Taking care of Business

Rip It Up, Issue 242, 1 October 1997, Page 35

Taking care of Business

ARIA AWARDS WINNERS Savage Garden cleaned up at the Australian ARIA Awards, winning 10 ARIA Awards including — Best Single, Best Group, Best Debut Album and Song of the Year. Paul Kelly won Best Male Artist and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame along with the Bee Gees. As a tribute to Kelly, Crowded House reunited to perform his song ‘Leaps And Bounds’. Crowded House won Best Selling Album for Recurring Dream. Young Adelaide band Superjesus won Best Debut Single and Best New Act. Of the high profile rock acts, Silverchair won Best Artwork, Spiderbait won Best Alternative Album for Ivy & the Big Apples, and even though mega-selling Powderfinger had seven nominations they won nil awards. NZ singer Annie Crummer was nominated in two categories Best Female Singer and • Best Adult Contemporary Album. RIP IT UP READERSHIP UP The new six monthly National Survey.of. Magazine Readership has the total, average monthly readership of: RipitUp moving up by 3,000 to 104,000 readers. MUSIC PROMOTER JAILED Concert promoter Brian Richards (53) was found guilty of 25 counts of fraud to gain $2.5 million of finance to keep his ailing promotion company Music Corporation afloat. Richards was sentenced to three and a half years jail. His lawyer said Richards’ crimes resulted from a desire to “keep his business running rather than any intent to line his own pockets.” THE RETURN OF SIRE The Sire label has ceased to be merged with Elektra and Seymour Stein will now head a stand alone company within the Warner Music Group. Sire has absorbed another Warners label Discovery. Warners saw the A&R whizz Stein (who signed Madonna, kd Lang, Talking Heads, Ramones etc) as “more valuable to the group helming a label with indie credibility.” MUSICAL CHAIRS Delwyn Rees is the Promotions person for Mushroom based at the BMG Auckland office, ... Megan Buchanan has been appointed Assistant to the

Production Manager at the Wellington Festival of the Arts, starting October .13, For Shihad bookings, Megan is still contactable at 021 889 747 or by e-mail at meganb@wave.co.nz ... the new Sales and Marketing Manager at 95bFM is Jennifer O’Hara, formerly at Sky TV ... heavy music mag Rukkus is no longer ... Stefan Herrick (ex Waikato Times) is editing the new Evening Post music and movies section called e*p ... Teresa Patterson has been appointed National Promotions Manager at Polygram and Alistair Cain is now National Sales Manager. FORBES ENTERTAINMENT TOP 40 Business magazine Forbes has published its 1997 Top 40 Entertainment Business earners and their total earnings over the last two years. The music people who made the list are: ?'•••; . 1. (5) Beatles — S9B million (two years’ earnings estimate). 2. (12) Rolling Stones — s6Bm. 3. (15) Celine Dion — s6sm. 4. (16) David Bowie — ss7m. 5. (20) Sting — ss7m. 6. (21) Garth Brooks — sssm. 7. (23) Michael Jackson sssm. 8. (30) Kiss — s4Bm. 9. (31 ) Gloria Estefan — s47m. 10. (32) Spice Girls — s47m. 11. (33) Babyface — s44m. 12. (38) U 2—2 — s4om. (The overall ranking is in brackets) FOREIGN MOVES Keeping an eye on the new Richard Branson label V2. The founder told Q magazine that he forecasts a loss of £lO million per year until 1999 ... EMI boss Ken Berry has closed down completely the Enclave label headed by former Geffen A&R whizz Tom Zutaut ... Geffen has discontinued its arrangement to distribute the Herb Alpert label Almo ... the Food label boss Andy Ross has renewed his contract to run the EMI-owned label for a further three years. Artists include Blur, Jesus Jones, Shampoo, Dubstar and Strangelove ... Motown are still looking for a boss to replace Andre Harrell ... there are rumours that Universal will force Interscope to drop the controversial rap label Death Row ...

Trauma (Bush, Shaquille O’Neal) have split from Interscope, and

Trauma owner (and former George Michael manager) Rob Kahane is “thrilled with the settlement.” No Doubt stay with Interscope (who originally signed them) and Bush will do one more album via Interscope while all other Trauma artists are free to move with Kahane to another distributor ... the Rick Rubin owned American label is no longer distributed by Warners in the USA. NZ ON AIR KIWI HIT DISC The tracks selected for the Kiwi Hit Disc N 0.28 are: Garageland Feel Alright (Flying Nun) * Strawpeople Wings Of Desire ’ remix (Sony) Greg Fleming California Fishing (Felix) Bike Tears Were Blue . (Flying Nun) Tetnus Easy Come Easy Go ■: (Hark) Stereo Bus Be A Girl (Festival) Breathe Truckin’ (Felix) Eye TV Snakes And Ladders - (Antenna) Moizna Keep On Moving (Urban Pacifika) D-Faction Redemption Song (Tangata) Moana And The Moahunters You Haven’t Done Nothin’ (Tangata) Jacqui Keelan I Believe I Can Fly (PhlaxWax) Southside Of Bombay Running (Tangata) Pauline Berry Anybody Else (Scoop De Loop) . Charlotte Yates Console (Jayrem) NZ ON AIR INDIE HIT DISC The acts selected for the third of four Indie Hits Discs are: . Chris Knox The Joy Of Sex Cynthia Should So Tired David Kilgour Locked In Blue Foisemaster Vitamin E Deficiency Go Ask Alice Take On Me Grok Old Grok Two Hawaii Five-0 Kingpin Inchworm Give Up Jordan Reyne Sister Falling Magick Heads Who’s Watching Out For You i Satina Saturnina Annabelle Sugarbug Baby Goes (Spaceman) Tardis Kick It The New Lounge Head Cloth Theo Ray Bang Bang You’re Dead Weta Calling On