New Signings & Team-Ups: September 27
NOEL GALLAGHER HIGH FLIES TO UNIVERSAL AUSTRALIA
The third album from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Who Built The Moon?, will be releasedhere by Universal Music through Caroline Australia on Friday November 24.
It’s part of a deal between Universal Music Group and Gallagher’s own Sour Mash which sees the major handling the record in 150 territories.
The others include Canada, South America, Asia (excluding Japan), New Zealand, Eastern Europe and Russia. Caroline has the record in the US, and the band remain with Warner’s ADA in the UK.
Gallagher worked with DJ and producer David Holmes, marking a sight change of direction.
Its style ranges from French psychedelic pop to soul, rock and disco, with Paul Weller playing organ on Holy Mountain and Johnny Marr on guitar and harmonica on If Love Is The Law.
“People are going to be surprised,” said Holmes “I think people love Noel and they’re desperate for him to make a really big, bold, up-tempo beast of a record – a lot of Noel’s music is quite mid-tempo. This one is fun.”
Noel’s feud with his brother Liam is set to intensify even further, as the High Flying Birds album comes out a month after Liam’s debut solo album As You Were through Warner Music Australia.
The elder Gallagher and the Birds might return to Australia as part of a world tour in 2018.
JET’S CESTER LAUNCHES MUSHROOM’S BLOODLINES
Mushroom Group’s new Bloodlines imprint is launching with Jet singer Nic Cester’s debut solo album Sugar Rush on November 3.
The record comes after a few quiet years of Cester living in Berlin, Milan and Como following Jet’s global onslaught that earned 6 million album sales.
Sugar Rush was produced by Jim Abbiss (Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Queens Of The Stone Age) and recorded in Milan’s Officine Mecchaniche studios and George Martin’s Air Studios in London with members of cinematic rock band Calibro 35.
Cester says of new single Psichebello, “Like most of the songs on the album I was enjoying flirting with different genres and then spinning them into something else.
“Psichebello is the most psychedelic track on the album and the moment that highlights the abilities of the amazing Italian musicians who I had the pleasure to record with.”
Cester returns to Sydney and Melbourne in late Oct/early Nov for two launch shows, bringing his all-Italian live touring band – The Milano Elettrica – along with him.
TWO TO RUN PORCHLAND
This year’s Porchland festival in South Australia will be run by the new partnership of Sharni Honor, creator of The Porch Sessions and Sian Walden, Director of artist services business Little Acorn Music.
The two have worked closely in the past on The Porch Sessions, where gigs are held in backyards with organisers also providing the bar, food and fairy lights.
They explain, “It’s not often you come across a specimen that is equally as passionate about music, South Australia, nice spaces and bunting, lots of bunting.
“Everything about this partnership just makes sense, we couldn’t be more excited to wing-woman this beast of a project, and generally just be around each other all the time.
“That’s what this is really about.”
Porchland, the music festival of the same format, kicks off on December 2 at The Range Hall, just ten minutes out of sunny McLaren Vale.
Tickets are on sale via Moshtix but the acts are yet to be unveiled.
NEXT PRODIGY ALBUM THROUGH BMG AUSTRALIA
British electro dance music pioneers The Prodigy, who were in Australia as headliners of the Future Music festival in 2015 and 2013, will have their first album in three years issued here in early 2018 by BMG Australia.
The band signed a global deal with the Bertelsmann-owned BMG in a partnership with its own Take Me To The Hospital label.
The band’s Liam Howlett signed a publishing deal with BMG four years ago.
BMG UK EVP Music Korda Marshall said, “The Prodigy are one of those bands who define an entire sound and can justifiably claim to be among the architects of contemporary music.”
The release of the album will see a hive of activity in 2018 “and beyond”, BMG said, which presumably means another visit to Australia as part of a world tour.
The trio’s last album The Day Is My Enemy reached #8 on the ARIA chart in 2015, topped the UK charts and went Top 10 through Europe.
2009’s Invaders Must Die, which sold more than a million copies worldwide, reached #3 in Australia.
SUNCORP STADIUM RENEWS TICKETEK DEAL
Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium has renewed its l30-year partnership with music and sports ticketing services Ticketek.
The latest multi-year renewal commences in 2018 and includes a major investment in new technology to enhance the fan event-day experience, the provision of market-leading digital marketing and communications platforms and new fan-friendly digital innovations, including 3D digital seating maps.
