INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH
MUSIC INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
With Christie Eliezer * Stuff for this column to be emailed to <celiezer@netspace.net.au> by Friday 5pm
SEXUAL HARASSMENT TASKFORCE PUTS SPOTLGHT ON LISTEN GROUP
The news that the Victorian Government has set up a taskforce to tackle sexual harassment and violence at gigs (as reported on beat.com.au), has put the focus on the music industry women’s group Listen (www. listenlistenlisten.org) which has 1650 contributors. Both Listen and SLAM were responsible for getting the taskforce up. They will help the taskforce, convened by Minister for Justice Jane Garrett, come up with a Best Practice Guidelines review, including issues such as what constitutes sexual assault and violence (some readers would state there’s no advice), education, whom people should report it to, security training and more female security team members. Research done by Listen contributor of Dr Bianca Fileborn of La Trobe University found that 96.6% surveyed agreed unwanted sexual attention happened in licensed venues and 80.2% considered it common. SLAM co-founder Helen Marcou, also a member of Listen, told this column that most women saw being hassled as part of going out, and seldom reported it. It affects punters, performers and club staff. In time, the Best Practice Guidelines will extend to festivals and to the LGBT community, which is equally as vulnerable.
FACE THE MUSIC BACK FOR EIGHTH YEAR
Contemporary music summit Face The Music returns for its eighth year on Friday November 13 and Saturday November 14, at Arts Centre Melbourne. Aimed primarily at a grassroots audience, it drew a record 850 last year, with an awesome program which included a thought-provoking keynote from Steve Albini and a panel of political parties outlining their music policies. The first program announcement and general tickets are on sale on Wednesday August 26.
FIRST CONTEMPORARY MUSIC ROUNDTABLE
About 40 music industry heavyweights representing over 20 associations from across the entire spectrum will discuss industry issues at the first Contemporary Music Roundtable. It is on Thursday August 6 at Erskineville Town Hall, hosted by Music: Count Us In with a keynote by APRA CEO Brett Cottle.
Among the groups are ARIA, AIR, Live Performance Australia, Association of Artist Managers, Australian Music Association and Australian Music Industry Network. The conference has five core strategies: increase public respect for Australian music, ensure a vibrant national live music scene, strengthen Australia’s terms of cultural trade in music, improve remuneration and employment for creators and performers, and optimise a skilled music workforce.
FRONTIER #1 AUSSIE, INDIE, PROMOTER IN WORLD
Frontier Touring was the most successful Australian ± and indie ± promoter in the world between November 2014 and June 2015. Billboard magazine’s mid-year touring report put it at #3 in the world, after massive promoters Live Nation and AEG Live. In this time, Frontier toured Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran, Eagles, Drake, Kylie, Rod Stewart, Chet Faker, Billy Idol and alt-j. Australia’s Dainty Group was at #7 with a gross of $45.5 million, and Nine Lives (One Direction, Ricky Martin) at #10 with $26 million. Frontier head Michael Gudinski said being an independent promoter was tough but, “We’ve never been so busy and our team has never worked as hard.”
REVIEW: GUDINSKI BOOK
* Mark Ronson was furious a Perth club advertised he was playing there on Saturday night, when he was at Splendour, and took to twitter to say it “was BS”. * Allday posted on Twitter: “Was gonna go to Splendour today but I stayed up all night dancing to ‘90s boy bands and now I’m too tired.” * Eminem’s people are denying reports that he’s fronting a reunited NWA for shows to promote their new biopic
* A Sydney Earl Sweatshirt fan who jumped up on stage to give him a hug got a couple of punches from the startled hip hopper instead, while Garrett from Trash Talk gave him a boot up the arse as he was thrown off.
* 2500 people have made submissions to the senate inquiry into Arts Minister George Brandis’ arts funding cuts.
* A Change.org petition was started to get 500 signatures to get John Farnham to play at Meredith Music Festival. By this week, they were halfway there. * 3 Doors Down stopped a Colorado show mid-song when they saw a guy push a woman aside to get to the front. After giving him a pasting (“You dick, you don’t hit a woman”) they got security to throw him out. * A number of Ballarat acts played a fundraiser for the Ballarat Rural Australians for Refugees, which does important work for people starting their new lives here.
