Mashd’n’Kutcher and more international names Carnage, KSHMR and Andrew Rayel.
Promoters have already confirmed plans for full-scale festivals in Sydney and Melbourne in 2019.
PUSH FOR LIVE TASKFORCE FOR NEWCASTLE
Newcastle could end up with a Live Taskforce as the city becomes the latest flashpoint for a battle for music venues to survive.
A roundtable is being held on February 2, to be attended by, among others, John Graha who heads the Labor Loves Live Music.
Earlier this month, former Screaming Jets guitarist Grant Walmsley and Wickham Park Hotel owner Marcus Wright told Newcastle’s Herald and Star that music venues were feeling the heat from complaints from the apartment boom, and urged Newcastle City Council to protect them the way Melbourne and Brisbane had, respectively through 2014’s agent of change and 2006’s development of a Special Entertainment Precinct
A grassroots movement has begun, with other musicians and fans calling for action. Council has asked Wamsley to present his concerns to them, and Councillor John Mackenzie has pushed for a task force.
Wamsley told the Herald of the grassroots movement, “There is a real fear I can’t overstate that live music will be gone. This is a pivotal moment for this town.
“It’s a real shame that people like me have to put a call to arms out there. People are aware, now they need to be vocal.”
It comes just as Council plans to launch in March the city’s first nighttime economy strategy.
Ideas suggested have included keeping bars and book stores opened later to offer non-alcohol entertainment, coordinating public transport schedules with venue closing times, and use more laneways and public sites for performances.
See theofficial website for more details.
TIESTO KICKING OFF [V] ISLAND PARTIES
The first [V] Island party for 2018 takes place Friday February 9 in Sydney Harbour, headlined by DJ/producer superstar Tiesto.
McDonalds is the presenting partner of the series.
Fraser Stark, Group Channel Manager of Foxtel Arts & Music channels, said: “[V] brings its fans close to the biggest acts in the world – from within the centre of mainstream pop as well as hit-makers from the array of today’s going genres.
“The Belgian dance/house legend, Tiësto, has long been regarded as one of the world’s greatest DJs – with a reputation for huge live performances. Now he’s confirmed for the [V] Island – we can’t wait!”
RUBY BOOTS TO PLAY US…
Nashville-based Perth singer songwriter Ruby Boots, who’s dropping her second album Don’t Talk About on February 9 through Island Records Australia, follows it up with some US shows.
These include a launch party show at The Hideout in Chicago (February 9), and showcases at the Folk Alliance, Kansas City (14—17), an in-store appearance at Grimeys Records in Austin Texas (24) and sets at SXSW (March 12—18).
Rolling Stone USA listed the album in its 2018 Music Preview of 30 Most Anticipated Albums and Tours, sitting Ruby Boots alongside key Americana album releases from acts including Josh Hedley, Margo Price and Lindi Ortega.
Boots returns to Australia in May for dates in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
… MANSIONONAIR RELOCATING OVERSEAS …
Sydney band Mansionair will be relocating to the northern hemisphere in March for much of 2018.
After touring through the UK and Europe in late 2017, this year they’re already announced for Hangout Festival (US) and The Great Escape (UK), with more dates to follow.
Their ‘Astronaut’ single, which got played on Apple Music’s Beats 1 by Zane Lowe and Elton John, reached #38 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart and clocked up 4 million Spotify global streams.
Mansionair will also be watching the Grammys as their hit collaboration with US electro-pop duo Odesza ‘Line of Sight’ has been nominated.
Before they head north, they play the Night Cat in Melbourne with Christopher Port and Enerate (February 23) and Oxford Art Factory in Sydney with NYCK and Enerate (March 1).
…CROOKED COLOURS ANNOUNCE WORLD TOUR…
While tickets for Perth act Crooked Colours’ Perfect Run Australian dates in April are going great guns – Melbourne and Brisbane sold out in less than a day – they’ve also announced a massive overseas tour.
A 10-date North American trek with Melbourne producer Running Touch begins on February 23 in San Francisco, and winds up in Washington DC on March 10.
In between they hit cities as Chicago, Detroit, Boston and New York.
Running Touch teams up with them again for four Australian shows between April 7 and 20.
