NZ Music In Australia – January/February News

NZ Music In Australia – January/February News

With the year off to a flying start we’ve had to go bimonthly for the first couple of these newsletters. A March/April edition will be hot on the heels of this one, then we’re back to a monthly format. But enough about the calendar, let’s get to the good stuff….

Everyone loves the Finn Brothers, not to mention their ‘Everyone Is Here’ album. It was the sole NZ entry on the Australian Top 100 Albums of 2004 chart, coming in at number 72.

The Top 100 Singles of 2004 chart saw Evermore squeak in at number 96 with ‘It’s Too Late’, with top Kiwi honours going to Scribe – ‘Stand Up/Not Many – The Remix!’ taking 77th place. ‘Not Many’ also came in at no 34 on the Triple J Annual Top 30 as voted by Triple J listeners.

In other radio news, Scribe’s ‘Dreaming’ continued its strong performance, as did Evermore’s ‘For One Day’; P-Money ft Scribe’s ‘Stop The Music’ rolled out across radio; Dei Hamo continued to impact with ‘To Tha Floor’; the return of Shihad was welcomed with ‘Alive’; Definite & Bling picked up some airplay with ‘Damn’; The Feelers’ ‘Larger Than Life’ scored plays ahead of the release of their album ‘Playground Battle’.

Scribe also managed to pack out the Boiler Room at every Big Day Out on the Australian Tour. In Sydney they had to close the doors and bring in extra security as it was overcrowded. At 2.15pm he performed to over 20,000 people. As a result of the BDO tour, the record went up to 27 in the Australian charts and has sold over 55,000 copies.

A quick run through all the charts now, as they stood at the end of February:

Top 50 Singles

#25 – Evermore ‘For One Day’

#38 – Shihad ‘Alive’

Top 50 Albums

#33 – Scribe ‘The Crusader’

#39 – Evermore ‘Dreams’

National Hot 100 – Australia’s National Airplay Chart

#62 – Evermore ‘For One Day’

#73 – Evermore ‘It’s Too Late’

#98 – Scribe ‘Dreaming’

Contemporary Rock Airplay

#21 – Evermore ‘It’s Too Late’

Alternative Airplay

#7 – Shihad ‘Alive’

#16 – The D4 ‘Sake Bomb’

Fast Crew kicked off their Aussie campaign with the release of numerous white label remixes of first single ‘I Got’ to Australian clubs, one of which (the Elite Fleet remix) reached number 4 on the ARIA Club Charts.

Greg Johnson signed his first Australian record deal with ABC Records’ First Edition (distributed through Universal). Johnson’s ‘Beautiful Storm’ single was scheduled for a March release, with the album ‘Here Comes The Caviar’ set for release in May (do Aussies celebrate NZ Music Month?).

The Bleeders played in front of some 35,000 punters on the Good Charlotte tour, taking in some side shows along the way with good friends Day of Contempt. Melbourne based label Casadeldisco Records released The Bleeders self titled 8 track MCD on February 7th, containing tracks from both ‘A Bleeding Heart’ & the ‘So Lonely’ EPs.

One Million Dollars’ ‘Energy Street’ has been released in Australia through Vitamin distributions and the band played shows in Bondi with Lyrics Born and Aussie dub electronica artist DeepChild.

During February The Fanatics played seven shows in Sydney and Melbourne and it seems they were very well received. They play another show at the Espy in April en route to Tokyo.

The Australian Big Day Out shows played host to a bunch of travelling Kiwis including Deceptikonz, Concord Dawn, Scribe & P-Money, The D4, and Evermore.

Lucid 3 played the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne as part of a Waitangi Day celebration for ex-pats.

Batucada Sound Machine squeezed their 15 members onto the floating Aquashell stage in Darling Harbour for four performances during the Sydney Festival.

For more information on any of these artists, please contact their NZ labels:

The Finn Brothers, Greg Johnson EMI

Evermore, Shihad, The Feelers Warner

Scribe , P-Money Dirty Records/FMR

Dei Hamo HiRUYS/Universal

Definite & Bling, The Fanatics capitalrecordings

The D4 Flying Nun/FMR

Fast Crew AKrite/Universal

The Bleeders 1157 Records

one million dollars Sugarlicks

Deceptikonz Dawn Raid

Lucid 3 Lupin

Batucada Sound Machine (unsigned)

www.batucadasoundmachine.co.nz

If you have anything you think should be included in this newsletter, please email steve@nzmusic.org.nz

Steve Newall

Executive Co-ordinator

New Zealand Music Industry Commission

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