Industrial Strength: November 8
TROYE SIVAN, BROODS, WIN AT MTV EMAS
At the MTV European Music Awards, Troye Sivan picked up Best Australian Act from Flume, Tkay Maidza, The Veronicas and Vance Joy
For Best New Zealand Act, it was third time lucky for Broods. Caleb and Georgia Nott, now living in Los Angeles, were previously nominated twice but lost out to Lorde and Savage. This year they were up against Ladyhawke and relative newcomers Kings, Maala and Sachi.
FINALISTS FOR McLENNAN FELLOWSHIP
Finalists for the 2016 Grant McLennan Fellowship are Leanne Tennant who just released her album Red Wine Late Nights, singer songwriter Hannah Macklin of MKO Sun, Jeremy Neale of Velociraptor and Teen Sensations fame, and soul pop singer Bec Laughton of RETTA.
Set up in honour of the late Go-Betweens co-founder by Arts Queensland, APRA AMCOS and QMusic, the $25,000 Grant McLennan Fellowship allows the recipient to stay in New York, London or Berlin for up to 6 months to soak in the cultural life of that city.
The judging panel are: journalist Sean Sennett, Sally McLennan, former Powderfinger member Ian Haug and one time Go-Betweens member Adele Pickvance.
The winner is announced at a ceremony at The Triffid in Brisbane on December 2. It will feature sets from the finalists alongside Halfway, Dan Kelly, Adele Pickvance and The Stress of Leisure as part of ‘Streets Of Your Town: A Tribute to The Go-Betweens’.
CANBERRA AND WELLINGTON EXCHANGE MUSIC, TECH, CULTURE
Canberra and Wellington, who this year became sister cities, are forging closer music and cultural ties. This comes in the wake of direct flights between the two cities initiated in September by Singapore Airlines.
Wellington will host Canberra Week November 14-20 with a 100-strong contingent from the Australian capital representing music, film, business, technology, food and beer holding events. They are jointly coordinated by the ACT Government and supported by Wellington City Council.
Canberra hip-hop act Jimblah will on the 15th, 16th and 17th team with Canberra street artist Byrd as he leaves his creative mark on Opera House Lane On the weekend, a preview of Canberra Week saw WellyCan Concert held as part of the Wellington Sky Show, with NZ’s The Phoenix Foundation and Canberran folk electronic act Mondecreen.
There are plans for a similar Wellington takeover in Canberra in early 2017, with the dates yet to be confirmed.
SOLO VASSY BREAKS US DANCE CHART
Greek-Australian singer Vassy has entered the Top 20 of the Dance/Mix Show Airplay with Nothing To Lose. It was produced by Tiesto, who issued the track on his Musical Freedom imprint. It is getting strong airplay in Seattle and Tampa, Florida, as well as Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel.
This is the Darwin-born 33-year-old’s first solo entry on the chart. She previously featured on David Guetta and Showtek’s Bad, which reached #7 in 2014, and Tiesto and KSHMR’s Secrets, which peaked at #9 last year.
MUSICIAN CALL-OUT FOR WESTERN SYDNEY
The National Live Music Office is calling out for musicians from Western Sydney. As previously announced, the LMO is coordinating a series of multi-venue live music events over the next two years in partnerships with local councils.
Through ArtsNSW, the NSW Government committed $250,000 to the project, and 100% of this funding will go to the local musicians, venues and technicians working on the events.
BOY GEORGE STORMS OUT OF NZ SHOW
Boy George stormed out of a New Zealand TV show Seven Sharp after the host Toni Street grilled him about his 2009 criminal conviction for falsely imprisoning a male escort.
This had been a hot topic in NZ after some media speculated he might not get an entry visa, similar to his American visa issues.
George did get his NZ visa. But the Christchurch Horncastle Arena show on December 2, which sold 1000 tickets, has been cancelled. Culture Club will now only do Auckland’s Vector Arena on December 4.
According to Street, the Seven Sharp interview went well until the criminal conviction came up. George cracked the proverbial. “You know what, why don’t you move on to something more helpful, you know what I mean.” Then came, “In fact, you know what … thank you”, after which he plucked out his earpiece and lapel microphone and split.
