From Bunnings throwing a 'biblical' rave to one of rock music's nice guys dropping a lovechild bombshell, it's been quite the week for music news. IA's rockstar reporter, David Kowalski, has the latest.
The Bunnings rave actually happened!
A few weeks ago, I mentioned the idea of a rave party potentially taking place at a Bunnings Warehouse, with Australian dance legends Peking Duk being part of it. The idea, put forward by Brisbane producer Kaila, went viral and even gathered interest from television programs like Channel 10’s The Project.
I am pleased to report that it did indeed actually happen. On Saturday 31 August 2024, the carpark of Bunnings in Preston in the northern suburbs of Melbourne was transformed with a stage and space fit for thousands of revellers and their glow sticks. The 1,000 tickets reportedly sold out online in four minutes, with all proceeds going to Support Act, a charity that supports mental health and financial causes for people in the music industry.
Not only was the event fully supported by Bunnings themselves, but the staff of the store handled ticketing and entry to the venue. Not only that, they even rolled out the barbeques and put on some sausages for the packed house of punters.
Peking Duk member Reuben Styles said:
“It feels pretty surreal that the people of Australia could push for something so hard that it actually happened.”
After the gig, the band commented on their socials:
‘Melbourne, that rave was biblical!’
With this one being such a success, the fans are calling for this to be an annual event, or at least to have one in each state and territory of Australia. I think they should. How Aussie can you get?
Dave Grohl has another confession to make
One of the big stories this week, doing its best to suck all the oxygen out of the news cycle was the report that Dave Grohl, erstwhile elder statesman of all things Rock and Roll, has reportedly been colluding between the sheets with a woman who was not his wife and has fathered a child out of wedlock.
My first thought on this was, “Big deal”. I really couldn’t be bothered with this. Digging into it, the real story is not how naughty Mr Grohl has been, but rather how this is a masterstroke of 21st-century public relations.
In a statement released on Instagram right in the middle of the televised debate between presidential nominees Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Dave admits to his philandering. In doing so, he tackles the issue head-on. He gets to tell the story in the way that he wants it told, rather than it being leaked to the press in unscrupulous circumstances and dissected in all its salacious glory.
The memes in response to this came out thick and fast. However, the best of them came from a bookshop in Sydney’s inner west.
Oasis ticket debacle
Following on from my recent writing about the Oasis reunion, it didn’t take long for the euphoria to wear off and the controversy to begin. In this case, the drama didn’t start from the principal players of the band, the Gallagher brothers, but rather from ticket vendor Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster's concept of “dynamic pricing” for concert tickets, where the price is dictated higher or lower depending on demand, has left a lot of people in a huge rage. Liam and Noel claimed they knew nothing about the practice, or they said they thought it would be a lot fairer to the fans. Demand was always going to be such that the ticket price controlled by a scheme like that was only ever going to head one way — and that was upwards towards the moon.
Surprise, surprise — that’s what actually happened. The fans were forced to wait online in a queue for days only to find that, due to demand and dynamic pricing, the £149 (AU$289) price tag had more than doubled to over £350 (AU$680).
This is not a new practice; it has been happening in the USA for a number of years now. In 2022, Bruce Springsteen found himself in the middle of a PR nightmare after the cheapest seats to his shows dynamically priced up to $1,000 each. His response was little more than “that’s the way of the world these days”.
Does it have to be, though? Is it really fair to have a market driven system that would price out everyone but those with an unlimited line of credit? It would seem to me the only entity that thinks this is a good idea is Ticketmaster, who stands to scrape more from the punters in fees and extra charges than anything else.
This practice has finally reached the attention of the members of the House of Commons in the UK, where they pledge to have an investigation into the practice and with many critics saying they should refund part of the ticket price back to the fans. There has been no solution yet and not even the announcement of a few extra dates seems to have alleviated concerns of those who missed out on tickets the first time.
This is still ongoing. Stay tuned.
Mark Moffatt passes away
This week, we heard news that an Australian music legend had passed away. He may not be a household name, but many of the people he leant his talents to certainly are.
Mark Moffatt was a record producer and multi-instrumentalist, and one with an enviable record (no pun intended) to his credit. He famously produced the punk rock single that ignited the music world in 1976 — ‘(I’m) Stranded’ by The Saints. He went on to work with Swanee, Richard Clapton, Tim Finn, Slim Dusty, Yothu Yindi, Keith Urban and many more.
Over many years, he shaped the sound of Australian music and of country music on an international stage. His contribution is greatly valued and admired. He is a great loss to the music world. Thanks for the music, Mark.
Until next week...
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David Kowalski is a writer, musician, educator, sound engineer and podcaster. His podcasts 'The Sound and the Fury Podcast' and 'Audio Cumulus' can be heard exclusively here. You can follow David on Twitter @sound_fury_pod.
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