Fifty bands, three stages, two days. 'Ear Candy #12: Resurrection’ will be one of the biggest events to arrive in Brisbane this Easter.
With a dynamic range of local acts, the event is a must-see for lovers of the underground music scene. Held at the New Globe Theatre, promoter Dave Beattie says the event is: “one, big, crazy party with the best bands around.
“Going to this show you're going to be discovering bands you've never heard of before that are going to blow your mind,” he says. “There's no labels, there's no pressure... I can guarantee if you go to it each day you'll find probably three or four bands that you'll totally fall in love with.”
Ear Candy has served as a fantastic promotional platform for local talent. “The bands love it,” Dave says, “because it normally ends up being the biggest audience that they play to, unless they're doing a launch or something… a lot of them use it to take promotional photos with a huge audience. It's such a great platform for them, it's great for me, and it's great for the venue.”Dave says the show reels in a diverse audience and doesn’t believe you can get the same vibe if he promoted bigger bands. “It’s all really nice,” he continues. “There's no cliques. Everyone starts talking to each other while they're having a cigarette or while they're waiting for drinks. It's a lot friendlier. I think bringing bigger bands in would impact it badly.”
Dave is sincere about promoting local talent, and says he’s passionate about giving the bands and the local bloggers the exposure they need to succeed in the industry. “We do a lot of things with small blogs as well [as our regular promotion], and give [the bands] a lot of access and a lot of attention that they probably wouldn't get from other events,” he says.
“If people only have 15 or 20 readers [on their blogs] then most people wouldn't worry about them, but I sort of think it's the same with the bands. They've got to get their start somewhere.”Dave says he likes to give the bloggers as much access as possible. “They write great articles, they do tons and tons of stuff for the bands… coordinating a lot of that probably takes up most of my time,” he adds.
'Resurrection' will be as much fun for Dave as it will for the bands. “I don't really have any interest in dealing with bigger booking agencies or bigger managements or big events,” he says. “This is what I enjoy doing... seeing the reactions from people in the audience, talking to them afterwards, hearing them go on about a band they just discovered makes my day.
“The bands actually ended up making more money from this than most of their other shows,” he continues. “We give them a really good deal with pre-sale tickets. That's why they push so hard, and we push so hard, for the audience to buy directly from the bands because we want the bands to make as much money as possible.“For the local bands that's not something you really get the opportunity to do very often,” he adds. “Bands get paid a per ticket amount... The money gets split equally among everyone.
“The [New] Globe really helps us as well,” Dave continues. “They put in a lot for promotion, advertising and they give us a lot of contacts, which really, really helps us out. Without the [New] Globe, and without Paul [Robinson, owner] from the [New] Globe, I don't think an event this big would be possible.”'Ear Candy #12: Resurrection' takes place at the New Globe Theatre 26-27 March. All photos featured are from previous Ear Candy shows.
