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Australian Made

{{Short description|1986–1987 Australian concert series}}

{{About||the Australian Idol album|Australian Idol 3: The Final 13 - Australian Made: The Hits|the logo|Australian made logo}}

{{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}}

{{Infobox music festival

| music_festival_name = Australian Made

| image = Australian Made Concert Tour Poster.jpg

| caption = Promotional poster for the Sydney concert

| genre = {{hlist|Rock|new wave|pub rock}}

| dates = 26 December 1986 – 26 January 1987

| location = Australia

| years_active = 1986–1987

| founders = {{hlist|Chris Murphy|Mark Pope|Michael Gudinski|Ken West}}

| organised = {{hlist|Chris Murphy|Mark Pope}}

}}

Australian Made was a festival concert series held during 1986–1987 in the six state capitals of Australia and featured local rock acts Mental as Anything, I'm Talking, The Triffids, The Saints, Divinyls, Models, INXS and Jimmy Barnes.{{Cite book|url=http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an41896781 |title=Molly Meldrum presents 50 years of rock in Australia|last=Jenkins|first=Jeff|author2=Ian Meldrum|author2-link=Ian Meldrum|year=2007|publisher=Wilkinson Publishing|location=Melbourne|pages=252–253|isbn=978-1-921332-11-1|access-date=11 March 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090304211700/http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an41896781| archive-date= 4 March 2009 | url-status= live}}{{Cite book|url=http://www.musicaustralia.org/apps/MA?function=showDetail¤tBibRecord=000005333286&itemSeq=3&total=52&returnFunction=searchResults&term1=Baker%2C+Glenn+A.%2C&location1=Anywhere&scope=scope¶meter1=phrase&boolean1=and&sessionId=reuseSearch797525828C33C1BD1876224B8EF803DC1236920339923|title=Australian made, gonna have a good time tonight : the authorised documentary of the event|last=Baker|first=Glenn A.|author-link=Glenn A. Baker|author2=Bob King|editor=Glenn A. Baker|year=1987|publisher=Fontana Collins|location=Sydney, N.S.W.|isbn=0-00-636921-9|access-date=16 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329204936/http://www.musicaustralia.org/apps/MA?function=showDetail¤tBibRecord=000005333286&itemSeq=3&total=52&returnFunction=searchResults&term1=Baker%2C+Glenn+A.%2C&location1=Anywhere&scope=scope¶meter1=phrase&boolean1=and&sessionId=reuseSearch797525828C33C1BD1876224B8EF803DC1236920339923|archive-date=29 March 2012|url-status=dead}} The series started in Hobart on 26 December 1986 and concluded in Sydney on 26 January 1987. Rock journalist Jeff Jenkins rated it as one of his 50 most significant events in Australian music history, "It wasn't a huge success, but it showed that an all-Australian festival could work."{{Cite news|url=http://www.rhythms.com.au/news,id,641.aspx|title=The 50 Most Significant Events in Australian Music History|work=Rhythms|publisher=Rhythms.com.au|date=15 July 2007|last=Jenkins|first=Jeff|access-date=11 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081118134650/http://www.rhythms.com.au/news,id,641.aspx|archive-date=18 November 2008|url-status=dead}} Australian Made was conceived to counter tours of international acts, like Dire Straits' 1985–1986 world tour, which were drying up funds for Australian groups.{{cite web|url=http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=166432|title=99/111/1 Performance costume, suit, cotton, used by Martin Plaza of Mental as Anything, Mambo, Australia, 1986|publisher=Powerhouse Museum|access-date=11 March 2009}} As from October 2010, the following artists have been inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame: INXS and The Saints (both in 2001), Barnes (as a member of Cold Chisel in 1995 and solo in 2005), Divinyls (2006), The Triffids (2008), Mental As Anything (2009), and Models (2010).{{cite web | url = http://www.aria.com.au/pages/hall-of-fame.htm | title = ARIA Icons: Hall of Fame | publisher = Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) | access-date = 1 November 2010 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101025123652/http://aria.com.au/pages/hall-of-fame.htm| archive-date= 25 October 2010 | url-status= live}}

