Michael Parisi, Tim Northeast, Harley Evans nominated for Music Vic Board
Michael Parisi, owner of artist management and consultancy company MPM, venue owner Tim Northeast (The Corner, Northcote and Newtown Social Clubs, The National) and owner of The Ticket Group Harley Evans are among the nine industry figures nominated for election to the Music Victoria Board.
Music Victoria, the contemporary music industry peak body for the state, holds its Annual General Meeting on Thursday where it will elect three new members to its Management Committee. Voted by its members, the Music Victoria Board features representatives from leading national and Victorian support bodies as well as artists, lawyers and management.
Other nominees include: Alastair Burns, owner of music company Heartstop Music (Marlon Williams, Christopher Coleman Collective, All Our Exes Live In Texas); Justin Rudge, creator of Public Bookings and founding member of the team behind Leaps and Bounds Music Festival in the City of Yarra; Matt Topfer, Strategy Director for brand consultancy Clear Design and Vanessa Bassili, publicist at Little Old Me Publicity and venue booker for Howler in Brunswick.
Voting closes at 6pm to current financial members of Music Victoria as of October 13 2014. A nomination form is available for download here.
Members of the Management Committee are to take office from the end of the 2014 AGM meeting up to the end of the Annual General Meeting to be held in 2016.
Music Victoria AGM – board nominations 2014
(in alphabetical order)
Alastair Burns
I run a company called Heartstop Music and we manage, book, promote and tour artists. We also produce The Melbourne Folk Club and BalconyTV Melbourne. The Heartstop roster includes Jordie Lane, Marlon Williams, Christopher Coleman Collective, All Our Exes Live In Texas, Rowena Wise, Lindi Ortega (CAN), John Smith (UK) and C.R. Avery (CAN).
My work with artists and events has puts me in regular contact with the Victorian music industry and the broader music community and despite being from New Zealand originally, I have developed a genuine pride for the Melbourne and wider Victorian music scene over the past six years.
I see the day to day impacts of policy decisions from a variety of perspectives in my work, and I have naturally found myself getting involved in discussions with local government and industry bodies about where the music scene is heading and what can be done to make it better. I now feel ready and keen to be behind the scenes, and directly engaged as a board member of Music Victoria.
Barry Williams
Barry Williams is now after a 35 year career in the Motor Industry happily retired. Graduating from Bendigo College with an accounting degree in 1997 he moved to Melbourne in 1978 to take a position with Penfold Motors as accountant. During his 35 year career with the company he successfully became a partner of the business. During his time within the motor industry he served on many industry advisory committees and boards. He culminated his career by becoming Managing Director of the company. With Barry’s direction Penfold Motors was regarded as a generous corporate citizen and actively supported many local community activities, many of those involving the music industry, including long term associations with PBS FM and QMF music festival. Barry has extensive management skills in marketing finance digital strategies team building strategic planning and corporate governance. He was appointed to the Music Victoria Board in 2013 and has been an active contributor, for the last four months he has held the position as treasurer. His enthusiasm for the vision of Music Victoria is the compelling reason why he decided to stand again for election for the coming year.
Harley Evans
Managing Director / Owner of The Ticket Group including moshtix.
Harley is one of Australia’s most respected and experienced ticketing executives. He has worked for many of the big names in live events, including Ticketek, Fulham Football Club and Dainty Consolidated Entertainment. His 15 years of experience with major music, sport and theatrical events have included C-level responsibilities for team leadership, planning, business development & commercial operations and venue & event management. Harley is also renowned for building strong customer relationships and for his contributions to the ticketing industry. He has a passion for culture within an organisation and this remains a key priority for him at The Ticket Group.
Justin Rudge
Justin Rudge is the creator of Public Bookings and is a founding member of the team behind Leaps and Bounds Music Festival in the City of Yarra. Working closely with the team at Music Victoria that auspice the festival, the Leaps and Bounds Music Festival has grown in 2 years into one of the premier festivals in Melbourne’s music calendar with over 300 performances over 30+ venues in 16 days. With a long history of commitment to the Melbourne music scene, Justin first began artist booking and management at The Standard Hotel in Fitzroy over 10 years ago. From there Justin has built a reputation for guiding local talent and has developed a significant roster of quality artists including Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk, Dallas Crane, Charles Jenkins & The Zhivagos, Ron S Peno & The Superstions, Ruby Boots, Three Kings and many more. Under the banner of Public Bookings, Justin offers a full service and support arrangement from booking local shows to major festivals, recording, planning, tour logistics and management and everything in between. A recording engineer, session musician and performer in his own right, Justin has also completed two 35+ date tours of Europe with Dirty York in the last two years, and is currently playing weekly gigs with country outfit The Bakersfield Glee Club.
