Soundwave Revolution

[ca]

I'm not sure I agree with all of this and some of it is probably made up but I did enjoy the read so thought I'd post here.





So it’s 2004, and sensing a gap in the market, AJ Maddah moved in on his core sound of hard rock and metal, and setup Soundwave; a collection of stages in a field with bands on them masquerading as a full-featured festival, that catered to a market that Big Day Out had spent 3 years since 2001 edging away from. It was a no brainer for AJ, and although eventually Big Day Out would perceive him as a threat, at the beginning it was a blessing in disguise, taking both the metal and it’s associated crowd out to venues like Eastern Creek, introducing them to live music, festivals, and leaving them with little in the way of vibe or interest, apart from the bands on the stage.

As happens more often than not with promoters, he came under a series of pressures. First of all, he remained determined to become the best friend of many an international agent; he purchased acts like they were ab-busters on late night tv. Each headliner came with a set of steak knives. He created a festival with no room for Australian acts, which was essentially being programmed by band agents.

What’s wrong with that? Well, for starters, agents work for themselves, and then their bands. It’s a great thing for a band agent to be able to tell an up and coming act that they can get them onto a festival in Australia. It helps expand the agents roster, and the package deal king arrangement delivers quotas, commissions and good will. As long as the festival works….

Festivals are often presented as fluffy white clouds of creativity, but more often than not the successful ones are programmed in dictatorships. The reason is 2 fold; people like to buy personality, and they can recognize it in festivals with clear creative vision. Programming a festival by committee lends itself to a continuous drive to the center, which in music as in most art is full of mediocrity.

Allowing band agents to program your festival by default means you are taking a snapshot of the median of the music presented by the agents. Sheer force of numbers pushes your lineup towards middle american rock and metal; You need to stamp personality on it.

AJ stamped personality through endless communication with his public, through twitter and forums. He became the personal face of his festival, without understanding that that made him a target as well.

Who was he a target for? Well the first enemy he made as a local industry fed up with his lack of support for Australian bands. Bands, managers and agents realised quickly that there was not going to be a place for their band in AJ’s growing ecosphere.

The second enemy he made was other festival promoters, who seemed to feel that AJ was chipping away at the market without growing it. They also started to come under staffing pressure. AJ was poaching staff, and poaching them big time, paying big money in an attempt to purchase loyalty. This in itself was not a problem whilst Soundwave was in Febuary, but then came the revolution.

Soundwave Revolution seemed to start off as a vehicle for AJ to spend a bit of money and shake up the local industry a bit; he started his approach by building a new festival around a big name headliner. He had Foo Fighters in his sights, but he showed a degree of naivety. Foos were a loyal act, in the game for the long haul, and knew that they could always rely on Michael Gudinski to successfully promote them. An individual connection between a band and promoter; any other promoter would always find it hard to break with just money.

He started making offers, Frontier got wind of it, and the Foos disappeared off the radar for him. Oh well. Lets just move that offer over to Rage Against the Machine.

RATM must be some kind of holy grail for promoters. They keep themselves out of the market for long periods of time, and their music is always speaking to youth. They crossover with abandon. I can’t think of any festival promoter in the country that if approached by RATM wouldn’t seriously consider it.

...but Rage are an interesting animal, a four headed beast of managers and members who understand the importance of remaining out of a market, and they didn’t want to come back to Australia yet. They also have another strong connection with an Australian promoter. Perhaps, in a fit of rage, AJ suggested to them that he could get Van Halen for that money. One can only imagine what RATM would have thought of that comment.

So he offered on VH, they accepted, and soundwave revolution was off the ground. He made moves on festival staff that previously had worked for him, but at that time of year were working for Fuzzy, and other festivals made moves to either ensure their staff stayed loyal, or let them go. Local agents quickly realised there was no room for their bands, and the industry waited to see if the whole thing would work. The numbers were flying around. 6 Million for Van Halen. Does it add up?

Venues was another interesting problem. His old Melbourne venue, had a limited capacity, and his Sydney venue was expensive, and under construction at the time of the show. He needed other options, and decided to move out of the geographical centre of both Melbourne and Sydney to untested venues that weren't serviced properly. The message to the audience was clear; the venue doesn't matter either, and I don't care if it's difficult for you to get to. In Sydney we know that the only think that trumps venue is lineup.

….why produce a second festival? At the time, I made the observation that other festival promoters had tried to produce more than one festival a year. Dance and Pop promoters Future Entertainment, Stereosonic, and Fuzzy have dabbled in producing more than one show. More often than not, promoters do this to attempt to hang onto acts, so that they don’t fall into the hands of other promoters. A blocking move that is usually not successful, as you have to have a better reason to bring an act to Australia than ‘I don’t want other promoters to capitalise on my hard work’ They usually come to the conclusion that they are only cannabalising themselves. It's the wrong reason to produce a show, and in essence that is everything that was wrong with #swrevolution.


AJ was accelerating the development of his brand. He was impatient and wanted Soundwave to be the biggest thing on the block as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, though, he was also accelerating the demise of his brand, because although Soundwave was a successful collection of bands on stages, as a festival it was one dimensional, black, vibeless and it’s audience was only there for the music; probably because there was nothing else. As every presentation went past his audience would become more disenchanted with the show. This disenchantment would happen twice as fast now. Unlike most other festivals, the lineup was all there was.

