There were designers, artists, graffiti writers, musos, type enthusiasts, the curious and everyone in between at the GO FONT UR SELF* art exhibition proudly presented by Kirin © on 15th October. Sydney’s Peer Gallery saw over 500 punters come through the door, as 15 artists from around the globe showcased their love for letters, fonts and typography with original pieces showcased at the first GO FONT UR SELF* exhibition.

GO FONT UR SELF* is dedicated to exploring and pushing the diverse range of techniques employed in type design of past, present and future through original pieces of work from talented typographers. Whether it’s in the sweeping strokes and swashes or pixelated punctuation; the alphabet becomes the source for exploring lyrical modes of visual expression.

Providing the soundtrack was Sydney’s dynamic DJ duo, Bad Wives spinning the tracks as the font-loving community enjoyed a free sausage sizzle and cold Kirin beer.

The highlight of the evening was Japanese Calligrapher Junko Azukawa, putting on calligraphy demonstrations and creating individual pieces of art for anyone who asked nicely. People waited up to 40 mins in line for a piece of beautiful handwritten Japanese art.

The night peaked and the gallery was packed from ear to ear, a testament to how quickly the exhibition has grown from its humble beginnings back in February.

Look out Melbourne and Brisbane, we’re coming to a gallery near you! For details, images, past exhibitions and art visit www.gofonturself.com.au.

WATCH OUT!

FROM LONDON, NEW YORK, HONG KONG & PARIS, NOW SYDNEY WELCOMES THE G-SHOCK: SHOCK THE WORLD TOUR

www.g-shocksydney.com

Japanese electronics giant Casio are celebrating the evolution of their iconic G-SHOCK watch with the G-SHOCK: Shock The World Tour Sydney. The tour has already been through London, New York, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Shanghai and now it’s coming down under. Sydney will host the event, which will take place on Thursday 19th November 2009 at CarriageWorks. There will be a special guest appearance by the man who designed the very first G-SHOCK watch, Japanese engineer and ‘Father of G-SHOCK’ Kikuo Ibe, plus a live DJ set from Australian DMC champion DJ Dexter, Sydney girls Hoops DJs and Melbourne’s M.A.F.I.A.

The G-SHOCK watch is at the forefront of modern design; it’s highly functional and durable and its connection to fashion, sports, art and music has grown over the years and has evolved from an extreme sports watch to be a fashion staple must have. The evening will be a showcase of the latest timepieces, collaborative designs and evolutionary technology.

To win tickets to the event, consumers simply purchase a G-SHOCK watch from participating stores and enter their details at www.g-shocksydney.com.

G-SHOCK watches first appeared in 1983. Mr Ibe wanted to invent a brand of watch that was ‘shock’ resistant and durable. 26 years on, G-SHOCK watches are one of the toughest timepieces available. They are 200m water resistant and suitable for any extreme sporting lifestyle. Rising in popularity in the 90s, Casio saw over 220 new models released in one year during 1998, and G-SHOCK has collaborated with many designers, musicians and celebrities to release limited edition models and custom designs.

For more information on the G-SHOCK: Shock The World Tour Sydney visit www.g-shocksydney.com. For information on products or brands visit www.casio.com.

-ENDS-

For more information, interviews or Q&As with Kikuo Ibe, images, or media tickets to G-SHOCK: Shock The World Tour in Sydney contact Hannah Cooper: hannah@peergroupmedia.com / 02 9552 6333 / 0431 985 018.

Big Day Out’s line up for 2010 is bigger and better than ever!

This is set to be one of their strongest line-ups ever for one of the biggest parties in the world.

Muse

Powderfinger

Lily Allen

Eskimo Joe

Groove Armada

Grinspoon

The Mars Volta

Ladyhawke

Dizzee Rascal

Karnivool

Peaches

The Temper Trap

Kasabian

Midnight Juggernauts

Rise Against

Magic Dirt

Mastodon

Lisa Mitchell

The Horrors

Calvin Harris

Kisschasy

The Decemberists

Tame Impala

Bluejuice

Girl Talk

The BDO 2010 dates are as follows:

- Friday January 15th: Auckland Mt Smart Stadium. Maurice Rd, Penrose. Tickets are $132 +bf.

- Sunday January 17th: Gold Coast Parklands. Smith St, Southport. Tickets are $140 (inc GST) +bf.

