Industrial Strength: May 1

TECH NO PRISONERS

Australia continues to punch above its weight in terms of music technology.

In the latest instance, four of the ten start-ups chosen by QUT Creative Enterprise Australia (CEA) for its Collider Accelerator are associated with music and entertainment.

BOP Industries – the Brisbane-based holographic entertainment company started by whiz kid teen entrepreneur Scott Millar, offers holograms for all sectors.

Its holograms for festivals, for instance, are designed to have celebrity holograms meet punters at the gate and show them around the site, while launch parties will have the product turn colours and shapes to focus on during presentations.

Melbourne-based VibeWire started 12 months ago as a ticket resale platform which uses technology to verify, buy and sell concert tickets; scalper-free.

Prysim is a tech company that helps artists and musicians find their next gig. It simplifies gig organisation, booking and management. It is currently testing its system with real data and encouraging input from venues, artists and booking agents at https://launch.prysim.com.

Can’t Sleep is an app that uses generative algorithms to create music to help people get more of the zzzz.

During the three months with Collider Accelerator, they get coaching from international mentors and deep domain experts.

They’ll also receive a pre-seed investment of $30,000 and meet strategic investors including angels, seed and Series A.

MORE SPEAKERS FOR THE MELBOURNE SESSIONS

APRA AMCOS and Creative Victoria’s new one-day event for emerging songwriters and composers has added Alice Ivy, Benny Walker, Jake Mason of Cookin’ On 3 Burners, hip hop and jazz artist Lady Lash, producer Greg Walker (aka Machine Translations) and Jae Laffer (The Panics) to the speakers’ list.

The Melbourne Sessions are held on Friday July 6 at Kindred Studios in Yarraville.

ANDREW FARRISS HONOURS THE DIGGERS

A piece of music by INXS member Andrew Farriss made its debut last week at the Anzac Day celebrations in France.

Entitled ‘1918’ it is one of the immersive features at the new Sir John Monash Centre in at Villers-Bretonneux, which is filled with photos and mementos and named after the brilliant Australian brigade commander who was one of the first under fire at Gallipoli and later served on the Western Front.

The instrumental has been overlaid with spoken word from diggers, courtesy Sydney radio station 2GB’s Chris Smith.

The work came during Farriss’ stint teaching at the Australian National University’s College of Music

He met military historian Will Davies in Canberra and, having a strong interest in history himself, the two became close.

AQOURS MOVIE HEADING TO AUSTRALIA

Aqours’ Love Live! Sunshine!! movie has been secured for Australian release.

Aqours is the nine-piece Japanese school idol group formed for the multimedia project Love Live! Sunshine!!, which includes CDs, live events, magazines and mobile apps.

Their April 27 & 28 concerts at the Hakodate Arena in Hakodate, Hokkaido, was filmed by Azoland Pictures in Australia on May 12.

It also screens in May and June through North America and Asia.

VIOLENCE #1: KELIS SAYS NAS ABUSED HER DURING MARRIAGE

Pop singer Kelis has come out with claims she was mentally and physically abused during her five-year marriage to rapper Nas.

They were acclaimed as hip hop royalty when they got married in 2005.

She told Hollywood Unlocked that both sides traded blows, usually after Nas was drinking heavily.

“I’m not afraid to throw a punch, but I wouldn’t have started it,” she revealed. “I was never that angry. He was angry. He was dark and he’s always been that way.”

She added, “I’ve never painted myself as a saint. I never just sat there.

“Did he hit me? Mmm-hm. Did I hit him back? Mmm-hm.”

The singer said she was tempted to go public in 2009 when details and explicit photos emerged of Rihanna‘s abuse at the hands of Chris Brown.

“I felt like, ‘Do I jump in? Do I say it?’ ‘Cause I had bruises all over my body at that time.

“Seeing her, the way she looked, and then looking at myself. I was embarrassed.”

Ultimately, however, she decided to stay: “I wasn’t ready to walk. I just wasn’t.”

But when moved when she fell pregnant to first child, Knight, and realised she couldn’t bring the child “into this mess”.