Hiring a publicist is about choosing someone to represent you within the media to get your project or brand seen and heard. If you’re an indie band looking to get the right people talking about you, you can employ a publicist. If you’ve signed a label deal, they’ll have an in-house publicity team to work your releases. Alternatively, if you’re unsigned, short on coin and living in Victoria, Bank of Melbourne’s ‘Melbourne Music Bank’ might be exactly what you’re after.
BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 58
Engaged: musician actor Jaime Robbie Reyne and model Louise van der Vorst, who once dated Daniel Johns. Born: Pseudo Echo’s Brian Canham is now a grandfather, with the arrival of Phoenix, Noise 11 reported. Split: American country music’s poster couple, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, after four years of marriage. Ill: Sinead O’Connor cancelled all her summer tour dates, “from exhaustion due to an existing not resolved medical situation.” Charged: Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav with driving under the influence (allegedly cocaine) after he was caught speeding in Las Vegas. Charged: former Australian Idol winner Kate DeAraugo with driving under influence of drugs (allegedly methamphetamines) and faces court this Friday. In Court: a Wollongong woman who broke into Questions nightclub and stole $16,000 worth of stuff including DJ gear, lost her appeal against a six month jail sentence. Died: Doug Rowe, co-founder, guitarist and main songwriter with ‘60s Sydney country rock band The Flying Circus who relocated to Canada. Rowe had a recording studio in Toronto before returning to Australia to join Grand Junction. Died: Josh Greenberg, 28, co-founder of the now defunct streaming service Grooveshark. His girlfriend found him dead in his bed. Died: Atlanta Rhythm Section songwriter and producer Perry ‘Buddy’ Buie, 74. Died: US songwriter Wayne Carson, 72. Among his hits were The Letter (Box Tops, Joe Cocker) and Always On My Mind (Willie Nelson). Died: Dave Black, guitarist for UK band Goldie, struck by a train in England. Died: influential German electronica pioneer Dieter Moebius, 71, with Krautrock bands Cluster and Harmonia. Died: Eric Wrixon, founding member of Van Morrison-fronted ‘60s band Them (he named them after a ‘50s sci-fi movie) and was in the first Thin Lizzy lineup. Died: After The Burial guitarist Justin Lowe, 32, after falling off a bridge a month after leaving the band suffering mental trauma. Died: Eddie Hardin, who replaced Stevie Winwood on keyboards in ‘60s British band Spencer Davis Group, of a heart attack, 66.
* Our fighting boys abroad: Tame Impala’s Currents entered the UK chart at #3 and at #1 in Australia (the latter which Kevin Parker found out minutes before going on at Splendour.) Vance Joy’s Riptide video is up for a gong at the MTV Awards. 5 Seconds of Summer took Best Fandom in the second Alternative Press Music Awards in the USA.
THINGS WE HEAR
By Music Publicity Specialists On The Map PR
1. General media exposure: Whether it’s getting your music embedded on a music blog or a news piece, review or interview in a street press magazine, newspaper, on the radio or on the TV, publicity is about chasing exposure within the media. A publicist can pitch for a story or news piece and use their relationships with media to pursue free editorial exposure. Publicity is more of a gamble, but if you
* Why did Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah threaten to set Action Bronson’s beard on fire?
* Florence + The Machine did an acoustic “secret” gig at Mrs Macquarie’s Point, overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge before 500 people. Getting the treatment were new songs What Kind Of Man and Queen Of Peace, before she went on to perform Shake It Out, Dog Days Are Over a cover of Calvin Harris’ Sweet Nothing before wrapping up with Mother. Unfortunately, a passing bus interrupted one of the songs with its horn. We spotted tattoo artists from Manly Tattoo painting the proceedings.
* Which male UK journo was spotted wandering around the Splendour In The Grass site in eye-raising silver wellies two inches too small, due to a mix-up on sizes between Aussie and UK boots, and between male
LIFELINES
* Which festival promoter refused to employ a publicist because she had another festival as a client?