- Friday January 22nd: Sydney Showground. Showground Rd, Sydney Olympic Park. Tickets are $140 (inc GST) +bf.

- Tuesday January 26th: Melbourne Flemington Racecourse. Epsom Rd, Flemington. Tickets are $140 (inc GST) +bf.

- Friday January 29th: Adelaide Showground. Rose Tce, Wayville. Tickets are $140 (inc GST) +bf.

- Sunday January 31st: Perth Claremont Showground. Graylands Rd, Claremont. Tickets are $140 (inc GST) +bf.

Tickets go on sale:

- Sydney: Wednesday 7th October 2009

- Gold Coast: Thursday 8th October 2009

- Auckland, Melbourne, Adelaide & Perth: Friday 9th October 2009

For more information, check out the website www.bigdayout.com

By Kathy McCabe, Music Editor, From: The Daily Telegraph, September 26, 2009 12:00AM

POOR Lily Allen. Smart, pretty and talented, she has become a household name with both her sharp-witted pop music and relentlessly shared opinions. But now the world hates her. Well, the millions in the world who are thieves and don’t like being called thieves hate her.

Yep, you on the BitTorrent site – you are a thief. Just as surely as if you walked into David Jones and nicked a T-shirt, you have stolen someone else’s property.

Allen stuck her neck out and has sustained multiple metaphoric stab wounds because she supports a public campaign against illegal file-sharing.
The abuse she copped after outlining her arguments reached such proportions she has now shut her down her blog.

“The days of me making money from recording music has been and gone as far as I’m concerned … Slagging me, my music and my so-called ‘family connections’ off, and calling me a government puppet is not going to get anyone anywhere, so stop it,” she wrote.

“I think people assume we artists are a lot richer than you think we are, please bear in mind this doesn’t have anything to do with me or my wealth.”

She’s right. It doesn’t have anything to do with wealth in the same way that none of us are doing our day jobs for free.

The problem with the debate about illegal file-sharing is that it falls on the deaf ears of those who prefer to enjoy their aural pleasures for free. They feel entitled to go to any one of the thousands of sites where you can download a song without supplying a credit card number. They don’t want to understand the issues of copyright and intellectual property. An entire generation now consumes their music via peer-to-peer file-sharing sites and steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the moral and legal implications of not paying for music. Recognising growth in the P2P market, trade magazine The Music Network publishes a TopSwaps chart which monitors the number of songs downloaded from file-sharing sites each week.

Last week, there were more than 608,000 copies of the Black Eyed Peas hit I Gotta Feeling downloaded in Australia. That compares to more than 140,000 copies of the smash hit paid for since it was released 15 weeks ago.

Peer Group’s Andrew Reid, who introduced the research to The Music Network, said the ratio of illegal downloads to sales in Australia is about 20 to 1 and the size of our market is equivalent to that of Chicago. Each day in the US, there are more than 2.5 million songs accessed on file-sharing sites. Reid said your average consumer of music on these sites is a 16 to 25-year-old male.

“It’s a little more complicated because there are a few more steps involved than just going to a site and pulling down a song. You have to download the player onto your computer and know where to find the tracks,” he said.

The good news for the artists and the labels who invest in them is about 60 per cent of these “thieves” actually do pony up cash for albums and concerts.

“What we found … is the guys who download stuff also spend money on CDs and live music. There’s a lot of sampling of music going on and then they go buy the album or delve deeper into the artist’s back catalogue,” Reid said.

“But there’s a hardcore group of about 30 to 40 per cent who flatly refuse to spend money on music. They hate the labels and are the ones who will go off their nuts at the labels [or Lily] trying to make money anywhere, any time. You will never change them.”

ARIA and the Australian music industry are following the French example and are trying to lobby for legislation to be passed to force internet service providers to shut down the account of repeat offenders.

Reid believes they have “zero chance” of succeeding because all it takes is one ISP to say no. But there is more good news for artists whose incomes are cut by illegal file-sharing.

“We’ve noticed a slowing of P2P in Australia in the past 12 months. I think that trend will continue because more options are becoming available through streaming, gaming and generally more competition,” Reid said. “You have MySpace Music coming online and Bandit FM, so with more competition, there will be lower pricing.

“Ad-based downloads and subscription models will also offer fans more options and all of those models will muddy the waters of P2P and cause further drops in file-sharing activity. People will still want free but you will see some compromise.”