To promote the tour, INXS and Barnes recorded a cover of The Easybeats song "Good Times" which was released in December 1986 as a single and used as the theme song.{{cite web | title=Jimmy Barnes and INXS at Australian Made: Good Times | website=National Film and Sound Archive of Australia | url=https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/asset/98336-jimmy-barnes-and-inxs-australian-made-good-times | access-date=27 December 2024}} "Good Times" peaked at No. 2 on the Australian charts.{{Cite book|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6}} NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until ARIA created their own charts in mid-1988. The single peaked at No. 47 in the United States Billboard Hot 100 on 1 August 1987.{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p4555/charts-awards/billboard-singles|pure_url=yes}}|title=INXS > Charts & Awards > Billboard singles|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=11 March 2009}}{{Cite book|last=Whitburn|first=Joel|title=Billboard Hot 100 Charts : The Eighties|year=1991|publisher=Record Research Inc.|isbn=0-89820-079-2}}

At the Sydney concert, Peter Trotter, playing saxophone for Mental As Anything, collapsed on stage and died a week later.{{Cite book|last=Mathieson|first=Craig|title=The Sell-in: How the Music Business seduced Alternative Rock|year=2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dFnJSg-Obx0C&q=%22peter+trotter%22+%22australian+made%22&pg=PA44 |publisher=Allen & Unwin|isbn=978-1-86508-412-1}} The tour had a budget of $3.25 million, and was announced with claims of Australian mateship and cooperation; however arguments ensued between various band managers over the proposed concert series film.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UGe4AAAACAAJ&q=Martin+Fabinyi+%26+Toby+Creswell,+%27The+Real+Thing:+Adventures+in+Australian+Rock+%26+Roll%27|title=The Real Thing: Adventures in Australian Rock 'n' Roll, 1957-now|last=Creswell|first=Toby|author-link=Toby Creswell|author2=Martin Fabinyi|publisher=Random House|location=Australia|year=1999|isbn=978-0-09-183547-7}} The tour ended in acrimony with two managers, Chris Murphy (for INXS) and Jeremy Fabinyi (for Mental As Anything), arguing backstage in Sydney and coming to blows. A film of the tour, Australian Made: The Movie, directed by Richard Lowenstein, was released in July 1987,{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199342/|title=Australian Made: The Movie|publisher=Internet Movie Database (IMDb)|access-date=11 March 2009}} but contained no footage of Mental As Anything performing. Rock historian Glenn A. Baker and Bob King wrote Australian Made, Gonna Have a Good Time Tonight : The Authorised Documentary of the Event in 1987 with detailed notations by Baker and photographs by King. According to rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, "the tour drew record crowds across the country. It was the first travelling festival tour to feature exclusively Australian bands".

Background

Dire Straits, and other international acts, mounted Australia-wide tours in 1986 with promoters claiming that local acts couldn't fill large concert venues. Acts like INXS and Jimmy Barnes felt that a tour by internationally renowned Australians would fill these venues. In October 1986, Chris Murphy, of Mark Murphy Agency (MMA) and manager of INXS, Mark Pope, who managed Jimmy Barnes and Divinyls, and Mushroom Records boss Michael Gudinski, commenced negotiations to develop the Australian Made tour. Other promoters came on-board including Richard MacDonald and Gary Grant.{{cite encyclopedia|last=McFarlane|first=Ian|author-link=Ian McFarlane|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop |title=Encyclopedia entry for 'Festivals'|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040908004253/http://www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=593| url=http://www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=593|archive-date=8 September 2004|access-date=11 March 2012|year=1999|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=St Leonards, NSW|isbn=1-86508-072-1}} Mushroom Records had released material by Models, managed by Murphy, while their touring partners I'm Talking were managed by Ken West and had released material on Regular Records. These band managers used their record labels and industry contacts to provide other local acts that had toured internationally, The Saints, The Triffids and Mental As Anything. The Triffids' guitarist Graham Lee stated that Hutchence had insisted on them being part of the bill, on the basis of their international success, even though they were not well renowned in Australia.{{Cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/06/15/1149964648589.html?page=fullpage |title=Living like a refugee|work=The Age|last=Dwyer|first=Michael|date=17 June 2006|access-date=13 March 2009}}

