Longing for the day ...

Nice to have a win!

Just read about the impending changes to Queensland's town planning laws, which will create a "cultural precinct" in Fortitude Valley and stop residential developers from destroying live-music development in Brisbane.

I have been a direct victim of this myself, when I was playing in a band on regular Sunday afternoons at Southbank's "Ned Kelly's" restaurant - outdoors on the boardwalk. Perfect for the Brisbane climate. Unfortunately, some redsidential developers cashed in on this lifestyle by building HUGE apartment blocks right behind the restaurant. And as soon as the residents (who presumably bought because of the proximity to the Southbank scene) complained about the noise, the whole operation was shut down. This scenario has been repeated in capital cities all over Australia.

But now, the government and Brisbane City Council have, afgter some intense lobbying led by Q-music and Powderfinger, seen some sense and changed the rules. The new rules allow for venues within the precinct to have increased noise levels at prescribed times - as long as they provid extra noise-proofing and so on.

Not a perfect solution for the musos and their supporters, but better than being continually pushed around by developers trading (ironically) on the promise of cultural proximity.

We'll have to see what happens a year after the laws come into effect in March 2006 ...

Interesting, Mr Murdoch

I notice the first move of Rupert Murdoch's "digital age" has been to appoint a former MacDonald's marketing guru, Joe Talcott, as Australia's new group marketing director. How appropriate!

In the same Media liftout, News Limited advertised for an Editor for News.com.au, an "Advertising Strategy Manager' and two "Advertising Strategists". Coincidence? Or clear evidence that News thinks an online reshuffle and a marketing blitz will win them a better readership? Only time will tell.

At least Mr Talcott is making some of the right noises: "A deep understanding of how consumers interact with all media" is vital to producing a better online product for News Limited - but it's also vital for an effective marketing blitz. Of course, it's also the Holy Grail for media researchers at the highest level of academe and Rupert is not famous for spending money on academic research any more than the newspaper industry is famous for paying attention to what academic research is telling us about the problems with newspapers ...

That said, Talcott's claim to fame at McDonald's was the introduction of the healthier menus in response to growing public concern at the dietary quality of McDonald's fare. Perhaps he can do the same for newspapers in general and online publishing in particular ...

Oh Dear

Seems some people just don't learn.

I was disgusted to find out that Disco music had been played at the Gallipoli Service at ANZAC Cove. As I mentioned earlier, modern music, particularly party tunes like Stayin' Alive, have no place at such a sombre occasion.

The whole point of such and event is to break people, especially young people, out of their comfort zone and confront them with one of life's unfortunate realities. As such, the event has been growing and become a pilgrimmage for Australians and Turks alike - I'd like to go at some stage. Trying to "improve" it by playing disco, even if it was "only as fillers in a wider, more sombre program" demonstrates the worst tastelessness possible from a culture of tasteless marketing.

It's a disgrace and someone must be held accountable for it.

State Against State

As heard on Triple M's The Cage!: Click here to download (MP3, 2MB) or here to stream.

As you might have figured out, I'm a huge Rugby League fan. Grew up with it, dad coached it, used to play it, love it. And the game doesn't get any better than the annual State of Origin contest between Queensland (my home state) and New South Wales (the big-headed tossers from down south). The series is played over three games, usually two in one state and one in the other, each year.

During last year's series, which Qld regrettably lost, it ocurred to me that we'd been playing these games for 25 years, and I started thinking about the great moments in the games and what they meant to fans ... and the opening words of this song popped into my head. Since I was driving down a freeway at the time, this was inconvenient, but I managed to write enough of them down to make sense when I got home.

I'd had this blues-y AC/DC-ish sort of riff in my head for a while and started to play the song on this basis ... and the rest wrote itself. Then I got the idea of playing the song at the games (as the players run onto the field ...) so I thought it needed to finish with some sort of crescendo chant ... you can hear what I mean here (MP3, 1.8 MB).

I then wrote several verses for different purposes - two about the game, one pro-QLD, one pro-NSW. The words are below, but they're by no means finished or final. Let me know what verses you can come up with ...

I sent a version of it to the Australian Rugby League (the NSW Rugby League doesn't have a postal address on their website), the Qld Rugby League and Channel Nine's NRL Footy Show, just in case they agreed with me about how useful the song is ... I'll let you know how they react.

State against State

It all began in 1980. Artie belted Mick.
And every year it's been the same - passion laid on thick.
The skill, the speed, the mighty hits, the jersey worn with pride.
You feel the sound of the roaring crowd cheering for their side

Legendary feats are many. Who knows what they're worth?
Provided by the game they call the greatest game on earth.

It's all about where you come from.
Don't matter who's your mate.
It's State of Origin Rugby League: State against State.

(impartial second verse)
It's best of three, the homeground counts, the winner takes it all.
And every fan knows who will win before they've kicked a ball.
It's Cockies versus Canetoads, Maroons against the Blues.
It's fast and hard, don't give a yard, you can't afford to lose.

It's played by living legends, the greatest of the great.
So come and see the game let's hear you cheering for your state.

It's all about where you come from.
Don't matter who's your mate.
It's State of Origin Rugby League: State against State.

Chant:

Mate against mate. State against State.

Of course, this chant should build from moderately loud into stadium-trashingly loud. It should probably also feature the main vocalist encouraging the crowd to chant ?

(Qld Second verse)
The Cauldron and the Emperor, beneath the Queensland sun.
Big Mal and Gordy, Choppy close, our heroes, every one.
Remember Coynie's last-ditch try, and Alfie's magic feet.
We'll hold our breath for 80 minutes. Victory is sweet.

