Adl's no love for internationals in the club?

For Sunday evening vibes I think t-Bot (going under the name Thomas Abbott now) has a new Sunday evening/night thang at the Benjamin On Franklin...

its cheaper to go interstate for a promoter to see an act they like than to out a show on in adelaide & lose thousands.. people talk all this shit on forums that we miss out on but in reality they very rarely support them with purchased tickets

re: <3 for internationals in the club....

Announcement coming in next day or two.

A former Adelaidean and now international visiting a well loved Adelaide club for intimate Adelaide techno times...... stay tuned.

Bold?

Beautiful?

Young?

Restless?

Chatroom has to stay to keep it as a 'community radio station'... Remember them saying that a while ago after people were complaining about it.

Is there an app for Android?

Everyone has pretty muched somed it up...its def the worst ive seen the club scene in 10 years. Just on the earlier comments re Godskitchen & Ferry Corsten last year...Not sure what shows you were at but Gods had a little under 1000, and Ferry was around 800 mark. Next thursday night for Ferry we are expecting at least 600 heads.

As a non paying member of Fresh and a specialty show producer and as someone who is still playing gigs and going out when I can I can honestly say the club scene in Adelaide is fucked. Its fucked for several reasons but the main one is punters dont care about underground music......10 years ago the worst we had to deal with was shit like Babie Girl and people knew it was shit......now we have ultimately crap tunes like Duck Sauce and Riverside that people actually request on a night out...its madness! People just dont know what good music is anymore....

Fresh's main demographic is unfortunately these people, they want to hear the same crap that is played on other stations generic time slots and I dont know the exact numbers but Im pretty sure the % of listeners drops off considerably during the specialty shows. I know that I get a few texts on a Sunday night every now and then praising the breaks but its becoming less often...and I still get asked to play Ministry business....err no fuck off.

Maybe Im just jaded and old, I have a missis and kids and a mortage and Im passing in to the next stage of my life where clubland doesnt exist....that said after 20 years or raving and going out Id hate to see it end in the state its in.....I hope there are enough genuinely interested people to bring it back to the daze of reality in the future.

Soundpond is doing great things as is my other station and UK based www.nsbradio.co.uk where I do a show on Thursday nights...if underground breaks are what you want check it out, cos there certainly aint any breaks in Adelame!

As a former Adelaide resident now living in Melbourne (and involved in a weekly show on Kiss FM) I agree with a lot of what is said here but you shouldnt underestimate the power and reach that Fresh has (and has always had) as a station. The fact that it is on the one permanent frequency instantly gives it an advantage over a station like Kiss FM where the frequency and clarity changes depending on where you are, and as a percentage of the population I would think Fresh has many more listeners.

What Fresh does best is push new music out into Adelaide, into the clubs, onto people's ipods and eventually into Nova's playlist and MOS compilations. I remember being a a generic Heaven night years and years ago and Pendulum's 'Spiral' would be played, with every single person singing every word. That didnt happen interstate at commercial clubs to drum and bass. Pendulum were popular because Fresh pushed them and you suddenly had an entire city who knew all the words to drum and bass songs.

It's a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg argument but what makes dance songs popular? I say its people hearing them on the radio. They are then requested/played at clubs, and eventually (3 - 6 months later) make their way onto mix-cds. Some of you might argue that the radio just plays songs that are popular because people want to hear them. But why and how are they popular? Because they have been played on the radio previously. Very few people hunt for new music online/beatport/new releases etc - they wait for the radio/MOS to tell them what they should listen to/request.

I had a look at the fresh top 92 of 2010 and there were several songs that I had never heard of here in Melbourne. I think that illustrates my above point. Fresh has ENORMOUS power to make new music popular. People like music they hear regularly. They hear it regularly because the club plays it, because the radio has pushed it and people like it because they are familiar with it. The big problem is that Fresh really doesnt push much new music. Over Christmas back in Adelaide they were playing the same old crap in the day-time playlist they have been playing for 10 years. Fresh could EASILY make Adelaide's youth the most educated about dance music in Australia by pushing quality new music, making people like it through repetition (because people like songs they hear everyday on the radio) and then it spreading elsewhere. Do you think Pendulum was commercial back when Fresh started playing 'Spiral'? Do you think MOS knew who Pendulum were 7 years ago?

