Tina Arena back in the fast lane, venue woes, and the search for SA’s best song
Gold and Platinum certifications
Tina Arena’s back in the fast lane, with her album Reset going Gold three weeks after entering the ARIA chart at #4. One track, Only Lonely, was used as promo for Channel 7’s Home & Away.
X-Factor runner-up Taylor Henderson’s #1 ARIA debut Borrow My Heart went Gold first week.
Katy Perry’s Roar notched up its sixth Platinum award, while Prism hits Platinum.
Sony’s local pop artists are killing it: reality show contestant Nathaniel’s You picked up its first Platinum, Justice Crew’s Everybody is Gold, and Jessica Mauboy’s Pop A Bottle is now Platinum, while her Beautiful album is Gold.
Boy & Bear’s Harlequin Dream and Queens of the Stone Age’s Like Clockwork have both sold Gold.
Warner’s sneaker auction raises over $36k
Warner Music Australia’s charity initiative In Their Shoes raised $36,144.37. The initiative involved getting its acts to custom design 80 pairs of sneakers. Those by Ed Sheeran, Paramore, Skrillex, The Black Keys, You Am I, Tegan and Sara, and Birdy went for $1,000 each. For an exhibition of the sneakers, click here.
Venue woes #1
Melbourne’s live music venue Gasometer closed down abruptly after non-payment of a reported $30,000 to its supplier, South Australian brewery McLaren Vale Beer Company.
Venue woes #2
The operating company of Newcastle venue The Brewery is being wound up, with a receiver and liquidator assessing the financials and seeking expressions of interest from other venue owners.
Venue woes #3
Thieves broke into Canberra’s Barcode and made off with their audio equipment. Investigating police say they would have needed a huge truck for their haul.
The search for South Australia’s best song
What’s the best South Australian song of all time? Adelaide’s Sunday Mail, Triple M and advertiser.com.au compiled 100 finalists and are asking the public to choose the Top 50. Some of the songs were those about the place, like Ben Folds’ Adelaide and Goyder’s Ghost’s Stirling North And The Serious Lack Of Rainfall. But the bulk are from acts that came from there. Among those nominated were Cold Chisel’s Khe Sanh, Paul Kelly’s Before Too Long, Redgum’s I Was Only 19, The Angels’ Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again (inspired by a car accident in SA), I Love It by Hilltop Hoods and Sia, Guy Sebastian’s Battle Scars and others by Mad Turks From Istanbul, Groove Terminator, The Superjesus, Exploding White Mice, Doug Ashdown and Eric Bogle.
Singer songwriter named NT Australian of the Year
Award winning Indigenous singer-songwriter Shellie Morris was named the Northern Territory Australian of the Year. The 48 year old, also a member of The Black Arm Band, delivers music workshops in remote communities and is an ambassador for the Fred Hollows Foundation. Her most recent album, Together We Are Strong, was the first by an Indigenous contemporary female to be sung entirely in the Indigenous languages of the Gulf Country.
Busy times for MusicACT
The ACT’s music association MusicACT has been busy. After co-producing the I Manage My Music workshop earlier this week, its team is gearing up for the Smells Like Centenary Spirit Youth Battle of the Bands this Friday at the Royal Theatre. The second MusicACT Annual Music Awards (MAMAs) is on November 23 at Albert Hall, with Aston Shuffle, SAFIA, Dylan Hekimian, Xavier Dunn, Fun Machine and Elisha Bones among the multi-nominees. The trophies are made by well known Canberra glass artist Luna Ryan, who uses recycled TV screens to create her glass art pieces.
SWIPE
Which manager, recovering from a collision, faced the further effrontery of having his landline, mobile and email connections switched off by accident?
Which publicist begged a journo who contacted her to double-check a fact in a media release not to reveal she was at the gym when he called?
Which reality star is causing waves at his/her new PR company whining that others on the roster seem to be getting more media attention. Ring us here at Swipe and we’ll tell you why, babes!
Is a battle brewing? Who owns the trademark The Kyle & Jackie O Show? Can Kyle Sandiland and Jackie Henderson use it when they land their next gig? Kyle Sandiland’s manager reckons his boy does, a database search shows Southern Cross Austereo has it trademarked until 2016 (Encore).
What happened to the $5,500 raised at a fundraiser for a country music singer who is dying of cancer? The person in charge says money has been deposited in the right account but blames bank account fraud. Tamworth police are investigating (Northern Daily Leader).
Are documents lodged with the Queensland Government pushing to stop further openings of nightclubs, strip clubs and brothels in Southport? The idea is to prevent it from sliding into a sleazy reputation by introducing boutique bars.
With just two hours of sleep, Australia’s Got Talent winners Uncle Jed were up the night after their feat to hit the promo tour. All three are giving up their day jobs to concentrate on their music. One of the three, Laura Stitt, worked with groove merchants DIG, and more recently was backup singer for Jessica Mauboy.
