Brisbane 1985 – 2010 (Thru Dodgey’s eyes) Part THIRTEEN

This is chapter THIRTEEN – to read the previous chapters from the start GO HERE

Vic Kena had been in the ’90’s one of the guitarists in a hard working Queensland covers band, “Rusty and the Ayers Rockettes,” who had been managed by Greg Shaw (who I had played  in a band with in Mt Isa in 1978) from “Shaw Thing” and had also featured Keith Urban in the line up.  (side note – in 2000 Keith Urban  had his first #1 hit, “But for the Grace of God” in the USA Country Music Charts and was well on his way to serious stardom).

Vic was setting up a weekly opportunity for local bands, Music Platform” and we decided that Ellaways Music should sponsor his weekly event and we also merged a monthly showcase for the “best of” and changed it from our monthly Kedron Hotel venue to Paddo Tavern and called it “eFactor Live!”.  We hosted the monthly show downstairs at the Paddo Tavern and would get large numbers on a regular basis.  For those who have dealt with Vic, he was always a gentleman and always there to enable and empower musicians and create a positive, live performance opportunity.

We got the go ahead to develop the first Weekend Warriors program in Australia and we signed our license with NAMM, USA to get it underway in 2001.  The way Weekend Warriors worked was that we would target specifically Baby Boomers (those born approx. between 1946 – 1962).  This group were “post war” babies that saw an unprecedented “baby boom” in the mid ’40’s, ’50’s and early ’60’s.  By the time the first lot were 14 years old it was 1960 and there was a sweeping sensation, “Rock n Roll” across the western world  with bands like Bill Hailey & The Comets, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and every young kid on the block dreamt about joining a band.  That trend continued to explode through the ’50’s and by the late “60’s a whole generation of “hippies” arrived with the start of Woodstock (1969)  and in 1972, Australia’s own version, Sunbury Pop Festival.

Our first job was to find these “past music makers” who were now in their ’40’s and “60’s and try to convince them to get back into a band, for fun. Many had given playing music away (encouraged by their parents) when they left school, got a hair cut and got a real job.  Weekend Warriors was specifically designed as a four week program, where you would come along as an individual, be placed in a band, all musical equipment provided, rehearse for two hours a week, over four weeks, with an experienced music coach and then perform seven songs on stage in front of friends and families.

To make this a reality I had to find some other passionate members to complete our team.  So I started to chat to every one who came into our store, who had grey hair, at Kedron (that was currently being renovated and we had the guitar store, brass & wind all crammed into the piano store at the time).  I had a small marketing flyer that outlined the program and within a week I had found two possible coaches and an admin helper, Craig Collins, who had a wonderful patient nature, as he had returned his guitar amp some seven times to get replaced with us.
The two coaches were both called Bruce.  We knew this might cause some confusion, so Bruce Smith-Cottrell gave himself a new pseudonym, Billy Smithers along with the other coach, Bruce Bedwell.   We discussed a few changes to the format the Americans had suggested and set a date for the middle of the year to get our first “round” underway.  The hardest part was convincing anyone that to pay $250 (it eventually went up to $300 per person) to join a band, an unheard of thing in the music industry.  However, we spoke to many men and women (several were parents of school music makers) over the course of the next few months, promoted it in local papers and started to build a list of about 40 potential people to form five bands.  Of course, they didn’t know each other as yet and all we had were application forms (we didn’t take any $ until they knew it was for them).

The start of Weekend Warriors in Australia. Top left: Craig Collins (admin): Top right: Billy Smithers (Music Coach), Bottom left: Bruce Bedwell (Music Coach): Bottom right: Greg (Life Enhancer)

I am unsure how we pulled this off, because we were not even a “serious” guitar store, however, I had befriended a promoter from Adelaide who had called me about having a guitar clinic with an American guitarist, Eric Johnson, as a way to launch our newly renovated music store at Kedron, plus launch the Weekend Warriors with a jam session.  Eric Johnson was, in our world anyway, a huge iconic guitarist, influenced by Jeff Beck an had a Fender signature guitar named after him, so he was world class.

We set up a stage within the store and had Eric Johnson live in store and because we had all the drums, guitar, bass amps all set up for the first Weekend Warrior jam session, several local musicians got up and jammed with Eric Johnson.  It was an amazing experience and just as it wound down a heap of grey haired, mainly men, piled into our showroom to see what this Weekend Warriors thing was all about.  Billy, Craig and Bruce had put together a basic 20 hit song book so that we could have some immediate engagement and I introduced the afternoon and reinforced that this new concept, Weekend Warriors, was all about having FUN.  Period.

The afternoon progressed and we would have a mix of people jam over two songs each and then we would rotate a new group and mix it up for another two songs and on it went. My new coaches, Billy and Bruce, would casually observe the various skill levels when they jammed and made suitable notes to use later to develop the bands.  The jam session went on for about three hours and we all had the time of our lives.   We could see instantly that many were transported back to their younger days, many not even playing an instrument for 30 or 40 years, just slipped right back into the groove.  The energy in the room with the first 35 who attended was just electric.  We decided we would not place them into bands until next week, where we asked them to return to meet their new band members, coach and decide on their song list.

