Industrial Strength: May 17
Flume world tour blows up to 70 dates
Ticket demand for Flume’s(pictured) world tour has seen it blow up to 70 shows this year. In Australia, second shows are added on December 10 at Qudos Bank Arena (formerly Allphones Arena), and December 16 at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Extra shows are also added in the US, after multiple sell-outs in Los Angeles (2x sold out at the 5,000-capacity Shrine), Seattle, Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco (2x sold out the 8500-capacity Bill Graham Civic Auditorium).
The run, his biggest to date, is behind new album Skin which drops on May 27. Lead off single Never Be Like You feat. Kai has hit triple platinum in Australia. It is currently at #40 in Spotify’s global chart, and latest single Say It feat. Tove Lo is #4 in the Australian chart.
Who missed out on Australia Council funding?
Music acts and organisations were among the 404 projects which won in the Australia Council for the Arts February round of $11.2 million grants. NSW received $28 million, 25 groups shared in Victoria’s $25 million (but 134 of the 262 applicants missed out), and Queensland received less than half of NSW’s. There were 262 applications.
But about 62 national groups lost their funding.
These included the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, The Black Arm Band, Next Wave Festival (which lost $150,000 after last year already losing $500,000 for its JUMP mentorship program), the Music Council, Topology, The Queensland Music Festival, the WA Youth Jazz Orchestra, Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Arena, Gondwana Choirs, AsiaLink, Pro Musica (Canberra international Music Festival), Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Southern Cross Soloists, The Camerata of St Johns, Music Australia, Jute Theatre Company, Synergy/Taikoz and Australian Poetry.
Victoria’s Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley responded, “Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts are no different to Tony Abbott’s – he has delivered savage funding cuts that will undermine creative organisations, audiences and jobs.”
Jazz awards shortlist
The shortlist for the seven categories of the Australian Jazz Bell Awards – held Monday June 20 at Bird’s Basement in Melbourne – counts off this way:
Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album: Kristin Berardi’s Where Or When, Vince Jones + Paul Grabowsky’s Provenance, Olivia Chindamo’s Keep An Eye On Spring.
Best Instrumental Jazz Album: Barney McAll’s Mooroolbark, Angela Davis’ Lady Luck, Julien Wilson Quartet’s This Narrow Isthmus.
Best Produced Album: Barney McAll’s Mooroolbark, Mike Nock/ Laurence Pike’s Beginning And End of Knowing, Angela Davis’ Lady Luck.
Best Australian Jazz Song/Composition of the Year: Barney McAll’s Nectar Spur, Julien Wilson Quartet’s Weeping Willow, Angela Davis’ A Thousand Feet From Bergen Street.
Best Australian Small Jazz Band (Up to 6 members): Barney McAll + A.S.I.O. (Australian Symbiotic Improvisers Orbit)’s Mooroolbark, Allan Browne Quintet’s Ithaca Bound, Alister Spence Trio’s Alister Spence Trio: Live.
Best Australian Jazz Ensemble: Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra, The Daniel Susnjar Afro-Peruvian Jazz Group, Mace Francis Orchestra.
Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year (Musicians up to and including 25 years of age): Olivia Chindamo, James McLean, Niran Dasika.
SA Screen Awards music winners
At the 17th annual South Australian Screen Awards (SASAs) last Friday, Adelaide melodic hardcore band Ambleside’s Wash Away took Best Music Video. Best Composition was picked up by electronic orchestral performer Alies Sluiter (with award winning Elena Kats-Chernin) for their work on Michelle’s Story, the doco about Australian dancer Michelle Ryan which won three awards.
WA budget allocates $217m for culture and arts
More than $217 million was allocated to the Culture and Arts budget in the State Budget 2016-17. This represents $123.8 million for recurrent services and $93.9 million for capital works. Duncan Ord OAM, Director General of the Department of Culture and the Arts said that in 2016-17, $29 million in arts funding will be provided to support the delivery of arts and cultural activities across WA.