He later attacked Street on twitter, saying it was a “stinking” interview and that she had a “voice like a drill.”
CABARET, SOUNDS BY RIVER, WIN AT SA TOURISM
Among the 30 categories of the 2016 South Australian Tourism Awards, staged in Adelaide on the weekend, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival took out Major Festival and Events. This year it posted a total attendance of 53,686 people, a 12% increase in box office from 2014.
The Festivals and Events category was won by Sounds By The River, which for ten years proven to be a popular draw bringing major music acts to to Mary Ann Reserve in Mannum. The January 2016 event was a sell-out, with Jimmy Barnes, Noiseworks, The Angels, Mark Seymour & The Undertow, Mental As Anything, The Badloves, and The Mamboobies.
ARTS WORKERS PLACEMENT IN CHINA
As part of its 2017 Professional Arts Placements program, the Australia Council is offering two spots in Shanghai. Expressions of interest are open until November 28.
It is offering a $7000 grant for one placement is at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre (SDAC) for six weeks (May 1 to June 9) for an arts management, marketing and communications worker.
The SDAC is the only national theatre company in that city, actively producing 50 productions to an audience of 300,000. It also hosts the ACT Shanghai International Contemporary Theatre festival annually, bringing a wide range of international performing arts productions to local audiences. The successful applicant will, under the mentorship or SDAC’s Head of International, Ophelia Huang, work with the international community in Shanghai to foster and develop English-speaking audiences for SDAC.
The second placement (grant of $12,000) is with Split Works, a music promoter and festival presenter. The three-month residency (July 10 to September 30) is for arts and music management or festival coordinators.
Since 2006, Split Works has toured acts as Sonic Youth, Owl City, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Ludacris, The Lumineers, Girl Talk, Grimes, St. Vincent and Olafur Arnalds. It also runs a number of independent festivals, the biggest being Concrete and Grass. The successful applicant will under the mentorship of GM Claire O’Shannessy, work as part of the team setting up Concrete and Grass.
BRISBANE CREATIVE SURVEY
To gain a better understanding of Brisbane’s creative industries, Brisbane City Council is conducting a Creative Sector Survey until early December. The results will inform future services and support for the sector. Go to https://www.iviewsurveys.com.au/mrIWeb/mrIWeb.dll?I.Project=O16Y0466&i.User1=1.
TEN MORE FOR SOUNDS OF AUSTRALIA REGISTRY
Four of ten tracks added to in the National Film and Sound Archive’s Sounds Of Australia registry this year came from contemporary rock. They were Midnight Oil’s Power And The Passion (1982), Christine Anu’s Neil Murray-penned My Island Home (1995), GANGGajang’s Sounds Of Then (This Is Australia) (1985) and Eric Bogle’s And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda (1971).
The others were British-born conductor and arranger Eric Jupp’s Skippy The Bush Kangaroo TV theme (1968), ad agency executives The Mojo Singers’ TV cricket anthem C’mon Aussie C’mon (1978), classical composer Nigel Westlake’s Antarctica: Suite For Guitar and Orchestra (1992), jazz band leader Frank Coughlan’s Trocadero Orchestra’s Life Without Love (1937), The Wiggles’ Toot Toot, Chugga Chugga, Big Red Car (1998) and music hall performer Billy Williams’ When Father Papered the Parlour (1912).
NZME EXPANDS TO WANAKA
NZME expanded its national footprint by launching its easy listening station Coast yesterday in Wanaka on 94.6FM and on iheartradio.co.nz. It is a jv with Mike Regal’s Central Lakes Media Ltd.
X FACTOR CLIMBS BACK
After hitting its worst ever ratings last week, Seven’s X Factor climbed from 676,000 to 700,000 on Sunday night. Last night it built up to 732,000.
WIGGLES TICKETS HIT BY SCALPERS
Demand by parents for tickets for The Wiggles’ Christmas show that online scalpers are able to demand four or five times the original price. This is despite Ticketek offering them for as little as $40, The Sunday Mail reported as part of its investigation.
