Industrial Strength: Part 2
Image: Birds Of Tokyo
PERTH, BRISBANE, GET SET FOR ADELE TRAFFIC CHAOS
Perth and Brisbane, the first two stops on Adele’s Australian tour, were gritting their teeth for traffic snarl-ups this week as public transport in both cities are put to the test. Both are also setting new records for single-day concert attendance.
This came after promoter Live Nation applied for extra capacity to accommodate her in-the-round stage production. Perth’s Domain was increased from 43,500 to 65,000. Brisbane’s Gabba expanded from 42,000 capacity to 60,000.
Perth audiences were warned to give themselves an hour’s grace to get to the venue last night, while every available train will be running. Last week, Brisbane’s deputy mayor aroused the ire of Live Nation when he said that punters should give themselves three hours. Since September the promoter, venue and public transport authorities have been working on a traffic management plan. Because the Gabba has no nearby train station, 400 buses will transport the punters. The bus ride was integrated into the ticket prices.
The Courier Mail reported that 180 portaloos are being brought in to cope with the – ahem – extra flow.
AMIN ANNOUNCE PRIZES FOR FILM COMP
AMIN (the Australian Music Industry Network) has announced the prizes for the Love Live Music 60-second film competition. The national initiative aims to stress the importance of live music in the lives of music fans.
AMIN this week announced the prizes. The musician winner gets a $20,000 Moshtix marketing package; the triumphant filmmaker takes home $1000 cash from APRA AMCOS and an annual Palace Cinemas VIP Movie Club membership valued at $3,000.
Runner-up musicians get up to five Sensaphonics acoustic earplugs valued at $1,600, and filmmakers $1000 cash from the PPCA.
The final ten films will be distributed to top artist managers through the Association of Artist Managers (AAM), with extra distribution through members of the National Contemporary Music Roundtable including Music Australia, AMIN, APRA AMCOS and the Live Music Office.
The top ten finalists will also have the opportunity to be selected for screening at the 2017 National Live Music Awards.
DEADLINE APPROACHES FOR JAZZ AWARDS NOMS
Nominations for the 15th Australian Jazz Bell Awards close on March 15. Full details at bellawards.org.
The categories are Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album, Best Australian Instrumental Jazz Album, Best Produced Album, Best Australian Jazz Song of the Year, Best Australian Jazz, Ensemble of the Year and Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year as well as the Graeme Bell Hall of Fame Award.
The awards are held in Melbourne at Bird’s Basement on Monday May 15. Each category winner receives $5000.
BIRDS OF TOKYO ADDED TO EMERGENCE CREATIVE
Adam Spark and Glenn Sarangapany of Birds of Tokyo have been added as keynote speakers to WA’s Emergence Creative Festival.
The four-day festival at Margaret River brings together creatives from a wide range of areas, encouraging participants to look beyond their own specialisation and broaden their thinking.
FINE MUSIC OPENS LEARNING CENTRE
Sydney jazz and classical radio station Fine Music 102.5 FM has opened a learning centre in its North Shore studio. It will be open for classes and activities to encourage all ages to take an interest in classical music.
The launch included a video of the Australian Youth Orchestra performing a high-energy Shostakovich symphony at the BBC Proms.
“Classical music [is] an engaging, visceral, confronting experience that is entirely capable of being enjoyed by all ages and demographics alike,” declared28-year old Toby Thatcher, Assistant Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
“If young people don’t find that exciting, we haven’t done enough to provide them with the tools to appreciate it.”
LEGACY FOR TASSIE SINGER-SONGWRITER
When Hobart singer-songwriter Nick Balcombe died of a stroke in 2014, friends set up the Nick Balcombe Foundation – to finish off an album he was working on, and to also lend a helping hand to other Tasmanian acts.
The album, titledLoose Ends, was launched at Mona on the weekend.
Additionally, singer-songwriter Maddy Jane was given the Live Your Dream grant of $2500, website and industry contacts. Launceston band The Sleepyheadsbagged the Kickstart category, which includes a website and list of industry contacts.
