Industrial Strength: November 6, 2013

Eleven acts get international tour funding

Eleven acts received funding for overseas touring through the Australia Council for the Arts’ International Pathways scheme. It is a joint initiative of its market development and music divisions. These grants went to:

Ball Park Music ($20,000) for their first tour of the UK, Europe and USA;

The Preatures ($20,000) for a run through the US and UK;

Northlane ($19,560) for a tour of Europe and the UK on the Never Say Die Tour;

The Falls ($17,461) for a tour of the USA to promote the release of a new EP;

Catherine Hope ($16,190) for a tour of Europe by Perth new music ensemble Decibel visiting Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic and establish new contacts for recording and festival appearances there;

Dead Letter Circus ($15,000) for a tour of the UK, Europe and USA launching their recent album;

The Smith Street Band ($13,240) for a North American run with Frank Turner;

Mark Wilkinson ($12,500) for a tour of North America with promotional activities to support an album release by the Sydney singer songwriter;

Jordie Lane ($7,165) a tour of Canada to promote a single;

Vance Joy ($3,800) for gigs in Europe and the UK behind the release of an EP;

Eamon Sprod ($3,083) to present site specific sound performances in Chile and Argentina under the stage name TARAB.

Certifications

Katy Perry’s #1 album Prism went Platinum on release. Certified Gold were X-Factor 2013 winner Dami Im’s Alive, Taylor Henderson’s Girls, and Pitbull and Ke$ha’s Timber.

Fowler’s Live Awards’ winner’s circle

The second Fowler’s Live Music Awards drew 400 to Adelaide’s Fowler’s Live to cheer on 20 winners and listen to DJs playing SA music, as well as live sets from 2012 award winner Carla Lippis and rising star Tkay Maidza. Event Organiser Peter Darwin said “I am humbled by the many very strong votes of thanks and support for these awards, and I very much hope the positive views of so many can be translated into progress and movement in the industry over the next year.”

Industry voted winners: Ricky Kradolfer of City Riots (best music manager), Truth Corroded (metal artist), A Band On Boat (music industry initiative of an intimate music series travelling aboard Adelaide’s The Popeye), Pilot Records  (music organisation), Messrs’s “Desert’ (music video), The Bearded Gypsy Band (roots), The Beards (pop), Mark Of Cain (punk), Tracer (rock), Airbenders (jazz), Amber Joy Poulton (country), Heather Frahn (folk), Don Morrison (blues), Kaurna Cronin (acoustic), Oisima (electronic), Jimblah (hip hop), Bad//Dreems (indie) and Tam & Anne Boakes Jive (achievement).

Public voted winners: Echo & The Empress’s One More Tear (favourite SA produced and recorded artist release), Ice On Mercury (favourite SA band / artist), The Gov (favourite SA live music venue), WOMADdelaide (favourite live music event) and Rip It Up (favourite SA music media source).

Launching Pad #1: StageCo arrives in Australia

Sydney-based staging and rigging company, Tri-Point Rigging Services are launching the StageCo brand in the Australian festival and events market. “Now we can provide our clients with anything from a 6m to a 25m clear span roof, and everything in between,” said Tri-Point’s Staging Manager Victoria Garside. “StageCo are, without a doubt, the best staging company in the Northern Hemisphere and we are absolutely thrilled to be bringing the brand to Australia.”

Launching Pad #2: Unified unveils online shop

UNFD have launched a new store called 24 Hundred, with a focus on artist merchandise, music and lifestyle clothing brands. At launch-time there were 200 bands and brands, and 2000 items for sale. The site, which replaces the former UNFD store, promises 24-72 hour ship times for all domestic orders.

Launching Pad #3: Pound Records appears

Martin Martini of Melbourne’s Martin Martini & The Bone Palace Orchestra has launched vinyl label Pound Records. It came out of collaborations between musicians who hung out together at a derelict estate called The Pound. First release is Martini’s musical interpretation of what Vienna would have been like in 1913.

