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.
January
Big Day Out sells out in NZ (45,000 tickets) and Gold Coast
(50,000)... Jack Daniels announces the Jack Awards for May to
celebrate the live music scene... Delta Goodrem's 'Innocent
Eyes' skips past Neil Diamond's 28 week stay at #1 with 'Hot
August Nights' but won't overtake Dire Straits' 'Brothers In
Arms' (35 weeks). Her Delta DVD becomes Australia's top selling
music DVD with sales of 165,000, beating the Eagles' 'Hell Freezes
Over' at 157,000... Promoter Jacobsen Entertainment Group comes
out of voluntary administration after four months following
show of support from creditors... Jet's 'Get Born' edges closer
to a million sales worldwide... Telstra's BigPond launches digital
downloads with 250,000 tracks... PPCA honours Kylie Minogue
as most played Aussie artist on Oz radio in 2003 and Taxiride's
Creepin' Up Slowly for most played Aussie track... Joining Music
Managers Forum board are Nathan Brenner, Gregg Donovan, Alistair
Cranney and Kim Thomas... Nation Of Islam denies it's handling
Michael Jackson's business affairs... Sydney Metallica fan on
life support after thugs stomp on his head demanding his mobile
on his train ride home.
February
ARIA's anti-piracy division uses an Anton
Piller (civil search warrant) to raid premises in two states
to find evidence against copyright possible infringement on
the Kazaa network. Whether the evidence seized is usable in
court becomes a legal argument... The European Commission investigates
a planned merger of Sony and BMG music divisions because the
resultant four major labels will control 80% of the Euro music
biz... after drinking overnight after their set at Big Day out,
Jet spend a full day shooting the video for Cold Hard Bitch
before more partying... not a good month for anything 50 Cent.
One of his G-Unit show a forged passport as ID to his parole
officer, and he returns to jail. Meantime, an idiot in Miami
booming out 50 Cent doof-doof from his car at 5.30am is sentenced
to listen to opera for two hours... Promoters Jacobsen Group
sign a deal with US promoter Jack Utsick to bring in top musicals
and acts, and contemplate reviving their TV division to make
a variety series... in the "get a life" department, DMG and
Austereo squabble over Austereo's use of "totally different"
when it relaunched Triple M Adelaide in November 2003 because
it sounds like Nova's "sounds different".
March
The axe swings at Warner Music with 19 going, including NZ's
managing director James Southgate... John Butler Trio's 'Sunrise
Over Sea' sets a new high for indieland when it debuts at #1
and goes platinum in its first week... While the new Popstars
Live hits the screens, manager Grant Thomas and producer Screentimes
head to court over his dismissal as manager of earlier winner
Bardot... Apple Computers cops heat from the Beatles' Apple
Corp who said in 1991 they could use the name as long as they
didn't go into music (which of course they did with iTunes)
and from Eminem for using Lose Yourself on an ad without permission
or money... APRA announces that its awards will be held in Melbourne
this year, and sets up a licensing rate with download companies
to pay 6.25% of the price of each download... The 10% rise in
sales of music DVDs prevented the Oz music market's 2003 sales
from being flat, according to figures released this month...
After Gold Coast mayor Gary Baildon tries to limit opening hours
of nightclubs, their owners start a campaign which topple him
at the local elections... Universal signs Xavier Rudd. Hippies
rule OK?
April
Global sales of recorded music dropped by
4.76% in 2003. The newly set up MTV Network Australia launches
VH1 Australia and announces MTV Oz's first awards in 2005...
Richard Branson spouts off about setting up Virgin Radio as
a national network but its wheels fall off when DMG outbids
it for licences in Sydney ($106 million) and Brisbane ($80 million)...
Seven's ratings disaster 'Popstars Live' shuffles deckchairs
on the Titanic by sacking judges and telling the others to get
some 'tude... Rocket Science's Roman Tucker in a coma after
whacking his head, Dolf Datsun falls off the stage and Sophie
Monk faints at the Logies because she's forgotten how to eat...
