News:
· Puff 'n' Stuff
Everything that's happenin in Adelaide this fortnight.
· Industry
The latest from the music industry.
· Puffio
Theatre news.
· Dance
Dance and electronica news.
· Metal
Updates from the wide world of metal.
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Industry.
Nova 919 Launched In Adelaide "To Be Different"
DMG launched its fourth Nova station in Adelaide, following
Sydney, Melbourne and Perth where its arrival shook up the respective
radio scenes with its 2-ads in a row policy and a format that
took risks. DMG Oz founder Paul Thompson predicts that Nova
919 will be No. 1 in "significant demographics" by this time
next year - and also boost the fortunes of Nova's sister station
5AA. "I think Nova will shake and split the Adelaide radio market,"
he said.
Meantime, Aaron Coward, former breakfast producer at Mix 102.3, has jumped ship, to become brekky production man at Nova. Coward is also leaving Fresh FM where he has been an on air announcer for over 5 years.
Tour Rumours
In a series of product preview sessions,
Sony Music revealed it is expecting tours by Fatboy Slim, Jamiroquai
and LeAnn Rimes in the first quarter of 2005.
Pop Goes Mad!
Pop music's stars and its fans can be accused of insanity, after last week. Over 22 auction sites on ebay are selling chewing gum spat out by Britney Spears with prices as high as US$14,000. R&B singer Kelis told fans after a gig in Edinburgh they had to pay $25 for each autograph. Rumours went around Sydney that Blink 182 had yoga sessions before their profanity-filled shows and wanted "Chopper" Read in their next video. Moby wished his real life was as exciting after tabloids claimed he gave $400 to a lapdancer "just to talk" and bought cocaine from her. There is a Spanish language album of Ozzy Osbourne songs being recorded.
Radiofest Heads To Qld
Queensland hosts a number of events for the
commercial radio industry next month. Over 800 execs gather
at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on Sat October 16 for the
Australian Commercial Radio Awards and sit through 28 categories.
The day before is radio's National Conference, also at the Centre.
It will be opened by Qld Premier Peter Beattie and speakers
announced so far include promoter Glenn Wheatley, advertising
guru Simon Reynolds and an influential woman in US radio and
publisher of Radio and Records, Erica Farber. The New Music
to Radio Showcase (NM2R) at the Quest Nightclub, where 7-8 emerging
acts (to be announced soon) will perform for commercial radio
music directors and executives. Full list of award finalists
at www.commercialradio.com.au
Trenwith Gets Framed
Adelaide rock photographer Grantly Trenwith has been shooting rock acts for ages, some of these have become cover art for CDs by The Mark Of Cain, The Lizard Train and Kim Salmon & The Surrealists. Also a former photographer for dB Magazine, Trenwith's exhibition of 25 excellent photos - called 'Apparitions' can be found at Forest One, Artspace, 83 Hindley Street until October 4.
Survey: Euro's Websales To Explode
Selling songs over the Internet in Western
Europe has been trailing behind the US - but will explode this
year after the arrival there of Apple's iTunes, Sony's Connect
and Napster. It will be worth US$42.6 billion a year by 2009,
reckons Forrester Research. Half of the customers will be aged
between 16 to 24, and 60% of legal downloads in Europe by 2009
will be sold in Britain, France and Germany, while Spain and
Italy will account for 20%. Apple sold 5 million tracks in Europe
in the first 10 weeks after the launch of German, Brit and French
iTunes stores.
Loud Music Collapses Lungs
Loud music does more than send you deaf, it can also cause your lungs to collapse. Doctors writing for the UK's medical journal The Thorax cite four cases. A guy was driving listening to a 1,000 watt "bass box" fitted to his car stereo, another time when a guy stood next to large loud speakers at a metal concert. They suffer a "pneumothorax" when air gets into the lung and the membrane that covers it when small breaks occur in the lung wall. High energy sound causes the lung to rupture.
Apple, Microsoft, Bitch About Online...
Apple Computer has dissed Microsoft Corp's
newly launched MSN Music download service in the US, which offers
the same pricing and usage rules as Apple's iTunes. MSN is only
offering 500,000 tracks (half of what iTunes offers) and cannot
transfer songs to iPod portable players. Microsoft lash back
that their catalogue will grow to 1 million songs, and that
its songs are encoded in the Windows Media format a higher bit
rate to give better sound quality than iTunes. Apple claims
that 16 million songs are downloaded each month from iTunes.
Roc-A-Fella For Sale?
Producer Damon Dash is negotiating to sell his Roc-A-Fella Records to Island Def Jam. The label, co-founded in 1995 by Dash, Jay-Z and "Biggs" Burke, signed the now-retired Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beanie Sigel and Young Gunz. Roc-A-Fella includes clothing, films, magazine, watches, vodka and real estate divisions.
Record Year For Van Warped
Some acts in America were struggling, and Lollapalooza crashed
and burned. But this year's Van Warped tour which ran between
June and August was the most successful in its 10 year history.
More than 650,000 tix were sold, a 30% increase. The bill included
Good Charlotte, Bad Religion and NOFX.
