news articles 15 april

[Inside Australian Idol]

Shannon signs up for under-age concert at Wests
Thursday, 15 April 2004

WEST Tamworth League Club management have announced a second Shannon Noll concert on Saturday, May 1 – for "the little people".

An open-age, alcohol-free concert will be staged at 3.30pm on Saturday, May 1, with tickets going on sale tomorrow at 10am from Wests.

Children aged under 18 must be accompanied by an adult and tickets are priced at $30 across the board.

"These negotiations have been in place with the Harbour Agency in Sydney since the first Shannon Noll concert was confirmed," Wests' chief executive officer Rod Laing said.

"When we went to put them on sale earlier, Harbour Agency refused permission for us to do that.

"There was a lot of outcry from the community and in media circles about the promoter, venue operator and artist himself 'ignoring the little people' who voted for him in the Australian Idol series.

"This was totally inaccurate, as we had scheduled an open-age concert from day one. We were just played out by the promoter, who kept coming up with all types of excuses, mainly citing the singer's hectic schedule."

Mr Laing said the second concert was "a huge risk" for the club to take, as the club was guaranteeing the same revenue for the open age concert as for the adults-only show that night.

"If the second open age concert is a sell-out, it will prove to be a sound decision by the board of directors at Wests," he said.

"As a parent, I think the decision to stage a concert with no alcohol will be appreciated by many parents with young kids attending the matinee."

Mr Laing said apart from the media hype and fielding endless phone calls from Shannon Noll fans who missed out on the first concert, the club had also received petitions from Tamworth and Oxley high schools with 1000-plus signatures on each.

"It was always going to happen," Mr Laing said.


tamworth.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&category=general%20news&story_id=300139&y=2004&m=4

[Inside Australian Idol]

Manilla has a new Idol
Thursday, 15 April 2004

ONLY a handful of the 150 Australian Idol hopefuls were left standing at yesterday's final cut – and 20-year-old Joel Cocking was one of them.

Born and raised in Manilla, Joel is the son of Thomas and Vickii Cocking, the friendly faces behind the bar at Manilla's Royal Hotel.

Neither Joel nor his parents had any idea he would make it so far – and Thomas and Vickii are the first to admit they had little or no idea what the audition process or the television series was all about.

"Joel told me the other day he had managed to get the day off work and was coming to Tamworth, and while he was up here he might audition for some show," Vickii said.

"I rang him (yesterday) to see if he knew anyone who had gone through to the next round, and he said "No mum, only me".

"We don't know what happens from here."

The judges told Joel he had made it through to the next round of auditions to be held in Sydney in June and that a letter would be posted to him in due course telling him where to go, and when.

"I was really nervous on the first day but (yesterday) was just excited," Joel said.

"Marcia told me I had a really nice voice, but for a while they were a bit iffy about my potential star quality and overall

appearance.

"I'm amazed but so happy I got through."

Joel sang the song he performed at his beloved grandmother's funeral late last year, "Once Before I Go".

A former Manilla Central School student who finished his final year at Oxley High School, Joel performed in many school plays and musicals, and was a member of the Tamworth Musical Society.

He now lives in Drummoyne and admits he has done very little singing in the past two years since he left Manilla to work in the big smoke.


tamworth.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&category=general%20news&story_id=300138&y=2004&m=4

[Inside Australian Idol]

TV's night of nights
By Marcus Casey
April 15, 2004


PETER Wynne is one of Australia's most respected live and special event program producers, the chief puppeter of multi-ringed circuses where Murphy's Law is always among the cast.

The Don Lane Show, sporting specials including work on the Sydney Olympics, the 1999 Tour of Duty concert for Australian soldiers in East Timor, Carols by Candlelight - and on Sunday, Wynne's eighth TV Week Logie Awards.

So here's how he sums up the task: "My little theory is that the Logies is months of preparation, 10 days of anxiety, 24 hours of high anxiety on the Saturday, 24 hours of extreme anxiety on Sunday.

"And at 2pm Monday nobody gives a s---. To me, that's the Logies."

(For what it's worth, Wynne also recommends a diet of fish and salad in the 48 hours leading up to the show, then 48 hours of drinking afterwards).

To the rest of us it's the 46th annual local TV awards ceremony, a night where highly competitive industry players hang out in the same room to see and hear their popularity judged.

It's almost like an annual general meeting where the shareholders are millions of nightly viewers who've voted for or against 12 months of prime time shows via TV Week magazine.

