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The ARIA awards.
 There’s never a dull moment with the ARIA awards. There have been power blackouts minutes before they started, acceptance speeches made in German, presenters dropped through trapdoors, bands arriving in everything from hot rods to limos, and punch ups.
There have been mad ideas that made it to air (Silverchair getting their producer’s eight year old son to pick up an award), mad ideas that DIDN’T make it (an Avalanches/Rolf Harris duet, crooner Julie Anthony doing an AC/DC song), romances that began on the night (Natalie Imbruglia and Daniel Johns), glorious team-ups onstage and $300 ARIA statuettes lying at the bottom of the harbour after dawn cruises.
Nevertheless, ARIA awards producer Mark Pope is adamant: "The death knoll of any awards show is its predictability."
Pope’s previous lives as manager, tour manager and record company A&R taught him what music and TV audiences want. He’s also aware how a low attention span affects their remote control decisions.
On their 19th year (on Sunday October 23 at the Sydney SuperDome), the ARIAs are trying new ideas. The landscape set is back, and there will be no host.
The telecast has been stripped back to three hours: they start at 7.30 pm and finish at 10.30 pm. This is because last year’s ratings showed that after the ARIAs peaked with a viewing audience of 2.39 million, they dropped to an average of 1.5 million after 10.30. These are still healthy figures. But ARIA and Ten obviously want the ratings, not only to justify the $2.8 million production costs, but keep sponsors and advertisers happy. (This year the ARIAs are up against the cricket).
Such is the pull of the ARIAs that companies launch their summer campaigns and new products at the event’s telecast. Winning records can, in the week after, double an act’s sales. "You have no idea how much jockeying goes on behind the scenes to get acts to perform," Pope says. "But we have to make sure all styles are represented."
This year’s ARIAs has a built-in excitement. It has nothing to do with speculation whether Kylie’s flying back for them, or the surprise that organisers have in store (yes it’s Australian, no it’s not a reunion). It is the amount of debut or new acts who’ve been nominated.
It might have been because the big names like Delta Goodrem, Powderfinger and John Butler Trio spent most of the year abroad or off the road. Maybe the tide of great new acts was too strong.
Missy Higgins, whose first album "The Sound Of White" sold 500,000 units, leads the nominations. But names as Evermore, Sarah Blasko, Rogue Traders, Joel Turner, End of Fashion, Lior, Wolfmother and Thirsty Merc make their presence outside the "new act" category.
Many of these acts were virtually unknown last year. Now they are recording in America and signing international record deals.
"It shows how healthy and dynamic the Australian music industry is," says Sydney singer songwriter Lior. "The good thing is that it makes audiences more interested in new quality music. That snowballs into more interest in new acts. People are going out and seeing new acts. Just some years ago, unknown kids like Sarah Blasko, Ben Lee and myself were playing the same bills together and trying to get somewhere. There’s definitely a new era emerging in Australian music."
On the night of last year’s ARIAs, Lior was launching his debut self-funded CD "Autumn Flow" in Adelaide. He drew just 70 people.
"As I drove back home, I remember thinking how difficult it was going to be to break the album," says Lior, who was born in Israel and arrived in Sydney as a ten year old.
But Triple J picked up the album and turned "This Old Love" into a hit. "Autumn Flow" is close to gold, through word of mouth Lior has widened his following to teenagers who sing along to every line, was invited to play WOMAD in the UK, Singapore and Korea, visited Japan, talking to overseas record companies, and made enough to donate proceeds from a tour to a charity building schools in West Africa.
Last October, End Of Fashion were playing to 300 people a night and recording their first album in Mississippi. Through 2005, End Of Fashion broke into commercial radio, are playing to crowds of 800 a night and plan to tour America in a few months.
"We’ve doubled our audience this year," says singer Justin Burford, who formed the Perth band with guitarist Rod Arena after quitting The Sleepy Jackson on a flight from Perth. "Touring’s been a little easier. We’ve never flown from capital city to city, we used to drive all night, arrive at 3 pm, do soundcheck, and put on a gig. That takes a lot out of you. The band’s playing better live as a result. But in 2005, with big crowds, radio airplay, ARIA nominations... sometimes you have to pinch yourself it’s really happening."
Christie Eliezer
 | The 2005 ARIA Awards screen on Channel 10 from 7.30pm on Sun 23 Oct. |
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