Principal Entertainment presents the return of Texas psychobilly legends The Reverend Horton Heat, live in Australia in 2013.

The Reverend returns with his white hot band to deliver the good word from the bible of high-octane rock ‘n’ roll for his Australian disciples this May. Long held as the last true masters of country punk laden rockabilly, The Reverend Horton Heat have built a reputation as one of the most inspiring live bands of their generation, a fact not lost on Australian music lovers who’ve witnessed The Reverend tear up venues across the country making the man and his band a must see on each and every visit.

Breaking outta Dallas Texas in 1985 Jim Heath aka The Reverend Horton Heat distilled a potent brand of musical moonshine blending the finest elements of punk, country, blues and good time hillbilly rock ‘n’ roll to come up with a brew that across the span of 9 studio albums remains as fresh and intoxicating as they day it was bottled.  Building a strong cult following during the ’90s through constant touring, manic showmanship, and a wicked sense of black humour, The Reverend Horton Heat shared with his contemporaries The Cramps, the role of championing this conglomeration of arcane music styles re-imagined to a point where they once again became vital and fresh.

In Adelaide The Reverend Horton Heat will be joined by heavy hitters DOUBLEBLACK, who will bring their white hot, fat backbeat proto-rockabilly to proceedings, gettin’ the rock ‘n’ roll party into high gear. Recently rounded out by former Living End drummer Travis Demsey on the kit and featuring Fireballs founding member Matt Black on guitar and Jason Skewes on the upright, DOUBLEBLACK have a proven pedigree making them one of the most powerful forces on the Australian rockabilly scene.

A born hell-raiser of the non-manufactured kind The Reverend returns with his white hot band and a stellar cast of local acts to deliver the good word from the bible of high-octane rock ‘n’ roll for his Australian disciples this May.

Kryztoff has a double pass to giveaway to the Adelaide show at the Gov on May 30. To win, just let us know at win@kryztoff.com who will be supporting The Reverend by midnight Friday, 17 May to go into the draw.

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An online TV & radio station, a recording studio, an art gallery, a photography studio, co-working space and pop-up stores will all come together at a prime Rundle Street location under plans by local social entrepreneurs Adam Daze and Todd Skipper.

While the State Government has begun work on it’s $1 million investment to develop the former site of Fletcher Jones on the corner of Hindley Street and Peel Street, Daze and Skipper have plans to create a thriving creative hub in the heart of the CBD’s main cultural precinct for a fraction of the cost.

The co-founders of online radio and television broadcaster Soundpond.net have rallied the support of their sizeable online community, all 11,000 online social media followers, and are hoping to crowd-fund to cover their start up costs. “Soundpond.net has always been funded by the community it serves, so using crowd-funding to take the next step just feels right,” says Skipper. “The hub will be completely self-sufficient once it is up-and-running and $15,000 is all we need to cover the outlay of moving into the building.”

After unsuccessfully approaching the State Government for support, Daze and Skipper feel that more incentives should be developed for locally based creative organisations to respond to meet needs of their communities. While Hub Adelaide will operate with support from national body Hub Australia and business partners Microsoft and BankSA, private enterprises such as the Majoran Distillery and The Mill already operate co-working spaces in the CBD without sizeable investment.

“It is a little disappointing the State Government has invested so much money into its own hub project, despite being fully aware of similar private projects in the works,” says Daze. “It would be great to see them show more confidence in independent, locally grown initiatives.”

“Everyone has recognised the migration of young artists and entrepreneurs interstate as an issue, but we feel not enough is being done. We’ve watched many incredibly talented people leave for the East Coast, but we love this city and want to keep doing our bit to nurture young creativity here.”

For further information:

www.soundpond.net

contact@soundpond.net

Adam Daze: 0477176823

Todd Skipper: 0406269453

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Simon Terrill – Crowd Theory Adelaide: Victoria Square / Tarndanyangga (detail), 2013

THE KRYZTOFF INTERVIEWS – 2013

Throughout the year, Kryztoff interviews various performers, artists and commentators. This blog page now brings them all together, with the most recent posted first. Enjoy.

