Industrial Strength: October 9

5 SECONDS NOMINATED FOR MORE GLOBAL AWARDS

Sydney’s 5 Seconds of Summer snared a nomination for the upcoming 2018 MTV EMAs.

They’re up for best rock act against Foo Fighters, Imagine Dragons, Muse and U2.

The awards are held in Spain on Sunday, November 4, and will be screened in Australia by MTV.

Camila Cabello leads the pack with six nominations – including best artist against Ariana Grande, Drake, Dua Lipa and Post Malone.

NO GORILLAZ FOR TEN YEARS

We won’t see Gorillaz live again for another ten years.

Speaking to the Toronto Sun, frontman Damon Albarn said, “Well, we’re going to have to even it out.

“Since there wasn’t much time between these recent two records it’s probably going to be another 10 years.”

Gorillaz released Humanz in April 2017 and The Now Now in June 2018.

A full-blown hologram tour with the band’s cartoon members is “something we’ve been trying to do since day one.”

MTV DEBUTING AUSSIE VERSION OF CRIBS

Following on from a local version of Unplugged, MTV Australia is launching a local version of Cribs on October 17.

“The response to the revivals of MTV’s iconic properties has been incredibly positive, so an Australian version of MTV Cribs felt like the perfect format to revitalise next,” vice president and head of MTV Asia Pacific, Simon Bates, said.

Looking at the homes of folks from the entertainment industry, first guests are Sydney radio presenter Kyle Sandilands and his partner Imogen Anthony traipsing through their harbourside mansion.

A sneak preview saw a Live Sexy neon sign in the bedroom, a circular bed, a fibreglass deer in the lounge room, life-size Maximum covers of Anthony and, oh dear, a zebra skin overed sofa.

MTV also confirmed that the third act for MTV Unplugged will be Sydney’s DMA’S, to be shot this week in Melbourne.

TRIPLE J APP

Triple j has given its app a makeover to make discovering new music easier.

Users can now flick between triple j, Double J and triple j Unearthed, and add the songs they hear on air straight to their Spotify or Apple Music playlists.

The app now also lists a list of recent songs played so they can identify them quicker than bellowing into Google voice search, and users can now text or call in to triple j for a chat.

MUSICAL CHAIRS

• Universal Music Australia has promoted Mic Doney to senior manager of advertising strategy.Doney has been with Universal Music Group (UMG) for 4½ years and will be responsible for managing and optimising the local UMG advertising process end-to-end plus working with UMG’s global media teams and systems. A year after being appointed co-chairman and CEO at Warner Bros Records US, Aaron Bay-Schuck finally began his role. He was president of A&R at Interscope Geffen A&M. Earlier when at Atlantic, he signed Bruno Mars.
• New addition to Ticketmaster’s communications team, based in Melbourne, is Gloria Brancatisano, former editor of Furst Media’s weekly Beat.
• Beat’s new editor is Tom Parker.
• Spotify’s longtime head of global business development, Jorge Espinel, has become chief business development officer at Lemonade, a tech-savvy insurance company.
• Sarah Smith, one-time senior director at Universal Music Australia and head of communications at Sydney Opera House, among other stints, is new head of marketing and communication at the Bundanon Trust, based at Riversdale near Nowra. The trust just received $8.592 million in government funding to launch a new gallery to store 4,000 artworks valued at over $43 million.

Universal Music Australia’s Mic Doney

IGGY AZALEA CANCELS US TOUR

Iggy Azalea has cancelled all but four of her 21-date US tour – her first there in four years.

It was supposed to begin on October 27 in Hollywood, Florida, and finish on December 4 in Houston, Texas.

The rope around the wagon started to unravel when opening act, rapper CupcakKe walked, attributing it to “change of plans”.

This proved to her original fee of $300,000 being slashed to $30,000, which she blamed on the promoter, Live Nation.

Azalea’s whose 2015 Great Escape arena tour was also cancelled, tweeted her apology to fans.

Believe me – i was really excited for this tour…
and im genuinely disappointed it cant happen this year –
The choice was out of my hands and not my call to make.
I hope i will get to see you all in person one day.
I love you. ❤️

— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) October 7, 2018

All i can do is keep pushing, keep recording and keep a smile on my face. ?

— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) October 7, 2018

WAR OF WORDS OVER DARK MOFO

With experimental Tasmanian festival Dark Mofo’s state funding up for renegotiating this year, the Australian Christian Lobby is pushing for the tap to be turned off permanently as it’s a pagan event that worships darkness and nudity.