She always wants other women and men to learn from her experience.

VIOLENCE #2: NZ BAND SACKS MEMBER AFTER CLAIM

New Zealand reggae-roots band Tomorrow People has “parted ways” with “one of our singers” after his former partner accused him on Facebook of domestic violence.

Police confirmed that a man was to appear in Hutt Valley District Court on April 30 to face charges of assault.

The band said in a statement, “It was a huge shock to us and we’re still coming to terms with it all.

“Please note that this matter is being dealt with through the appropriate channels…

“We are fully committed to ensuring that both parties involved are given the appropriate support they need.”

VIOLENCE #3: SIMMONS RAPE CLAIM DROPPED

Aspiring documentary filmmaker Jennifer Jarosik, who in January filed a $5 million lawsuit against hip hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons, has dropped her case.

She claimed he raped her in 2016 after inviting her to his home to discuss a documentary project.

He responded that the sex had been consensual and she sent him multiple texts that she missed him and wanted to see him.

NINE TASMANIAN YOUTH ARTS ORGANISATIONS GET FUNDED

Out of the 27 applications for Arts Tasmania’s 2018 Youth Arts (Organisations) program, nine got some moolah.

Folk Federation of Tasmania Inc: $10, 401 for its Youth Songmaking Sessions, a free afterschool youth music program with four professional musicians teaching singing, songwriting, recording and instrument playing.

Salamanca Arts Centre: $40, 000 for The Future Founders, a year-long multi-artform engagement with children and young people culminating in a month of youth and family-focused activity at SAC in May 2019.

All That We Are Ltd: $40, 000 for ArTELIER, a number of projects with young people dealing with professional artists to create work they can connect to and own.

Moonah Arts Centre: $39, 265 for Moonah Moves, commissioned dance works involving the community

Mast Films Pty Ltd:  $32, 895 for an original web series, Thread, put together by refugees, new arrivals and young people from, born, and/or raised in Australia.

St Giles Society Limited: $5, 300 for the Studio Space Theatre Company showcase to provide drama training for children with or without a disability.

Tasmanian Youth Orchestra Council Inc. $30, 900 for 24 musicians with leadership potential for the chamber music program.

The Unconformity, Queenstown: $26, 525 for storytelling and visual arts workshops for young people living on Tasmania’s West coast.

Wide Angle Tasmania: $39, 360 for the Watchmakers, structured to help young filmmakers develop self-efficacy, self-esteem and social engagement.

WESTERN SYDNEY PUSHES FOR POWERHOUSE MOVE

Over 30 Western Sydney arts organisations and business leaders sent a letter to the NSW government to ignore the criticism about the reported $1 billion cost to shift the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta and readdress the cultural inequality of cultural support in the West.

MAN FACES CHARGES AFTER CLUB STABBING

A 24-year old male has been charged over an alleged machete attack on the dancefloor of two men at Inflation nightclub in Melbourne’s King Street entertainment strip.

The club said that its security moved in quickly after the alleged incident to protect its patrons, locking a man in the toilet until the police arrived.

Two men were taken to hospital, one with a punctured lung and perforated diaphragm, and the other with face and wrists, after being stabilised at the club by staff, police and paramedics.

EUROVISION STRANGE BANS

Those attending the Eurovision Song Contest from May 8 to 12 have been given a list of banned items.

Expected are firearms, knives, syringes, and scalpels, toxic substances, and flares and pyrotechnics.

Weird inclusions are golf balls, ladders, trolleys and adhesive tape.

QUEENSLAND ID SCANNER BOO-BOOS

Queensland venue operators are lining up to crow “we told you” to the government.

They had pleaded for the introduction of ID scanners for clubs to be delayed six months in order to get them working properly.

Even way back then, the scanners weren’t accepting some foreign passports – a drag when you’re a club with many overseas business people and sailors as patrons.

Now, police have admitted that, due to a technical snafu, names of 200 people who were banned from entering the safe night precincts were not sent to the Queensland-wide database linked to compulsory ID scanners.

In another snafu, the transfer of data to a national system used for background checks also saw 26 incorrect results issued.