There was another problem with Soundwave Revolution. Its headliners appealed to an older audience. There was no young headliner to attract his core audience. He had overpaid for his headliners, including the rumoured 6 million for Van Halen. Ticket sales didn’t take off and it was obvious that he had to fold or go all in.

[ Hang on a minute. There’s a couple of sideshows. AJ has decided to coproduce Harvest, falling into the same trap that Justin Hemmes did. Suggesting that previous australian music festivals weren’t catering to a mature audience, he decided to brand Harvest ‘A Civilised Gathering’....in Parramatta. Time will only tell, but traditionally Australians don’t like being told they are bogans. Harvest at this point is only a distraction, confusing the market and industry alike. Best we focus on the main game. Oh wait. lets start a label as well. I can vertically integrate into selling music....because that’s an expanding market ripe for conquering….. ]

Back to #swrevolution. All in meant finding another couple of acts to push the critical mass over the edge. In AJ’s mind there was only one suitable. Back to Rage Against the Machine he went, cheque book in hand, but once again they refused. You don’t have the audience capacity. Your venues are untested. You can’t afford us. We don’t want to do it.

Twitter and the forums also proved probalematic, as AJ was unable to remain tightlipped and told many people his intentions regarding further headline bands, when they would perform on the show, and to some people, who they are, when he was going to announce.


He was also telling Van Halen they could still headline after RATM. Can you imagine? Youd have to be a fairly ordinary band manager to think that was a good idea. VH must have been wary, but AJ wasn’t, angrily posting in social media that Van Halen had a team of idiots around them. Countdown to destruction. One week to go. Remember, the audience is waiting for an announcement. More than once he delayed it, and then went very quiet.

At the same time he was courting Limp Bizkit, who with a new album, the same audience and not having been here for a long time seemed like a good idea....but AJ lived on twitter and in forums, and it must have become obvious to him that LB were poisoned forever by the tragedy at the Sydney Big Day Out in 2001. If the media got a hold of his intent one can only imagine the shitstorm that would have surrounded the announcement.

So, faced with an inability to expand the festival outside its existing audience, a disenchanted headliner, and one posionous act for a 2nd announcement that the audience wasn’t even expecting until he told them it was coming, he had the hard decision to make. There was no heat left in the market. It was time to fold.

How does this story end? we’ll see, won’t we, but it's difficult to imagine the audience trusting him again. Harvest and Soundwave have a bit of work to do to regain audience trust. Agent's will distrust him, and industry already did.

[Wizard of Oz]

I just want to see International acts in Adelaide. Van Halen, Alter Bridge, Gojira, Machine Head (again), Hellyeah etc.

Just get them to Adelaide !! Alter Bridge at the very least !! Headlining Thebby !!

[Q.]

I had been wondering how this implosion would affect the 'Soundwave' brand. We will see if it has any impact when the line-ups get released for next year's Soundwave.

[Q.]

ca, got a link for that article?

[tazz]

I just want to see International acts in Adelaide. Van Halen, Alter Bridge, Gojira, Machine Head (again), Hellyeah etc.

Just get them to Adelaide !! Alter Bridge at the very least !! Headlining Thebby !!

Alter Bridge supported Disturbed at the Thebby a few years ago. Love to see them come back

[Wizard of Oz]

I just want to see International acts in Adelaide. Van Halen, Alter Bridge, Gojira, Machine Head (again), Hellyeah etc.

Just get them to Adelaide !! Alter Bridge at the very least !! Headlining Thebby !!

Alter Bridge supported Disturbed at the Thebby a few years ago. Love to see them come back

Yeah I know... Need to see them headlining though. Myles Kennedy, best front man in the world right now.

[MatteeG]

although Soundwave was a successful collection of bands on stages, as a festival it was one dimensional, black, vibeless and it’s audience was only there for the music; probably because there was nothing else.

Why else would you go to a music festival? Thats right I guess a proper festival has to have a shopping mall attached...

[pels]

although Soundwave was a successful collection of bands on stages, as a festival it was one dimensional, black, vibeless and it’s audience was only there for the music; probably because there was nothing else.

Why else would you go to a music festival? Thats right I guess a proper festival has to have a shopping mall attached...

I found that comment very strange, why are u going if not for the music

[Wedgie]

although Soundwave was a successful collection of bands on stages, as a festival it was one dimensional, black, vibeless and it’s audience was only there for the music; probably because there was nothing else.

Why else would you go to a music festival? Thats right I guess a proper festival has to have a shopping mall attached...

I found that comment very strange, why are u going if not for the music

I go to enjoy the long line ups to get warm over priced beer with the aroma of B.O. and floating dust around.

PS Thanks for that article CA, a good read.

[LMA]

although Soundwave was a successful collection of bands on stages, as a festival it was one dimensional, black, vibeless and it’s audience was only there for the music; probably because there was nothing else.

Why else would you go to a music festival? Thats right I guess a proper festival has to have a shopping mall attached...

I found that comment very strange, why are u going if not for the music

I go to enjoy the long line ups to get warm over priced beer with the aroma of B.O. and floating dust around.

PS Thanks for that article CA, a good read.

I don't know why I go, I can't remember, come to think of it have I actually been to one at all ?

[Q.]

I enjoy being soaked in the sweat of a 1000 other men while being kicked in the head by random crowd surfers.

[Booney]

I enjoy being soaked in the sweat of a 1000 other men while being kicked in the head by random crowd surfers.

I enjoy the breasts of nubile young females dripping with excitement being thrust upon me whilst they grind and girate to the endless throb of driving beats.