They’ve got a supporter in Hobart lord mayor Ron Christie who blustered that Dark Mofo was had no tourism benefit and Hobart council’s $258,000 annual sponsorship should also stop.

Tourism Industry Council Tasmania chief executive Luke Martin argued that Dark Mofo had a massive flow-on effect across Tasmania.

“June in Hobart now is as big as summer with people spending at restaurants, retail and getting out into regions,” he said.

“Tourism operators will hear Christie’s comments and laugh. It’s bonkers.”

WORK BEGINS ON WALSH BAY ARTS PRECINCT

Work on stage pne of the redevelopment of the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct in Sydney is set to begin now that the NSW government has signed a contract with Richard Crookes Constructions.

Demolition will begin immediately, with hoardings and environmental controls now being set up around Wharf 4/5 in preparation for the start of work.

Once complete, the aim is to double the arts and cultural offering at Walsh Bay as well as helping transform the Sydney Theatre Company, Sydney Dance Company, Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Australian Theatre for Young People. As well as having the ability to house the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Bell Shakespeare at Walsh Bay.

The NSW based firm, Richard Crookes Construction, has a track record in delivering a range of NSW Government projects across the health, education and justice sectors.

Infrastructure NSW has invited the local community to attend a consultation session on 10 October to meet the project team, discuss the work and explain any changes (such as access routes) that will take place during the construction period.

SAUDI WOMAN BANNED FROM MARRYING MAN WHO PLAYED MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

A Saudi woman lost her battle to marry the man of her choice because her family objected as he played a musical instrument.

The bank manager could not marry the teacher because her brothers said he used to play the Middle Eastern string instrument, the ourd.

A Saudi court agreed with the view that “because the suitor plays a musical instrument he is unsuitable for the woman from a religious point of view.”

The woman will now apply to the royal family to intervene.

JAEL TO DELIVEER CHAMPION AT JUNIOR EUROVISION

Melbourne 12-year-old Jael will sing the power pop anthem Champion at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest (JESC).

It is held on Sunday, November 25 at the Minsk Arena, Belarus, and broadcast on ABC ME on Monday 26 at 6pm.

Recording in her dad’s recording studio at the age of 9, Jael won the top award at the Fast Track Talent Showcase for three years running.

INAUGURAL TED GARDNER AWARDS ANNOUNCED

The inaugural Ted Gardner Awards is a music project based in regional Victoria to showcase young (aged 15—18) local talent on a CD.

Ted Gardner was an Australian who moved to the US and set up the Lollapalooza festival (which raised over seven million dollars for charity worldwide) and managed Tool, Queens of the Stone Age and Brian Jonestone Massacre.

The competition is put together by Act Oz in association with Bendigo’s Ladd Studios.

For the full details head over to the official website. 

CONTRIBUTE TO NATIONAL ARTS AND DISABILITY STRATEGY

Are you an artist or screen practitioner who identifies as a person with disability?

Are you from an arts or screen organisation that works with practitioners with disability or that wants to in the future?

The Department of Communications and the Arts wants to hear from you about your experiences in the sector and how you think the participation of people with disability in the arts, screen and culture sector can be increased.

This is the first step in developing a renewed National Arts and Disability Strategy for 2019.

As well as looking at how to increase participation, consultations want to hear your views on ways to:

•     Support the practice, professional development, networks and employment of practitioners with disability
•     Build audiences for the work of artists and screen practitioners with disability.
•     Promote and celebrate the diversity of artists, arts and cultural workers and screen practitioners with disability.

To find out more and have your say visit the official website. 

Submissions close Monday, December 3 at 5pm (AEST).

DAREBIN FEAST FEATURES THREE GENDER SESSIONS

One of the features of the Darebin Feast Festival in Melbourne is Sonic aGender.

Curated by musician and academic Janelle Johnstone, it is an entire weekend of events that consider the relationships between gender, sound and narrative.

It was conceived in response to respond to current dialogue around inequality and accessibility within the music sector.

It begins on Friday, October 19 with a keynote from singer-songwriter and Milk! Records co-founder Jen Cloher exploring key themes of gender, songwriting, wall breaking and music making.

A roundtable follows with Jenny McKechnie (Cable Ties), Romy Vager (RVG), Erica Dunn (Mod Con, TFS, Harmony), Barb Waters, Steph Crase (Summer Flake), Alice Skye, Linda Johnston (Little Ugly Girls, The Dacios) and Caroline Kennedy.