The scanners are managed by the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation.

JOIN THE CRN ADVISORY COMMUNITY?

The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia is seeking applications from community broadcasting personnel to join the CRN (Community Radio Network) advisory committee.

See cbaa.org.au for what’s involved, deadline is 23:59 AEST on May 9.

MAITLAND COPS HAPPY WITH MOO CROWD

Officers from Port Stephens-Hunter Police District gave the thumbs up to the behaviour 21,000 who attended Groovin The Moo at Maitland Showground last Saturday.

However, they did have issues with fence jumpers, 40 collared for drug issues, and a 21-year-old gent who faces court on May 23 for allegedly assaulting cops and security,

MUSIC NSW SOUND ADVICE: VENUES

Music NSW’s next Sound Advice forum, held tomorrow (Wednesday May 2), covers dealing with venues.

Held at 107 Projects, Redfern, between 6—9 pm and hosted by Erica Mallet (Coda Conduct, triple j) there are two sessions.

At 6pm Rebecca Young (Collective Artists), Tom Byrnes (Oxford Art Factory) and Rebecca Callander (Rackett) give tips on booking and running your own shows, from finding the right venue to tech specs and other essentials.

From 7.15pm, there’s an industry speed dating session for one-on-ones with Young, Byrnes and Callander as well as Zac Ruokari (The Newsagency) and booker and programmer Adam Lewis.

JUDGES’ FOR ‘DANCE BOSS’

Seven announced that judges for the upcoming Dannii Minogue-hosted series Dance Boss are an actor and performer.

Adam Garcia, singer/dancer Timomatic and ex-Home & Away cast member Sharni Vinson who is trained in ballet, contemporary, hip hop, tap and acrobatics.

The series has teams of co-workers competing with each other for a $100,000 prize.

The original format also features a resident DJ Sketch, aka Matt Coleman, one half of DJ duo Bombs Away.

DAVEY CRADDOCK FINDS GOLD, FINISHES RECORD, MAKES VIDEOS

When acclaimed WA-based singer-songwriter Davey Craddock was finishing off his second album One Punch Today, he ran into a problem commonplace in the music industry.

He recounts to Industrial Strength: “My budget ran out after the mixing stage and I was really keen to have it mastered by Lurssen Mastering in LA, who’ve put the final polish on a lot of great albums I dig.

“So I dug into the sock drawer to look for an ounce of gold I was given by my grandmother for my 21st birthday under strict instructions that it was for ‘a rainy day’.

“It was a very old-school, thoughtful present from her and it had appreciated in value a fair bit since 2007!  

“I trundled off to the Perth Mint and sold the gold to pay for my mastering bill.

“ I’d never done this before and the transaction was quite exhilarating – it felt very frontier and Wild West.

“So the moral of this story is to always have a bit of gold hangin’ around for a rainy day.”

The record abounds with interesting characters and scenarios.

So over the past weeks, Craddock teamed with WA filmmaker Matt Sav (Tame Impala, POND, Jack River) to shoot ten short, strange, one-shot, films inspired by One Punch.

They are seen here www.facebook.com/pg/daveycraddock/videos.

CLIO IN LONDON

After shows in Melbourne and Castlemaine on the weekend, Melbourne-based classicist Clio (Clio Renner) heads to London for two shows on May 7 and 10.

She’s just issued a new single ‘Something Left To Leave Behind’ off her forthcoming debut EP of the same name, with an accompanying video featuring her band at a live show and shot by Banalarama Studios.

Clio has spent the last three years playing keys for the SBS Rockwiz band and touring with Angus & Julia Stone, Deborah Conway, and Tim Rogers.

SONGWRITERS AT NT WRITERS’ FESTIVAL

Veteran performer Tom E. Lewis will be swapping songs, and the stories behind them, with young Darwin songwriter and triple j Unearthed act Stevie Jean at the 2018 Word Storm Festival in Darwin

The festival, curated by the NT Writers’ Centre, includes a lineup of speakers, poets, playwrights, musicians, performers and authors addressing the 2018 theme of  ‘Exploring Outside the Margins’

It is held May 24 to 27 at Brown’s Mart.

