Congratulations to IA music columnist David Kowalski for bagging the #1 top IA story 2024. Drum roll, please! He knocks the top off 2025 with an in-depth into the music match-up for Sydney’s New Year’s Eve fireworks.
HIT OR MISS? NEW YEAR’S EVE FIREWORKS MUSIC
Happy New Year, music lovers! Did you enjoy ABC’s coverage of the New Year’s Eve fireworks in Sydney?
Judging by responses from both social and conservative media, a lot of people tuned in just to make the same old tired complaints about “wokeness”, music they’ve never heard of, or to suggest ABC be defunded.
Let’s look at what was on offer. This year, the City of Sydney spent 15 months and millions of dollars curating a display that leant into the little-known history of First Nations people around the harbour, namely fisherwoman Barangaroo. The 9pm fireworks, known as “Calling Country”, had a specially composed soundtrack by a group of young Indigenous artists, including rapper Nooky and his daughters. The midnight fireworks had a soundtrack by sound designer and composer Luna Pan.
In between, artists playing included Fanning Dempsey National Park, featuring Paul Dempsey of Something for Kate and Bernard Fanning of Powderfinger. They played a few of Fanning’s more well-known songs, a couple from their debut album and a fairly competent cover of Queen’s Under Pressure.
Former Australian Idol contestant, now stage star Casey Donovan delivered the soul with some powerful rootsy tunes. Up-and-coming singer-songwriter Becca Hatch brought fun, modern pop vibes. U.S.-based country star Randy Houser brought straw and dust to the city (I was particularly impressed with his no-frills guitar setup — just a guitar plugged straight into an amplifier on the stage floor!)
In a short set, broadcaster, rapper and member of hip hop crew 3%, Nooky, covered The Hilltop Hoods and Silverchair. We were also treated to Korean-Australian band 1300, who are making inroads in the charts, as well as EDM (electronic dance music) producer Cyril. A thumping set from G Flip added covers of Taylor Swift and Coldplay — so much drumming the teeth of the harbour’s shark population were rattling!
UK megastar Robbie Williams saw in the New Year with a hit-packed set, including a Wilson Pickett cover.
The ABC seemed to have taken heed of last year’s complaints and made sure there were quite a few old-guard performers on stage — insisting they do a few covers. But that didn’t stop people complaining they hadn’t heard of any of the songs. Or that the inclusion of input from First Nations creatives was “woke” and “political”.
Most of the creative decisions were made by the City of Sydney — the ABC making complimentary appointments to the lineup to fit in. Blaming the ABC entirely is ridiculous.
When I was a young person in the 1980s, the saying was that “the ABC is funded on 8 cents a day from every taxpayer in Australia”. Adjusted for inflation, that is now about 30 cents a day.
You can’t buy much in any shop in Australia today for 30 cents (aside from a paper bag in Woolies). With ABC, you get four free-to-air TV channels, plus a streaming service that features thousands of hours of movies and other content, numerous websites with loads of information (not just news) and a streaming audio and podcast site that has no fewer than 15 national radio stations. That’s a hell of a bargain.
My advice to whingeing pundits who suggest defunding the ABC is to find something else in order to amuse yourselves.
HAIL DARREN HANLON
On a recent road trip to Newcastle, I decided to flip around and have a listen to a few radio stations on the Community Radio phone app. I settled on Brisbane’s 4ZZZ-FM and listened to regular Wednesday morning breakfast show Unnecessary Knowledge.
It usually spins loads of cool music and didn’t disappoint, playing the latest from a songwriter that I consider to be one of Australia’s finest: Darren Hanlon.
Hanlon started in Lismore-based band The Simpletons in the ’90s and then forged a solo career in the 21st Century. However, although Hanlon has a penchant for great tunes and clever wordplay, he’s still relatively unknown to most.
New track ‘Good Vibration’ flows like a stream of consciousness over its five-minute run time with lyrics that grab the listener by the scruff of the neck:
‘But luckiness can poison you
And privilege is a poison too
It’s like drinking cheap colourful booze
It gets you high but rots your soul.’
Hopefully, a new album is in the works.
VALE CHAD MORGAN
One of Australia’s hardest-working, longest-standing performers has sadly left the stage for the last time. On New Year’s Day 2025, the man known as “The Sheik of Scrubby Creek”, Chad Morgan OAM, passed away at the age of 91.
Having started his musical journey in 1952, after being dared by his Australian Air Force buddies to go on a national talent quest called Australia’s Amateur Hour (and subsequently winning), Morgan went on to cover every inch of Australia many times, playing his unique brand of humour-laden, tall-story-telling bush balladry for anyone in earshot.
Morgan was always himself. He never compromised, never conformed and never stopped doing what he loved until forced to by poor health. Once described as a “hillbilly George Formby“, the country music establishment never decorated him with awards (aside from one Lifetime Achievement award). Morgan didn’t care. He kept going regardless.
Personally, I have used Chad Morgan’s music as a tool of shock and awe. Dropping the needle on his signature tune ‘I’m The Sheik of Scrubby Creek’ and watching the shocked faces of unsuspecting guests upon first hearing his howling yodel — it’s something one never forgets.
Most of Chad’s classics date back to an era when “political” and “correctness” were just words at opposite ends of the dictionary, never conflated together in contemporary speak.
Some of them can sound a bit off-colour in this day and age. His tales of beer drinking and chasing women sound apocryphal and outrageous (however, they were rumoured to be more fact than fiction).
Morgan had a reputation for being a wild hellraiser until his health started to take a toll and he gave up the booze. In November 2023, he had to cancel some shows due to ill health, giving his last performance on 21 April 2024, 72 years after he began.
Vale Chad. Thanks for the music and your incorrigible spirit.
Until next time…
LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S SPECIALLY CURATED PLAYLIST BELOW:
David Kowalski is a writer, musician, educator, sound engineer and podcaster. His podcasts ‘The Sound and the Fury Podcast’ and ‘Audio Cumulus’ can be heard exclusively HERE. You can follow David on Twitter/X @sound_fury_pod.
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