On the Saturday Thornbury Picture House’s Clip Flicks is a music clip binge, followed by a Q&A with Angie Hart, Cerise Howard (3RRR, Czech & Slovak Film Festival), Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore (Her Sound, Her Story) and Laura Imbruglia.

Sunday features Shake The Tree, an all-ages daytime show at Thornbury Bowls Club featuring live sets from local acts The Pink Tiles, Ally Boom Boom & The Cool Bananas and Sugar Fed Leopards.

VALE

* Frank Ford AM was one of the architects of the Adelaide arts scene, a gentle ever-enthusiastic mentor who was the first chair and long time donor of Adelaide Fringe in the ‘60s and founded the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in May 2001 after he felt the city needed an event which focussed on local talent.

He was accorded Icon status by the Cabaret Festival in 2015 and the first Honorary Life Member of the Adelaide Fringe.

Ford died at 83 after a short illness.

One time artistic director of Adelaide Cabaret Festival, David Campbell wrote:  “cannot imagine what the arts scene in Adelaide would have been like if there was no Frank Ford.

“A true gentleman and visionary. We adored working with him and laughing with him with the Cabaret Festival.”

* Peter Smith was a foremost stage manager and lighting designer in Australia and the UK.

His stints included managerial roles at JC Williamsons, Monash University, Elizabethan Theatre Trust, the AETT, NIDA (where he taught young technical students), the South Australian Opera Company and WAAPA in Perth during which time he published his book Duties of Stage Management.

AND A FEW OTHER THINGS…

INXS guitarist Tim Farriss’ $750,000 lawsuit against a NSW boat hire company has gone to the Supreme Court. In January 2015 the musician shredded his hand in a boat accident, which he claims led to loss of earnings.

Shoppers at Adelaide’s Central Marke were understandably cooing when they saw Cher doing a bit of grocery shopping before her show that night. Alas, it tuned out to be drag queen Hollie Graffix who got up in Cher gear (circa Turn Back Time video clip) for a giggle. Her creator Garry Gibson works at a bakery at the market.

Much to the joy of celebrity magazine editors the world over, the Nicki Minaj-Cardi B feud ain’t over. In the wake of their infamous fisticuffs at at a New York Fashion Week event, Cardi B hissed that Minaj was trying to sabotage her career. “I let you sneak diss me, I let you lie on me, I let you attempt to stop my bags, f**k up the way I eat,” Cardi B wrote. Minaj’s latest merchandise range includes the slogan “Nicki stopped my bag”.

While Suge Knight will be spending the next 28 years eating porridge for breakfast, his son Suge J. Knight took to social media to claim that all this talk about Tupac being fatally shot in Las Vegas in 1996 was a load of cow cookies. He says the rapper is still alive and living in Malaysia. A Las Vegas cop dismissed the posting as a hoax, sighing “He died in my arms.”

British singer Beverley Craven has been diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time

The Gold Coast Bulletin reported that the convicted Brisbane nightclub Whiskey Au Go Go killer denies confessing to firebombing the place in 1973 and killing 15 people – and has offered to take a lie-detector test.

The upcoming Melbourne and Sydney seasons of Global Creatures’ production of Muriel’s Wedding The Musical has NSW South Coast 23-year old Natalie Abbott in her very first professional stage production as Muriel Heslop, and Melbourne actor Elizabeth Esguerra as her bestie Rhonda.

The police department in Rochester, New Hampshire has withdrawn a suggestion that Eminem was a trespassing suspect. The blueys posted an image on social media which looked like the Detroit rapper. Em’s fans gleefully added their own posts, using the rapper’s lines as “He’s probably just going ’round the outside, ’round the outside“, “Will the real Slim Shady please fess up“, and “Look at him! Just walking around, grabbing his… you know what, flipping the… you know who.“

Two Pearl Jam shows in Seattle on August 8 and 10 raised $10.8 million for homelessness initiatives in the city while Chance the Rapper made a $1 million donation to Chicago’s Mental Health Services.

Kylie Minogue had to cancel two shows in Ireland on the weekend due to a throat infection.

Police arrested a 29-year old man who allegedly brought a loaded firearm into a packed Newcastle nightclub and used it to threaten a fellow patron.  The Newcastle Herald says he’ll appear in Newcastle Local Court on Thursday and the offence faces a maximum penalty of 14 years in jail.