Industrial Strength: Part 2

AMY WINEHOUSE EXHIBITION

Amy Winehouse’s A Family Portrait exhibition will be staged exclusively in Melbourne at the Jewish Museum of Australia (26 Alma Rd, St Kilda) from October 22 2017 to March 25 2018.

It will include her stage costumes, instruments, records, concert tickets and passes, family photographs and the Jewish cookery book she used, with a mix tape Winehouse made when she was 13 providing the soundtrack.

The collection was curated by Winehouse’s brother Alex and sister-in-law Riva in 2013 with the Jewish Museum of London. It has also staged in San Francisco, Vienna, Tel Aviv and Amsterdam.

FOXTEL PROFITS DROP BY $17M

The News Corp-Telstra joint venture Foxtel is struggling to compete against the US import Netflix. Profits dropped by $17 million, with net income down from $52 million to $24 million. Trying to keep the now-closed Presto service going cost $5 million, News Corp, which lost $287 million in the second quarter of its financial year, wrote down the carrying value of its 50% stake in Foxtel from $US1.4 billion to $US1.2 billion, equating to $297 million.

WAM TO START ON NEXT ‘SOUNDS OF…’ SERIES

Western Australia’s peak music association WAM is about to start work on the next instalment of its award-winning Sounds Of …. series. Ten artists mostly from Albany and Denmark are chosen for Sounds Of The Great Southern, after a record 115 applications. A four-week recording session begins on March 9. WAM’s website has the full list of artists.

Producers and engineers involved in the pop-up sessions include Joel Quartermain, Andy Lawson of Debaser Studio, Matt Gio from Rada Studio and Sean Lillico of Fur Real Studio.

With major presenting partner Celebrate WA, promoter of WA Day, support for the upcoming project comes from Brookfield Rail, the City of Albany, Soundtown and the Great Southern Development Commission.

Previous Sounds Of projects included the groundbreaking Pilbara II (songs in language) and The Goldfields.

GRANTS #1: WA’S ENGAGEMENT

Western Australia’s Department of Culture and the Arts’ Community Engagement Grants Program provides funding for activities that promote the participation and active engagement of WA communities in arts and culture. Applications close March 23 for the $15,000-plus category. For projects under $15,000, applications are open year-round.

A free information session will be held Thursday February 16, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm, at the Old Midland Courthouse for those interested in discussing the program in detail and to talk one-on-one about future applications. Visit dca.wa.gov.au or call 6552 7400 for more information.

GRANTS #2: NSW REGIONAL TOURING

The NSW Government is committing a further $30,000 to expand performing arts opportunities in regional and remote NSW. The Community Presenter Touring

Grants, administered by Arts on Tour, is for productions in community-run venues and halls, in NSW towns without a professional performing arts venue. It will contribute 50% of the artist’s performing fee.

Arts NSW Executive Director Michael Brealey said the increase in funding “more than doubles the available amount to $55,000”, with a huge amount of venues showed interest in the program.

GRANTS #3: QUEENSLAND ARTS WORKERS

Arts Queensland’s Individuals Fund is open until March 8 to reward and recognise outstanding individual arts and cultural workers with funding up to $10,000.

Recent recipients include singer-songwriter Louise O’Reilly who participated in the NES artist residency program in Iceland, visual artist Ryan Daffurn who undertook a six month residency program at the Spinnerei complex in Germany, and composer, artist and creative producer Dr Leah Barclay who participated in a US-based mentorship program.

ONLINE TV MEASURED

Australia gets its first official figures for viewing of online TV content, with OzTAM announcing a new weekly (Tuesday) Live Video Player Measurement (VPM) Report. It will provide an insight to Australian TV behaviour patterns with regard to live and catch-up.

Currently, sports and news dominate VPM because they’re “perishable” although reality TV series are also making their presence felt.

VALE

NSW Northern Rivers comedian, actor and Northern Star columnist Sandy Gandhi inspired Melbourne band Little Heroes’ 1982 hit One Perfect Day. She had a lengthy on-off relationship with its songwriter and band leader Roger Hart who told the Northern Star he wrote the song when she was living in England (working as part of Hunters & Collectors’ tour team), and he wondered how she would cope after the 1979 election of Margaret Thatcher. She returned to Australia and appeared on Australia’s Got Talent in 2009, making it to the semifinals. Born in India as Sandra Aranha, she was given a Bollywood-style farewell in Byron last Sunday.