Simon Terrill – photographer of Crowd Theory Adelaide – Victoria Square. In late February as Victoria Square was in its first days of transformation, Melbourne photographer, Simon Terrill came to Adelaide to capture the square in the latest of his Crowd Theory works commissioned by the Samstag Art Museum. See the interview by clicking HERE. (Recorded March and released May 2013.)

Renato Musolino – Stand in actor for Barry Otto in the State Theatre’s production of The Kreuzter Sonata for the Adelaide Festival of Arts. After Otto fell ill, Musolino took up the massive challenge of performing the role with just days notice and in the end making it his own. See the interview by clicking HERE. (Recorded and released March 2012.)

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Carclew Youth Arts is once again offering four opportunities totalling $50,000 to help young South Australian artists excel in their chosen artform.

“Our annual scholarships can be truly life-changing for artists who have already demonstrated commitment and success early in their career,” said Chief Executive, Tricia Walton.

“The money allows them to experience things, meet people and go places they would not have been able to otherwise. Their eyes are often opened to a whole new array of possibilities,” she said.

The four scholarships – each worth $12,500 – can be used for any professional development activity either in Australia or abroad.

·         Colin Thiele Scholarship for Creative Writing

·         BHP Billiton Scholarship for Film and New Media

·         Dame Ruby Litchfield Scholarship for Performing Arts

·         Ruth Tuck Scholarship for Visual Arts

Jazz guitarist Quentin Angus received the 2013 Dame Ruby Litchfield Scholarship.

“It’s been a catalyst in providing me the opportunity to pursue my dreams,” he said.

“It’s helping me get on my feet here in New York and helped fund a mentorship with John Abercorombie and Gilad Hekselman, two world-renowned jazz guitarists who live here. It really did mean a lot.”

For Michael Richards, the BHP Billiton Scholarship for Film and New Media opened doors that would not have otherwise been available.

“It has allowed me to pave my own creative path. I was given a rare opportunity to undergo niche training in 3D and motion control camera systems and bring this back to be used in my own creative work.

“It’s helped propel me on a fast track.”

Nominated by Carclew, both Quentin and Michael went on to receive the Coffee Club Arts Award as part of the Channel 9 Young Achiever Awards.

The scholarships are open to early career artists (aged 26 and under) who have demonstrated excellence and dedication, and who are ready to pursue unique and coveted artistic development opportunities.

Applications close at 5pm, Monday 15 July 2013.

A free information session is being held on Tuesday 30 April, 5.30-6.30pm at Carclew Youth Arts, 11 Jeffcott Street, North Adelaide.

For more information, visit carclew.com.au.

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Cameron Duggan from Queensland came runner up in the competition and Andy Mathews from Victoria was third.

RAW Comedy had its biggest year so far in the history of the competition with over one thousand entrants across Australia in 2013. It is the nation’s biggest, most prestigious open-mic comedy competition. Over 60 heats were held in capital cities and regional centres around Australia in the lead up to last night’s National Grand Final.

“Every Australian state and territory was represented in the truly national RAW Comedy final this year. The standard was high but Demi Lardner was a standout with a surprising, adventurous and very funny set,” said Festival Director Susan Provan.

The night was hosted by (professional comedian and past RAW finalist) Matt Okine and also included special guest appearances by Celia Pacquola and the winner of the inaugural RAW Comedy India competition held late last year, Neeti Palta.

The judges for the 2013 competition were Festival Director Susan Provan, Edinburgh’s Karen Koren, Chortle UK’s Steve Bennett, Soho Theatre UK Comedy Director Steve Lock and ABC TV’s Jennifer Collins.

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Yesterday’s Future Music was again the biggest music fest of the year a hot but otherwise wonderful afternoon and evening in Bonython Park.

Now, Kryztoff maintains its reputation for posting the most people images of any on-line media in the State – this year with over 1000 people featured.