Today marked the National Philly Jays Day and is the official release day for Sydney outfit Philadelphia Grand Jury’s debut album ‘Hope Is For Hopers’. The band are celebrating by playing seven shows in one day around Sydney on the back of a flat bed truck starting at Central Station this morning.

The Brag and Peer Group Media were lucky enough to be treated as one of the stops of the ‘mini-tour’.

At 11:30am, groups of people and passersby gathered in the tiny laneway next to the Peer Group building eagerly anticipating the band’s live set, while basking in the sunshine that follows the dust storm that haunted Sydney a couple days earlier.

Philadelphia Grand Jury hopped on the back of a truck along with drums, guitars, keyboard, mixing desk (with sound-guy), and speakers. The band performed their tracks I’m Going To Kill You, Ready To Roll, The Good News and ended with Going To The Casino.

The gig put a smile on everyone’s faces as everyone whipped out their cameras and phones to capture the moment.What a great way to spice up a Friday!

LOVE LETTERS?

WHY DON’T YOU: GO FONT UR SELF*

SYDNEY – MELBOURNE – BRISBANE
www.gofonturself.com.au

Featuring:
*All City Media * Brett Stenson * Daren Newman * Dave The Chimp * Eine * Jersey Joe * Jessica Hische * Jumbo * Keepa * Letman * Marta Cerda Alimbau * Paul Tooth * Skael * Sopp Collective * Steve ‘Espo’ Powers *

Proudly presented by Kirin © GO FONT UR SELF* Chapter 3 brings you 15 artworks from the most talented group of typographic misfits worldwide in our most acclaimed line up to date taking place throughout October and November 2009.

This is the third instalment after two successful exhibitions held earlier this year in February and then again in June, the exhibition attracted over 1000 people to our Sydney and Melbourne shows. This time around we add Brisbane to the mix, making it the biggest GO FONT UR SELF* yet.

We take words, letters and type for granted. We see it in the everyday processes of life – in an email, in the newspaper, in that mid-week report. These artists will transform these everyday entities and transform them into works of art and get us feeling the love. The love we felt when a special family member made us a birthday card with a personalised poem, or the love letter from your high-school sweetheart, or a t-shirt slogan that makes us laugh. From fine artists to graffiti artists to designers, there is a vast array of typographical talent to check out at GO FONT UR SELF* Chapter 3.

Want to visit hte exhibition nearest you? Here are the details:

SYDNEY / Thursday Oct 15th / Peer Gallery – 153 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW / RSVP gofonturselfsydney@peergroupmedia.com

MELBOURNE / Friday Oct 23rd / No Vaccancy – 34-40 Jane Bell Lane (off Russell St), Melbourne VIC / RSVP gofonturselfmelbourne@peergroupmedia.com

BRISBANE / Friday Nov 6th / Nine Lives – 330 Brunswick St Mall, Fortitude Valley QLD / RSVP gofonturselfbrisbane@peergroupmedia.com

There will be drinks and food available, plus Bad Wives DJ’s spinning tunes for Sydney.

For more information, artist profiles and images from past GO FONT UR SELF* exhibitions visit www.gofonturself.com.au.

–ENDS–

For images, artist interviews/Q&As and press contact Hannah Cooper / hannah@peergroupmedia.com / 02 9552 6333 / 0431 985 018

Latest GO FONT UR SELF* Newsletter, click here.

KELSEY MUNRO

TRUMAN, Vegas and Ban-Ki-Moon-Shine are a new breed of working dog – they join their owner at the office every day.

Adam Zammit, chief executive officer of Peer Group Media, brings Truman, a lanky Gordon setter; Vegas, a handsome Staffordshire terrier; and Ban-Ki-Moon-Shine, a tiny Brussels griffon, to the Glebe office he shares with 46 staff.

His mother’s dog Barney, a cavoodle, and Millie, a Maltese terrier, are regular visitors. The overall effect is rather like a Disney film.

“It needs a special set of circumstances,” Mr Zammit said. “For the most part it’s tolerance because dogs are not perfect creatures.”

Mr Zammit’s office is part of a trend. The benefits of the canine-friendly office – stress reduction, employee goodwill, a healthy walk to the park replacing smoko – far outweigh problems such as the occasional accident, proponents say.

