At jakie_em's command

[gemfyre]

The letter that I wrote to 94.5 pondering where all the Aussie music was on Australia Day.



Well, another Australia Day goes off with a bang. Spectacular fireworks and great music. We managed to find a surprisingly good spot on the river and everyone we came across was in good spirits. None of the drunken stupidity seen in previous years.

But I have to say how extremely dissappointed I am that the entire fireworks soundtrack was not Australian music. There is enough great Aussie music out there that there really is no excuse for not playing Aussie music ALL DAY. It's Australia Day, we should celebrate our awesome artists.

As soon as we got back to my friends place (a lovely 5 minute walk from the South Perth foreshore), we brainstormed a list of Aussie artists. Here's what we came up with...

Midnight Oil - I couldn't believe it when NO Midnight Oil was played, and the soundtrack switched to Guns 'N' Roses!
AC/DC
Cold Chisel/Jimmy Barnes
Crowded House
You Am I
Mondo Rock
Daddy Cool
Australian Crawl/James Reyne
TISM
Tripod
Doug Anthony All Stars
silverchair
Icehouse
Hoodoo Gurus
Hunters & Collectors
John Farnham
Little River Band
Moving Pictures
Savage Garden
Masters Apprentices
Skyhooks
The Living End
Jet
The Easybeats
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
The Cruel Sea/Tex Perkins
Yothu Yindi
Johnny O'Keefe
Ben Lee
Frente!
Deborah Conway
Wendy Matthews
Paul Kelly
Nick Barker
Missy Higgins
The Rockmelons/Deni Hines
John Butler Trio
Eskimo Joe
Jebediah
The Cat Empire
Toothfaeries
Powderfinger/Bernard Fanning
Alex Lloyd
Ammonia
Area 7
The Avalanches
Delta Goodrem
Kylie Minogue
The Black Sorrows
The Baby Animals
Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons
Bodyjar
The Waifs
Regurgitator
Happyland
Cordrazine
The Mavises
James Morrison
Tommy Emmanuel
Def FX
Christine Anu
The Whitlams
Effigy
George
John Saffran
The Church
Machine Gun Fellatio
The Sharp
Custard
Things of Stone & Wood
Dave Graney & The Coral Snakes
Spiderbait
Frenzel Rhomb
Diesel
Little Birdy
Mental As Anything
DiVinyls
Kasey Chambers
Valvolux
The Fauves
Caligula
The Screaming Jets
The Triffids
Something For Kate
1927
Men At Work
Killing Heidi
INXS
Noiseworks
The Dandy Warhols
Sleepy Jackson
Natalie Imbruglia
Tina Arena
NOFX
James Blundell
Radio Birdman
Turnstyle
Mark Of Cain
Ratcat
Rebecca's Empire
The Resin Dogs
The Badloves
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs
Weddings Parties Anything
The 12th Man
Sherbet/Daryl Braithwaite
Rose Tattoo/Angry Anderson
Russell Morris
Leonardo's Bride
Bachelor Girl
Frank Bennet
Kate Cebrano
Chiorboys
Dave Dobbyn & Herb
Kim Salmon & The Surrealists
The Dirty Three
The Blackeyed Susans
Ted Mulry Gang
Pseudo Echo
Boom Crash Opera
Indecent Obsession
Kylie Mole
D-Generation
Joe Dolce
Aunty Jack
Normie Rowe
Rolf Harris
Fini Scad
Grinspoon
Sonic Animaltion
Redgum

And that's probably just the start! So explain to me, why can't a station manage to play all Aussie music on our Aussie day?

And a personal gripe of mine. I can't understand why such classic songs must be technoed up, chopped to bits and distorted for the sake of a Skyshow soundtrack. The songs were great as they were written, stop mucking around with them!