(NSW Second verse)
The pride of New South Wales, the men who wear sky blue.
There's Bennie, Turvey, Big MG. And Freddy's comeback, too.
O'Connor from the sideline, Loz could lead the way.
We'll hold our breath for 80 minutes, to win the shield today.

********************************

Please note This song is APRA registered: Work ID GW33826741, ISWC T-060762525-1. You can copy, reproduce and distribute any part of these lyrics for any non-commercial purpose as long as you acknowledge its source. If you make something good out of it, let me know and I'll consider adding it to this site.

If you perform it or broadcast it for any purpose, please let APRA know.





License this music for commercial use through Pump Audio









This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

What am I up to??

Thought I'd better bring readers up to speed with where I'm at in this project. I've been rather quiet lately ... sorry.

The short answer is that many things are happening, not all of which seem as productive as others. I've now developed and arranged four songs to the point where I think they're ready for some live hitouts: "Cry to Heaven", "Dancing with the Stones", "Long for the Day" and "Heart's with You". I've made moves to acquire a Laptop and will try to get a live show up and running in the second half of the year - need another four songs arranged like these.

In the meantime, I've got a couple of irons in the fire. The first is that I've paid to include "Heart's with You" - Hillbilly version - in the Australian Music Marketing Abroad brochure for May in London. No idea whether that will gain me anything, but potentially the song could be licenced and become a hit ... so who knows.

The other is that I'm producing a song written about the State of Origin Rugby League series. This year is the 25th anniversary of Origin and during hte series last year I had an idea for a song about it. This seemed like a good time to put it together and see whether anyone's interested in it ... could be some fun to get it played on The Footy Show or something. I'll post it as son as I'm happy with it.

So that's where I'm at. Keeping too busy. Trying to get the job done properly.

If only it was a full-time gig.

Excellent ... thanks, Leigh

I seem to be posting a lot on sport lately, but that's where the most action is happening in my (limited) attention span ...

I was delighted to hear Brisbane Lions coach Leigh Matthews say yesterday that he thought there was to much of the pushy-shovey nonsense going on off the ball in the ALF, too. Nice to now someone in high places in the hierarchy agrees with me!

If they could just stamp that crap out and focus on the skill at the ball, the game would be much more interesting ....

Mea culpa

OK, so that's what you get for writing to whinge before the end of the game - Penrith scored again and I'm a dufus. In retrospect, Penrith did play really well and Melbourne did make a lot of mistakes, but, as Michael Hanagn points out in today's Australian, it's those mistakes during a game that rob players of teh confidence they need to compete effectively, and I have no doubt that the refereeing ineptitude let directly to Melbourne under-performing.

Steven Clark should still be sacked, IMHO.

Wot woz that?

Just watched the NRL Friday Night Football match between Melbourne and Penrith and I don't think I've ever seen a more disgraceful display of incorrect officiating at this level. Picky and inconsistent penalties, non-existent knock-ons, blatant ineptitude - nearly all against the visiting team, Melbourne. Steve Clark should be dropped to reserve Grade next week.

Laying aside the video-referee calls, some of which were debatable but none of which I have a real problem with, this game was decided by the referee. The NRL has invested a lot of money in their video officiating systems. I have always argued that this was often a waste because the decisions made by the guy in the middle during the game often make more difference than whether or not the player grounded the ball correctly. Tonight was a classic example.

Except for two, all of Penrith's tries came directly following a shocking call from Steve Clark: two from non-existent knock-ons and two from penalties that were picky, against the attcking teams and inconsistent given that other examples of the same offence later in the game - from both sides - went unpunished.

It's pity, because this was, otherwise, a great game of football. Plenty of skill, determination ... everything that makes the game great from both teams. More will be said about Clark's performance ... it was worthy of a down-grading next week!

See you later, Casey?

Well, it's increasingly apparent that Casey Donovan Mark 1 is over. For her sake, that's a pity.

Of course the music that she and the Idol gurus produced was entirely forgettable, which is also a pity, but that's the nature of manufactured pop - I'm not that impressed with Anthony Callea, either, but he's selling OK. I just hope that she gets a second chance after spending some time developing as a person and a performer. That voice is just too powerful to let go of ... if only she learns about life and how to interpret songs using it.

I'm still waiting for the producers to do something worthwhile with the interesting members of the Idol finalists: Courtney, Chanel and the Blonde ...

But I'm not holding my breath or looking forward to the next series ...

I'm back

Back from a few days' holiday at the beach. Nice and relaxing. A couple of observations on world events:

1) I think what happened to Nick Riewoldt in theSt Kilda vs Brisbane game has no place in sport. It is a classic example of the macho-bullshit culture that exists in AFL and it is probably one of reasons for the difficulties that code experiences in marketing their game outside Australia (or Melbourne, really). It's one thing to fiercely contest the ball and field position, it's completely another to antagonise an opponent who's nowhere near the ball - and to run some distance to do so is just chickenshit, cowardly behaviour.

I've been starting to warm to the game in recent years but I think that's one aspect that could be stamped out very easily and to do so would make the game much more enjoyable. Let's concentrate on the skill of the contest at the ball ...

2) I feel for Catholics all over the world over the imminent loss of their beloved Pope. I don't agree with very much of what he has to say, or what he represents, but their loss is profound.

3) Great sorrow on the latest Indonesian earthquake tragedy. It's made even harder by the recent Tsunami damage and losses.