The Latest Music News From Australia: Rob Potts, Splendour, TEG, Viagogo

courtesy Martine Cotton @Music Industry Inside Out – Rob Potts

Late Country Music Promoter Rob Potts To Be Honored At Awards

The late country music promoter and artist manager Rob Potts will be honored with an outstanding services to music gong at the APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) awards. The ceremony is April 30 at the Melbourne Town Hall. Potts died in a motorcycle accident 2017.

Based in Sydney, he championed then-unknowns such as Keith Urban and Tommy Emmanuel. With longtime friend Michael Chugg, he built up a country music touring circuit, debuting international acts like Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Dixie Chicks and an emerging Taylor Swift. This in turn opened doors in Nashville for Aussie acts.

Chugg, applauding the honor, said that Potts died before he saw two fruits of his labors. One was seeing their CMC Rocks Queensland festival becoming a regular sellout and the largest country and roots event in the southern hemisphere. The other was the global emergence of Morgan Evans, whom he managed and is now based in Nashville. Chugg said, “Rob Potts is a shining example of everything that is wonderful about our industry. For many, many years he led the battle to break Australian country music in Nashville and became a board member of the CMA.”

Security Guard Dies, Five Injured After Nightclub Shooting

A security guard was killed, and three others injured after an April 13 drive-by shooting outside Melbourne nightclub Love Machine in the suburb of Prahran. Aaron Khalid Osmani, 37, died from gunshot wounds to the face.

A GoFundMe page set up for his family described him as “a kind, funny and easy going guy.” The other security men were hospitalized; they were aged 28, 50 and 29. A 20-year old woman who fell and hit her head as patrons queuing outside the club at 3.20 am dispersed in panic. At a media call at the scene, detective inspector Andrew Stamper, from the Homicide Squad said, “Those gunshot wounds were from a fairly close proximity … so, you know… horrific injuries.”

Eyewitnesses said four men in a black Porsche SUV drove up to the club, and fired four shots indiscriminately before fleeing. The vehicle was later found burned out. According to media reports, police are investigating if an outlaw motorcycle gang had been trying to extort from the club or if the shooting was the result of any friction in the security industry.

U.S. Fundraisers For Christchurch Mosque Shooting Victims

New Zealand performers based in the United States play two fundraisers for victims of the March 15 Christchurch mosque shootings that left 50 dead. KISS business manager Angus Vail, a New Zealander living in New York, organised the April 17 show at the White Eagle Hall in New Jersey and Jeremy Hammond produced the April 18 show at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. Acts involved in the shows included Brooke Fraser, Gin Wigmore, The Naked and Famous and Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

The American shows are under the banner “You Are Us/Aroha Nui,” same as two shows in Auckland and Christchurch. The April 13 show at Auckland’s Spark Arena sold out 11,500 tickets in 24 hours. Acts included Shihad, Six60, Stan Walker, Shapeshifter, Marlon Williams and Fat Freddy’s Drop, The crowd was encouraged to shout out the message on the white hood of Auckland-based Palestinian DJ Illbaz, “Fuck racists.”

The April 17 show at Christchurch Stadium features most of the acts, but with the firepower addition of Lorde. Promoter Brent Eccles, who worked on the New Zealand shows with Live Nation’s Mark Kneebone, received a text from Lorde after they were announced. He recalled, “She said, ‘Hey, I can’t do Auckland but I can come back and do Christchurch’ “I was like really? Really?! Okay – yeah!”

NZ Government Agency Wins Viagogo Legal Round

The New Zealand Commerce Commission has been allowed to appeal a February 2019 high court ruling that declined to issue an interim injunction against Viagogo. The government agency wanted an injunction similar to that granted to the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority to force the secondary ticketing platform to make some of its language on its website less confusing to customers. The high court declined the request over jurisdiction matters to do with Viagogo’s home base of Sweden, rather than over any validity of the agency’s arguments.

Splendour In The Grass Sells Out In Five Hours

Zak Kaczmarek / Getty Images – Splendour In The Grass 2018

In its 19th year, the 2019 version of the Splendour In The Grass festival in Byron Bay expanded its capacity to 42,500 – but that didn’t stop the multi-day event in July from hitting capacity in five hours. It follows a court win it had when it was allowed after a lengthy process to keep North Byron Parklands as its permanent site. Co-producers Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco said, “The increased capacity along with our new Time To Pay plan have made Splendour more accessible than ever before. Splendour 2019 will be our biggest event yet and once again we’re truly humbled by the incredible support from our Splendour community.”

TEG Wins International Ticketing Award

TEG, leading Asia-Pacific ticketing, live entertainment and data analytics business took out Ticketing Business of the Year at the Ticketing Business Forum international awards in Manchester, UK, attended by 500 ticketing and tech companies. COO Cameron Hoy was on hand to receive the honor. TEG’s Sydney-based CEO Geoff Jones said, “Our ticketing business spans the past 40 years from the birth of Ticketek in Australia. I am proud that an Australian company that is committed to home-grown ticketing technology development and innovation has won this global award.”

TEG includes Ticketek Australia, Ticketek New Zealand, Eventopia, international ticketing platform Softix, which provides licensed services in Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East, and TEG-owned ticketing businesses TicketCharge in Malaysia, Ticketek Singapore and Ticketworld in the Philippines.