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August 2009

Cooper ‘in wrong theatre’ for ARIA Hall of Fame

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Cooper ‘in wrong theatre’ for ARIA Hall of Fame

Updated

aliceRock legend Alice Cooper made a special guest appearance at the ARIA Hall Of Fame event in Melbourne on Thursday night.

The singer, who is currently touring Australia, arrived on stage at the start of the show to congratulate the five iconic Australian artists being inducted.

“The ARIA Hall Of Fame show. How embarrassing, I’m in the wrong theatre,” he joked.

“To Mental As Anything, Little Pattie, Kev Carmody, The Dingoes and John Paul Young, congratulations on your induction into another Hall Of Fame that I’m not in.”

The show, at Melbourne’s Forum Theatre, opened with a performance by Mental As Anything who overcame technical problems to perform some of their biggest hits, including Live It Up.

Old Countdown sparring partners – host Molly Meldrum and singer JPY – reunited for the annual event, where Meldrum inducted Young.

Meldrum affectionately described Young as “the thorn in my side”, while Young said he counted the hat-wearing music guru as one of his oldest friends.

“I think, back in the early days, Molly was kind of used to getting his own way and I wouldn’t take it,” Young told AAP.

“So I used to stand my ground and throw the insults back.”

Young said he had mixed emotions about being inducted into the Hall Of Fame and looking back on his 37-year career.

“I’m nervous… and emotional,” he said.

“It’s pretty mind-blowing stuff.”

Meldrum said the Hall Of Fame event was a very special one on the Australian music calendar.

“It started in America with the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and became such a major thing,” he told AAP.

“I always felt that artists in Australia, as they grew older, were never really recognised for what they were worth.

“Since this started, I treat it as just as important – if not more important, sometimes – than the ARIA Awards.”

The show will be broadcast on VH1 on Friday August 28 at 8:30pm AEST, followed by an encore airing on the Nine Network on Saturday August 29 at 2:00pm.

AAP

Original article: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-08-20/alice-cooper/1408044

Chuffed as anything to be in ARIA’s Hall of Fame

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Chuffed as anything to be in ARIA’s Hall of Fame

Mental as Anything: (front row, from left) Chris O'Doherty (aka Reg Mombassa), Greedy Smith, Martin Plaza and Peter O'Doherty. Photo: Michael Clayton-Jones

Mental as Anything: (front row, from left) Chris O’Doherty (aka Reg Mombassa), Greedy Smith, Martin Plaza and Peter O’Doherty.
Photo: Michael Clayton-Jones

Patrick Donovan
August 27, 2009

IN RECENT years, there has been a slight bias in the ARIA Hall of Fame towards unheralded artists and rock bands that write “serious” songs.

In the hallowed hall, it seemed, there wasn’t room for a band with a name as silly as Mental as Anything, led by a singer called Greedy Smith who wrote novelty songs and made quirky video clips. But that would be overlooking the band’s knack of writing lots of catchy tunes — it is second only to INXS on the list of the most hits — and enduring popularity.

Three decades after its first hit The Nips Are Getting Bigger, those endearing attributes will finally be acknowledged tonight at the Forum Theatre when the band is inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame alongside the Dingoes, Kev Carmody, Little Pattie and John Paul Young.

“Lightweight pop music is supposed to be here today and gone tomorrow, so it’s nice that we have been remembered,” said Greedy Smith.

The band proved it had lost none of its chemistry when it played with the O’Doherty brothers (Chris, aka Reg Mombassa, and Peter) for the first time in 10 years at rehearsal yesterday, powering through songs that are etched into Australia’s psyche: The Nips Are Getting Bigger, If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too and Live it Up.

Certainly the band never expected to be taken too seriously when it started out as an art-school party band in 1976.

“We just started for a laugh. To meet girls and get free drinks,” says Martin Plaza.

Mental as Anything is used to being the odd guy out in a country with a preference for loud guitars and damaged frontmen. Its recent album Tents Up opens with a hilarious song about being the odd band out at a blues festival where “everyone stinks of patchoulia [sic]”.

“People were a bit confused by us,” said Peter O’Doherty. “We straddled different genres — we weren’t rock or lightweight pop. We were like bowerbirds with four songwriters — it was an eclectic mix.”

From tomorrow, the Arts Centre will display memorabilia from this year’s inductees.

Patrick Donovan is a Hall of Fame committee member.

Original article: http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/music/chuffed-as-anything-to-be-in-arias-hall-of-fame/2009/08/27/1251001975371.html

Greedy May Be Right!

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YoumayberightHosted by star of the stage and Dancing with the Stars judge, Todd McKenney, YOU MAY BE RIGHT pitches two teams of celebrities against each other as their knowledge of movies, music and television is put to the test in a series of fun trivia games. Greedy will appear on Sunday 13th of August on Seven / Prime @ 7.30pm