The Hook: What must the ARIA Awards do to get its mojo back?

26 July 2010

After last year's disappointing show, we ask three industry heavyweights what 'Australia's night of nights' needs to do to get its mojo back?

John O’Donnell
Founder, Odfellows Music
One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch, girl. Last year’s ARIA Awards weren’t terrible, just flat. The first mistake was moving the awards to the Nine Network. Nine, bless ‘em, just doesn’t have the right feel for the ARIAs. To get its mojo back, the ARIA Awards needs to return to its spiritual home at Network Ten (tick) and get the right hosts, preferably someone who has a feel for the music, someone who can contribute to the script and deliver it meaningfully. Importantly, the performances must be live. Hosting the awards in the ‘the round’ last year didn’t work and having the vocals as the only live element took the danger and the excitement out of the performances. Mark Pope, the Awards Committee and the ARIA Board have delivered brilliant awards events nine times out of ten. I’m backing them to deliver big time this year.

Jo Grogan
Founder, Echo Management
The ARIAs are and should be considered the most important night for Australian Music, for everyone to be together and be proud to celebrate our industry. I’d like to think that we haven’t lost our mojo, but as an industry everyone needs to embrace the importance of the night. We need to make the awards tighter. And awards shows should all be about creating new and unique moments for television. It’s all about those moments. We also need to embrace any international acts that are here in Australia to help celebrate the night and potentially let the world see how amazing Australian talent is.

Darren Middleton
Guitarist, Powderfinger
They need to dirty it up a bit. It needs to be a big rougher. The ARIAs always feel sterile, last year it felt particularly sterile. I liked the idea of groups playing the four corners, and shifting the stage about to move the viewers’ attention. The big problem I had last year was that most bands - if not all of them - played to a backing tape. There was no element of potential disaster, which is always appealing. It’s gotta be rock ‘n’ roll.