To promote the tour, INXS and Barnes (ex-Cold Chisel) recorded two songs, a cover of The Easybeats song "Good Times", and "Laying Down the Law" which Barnes co-wrote with INXS members Garry Gary Beers, Andrew Farriss, Jon Farriss, Michael Hutchence and Kirk Pengilly.{{cite web|url=http://www.ascap.com/ace/search.cfm?requesttimeout=300&mode=results&searchstr=420342641&search_in=i&search_type=exact&search_det=t,s,w,p,b,v&results_pp=10&start=1 |title=The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) |publisher=ASCAP |access-date=20 November 2008 }} Both songs were recorded, with "Laying Down the Law" also written, and "Good Times" film clip made, all on the same day. Tim Farriss, INXS lead guitarist, was unavailable for the recordings, as he was unable to be contacted due to fishing commitments.{{cite web|url=http://www.inxs.com/artists/?a=58 |title=Band Bios – Tim Farriss |publisher=INXS.com |access-date=13 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090129171717/http://inxs.com/artists/?a=58 |archive-date=29 January 2009 |url-status=dead }} The single peaked at No. 2 on the Australian charts, and months later was featured in the Joel Schumacher 1987 film The Lost Boys and the associated The Lost Boys soundtrack.{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r115920|pure_url=yes}}|title=The Lost Boys > Overview |last=LaVeck|first=Theresea E.|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=11 March 2009}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093437/soundtrack|title=Lost Boys Soundtrack|publisher=IMDb|access-date=11 March 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090131123226/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093437/soundtrack| archive-date= 31 January 2009 | url-status= live}} This allowed it to peak at No. 47 in the United States on 1 August 1987. The tour had a budget of $3.25 million, when the accounts were finally tabulated the promoters had lost $30,000 each. After the tour, there was a dispute over the royalty split on "Good Times". Four years later the single appeared on the British charts when The Lost Boys was released on video.

Barnes stated that the Subiaco concert had the best Rock 'N' Roll crowd he had ever seen. With the exception of keyboard player, Peter Kekel, Barnes employed an all Canadian backing band, that he had used for his own North American tours from 1985, for the Australian Made tour. All the acts travelled between capital cities on the same plane. Chrissy Amphlett of Divinyls wrote about the tour in her autobiography, Pleasure and Pain, she was impressed that various band members got along so well.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IlInGwAACAAJ&q=pleasure+and+pain+amphlett+autobiography|title=Pleasure and Pain: My Life|last=Amphlett|first=Chrissy|author-link=Christina Amphlett|author2=Larry Writer|publisher=Hachette Livre|location=Australia|year=2005|isbn=978-0-7336-1959-5}}

At the Sydney concert, Peter Trotter, playing trombone for Mental As Anything, collapsed on stage and died a week later. The tour was announced with claims of Australian mateship and cooperation, however arguments ensued between various band managers over the proposed concert series film. Some bands felt they had been coerced into unfavourable tour contracts. The tour ended in acrimony with two managers, Chris Murphy (for INXS) and Jeremy Fabinyi (for Mental As Anything), arguing backstage in Sydney and coming to blows. After the Sydney concert, Rick Grossman, bass guitarist of Divinyls, was fired from the group due to his heroin addiction, he attended the drug rehab centre, The Buttery, and eventually joined Hoodoo Gurus in 1988.{{Cite news |url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22726718-23289,00.html |title=Buttery rehab puts its ambitions into music |last=Writer |first=Larry |date=10 November 2007 |work=The Australian |access-date=27 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071112113844/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22726718-23289,00.html |archive-date=12 November 2007 |url-status=dead }} The film of the tour, Australian Made: The Movie, directed by Richard Lowenstein,{{cite web|url=http://www.allmovie.com/work/inxs-australian-made-242274/credits|title=INXS: Australian Made > Production Credits|publisher=allmovie|access-date=13 March 2009}} was released in July 1987, was shown in cinemas, and released on VHS home video, but contained no footage of Mental As Anything performing. An edited DVD version, Australian Made: Featuring INXS Live (aka INXS: Australian Made) was released in May 2008.{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Australian-Made-Featuring-INXS-DVD/dp/B0018BWU1M|title=Australian Made: Featuring INXS|website=Amazon UK |access-date=11 March 2009}} In 1987 the book Australian Made was also published as a companion to the movie.

