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The News.
Local band The News are currently in one heck of an exciting place. They've just started doing the local supports to some interstate touring bands, which is always an excellent place to get some new exposure. And also, there's this little thing called the Big Day Out...
In the next few days, The News (along with fellow locals Kermis) will be supporting Offcuts. Guitarist and vocalist Sanjay Taverna says he's feeling good. "We've never supported an interstate band before... although at Ladyfest the other week we played with a girl band - girl band? I don't want to offend people - called Origami. So it's only been in the last few weeks that we've been supporting interstate bands, we've always been trying to support the bigger South Australian bands. I saw them live on their last tour, and they were really good, I really enjoyed them."
And what can he tell us about the other lesser-known locals, Kermis? "I met Kermis through Michael's younger brother, and he came to see us play, and we played together at the Hackney Hotel and got talking, and he got us a gig at the Gov earlier this year. So I thought I'd return the favour."
Taverna was able to do this because, hey, he organised the whole gig. "It was a lot of work. We got heaps of posters printed and put them up around town, and then we got a phone call from the council the next morning saying they'd take legal action unless we took them all down before the same time the next day. So then we went out that night and took them all down. We've put heaps of work into promoting it, so hopefully people show up."
People will definitely show up to the next big social event on the The News calendar: the Adelaide Big Day Out. Taverna is chuffed, but not quite as ecstatic as I thought he might be. "We never thought it would happen next year - or ever, really! We want to use it as a launching pad to take it to the next level, go interstate, get a good CD recorded, get played on interstate radio more. Our last CD went unnoticed - it wasn't that good..."
As a local band starting out, it is important to listen to wise elder musicians when take their time to impart their wisdom to aid your cause. But for The News, the advice hasn't always been constructive. "We had a couple of people on our forum on our website give us a fair good trashing. They told us that by the middle of next year we were going to be broken up and have no job. I think it sounded as though they thought we were making money out of it, and that they thought that we thought we were making the best music in the world. And that's far from the truth..."
He pauses, and then clarifies. "Well, we're not making any money out of it. And we don't think we're making the best music in the world, but we're going to try."
Finally, we agree that whilst it is easy to get a gig in Adelaide, it can be extremely difficult to actually get the crowds to go. I ask Taverna what he thinks can be done to solve this problem. "I know that there are Government funds for live music a bit, maybe they need to give us more money. But maybe we just need more people." He pauses, laughing. "Maybe people need to have more sex, have more babies, and then there'll be more people to come to gigs."
Ben Revi
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The News play at Fowlers Live on Fri 17 Dec with Offcuts, DJ Demise and Kermis. They'll also be on the Local Produce stage at the Big Day Out on Fri 4 Feb.
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