“The trend is increasing, and quite rapidly,” said Dr Joanne Sillince, CEO of the Pet Industry Association. “There aren’t any problems if there’s a reasonable degree of discipline. But having said that, this system works best in places that have high levels of employee consultation.”

About a quarter of Peer Group’s staff own dogs, and they can bring them to work. They don’t do it every day – at most, there will be eight dogs on the job. Staff were recently surveyed anonymously, and 84 per cent were in favour of the dogs. The other 16 per cent, Mr Zammit said, were fired. He’s kidding.

The dogs tend to liberate food scraps from the bins, and there have been accidents, including one under the boardroom table during a meeting. When clients come in who don’t like dogs, they are barricaded into a room. The dogs, not the clients.

“Etiquette and protocol we’ve learnt along the way,” Mr Zammit said. ”But it’s a really good vibe for everyone.”

Dr Sillince says sensitivity to employees with allergies and banning dogs that don’t suit the office are some rules that dog-friendly workplaces employ.

Some owners need to bring their dogs to work. Rocky is a Maltese-shih tzu cross with a show-stopping underbite, known around the Frontier Touring office as “Fluff-Butt”.

He comes to the music promoters’ office daily with owner Oana Gilbert, an executive assistant. Ms Gilbert brings Rocky to work because she has become a full-time carer for her mother, who was injured in a fall while walking the dog. “When everyone here realised that my mum wasn’t well, they said, ‘Just bring Rocky in with you, it’s totally cool.’”

To view this article online visit:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/whos-that-doggy-using-windows-20090828-f2ip.html

Sydney will party along-side Sydney’s glistening harbour with Martin Solveig, Stanton Warriors, Holy Ghost! (DJ Set), Bag Raiders with a new live show and many more!

Harbourlife 2009 Information:

Date: Saturday 21st November

Time: 2 – 10pm

Location: Fleet Steps, Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, adjacent to the Royal Botanic Garden.

Tickets will be available from the 8th of September at www.fuzzy.com.au.

Don’t miss out!

Winner - The Deer Republic

AFTER A CLOSE MATCH, SYDNEY BAND CHOSEN TO PLAY SPLENDOUR!

The competition was fierce at the Tooheys Extra Dry uncharTED Grand Final for competition 1, 2009 last night, as three of Australia’s top emerging bands battled it out for the major prize – a spot on the bill at Splendour In The Grass 2009, plus an artist development package worth $25,000. Nova’s Rosso hosted the event, as the Oxford Art Factory reached full capacity and the crowd were treated to a special performance from Kram.

After astounding live-sets from each finalist, The Deer Republic from Sydney came out on top and was crowned the uncharTED winner, just beating Hot Little Hands and Foxx On Fire in the industry and public votes. Having only been together a couple of years, The Deer Republic captivated the audience with their melodic indie-rock and catchy hooks. It seems there’s no stopping this Sydney outfit, as they get ready to play one of Australia’s best festivals, Splendour In The Grass.

Nick Andrijic of The Deer Republic describes their win “Phenomenal; ecstasy; fantastic! I’m not just saying this because we’re gracious winners; the other two bands that played tonight are fantastic… It means the world to us to play at Splendour… the fact that we’re going to be sharing the stage with some of them [our favourite bands], it’s indescribable at the moment, I don’t think it’s going to hit me for a couple of days… we’re looking forward to it.”

uncharTED competition 1 attracted more than 2,300 entrants this year, and an esteemed panel of industry experts and an A&R team selected the Top 50 artists in Round 1. Round 2 saw the unveiling of the Top 10 semi-finalists, made up of four media picks and the 6 publicly voted bands. Round 3 announced Foxx On Fire, Hot Little Hands and The Deer Republic as the Top 3 finalists – and after 10 weeks of vigorous voting, the competition ended with a bang at last night’s Grand Final, with The Deer Republic leaving with the major prize!

Tooheys Extra Dry uncharTED competition 2, 2009 is now open. If you’re a solo artist or in a band looking to make it big, head to www.uncharted.com.au to register. You could be on your way to becoming Australia’s next big thing!
For more information visit www.uncharted.com.au, or mobile site – http://uncharted.mobi.

Join us to celebrate the life of the King Of Pop. Sydney’s best singers and musicians get together to perform the hits of the King. More details to follow very soon. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to find out the details and get limits tickets available or keep checking The Brag and The Music Network.