Delta Goodrem and Jet join BRW's List of Top Earning entertainers
with $6.8 million and $2.2 million respectively but not as much
as Farnesie ($24 million) and AC/DC ($12 million)... Suggestion
that Northern Territory clubs open an hour more but serve soft
drinks to "unaggro" ravers... Manager and journo Mick Geyer
dies from tumor in the spine...
May
The Howard Government's budget disappoints the contemporary
music sector: nothing for skills-creating schemes by Ausmusic,
Music Managers Forum or indigenous associations, the community
radio sector gets $5 million instead of the $9.3 million it
needs, and again there is no tax incentive for the music biz
like what the film and TV industries are offered... at the APRA
awards John Butler makes more history by becoming the first
without major label backing to get Song Of The Year (Zebra).
Powderfinger win Songwriters of the year, the Sports reunite...The
Vines seemingly implode after a controversial club date in Sydney
where they argue among themselves and Craig Nicholls kicks a
photographer (escaping repercussions by revealing in court he
has a mild mental illness)... Delta reportedly gets paid $300,000
to be the face of Pepsi, meets the seven year old who buys the
millionth copy of 'Innocent Eyes' and chooses LA-based Dave
Holmes (Coldplay) to co-manage her career with mum Lea... George
Michael closes his site down because his fans keep calling him
old and ugly.
June
Two protest campaigns are launched - one
to change copyright laws so consumers can make copies of CDs
for personal use, the other by nightclubs angered by PPCA plans
to increase licence fees to play music in clubs... This column
speculates correctly that Virgin is negotiating with Myer department
store to take over its CD and DVD divisions... Warner Music
parts with the Superjesus and Taxiride, and downsizes its publishing
arm... INXS announce a reality TV series to find their next
singer... In court: a man who threatened to blow up Universal
Music's Adelaide office, claiming to own the company and to
have written Shania Twain's hits. Also, would-be promoter of
a Brian Wilson tour faces 61 counts of deception for allegedly
sticky fingering $2.4 million from a bank for charity... A Brisbane
man becomes first Aussie to be jailed for infringing copyright,
getting nine months for importing to sell 800 pirated DVDs...
Spiderbait's Kram co-hosts a radio show in the nude after reneging
on a promise to strip at the MCG grounds if Black Betty
went to #1... Powderfinger awarded best live band at Jack Awards...
Winners of 'Popstars Live' fade into obscurity... Madonna loses
control of Maverick.
July
Death takes former Rolling Stone publisher Paul Gardiner, one
time Daddy Cool guitarist Ian Winter, Brisbane dance promoter
Will FX and former Triple M presenter Jon Kennedy... new rules
in NSW that clubs have to provide free water stops the scams
of charging $3 per glass of H20 and 20 cents per ice cube...
PricewaterhouseCoopers figures show that the global music industry
is reviving, growing at an annual rate of 6.3% from this year
to 2008 when it will be worth US$1.67 trillion... Alex Lloyd
parts with One Louder management and, later, with EMI Music...
Radio proves riveting, first when retailers charge that some
labels try to influence charts, secondly in a row between Frenzal
Rhomb and 2DAY FM's Kyle and Jackie O in which they "ban" Rhomb
and get a blasting from Media Watch... Livid is cancelled due
to scarcity of headliners... Delta Goodrem's first producers
want 10% of profits from 'Innocent Eyes' and go to court to
release her "first" album...During MC5 tour, Smash Music introduces
concept of buying CD of the concert minutes after.
August
JB Hi Fi continues to grow, posting a $13.8
million profit to the year to June, a 60.7% jump... Warner Music's
CEO and chairman Shaun James departs the music industry for
TV while veteran manager and A&R Todd Wagstaff quits to start
a Mexican restaurant... Jet are nominated for three categories
in the MTV US awards... Five Sydney club DJs are fined $40,000
for remixing tracks for compilations without permission. The
case has dragged on for two years, and some of the DJs who hadn't
bothered to turn up to court have their jaws drop when presented
with bills of $240,000 from their lawyers... at Northern Territory's
inaugural indigenous awards, Yothu Yindi prove to be NT's superstars...
