Recovery-style live music show coming to Australian TV: Exclusive

After a gigantic Frenzal Rhomb-sized hole was left in the music industry when Recovery left our screens, a growing push from Aussie music fans was sparked to bring the iconic show back to TV. But while campaigning from bands like Bad//Dreems and even TIO itself is yet to result in a concrete return, there is hope.

As TIO can exclusively announce, new TV show The Songroom will debut on on Channel 31 on Sunday, August 26.

Set to provide a much needed home for live music on Australian television when it airs, The Songroom has been slated as “a fresh mix of Rockwiz and Recovery“.

The show on Melbourne’s own community television station is the brainchild of producer Kris Schroeder and Tim Heath (The Basics, and long-time Gotye collaborator).

“Not everyone is entirely comfortable at first, but we’ve had a lot of surprisingly incredible collaborations and while we’re constantly told by industry pundits that ‘audiences aren’t interested’, we’ve found this is something that hasn’t really be done and people are really vibing it,” said Schroeder.

It will see Jess McGuire (Double J, ABC Melbourne) welcome some of Australia’s most talented musicians to the stage to talk, perform and collaborate in what is the most genuine attempt at live music on Australian television in recent history.

“We just want to bring people together from opposite ends of the career spectrum, people that probably wouldn’t otherwise cross paths,” said McGuire. “We’ve had some really unique meeting-of-minds, when you cross someone like Tash Meimarakis, who at the time had done less than ten gigs, with an experienced writer and performer like Felix Riebl, whose done a billion shows with The Cat Empire, something really special is there.”

The lineup set to appear on The Songroom includes:

Kim Salmon
Gretta Ray
Caiti Baker
Felix Riebl
Gotye
Sanjeev Veloo
William Crighton
Angie Hart
Harry Howard
Ainslie Wills
Phia
Talei Wolfgramm
Matt Walker
Felicity Cripps
Lisa Miller
Skyscraper Stan
Al Parkinson
Leah Senior
Emilee South
Mark Gable
Tash Meimarakis
Monty Cotton
Luke Yeoward
Ben Salter
Rebecca Barnard
Hayden Calnin

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.