The Infrastructure Improvement Program will expend $2.2 million on equipment and other technical upgrades to venues. This includes new seats in His Majesty’s Theatre and lighting and audio visual upgrades at various venues.
Royalties for Regions got $24 million to invest in regional culture and arts. In addition, $16 million from the scheme to encourage regional film and television production activity and the building of regional-based businesses.
The Film Fund will attract productions to film in WA, with a focus on job creation in the regions, the purchasing of goods and services, capitalising on tourism development, and establishing longer term economic and cultural benefits.
Venues Update: sales, robberies, name changes
* Fending off interest from Australian and Asian groups, Sydney hospitality group Solotel bought the 80-year-old Australian Hotel and adjacent Abercrombie Heritage Terraces within the Central Park precinct from Frasers Property Australia and Sekisui House. The Australian will re-open in 2018 after a revamp.
* A man armed with a knife entered Adelaide Festival Centre’s Piano Bar and threatened a staff member, demanding cash. But he fled empty-handed before police were called. A 44-year-old man was charged the next day over the incident, as well as an alleged theft of a car handbag earlier on in the day.
* The Central Lane Hotel in Gladstone, Queensland was robbed of $10,000 cash, alleged by two men, with one wielding an axe. Two young female staffers, shoved to the ground, were kneed in the face. A 27-year old man was apprehended six days later while his alleged accomplice is still on the run.
* Auckland’s 12,200-seater Vector Arena will have a name change from mid-April 2017 after New Zealand telco Spark secured naming rights.
* Toowoomba City Hall Theatre is about to get its first major renovation since the 1930s by the local council. Its heritage-listed assets will be refurbished while additions in the 1970s removed, before the theatre re-opens in mid-2017.
* NT’s Humpty Doo Hotel, whose laid back larrikinism lead Slim Dusty to write a song about it, has introduced a new policy which could lead to the end of civilisation as we know it. Patrons can come in barefoot but must wear a shirt. Some of the regulars have begun a boycott.
JB Hi Fi “most reputable”
Electronics and music chain JB Hi Fi was named most reputed business in research company AMR’s 2016 Corporate Reputation Index. It climbed up from its #3 spot last week based on the views of Aussie consumers aged 18 to 64 on reputation, innovation, workplace, citizenship, governance, leadership and performance. Other brands in the Top 10 included Toyota, Samsung, Qantas, Mazda, Air New Zealand, Apple and Hewlett-Packard.
Music Victoria announces gender diversity policy
As part of its commitment to gender diversity within the music industry, Music Victoria announced it will ensure participation of at least 40% of women across its activities. Last April it conducted a survey titled ‘Women In The Victorian Contemporary Music Industry’ with 300 respondents. Identified as barriers for women in the Victorian contemporary music industry were pay inequality, access to opportunities, the ’confidence gap’, the general undervaluing of music, and sexual harassment.
The association took the immediate action of increasing the representation of women to achieve equal representation, including its various committees and The Age Music Victoria Awards judging panels. Its board already has a 50% gender split. Music Victoria acknowledges, “gender is a diverse spectrum and when referring to women and men it includes those who identify as female and male, and those who are gender non-conforming.”
Celebrity titles continue slide
In the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures, celebrity titles continued to slide during January to March. That’s Life was down 10.6% to 165,190 copies per week. Take 5 slipped 10.10% to 148,014. OK! was hit hardest, slipping 27.9% from 70,757 to 51,012. Who’s decline was at 10.8%, now averaging 90,117 copies a week. NW’s posted the second largest decline, by 24.6% to 69,995.
Dendy cinema launches streaming service
Dendy, which has been screening films since 1940, now launches streaming service Dendy Direct. Customers can buy or rent digital films (mostly art-house and specialty) and also buy TV shows. The market can be unkind: Ezyflix went belly-up last year and Quickflix’s just gone into voluntary administration.
