Music of Australia

To pay our share.

I

mean, also, how many obscure Australian references? Do you stay awake at night poring over old Australian musicals? Is that obscure? No, it's not obscure.

How does he know these things? No, obscure

would be a band like Hunters and Collectors.

So if you listen to this, make sure you check out Chris's show, because there's way more there than I will talk about today.

If you don't know, and it's okay if you don't, I was an active part of the Australian music industry from, well, professionally beginning in 1992 until at least 2014 when I hosted the ARIA Awards for the second time.

But before that and since, I've played in my own bands, played on stage a lot.

I've worked in radio for a long time, worked in music television, worked on Australian Idol.

Songs would come around Valentine's Day, Christmas.

Retailers had to keep clearing space to bring something new.

And new Australian music kept getting a go.

Streaming does not have a shelf life.

Performances for this series will take place Saturday, October 24th at 7 p.m. at Franco Center in Lewiston and Sunday, October 25th at 2.30 p.m. at Orion Performing Arts Center in Topsom.

Other highlights for the season will be a concert series titled Southern Light, Music of Australia in January, featuring works by Tchaikovsky, Annie Boyd, Percy Granger, and others.

A series titled Awakening Hope in March features Jacques Hébert's Rondo, Hommage à Mozart, Ernest Chausson's poem featuring Callie Brennan, violinist, and Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka.

The series finishes in May with a program titled Tribulation to Triumph featuring Alison Loggins-Hull, Can You See?, Robert Schumann's Cello Concerto featuring Fred Edelin, cello, and Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10.

The first [RED] music promo featured heavy guitars and proclaimed the latest in music for music fans, including interviews and live performances.

They explicitly say that they support Australian music.

Their tagline was, "[RED] has cred." You had a soap star, but you also had to have credibility, such was the mid-'90s.

This is Australia's first 24-hour music channel.

ARC, however, didn't have hosts.

They pointed to Red's revolving door of hosts as an example of what not to do.

Both Red and ARC touted their support for Australian music and musicians at their launches.

The music industry, for their part, welcomed more outlets for their artists.

And we were lucky to live through...

the greatest period for Australian music.

I don't think anyone could really argue that we didn't.

No.

Honestly, a couple of days later, this all happened so fast.

I reconnected with another friend, a guy named Pete Rawdashill, who is putting together the Australian Rock and Roll Museum.

And we were talking and he collects all kinds of Australian musical memorabilia.

And he said, I did this great interview yesterday with the wonderful Bob Spencer from the Angels.