Hello Forte Legends!
Welcome back to ‘The State We’re In’. Hope you’ve been enjoying all of the great music in your local area over the winter time… Spring is almost here!
Music Victoria just returned from an epic three-day adventure visiting south eastern regional music venues and industry and checking out the best bands on the second Victorian Music Crawl. A bus full of music industry managers, booking agents, artists and media loaded up the bus at Music Victoria’s South Melbourne office and visited a range of venues including including small and large pubs, a church, a festival site, a community radio station, a mechanics hall, a winery, a café, a radio station, an arts gallery, a brewery, a nightclub and a Mexican restaurant.
Eighteen local acts, representing diversity of gender, age and genres including rock, jazz, blues, performed at 11 venues: Charlie Owen, Tex Perkins and Don Walker, Oh Pep!, The Midwayers, Maxon, Nola Lauch, The Weeping Willows, Young Vincent, Sam O’Connell, Mia Grunden, The Grogans, The Grunden Family Band, Ling Marra, The Stokers, Bleach, Joel Plymin and Gary Watling, JAY (Janie Gordon) and the Strzelecki Stringbusters.
As part of the Victorian Music Crawl, Creative Victoria also offered ‘speed-dating’ sessions to local contemporary music industry and artists. Mornington Shire Council, Bass Coast Shire Council and South Gippsland Shire Council all sponsored networking lunches, and discussed ways that they can support their local music communities. Music Victoria and the national Live Music Office are currently developing Live Music Action Plan templates to assist in this process.
The Victorian Music Crawl is a new Victorian Government initiative to build connections between Melbourne and regionally-based music industry leaders. The third crawl will travel between Geelong and Warrnambool and all of the jewels in between in February 2018. Please contact us if you want to be included on the tour: [email protected]
That’s enough from us for now. We are very excited about heading out to heaps of shows over the next few months, especially as it’s getting a bit warmer (kind of…)!
See you in the moshpit.
Paddy, Al & the Music Vic crew.
Regional member of the month:
Maxon – Mornington Peninsula
We had the pleasure of having Maxon play on our second Vic Music Crawl and we want everyone to know about her! With a voice that will capture your attention and a performance that will leave not a single dry eye, Australian pop artist, Maxon, is ticking all of the right boxes. Sassy, but also classy, Maxon presents an all-new brand of self-empowering pop whilst remaining true to a refreshing and raw style of songwriting.
Check out Maxon live:
September 9 – Baha Tacos with Kerryn Fields and Cookie Baker
September 18 – The Toff In Town as part of the ‘If You See Her Say Hello’ choir
Regional gig of the month:
Tom Lee-Richards, Aireys Inlet Pub – September 9
Head down to Aireys Inlet pub to catch Tom Lee-Richards freshly arriving back home from his European tour! Infectious rhythms, rich harmony and timely drops of silence drawing you in, you can expect sharp, harmonised beat-boxing and live vocal improvisation. Bouncing off the audience any live set involves at least a couple of new improvised worlds of harmony.
Industry updates from Music Victoria
Written by Live Music Professionals Project Manager Sarah Deborre and Office and Membership Co-ordinator Al Parkinson
