ARTS The Michigan Daily Tuesday, September 15, 1992 Page 5 The biggest band battle Aussies harvest an excess of new music in Sydney by Kim Yaged SYDNEY - Picture it: Sydney, *1985. AC-DC are long past their prime. Men At Work are just a flash ins the pan. And Baby Animals has not yet been conceived. The city is bustling with a plethora of "no- names" waiting to bust out on the music scene. University campuses throughout the country are the cen- ters of this pent up energy. Enter Thomas O'Sullivan, offi- cial activities officer for the University of Sydney Union. From this man's head sprouted what was to become the biggest band competi- tion in the world, taken from local to state and eventually national level. But, alas, we get ahead of ourselves. In the beginning, there were twelve - bands, that is. Since O'Sullivan planted the seed 18 years ago for the First Annual University of Sydney Union Band Competition, the Band Competition has evolved into an approximately 120 band, four-and-a-half month long extrava- ganza. According to lain Johnstone, assistant activities officer, "The idea of a band competition goes back to the '60s ... at the University of Sydney [it started] as an idea for getting some student talent on the stage ..." It's basically simple enough. Anyone can enter as long as at least one member of the band is an un- dergraduate at the Uni. And that one, naturally, must make what the con- ditions of entry sheet call "a substantive contribution to the band's performance." All that means, Johnstone ex- plained, is that "you can't just have a tambourine player at the back or something. They have to be like a core member of the band." There is no entry fee and each band that en- ters is guaranteed at least 30 minutes of stage time. All shows are at the bar in The Manning Building, one of the two Unions on campus. That said, let the games begin. This year's festivities started March 19th on avery seriou's note, with the random drawings to deter- mine heats - thirty heats, four bands a night, starting April 7th and running through June 29th, and that's just the first round. I say it began on a serious note because prior to drawing thednames for the heats, the awards ceremony took place. It consisted of supplying a bottle of champagne to bands for a variety of things, such as having the neatest entry ballot or for dropping out of the Competition. Orson won for entering the Band Competition twice. Pursuit of A Dream got the "No Hope Award." Last year, there was a band called Hope Your Dick Falls Off. One of this years entrants is Hope Your Dick Falls Off Too. They got them- selves a bottle of bubbly for their creativity. Speaking of bubbly, Can I Have A Bottle Of Cheap Bubbly, Please won just for asking. The "Wishful Thinking Award" went to Big Phallica, and Diarrhea Thick- shake won for best name. Bimbeaus and Fisting For Jesus won just because. (They do that sometimes in this country.) As you can see, everyone takes this whole thing very seriously. There's even a fun night at the end of the competition comprised of what Johnstone calls "novelty bands that come in with a wacky concept or something. Some people put bands into the Comp with no aspira- tions other than to be ridiculed." I guess the Aussies might call that prize the "Wanker Award." However, there is a serious side to this whole thing. The winner of the Band Competition, besides get- ting a chunk of the $2,000 award money and various other prizes to be announced, gets to go on to play in the State Competition. The winner of State goes on to play in the National Competition. The Third Annual National Band Competition is tentatively scheduled to take place in Perth this year. Last year it was in Melbourne, and the year before, Sydney. The National Comp travels from capital city to capital city, with travel for the bands subsidized by the National Aids Education' Campaign. Sponsorship on the state and local fronts is at the discretion of the organizers. At the University of Sydney, all funding is provided by the Union and prizes are donated by local merchants. The judging criteria is the same at the local, state and national levels: 25% musicianship, 25% originality (a band can do covers but it's rec-"" ommended to play originals. If cov- ers are done, it's suggested that they're not performed note by note, but with a twist), 25% presentation, 15% audience response (a source of some debate - even though they , ' "conditions of entry" sheet says "correspondence, discussion, debate, etc." are not allowed), and 10% co- operation setting up. (Sounds like a sportspersonship award, don't you think?) Sarcasm aside, the Band Com- petition has been beneficial. Besides providing an opportunity for stu- Beautiful Sydney harbor and opera house, home town of what has become the biggest band battle in the world. dents to have a go at the musician thing, it provides free live enter-__EADIT tainment four nights a week through- out the term for the rest of the stu- WRITE FOR IT dent body. On a grander scale, some RECYCLEIT See AUSTRALIA, Page 9 THE MICHIGAN DAILY I (5; dkfw)I DEPARTMENT OF RECREATIONAL SPORTS 3 rLn Ja2; I9 INTRAMURAL SPORTS PROGRAM SLOW PITCH SOFTBALL performing the music of Duke Ellington tr SUNDAY, OCT. 4 8PM HILL AUDITORIUM ANN ARBOR featuring: Wynton Marsalis Sir Roland Hanna Lew Soloff David Berger, conductor Entry Deadline: Wednesday 9/16 4:30 p.m. IMSB Main Office Play Begins: Friday 9/18 For Additional Information Contact IMSB 763-3562 a I. 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