TEG CEO Geoff Jones said, “When it comes to the glorious history, the iconic stature of the building and the electrifying atmospherics generated in this cauldron, Suncorp Stadium is on a level all of its own.”
The stadium’s GM Alan Graham said it was important for the venue to have a ticketing service that keep pace with the advances in technology and ticketing services.
“Ticketek, as Australasia’s leading ticketing company, are at the forefront of technological developments and customer service,” said Graham.
“We are delighted to have them back on board and look forward to continuing to work with them to offer world-class ticketing services to our venue hirers and patrons.”
CONCORD BUYS SAVOY, GETS JAZZ LEGENDS
Concord Music continues its buying spree with the acquisition of Savoy Label Group, Billboard reported. Savoy, founded in 1942, has 3000 master recordings of some of jazz’s biggest legends.
These include pioneers such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and Dexter Gordon, and recent works by Etta Jones, Bill Frisell, Larry Coryell, Andy Bey and Milton Nascimento.
The Savoy deal also brings with it the adult rock and alternative label 429 Records, which includes titles from Meat Loaf, Los Lobos, Robbie Robertson, Macy Gray, Dr. John, Bruce Hornsby and Boz Scaggs.
In June, Concord bought Imagem Music Group for $500 million.
According to Billboard, Concord is the world’s fifth largest integrated music company. Its recorded music portfolio, prior to this deal, includes more than 10,000 album recordings, while its publishing arm oversees more than 380,000 copyrights.
MIRRORBALL GOES GLOBAL WITH UMPG
Hollywood-based Mirrorball Entertainment, a music publisher, production team and recording company founded by industry veterans Tony Maserati and Stefan Skarbek, has partnered with Universal Music Publishing Group to expand globally.
It works as an incubator for emerging writers and producers. Currently two of its writers have songs on the Harry Styles best selling album.
SLEEPMAKESWAVES’ NEW TEE FOR LGBTQI+ COUNSELLING
Declaring “Love (is love is love is love”, Sydney band Sleepmakeswaves are next month releasing a new $25 T-shirt on their Bandcamp page with proceeds going to LGBTQI+ counselling service Twenty10, which they describe as “on the front lines of a cruel and unnecessary plebiscite on marriage equality in Australia.”
They added, “The rights and wellbeing of the LGBTQI+ [community] are an issue that we feel strongly about now and into the future.”
PERTH STADIUM HERE FOR THE BEER
Six months out from its March opening, the 65,000-capacity Perth Stadium has signed with WA brewer Gage Roads as exclusive supplier of its beer and cider.
The contract for audio and visual production is to be announced soon, although some of the local bidders are annoyed that a South Australian firm is in the running.
VISION LAUNCHES 700th STATION
Vision Christian Radio has hit its 700th radio station with its latest opening, the remote Lake Nash in the Northern Territory. It is its first station in the NT in almost seven years.
The nearby township of Alpurrurulam, accessible only by helicopter in the wet season, has a population of 420, of which 90% belong to the Indigenous Alyawarre people.
Vision began 18 years ago in the Queensland country town of Beaudesert and expanded nationally since then.
HIT WRITER FRASER T. SMITH AT KOBALT
British songwriter and producer Fraser T. Smith has come to attention creating hits for others.
These have been on chart topping albums as Adele’s 21 (co-writing ’Set Fire To The Rain’), Stormzy’s debut Gang Signs & Prayer and Taio Cruz’s Break Your Heart. He’s also written for Craig David, Ellie Goulding, Sam Smith and Rita Ora.
Now he’s struck an administration deal with Kobalt for his own compositions and rights represented by his three year old London-based boutique publishing company 70HZ. It was previously at Sony/ATV.
GLOBAL COMPANY FOR OILS’ BIG PINEAPPLE SHOW
Given the thousands expected for the sold-out October 14 Midnight Oil, Jebediah and The Living End show at Big Pineapple Fields, UK-based global events management company Foamhand will be handling the traffic issues.
The company, which has a Brisbane office, already does transport projects for the Dept. of Qld for Transport and Main Roads and the City of Gold Coast.
For the Oils show, Foamhand has set up a strategy where most of the punters will be transported in and out in 30 buses.
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