BIG DAY OUT CELEBRATES 100th SHOW
Sydney
celebrated the 100th BDO festival on January 23rd with a sold-out show. The annual
summer festival has been attracting the most dedicated music punters for 18 years
and is bigger than ever. This year, 53,000 excited punters attended Sydney's second
show, and over 70 artists toured all around the nation. The heat, unbearable like
every year, was harsh until a cool change in the evening was welcomed by many
sweaty music lovers. Home grown acts such as Powderfinger, The Temper Trap and
Jet joined forces with huge international artists such as Muse, Lily Allen, Mars
Volta, Peaches and Dizzee Rascal, who pulled off one of the days biggest sets
despite the storm that roared and rained during nearly every song. Fireworks and
a fire canon lit up the sky to celebrate the milestone show with Groove Armada
ending the show at Midnight in what was sure to be one hot and sore legged boiler
room dance party.
THE BIGGEST HOTTEST 100 EVER
There
is nothing more Australian than backyard cricket, a barbecue and the tradition
of tuning into triple J's hottest 100 live countdown on Australia Day. Since 1989,
triple j's hottest 100 has established itself as one of the largest music polls
in the world and this year the national radio station received the most amount
of votes ever reaching an enormous 1.1 million. English folk rockers Mumford &
Sons took out the number 1 position for 2010 with 'Little Lion Man'. Four Australian
acts made an appearance in the top 10 including triple j's own unearthed winners
Art vs. Science at number 2. Official bets on the poll had to be stopped early
as the results of the number 1 song were leaked early through the ABC shop website.
The article was written for the next edition of J Mag but was supposedly published
too early on the site. A triple j spokeswoman refused to comment on the leak.
FRANZ
FERDINAND TWEETING RAGE OVER MCDONALDS
Franz Ferdinand
are highly unimpressed with their American record label at the moment after one
of their songs appeared in a campaign for McDonalds. Singer Alex Kapranos showed
his disgust on twitter after label Epic, which is owned by Sony Music Entertainment,
approved the use of the song on the fast food empire's website. He wrote 'http://www.latenightmcdonalds.com/
is an example of how a band falls out with their U.S. label. Did they think we'd
approve this sh*t?" Kapranos went on to tweet, "Dirty bastards. Stupid
arrogant motherf*cking pig-brained arseholes. I'd rather eat a cow-pat on a bun
than a bloody McDonalds. I'm not really pissed off with McDonalds. They're just
the same as any other psychopathic corporation - no more evil, no less."
As his anger subsided, the singer showed his humorous side after posting the following:
"I'm just pissed off because I had a sponsorship deal with White Castle on
the cards which is now totally scuppered. I was going to get a lifetime supply
of those cute (much tastier than McD) burgers and they were going to open a Dennistoun
franchise."
GOLD AT THE GRAMMYS
The
music industry's best were all glitzed and glammed up at this years 52nd Annual
Grammy Awards that took place in late January in Los Angeles. Neil Young received
his first Grammy and was honoured as the 2010 MusiCares Person of the Year. The
biggest winners of the night were the ladies with Beyonce winning an amazing six
awards and breaking the record for the most ever wins in one night by a female
artist. Other artists picking up more than one Grammy included Taylor Swift who
also won Best Album of the Year, The Black Eyed Peas, Jay-Z and Kings of Leon.
A significant 100 of the 109 winners were announced earlier in the day in a lower
profile ceremony. Lady Gaga and Elton John kicked off the show with an elaborate
collaborative performance including pyrotechnics, theatrical choreography and
many sequins. Pink was also an outstanding performer on the night singing upside-down
whilst suspended in the air. Michael Jackson's children appeared onstage to accept
a Lifetime Achievement Award honouring The King of Pop after a special 3D tribute.
ST
JEROME'S LANEWAY FESTIVAL HITS SYDNEY
The hipsters of Sydney
were in their element at the recent sold out St Jerome's Laneway Festival which
returned with a new line-up and a new location. A relatively new and previously
smaller festival that originated in Melbourne in 2004 with only 1400 attendees
cramped into a tiny alleyway. Since then, the festival has grown substantially
and relocated from its significantly smaller Sydney CBD location to an ex-asylum
in the Sydney College of the Arts in Rozelle. The diverse range of musical acts
included Florence and the Machine, The Middle East, Wild Beasts, The xx, Philadelphia
Grand Jury, Mumford and Sons, Echo and the Bunnymen and a stack more from Oz and
abroad. Glorious weather and three conveniently laid out stages made for a close
to perfect day for the well dressed indie crowd.
GROWTH
FOR THE AUSTRALIAN RECORD INDUSTRY
The Australian record
industry has announced for the first time in six years that the industry is growing.
Wholesale sales of sound recordings and music videos for 2009 has demonstrated
the first peak in revenue since 2003 and an increase of over 5% from last year.
Whilst physical CD sales are still in decline, the key contributor to the success
is the overall digital album sales. Digital albums now account for 7.5% of overall
album sales by volume, up from 4.35% across the same period last year. Susan Boyle's
"I Dreamed A Dream" and Michael Buble's "Crazy Love" were
the two biggest sellers through traditional music retailers. Artists such as La
Roux, Mumford & Sons and Australian singer songwriter Lisa Mitchell all had
albums in 2009 with which more than 20% of their sales were generated in a digital
format.
GOOGLE RUINED SURPRISE PROPOSAL FOR KATY PERRY
Katy
Perry discovered that her now fiancé Russell Brand was to propose to her
when she received a Google alert. Katy admitted that she still does search for
herself on Google and in doing so, discovered that the proposal was imminent when
the search engine revealed that the 34 year old comedian had been shopping for
engagement rings. Russell didn't deny it but somehow still managed to surprise
the 25 year old pop diva with a proposal when holidaying together in India. Russell
said 'There was an elephant involved. We were on an elephant just before it'.
VANS
BOWL-A-RAMA 2010
For the sixth year running, the infamous
shores of Bondi Beach will play host to VANS BOWL-A-RAMA, not only the biggest
concrete event in the Southern Hemisphere, but now the biggest week of festivities
to hit Bondi! Taking place on 20 February, legendary skateboarders expected to
make an appearance include: Bucky Lasek, Omar Hassan, Steve Caballero, Christian
Hosoi, Bob Burnquist, Rune Glifberg, Pat Ngoho, Otavio Neto, Jackson Pilz, Juergen
Horrwarth, Renton Miller and Corbin Harris. The Bowl-A-Rama festival will kick
off on Wednesday 17th of February 2010 and the killer skate action will commence
11am Saturday the 20th of February 2010. You can also catch all of the action
on FUEL TV on Wednesday the 24th of March at 6pm.
AC/DC
SONGS DOMINATE IRON MAN 2
Music from AC/DC, spanning several
decades, will be featured on the new Iron Man 2 soundtrack. An epic 15 tracks
will be featured in the movie including songs from 1976 right through to 2008.
Not since Stephen King's 'Maximum Overdrive' have the iconic Australian rockers
licensed their music to a film. Marvel Pictures and Sony struck a deal to have
the high energy music featured in the incredible film. "Music is an integral
part of the Tony Stark and Iron Man experience, and we are pleased that Columbia
and AC/DC are taking part in the franchise's phenomenon. Through this relationship,
the band is delivering fans supercharged Iron Man branded music through all our
combined consumer touch points, from the movie to retail outlets and even virally
with the debut of the new video," said Tim Connors, Chief Operating Officer,
Marvel Studios. The Album will be released in April as a CD/DVD 2 disc set before
the release of the movie in May.
© Jessica Bray