Festivals Update: returns, council dramas, job culls
* After a successful inaugural event, Maroochy Music and Visual Arts Festival (MMVAF) returns to the old Horton Park Golf Course in Maroochydore, Sunshine Coast, on Saturday September 10. It is part music part visual art, and supported by the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland as part of the It’s Live! events calendar. Acts will be announced soon. Last year featured Flight Facilities, Alpine, DZ Deathrays, Gang of Youths and Hermitude.
* Tasmania becomes the singing state in July. The 12th Festival of Voices, in Hobart June 30-July 17), attracts thousands for performances, workshops and community sings. Launceston, to which the event was added last year, will in 2016 have the new Winterlight on July 1.
* To make up for the fact it couldn’t refund ticket money for its cancelled 2016 event, the Maitreya Festival in regional Victoria planned an event just for them on the Grand Final Long Weekend from September 30 at Lake Wooroonook. Unfortunately, the Buloke Shire Council told The Bendigo Advertiser it won’t approve the replacement event. “The promoter is currently in breach of numerous enforcement orders and laws and will be prosecuted once council has completed its due diligence on the evidence and costs involved,” a spokesperson said.
* The Macquarie Credit Union Dream Festival in Dubbo, NSW, is this week announcing a new additional event. The event, which drew 13,000 last year, has opened applications for the 2016 Dream Artist of the Year, with nominations due to close on Friday May 27.
* Faced with a $1 million cut in funding by the SA Government, the axe has started swinging at Adelaide Festival’s 24-strong full time staff and contract appointments. A fulltime programmer and part-time marketing executive were made redundant. Three publicity, IT support and executive assistant contract roles were cut. More job slashing is expected this week.
* After three patrons died in a car accident on the way home last year the EDM-themed Psyfari in NSW (August 25 to 29) is offering drug and drink testing as part of the $20 car park price.
NT Song of the Year Awards deadline
Applications for the fifth NT Song of the Year Awards, this year with two new categories, close May 27. They’re held on July 9. On the night before, MusicNT celebrates its 20th birthday with a gala showcase at Darwin Railway Club. It also has nominations open for the National Indigenous Music Awards, the Hot Shots Music Photography Competition and 2016 Bush Bands Program.
MAX special on Garrett solo album
With details of Peter Garrett’s solo album A Version Of Now released yesterday (as reported in TMN), Foxtel’s MAX channel has a “behind the scenes” screening premiering on Tuesday July 12 at 9.30 pm – three days before its release. The channel was invited exclusively to film the sessions in Sydney in January and interview the singer and collaborators on how the “accidental” album came to be.
Fanning, Yarramunua, performing at Art Of Music event
Three acts will perform at the Art of Music Collection auction and dinner at the Art of Gallery of NSW on Saturday June 18. Bernard Fanning and Stan Yarramunua are the first two, with the third to be announced shortly. It is a fundraiser for the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy.
Now in its 10th year, Art Of Music sees 10 visual artists producing work inspired by pieces of music. Full details at www.artofmusic.com.au.
This year they were Kasey Chambers’ Pony (inspired Lucy Culliton), Midnight Oil’s Surfing With A Spoon (Nicholas Harding), Thelma Plum’s How Much Does Your Love Cost (Laura Jones), Courtney Barnett’s Dead Fox (Guy Maestri), Jonathon Zwartz’s The Sea (Tim Macguire), The Cruel Sea’s Orleans Stomp (Michael Muir), Sarah Blasko’s Fool (Joan Ross), Jenny Morris’ Break In The Weather (Alex Seton) and Antony & The Johnsons’ You Are My Sister (Christian Thompson). In addition, Ben Quilty donated a portrait of good friend Jenny Morris while Yarramunua donated Journey For Love.
Number Crunching
5,902 signatures of a target of 7,500 by yesterday on the Change.org petition asking the Commonwealth Govt to resolve Sounds Australia’s funding crisis.