So check the albums out by clicking on your favourite below:

Future Music 2013 – Foam Pit

Future Music 2013 – People Pt 1

Future Music 2013 – People Pt 2

Future Music 2013 – People Pt 3

Future Music 2013 – Artists

Images by Peter Maddern

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In this morning’s Sunday Mail, columnist Peter Goers quips that the Fringe has become ruled by the ‘Garden of Melbourne Entrepreneurs’ providing entertainment for ‘the Great Unwashed’ comprised of ‘comedy and tits’n’’teeth.’

One probably does not need to be as keen an observer as Goers to have picked up on these trends but an analysis of the Fringe program from 2011 to this year bears out his barbs, raising questions of where to now for the Fringe.

After three or more years of very rapid growth, this year Fringe registrations were slightly down on last year’s peak. Over the past two years, ticketed fringe productions (Productions) have increased by around 30% while total ticketed shows (Shows) are up over 50%. But by genre, the biggest increase in Productions and Shows is unquestionably Comedy, with Show numbers up a huge 75%, accounting for over 60% of the entire growth in the Fringe over that time. Comedy now accounts for just over 50% of all Shows.

And Goers is also right to suggest that interstate artists are the ones providing the extra content. Comedy Productions emanating from interstate have nearly doubled in two years, providing all the growth in that genre relative to local and overseas Productions, whose numbers have stalled.

Indeed the role of South Australian artists in the Fringe is one that must be starting to get people concerned. For it would appear the ability of our local performers to contribute to the Fringe has basically maxed out across the board with only Cabaret Productions showing any increase over the past two years. Our share of all Productions has dropped from 48% to 44% and while an analysis of the number of Shows has not been done, anecdotally these must now be well down.

While Comedy has grown massively, as noted other genres are starting to show the signs of stress. Visual Arts shows have declined markedly (over 30%) since the 2011 Fringe and now Theatre is starting to exhibit signs of decline. Over the past two years, the number of Theatre Productions has increased by just 10% and its percentage of all Shows has decreased by about 15% to 17%. Further the number of local productions is now in decline.

While theatre artists are endeavouring to increase returns through longer seasons (up from 7.3 to 8.9 Shows per Production), they are doing so unable to get audiences to pay more for the pleasure, with Theatre ticket prices effectively stagnant over this time. In contrast, such issues are not there for the comedians who have enjoyed a massive 20% increase in their average ticket price over the same period.

While the growth of the Fringe is much trumpeted by the Fringe Office, the strains and consequences of that growth have been less well spoken about. While the Fringe listings grew by 50% between 2010 and 2012, (declared) ticket sales only increased by 20%. Notionally that meant average Show attendances dropped by 20% across those two years. But when one witnesses the hundreds filing into some very ordinary Comedy events at the Garden, one can only guess at how inequitably this average show size is now affecting other venues and performers.

The market is a great thing and we can do nothing to arrest the reality of the survival of the fittest, but with Visual Arts now in decline and the contribution to the Fringe of local and overseas artists along with Theatre effectively maxed out, one wonders what direction the Fringe will now go in. No doubt, as Goers observes, there is a dash to the lowest common denominator of ordinary one man stand-up comedians and that means the Fringe is an increasing distance from its original core and objective.

While all credit must be given to the people who run The Garden, given the rip roaring success of The Barrio, perhaps the time has come for the Festival of Arts to start up its own curated ‘Excess Fest’ to help give better, edgier artists the chance to keep their heads above water at this time of year. Otherwise, this once annual time in the sun for local performers may become like much of the other 11 months of the year. Or, perhaps they will simply see it best to go with the flow and become an interstate artist who comes here as well.

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Yesterday, the great Rucci revealed in the Tiser that the costs of the SMA are now going to far exceed the original $2m budget, thus reducing potential returns to the AFL clubs. By midday, adelaidenow was finally reporting that the Auditor General had questioned payments made by the Government to both the SANFL and SACA for legal and consultants’ fees that were not meant to be part of the public’s massive largesse to this oval development. (This had been commented on in other media a few days before.)

Now this morning the Infrastructure Minister, Tom Koutsantonis, says he is going to look into the structure of the SMA (which reports to him) to ensure the AFL clubs don’t miss out.