Fourteen UK and European shows with Irish producer Eden begin in Dublin on April 24 and ends in Stockholm, with Glasgow, London. Manchester, Amsterdam, Paris and Copenhagen also in the mix.
Their label Sweat It Out says these shows are the last behind last year’s debut album Vera.
After that they’ll take a break to write and record their sophomore album.
…AND SUZIE STAPLETON BACK FOR QUICK DATES
Australian singer songwriter Suzie Stapleton, who has been based in London the past three years, is returning home for the first time since for a run of shows behind the February 22 released single ‘Negative Prophet’.
In the UK, she’s been playing with Mark Lanegan, Mick Harvey, and Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind, and generated compliments as “one of the most exciting emerging talents on the London scene” (Louder Than War) and part of “the emerging wave of assertive and gifted female artists” (BBC).
‘Negative Prophet’, a comment on how” the powerful feed on the powerless” was produced by Stapleton with help from bassist Fred Lyenn Jacques (Mark Lanegan Band).
She has also been working on several collaborations including providing guest vocals on Lydia Lunch & Cypress Grove’s Under The Covers and The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project (with the likes of Nick Cave, Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry).
The Australian dates in March land at The Junk Bar in Brisbane (1), MoshPit, Sydney (2), The Yarra, Melbourne (3) and Mona, Hobart (10).
EAGLES OUT MENDING FENCES IN COURT
The Eagles are certainly keeping their lawyers busy.
They’ve just settled with a Mexican hotel which named itself after their best selling album Hotel California (16 million in the US alone) and had applied to trademark the name Hotel California in the US.
The band said that the hotel played Eagles songs in the lobby and sold Hotel California merchandise and “actively encouraged” guests to believe it was associated with them.
Ironically, The Eagles themselves were themselves sued by the Beverly Hills Hotel after a photo of it was plonked on the album cover.
But that went quiet after hotel bookings tripled after the Grammy-winning album’s release in the late ‘70s.
In the meantime, Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey’s widow Cindy has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan over his January 2016 passing..
She accuses the hospital and gastroenterologist Steven Itzkowitz of negligence, claiming that his ulcerative colitis was not treated properly, nor were the risks and side effects of treatment explained to the couple.
As a result, “Glenn Frey was rendered sick, sore, lame and disabled.”
At the time of his death, The Eagles said that the drugs used for treatment rheumatoid arthritis which he had for over 15 years led to ulcers and pneumonia which they insist contributed to his death.
100,000 TURN OUT FOR PERTH’S OPTUS STADIUM OPENING
Over 100,000 came through the gates when Perth’s new $1.6 billion concert and sports venue Optus Stadium threw its gates open for the first time to the public.
While live bands played the venue showed off its state of the art facilities, the larger-than-usual seats, the thousand TV screens, the two largest screens in the southern hemisphere, security procedures, and 71 food and beverage outlets.
At twilight came a dazzling display of the largest lighting production in the world for a sports venue.
With a seating capacity of 60,000 (or a maximum capacity of 70,000 for concerts if the stage is put in the middle of the pitch), Optus Stadium is the third largest of its kind in Australia.
The BHP Amphitheatre in the precinct allows for 1000 patrons for concerts, plays and outdoor movies.
The stadium has two of the biggest screens in the southern hemisphere,, with over a thousand TV screens. Food and beverage outlets total 71.
The venue is set up to be reached by public transport only, and even Premier Mark McGowan took a choo-choo in.
Much of the public’s response was how big the venue was, and the many vantage points there were to see the action.
The first event at the stadium is the cricket match between Australia and England on January 28.
The first concert is Ed Sheeran’s double whammy on March 2 and 3, with Taylor Swift set for October… and, get this, Rhianna in October 2019.
APPEAL SET UP FOR MARK ‘NODDY’ O’DONNELL
The family of Mark ‘Noddy’ O’Donnell has set up a fund raising campaign to help the ailing LA based Australian tour production identity.
He worked with Kevin Borich and Richard Clapton, and tour-managed Icehouse, The Pointer Sisters, Hot Chocolate, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Eric Burdon, Dragon, Cheap Trick, America, Lori Morgan, Omen International and Selwyn Miller.
