Time for a treasure hunt
Always the popular past-time, digging through the racks at a second hand clothes shop can bring about some unusual finds. Finding that piece of high street fashion for a quarter of the price or some obscure, retro shirt which makes you look ‘cool’ can bring a sense of victory and discovery. Not to mention you can feel good if it’s a charity shop because you’re giving back to the community.
St Vincent de Paul in Australia (more commonly known as Vinnie’s) has gone one further in the clothes hunt mission, to encourage more people to get back into their stores over the festive season. If you’ve got mates shopping in a Vinnie’s from this week onwards back home, they could find themselves in possession of a signed bit of clothing formerly belonging to a famous Australian musician.
Artists and bands including Jimmy Barnes, Tex Perkins, Missy Higgins, The Living End and Gotye have all donated some old threads to the charity. The charity plans to randomly place them in stores across the country leaving them for shoppers to find as they sort through what’s on offer.
Imagine how you’ll be the envy of all your mates if you can find John Butler’s old tour shirt with signature and authentic odour to match?
Who’s going to bring it in 2012?
It’s nearly the end of the year and if Christmas doesn’t get you excited perhaps the speculation of the next big thing will. While being named on one of these lists doesn’t guarantee you instant stardom (just add water), it does mean people are starting to sit up and take note of your tunes.
BBC released their ‘Sounds Of’ list last week and now Triple J has given its two cents on the musicians to watch out for. ‘Next Crop’ is around a dozen artists the team at the radio station picked out who they believe might be on the way to better things.
Some previous graduates of ‘Next Crop’ include Angus and Julia Stone, Cloud Control and The Jezabels so it is unlikely they are throwing darts at a board to make their decisions. The picks this year include an indie punk from the Gold Coast (Bleeding Knees Club), rappers from Darwin (Sietta) and folk kids from Fremantle (San Cisco) as well as bunch of others from all over Australia.
The full list can be found on Triple J’s website and is worth a look to find some interesting new Oz music. Whether one or many will create musical greatness in 2012 remains to be seen, but you’ve been given some insider tips so why not chuck a few quid either way?
SLAM goes national
It’s a pretty acronym but what does it mean? ‘Save Live Australia’s Music’ of course. It’s a campaign which has been running for three years to promote and protect live music in Australia. Australia’s live music scene has suffered in the past decade with pubs and clubs fighting challenges like rising costs, government red-tape and restrictions, and the biggest scourge of all, the dreaded pokie machines.
However after some successful years including a 20,000 people strong rally in Melbourne to protest against government regulation on live music, the campaign has spread national. In 2012 the first national SLAM day on 23 February will be held. Venues are being asked to hold live music on the day and the public are encouraged to get out there and enjoy a show, large or small.
This is a brilliant campaign and we encourage you all to get out there and support live music wherever you can, be it in Oz or the UK. Especially Australian music because the live scene is essential to ensuring we keep exporting the top quality music we do from Down Under.