Issue 18 Volume 1
January 2009
January 2009Front Page
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Issue 18 Volume 1
January 2009 |
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MAKING PASSION PROFITABLE By David James Steve Pavlovic, chief executive of Modular Recordings has developed a business model based on a simple enough philosophy - putting himself in the position of the consumer. As a result, he has an exceptional hit rate including having signed The Living End, Ben Lee, The Avalanches, Eskimo Joe, Wolf Mother, and this year's multi-ARIA award winning duo the Presets. Pavlovic estimates his success rate to be about six or seven out of ten, which, a cynic might suggest, is about six or seven times the average success rate of the major labels. Not bad-going. He puts his track record down to having an "artist friendly label", which maybe true but it doesn’t really explain why his approach is working. The real reason seems to be more that he understands the importance of the musical product providing passion. When choosing new artists he says he listens to most recordings for only a few seconds. But there are a select few, he says, that he can't stop playing. It is those artists he supports.
Pop/R&B By Megan Albany In Concert:"A
Wonder Spring Night 2008" WHAT DO YOU SAY? Really, writing a review on Stevie Wonder... it’s like a catholic writing a review of a mass conducted by the Pope. He’s almost too holy to make comment on. Who would really feel like they have the musical cred to critique the man who single-handedly gave us tracks like Superstition, Sir Duke, Master Blaster (Jammin’), Ribbon In the Sky, I Wish, Signed Sealed Delivered, Higher Ground, Living for the City, and Village Ghetto Land? Or even to criticise his more scholmzy, overplayed tracks such as You Are the Sunshine of My Life, My Cherie Amour and Isn’t She Lovely? Of course some critics might feel braver having a crack at his eighties phase and some of those more daggy numbers, such as Lately, Ebony and Ivory, Part Time Lover or I Just Called To Say I Love You but even those, when put in context with the music of the era, still have a certain wonderful Stevie-ness about him. ...continuedCountry By Megan Albany Gig of the month: Tamworth
Country Music Festival YEEHAH! IT’S COUNTRY TIME As this month’s Rising Star is country music artist Adam James, we thought we couldn’t go past the Tamworth Country Music Festival for the gig of the month. Whether you love or hate country music, Tamworth is an event that can only be experienced first hand. Of course there’s the many talented established artists to see and the often spectacularly-talented newcomers who compete in the Toyota Star Maker Quest, which has launched the careers of Keith Urban, Lee Kernaghan, James Blundell and Gina Jeffreys to name a few. REVIEW THE REVIEWERBy Stanton de Liva Reviewer: Eamonn Kelly Andre Rieu - High horse; low horse
(Low horse) One such phenomenon was rock ‘n’ roll. During its hey-day it unsettled a generation living in the shadow of the greatest war the world had known. Another was the punk attack that was ostensibly a rebellion against the familiarities of the rock ‘n’ roll tradition. The one under consideration in this review is the Andre Rieu phenomenon; and, in this time of pre-packaged everything from new world orders to climate change, the question of provocation and manipulation, known as hype, has to be dealt with.
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JAZZ GREAT REMEMBERED FOR LEGACY Bruce Clarke – a son’s tribute By Jason Clarke
We used to have this running joke about Dad – ‘He doesn’t know much about life’, we’d say, ‘but he knows what key it’s in.’ But I can’t help thinking that Dad probably knew more about life than the rest of us. To him, music and life were one and the same thing, and the same principles applied to both. And whenever he talked about one you always knew he was telling you a lot about the other.
WHO SAYS BUSINESS AND CULTURE DON’T MIX? By Megan Albany
But as usual this is no overnight success story, Adam has been playing guitar for the past 11 years and has performed at numerous major music events including Woodford Folk, Tamworth, QUT Urban and Mildura Country Music festivals, The Gympie Muster, The DreamingFestivals and various national NAIDOC Week Celebrations. He was also a Grand Finalist at the 2008 Toyota Star Maker Quest. Send us your email, notes, memos, random thoughts, trenchant complaints. Tell us about your adventures, strugggles, disasters, disappointments and successes as a musician. We give preference to letters of 200 words or less, but try your luck anyway. We may edit your letters for reasons of space, or possibly because we're just a bunch of interfering bastards. Despite that, we welcome your feedback, comments and observations. You can use a pseudonym if you wish, but please include your real name, suburb/town and, if you are writing from outside Victoria, your state/country. Email us at musosunion@aol.com.
Got a
problem or question relating to the music biz? Ask Uncle Terry. Email Uncle Terry on musosunion@aol.com. Please provide your name and suburb (& state/country, if you're not a Victorian yokel...) Dear Uncle Terry, We have been offered a recording contract and don’t know if it is up to ‘industry standard’. What is the standard artist’s percentage and is there other stuff we need to look out for? Selby Dear Selby, You should be aware that examples of ‘Industry Standard’ recording contracts vary from the truly appalling to the merely awful. This is particularly true for artists who have yet to achieve a significant profile. Never sign anything you do not understand completely, consulting the Musicians’ Union (www.musicians.asn.au) is an excellent and cost effective way to assist you with this.
Book reviews Stargazers’ Guide to Mushrooms by Marlon Cropper Never before have astronomers been so well served in their fungal needs as by this extraordinary little book. Within the modest span of 28 pages (including appendices and index), this volume manages to cover every aspect of mushrooms as they relate to stars, planets, quasars, comets, meteorites, black holes, red and white dwarfs, super novas, asteroids, haemorrhoids, moons, galaxies and interstellar debris. To the layman, unversed in astronomy or mushrooms, this comprehensive work will open the doors to a realm of knowledge, the existence of which he had probably never before had the faintest clue. The present work makes Clay Pigeon’s earlier work, Fungi for Astronomers, till now an indispensable presence on the shelves of every true astronomer, all but obsolete.
Resolutions and Royalties Well it’s that time of year again... the time when you pull out all those New Year’s resolutions you were going to do last year and dust them off for yet another year – swearing this will be the year you actually get things done. It’s also the time where television is playing all those re-runs which make APRA songwriters who haven’t written anything since the 1970s very happy. At this time of year I always reflect on how I never quite get around to writing that Christmas song. You know the one, the one you think about in the month before Christmas as you are bombarded with Christmas carols everywhere you go. The one you know would let you retire into one-hit wonder obscurity, living passively off your royalty cheques forever. Disclaimer:
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Beatles Game But Not Set For Download
Survey No Symphony To Brit Critics
Part 13 of a series by Welcome back. Last time we said that we were going to look at the notion of ‘going rates’. This expression means what is customarily paid for a gig at a particular point in time. The ‘going rate’ also varies depending on a number of factors. Let’s look at a few examples of these. Location Size of
venue
by Let's look at them now in both letter name form and in musical notation. |
