Scathing attack aimed at Katie Noonan over Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony
ONE of Australia’s top tour promoters and members of a band have launched a scathing attack on the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, saying artists were offered just $2000 a song and claiming music director Katie Noonan was “nasty”.
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ONE of Australia’s top tour promoters and members of a band have launched a scathing attack on the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, saying artists were offered just $2000 a song and claiming music director Katie Noonan was “nasty”.
Michael Chugg, one of Australia’s top tour promoters, claimed the ceremony was “huge scam” and a “f...ing disgrace”, saying top Aussie top artists were offered just $2000 a song and therefore stayed away.
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In an extraordinary brawl, members of the band Sheppard publicly attacked Noonan in the aftermath of the controversial ceremony.
“Karma is a bitch,” Sheppard frontman George Sheppard wrote on Facebook, his sister and bandmate Amy adding: “In my experience, this woman has been nothing but mean and nasty.”
The musicians’ comments were in response to a post by Noonan on Facebook, where she shared a bizarre image of herself crying on social media in the wake of a backlash to the lacklustre opening ceremony.
The singer, musical director of the opening and closing ceremonies, hit back in a long post about the negative publicity she received, claiming the ceremony was an “awesome musical soundtrack that reflected us as a mighty world class and proud mob of integrity”.
George and Amy Sheppard’s father, Greg, shared Noonan’s original post with a scathing commentary.
“My heart is breaking and tears are running down my face, so I’ll just take a selfie and post it on Facebook,” he wrote. “Pure narcissism. Maybe Katie might learn to be a bit more sensitive about how she uses her position of power in the music industry, but playing the victim card is not a good sign.”
In subsequent comments, George wrote: “I do kinda feel bad for her, it’s no fun to be dragged through the mud ... but then I remember how she unnecessarily dragged us through the mud in front of the entire Queensland Music Awards.”
At those awards in March 2016, Noonan slammed Sheppard for not being in attendance to pick up the Export Achievement gong.
Greg Sheppard suggested Sheppard and other artists were asked by organisers to perform at the ceremonies for “volunteer rates”.
Chugg, who manages Sheppard, waded into the discussion by questioning the lack of star power at the ceremony.
“Why were all the great OZ classic songs missing, cause they offered 2k a song & everyone went no way & where were all the current hot acts? No one could afford to get there at their own cost & do multiple rehearsals at $5-6000, a huge scam.”
He also wrote: “The UK company that produced the opening & were preferred to highly experienced Australian teams, were paid millions, not much of this stayed in Australia, a total f..... disgrace.”
“We were never going to spend 4 days rehearsing, driving from Brisbane to the Gold Coast every day & play for $6000 & spend 25k to do it, like most others we chose to say no & what we & others were offered for song use was insulting.”
The ceremony, which had an expected global viewing audience of 1.5 billion people, saw the likes of Christine Anu, Ricki-Lee Coulter and Delta Goodrem perform with a spectacular of dancers, fireworks and stunning projections around them.
However when it came to Noonan’s part, titled You’re Welcome Here, she sat at a white piano in an all-white suit and bright red shoes, performing an acoustic rendition of a series of iconic tunes, including I Still Call Australia Home.
One source said: “The camera was on Katie the whole time. Katie is musical director and she puts herself on stage singing the big moment. She was in all of the intros and outros for the athletes and she insisted on her moment at the piano.”
Noonan responded: “There has been some horrible media suggesting my musical direction of the Comm Games opening ceremony was driven by ego rather than good — and for me that is the ultimate insult.”
There were also questions raised as to why Noonan cast a close friend, Brisbane singer-songwriter Emma Dean, into the major role of performing a version of John Farnham’s You’re The Voice. It is understood Farnham declined to be involved.
In response to News Corp’s questions about why she put herself in the show, Noonan said: “So proud of my Gold Coast, my state of QLD and my country. It is so disappointing that after the extraordinary world class ceremony I feel our community presented to the world, a ceremony in which we showed our best selves with a message of sister/brother and not other ... that is the angle your journalistic ideals take you.”
It is not known whether she will feature in the closing ceremony, which is tipped to be more of a party rather than a symbolic showing.
The Veronicas, Guy Sebastian, Amy Shark, Dami Im and Samantha Jade are all rumoured to be involved in the grand finale at Carrara Stadium on Sunday.
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