STUDY: ALCOHOL ADVERTISING BREAKS CODE

Alcohol brands are going for the youth and glam angles in their ads which are featured on TV, outdoor billboards and at music festivals – and are, in doing so, breaking voluntary ad codes.

So says a new study from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW, which confirms concerns by public health officials,

It says they tend to use actors who looked like they’re aged under 25, which they’re not supposed to.

They also send a message of “attractiveness, partying, and being fashionable.”

VALE DAVID BARRACLOUGH

Queensland-born David ‘Duck’ Barraclough first came to attention as guitarist in The Dance Exponents 1994 to 2000 and was inducted into the New Zealand 2015 Music Hall of Fame with them.

He then switched to bass when he played with Mental As Anything 1999 and 2011 until forced to leave due to ill-health. He released a solo album last year.

David ‘Duck’ Barraclough died after a month-long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Exponents singer Jordan Luck remembered him as happy-go-lucky, “an exceptionally gifted guitarist, an exceedingly excellent touring companion.”

AND A FEW OTHER THINGS …

How long before we get a stage adaption of The Greatest Showman?

Will Kanye West’s new buddy Donald Trump use the rapper to raise funds for his “Make America Great Again” campaign?

How prolific is Ed Sheeran? Frontier Touring’s Michael Gudinski says that during his 18 shows through Australia and New Zealand, he penned six new songs.

The Courier Mail reports that Tim Finn is back in Brisbane to attend the previews of Queensland Theatre’s new production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The Finnster penned the music and some new lyrics for it, adding his signature melancholia to it. “I didn’t really know much Shakespeare but when you engage with him, you fall in love,” he told the paper.

Prince’s heirs filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Walgreens and the Illinois Hospital that treated the star after he suffered an opioid overdose, alleging their inadequate care in investigating the overdose led to his death.

Remember the grumblings in some quarters when Campbelltown Council in SA forked out about $150,000 to hold 150th-anniversary celebrations with a concert with Rogue Traders, folkie Greg Champion and Humphrey B Bear? There was also some muttering about Rogue Traders’ fee. Well, the concert got rained out, and the council is now working out how much money it will get back from the insurer.

So how come Harry Styles unexpectedly threw in a cover of Daryl Braithwaite’s ‘The Horses’ during his Sydney show at Qudos Bank Arena? He’d heard the song the night before when he and Delta Goodrem belted out some Aussie classics at a private party.

At the end of his Brisbane show, Styles told his fans – including the one dressed as a Christmas tree – he never expected as a kid he’d be visiting Australia. “Things like this don’t happen to people like me very often. To every single one of you in this room thank you. I owe you my life. I love you all… I will never ever be able to thank you enough.”

There’s history revisited when The Angels play a show in late July with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The band’s guitarists John and Rick Brewster’s grandfather Hooper Brewster Jones as a founding member. The Brewsters’ father was a classical musician as well, and taught them that a musician’s only movement onstage should be their fingers… hence why Rick would stand statue-still during their live sets.

Embattled tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has moved from Auckland to the slightly more private Queenstown to get away from “spies”. He’s advertised for a Michelin-starred chef, a German teacher for his kids, and, yes, a counter-intelligence officer. Also a pilot for a Zeppelin, as he intends to start a tourist business involving one of those airships.

Another successful Red Hot Summer Tour has wrapped up last Saturday in Dubbo where ICEHOUSE, Baby Animals, Mark Seymour, The Black Sorrows, Vika and Linda Bull, Shannon Noll, Pseudo Echo and Boom Crash Opera did their thing. Promoter Duane McDonald told the locals that next year’s tour could return to Dubbo for the fourth year, but Orange and Bathurst were also pitching for the regional NSW spot.

Emerging Wollongong rapper Swag One’s (Jarred Short) 18-month jail sentence reduced on appeal to 12 months. Last October, when cops turned up at his house to serve an outstanding warrant, he barricaded himself in the bathroom and threatened to shoot them. A siege ensued, followed in March by a date at the local courts.