AND A FEW OTHER THINGS…

Splendour In The Grass is still almost six months away, so it’s time to speculate as to who’ll be on the bill. Usually a rule of thumb is to see who’s playing Japan’s Fuji Rock which is scheduled to begin a week later, as many make their way up after. Are we talking Father John Misty, Bjork, The xx, Queens of the Stone Age, Aphex Twin, The Lemon Twigs, Lukas Graham, Maggie Rogers and Sturgill Simpson?

Three days before the Australian release of Rag N’Bone Man’s debut album Human, the title track was certified platinum in this country.

The mystery “medical emergency” that saw Icehouse postpone two Perth shows has been solved. During their subsequent show in Adelaide, they ‘fessed up that guitarist Paul Gildea had broken his arm. “I got a BMX for Christmas,” he joked to the crowd.

INXS creative manager Chris Murphy got married last month to former Vogue Australia Beauty Editor Caroline Paidasch before 100 guests at a 60s themed Hawaiian bash 60-acre home in South Ballina, The Sunday Telegraph revealed. Murphy told the paper he wanted to do it in early 2017 as he’d be busy working on the INXS musical and Michael Hutchence documentary, both with 2018 release dates.

The Perth music community continues to raise funds for Joni Hogan of Joni In The Moon and her family, after they lost all their possessions during a bushfire in mid-summer. While a GoFundMe has raised close to $17,000, a Rebuilding Love concert at the Badlands venue has raised a further $1,400.

Eminem’s Australian promoter TEG Dainty say that a “2017 tour poster” doing the rounds is a fake, and that his management has been informed.

Hit93.1 Riverina’s breakfast team invited listeners to ring in with the best Ed Sheeran impersonation. One dude won by a mile… turned out it was the real thing. Ed also let slip he plans to get a tattoo of Elton John on his arse.

Police are searching for thieves who broke into an Adelaide music shop last Saturday morning, and scrammed with six guitars.

Lorde was full of apologies to Kiwi actor KJ Apa, who’s currently landed the lead role of Archie Andrews in US series Riverdale. Asked during a Vulture interview if he knew Lorde, he replied he’d just had one encounter with her. “I walked past her in a car and I looked at her and smiled and she completely just looked away and I was really gutted.” A mortified Lorde apologised for being a “brat” and made plans to catch up with him the next time she was in LA.

Gold Coast stuntman Johann Ofner who died during a Bliss N Eso video shoot in Brisbane, on January 23, was farewelled with a huge crowd at his funeral. Friends from the martial arts and biker communities have raised thousands of dollars for “Yogi”’s family while plans are mooted for a new outdoor fitness set in his honour at a park in Burleigh. On their current tour, Bliss N Eso emotionally dedicate a song to him at each show.

Auckland was one of 22 cities around the world that Universal Music placed Katy Perry mirror balls where sharp fans could listen to a snippet of her new single. Hidden under a staircase in the city’s Britomart precinct, one fan made it by 5:00am to win bragging rights to be the first in the country to hear the song. The NZ Herald planted someone there for 40 minutes who reported that 100 people strolled by during that time, but only four bothered to snap the headphones and listen.

A gang of 100 Sudanese teens wave-charged into the Summersault Festival in Caroline Springs outside Melbourne at 10:00pm as people were witnessing the fireworks. Six reported their mobile phones were stolen and two said they were assaulted during the incident.

Xavier Rudd is facing charges of an alleged assault, the Lismore Northern Star has reported. The Byron Bay-based 38-year-old singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s case was heard at Byron Bay Local Court late last week. He did not attend as he is on tour nationally with The Cat Empire, but was represented by his lawyer.

The case was adjourned to April 6 after a brief mention. The alleged assault took place on Wednesday November 9 last year at 7:30 am on an unidentified male. No other details are available, and Rudd has not lodged a plea as yet.

Darwin rappers Muxy and Demo Gubbz (Matthew Lim and Gavin McLean)’s collaboration with US hip-hop act Chingy during his visit two years ago to the Top End, has worked. The resultant track Millions debuted at #16 on the iTune charts. They hope to rope in more high profile collaborations for their debut album, due next year.

Things of Stone and Wood are out on the road to play The Yearning album in its entirety for the first time. The album went Top 10 and gold in the wake of the chart success of the single Happy Birthday Helen. The success of their folk-rock sound opened the doors for The Waifs, John Butler and Angus & Julia Stone. ‘90s band Club Hoy are reforming for the eleven TOSAW shows, March 15 to April 2.

Arena Entertainment’s Mega ‘90s tour with 2 Unlimited, Technotronic, Real McCoy and Dr Alban has expanded to Darwin, playing Discovery nightclub on Wednesday March 22.