Australia & New Zealand: Elton Reschedules, BIGSOUND, Tash Sultana’s Agency & More

The advance buzz on Elton John’s late May release biopic Rocketman is suggesting Oscar 2020 glory.  

The piano man is not taking chances. With the Oscars staged on the same February 8 date as his Mission Estate Winery in Napier, which sold out moving 25,000 tickets in an hour, he has moved it to February 15. 

Two Mt. Stadium Auckland dates on the 9 and 11 are now February 16 and 18.  A third Mt Smart date was also announced for February 20 making it a total of six shows in the country. 

Michael Chugg of Chugg Entertainment observed, “Predictions are Rocketman is going to be one of the biggest music movies of all time.”

Major international promoters, bookers, festival and venue operators, artist managers and marketers were in the first round of speakers for BIGSOUND conference and showcases. 

With this year’s theme being “the artist as CEO”, it is held in the new venue, Cloudland, in Brisbane September 3-6. Also on the list were reps from labels, publishers, synch licensors and media.

From North America were Adam Kreeft of The Feldman Agency, Andy Snape of Raw Power Management, Jamila Lyndon of Paradigm Agency, Jon Halperin of The Glass House, Natasha Parish of Ground Control Touring and Owen Mallon of Paradigm Agency. 

Making their way from the UK will be Ben Coleman of Green Man Festival, Kamran Haqof of Live Nation UK / Download festival and Nick Holroyd of Primary Talent International.

Following two Australian trade visits to South America in the past two years, invited were agency and major event reps Anamaria Diaz of Páramo (Columbia), Brendan Moylan of ECO (Mexico) and Brazil’s Fabrício Nobre – A Construtora Música e Cultura and Nando Machado’s ForMusic. 

Keynote speaker Terry McBride of Canada-headquartered Nettwerk group quipped, “Everybody thinks Nettwerk is an Australian label, after all we have 17 artists from Australia/New Zealand signed already,” and emphasized he’d be scouting for more.

Live Nation Australia & New Zealand appointed Greg Segal to president of brand and marketing partnerships. 

He was managing director of Sydney brand agency mixitup which he found 2006, and in which Live Nation acquired a majority share in 2013. Segal has since led LN’s brand partner program which included telco Optus, AMEX, Air New Zealand, digital firm Spark NZ, Virgin Australia, National Australia Bank and Hertz. 

Segal reports to Alan Ridgeway, chairman of LN Asia-Pacific and Russell Wallach, global president sponsorship & media. 

“Since we originally partnered with Greg in 2013, he has developed world-class brand partnerships for the Australian and New Zealand markets,” Ridgeway said.

After 2 and a half years as executive director, Leanne de Souza stepped down from the Association of Artist Managers to take more interest in her family company, Brisbane-based Nightlife Music. 

It provides music for 1200 venues including gyms and hospitality venues, and invented the crowdDJ app which allowed patrons to pick the music. 

Under de Souza, the AAM developed initiatives as Fast Track which placed members in overseas management firms, wellbeing service Gimme Shelter, Music Passport to make contacts with the US market and Managers Sanctuary which works with festivals to expand members’ knowledge and skills.

Singer songwriter Tash Sultana launched Lonely Lands agency with her co-managers, Regan Lethbridge and multi-divisional UNIFIED founder Jaddan Comerford. 

Based in Melbourne, its senior agent is veteran booker Harry Moore and UNIFIED’s Desiree Venuto as assistant booking agent. 

“Our goal is to give great acts the ability to play in the surroundings that work best for them,” said Sultana. 

The 17-strong roster includes acts who have made a global impact as Sultana, Ash Grunwald, Pierce Bros, Ocean Alley,The Pinheads, Trophy Eyes,West Thebarton  and  Ziggy Alberts.

The international rights to New Zealand musical movie “Daffodils” – which after its March 21 release tallied NZ$1 million (US$659,638) – were picked up at Cannes by UK-based SC Films. 

Directed by David Stubbs, it follows singer Maisie (played by Grammy-winning Kiwi singer songwriter Kimbra) recalling how her parents met. 

It boasts a Warner Music soundtrack of reimagined New Zealand classics by Crowded House, The Muttonbirds, The Swingers, Bic Runga, Dave Dobbyn, Chris Knox and The Dance Exponents.

While police continue to investigate the April 14 drive-by shooting at Melbourne’s Love Machine, a May 12 report in the Melbourne Age quoted unnamed sources that it was the work of two sons of “a prominent Middle Eastern crime figure…with links to an outlaw motorcycle gang.” 

One of the two had been ejected from the club after a confrontation with a staff member and the family plotted revenge. 

One of the club’s security, Aaron Khalid Osmani, and patron Richard Arow, were killed, and four injured, as six shots were fired from a stolen Porsche Cayenne. It is not known if club security had been specifically targeted.