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!

Comments

[pooxs.livejournal.com]

so which songs weren't Australian?

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Well in the fireworks soundtrack alone there was a Guns N Roses song and after that another non-Aussie song that I can't recall.

And I'm debating the Aussie'ness of Bond, but I don't really know.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

And straight after they played non-Aussie songs too.

[pooxs.livejournal.com]

one of the people from bond is hayley ecker, she was in the year (or was it 2?) above me at penrhos

sure it wasnt a cover (guns n roses)?

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Yeah I hear Bond is two parts Aussie (and Explosive just rocks anyway).

The song was Live & Let Die, an old Wings song (British band), covered by Guns N Roses (American band).

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

They were talking about the technoed version of Great Southern Land on the radio earlier... (I just wandered in, so not sure which station. Not 94.5, obviously.)

One of the DJs whinged that the whole point of GSL being sung slow and cruisy was that it symbolises our wide open spaces. One of the others then suggested perhaps the techno version was for truckies on speed. I was LMAO, but you probably had to hear it.

[softpaw.livejournal.com]

Wings is Paul McCartney's band...Cant get much more british then a former Beatle.

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

The Dandy Warhols

Um, definitely not Australian.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Eh, I was wondering about that one.

I just had people yelling bands at me and I was writing them down as quick as possible. I actually remember asking, "They're Australian?" and being told "yeah!"

[pooxs.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure baby animals aren't australian, same with ratcat (though I could be wrong)

[annyka.livejournal.com]

Baby Animals are Australian - I'm sure they are from Brisbane

[annyka.livejournal.com]

Make that Perth. Suzie was born in Perth and then moved to London and then came back to Perth and created Baby Animals with some other Perthites... I vaugly remember that now...

[annyka.livejournal.com]

And... RatCat were a Sydney indie rock band

[pooxs.livejournal.com]

really! well, you learn something new every day :P

I always thought they sounded quite american - loved their stuff anyway

[pooxs.livejournal.com]

wow... I only said that because I heard/saw them on videohits this morning, and totally not australian sounding AT ALL

[mix-o-choc.livejournal.com]

You don't have The Waifs I don't think

[mix-o-choc.livejournal.com]

no wait you do! my bad

Think Of The Children!

[mix-o-choc.livejournal.com]

Theres one band you haven't mentioned that like INSANELY successful

THE WIGGLES!

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

baby animals are from Perth... sizie demachi live towards scarboro somewhere and RATCAT were melbourne I think... I know they won a heap of Arias but that doesn't mean much

Re: Think Of The Children!

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

I dont know how well "hot potato" would go down at the sky show...

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

you wouldn't include shannon noll or guy sebastian or Casey Donovan or whoever won Australian idle this year, but you included rolf harris... hmmm

well I guess they could play Jake the peg (diddle diddle diddle dum) at the sky show

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

I think wendy Matthews is a Kiwi, Though am open to correction.

Re: Think Of The Children!

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Their version of 6 Months In A Leaky Boat is pretty damn cool.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

You're probably right.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

I grew up on Rolf. He had many great songs. Jake The Peg being down on the list.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

down as in, not at the top of the list.

Re: Think Of The Children!

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

yeah I forgot they covered that one

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

I grew up on rolf... I grew up on play school too but I dont sing incy wincy spider, like... ever!

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Aww you should.

Live a little!

Hah, I remember when I thought Octopuses Garden was a Playschool song, not a Beatles classic.

Re: Think Of The Children!

[mix-o-choc.livejournal.com]

with theat many drunk people you'd be surprised

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure the baby animals are aussie.

Re: Think Of The Children!

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

hhhmmm I wanna see them try to do the actions now...

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

thats like yellow submarine for me...

Re: Think Of The Children!

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

I like "Hands in the air, rock-a-bye your bear. Bear's now asleep. Sshh sshh sssshhhh"

Re: Think Of The Children!

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

well the actiona go something like...

hot potato is kinda like the mashed potato
cold spaghetti is like wigling your fingers while raising and ropping your hand between your face and your belly-button.
Mashed banana is pressing your palms together and twisting your hands around

hmmm heres something funnier... getting a drunk person to describe the actions... I had difficulties sober