QLD CON’S STAR ALUMNI CELEBRATE ITS 60TH
A lot of famous names have come out of the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. They include Dami Im, Katie Noonan, Piers Lane, Megan Washington, Lisa Gasteen and Brett Dean.
To celebrate its 60th birthday, Noonan returns to front an all-star Alumni Big Band at a gala concert at the Con on March 31. It features saxophonist Zac Hurren and Grammy-award winning Brisbane-born Chicago-based flautist Tim Munro.
BEYOND INTERNATIONAL EXPECTS LOSS
Production house Beyond International advised the ASX it expects to report a loss of $0.5m for the six months ending December 31, 2016.
It explains the loss comes after unexpected stock returns at the Distribution, Copyright and Beyond Home Entertainment (BHE) division. An unnamed retailer forced a change in the trading terms with BHE and then subsequently returned stock sold to the retailer by BHE in the previous financial year. Beyond has also flagged the retailer involved could yet have more stock to return which could further impact the results for the six months ending June 30, 2017.
Beyond’s production slate is heavy: it has 41 hours currently in production for Netflix USA, in the wake of delivering 33 hours.
NEW AWARD FOR TAITE PRIZE
This year’s $10,000 Taite Music Prize – New Zealand’s search for the most creative domestic album – has a new category, the Best Independent Debut Award. A new partnership with Auckland Live sees the awards, which are named after the late music journalist Dylan Taite, move to Wintergarden at The Civic.
Previous winners included Lawrence Arabia’s Chant Darling, Ladi6’s The Liberation Of, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Lorde’s Pure Heroine and SJD’s Elastic Wasteland.
AND A FEW OTHER THINGS…
- Speaking of Lorde, this week sheteased new music with a cryptic ad. A fresh track is accompanied with her munching on fries (she earlier tweeted she knew fans were “hungry” and “waiting for it” before directing them to a website imwaitingforit.com. The ad also shows off the star’s new haircut, reportedly by celebrity hairstylist Jen Atkin (who apparently charges upwards of US$600 a chop).
- How true are the rumours that AC/DC plan to make an album with Axl Rose? Rose was waving the plan last year but Angus Young wasn’t that up for it. But after their successful shows, he’s ready to go into the studios.
- After Icehouse guitarist Paul Gildea broke his wrist just before they went out on their current tour, he was moved to keyboards while 31-year old Michael Paynter was roped in. At a recent show just before they did Fatman, Iva Davies quipped to Paynter, “That song’s older than you.” The young gun replied, “They all are!”
- The Superjesus, who’re being inducted into the South Australian Hall of Fame this Friday, have an album out next year. Meantime, singer Sarah McLeodwill issue a solo record some time in 2017.
- There’ll be two Aussie warbling away at this year’s Eurovision in Ukraine in May. There’ll be the official entrant, whoever it will be. There’s also NSW-born Anja Nissen, who beat out nine others to get the chance to represent Denmark. The 21-year old, whose parents migrated from Denmark, won The Voice in 2014. She’s currently in Denmark recording an album with local producers for Universal Music.
- It’s all about luck, sometimes. How did young desert reggae band The Irrunytju Band from Wingellina, NT, score an opening slot with Midnight Oil in Darwin later in the year? Last year Peter Garrett saw them at Bush Bands Bash in Alice Springs and later told them he liked their music.
- A part-time Uber driver won a new car during a competition by KIIS 101.1 Melbourne and The Chapel Street Precinct. All he had to do was to kiss the Honda Jazz for two hours.
- Music Theatre Melbourne (MTM) will stage a production of Jon English’s Paris: A Rock Odyssey in July as part of a tribute to the late singer. The company was talking to English about staging the epic production just before his death last year.
- A New Zealand woman is in a coma after being punched in the throat as she and her partner were leaving the Electric Avenue festival in Christchurch. The 29-year old has had surgery on her crushed windpipe and faces more operations to try and repair the damage.
- South Australia’s hospitality associations and venues are bracing up to fight a plan by the state government to drug test bar staff.
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