In recent years the credibility of the pewter grey award has grown considerably with the addition of 11 categories judged by industry peers. There's even a pre-show, red-carpet fashion parade by the stars beforehand - another sign, and we're not talking rocket science here but television, of the industry's maturity.

Last year more than two million people watched the red-carpet show and another two million - averaged over more than three hours - tuned into the awards.

Eddie McGuire, Channel 9's human equivalent of a top-range swiss army knife, will be back for his second year as host.

"Last year the ratings were fantastic and everyone was pretty happy, so more of the same this year - and a chance to celebrate the work of the best in our business," he says.

"You don't want to become too serious and worthy about these things, but the Logies are the only real awards in the Australian TV industry - and people like them, so let's play to our forehand."

McGuire as straight host broke a tradition of using a star performer. It was a very deliberate tactic after the mixed reaction to the likes of Wendy Harmer, Andrew Denton and Sean Micallef.

They were funny a lot of the time, but only to some, and not always at the same time. Now two things McGuire can't do - or won't - are sing or dance. "That would be bloody ridiculous," he says.

"Last year we re-positioned the Logies to make more of the stars in the room, the stars of Australian TV, where the focus in recent times was on the host.

"I wanted to simply host, introduce the talent and flow them through the awards."

Wynne won't go into details but promises an entertainment-packed event much more than a here's-your-award, say-a-quick-speech-and-exit-stage-left show.

"Shannon and Guy from Australian Idol are opening the show and it will be a big number," he says.

"(Canadian performance group) Cirque du Soleil is something I'm really looking forward to, as they've created a five-minute number especially for the Logies.

"It's only the second time they've ever created and staged a performance outside a touring show and the first was at last year's Academy Awards.

"Anastasia is performing with a band and Michael Buble has a 30-piece orchestra behind him."

Comedic legend Mel Brooks, 77, will be in town to open the Melbourne production of his play The Producers and will present. And however he decides to do so, it will be funny.

The Logies has long relied on international guests to ramp up the showbiz factor. Once it was cultural cringe-esque, but with Australians all over the global entertainment scene it's more fitting these days.

The fact US and UK programs are among the country's favourite, and always have been, also justifies the OS brigade.

"We're getting back to having a nice complement of presenters, with a big international presence," Wynne says.

The TV Week Logie Awards start on Sunday at 7.30pm with the red-carpet arrivals. The ceremony begins at 8.15pm, and we'll have it covered here at NEWS.com.au.

The Daily Telegraph

entertainment.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4459,9284957%255E10229%255E%255Enbv,00.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

Murmurs. . .
April 15, 2004


CALLING all idiots. If you haven't had the talent to secure a spot on Big Brother, Australian Idol, The Block or Popstars Live but still want to get your head on TV, then Seven's new comedy Hamish and Andy may be your last resort. The show has a segment called Australian Idiot and will be holding auditions for anyone with a unique, bizarre, or side-splittingly funny party trick or act to appear on the show.

The auditions will be held at the Eastwood Masonic Hall from 10am and it's first come, first served. Call [phone] for further details.

dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1266&storyid=1197045

[Inside Australian Idol]

Ten hopes crime pays dividends
Emma Chalmers, entertainment reporter
15apr04

CHANNEL 10 is poised to put an end to an era when it axes the Sunday night movie next month.

The long-held television tradition of Sunday evening flicks will be ditched in favour of a night of crime from May.

For the past week, the network has screened teaser advertisements suggesting viewers have moved on from watching films on television that they have already seen at the cinema, and hinted a change is in the wind.

The Courier-Mail can reveal that in the coming weeks, a series from the popular Law and Order franchise will be moved to the 8.30pm Sunday timeslot.

Law and Order will lead in to another hour of crime with Ten tipped to place a new crime drama at 9.30pm.

The network has opted to launch the first phase of its new-look Sunday lineup on May 2, the same night as the premiere of Big Brother 4 and will schedule the first episode of the Law and Order series after the special 90-minute Big Brother episode.

The following Sunday, the move will be completed with Law and Order back to an 8.30pm timeslot followed by the new crime drama.

It is a bold move for Ten, but one that could pay dividends given that Sunday night timeslots have yielded some of the most popular shows in the last few years including Big Brother, The Block, 60 Minutes and Australian Idol.

However, the 8.30pm movie timeslot can be fickle with networks unable to sustain an audience from week to week because the demographic and genre of each given movie changes weekly.

The Law and Order shows, even repeats, are proven winners and were among the top 10 most-watched dramas for 2003 while Law and Order: SVU continues to be a weekly top 10 performer in 2004.


www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,9280774%255E953,00.html