The 30th Anniversary Edition aired on the ABC in October 2021.

Over subsequent years almost all the artists from the Australian Made tour have become inductees into the ARIA Hall of Fame: INXS and The Saints were both inducted in 2001, Barnes was first inducted as a member of Cold Chisel in 1995 and then as a solo artist in 2005, Divinyls in 2006, The Triffids in 2008, Mental As Anything in 2009, and Models in 2010.

Venues and dates

  1. King George V Oval, Hobart – 26 December 1986
  2. Thebarton Oval, Adelaide – 1 January 1987
  3. Olympic Park, Melbourne – scheduled for 3 January, delayed due to weather – 4 January
  4. Subiaco Oval, Perth – 10 January
  5. Chandler Velodrome, Brisbane – 17 January
  6. Endeavour Field, Sydney – 26 January

The bands

Line-ups of the various bands in order of appearance:

Certifications

{{Certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Australia|type=video|artist=Various|title=Australian Made - 30th Anniversary Edition|award=Platinum|relyear=2016|certyear=2016|accessdate=11 December 2021}}

{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=true}}

References

{{Refbegin}}

;General

  • {{Cite book|url=http://www.musicaustralia.org/apps/MA?function=showDetail¤tBibRecord=000005333286&itemSeq=3&total=52&returnFunction=searchResults&term1=Baker%2C+Glenn+A.%2C&location1=Anywhere&scope=scope¶meter1=phrase&boolean1=and&sessionId=reuseSearch797525828C33C1BD1876224B8EF803DC1236920339923|title=Australian made, gonna have a good time tonight : the authorised documentary of the event|last=Baker|first=Glenn A.|author-link=Glenn A. Baker|author2=Bob King|editor=Glenn A. Baker|year=1987|publisher=Fontana Collins|location=Sydney, N.S.W.|isbn=0-00-636921-9|access-date=16 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329204936/http://www.musicaustralia.org/apps/MA?function=showDetail¤tBibRecord=000005333286&itemSeq=3&total=52&returnFunction=searchResults&term1=Baker%2C+Glenn+A.%2C&location1=Anywhere&scope=scope¶meter1=phrase&boolean1=and&sessionId=reuseSearch797525828C33C1BD1876224B8EF803DC1236920339923|archive-date=29 March 2012|url-status=dead}}
  • {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UGe4AAAACAAJ&q=Martin+Fabinyi+%26+Toby+Creswell,+%27The+Real+Thing:+Adventures+in+Australian+Rock+%26+Roll%27|title=The Real Thing: Adventures in Australian Rock 'n' Roll, 1957-now|last=Creswell|first=Toby|author-link=Toby Creswell|author2=Martin Fabinyi|publisher=Random House|location=Milsons Point, N.S.W.|year=1999|isbn=978-0-09-183547-7}}

;Specific

{{Refend}}

{{Reflist|2}}

Category:1986 concert tours

Category:1987 concert tours

Category:Rock festivals in Australia

Category:1986 in Australia

Category:1987 in Australia

Category:Music festivals in Melbourne

Category:Music festivals in Tasmania

Category:Festivals in Hobart

Category:Music festivals in South Australia

Category:Festivals in Adelaide

Category:Music festivals in Western Australia

Category:Festivals in Perth, Western Australia

Category:Music festivals in Queensland

Category:Festivals in Brisbane

Category:Music festivals in New South Wales

Category:Festivals in Sydney