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News October 27, 2015

Industrial Strength: October 23, 2013

ABC to launch Exhumed on November 14

ABC1’s new five part TV series Exhumed premieres on Thursday November 14 at 8pm. It looks at bands who never got anywhere but continue playing for the pleasure. Host James Valentine is joined by with celeb judges Julia Zemiro, Tim Rogers and Clare Bowditch. The show’s live Grand Final is on December 12 at the Rooty Hill RSL in Sydney. There were over 1400 entries.

Sale Certifications

Katy Perry’s Roar is now 5 x platinum … Miley Cyrus’ We Can’t Stop, which is slipping out of the Top 50 is 3 x platinum, while Wrecking Ball has hit 2 x platinum. So have Redfoo’s Let’s Get Ridiculous and Zedd and Foxes’ ClarityDrake’s Hold On We’re Going Home has gone Platinum … Capital Cities’ Safe & Sound is Gold, as are Ministry of Sound’s Will Sparks & Joel Fletcher’s Bring It Back and Martin Garrix’s Animals.

Festivals #1: Future Music expands Malaysian show

Future Music has expanded its 2014 Malaysian festival to three days, with Director Brett Robinson expecting 75,000 to attend, making it the region’s largest festival. Supported by Malaysia’s tourism authority, it is held March 13 to 15 at Kuala Lumpur’s Mines Wonderland theme park with deadmau5, Armin Van Buuren, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Rudimental and Wu-Tang Clan.

Festivals #2: Tasmania experiments with headphones

This weekend sees The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) hosting a 24-hour experimental global radio concert listened to through headphones. Klapperstein sees artists from France, Germany, Switzerland and Tasmania’s Mona Electroacoustic Ensemble streamed live.

Festivals #3: Country Fun to become annual

The inaugural Country Fun in Ipswich, Queensland, will become an annual event after it drew 1,000 punters. It was originally planned by the Rotary Club of Booval to raise money for the flood-hit community as an alternative to selling horse manure, co-organiser Russell Bentley said. “We hope it’ll one day grow to the size of the Gympie Muster,” he added.

Festivals #4: Breath Of Life continues without funding

Despite a well-intentioned push by a councilor, Launceston Council has again refused to give the Breath of Life festival $20,000 funding. Co-promoter Clint Pease has given “oh well” shrug and gone on to announce that playing Inveresk Showgrounds on March 8 are Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Public Enemy, Empire Of The Sun, Parkway Drive, Art vs Science and Drapht.

Hard Rock Café to go nation-wide

The Hard Rock Café chain has two outlets in Australia, in Darling Harbour in Sydney and in Surfers Paradise. A HRC franchisee Jeffrey Beaumont (also director of private equity group Tandem Capital) told the Australian Financial Review plans are to expand it. A second Sydney outlet is mooted for Bondi, with negotiations begun for Melbourne, Perth and Darwin.

Live Performance seeking feedback on safety

Last September, peak association Live Performance Australia set up a working party to update the Safety Guidelines for the Entertainment Industry 2001. It covers everything from hazards of electricity and chemicals to crowd management to outdoor event to special events. The first phase of the review is completed, and LPA wants feedback from the industry. See its website.

Honoured #1: Ian “Molly” Meldrum

Ian “Molly” Meldrum will be hailed at the 2014 NSW TrainLink Parkes Elvis Festival. Dedicated to all things Presley, The Moll joins the Elvis Wall of Fame for his contribution to music. He won’t be able to attend as he’s still in recovery mode form the tumble which almost saw him leave the building. A “special international VIP personality” will accept the honour in his place.

Honoured #2: double whammy for Tim Minchin

In one week, performer and composer Tim Minchin was gonged twice in hometown Perth. The University of Western Australia awarded him an honorary doctor of letters degree for his contribution to the arts. The next day, his old school, Christ Church Grammar, recognised him as a school legend. “I feel too young to be a legend, legends fight dragons,” he quipped, before giving students a preview of a song from a musical he’s working on.

SWIPE

Which email tirade from a band manager to a journo – lots of accusations about “conspiracy against my boys” – ended with a journo sending Mr. Ten Per Cent a get-well card.