O’Donnell has been diagnosed with Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
He is too ill to return to Australia, and his family is raising funds for medical and care home costs.
Donations can be made here.
BEHIND CANBERRA RADIO HARASSMENT
Capital Radio Canberra station 2CA may have sacked breakfast presenter Frank Vincent over allegations levelled at him (and which he denies) but former Capital Radio network journalist Jacinta Lee says managers of 2CA and 2CC protected him after she made a sexual harassment complaint against him last year.
The 23-year-old left 2CA in June – her first job in the media – after eight months.
Over 10 current and former employees have told Fairfax Media young journalists faced unreasonable treatment by some managers and senior staff, and concerns raised by a delegation of staff in 2013 were not properly dealt with.
TAMWORTH #1: STAR MAKER WINNER ANNOUNCED
The 2018 Toyota Star Maker winner was Brad Cox from Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains, after performing with nine other finalists at the event at Toyota Park.
“This is a weird feeling, I don’t think I’ve won much in my life,” he told the crowd.
The prize package includes the recording and production of three singles and music videos, as well as bookings at major festivals, professional advice, a new Maton guitar and the use of a Toyota Rav4 and fuel card for the next 12 months.
TAMWORTH #2: BIG GUITAR TURNS 30
Yesterday marked 30 years since the unveiling of the 12-metre-high, fibreglass Golden Guitar the merchandise store.
It was set up by former Tamworth mayor and tourism chief Warwick Bennet and Tamworth country music festival co-founder Max Ellis.
They estimate over a million photos have been taken in front of the huge axe.
It was opened by Slim Dusty and head of NSW Tourism, Commissioner Paul Crombie.
According to Ellis, the most frequently asked question is been “Why hasn’t it got strings?”
“The answer being, of course, that it is a facsimile of the cast bronze (Golden Guitar awards) trophy which doesn’t have strings.”
TAMWORTH #3: MATES FOR MATES FUND RAISER
As part of the Tamworth Country Music Festival, a fund raiser called Mates for Mates is staged tomorrow (January 24) to support the R U OK? mental health association.
R U OK? encourages people to talk to those affected and ask how they’re going. The star-studded show starts at 1.30 pm at The Albert Hotel and organised by local artist Allison Forbes.
If you or someone you know is having a difficult time, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
TAMWORTH #4: HANDS OF FAME INDUCTEES ANNOUNCED
Seven new hands will be added to Australia’s Country Music Hands of Fame ion Saturday.
They are the veterans Don Costa and Paul Costa, musician and skills-developing author Hugo Fitz-Herbet OAM, SA-based Graeme Hugo, guitarist and studio owner Nev Molloy, guitarist and songwriter Peter Simpson and one time Hilltones member Kevin Sporer.’
The unveiling of the seven was made at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Also announced were the inductees into the Australian Country Music Broadcasters Hall of Fame – Marge Graham from the NSW North Coast area, John Slaven from community stations around Newcastle, and Wally Wray of 3MBR FM in Victoria.
The Eric Watson Literary Award goes to pioneer country music writer and historian Ian Hands while journalist Anna Rose was presented with The Tamworth Award for her long time support of the local country music scene.
PUB OWNERS IN VOLUNTARY ADMINISTRATION
A report from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said that The Publican Group went into voluntary administration last month – just after it sold off nine venues to Australian Venue Co.
The administrators are Richard Albarran, Cameron Shaw and Carl Huxtable of Chadwick Hall.
The assets sold were Fargo & Co, Hopscotch, River’s Edge Events, Terra Rossa, The Park and Wharf Hotel in Melbourne; and The Aviary, Guildford Hotel and Wolf Lane in Perth.
BROODS ISSUE SOLO RECORDS ON SAME DAY
Georgia and Caleb Nott of NZ’s Broods have released lead-off singles from their solo projects, both on the same day.
Georgia’s initiative is The Venus Project, where she collaborates with a wide range of music women to spotlight the fact that relatively few women have jobs in the music industry.