Under Queensland’s Major Sports Facilities Act tickets can’t be resold at more than 10 per cent of the original price. Scalpers face a maximum fine of $2438 while buyers can be fined up to $609.50.
ABIF HELPS TWO BRISBANE COMPANIES
Support from the Arts Business Innovation Fund (ABIF) has helped two Brisbane arts companies to find new revenue streams and broaden their business models. ABIF combines public and private investment with Queensland Government funding matched by the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation.
Arts Queensland will invest $50 000 in Metro Arts. It will upgrade the building it owns to realise new entertainment opportunities as laneway and popups to attract designers and other businesses that are keen to position their work in a venue that understands and supports artists.
The $16,000 that Anywhere Theatre Festival gets from ABIF will go towards creating an online and mobile app called the Pocket Producer. It is a logistics solution for event producers and will create a new subscription-based income stream for the festival.
Since ABIF was set up in 2015, it has enabled Umbrella Studios to provide online retail opportunities for artists in the Townsville region, 4MBS to expand its Silver Memories nostalgic radio service for seniors, and Brisbane’s Institute for Modern Art to grow a future generation of art collectors as part of a strategic fundraising initiative.
SCUBA DIVA WINS CRITICS CHOICE
Auckland hi-fi alt-pop act Scuba Diva (aka Jimmy Mac) won the 7th NZ On Air Critics’ Choice Prize as part of the 2016 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards. He received it after performing at the Tuning Fork club with fellow finalists, guitar pop act Kane Strang and hip hop collective SPYCC & INF.
Scuba Diva, who is Lorde’s tour keyboard player and is signed to Universal Music, will use the $8,000 prize towards recording a single or music video, a $1500 voucher for audio services from Stebbing Recording Centre, and advice from accountants and music management.
SGT. PEPPER PANEL CONFIRMED
In a celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a two-day (February 24 & 25) event is being staged in Melbourne by Triple A Events. Engineers Geoff Emerick and Richard Lush who worked on the game-changing album are in a panel discussion with journalist Alan Howe. There’ll also be an acoustic performance from Davey Lane, string quartet rendition of Fab Four ditties, an audience Q&A session moderated by Leo Sayer, and memorabilia for sale.
WISHES VIDEO USES SIGN LANGUAGE
After gaining 1.4 million Spotify streams for debut single I Want To Be Alone With You, Wishes aka Sydney-based multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer and former Convaire frontman, John Towey, returns with a single Settle and an accompanying Auslan (Australian Sign Language) inspired video.
It was created by Melbourne director/producer Josh Harris, who worked closely with Auslan Stage Left to have the lyrics translated into sign language. He points out, “Auslan is its own distinctive language, the structure of sentences and grammar is quite different to English, which provided an interesting parallel, given that the song itself references the idea of miscommunication.”
FLYING BARK MD WINS EXPORT AWARD
Barbara Stephen, MD of film and TV content Flying Bark won the NSW Women in International Business category at the 2016 Premier’s NSW Export Awards. They acknowledge businesses and individuals over 22 categories for the role they play in supporting NSW’s economy. Flying Bark content is screened across 170 territories worldwide.
“NSW exports $63 billion worth of goods and services a year and it’s our export-led growth that makes our State the engine room of the Australian economy,” said NSW Premier Mike Baird.
KINKY BOOTS WALK TO SYDNEY
Following critical and commercial acclaim at its Melbourne premiere, the Kinky Boots musical will tap-tap into Sydney at the Capitol Theatre from next April. The Australian male lead Toby Francis was recently a member of the Ten Tenors.
VALE
Beginning his music career as promoter and artist manager of Sydney hardcore and metal acts, Justin Nichol went on to co-found Zed Vegas Bookings agency. Its acts included We May Fall, Mixtape For The Drive, Drowning Atlantis and The Beautiful Monument. Drowning Atlantis posted, “Justin you were like a father to us all. You believed in us right from the word go, we were the first band you signed onto Zed Vegas and you stuck by us every step of the way. “ Cause of Nichol’s death was not immediately known.
