Hi Folks, wanted to give you all a heads up on a brand new website I’ve just opened. It’s called I Buy Australian which shows what a difference a single person can make in keeping jobs in Australia.

From the website:

Australia’s Manufacturing & Farming sectors are in trouble. The lure of cheap imported everything is a strong one, but it has consequences…

As imported goods become the norm, Australian jobs go overseas.

The answer to this problem is simple. Perhaps too simple, as it seems to have gotten lost in today’s Globalised world.

If you want jobs to be kept in Australia, you need to buy Australian made & grown. It’s that simple folks!

We don’t need protests, revolutions, changes in Government, strikes or tariffs. We need Australian People to spend their own money on Australian jobs.

Spend your money on Australian made, Australian Grown, Australian Owned while the option still exists.

Please take a few minutes to check the site out & I’d love to hear what you think of it. Oh, and don’t forget to tell all your friends!
www.ibuyaustralian.com

I’m very excited to announce a new project which goes hand in hand with this site, the Australian Music Database. It’s somethng I’ve been working away at for some time & I can say with great pleasure that it is now open to the public.

The Database is a reference site that aims to list Australian Bands, Musicians, Crew, & recordings all in one place & all cross referenced. One of the things that always fascinates me about our music industry is how interlinked it is & how it is really one great big family tree. This site allows you to follow the career of a particular musician through various bands and vice-versa.

You won’t find the stories that you get here, but I’m sure you’ll find it a usefull reference tool for the Australian music industry. It’s very early days yet but the list of Bands & People is growing daily.

Please take a few minutes to check it out & make sure you let me know what you think of it so far.

A new internet based radio station playing only Australian & New Zealand (A&NZ) music is available to listen to online, at no cost.

The service streams continuously; playing A&NZ Rock, Pop, Blues & Jazz from the ’60s to now, in HD audio. The station exists to preserve, promote and share the great musical talent that generally gets overlooked by commercial media. Content is made up of vinyl recordings never transferred to CD, out of print recordings, rare live recordings; current recordings, interviews and classic A&NZ music from the decades.

Midoztouch Internet Radio can be listened to at http://midoztouch.com/radio Come and (re)discover our great musical talent!

It is with much sadness that I learnt of the passing today of Greg Clarke, one of Australia’s finest Audio Engineers.

I still remember the exact day I met Clarkey just over 20 years ago. It was the 17th March 1990 (I still have the backstage pass!) at Waves Nightclub at Towradgi Beach, Wollongong & he was the sound man for an up & coming band called Judge Mercy. They were supporting a Cold Chisel cover band I was mixing & I still remember at how much sound he managed to squeeze out of that poor PA. It wasn’t just loud though, which was a bit of a trademark of his, but it was loud and awesome! The guy could make your teeth rattle and make you love it all at the same time. Someone once told me that he’d managed to blow up a good chunk of the subs while Judge Mercy were supporting AC/DC a few years back. That sounds like Clarkey!

It was no accident that he would end up working for such legends as Billy Thorpe, Rose Tattoo & too many other quality acts to keep track of. He was very close to Billy Thorpe and was working on his album when Billy died.

He was a guy with great technical knowledge too & proved helpful to me at many gigs over the years but especially in the early days. Sadly, the last time I saw him was at Pat Pickett’s funeral where, despite his own grief, he was running around helping to organise things and working on a video tribute to Pat. That’s the kind of bloke he was. Genuine.

Funeral details:
Tribe we wish to invite you to Greg Clarke’s service and reception to be held in Sydney on Wednesday 8th June at Notes Niteclub 75 Enmore Road Newtown 11 am Funeral Ceremony 12 noon Reception and tall Stories …….. to all those who knew Greg lets send him off accordingly………..

Rest In Peace Greg.

Images courtesy of Clint Braddick

The Zarsoff Brothers have just re-released their “Back Catalogue” album which, as strange as it sounds, is a back catalogue of two E.P.’s. from 1983.

“Bumsweat & Other Popular Filth” was originally released in March of 1983 and a bit later that year they released “Nose Pickin’ Boogie”. For me this is “classic Zarsoffs” as I was a regular punter at their gigs around this time.

It’s been transferred from vinyl but that only serves to make it sound a little more authentic.

Check it out below and grab a copy for yourself to replace the vinyl versions you probably used to have!

Steve Prestwich, drummer for Cold Chisel, has passed away at age 56 from a brain tumour.

Prestwich was known as a powerhouse drummer with a rock solid beat. He was an original member of Cold Chisel, joining in 1973, and was also a member of the Little River Band during the 80′s.

Born in Liverpool, England, he migrated to Adelaide with his family in 1971.

More details as they come to hand

Harvey James has sadly lost his recent battle with lung cancer and passed away last night around 8:15pm. Unfortunately his disease turned out to be inoperable.

Harvey was long-time player in the Australian music scene, having been in popular bands such as Mississippi and Ariel, before shooting to national prominence in 1975. He replaced Clive Shakespeare as Sherbet’s guitarist while they were at the peak of their career.

His Daughter Alexandra released the following statement on Facebook last night.

“Dad passed away peacefully at 8.15pm tonight. We would like to thank everybody for all the wonderful support over the past 6 months. The love has been overwhelming. Rest in peace my gorgeous, funny, amazing father. We will miss you everyday forever”.

There is another benefit concert organised for the 17th of February at the Factory Theatre in Sydney which will feature some of Australia’s finest performers including Richard Clapton, Renee Geyer, Dragon, Ian Moss, Swanee, Kevin Borich and Lindsay Wells of Healing Force. Sherbet themselves have re-formed for the show which will no doubt be an emotional night for all concerned.