$600,000 raised by Hotels Have Hearts in Sydney for the St Vincent de Paul Society. Over 15 years, they’ve raised $3.6 million.
3 hours for the two-day Day Trip Festival (Stones, McCartney, Who etc) to sell out and grossing $150 million. A second weekend also sold out quick time.
13th Australian Top 3 single for Delta Goodrem with Dear Life this week.
Sydney Unlocked Summit announces speakers
As part of Vivid Ideas, FBi Radio hosts Sydney Unlocked Saturday on June 18 at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It’ll look at what’s gone wrong for Sydney in recent times and how its people can redefine their cultural future. Aside from the lock-outs, it will also look at the effect of “housing affordability, regulation, political uncertainty, infrastructure needs and transport” on the city’s cultural environment.
The full lineup of speakers is: Anna Burns (Future Classic), Craig Allchin (Six Degrees Urban and Adjunct Professor of Architecture at UTS), Hugh Nichols, (Strategy Advisor for Live Music at City of Sydney), Ianto Ware (Cultural Strategy Advisor, City Of Sydney), artist Jaimie Leonarder AKA Jay Katz, Jan Fran (The Feed), Jordana Maisie (artist and designer), Lisa Havilah (Director of Carriageworks), Matthew Michael (The Monkeys), Megan Brownlow (PwC Australia), Professor James Arvanitakis (Dean of the Graduate Research School at Western Sydney University), and Tyson Koh (Keep Sydney Open).
Stonefield announce album release date
Stonefield’s second album As Above, So Below is out on July 15. It is the result of “hundreds of hours” of writing in their spiritual home The Shed (turning their parents’ house in regional Victoria into a studio including collaborating with Kram of Spiderbait) and recording through January at Coburg’s Phaedra Studios with producer John Lee. They’ll preview the album on a three date run in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne (July 7 to 9) with Verge Collection and Pop Cult.
Lockouts #1: Canberra
Although the ACT Government has ruled out lock-out laws for Canberra, new President of the ACT Australian Medical Association, Prof. Steven Robson indicates he will make their introduction a debate during the election campaign. “If you own a nightclub or pub, you owe social responsibility,” he says.
Lockouts #2: Newcastle
Will there be a relaxation of Newcastle’s licensing laws? Small bars and low risk “alternate” venues which flourished after they were introduced in 2008, say it is time to relax those policies affecting them as they are too “punitive”. Some in Newcastle Council are supportive.
Troye Sivan lauded at US awards
Perth’s Troye Sivan is set to shine at the Billboard Music Awards later this month. He is announced as the recipient of “Kia’s One to Watch,” an award established last year to support and highlight emerging artists. Tori Kelly was the inaugural winner. Sivan is also performing at the awards.
Two new labels launch in NT
Two new record labels have officially launched in the Northern Territory in recent weeks.
Perambulator Records, set up by Skinnyfish Music Creative Director Michael Hohnen so it can maintain its indigenous roots, launched at the Railway Hotel in Darwin. Three of its four acts – Caiti Baker of Sietta, Serina Pech, Michael Maher – performed while Barry Morgan was on a video link from down South.
Sing Hum is based in Alice Springs, and set up by producer, multi-instrumentalist and NT Song of the Year winner Dave Crowe. It was officially launched with a roster performance at the Wide Open Space Festival. Its acts include electronic post-folk Resin Moon (its first release with single Salt and an EP out in July), Dave Crowe, Broadwing and Jouaco. Sing Hum also incorporates management, synching and a recording studio where Crowe has been producing local acts as Apakatjah and Kristal West and writing jingles for Mitsubishi, Medibank and Tourism NT.
Commercial radio grew in April
The commercial radio ad market was up 6.5% to $60.110 million in the five metro markets through April, according to Deloitte and Commercial Radio Australia. Brisbane was strongest, moving north by 10.49% to $9.296 million. Melbourne was up 8.36% to $18.930 million.