My long-held idea is that each (appropriate genre) speciality show on fresh could select one new 'hit prediction' song each week they want added to the regular Fresh playlist. Fresh has, what, 20 speciality shows? Some shows like hard-trance/hard-dance may not be appropriate but for the house, trance, breaks, (light) drum'n'bass, techno etc shows, who better to push new music than the shows presenters/djs? Surely they are worthy of selecting an appropriate 'big track' each week that should be pushed on a more regular basis. Some may not be liked/requested and may be removed from the playlist after a month but Im certain some random songs (i.e. 'Spiral') would catch-on, be requested, move into the clubs, onto compilations, onto nova etc. Now you have educated youth!

I doubt this will ever happen given how lazy the music director at fresh seems to be (is it still Reelax?), but its certainly an idea.


Be interested to hear people's thoughts on why fresh plays the music it does.

Ben Royal, I think you and Al (in a seperate thread) have expressed interesting views here...being too many people not really in touch with a diverse range of scenes, beyond that of a very narrow, overly commercial scope. I'm not sure if thats accurate, but it's worth thought.

Marty_B : Now theres a novel concept, give the *community* the chance to rep the evolving *community* sounds on a *community* orientated station.

Re : Regular programming...I've had a lively discussion on this topic with various Fresh staff, who have pointed out their primary focus is catering for Adelaide "youth", not necessarily the "dance music" scene. I'll admit given my focus on the electronic scene (which may I add, has become the primary focus of the majority of festivals and clubs for the past 5 years, at which paid Fresh staff, members, and volunteers are constantly booked) I'm not really sure what the "youth of Adelaide" is, or what they want, or if they truly enjoy Ke$ha on high rotation. I can't really say if they are in, or out, of touch with that market.

In my personal opinion the speciality shows vastly outclass the "regular" rotation at the moment, but isn't that kind of their job? To be dedicated to pursuing fresh sounds while the daytime rotation plays it safe? Or should as Marty suggests, the daytime content actually integrate community suggestions.

Marty.. were in full swing and moving fwd, check your email this week ok : P

I have no idea about fresh or how they operate but maybe they should adopt the practice of playing at least 1-2 (or more) tracks that have been selected by the people who run the speciality shows.

For instance everyone who does a specialty show picks 5 tracks that they really like at the moment and would work well during the day and these all go in a big playlist. Then during the day the presenters have to pick at least one of these tracks to play every hour.

Re : Regular programming...I've had a lively discussion on this topic with various Fresh staff, who have pointed out their primary focus is catering for Adelaide "youth", not necessarily the "dance music" scene. I'll admit given my focus on the electronic scene (which may I add, has become the primary focus of the majority of festivals and clubs for the past 5 years, at which paid Fresh staff, members, and volunteers are constantly booked) I'm not really sure what the "youth of Adelaide" is, or what they want, or if they truly enjoy Ke$ha on high rotation. I can't really say if they are in, or out, of touch with that market.

In my personal opinion the speciality shows vastly outclass the "regular" rotation at the moment, but isn't that kind of their job? To be dedicated to pursuing fresh sounds while the daytime rotation plays it safe? Or should as Marty suggests, the daytime content actually integrate community suggestions.[/quote]

I totally agree with this Adam. What we do need is something like soundpond on FM radio. Filled with all sorts of good music all of the time. Fresh is a youth station and they are bound by their licence as to how they operate. We NEED a station that is dedicated to the music instead or as well.

I have looked at what is required for an FM licence and it really is bullsht. But as you have mentioned before the government like to control the airwaves.
But since the SMA has been disbanded due to budget cuts years ago I would like to find ou how long you could get a pirate station for!

As for their programming they could still play it safe without playing commercial trash. After a while that then becomes the norm as people get used to it.