It was Harvey’s wish that part of the money raised during the benfit will go to support the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Harvey James 20/09/1952- 15/01/2011 R.I.P.

2010 has been a huge year for Australian Music History and has really seen the site take off. Australians love their music and that has shown up in ever growing traffic numbers. We had to change to a new server this year to help cope with the growth.

Way back in April this site was selected to be archived by the National Library of Australia in their Pandora Archive which we consider to be a a huge honour.

2010 saw the introduction of some new article categories, the main ones being This Month and our Aussie Rock Trivia Quizes which have both been very popular.

We’ve had massive support from contributing authors this year too which has helped enormously. All up there has been 57 new additions to the site this year, more than one per week, which is our biggest number yet.

One of the biggest changes to the site has been the Historical Gig Guide. This database of old gigs has over 800 entries now going back as far as 1971. It has 188 bands and 271 venues & we’ve even started adding whole tours. We’ve also been able to link the database to individual bands and venues to provide even more information. Thanks to all those who have sent over their gig diaries. Most are still in the process of being added so stand by for heaps more.

Last but not least 2010 has been a big year for you, the reader. We now have over 1000 comments on our listings which add a great deal of extra, and often unique, information about our music history. Thanks so much for your contributions and comments. They make the site what it is.

See you in 2011 for an even bigger year.

Cheers, Mark Gibson

Support Act Limited is an organisation I only became aware of recently. It was through hearing about the work these wonderful people did for John Cave before he sadly passed away. They had helped him pay a few bills and sorted some accomodation for him when he fell on hard times. That’s what they do. They help when industry people fall on hard times.

from their website:

Mission Statement

“Support Act Limited is a registered charity and non profit organisation which raises funds to provide relief arising from hardship and/or illness amongst those working in the Australian music industry, the only benevolent fund for this purpose”.

About Support Act

Support Act Limited was formed in 1997 by a group of concerned music industry veterans who could see that there was a definite need for an organisation to assist members of the industry who were in need or suffering hardship. As the baby boomer population grows older, so do our heroes and their contemporaries and many of them were doing it extremely hard.

So, Support Act was born. The Board comprises twelve members. Four of these positions are held by representatives from the music industry peak bodies AMCOS, APRA, ARIA and PPCA and these are permanent positions.

John Bromell was responsible for the original idea behind the formation of a music industry charity which subsequently became known as Support Act Limited. This charity has gone on to assist hundreds of clients who have found themselves in need and we’d like to acknowledge John’s efforts assisted by Jane English and Jaqui Bromell which resulted in the formation of the original Support Act Board in 1997.

To give you an idea of how dedicated and how generous these folks are, today I received an email from Dominic Barbuto who is a member of the “Debonairs”. They assist Suppport Act greatly with their fund raising. Even though Support Act don’t officially help to fund funerals, behind the scenes is another story:

Hi Mark
I’ve been running an entertainment based design company here in Melbourne for the past 25 years, we’ve worked for everybody doing tours, events, TV, Radio, music theartre etc.
I convene the entertainers lunch group, The Debonairs here in Melbourne. Brian Cadd put it together as a lunch for a few friends 7 years ago, we’ve been lunching ever since, it’s now in 5 states with over 2000 musicians/entertainers on our books. We’re involved with Support Act and raise money for musician’s in need. I’m hosting our Xmas lunch tomorrow with around 190 attending the lunch proper and another 100 turning up after lunch for Xmas drinks. A few of the gang are going up for Pat Pickett’s funeral tomorrow and we’re passing round the hat during lunch to help raise some money for Pat’s funeral expenses.
Check out www.supportact.com.au and look up the Debonairs on the site and that’ll fill you in on what we’re about.
Keep me in the loop
Regards
Dom

If you aren’t already a member, then please take a minute to join up and help to support these wonderful people who look after our industry’s vulnerable. You never know, you may need them yourself one day!

A lot of people have been asking about Pat Pickett’s funeral so I thought I’d pass on the details here I received from Greg Clarke.

PATRICK PICKETT’S FUNERAL NOTICE
On behalf of Pam Pickett, and for immediate circulation please.

Our beloved mate Pat Pickett has passed on after a brief illness than none of us, including Pat expected. Pat is an icon of the Australian music industry, and had history with AC/DC, Midnight Oil, The Models, Spy vs Spy, and The Screaming Jets, among many many other bands, and in many roles such as FOH and monitor sound engineer, system engineer, production manager, stage manager, truck driver. Originally Pat was from Melbourne, and in more recent years he was based in Sydney. You name it Pat did it, and in inimitable style. He took young bands and crew under his wing, and he showed them the ropes so they would never forget him.

Let’s remember Pat at his memorial service, which will be held at the South Chapel Rookwood on Tuesday the 7th of December at 10:30am.
Rookwood Memorial Gardens and Crematorium
Memorial Avenue
Rookwood Necropolis
Phone 02 9746 8945

Despite the fact that Pat had a terminal illness, he was completely independent and working right up to the week before he died. His rent was paid up in advance, but unfortunatley Support Act have been unable to help out as they don’t cover funerals.
A bank account has been set up for those able to contribute to the funeral expenses. We are aiming to raise at least ten thousand dollars. Any amount remaining after all the expenses are met will be given to Pat’s family. The banking details are as follows:

Pat Funeral Fund
Commonwealth Bank
BSB 064121
Account 10245472

Any queries regarding this can be directed to myself at admin@audioboffin.com or Geoff McGowan at geoffmcg@optusnet.com.au

Thank you and peace to all.
Greg Clarke