Sources told technology blog AllThingsD that six months after Twitter launched the Australian-made #Music app – after it bought Brisbane music start-up We Are Hunted – it is planning to abandon it as an “abysmal” failure.

AllThingsD’s sources suggested that the app was never fully integrated to the rest of the business and that former Twitter business development leader Kevin Thau’s departure left the strategy “half-baked”. In the meantime, Twitter is moving ahead with plans to launch its Amplify platform in Australia. It’s pow-wowing with major media players to partner with and share in the ad revenue. Apparently, Southern Cross Austereo and Ten Network have put their X’s on the deal.

While SFX Entertainment’s $75 million acquisition of Australian dance promoter Totem Onelove Group is going through after its US$260 million IPO, tentative talks with another Australian festival by another US company have cooled down.

Robbie Williams for the ARIAs? asks the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

With the Ian “Molly” Meldrum tele-series expected in 2014, will we see his long awaited memoirs finally see daylight?

“Bored journos!” Big Day Out CEO Adam Zammit snarled at media speculation that the festival is (a) about to blow $10 million on the 2014 tour; (b) to be rebranded as Lollapalooza Australia after being bought out by US partner C3; (c) to axe the NZ leg.

Will The Voice judge Delta Goodrem also play a similar role in next year’s The Voice Kids, which was licensed from its European parent in August?

Former footie chappie-turned-Nova Adelaide presenter Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald got a text from his Grade 7 teacher “Congratulations, you’ve come a long way.” after news broke of his new million deal with dmg Radio. Fitzy wrote back, “You always said a sense of humour can get you a long way.”

Which Queensland radio announcer is expanding into swimwear design?

Lake Macquarie FM lost its aerial and transmitter in the NSW Central Coast bushfires after the big prawn service station they were on top of burnt down.

Perth millionaire couple Zhenya and Lydia Tsvetnenko (he runs record label Zhenya Records as a vanity project) called cops when their white Hummer got nicked two months ago. Cops duly found it abandoned, and tested it for fingerprints. Alas, one of these belonged to a friend of theirs (who had nothing to do with the theft) but who, double alas, had a warrant for driving unlicensed. He got nicked and jailed for six months. (Sunday Times).

Another independent music instruments store closes this weekend, due to online competition. This time it’s Word of Mouth Music which has serviced musicians in Ipswich, Queensland, for 27 years. Owner and guitarist Rob Haysom will continue his guitar repairs business as Guitar Mechanix.

LIFELINES

Born: son, Felix Hugo Hawkins to B105 Brisbane’s breakfast host Labby and wife Lou. He is their first child.

Ill: Lorde suffered food poisoning in Brisbane but went ahead with her show. “I literally hurled walking offstage,” she posted.

Remarried: as Mix106.5’s Yumi Stynes’ wedding to Martin Bendeler last year was such a secret, her co-host Sami Lukis celebrated their first anniversary by giving them a surprise encore wedding, or vow renewal, with their daughters present.

Jailed: Darwin DJ James Hau for 18 months, for advising a former senior sailor to steal 14 high-powered weapons from navy patrol boat HMAS Bathurst for the Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Club last November. Hau claimed he had no knowledge of any plans between the sailor and the Rebels.

In Court: the lawsuit between Townsville music venue Newmarket Hotel’s lessee Grant Ryan Morgan, 31, and the building’s owner Toula Cassimatis, has been delayed. The case (see last week’s column) was to have been heard this week. But the finding of asbestos in the Townsville Court House has seen the case moved to Mackay and set for November 12 and 13.

Vale: former Sydney radio and TV presenter (ABC, 2CH) Bob Moore died after a battle with lung cancer. Beginning as a sports commentator in the 1950s, he later worked on music programs with rocker Johnny O’Keefe who gave him his nickname ‘Rocket’. Moore was married to the late Margaret Delves, a producer at the ABC, and had five children.

Vale: Australian lighting designer and operator Scotty “Dot” Duhig has passed away. Most recently working at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Duhig toured abroad with acts as The Prodigy, Stereophonics, Leonard Cohen and Fleetwood Mac and events as the Brit awards. He landed his first job in at Theatre Royal in Hobart. 

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