Yaeli's Blog

I HATE SELLOUTS!

One of the best youth events in Australia is set to be sold down the river and something needs to be done about it.

Shoreshocked runs during Youth Week each year at St Leonards park. It is an event to showcase young local Australian bands and it is headlined by 2 or 3 bigger Australian bands. In past years we have had bands such as Jebediah, Reservoir Dogs and Machine Gun Fellatio headline. Bands are selected through the Pre-Shocked band competition and the winners play a set on the main stage on the big day.
This event draws thousands of young people each year to celebrate Australian youth week.

You may notice that I have been placing a lot of emphasis on the fact that it is an Australian event. This is because the councils involved in running this event are wanting to sellout. Manly Council (who only came on board for the project this year) are encouraging the other councils (Willoughby, Mosman, North Sydney, Lane Cove and Ku-Ring-Gai) to spend their $10,000 headliner budget on the American band "Strung Out". Apparently they are huge. I have never heard of them. If anyone out there has please leave me a comment and let me know what you think of them. For that $10,000 we could instead get the Australian band Spiderbait, or get Frenzal Rhomb with a support act.

To Ku-Ring-Gai council's credit, the Youth Services Officer, who is Ku-Ring-Gai's representative on the Shoreshocked board, has raised these issues with the committee and is currently fighting for Shoreshocked to remain an event that supports Australian bands.

But she needs our help. To support this cause all you have to do is write an e-mail expressing your concern that Australian live music is not receiving the support that it should be. I cannot stress the importance of local councils supporting the Australian music industry. It could be a band that enters Pre-shocked next year that becomes Australia's next "big thing".

Australia has the reputation of being the country where people get a fair go. So let's give our bands a fair go and support them rather than some unheard of group from overseas.

Any e-mails supporting this cause can be send to yaeli_1@hotmail.com and please put "Support Australian Music" as the subject line.

posted by Olyal @ 9:59 am