Australian Music 2005, a year in review

By Patrick Donovan
http://www.theage.com.au/news/music
December 30, 2005

Nick Cave, Ben Lee, Midnight Oil, INXS; now The Veronicas!

The year in Australian music 2005 was a great year for local albums, with Tex, Don and Charlie returning after 13 years, but sadly INXS chose to resurrect themselves through a tacky reality TV show.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis delved into film soundtracks with The Proposition, Ben Lee made the comeback of the year with his big-hearted, catchy Awake is the New Sleep and the Dirty Three returned to form by expanding their sound.

Some classic Australian songs were written, such as Don Walker's Harry was a Bad Bugger, and Dan Kelly's single Drunk on Election Night, which could be a sure-fire radio hit if the chorus didn't refer to our PM as "c---sucker, motherf---er" in a sweet falsetto.

Bernard Fanning, Suzannah Espie and Dan Warner made successful transitions to solo artists, and young bluesman Jaimi Faulkner announced himself on the local roots scene.

The year in gigs began with benefit concerts in Melbourne and Sydney - Wave Aid and The Tsunami Concert - with a re-formed Midnight Oil and Daddy Cool helping raise millions of dollars for the victims.

Beastie Boys, Polyphonic Spree and Slipknot headlined a diverse Big Day Out line-up at the Showgrounds.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds returned to our shores with gospel singers to play songs from their triumphant double CD Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus in one of the gigs of the year.

On the eve of her national tour, Kylie Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer. The tour has been postponed while she receives treatment.

And members of Shihad, Spiderbait, You Am I, Dallas Crane and Mia Dyson formed Oz rock supergroup JC/DC and paid tribute to AC/DC in a blistering gig at the Espy. Encore.

Missy Higgins sold more CDs in Australia than any act, took home five ARIAs, and was awarded APRA's song of the year award for Scar.

Australian retro rock bands Wolfmother and Airbourne signed seven-figure international record deals - and then blew audiences away at the Meredith Music Festival.

In the Year of the Wolf, the 'Mother finished up with more than 100,000 in sales and took out the inaugural J Award for Australian album of the year.

Will next year be Airbourne's? Brisbane pop siblings the Veronicas also inked a major label deal, and after a legal dispute over their name with Archie Comics, entered into a deal that will see them star as their animated hero in an Archie comic book.

Split Enz, Renee Geyer, Hunters & Collectors, Smoky Dawson, the Easybeats and Normie Rowe were inducted into the inaugural ARIA Icons Hall of Fame in a ceremony at Melbourne's Regent Theatre.

Expect another handful to be inducted at the same venue in March or June.

Independent musician John Butler donated $50,000 in grants to indigenous artists, refugees and social activists under the JB Seed Program, the Hilltop Hoods offered grants for emerging SA rappers, while $50,000 is on offer in the inaugural Australian Music Prize for the year's best album.

And local bluesman Jimi Hocking took out the solo/duo division of the International Blues Challenge (IBC) in Memphis, Tennessee.

Digital downloading of music and gentrification of inner-city suburbs continued to hurt the industry as we lost Melbourne institutions Gaslight Music and the Duke of Windsor (although St Kilda's Raoul Records was replaced by Pure Pop Records).

Australians' obsession with personalising the ring of their mobile phones skyrocketed, with mobile phone ringtones outselling sales of singles.

Crowded House drummer Paul Hester committed suicide. Port Phillip Council is considering naming a piece of land near the Elwood canal after him, and Neil Finn payed tribute to his late bandmate in a moving performance of the band's song Better Be Home Soon at the ARIAs.

The Loved Ones' Gerry Humphries died of a heart attack in London.

FMR was sold to Warner Music, which, after the merging of Sony and BMG, has reduced the oligopoly to three majors.

After a 2-year wait, the maker of the ubiquitous iPod, Apple, launched a local version of its iTunes Music Store.

Is it a fad or will it kill the CD market? It's too early to tell.

Music TV returned to our screens with the popular RocKwiz and Spicks and Specks shows. Apparently the ABC has another show in the works for next year. How long before a new Countdown, with a strong focus on music trivia, returns to our screens?

Sticky's top 10

Australian albums of 2005
1 The Drones Wait Long By the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By
2 Wolfmother Wolfmother
3 The Darling Downs The Darling Downs
4 Mia Dyson Parking Lots
5 Tex, Don and Charlie All is Forgiven
6 Tim Rogers Dirty Ron/Ghost Songs
7 Dirty Three Cinder
8 The Herd The Sun Never Sets.
9 Horse Stories Everyone's a Photographer
10 The Devastations Coal



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