Lucie Ribush
By the time I finished high school I decided a career in music was for me. I attended NMIT studying Music Business on scholarship from Mushroom Music. While studying I spent my afternoons at a work placement at Zomba Records and my summers at the Big Day Out office Following my studies I went on to full time work at Agent MAD, the electronic touring and events division at Mushroom Music where I spent 5 years working my way up from office assistant to touring Agent. When Agent MAD folded I moved on to bookings at The Espy for two years before taking on my current role at the Ipanima Group which own and manage Cookie, The Toff In Town, Revolver Upstairs and our recent addition Boney. From a young age I have always loved and lived music, but have recognised that my talents lie not as a creator of music but as a born organiser! Over the years working in the industry Music Victoria have been a great source of information and advice for the groups I work for. I feel that through my experience and insight into venues and events I could offer back to the industry at large through Music Victoria and would love to opportunity to be involved.
Matt Topfer
Matt is the Strategy Director for brand consultancy Clear Design and Brand Strategy and has been an appointed board member of Music Victoria for the past 18 months. Working closely with both board members and with Music Victoria management Matt has been involved in a number of initiatives – including: MV Brand Positioning and strategy development, The MV Awards and Sponsorship, Music Victoria Members Drive and Membership Development and the Music Victoria White Paper – Position and Priorities for music in Victoria. As Strategy Director for CLEAR, Matt works with a range of clients – from Museum Victoria, to The ABC, to clients from various commercial sectors – property, retail, entertainment and professional consultants. Matt works with businesses and brands to evolve and to transform – to understand what it is they would love to become and to develop the strategy to get there. Previously, Matt had a twenty plus-year sales and marketing career with companies such as Unilever, United Distillers, Guinness, Diageo, CUB and Fosters. Following which Matt ’changed sides’ and became the inaugural Managing Director for Naked Communications, Melbourne. Living on the Mornington Peninsula with wife Sal and 4 kids, Matt combines a commitment to the local wine and food with almost endless taxiing to kids sport and as often as possible a hit of tennis and the ever-rarer triathlon.
Michael Parisi
MPM was set up by Michael Parisi in 2008 as a management and consultancy company to look after Australian artists and create new music based initiatives. MPM’s roster features artists such as Owl Eyes, Dan Sultan, Way Of The Eagle and Stonefield with current projects including Wunderkind label, Audio Branding and Dream Inc. Michael worked for Warner Music Australia from 1990 where he signed Regurgitator, The Superjesus and The Whitlams and helped build the careers of acts like The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg, NIN and Marilyn Manson. His first signing for Sputnik Records in 2002 was an unknown, UK three piece called MUSE. As Managing Director of Festival Mushroom Records from 2002-2008, Michael was in charge of a roster that included Kylie Minogue, ACDC, Eskimo Joe, Gyroscope and Gabriella Cilmi (whom he discovered and signed to Island Records UK).
Tim Northeast
Tim has been involved in live music venue management for over 25 years and is currently a member of the Victorian Music Council and the Live Music Roundtable.
Originally from Warrnambool in country Victoria, Tim completed a Bachelor of Commerce from Melbourne University and gained experience in corporate banking and retail before moving into venue management. Tim has been Managing Director and co-owner of The Corner since 1995 and is also co-owner of the Northcote Social Club, Newtown Social Club and The National Hotel. Tim is also a director of Ticketscout Pty Ltd which is a boutique ticketing service focused on independent live music venues and events.
With experience in financial management, innovation and managing cultural change, Tim is keen to help reinvigorate live music in country Victoria and promote musicians rights.
Vanessa Bassili
Bringing together two different areas of the music industry, Vanessa is a publicist at Little Old Me Publicity and venue booker for Howler in Brunswick. Since its inception in 2010, Little Old Me Publicity has proudly flown the publicity flag for a variety of local and international artists encompassing a wide range of genres including A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Loon Lake, Junip and Charles Bradley to name a few. Last year, Vanessa started booking bands for new music venue Howler. In its first year, Howler has hosted a plethora of diverse gigs from local and international acts and has firmly established itself as a premium live music venue in an ever-changing industry. Vanessa also looks after PR for Howler. Vanessa believes strongly in working with good people and the importance of supporting others within the industry. From booking Howler, shaping and establishing its strong identity as a live music venue in just over a year to implementing and managing publicity campaigns for local and international releases and tours, Vanessa has a unique vantage point from two different areas of the music industry and possesses vast knowledge of the local, national and global music landscape.