Meet your smiling Applecore Organisers - article from the Age - 31/05/08
In cellars, parks and lanes - all the world's a stage for DIY festivals by Chris Johnston May 31, 2008
Musicians Jo Gardiner and Ricky French have organised a four-band festival for a lane near Princes Street, Carlton, tonight.
THE inner-city laneway is as you'd expect - derelict and overgrown, with sprays of graffiti here and there and a soiled mattress slumped in the weeds.
Today it will be transformed. The anonymous lane in Carlton becomes the Loveshack Laneway, a de facto music venue with lights, sound and a crowd. The live music scene has burst out of pubs, clubs and festivals and into unusual and often very public venues. And it's happening frequently - every week and every weekend - in a booming new trend.
There are now rock shows in Melbourne in laneways, parks, shop-fronts, art galleries, lounge-rooms, cellars, backyards, warehouses and disused factories - even under bridges. All operate way under the radar of the established music business.
Jo Gardiner, 28, lives in one of the houses that backs onto the Carlton laneway. She and friend Ricky French, also 28, are putting on the micro-festival today. There are four bands, from 5pm to 9pm, who will connect their gear to a series of extension cords and power boards plugged into the mains at the house. Entry is by donation.
Today is the pair's second laneway show. They have also done events called Applecore - a playful dig on the big dance music festival called Earthcore - with up to 10 bands, 100 or so people, a barbecue and free apples for punters - in backyards around North Fitzroy and Thornbury.
"There's no rules, really," said French, a truck driver and musician. "Except one: no dickheads."
An Applecore was held on the same day as the increasingly popular St Jerome's Laneway Festival, staged in and around Caledonian Lane in the city - an annual event with international bands, sponsors and big budgets. This year, Feist, The Presets and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah played. "It's definitely too mainstream now," says Gardiner. She jokes that she and French set up in competition.
The pair is typical of most young Melbourne indie music fans in that they are not opposed to traditional venues. Nor are they protesting about the corporatisation of counterculture. Like the hippies, punks, straight-edgers and ravers of generations before, they'd rather do it themselves.
It's about music being democratised. In the digital era, where word of an event and music can be shared on the internet, record companies and established promoters need not be involved.
Gardiner and French say this kind of thing would be hard to pull off in Sydney or Brisbane where there are vital music scenes but no culture of support. "It should never actually happen," said French. "But somehow it does."
APPLECORE LIVE CD LAUNCH FESTIVAL 2009 - JUNE 26 AND 27 @THE OLD BAR
Ever wondered what happens to Applecore when the stage is packed up and the yard declared a toxic waste zone?
Well, we move inside and have a live CD Launch, that's what.
Every year the entire festival gets recorded and a compilation CD, featuring one song from each band who played, is made. Hand-made I should add. Screenprinted by a couple of dedicated Applecorians. It looks and sounds amazing. Want one?
200 copies will be made, and will be available ONLY at the two-day live cd launch.
All happening at the OLD BAR, Fri June 26 and Sat June 27.
Featuring...
Graveyard Train
Super Wild Horses
Grand Salvo
Deloris
Thought Creature (NZ) - do not miss these guys
Geoffrey O'Conner (Crayon Fields)
Milk Teddy
Teeth and Tongue
Kid Sam
Deadbeat Club
Actor Slash Model
New Estate
A Dead Forest Index
The Brother Man Dude Show (Brisbane)
Elizabeth Pistol Club
We'll be projecting video/photos of Applecore on the big screen. There'll be a BBQ on the Saturday. We'll all pretend the Old Bar is a backyard and of course you can pick up the live CD.
There'll be 100 copies available on each night only - first in etc...
Slideshow of Applecore Backyard Festival 2009
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Applecore Backyard Festival's Friend Space (Top 24)
Jesus the Arrogant is a One Man Show which tells the story of fictional rock singer Brother Man Dude: from his humble origins as an oddball on the fringes of the Adelaide music scene to mega-stardom. The production is directed by Helen Macfarlane and Mark E. Lawrence, stars Dennis Manahan and features 10 songs played live by a 5 piece band. The band features members of Actor Slash Model.
Rock singer Brother Man Dude’s public image is a curious mix of charismatic religious preacher and radical punk rock rebel. He models his career path on the life of Jesus Christ and will stop at no lengths to get his message and his music to the people. Centrelink fraud, shoplifting and drug use are rife and even murder and suicide are hinted at. Brother Man Dude justifies his unlawful behaviour by saying ‘Jesus was a radical political rebel. A true rock star. He broke the law if it obstructed a higher truth and so will I.’
Having achieved the fame he set out to achieve, will he take his life to its logical conclusion and become a Jesus-like martyr? Where does a career move end and a true calling begin? Brother Man Dude. Is he a sell-out or a Messiah?
Oh i will mr.ricky i will. I'll keep ya updated re:fun Europe times! p.s. If you guys can get a babysitter, it'd be rad to see you at my going away party 30th May at my place xoxo
oh shit i only found out about you guys 3 months too late. perhaps next year we can plaster your backyard with love bites. unless you have another one coming up in 09???
is the launch on 26th or 27th? if it's on the 26th i can make it as i'll be in melbourne - awesome! had such a fun time when i went to applecore 2007 - hopefully might be able to make it again some day. andrew.
New Anonymeye album ‘The Disambiguation Of Anonymeye’, featuring collaborations with Seaworthy and Mirrored Silver Sea, out Monday May 18 on sound&fury (www.soundandfury.com.au). First 50 pre-orders from s&f webshop also receive a bonus 3” CDR of exclusive material including collaborations with ii and Marisa Allen (Bremen Town Musician).
Ricky, you spelled 'organisers' (in the 'About' section) wrong. and to think that back in the day you dared to suggest that you could beat me in a grammar/spelling comp. hang your head in shame.
oh awesome. i’ve never played tennis though – i have a feeling i would be bad at it. Dorian throws better than i do, so i think he will have to compete. it’s never too early to get that high expectations sporting parenting style happening.
hey do you know that i’m hopefully gonna put on summer gigs at Bar Scum? it’ll be like Applecore’s trashier cousin..
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