For organisations supposedly ‘on the case’ representing the public’s interest it is amazing it has taken this long, for the development of all these problems was self-evident from as far back as two years ago. (This blog raised them then and so we are not being wise in hindsight here.) Of course back then any who raised issues were hounded down – naysayers and whingers – led by the now whistle blower – the great Rucci (ah, the irony.)

First the issue of the SMA’s board constitution. In 2011, when the SACA members were voting on the redevelopment proposal, Port Power had already hit the wall and the deal that its licence and that of the Crows would be sold back to the AFL by the SANFL as part of its agreement to provide bail out funds had been done. (It should be noted that this was not revealed to SACA members at the time of the vote – thanks to a Govt compliant media.)

What that meant was the new, eventual owner of the AFL clubs, (the AFL itself) would not have a representative on the SMA whose board is made up of (only) representatives of the SANFL and the SACA. When the SMA was originally formed, the SANFL was the owner and hence the interests of those two clubs were represented at the board table and thus there would be some certainty about a fair distribution from it.

But with that nexus broken due to the financial problems of Port, the Crows and the SANFL, everyone was back in the same position they had always been – bleating about other organisations ripping money off from the AFL clubs that actually generated the revenue.

The proper solution always required that the owner(s) of the Crows and Power had equal representation on the SMA board (with the SACA.) But the SANFL would have none of it and the State Government was too weak to make it (for fear no doubt the SACA members might tweak to the problems looming and vote the proposal down) and so the AFL put nothing into the whole deal and this problem was always going to arise.

To repeat, this has been inevitable since March 2011, two months before the SACA members vote.

The second issue of the cost blow out of the SMA has also been obvious for 12 months. Mid last year, even The Advertiser trumpeted that the SMA had advertised for three high level appointments, the foremost of which was filled by Andrew Daniels. Well, these guys don’t come cheap and throw in the required infrastructure for them and the idea they could operate on a budget of $2m pa was always ridiculous. (Though the current estimate of $9m seems equally so.)

With the SMA board reflecting their own organisations’ interests, they no longer care what the impact would eventually be on the take for the Crows and the Power. Empire building was always going to be a big risk in this project when you start with the inevitable position that instead of two organisations having two CEO’s plus entourage you would now have three with the total pot of funds to draw on unlikely to be much greater.

What has brought this to a head of course is the failure of the SMA’s marketing campaign to sell its Ultimate and corporate packages. Sales of the former are understood to be less than 50%. This means to fund its own operations, instead of 12,000 people paying it $75 to reserve their right to buy a package, there are now less than 6,000 – a shortfall of around $500,000. So, guess what? The SMA is now trying to claw back more of the total pot there is and the losers are going to be the AFL clubs, not the proponents of this scheme, the SACA and the SANFL.

The problem this whole thing has and which even Premier Rann recognised back in 2009 is that there is no agreement on anything much between any of the parties. (Separate investigations as recently as this past week reveal the SACA has not even resolved within itself basic things like dual memberships and reciprocal rights.) Rann stipulated two deadlines for agreement between the SACA and SANFL and both passed with nothing having happened. Nonetheless, he went ahead with the project.

While it is with great irony that the SANFL and the SACA may be more closely aligned in their interests than ever before (to screw what they can out of the SMA and redevelopment proposal generally – at the expense of the AFL clubs they no longer will have any interest in), the fact they (through the SMA) don’t have agreement to go to Adelaide Oval next year with either the Crows or the Power is a major Achilles heel.

The bottom line is that Rann was right to insist on all this being agreed before the project started but that good idea got compromised by politics.

Now the AFL, with not a spent cent at risk and with impending ownership of both entities, can again call the shots with the very real threat that neither entity will play football at Adelaide Oval in 2014 made plain. And even if some accommodation is made now, the very real possibility of it moving the struggling Power licence to some other place in time for the next TV rights deal in 2017 just gets more likely.

With another election looming in 12 months and this show piece of this Labor Government at risk of becoming a white elephant, one can only expect the price the taxpayer will pay will be substantial to deliver the grail of ‘capital city football.’ Whether there will be anything much left of the current SMA or even the SANFL and SACA by the time the first games of football that are now currently scheduled to be played roll around remains to be seen – the fiscal screw is likely to be tightened massively.

