Australian News 4/4

Police Call For IDs, Metal Detectors

Police in three cities are using changes in the law to keep nightclubs safe.

Those in Melbourne want “high risk” venues to be forced to adopt scanning equipment that takes data from driver’s licenses and helps trace troublemakers.

In Adelaide, police can enter clubs and, for the first time, have the power to search for guns and knives. Venues can be forced to install metal detectors.

In Sydney, police are recommending initiatives including 3 a.m. lockouts for all venues, capping 24-hour licenses, limiting the number of licensed venues that can operate in one area, and making drinking on footpaths in some entertainment strips a crime.

 

Hollywood V. Aussie ISP

The lawsuit against Aussie Internet service provider iiNet by seven major Hollywood studios began preliminary motions in Sydney.

Twentieth Century Fox, Disney, Paramount Films and Universal claimed the ISP allowed its customers to download movies illegally.

iiNet is arguing that transferring files over BitTorrent on a “one-to-one” basis was not making them “available to the public” under Australian copyright law.

It also maintains its role is not to police its customers, and has in the past passed complaints from studios to the police to deal with.

 

Short Notes

The first round of speakers announced for Brisbane’s Big Sound Music Industry Summit (Sept. 9-11) included Lee Laborde of Live Nation U.K. and Aussie managers Glenn Wheatley and John Watson.

Veteran manager John Woodruff, best known for discovering Savage Garden, sold his publishing company Rough Cut to Sony/ATV Australia for a reported $2.5 million. Woodruff recently sold his radio tip sheet The Music Network to youth publisher Peer Media.

Annie Lennox will do at least one club show during her May visit and appear at the TV awards Logies.

Booking agency Destroy All Lines added Melbourne’s MC Briggs and prog rockers Sydonia to its roster.

Multiple award-winning country singer Rita Schneider, who made up the Schneider Sisters with sister Mary, recently died from pneumonia. Rita’s career, which began in the 1950s, encompassed TV, stage, recording and comedy.

Hard rock band Screaming Jets’ Feb. 6 showcase at Key Club on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip was its first in the U.S. in 10 years. The show attracted members of Guns N’ Roses and Motorhead – and offers from a major label and licensing opportunities with a games company.

The Cat Empire will do a run of dates through Europe in July, taking in the UK, Germany, Austria, and France.

The U.K.’s The Great Escape, held in May, booked eight Aussie acts: John Steel Singers, Yves Klein Blue, The Temper Trap, British India, The Shiny Brights, Cloud Control, I Heat Hiroshima Gurrumul) and eight from New Zealand (Liam Finn, The Veils, Bang Bang Eche, Connan Mockasin, Lawrence Arabia, Rodney Fisher, Charlie Ash and Die! Die! Die!).

Michael Coppel Presents, which sold 500,000 tickets for Pink, is also kept busy with a June/July visit by British comedians French and Saunders. Twenty shows sold out immediately, and five more were added.