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This website brings you the latest Australian country music news. News releases can be sent to news@countrymusicbulletin.com.au |
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Ownership of iconic Big Golden Guitar passes to Tamworth Council Tamworth Regional Council – co-ordinators of the annual January festival in Country Music Capital – are now owners of the iconic tourism icon the Big Golden Guitar.
The New England Highway landmark adds to the council's growing portfolio of country music assets. Council took over the associated visitor centre, cafe and wax museum earlier this year which is expected to reopen shortly after an extended period of renovation which will include a national guitar museum. The centre incorporates the city's visitor information centre. "The (Big Golden Guitar) is seen as an Australian icon and is one of the most visited and photographed sites in Australia," said Bridget Guthrie, Council's Regional Gallery & Museums Director. "Many tourists and country music fans who pass through Tamworth stop to have their photo taken in front of the Big Golden Guitar. The monument was build by former Tamworth Mayor Warwick Bennett and Festival founder Max Ellis. It was unveiled in 1988, Australia's Bicentennial Year, by Slim Dusty. The fibreglass structure stands 12 metres tall and weighs half a ton. First artists announced for People's Choice Awards Organisers of the Australian Country Music People's Choice Awards have announced the first line-up of artists who will appear at the 2020 presentation in January. In alphabetical order, they are Benny Allen, Brothers3, Ian Burns, Peter Dawson, Destiny Band Oz, Laura Downing, Mason Hope, Emma Jene, Shaza Leigh, Dianne Lindsay & Peter Simpson, The Long & Short Of It, John O'Dea and Graham Rodger.
The 2020 Awards – compered by Steve Passfield – will be staged at the North West Church Auditorium in Anne Street at 7:30pm Thursday January 23. Awards will be presented in 10 categories... Best Female and Best Male Vocal, Best Group, Best Album, Best Song, Best Bush Ballad, Best Video and Most Promising Future Star, together with the two broadcast awards, Most Popular Country Music DJ and Most Popular Country Music Program or Radio Station. Tickets for the Awards can be purchased here, or by clicking the link at the website www.peopleschoiceawards.com.au. Pictured – top (from left): Benny Allen, Brothers3, Ian Burns; middle – Peter Dawson, Destiny Band Oz, Laura Downing, Mason Hope, Emma Jene; bottom – Shaza Leigh, Dianne Lindsay & Peter Simpson, The Long & Short Of It, John O'Dea, Graham Rodger. Wests line-up for Tamworth 2020 In the first of a series looking at major Tamworth Country Music Festival venues, we cover one of the biggest, the Wests Entertainment Group. Wests comprises three venues – the original West Tamworth League Club in Phillip Street, Wests Diggers (formerly Tamworth RSL Club) in Kable Avenue and The Courts @ East (formerly the Tamworth Tennis Club), The original Wests venue in Phillip Street has the biggest line-up, closely followed by Wests Diggers. As a much smaller venue, The Courts doesn't usually have entertainment during the Festival.
Major events at Wests for January 2020 include the annual Academy of Country Music Graduation Concert, the Country Turns Pink fundraiser concert, the annual Maton Showcase, Music For Mates 2020 in Support of R U OK and the Tomkins Guitar Showcase. A special event at Wests this January will be Friends Of Goonga's Girls, a concert for Tia and Ellie Hannah and tribute to their Dad Glen Hannah. At Diggers, headline acts include Cornell & Carr, Laura Downing, Buddy Goode, The Gunbarrel Highwaymen (Owen Blundell, Terry Gordon & Reg Poole), The Sherrahs and Rodney Vincent. A major event at Diggers is the annual Aristocrat Entertainer of the Year Quest while Wests will host the annual Mount Franklin Junior Talent Quest. Both Wests and Diggers will have daily breakfast shows... Peter Denahy at Wests and Darren Carr at Diggers. Across both venues, dozens of rising stars and established acts will appear in free and paid shows, including Luke Austen, Catherine Britt, Pete Cullen & The Hurt, Will Day, Jayne Denham, Luke Dickens, Royden Donohue, Libby O'Donovan, Stuie French, The Gottani Sisters, Errol Gray, Johanna Hemara, The Hillbilly Goats, Marie Hodson, Homegrown, Dale Hooper, Travis List, Michelle Little, Finn MacCool, Montgomery Church, Dan Murphy, Gayle O'Neil, Linc Phelps, Wendy Phypers, Dave Prior, Ben Ransom, Sally-Anne & The Rumour Mill, Jerry Salley, Saltbushsix, Lucky Starr, John Stephan, Anthony Taylor, Jonny Taylor, Kaitlyn Thomas, Gina Timms, The Toe Sucking Cowgirls and Tornado Alley Cats. Off country, Wests Scully Park ground will play host to Cold Chisel as part of the band's Blood Moon Tour with special guests Troy Cassar-Daley, Kasey Chambers, Charlie Collins and Paul Kelly. Jimmy Barnes has a strong country connection sharing the Vocal Collabroration Golden Guitar win in 2006 with Troy for Bird On A Wire and band member Don Walker is renowned in Australian country music for his songwriting, especially for the late Slim Dusty, most notably Charleville and Looking Forward Looking Back. Full details of Wests program, event timing and ticket sales can be obtained from the website wtlc.com.au. Pictured (from left): Kasey Chambers, Beccy Cole and Adam Harvey. Tamworth 2020 – definitely happening Tamworth Regional Council – co-ordinators of the annual Toyota Country Music Festival – have answered media queries as to whether the 2020 festival will go ahead with a resounding "yes".