But to be sure, the Government is to blame (including the Federal Government for going along with this state of affairs when it committed money to it as well.) No one should have expended one cent on this project (especially of public money) until all the stakeholder interests and had been resolved and locked in, including significant money from the AFL. (No glee here either for the Liberal opposition as they effectively waved the whole shambles through under ‘Invisobel’ Redmond’s inspired do nothing leadership strategy.)

But all of the local cheer leaders for the project, led by The Advertiser, should have seen this coming (as you can see from the above, it is not rocket science) instead of salivating at the prospect of showing who is boss around this town. The fact that Rucci and The Advertiser are now reporting on the problems shows how far the debate has turned against the proponents, with the new devil, the SMA, clearly established and the fans of the Crows and Port, the battlers for whom the paper will go into bat. The problem with all that is the SMA is made up of the very people Rucci and co cheered from the rooftops two years ago – McLachlan, Olsen, Wicker et al.

That the SACA had a desperate need to be bailed out of its western grandstand debt (that blew out over $47m on an original budget of $70m) and the Government needed a glittering prize finished and ready for the 2014 election should not have driven the timing.

$650m of public money and counting (given the recent legal fee largesse of Part time Pat) is now at risk of going from uneconomic extravagance to white elephant – making it very akin to that other Labor Govt triumph – the Desalination Plant.

As a very great number of those who made comments on this issue on the adelaidenow site yesterday said – ‘Don’t blame me, cos I told you this would happen.’

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TWO DOUBLE PASSES TO EACH OF:

THURSDAY – PREVIEW – TUESDAY 26^TH FEB – 8PM – NORWOOD CONCERT HALL

Brink Productions has teamed up with the English Touring Company in this powerful new collaboration where the story of Adelaide woman Gill Hicks, who lost her legs in the 2005 London bombings, layers dreams with reality, compassion with devastation to build a deeply woven picture of humanity. This show seems likely to be a highlihgt of this year’s Festival of Arts.

THE DEAD ONES – WEDNESDAY 27^TH FEB – 7PM – MIGRATION MUSEUM

Maggie Fischer’s solo show explores death, memory, family and the power of objects through story-telling and photography.

TO WIN, JUST WATCH THE SECOND EPISODE OF ADELAIDE’S NEWEST COMEDY WEB SERIES – SECRET MEN’S BUSINESS – AND ANSWER THIS QUESTION:

CLICK HERE FOR SECRET MEN’S BUSINESS

What is the nickname of Spaz’s mother?

Then email us at editor@kryztoff.com.

Entries go into a draw tonight at midnight.

Winners advised by email tomorrow.

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As readers of this series will have noted, there is a substantial gap between the rhetoric of this Labor Government and realities when it comes to its financial management of the State.

In Part 1, (CLICK HERE FOR PART 1) we saw that no matter how many times the Government produces figures that show how things will soon be pointing in the right direction, since the GFC, Labor just doesn’t ever get there, whether out of malevolence towards the voters or just sheer incompetence. The classic case is cuts to the public service which get big talk but have never happened and any gambling person would do well to bet on their current program of cuts not eventuating either by the time of the election in 12 months (if you can find someone who will back what the government says.)

Then in Part 2, (CLICK HERE FOR PART 2) we ripped apart the spin that Government deficits are okay where the money is put to good economic use. There we showed that this State could have avoided having any increased debt since the GFC if it had simply not spent money on projects and people that add nothing to the local economy – think the Desalination Plant, Adelaide Oval and 10,000 surplus public servants.

This week we look at a similar piece of spin, the notion Premier and now Treasurer Jay Weatherill keeps promoting that his government will not ‘withdraw’ from the economy.

Weatherill’s Silent But Massive Withdrawal

Well despite the massive fear campaign drummed up at the merest hint of cuts (think this past fortnight’s brouhaha over funding for the police), the reality is that the withdrawal of the Government from the public that feeds it is already happening.

Grants

Using more data calculated from the State Budget papers it is clear there is a massive boil erupting around public servant jobs that will one day just have to be lanced.