AND A FEW OTHER THINGS…
5 Seconds of Summer now have time on their hands, now they’re on a break following their world tour. A tongue-in-cheek post by bassist Calum Hood shared on Twitter was his desire to become a barista; Starbucks swiftly responded that its management was waiting for him to turn up to one of its outlets
The extra 1500 tickets that Frontier Touring put on sale yesterday for Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s show in Christchurch, New Zealand, sold out in less than two minutes.
The gear that Beyoncé wore at the Country Music Awards was made by Australian label J’Aton Couture.
Lorde’s no longer New Zealand’s best known teenage. She’s just turned 20. She wrote on Facebook, “All my life I’ve been obsessed with adolescence, drunk on it. Even when I was little, I knew that teenagers sparkled. I knew they knew something children didn’t know, and adults ended up forgetting.”
Bluesfest co-Director Peter Noble was in fine form at one of the final panels of Australian Music Week in Sydney. He lashed out at funding cuts, rising visa costs, the turning off the tap for Sounds Australia and our good friend Mr. Lockout Laws. “Thank you to anyone who goes out there and stands up and gets involved in protest, but (NSW Premier) Mike Baird’s gotta go! The Labor woman in Queensland’s (Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk) gotta go!”
Melbourne band Dream On Dreamer have overcome a disaster on their current European tour. Just before their Milan show, someone broke into their van and stole belongings, gear and, worse of all, their passports. Which meant they were stranded in Milan and forced to cancel three shows. But fans rallied around: a $8000 crowd-funding campaign ticked up $7,819, they were able to get replacement passports and they were able to pick up the tour in Prague.
Dan Sultan had to blow out shows in Brisbane and Adelaide this week to attend to an “unexpected personal emergency”.
Media personality and actor Ruby Rose and Jess Origliasso of The Veronicas are dating again, according to a report in the Sydney Daily Telegraph and confirmed by Origliasso on Nova. They reconnected on the set of The Veronicas’ On Your Side, which Rose directed, co-wrote and appeared in.
Troye Sivan is nominated for Young Australian of the Year.
After playing a three-song set at the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne before 100,000 for a reported $1.2 million fee, Sting hung around and watched the game – consequently becoming a big fan. Now he’s told New Zealand media that he wants to play before an All Blacks match.
“The game in Melbourne was fantastic, and it was played at 100 kilometres an hour,” he told the Herald on Sunday. “But the All Blacks are the best rugby team in the world and it would be great to see them do their stuff. I’d love to come down to New Zealand do a few songs before one of the big All Black matches but no one has asked me yet.”
Sophie Monk’s childhood home on a sprawling 4287sq m in the Gold Coast, complete with a back garden reminiscent of a rainforest, is on sale for the first time. As a kid, Monk put on weekly live shows with her sister in the garage, charging long-suffering neighbours $1.50 a head.
The late Bek Moore, singer for Brisbane and Melbourne bands as Clag, Scrabbled, Above Ground Pool, Bam-boo-sel and Boiled Dwarf, gets a tribute this Sunday. Members of Clag play their fave Clag songs with guest vocalists at MPavilion.
When Schoolboy Q promised his Auckland fans “some gangsta shit” at the Logan Campbell Centre, no one tipped security. A brawl broke out in the moshpit, A girl earlier collapsed in the pit from the crush. A punter decided to climb up the scaffolding to the ceiling to get a better view, sending two of the security team huffing up to get him down.
How did Melbourne rapper Pez get Paul Kelly on his new album? They met at a mutual friend’s party. Word got back to Pez that Kelly had bought his album. Pez went over and introduced himself, and told the bard that if he ever wanted to collaborate with a rapper, he was the man. Kelly passed over his phone number.
The Gasometer in Melbourne managed to pull off a coup when it managed to get Mariachi El Bronx to play a one-off headline show on the Cup Day holiday. But it was made more special when their Aussie tour manager Luke ’Boo’ Johnston got onstage to propose to publicist Cat Clarke of Riot House Publicity.