New look, logo, home for Ten Days On The Island

Hobart’s Ten Days On The Island arts and music festival is about to unveil some sweeping changes. These include a new logo, a new name (Ten Days), a new look, and a new home (71 Murray St).

Blues On Broadbeach up for award

The Blues On Broadbeach festival is a finalist in the Best Regional Event category at the Australian Event Awards, announced in Sydney on November 19.

Michael Hutchence clarification

While INXS signed a global publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing, Warner/Chappell continues worldwide representation of Michael Hutchence’s share of the works from the albums Listen Like Thieves, Kick, X, Welcome to Wherever You Are and Full Moon Dirty Hearts, including the hits Bitter Tears, Disappear, Devil Inside, Listen Like Thieves, Mystify, Need You Tonight, Never Tear Us Apart, New Sensation, Suicide Blonde and What You Need.

SWIPE

Which rising band’s lawyer is involved in a subtle power struggle with its manager?

Which veteran rock performer who swore Australian audiences were the roughest has changed his mind after a show at an European festival before 100,000 at which one person was stabbed and another suffered a heart attack?

Which musician is talking about taking up acting lessons as part of his “retirement” plan after the hits dry up? He’s only aged in his mid-20s!

Police swooped on a sham wedding when a Hull registrar got suspicious when the couple chose The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face as the bridal piece.

Which writer for a pro audio magazine who went to a One Direction gig in Australia to interview their chief sound technician had a clash with security guys on account of her sex?

Soundwave’s AJ Maddah tweeted that among the 20 acts to be unveiled in the festival’s second artist announcement will be Devil You Know and Zebrahead as well as its third headliner.

During Katy Perry’s yakathon on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, she got a surprise call from comedian Chris Lilley’s teenage mean girl creation Ja’mie King of ABC-TV’s Private School. Perry bleated, “”I love you so much Ja’mie, do you think I’m quiche?” (using the slang King uses in her show for someone hotter than hot).

Cut Copy ran into legal issues while recording their new Free Your Mind album. They revealed to triple j that the title of the track Let Me Show You Love had to be changed because the chords for its chorus was the same as K-Class’s rave song Let Me Show You.

The University of Auckland Law Revue, whose parody of Blurred Lines earned them 3 million views and a brief ban by YouTube, have now done a parody of Royals, retitled Lawyers. It goes  “We want that dream career / But right now we’re like, student loans, shit pay, handouts from the government / Part-time jobs, live at home, on the phone to Study Link / Because we’re gonna be lawyers, lawyers … “

The upstairs Defector Bar at The Flying Scotsman in Mt Lawley remains closed for now after an incident there. About 120 people had gathered to hear speeches at the launch of the Beaufort Street Festival when the floor collapsed.

Split Enz did a one-off reunion at a church in Auckland with some The X Factor NZ contestants and a 15-piece dance band. They did some Enz numbers including their first album Mental Notes. The idea came about when Enz keyboardist Eddie Rayner became impressed with them on the TV show.

LIFELINES

Expecting:  Radio presenter Hamish Blake and writer Zoe Foster, their first child.

Recovering: during Fiona Lee Maynard & Her Holy Men dates in regional Victoria, Maynard’s “diagnosed” bent tailbone became aggravated. By the time she returned to Melbourne, she could hardly walk. A MRI scan revealed her coccyx was actually broken. She soldiered on through a show in Melbourne and will now allow herself three weeks to heal before her next gig on Nov 23.

Ill: Chris Sheehan, one time guitarist of New Zealand’s The Dance Exponents, is gravely ill, going into Stage 4 metastatic nodular melanoma. His wife also is terminally ill, he reported. The Exponents and Blam Blam Blam played a fundraiser on the weekend in Auckland.

Jailed: NSW woman Angela Leanne Williams, already in jail for fraud, was given a further three month sentence for selling bogus tickets to six Pink fans to a Sydney show. The six placed their barcoded tickets under the scanners at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and were told their tickets had already been scanned that evening, and were subsequently denied entry to the show. Williams must repay the six women.