Following a number of inquiries to Council, a spokesman said it was a fair concern that had come about due to the current drought conditions and especially water restrictions around the country including in Tamworth. Like many other areas, Tamworth is experiencing drought but Council has taken steps to ensure that not only is the Tamworth water supply safe for the medium term, extra consumption at festival time would not increase beyond a manageable level. Indeed, Council was at pains to point out that, like many other communities now relying on tourism, not having the festival would create great risk to the local economy. In regard to the water situation, "everyone will be reminded to use water wisely while enjoying activities and events at the festival". Meanwhile, Council has also announced an earlier availability of the 2020 Festival Guide, one week earlier than the previous two years. Posted yesterday to people who pre-ordered, The Guide will be in newsagents and other outlets (hotels, motels, music stores, tourism centres) who have expressed interest in selling the pubication early this week. The official Festival app is now also available for download from the App Store and Googleplay. Tamworth 2020 runs officially from Friday, January 17 to Sunday, January 26 although Country Music Capital has plenty of other activity in January, especially in the week leading up to the main festival event. Weblink – www.tcmf.com.au. People’s Choice finalists After a slight delay due to increased voter numbers, finalists have been announced for the 2020 Australian Country Music People’s Choice Awards.
Several new or relatively new acts – Ian Burns, Destiny Band Oz, Della Harris and Gayle O’Neil – also feature with three finalist placings each. This year’s Best Female Vocal winner Dianne Lindsay features in three finalist placings, one in her own right for Best Female Vocal and two with husband Peter Simpson, for Best Bush Ballad and Most Popular Country Music DJs. Shaza Leigh has scored two finalist placings, for Best Female Vocal and Best Album. See full listing below. The 2020 People’s Choice Awards will be staged in its regular timeslot during the annual Tamworth Country Music Festival, Thursday evening of the main festival week (January 23 in 2020) from 7pm. This year, the Awards will be held in a “newish” venue… the Northwest Church Auditorium in Anne Street, South Tamworth. “Although we have been at this venue several times before,” said Bob Kirchner, a spokesman for the organisers, “the church has built a new auditorium on the block next to the original building. “It’s bigger and much nicer so we’re really looking forward to the 2020 presentations.” The Awards Show regularly has performances by many of the year’s awards finalists and is often touted as one of the best events of the entire 10 days. Here’s the full listing of finalists… For Best Female Vocal… Laura Downing, Della Harris, Shaza Leigh, Dianne Lindsay and Gayle O’Neil. For Best Male Vocal… Benny Allen, Ian Burns, Peter Dawson, Aaron Jurd and Graham Rodger. For Best Group or Duo… Brothers3, Destiny Band Oz, The Long & Short Of It, The Silverline and Souly Us. For Best Album… Brand New Day by Brothers3, Changes by Destiny Band Oz, Ringers In The Sky by Graham Rodger, Two Sides Of Me by Ian Burns and Where Our Heart Lives. For Best Song… Another Day by Brothers3 (written by Makirum Fahey-Leigh & Shardyn Fahey-Leigh), Love Don’t Live Here by Ian Burns (written by Ian Burns), Open Arms by Gayle O’Neil (written by Gayle O’Neil & M Cashin), Roll Of A Dice by Della Harris (written by Della Harris & C Oung) and Sunrise On The Katherine by Graham Rodger (written by Graham Rodger & B Jacobs). For Best Bush Ballad… The Drover’s Friend by John O’Dea (written by John O’Dea) Out There by Dianne Lindsay & Peter Simpson (written by Peter Simpson), Stanley & Slim by Peter Dawson (written by Peter Dawson), Sweet Sugar Cane by Anita Ree (written by Anita Ree) and Where The Three Rivers Flow by Graham Rodger (written by Graham Rodger). For Best Video… Alive by Souly Us, Never Knew I Was Country by Benny Allen, Open Arms by Gayle O’Neil, Peace Of Mind by Destiny Band Oz and Southern by Mark Fitzsummoms. For Most Promising Future Star… Charlie Fittler, Della Harris, Mason Hope, Emma Jene and Aaron Jurd. For Most Popular Country Music DJ… Rhonda Francis (2SSR Sydney, NSW), Alan Gilmour (Today’s Country 94 One, Central Coast, NSW), Dianne Lindsay & Peter Simpson (Australian Bush Ballad Show), Sandy Sweeney (2ARM FM Armidale, NSW) and Pam Taylor (KLFM Bendigo, Vic). For Most Popular Country Music Radio Station or Program… Australian Country Songwriters Show (Today’s Country 94 One), Good Morning Country (CBAA), KIX FM, My Kinda Country (2SSR Sydney) and Today’s Country 94 One. Country stars at Carols