Among those in The Venus Project are producer Camila Mora who is also The Broods’ tour keyboardist; visual artist and illustrator Ashley Lukashevsky; project manager Sherry Elbe; mix engineer Adrianne ‘AG’ Gonzalez; mastering engineer Emily Lazar; photographer Catie Laffoon; and producer Ceci Gomez, who worked with Georgia on the single ‘Won’t Hurt’.
The list of collaborators continues to expand as they head towards the album release on March 8.
Meantime, with time on his hands, Caleb worked on an electro-soul project, Fizzy Milk, issuing a single ’Make Me Feel’.
He explained to triple j’s Good Nights, “I had a bunch of free time for a while and Georgia was working on so many different things, and I had a lot of free time so I just stayed in the studio and pissed around a bunch until some stuff that I liked came out.
“Then I thought why not, I didn’t want to waste anything working on, so I thought maybe I should start a project.”
Vocalist on his single is long-time buddy Jarryd James, who became involved when the pair were on a writing camp in Nicaragua.
He teased he’d be working with more friends, including “someone Swedish.”
FEDERAL GOVT MOVES $5.4M FROM OZ COUNCIL
A six-month update to the 2017-2018 Federal Budget shows that the Government will this year inject $5.4 million to Creative Partnerships Australia, which encourages financial alliances between corporations & philanthropists, and the arts sector.
The moolah, divided into $1.8 million per year over three years, has been allocated back from the Australia Council.
AND A FEW OTHER THINGS…
They just made it official on the weekend, but did cuddly twosome Ed Sheeran and Cherry Seaborn actually get engaged last May? The English singer-songwriter took to social media to make the announcement that he popped the question in December, but many believe it all happened much earlier…
The iconic Melbourne Festival Hall looks like it’s going to be demolished to make way for a $65 million apartments development.
Grime star Skepta and supermodel Naomi Campbell are secretly dating.
Black Sorrows have dropped out from showcasing at SXSW as they’re touring with John Farnham – which would only give them a week to zip over and back.
After $6,000 worth of DJ gear vanished from The xx’s afterparty in Sydney last Saturday, Siberia Records have asked attendees if they wouldn’t mind making a “nominal donation” to cover the theft so they can keep on holding events.
With the sold-out season at Roslyn Packer Theatre closing on Saturday, (and generated $3 million worth of new visitor expenditure), production company Global Creatures announced that Muriel’s Wedding The Musical returns to Sydney in July 2019, at the Lyric. Meantime, the Sony Music original cast soundtrack, featuring new music and lyrics from Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall, entered the ARIA chart at #17.
As Roger Waters kicks off his Us + Them Tour in Sydney on February 2, with a third show was added in Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday February 13.
Kele Okereke of Bloc Partywill do a small round of solo shows in Australia in March.
When Sam Smith next hits New Zealand, he’s meeting up with The Hits radio presenter Flynny’s nine-year-old son Leo. During a phone interview the jock told the singer that Leo plays his music all the time and read about him endlessly. In fact, he did a home recording asking his idol, what his own favourite Sam Smith song is. Smith was overwhelmed: “Oh my God, I’m in love with Leo! Aw…I really, really, really wanna meet you, I’m gonna make this happen, we’ve gotta see each other!”
After her public struggle to become pregnant via IVF, Hot Tomato’s Emily Jade told listeners she’s having her second child in June.
Aussie DJ turned Hollywood actress Ruby Rose took to Instagram to reveal she’s temporarily wheelchair-bound due to a spinal problem.
At one of the Tamworth country music events, a kissing cam went around in between events asking couples to kiss. One guy went better – he proposed to his long-time girlfriend, much to her astonishment.
UK-based, Gold Coast-born record producer and songwriter Mike Chapman has shaved $2 million off the Noosa hinterland estate he’s been trying to sell since late 2016, The Australian reported. “Cintamani” is now price-tagged at $5.4 million, which is considerably less than the $8 million he paid for in 2007.
A 55-year-old man avoided a conviction for groping two women in a venue in Bendigo, Victoria – but has to pay $2,000 to charity. He pleaded guilty in the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court, but said he’d been drinking all day at the football and couldn’t remember clutching at two women including a Gold Dust staffer as she cleaned up broken glass. Among the other charges were attempting to bite the finger of one of the guards as he tried to get back into the venue after being thrown out.
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