In the spotlight for 50 years, Michael Gudinski turned down lucrative offers to publish his biography. Stuart Coupe gave up asking and started writing one anyway, after which he got a call from the Mushroom Records founder grumpily saying he’d cooperate. Gudinski: The Godfather of Australian Rock’n’roll (Hachette), out this week, is well researched, with Coupe getting to many past associates who dished the dirt. It is compelling reading, with chapters covering negotiations (including the failed bid to sign Silverchair), the multi-million dollar loss of Mushroom UK, the dramas behind the Murdoch buy-out of Mushroom and the PR nightmare of the Stones’ tour cancellation retold in a brutally honest way
Three Tips For How Publicity Can Help Indie Artists
Submit your original song to www.bankofmelbourne. com.au/melbmusicbank before Sunday August 23 and you’ll be in the running to win a whole toolkit for success within the industry, including two days of recording at Sing Sing Studios, a film clip by Oh Yeah Wow, album artwork, printed CDs and the chance for the winning song to feature in a Bank of Melbourne TV ad. This year the prize also includes management and mentoring by Chris Robinson, publicity by us (On The Map PR), radio plugging by Varrasso PR and gig bookings by 123 Agency. For more insight, we’ve put together a few tips on how publicity might be able to benefit you:
and female boots.
take that risk your $500 spend might get $50,000 in editorial exposure across various media outlets. 2. Brand awareness: The hardest thing to do in the music industry is get yourself seen and heard ± to somehow stand up above all other bands out there. Publicity helps target the right outlets to ensure the right people are stumbling across your brand and music. Do they read the newspaper or websites? Do they watch free to air television or Netflix? Even the world’s biggest bands and artists have publicity teams around them ± a dedicated team liaising with the media on their behalf, setting up interviews and announcing releases. 3. Cut-through and sustainability: If you’re releasing a new single, album or national tour ± publicity is the way to create awareness of your release. Publicity is your vehicle to help tell people that you’ve got new music and shows, this awareness of your news will then allow for release and ticket sales to flow in, hence making a career in music more sustainable.
* The State Government put in $50,000 for Malthouse Theatre to stage 12 shows of its production The Shadow King at London’s Barbican Centre in June 2016 to 10,000 people. It is a reimagining of Shakespeare’s King Lear as a blood-soaked tale of two indigenous families in northern Australia. It is staged in the UK to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley was in London last week to discuss the production and find new opportunities for Melbourne arts. * A$AP Rocky as 007? “We need a black James Bond. I’d get the job done.” * At Foo Fighters’ New York show, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith took over drums from Taylor Hawkins for a cover of Faces’ classic hit Stay With Me. * The Black Eyed Peas’ new video for Yesterday features them browsing classic hip hop LPs in a record store, with each cover coming alive with the BEPs filling in for the original artists. It hasn’t impressed Erykah Badu: it’s used the same concept as her 2007 video for Honey, even using some of the same albums which inspired her too. * ‘80s Sydney ska band The Allniters (Montego Bay) have released a documentary of their careers, A Rude Awakening. Available from allnitersinfo@gmail.com or Red Eye Records (www.redeye.com.au).
ECCA VANDAL LANDS AUST, UK, DEALS
Rising urban riot grrrl Ecca Vandal landed two record deals, with Dew Process for Australia and NZ, and Island in the UK. Ecca, who played Splendour In The Grass on the weekend, breakthrough to community radio and social media with singles White Flag and
Battle Royal. She’s currently recording her debut album for 2016 release. John Mullen, head of A&R at Dew Process said, “Hearing White Flag for the first time was one of those stop-you-in-your-tracks moments, and before I knew it I was on a plane to Melbourne to see her rip it up live.”
JESS CARROLL LAUNCHES INMOCEAN
Music manager and publicist Jess Carroll has launched her new management and promotions company Inmocean (www.weareinmocean.com). It includes her current management roster including Rat & Co, Hoodlem, Second Hand Heart and Ocdantar. Carroll guided these acts to album releases and tours through Europe and North America and worked at Falls Festival Lorne for six years. She is contactable at jess@weareinmocean.com.
TRIPLE R PAINTS THE TOWN
‘Paint The Town Triple R’ is the station’s radiothon slogan, running Friday August 14 to 23. It is a chance to celebrate its volunteers and ambitious radio and artistic freedom. Subscriptions are full ($75), bands, artists and DJs ($75), passionate ($125), concession ($40) and business ($150). Full details at rrr.org.au.
WIN THE PRIZE THAT COULD LAUNCH YOUR MUSIC CAREER - Head to bankofmelbourne.com.au/melbmusicbank to win!