The ACCC announces it will greenlight the Aussie merger of Sony
and BMG... Indie label Origin buys the Oz catalogue of Warner
Chappell... 1950s rockers like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley
have to redo deals because on January 1, 2005, their music goes
into public domain after 50 years and they won't be paid. Aussies
are saved from that: because of the Fair Trading Agreement with
the US, our copyright is extended to 70 years. Whew! God bless
America.
September
The first research on community radio in 30 years by
the Dept. of Communications shows that more people listen to
it than thought - 7 million a week, and 45% over 15. This could
mean more government funding and more national advertising...
IFPI figures show that Australia is seventh largest music market
in the world in terms of value. The three big 'uns are the US,
Japan and the UK... Sony's Denis Handlin is named CEO and chairman
of Sony BMG Entertainment Australia, leaving BMG's managing
director Ed St. John out... Warner Music's managing director
Chris Moss is named Acting CEO... Johnny Ramone dies at 55 from
prostate cancer... Pacifier revert to being Shihad... In a fun
filled week for Missy Higgins, her debut album debuts at #1
and turns platinum, and the Finn Brothers ask her to open for
them in the UK... Franz Ferdinand's debut album wins $40,000
Mercury Prize.
October
500 turn out to watch AC/DC get its lane
in Melbourne while there is a move for Dundas Lane, home of
Michael Gudinski's empire, to become Mushroom Lane... moving
the ARIAs to Sunday night pays off: at its peak, they attract
2 million viewers, 500,000 more than last year... The indigenous
Deadlys name Troy Cassar-Daley artist of the year and Yothu
Yindi's Mandawuy Yunupingu gets lifetime achievement, while
the Music Managers Forum bestow John Watson (Missy Higgins,
Dissociatives) and Correne Wilkie (The Cat Empire) as joint
managers of the year... Billboard's half year concert report
puts Michael Chugg Entertainment as 5th biggest promoter in
the world. Chugg adds Sarah McLeod to his management arm and
plans to set up a record label... Melbourne's music industry
mobilises as the Government bans under-age gigs in the inner
city area and is dodgy about its plans for the Palais and Palace
clubs, while Brisbane's industry gets ready for another fight
as music venues in Fortitude Valley come under attack again.
November
The Kazaa copyright infringement stoush between Aussie
major labels and Sharman goes to court. Meantime, ARIA's case
against operators of MP34free.net is delayed until February...
EMI and Warner's joint CD manufacturing plant is sold to a Singapore
company... Jet and co-manager Dave Powell part ways... Eagles'
tour for Frontier Touring becomes third biggest tour ever, selling
200,000 tix and grossing $35 million... At the APRA-AGSC Screen
Music Awards in Sydney, ex- indie muso Lisa Gerrard is honoured
for her work on Hollywood blockbuster flicks while Iva Davies
and Decoder Ring are among rock musicians honoured... Jessica
Michalik's parents sue Big Day Out and Limp Bizkit over the
January 2001 death of their daughter... Billboard launches a
ringtone chart... The heart attack deaths of British DJ legend
John Peel and hip hopper ODB are mourned worldwide... Universal
agrees to provide tracks to Optus' mobile phone service... Oz
Idol's finale draws 3.8 million viewers.
December
EMI managing director John O'Donnell becomes
chairman of the PPCA board and pledges to push to increase the
broadcasting licence fees of radio and TV... iTunes sales hit
the 200 million mark... ARIA turns its attention to jukebox
operators who use pirated CDs in their machines to avoid paying
royalties. After raids in Perth, similar moves around the country
are expected... Alex Lloyd signs to Sony BMG... Guitar hero
"Dimebag Darryl" Abbott is shot onstage with three others by
a disgruntled fan who blames him for breaking up Pantera...
Icehouse plays its first gig in 11 years at a retirement party
in Brisbane for Austereo executive Greg Smith... Music Managers
Forum's new board is chaired by Peter Bayliss of Sunflower Entertainment
and vice chaired by Kim Thomas of Yak Management... A death
at the Earthcore festival and deaths from red mitsubishis in
other parts of the country give authorities the perfect excuse
to start putting the boot into dance festivals. Don't forget
to wear some flowers in your hair through 2005, folks!
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