In the last financial year, the Grants expenditure item – money returned to the community for all manner of projects and purposes was $3.18 billion. But by 2016, the Government projects this will have decreased to $2.87 billion. That’s a 10% decrease.

Meanwhile, the expense of employing public servants is going up by roughly the same amount. Put another way, in 2012, for every dollar of PS wages incurred, 50c would be delivered to the public by way of grants. By 2016, the return drops to below 40c.

What is truly frightening is that from the high water mark of grants to the community of 2010, the annual level of grants drops by $700m by 2016 (56c for every public service wage dollar to 39c – about 30%) but the public service expense just keeps on going up and up.

Weatherill and Snelling before him like to crap on about their ‘5% efficiency dividends’ they are targeting. But efficiency ought to be measured by keeping this ratio about constant instead of ‘nickel and diming’ (where it actually hurts) but ignoring the waste in the public service itself.

So that’s why ‘financial discipline’ associated with proposing to do stuff like shutting down the Cadell ferry and not funding the Keith Hospital looks so silly. But now you have decisions made in a blind panic that will further erode our economic base such as closing a number of the State’s trade offices and the Education Adelaide entity. These guys actually produce income for the state but in Weatherill’s Wacky World, they are a line item that cutting makes him sound tough about.

Capital Expenditure

After managing a capital expenditure program of around $750m pa until 2008, spooked by electoral fears, capital spending took off with the high water mark being the 2010 year (which, guess what, happened to be an election year.)

Then the capital budget had blown out to $2.1 billion but by 2015, Weatherill supposedly under his policy of not withdrawing from the economy is reducing that back by about 50% to $1.2 billion (remembering none of this includes the new RAH). Meanwhile to fund things like the Desalination Plant and the Adelaide Oval asset sales of things that do produce income (the forests, the Lotteries Commission) are being sold off.

Total Withdrawal

So, on these two items alone, compared with 2010 by 2016 there will be a reduction of around $1.75b, representing a massive 10% of the State Government budget. That is, while Weatherill talks of not withdrawing, in truth he and his Government are proposing shrinking what it spends out in the community by 10%. This is very likely the greatest contraction (‘withdrawal’) of government in the nation’s history!

So where is this money going or not going?

One place is into the bank accounts of the lenders to the State Government for its various follies. Between 2010 and 2016, interest expense will have gone up $470m – that is a new Adelaide Oval development (or hospital, concert hall, deep seas port facility etc etc each year) – and all of that is leaving the State having been racked up on dopey, self-indulgences. After 2016, the annual $300m+ bill for the new Royal Adelaide Hospital kicks in on top of that. So, in 2017 our annual interest bill will exceed $1b per annum, up three times in a good deal less than a decade.

Just think about that – $1b a year. Just think about what that could for youth unemployment in the northern suburbs or similar and which by 2016 will be heading into the coffers of banks in Melbourne or London or New York.

‘5% Efficiency Improvements’

So long as the Opposition continues to indulge the Labor Party and the media in talk of about ‘cuts’ to the public service and ‘loss of front line services’ it will continue to flounder. The real debate needs to centre itself not on the size of the government but the scope of the government – that is, what can now we afford to be doing, rather than assuming what we do now is right (and then try to get more blood from a stone through ‘efficiency’ (in the public service? – give us a break.)

Because, for every new piece of legislation or regulation, those laws need to be implemented, monitored and enforced. The debate now needs to be about getting government out of our lives, focusing on what is really important and giving back some portion of the reductions in the bureaucracy involved to the people who carry the can (while former Premiers enjoy their retirement in London.) To take up the thoughts of David Penberthy in last week’s Sunday Mail, do we need five police wandering aimlessly with guns around the Glenelg foreshore on a Tuesday lunchtime or should we be focusing those resources on the blow out in bikie related crimes and misuse of guns?

Only time will tell if the Liberal Party will tweak to this because the contortions they are currently getting themselves into are not going to help get them elected and play nicely into a Labor Party / mainstream media axis of propping up the status quo.

In Part 4 – The Real State Debt

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