We could all feel something special about to be born, it was so different to taking music making seriously, we created a fun, ego free and welcoming environment for people to engage in this new whole new concept of “Recreational Music Making” (“Recreation” – refreshment of one’s mind or body after work through activity that amuses or stimulates; play.)   We all knew something special was happening that day and none of us knew where this would end up.  Five brand new Weekend Warrior bands were about to be formed and we had given them a time and a place to meet their new band members in a week…

Go to Part FOURTEEN HERE…

Brisbane 1985 – 2010 (Thru Dodgey’s eyes) Part TWELVE

This is chapter TWELVE – to read the previous chapters from the start GO HERE

The start of this new Marketing role at Ellaways Music for me it was really all about, “hit the deck running”.

Plans were underway to develop a new Brisbane Guitar Festival, a monthly original music showcase, Weekend Warriors and the online web store.   This was the beginning of always juggling many plates in the air at one time.  Or maybe I had always been like this, however, the key to this was to always have fun – and fun we did have.   I also had a visit to the Gibson Factory in Nashville, USA, thanks to Con Gallen, the importer of Gibson Guitars (and Ellaways of course).  My wife, Jul and I, went to San Francisco, LA and Mexico – oh for those great junket days!

It was July 1999 and I had met a young chap at Cybeat, Andrew Roberts and he told me that his newly formed company, Ephox, were developing a new friendly retail “back end” for online web sites and I thought it good to get them in to talk about what may be possible.  Their new startup company was part of an incubation project, Software Engineering Australia, which was a federally funded non-profit organisation promoting startups and software engineering in Brisbane, before the Creative Industries concept (more on that coming up).

Andrew and his programmer, Angus, told us about a new software device they had created called EditLive!     This was going to give us the ability to make changes to the web site, without us relying on a web programmer to make daily updates. (now more common in 2013).  It was an exciting opportunity for us both to work on this  project and we all agreed Ellaways Music was a great partner to utilise to assist in the development of  their software in a real world example.

We started the project in late 1999 and we launched the first web site for Ellaways Music in early 2001.

Our launch was unique, as it was one of the first online web stores in the music products industry and it had a large range of products to sell online.  Our joint launch was at the Queensland Art Gallery, where we had a procession of politicians and celebrities to celebrate our new online store.

Not to get too far ahead of myself, however, back in 2000, the Australian Academy of Music (who had been my client whilst being a rep for Australis Music) had gone into Voluntary Administration.  By 1999 it was the largest independently owned music store in Australia, annual retail (and wholesale revenue) of $16 million (Ellaways Music in comparison was approx around $4 mill in sales in 1999) and had over 80 staff (Ellaways had 20).   John Morris senior was in retirement the previous two years and his three sons had made some major changes in the years prior, moving the store three times in a short span of time, in Spring Hill, and settling on a three story building and a massive store on Leichardt Street, opposite their original store.

There was much speculation around what went wrong with the Academy of Music, even John Morris Senior had written a small 30+ page overview of what had gone down, praising his son’s work, exposing a devious accountant – however he had never acknowledged the amazing group of people he had assembled over the years and how they were the “day to day” health of the business.   From a distance I saw some decisions the sons had made that undermined their own management and staff and investment in wholesale music products that were in direct conflict with major brand suppliers (that they owed large sums too).  It was a sad day to hear about this all going down (only five years after my own business crisis at Music Worx) and in the end the building and music store were “purchased” by Peter Hayward, my old boss who owned Australis Music (see how small this music world is?).

Back at Ellaways Music we had forged a collaboration with four other local music stores from around the outer regions of Brisbane.   I had met all these music store owners over the years and more recently as their rep with Australis Music.   I had always admired a festival in Victoria called – Frankston International Guitar Festival.    It had been running for a few years and was funded by local council.
As a group, we decided to fund it all ourselves and call it, BigFest 2000 – Brisbane International Guitar Festival.
The five stores collaborating were Carrol’s Total Music Solution, Capalaba (owner, Paul Carroll), Music Spot, Browns Plains (owner Andy Neil), Word of Mouth Music, Ipswich (owner, Rob Hassem), Key Music, Morayfield (Steve) and Ellaways Music.

We booked the Waterloo Hotel at Fortitude Valley for April 2000 and had a line up of amazing Australian guitarists, Kevin Borich, Izzy (Screaming Jets), Kirk Lorange, Phil Manning, Phil Emmanuel, Simon Patterson, Deiter Kleeman, along with a host of local guitarists, Julz Parker, Matt Mikkelson, Simon Gardner (how did I just remember that??).   Ellaways Music didn’t have Fender or Gibson (Carroll’s, Music Spot, WOMM all had access) in April 2000 (Ellaways only stocked Ibanez, Yamaha, Maton and Washburn Guitars) but by end of 2000 they had Fender, Gibson and Takamine as well.  We had over 1500 payers on the day and at the end of the day only cost each store $300 each!.  A great promo that only, unfortunately never saw a second year.