Frenzals Loose On Triple J
Frenzal Rhomb's Jason Whalley and Lindsay McDougal are filling in for six weeks on Triple J's drive time while Chris Taylor and Craig Reucassel cook up ABC-TV's election satire 'The Chaser Decides'. This put the two in direct competition with their close and dear pals Austereo's Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands. You'll remember the Frenzals were backing band for Jackie O at a Darwin concert and later appeared on her show discussing Oz content and bodyguards. Whalley and McDougal have previously hosted J's weekend and midnight to dawn shifts.
Chaos.Com Relaunches With Hotshed
Online entertainment retailer Chaos Group
announced this week that its departments ChaosMusic.com, ChaosDVD.com,
ChaosGames.com and ChaosTshirts.com will be operated and managed
by e-Business technology provider HotShed. ChaosBooks.com will
be added in coming months. The Chaos.com website (www.chaos.com)
will be totally overhauled and will incorporate HotShed's state
of the art e-Commerce platform, which will include CRM, email
campaigns, fulfilment, warehousing, and financial reporting.
Mac Calling The Tune
Macquarie Bank is now the dominant force (about 65%) in Australian regional radio after buying DMG Radio Australia's 57 regional stations for $195.5 million last week through its Regional Media division. It now owns 93 stations altogether, as it paid $173 million last month for regional radio group RG Capital.
Paint It "Blacktrax"
SBS-TV begins a five part series at 7 pm
on Saturday called Blaktrax. Produced by Karla Grant, it looks
at the diversity of indigenous music, incorporating rock, hip
hop, R&B, reggae and country. The first episode called Voices
In The Wind looks at Cairns duo Shakaya who were signed after
record producer Reno Nicastro heard a rough demo.
Universal Changes
Janelle McCarthy shifts from ABC Music to Universal's front line promotions, handling radio and TV. Chris Maric, who's been a consultant in the past 12 months will stay until October until Tatiana Marchant returns from her honeymoon.
Lifelines:
Born: son Max Ray Duval to Spiderbait manager
Fiona Duncan and Marc Duval.
Expecting: Fiona Smith of MTV Australia and Craig Green of Sony
Music.
Married: Universal publicist Tatiana Marchant and boyfriend
Sasha.
Arrested: wife of the caretaker of the LA house of Five For
Fighting member John Ondrasik and her boyfriend, for allegedly
stabbing him a number of times.
Died: Carl Wayne, 61, singer with '60s band The Move (Flowers
In The Rain, I Can Hear The Grass Grow), after battle with cancer.
Joined the Hollies in 2000.
Died: US producer Billy Davis, after long illness, 76. He worked
as A&R for Chess in the '60s and looked after the careers of
Etta James and Fontella Bass, wrote for Jackie Wilson, Aretha
Franklin, Marvin Gaye. A recent project was to produce Kate
Cebrano's upcoming album '19 Days In New York'.
Died: Becky Reid, band booker at the Prince of Wales in 1996,
and at Premier Artists booking agency.
Died: Brazilian producer Tom Capone, 37, from a motorcycle accident
just minutes after he left the Latin Grammys in LA where he
was nominated 5 times.
AC/DC Lane Hits Pothole
Plans by the Melbourne City Council to rename Corporation Lane ACDC Lane are up in the air, after objections from nearby retailers. Planning committee chairwoman Catherine Ng told the Melbourne Age that rather than find another street, Council was looking at a plaque honouring the band on Swanston Street. But some councillors are still pushing for the Corporation Lane idea.
At Swampy's Auction...
Long time Sydney roadie and tour manager
Swampy Jarvis' massive music memorabilia collection raised $116,
209 at auction in Sydney. A guitar signed by all the Eagles
went for $9420, an Angus Young schoolboy blazer for $8586.
Didja Know...
Greens Party leader Bob Brown worked as a doctor in the emergency section of an inner London hospital in 1970. In fact, he worked in there the day in September that Jimi Hendrix was brought in, covered in vomit, and declared dead.
MTV Launches Into Optus Zoo
Optus has launched MTV Mobile, Australia's
first fully integrated mobile and web music portal. This follows
a deal with MTV Networks Australia to provide original MTV content
to Optus Zoo, an entertainment, information and mobile content
services launched last November. MTV Mobile provides a range
of new services including: preview length music video clips;
MTV news; reviews; gig guides; and MTV charts. A key feature
is the ability to purchase full-length music downloads, using
an Optus mobile post-paid or pre-paid phone account. Music downloads
will cost $1 a track through September.
Aussie Airs Up To #8
Time to unplug the air amps and roll down the air gaffer tapes. Troy Carter, Australia's entry to the 2004 Air Guitar World Championship in Finland, made it to #8 position. Joint winners were Miri "Sonyk-Rok" of the US and Tarquin "The Darkness" Keys of New Zealand.
[V] Seeks The Artist
Channel [V] has launched its annual Oz Artist
Of The Year competition. Now in its 8th year, the idea is for
viewers to choose which Oz act has had the most impact on the
local scene in the last 12 months. It will be the only public
vote award to be included in the ARIA awards telecast where
the winner will be announced on October 17th. Voting happens
from September 6 and will wrap up at midnight on Thursday October
14, You can either register on channelv.com.au and vote from
a list of 50 acts, or pick up an entry form at HMV stores nationally
until October 10.
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