Behind them were Sydney (up 5.40% to $18.184 million), Adelaide (5.49% to $5.613 million) and Perth (1.26% to $8.086 million). The growth across April took total revenue for the five markets for the ten months of the financial year to $632.616 million, up 6.06% on the same period in 2014/15.
Videos Update: The Living End, The Jezabels, Client Liaison
* Keep On Running, a shift in approach for The Living End, comes with a visual that reflects the title and lyrics. It features an 88-year-old man who lives a strict minimalist physical regime that keeps him super-fit. Director Dumitrescu Tiberiu Bogdan found the man, drawn to the idea of the man being a modern day Hermes – the Olympian god for athleticism.
“He runs like crazy at 88-years-old,” says Bogdan. “That’s why I thought he can be a modern Hermes. The idea was that we are blind enough not to see that fairytale characters or, in this case, a mythological god, still live amongst us. We get too caught in the moment and we miss the opportunity for a good story.”
* The video for The Jezabels’ My Love Is My Disease was shot in Tokyo, where director Jonathan Lim found Kenichi Ito, the fastest man in the world to run on all four limbs. “I started to think about how to put running in a different context, and for some reason started looking at videos of humans running like dogs. That’s when I stumbled across Kenichi.
“There was a bunch of news articles about him. He’s a world champion and the current Guinness World Record holder. He is quite famous in Japan, and a really nice guy. If anyone has the need for a Japanese man, running like a monkey. I’d recommend him.”
* The visual for Client Liaison’s single World Of Our Love was produced, directed and animated by Melbourne based creative house Oh Yeah Wow. Directors Mike Greaney and Aaron McDonald explain, “The clip is an exploration of an animated tropical paradise that stands as the personification of World Of Our Love. It’s an absurdist pastiche of cultist and Australiana iconography, retro-future architecture, and exotic wild animals. We packaged these ideas up in a visual style that was heavily inspired by late 80’s Masters Of The Universe cartoons and then basically just had a blast coming up with the most outrageous ideas we could think of within that frame work.”
NSW feels earth move for Carole King musical
The NSW Government put money into getting Beautiful: The Carole King Musical to the state. Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events, Stuart Ayres, says it will inject $26 million for the state’s economy by drawing 60,000 overnight visitors to the city. The Tony-winning Beautiful makes its Australian premiere at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre beginning in September 2017. “I’m thrilled to see it travel across the world to Australia, where I hope audiences down under will treasure it as much as I do,” says King.
Higher Note returns on key
WAM has brought back its Higher Note songwriter program to help WA writers cut the mustard. Facilitated by Scott Adam (North Metropolitan TAFE), the series features presentations from artist manager Cath Haridy, publisher Clive Hodson, Pilerats editor Troy Mutton, accountants Tom Harris and Kylie Thompson, artist Grace Barbé, RTRFM Music Director Adam Christou, Blue Grey Pink owner Mark Neal, APRA’s Sam Scherr and lawyer Michael Tucak.
Held June Thursday 23 – Friday 24 June at the State Theatre Centre of WA in Northbridge, topics cover strategy, publicity, social media, business management, touring and legal. Applications due by 5 pm Monday May 30.
Monsters Of Rock tackle domestic violence
Monsters Of Rock Down Under – a supergroup made up of members of Screaming Jets, Rose Tattoo and Faceplant and fronted by Holly Wilson – make a statement on domestic violence with their debut single Amy. It’s about a strong woman who heads down the highway to begin a new safer life. The song was written by the band and produced by Grant Walmsley Freebird as part of an EP and album scheduled for later this year. The band performs next at Lizottes Newcastle on June 12.
Vale
* June Smith was a trumpet player and singer from Edinburgh, born June Robinson to musician parents. She met her husband, Yorkshire-born multi instrumentalist Lew Smith, while performing in different bands at a British tourist attraction in 1951. “I thought she was a great personality, so versatile playing the trumpet, and a bit of comedy and certainly hit me between the eyes,” said Lew.