At this time we also started a whole new idea called, Klub eFactor.  Being based at Kedron on the northside of Brisbane, Ellaways Music had been a traditional “Mum and Dad” store, it was even called – Ellaways Music, your family music store. The idea of Klub eFactor was to present an opportunity for local artists, preferably original artists of all genres, to perform live at the Kedron Hotel.  We would provide the sound, lighting, gear and artists (musicians) would sign up through the month to perform on stage.  We would feature about 12 new acts a month.   It received some great interest from Radio 4ZZZ, who enjoyed the fact that original music was coming out to the suburbs and getting a few hundred attending each month.  We were also pretty stoked with the diversity of the night too – Hip Hop starting with acoustic acts, moving into Pop, Rock and then Heavy Metal at the end of the night.  It really represented what Ellaways Music was trying to establish.  It was all about the music.

Every few weeks I would continue my emails and phone calls to Rob Walker at AMA (Australian Music Association) in Victoria.   Rob was good at trying to deflect me about Weekend Warriors, however, he gave me promising news at last that the Director of Marketing of NAMM USA . Joe Lamond, was coming to Australia in September 2000 to attend the annual AMAC Conference (the Australian Music Products show) held at the Gold Coast.   Joe had worked prior at Skips Music in Sacramento, USA, running the Weekend Warriors music program.   This was an exciting development, as we would now get all the first hand wisdom from Joe when we met.

I had our little collaboration group still meeting and they were all keen to hear about it.  We all met up with Joe Lamond in September 2000 and Joe handed us a hand book how to run the program.  NAMM had developed a license to allow others to run it in America and we were all excited to know more about it.  We only spent one hour with Joe – and the cruncher for me was his parting line to us.   “Weekend Warriors will become your life, remember it is all about FUN – if you lose that focus it will never take hold, you will be doing it, not for the money, but for FUN, remember that always”.  This stuck with me and I became the obsessed evangelist for Weekend Warriors in Australia.   But first, I needed to convince Ellaways Music we do it, we had a more pressing concern, we had decided to do some major store renovations at our Kedron store and it looked like we wouldn’t be ready to start anything in 2000.  As the year closed in 2000, I had reconnected with an old music friend, who had just started running a weekly showcase, Music Platform at the Paddington Tavern in Caxton Street.

Vic Kena and I had a coffee and a chat that changed  the course of our lives – and was the start of many great music making moments.

Read next chapter THIRTEEN HERE

My Letter re State Politicians Pay Rise to the Premier

When I heard about a 40% pay rise for Queensland Politicians I had already started a petition here – http://www.communityrun.org/petitions/i-have-a-great-solution-to-the-queensland-state-politicians-and-the-upcoming-40-pay-rise?source=facebook-share-button&time=1370233760

I wrote to every politician in my district that was relevant to me.   I also wrote to the Governor General and had a reply saying
take it up with my local member).     Here is a copy of my letter to the Premier – this was my second attempt (then a few days later I received the attached reply).

Today – 1st July 2013 – they announced a pay rise (and shame anyone if they ask for back pay! – what about the increase??? )   – we have just witnessed real GREED in action!!!..

22/06/2013

Dear Premier Campbell Newman,

Several weeks ago I heard about the possibility of a $52,000 annual increase on the backbenchers pay bringing it to $184,000. (40% pay increase)

I have been advised that the former Queensland Labor government in 2010 had opportunity of the increase, however, chose to link MPs to public sector pay rises, through a policy rather than legislative change.

The current government has the ability to amend the Parliament of Queensland Act, as they did in 2012, to change this policy.

I have been informed by your office, that you have not budgeted for the pay rise, and have given information that this is not going to happen quickly.  Regardless of this, it WILL HAPPEN.  It must, as it is linked to your federal MP counterparts through the Independent Remuneration Tribunal.  You say it is not an immediate priority, however, doing nothing, will bring a more severe increase in the future.

I have a great suggestion for you.

If any pay rise is granted, donate the funds to a host of local community charities to address social or community engagement challenges, to be decided by each individual state member in their constituency.

This would show that you are there for the people, showing strong leadership and assist the communities struggling with cut backs and become involved in worthwhile effective local initiatives.

Why is this important?

Universally, politicians have a bad reputation and voters are generally overwhelmed, helpless and under serviced by their local representatives. I have found on several occasions that few members respond to letters that are written to their offices. It is similar to the bad reputation the banks have on not passing on the RBA % as it drops. Is this “fair”?

Here is a perfect PUBLIC RELATIONS (PR) exercise in GOODWILL. Take the pay rise, avoid the backlash by supporting local community groups and increase the kudos of your government.

These initiatives will be applauded and allow trust to build into the reputation of politicians of the future. Our communities need to be prioritised.

Thank you,

Kind regards

Greg Dodge
PO Box 5262
West End 4101