Last night, Adam Harvey headlined an event in Lismore (NSW) while, on Saturday night, Brothers3 (pictured) were special guests at Carols on the Gold Coast. Saturday night also saw Amber Lawrence and Shannon Noll appear at Adelaide Carols by Candlelight. Thursday, December 19, Shannon will join Travis Collins, Andy and Deb Saunders and the NSW State of Origin Team in Taree for Carols in the Park to support bushfire victims. Two of the biggest events coming up are Sydney's Carols in the Domain, set for Saturday December 21, and Melbourne's Carols by Candlelight which always run on Christmas Eve. Adam Brand and Shannon Noll will be among guest artists in Sydney while Travis Collins and Amber Lawrence are on the line-up in Melbourne. Weblinks – www.carolsinthedomain.com • carols.visionaustralia.org. TSA Semi Finalists 2020 Semi finalists have been announced for the Tamworth Songwriter Association 2020 awards and competitions.
Categories are Novice Songwriting (now named after the late Garry Koehler), Youth Songwriting (the John P Toomey Commemorative Award), Lyrics Only, Gospel Spiritual, Bluegrass, Country Blues, Comedy/Novelty (the Geoff Mack Commemorative Award), Country Rock, Alt Country, Country Ballad, Traditional Country (the Bev Daniel Commemorative Award), Bush Ballad, New Songwriter and Anzac Song of the Year. Weblink (for full listing) – www.tsaonline.com.au. Live Music Award winners
For the first time in the Awards histry, the Country honour was tied with Kasey Chambers and The Waifs annunced as joiny winners. Deborah Conway was inducted as into the Awards “Live Legend” hall of fame. Leanne de Souza, an artist manager for more than 25 years and head of the Association of Artist Managers for three years, was presented with the night's biggest industry award. Awards Board Member Damian Cunningham said: “Yet again through the nominees and winners tonight we have seen the overwhelming talent that Australia has to offer!" Weblink – www.nlmas.com.au. Tamworth Festival Cavalcade alert Tamworth Regional Council – co-ordinators of the annual January country music festival – have issued an alert to visiting artists, in particular, relating to entries in the 2020 Cavalcade.
"The online application portal has been 'live' for several months now but very few applications have been received," according to a Council spokesman. "It isn't unusual to have a flood of late applications but it will not be possible now to accept any after January 2." Weblink – tcmf.com.au/cavalcade. |
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At its last meeting of the year, the Council voted unanimously to accept the city's big golden guitar as a donation through the cultural gift program.
Headline acts at Wests this coming January will include Bennett, Bowtell & Urquhart, Brothers3, Brad Butcher, Darren Carr, Kasey Chambers (pictured), Beccy Cole (pictured), Ashleigh Dallas, Pete Denahy, Adam Harvey (pictured), Wayne Horsburgh, Gina Jeffreys, Amber Lawrence, John O'Dea, Jasmine Rae, Aleyce Simmonds and Felicity Urquhart.
As is usual in times of natural disasters like drought, floods and bushfires, pundits often query whether events will take place.
Perennial favourites Brothers3 and Graham Rodger maintain their dominance of finalist numbers with three and four placings each, respectively.
As Christmas draws closer, numerous carols by candelight (and similar) events are held around the nation, and many regularly feature well known and some lesser known country acts.
Judging is currently underway to narrow the large number of competitors to a smaller number of finalists.
Last night, at eight simultaneous events around Australia, the winners of the 2019 National Live Music Awards were announced.
Due to a new security timeframe instituted by NSW Police for earlier submission of Cavalcade drivers licences, applications now have to close on Thursday, January 2.