When Lorde’s Royals hit #1 in America on October 3, she had no idea it’d still be there six weeks later when she celebrated her 17th birthday. Last year she was in Auckland, and her friends came over to “eat cake and ruffle my hair and talk about Pokemon.” This time she was in New York, she was in bed reading with fellow NZ luminary Eleanor Catton, NY’s new mayor Bill de Blasio used her song as he came onstage in victory, she was having her photo taken with David Bowie and her hero Tilda Swinton after performing to a celeb crowd at a benefit, got 2.4 million on-demand U.S. streams, broke into the Latin pop charts, and Cher was twittering “So unique! Isn’t it great to discover a new young amazing artist. Soar little woman. This is your time.”
LIFELINES
Hospitalised: Queensland award winning Torres Strait Islander singer-songwriter Henry ‘Seaman’ Dan, 84, for a coronary ailment. His daughter Connie Mau, said he is recovering well and taking things “steady, steady” and keen to get back into the studio.
In Court: a warrant was issued for Canberra’s Fringe Festival Creative Director Jorian Gardner after he failed to turn up to ACT Magistrates Court to answer charges of driving unlicensed and drink driving. Apparently he was in Queensland and had asked his legal rep to adjourn proceedings.
In Court: Phong Quoc Ly, 33, who operates Quoc Phong DVD World in Melbourne’s Springvale, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court charged with five copyright infringement offences. Police raided his establishment, seizing 53 DVD burners and 15,000 suspected counterfeit DVDs. He is accused of selling $300,000 worth of pirated DVDs a year and had to surrender his passport.
In Court: Jonathan Glenn Mills, 44, was a pest on the dancefloor of Townsville’s Irish Finnigans nightclub, dancing wildly and bumping into others. When security threw him out, he refused to leave, then scuffled with them outside, with police called. He was fined $900 in Townsville Magistrates Court.
Vale: Des Foster, long time President of the Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters (FARB) and GM of Sydney’s 2GB, passed away this week, aged 88. Known for his quiet spoken manner and gentlemanly ways, he was a very tough negotiator and gained many concessions for the radio sector from successive Governments. He was awarded the Order of Australia in 1986 for services to the media and was inducted into the Commercial Radio Hall of Fame in 2002. He only recently handed over his lobbying duties as Director of the Independent Regional Radio Association to Roger Summerhill.
Died: US born New Zealand based jazz saxplayer and record producer Bob Gillett died at his home in 88. Emerging in the big band scene in the US, he arrived in NZ in the mid-’60s where his fusion bands Brew and The Breeze inspired a new generation of NZ and Australian jazz players.
NUMBER CRUNCHING
1.4 million viewers tuned in for the grand finale of Nine’s Australia’s Got Talent.
5% of MySpace staff laid off less than a year after its relaunch.
$250,000 raised by Bruce Springsteen when he took off the guitar he was playing at a fund-raising concert for wounded soldiers, and put it up for auction.
3454% increase in Twitter fans for Sydney band 5 Seconds Of Summer in the nine months they toured with One Direction. They did 110 shows throughout Europe, America and Australia, and each member has 1 million Twitter followers.
1400 came out over two outdoor concerts to see 70 members of the Darwin Symphony Orchestra play at Uluru rock in Alice Springs.
35,000 copies sold in its first week by Morrissey’s autobiography in the UK, putting it on top of the best sellers chart above the new Bridget Jones novel.
105th song to debut on top of the ARIA chart is X-Factor runner-up Taylor Henderson’s Borrow My Heart, and the 30th chart topper for a reality show contestant. It’s the first time ‘borrow’ has appeared in the title of a #1, but the 21st time for ‘heart’. It’s also the 21st #1 for Sony Music. (The Gavin Ryan Report).
$150 million worth of music exports by Sweden, which has a population of 9.5 million. That makes it the largest per capita output around the globe.
INSIDE TRACK
New U2 tracks for Mandela pic
U2 will release two new tracks that will be included in the upcoming Nelson Mandela biopic Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom. The songs Ordinary Love and Breath will be released on November 29 in conjunction with Record Store Day’s Black Friday. The spelling of Breath is causing some speculation whether it’s an outtake of Breathe from 2009’s No Line On The Horizon which was about the legend. U2 in the meantime are close to finishing off their next album.
PVT, Seekae, remix Sarah Blasko tracks
Never afraid to explore her art, Sarah Blasko got fellow Sydneysiders PVT and Seekae to remix I Awake and her new single Fool. These will be included on the Fool EP, released digitally this Friday on Dew Process/Universal Music Australia.
Dappled Cities turn 10
Dappled Cities celebrate their tenth anniversary with a collection of rarities and outtakes as a thank you to fans. Many Roads is out January 17 through HUB The Label days after they play Falls Fest. See the video for the title track here. 2014 will see new solo material from frontmen Tim Derricourt and Dave Rennick. The band was formed by Rennick in high school, as Dappled Cities Fly. Their US record company wanted them to change it, thinking that Americans wouldn’t get it. D’oh!
Why Gaga dropped Princess Di(e) song
Last year, Lady Gaga unveiled her song Princess Die at a show in London telling the audience “Since I was a very young girl, the People’s Princess was the most important person in me and my mother’s life. I predict controversy but I don’t care.” Later on the singer posted that the song was dropped because she had better songs. Now Gaga admits that the song was dropped from Artpop because her record companies Streamline and Interscope were worried about a consumer backlash. Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.