Brisbane corporates will strap on guitars this Saturday to kick out the jams for a worthy cause

Brisbane corporate figures in seven bands will raise money this weekend to help Australia’s leading charity for struggling music industry players.

KICK OUT THE JAMS

They’re not about to give up their day jobs.

But a bunch of Brisbane corporate types will strap on guitars and pick up drum sticks this coming Saturday to kick out the jams for a worthy cause.

The fourth “Brisband” fundraiser aims to rustle up a few bucks for Support Act, which is the nation’s only charity aimed at helping musicians, crew and others in the industry food chain decimated by the pandemic.

Bizoids from all the big four accounting firms—Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC—will join their comrades from VideoPro, Rio Tinto and CS Energy for a rocking night at The Fortitude Music Hall.

The event, first launched in 2017 with much the same line up across seven different bands, has previously played out at the Triffid, which is a much smaller venue and obviously not as COVID safe.

The three previous events have collectively raised about $120,000 for the Children’s Hospital Foundation and their research on preventing brain injury in premature babies.

John Greig

One of the key organisers, Deloitte boss John Greig, told City Beat on Monday that the gig usually takes place in August or September but struggling musos, techies, lighting people and the rest need help immediately to bounce back.

“We just felt we needed to do something now for Support Act and, specifically, the musicians impacted by COVID,’’ Greig said.

“Many of these people haven’t worked since March, when this thing broke. This industry is on its knees and we just felt it’s time to help them out.’’

Greig is hoping to sell more than 600 tickets for the show, which, at $25 a pop, should rustle up a bit more than $15,000 for Support Act. He’s also keen to line up another Brisband gig later this year, at least in part to make up for the lack of a show last year.

Launched in 1997, Support Act has enjoyed support over the years from high-profile industry figures and last May it received a $10m grant from the Federal Government.

By chance that same month Powderfinger held its virtual reunion show, which raised more than $450,000 for both Support Act and mental health outfit Beyond Blue.

No surprise that Support Act boss Clive Miller revealed recently that his group has seen a significant increase in artists reaching out for help.

“We’ve gone from processing roughly 70 to 100 crisis relief grants per year to close to 1200 in the past six months alone,” Miller said late last year.

SINKING FEELING

It’s the end of the road for one player in the Gold Coast boating industry. Or is it?

We learned on Monday that Martin Clark had wound up his solely-owned Bradford Marine business.

The company, which he launched in 2006 and was based at the Gold Coast City Marina, had ceased trading before Christmas.

Liquidator Jason Bettles told us the firm had been unable to pay a $260,000 claim after a creditor won court orders last year.

Clark could not be reached for comment. But records show he registered a separate entity, Bradford Marine Services Pty Ltd, last April and it became ABN active last month.