In the ‘60s they moved to Australia, first to Melbourne where they were in bands as Maximum Load. In 1974 the duo moved to Perth, where she played in Jazz Divas and Apple Band and instrumental in setting up the Perth Jazz Society. “June made an outstanding contribution to the Perth jazz scene“, says Department of Culture and the Arts Director-General Duncan Ord. “She was a fireball of energy, musically challenging but entertaining with it,” adds Graham Wood, Director of the Perth Jazz International Festival. He’d met June as a teenager, and she, atypical of her warm personality, said to him, “I’m adopting you as my grandson.” June Smith, who stopped performing in 2013, was 85.
* Melbourne singer Adrian Slattery once famously said that he’d been inspired by “all the great Bs“ – Big Star, The Band, Springsteen and The Beatles. He emerged with the garage rock Major Major in 2006 which issued two EPs. In 2009 he formed the alt-country Big Smoke which cut its teeth in the Fitzroy scene. The band released an EP Lately last year, and midway through work on a debut album. He passed away on the weekenddied after a battle with terminalcancer.
And A Few Other Things…
Channel Nine is tonight bringing back Britain’s Got Talent. In the UK it has been a rating success for ITV, last month drawing 8.1 million on its return and doubling the numbers for The Voice on the BBC.
Two years ago, Adelaide man Steve Radeski was involved in a bike accident and lost his right leg. A passer-by, returned soldier Bill Gaythwaite, pulled off his treasured Iron Maiden T-shirt to use as a tourniquet until the medics came. When Maiden were in Adelaide this month, they had Radeski picked up in a limo, given VIP seats at the Entertainment Centre – and then presented him with a new Maiden T-shirt to pass on to Gaythwaite.
On the eve of the launch of her Tronc tape and a three-month European tour, someone broke into Evelyn Morris from Pikelet’s locked car and stole thousands of dollars of her entire musical setup.
After winning the ’Premio Internacional’ at the 2015 Cuban Music Awards (Cubadisco) for Tales To Tell, Melbourne duo Alex & Nilusha were invited back for this year’s XX Cubadisco Festival in Havana. An Australia Council grant sees Chilean-born percussionist Alex Pertout and Sri Lankan–born vocalist Nilusha Dassenaike launch their Afterglow album at shows in Havana and Mexico City.
US TV country music drama series Nashville was cancelled after four seasons.
Paulini (Curuenavuli) was given a “homecoming heroine” welcome when she returned to her homeland Fiji on the weekend to appear at the Fiji Performing Rights Association’s Music Awards.
Australian metal fan and PR guy Chris Maric of Maric Media is heading to the UK to take part in the Heavy Metal Truants IV charity ride. Between June 8 and 10, he’ll ride 265kms from London to Download Festival to raise $2500 for children’s charities. Donate at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/chrismaric. The ride is the brainchild of Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood and Metal Hammer’s Alexander Milas. Last year it raised a total of $142,000.
Ashley Page took out manager of the year at the NZ Music Managers Awards in Auckland. Aside from NZ acts Broods and Joel Little, his roster includes Aussies Jarryd James and Alex Hope. Alastair Burns, whose clients include Marlon Williams and Julia Jacklin, won Breakthrough Manager of the Year and the International Achievement Award.
The inaugural Jackie Orszaczky Music Lecture, held in Sydney at the Basement was a sell-out, and returns next year. Close friend, steel guitarist virtuoso and The Daily Planet presenter on Radio National, Lucky Oceans, delivered a well-received speech using personal anecdotes to underline Orszaczky’s philosophy for his art and life. The Jackie Orszaczky Composition Competition, for work capturing his spirit, was won by David Sudmalis & Andy Rantzen for the composition The Left Hand Path. The night ended with an ensemble of top jazz performers, including Orszaczky’s partner Tina Harrod, performing his material.
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