Music promoter Michael Gudinski to feature in new Australian Music Vault exhibition space
HE can’t play a single note of music, and was once told by Jimmy Barnes never to sing— even in the shower — but Aussie music mogul Michael Gudinski has hit all the right notes this year. Here’s why.
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HE can’t play a single note of music, and was once told by Jimmy Barnes never to sing (even in the shower), but Aussie music mogul Michael Gudinski has hit all the right notes this year.
He’s brought some of the biggest names in music to our shores, including Bruce Springsteen and Sir Paul McCartney, nailed the AFL Grand Final entertainment with The Killers, and was a co-owner of winning Melbourne Cup horse Rekindling.
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Melbourne ready to launch Australian Music Vault next month
But speaking to the Leader at the Mushroom Group headquarters in Albert Park, Gudinski said homegrown “Australian music” continued to be his life’s blood.
And from next week, audiences will be able to see some of that work up close at an exhibition space at the Arts Centre.
The Australian Music Vault, which opens on December 19 and runs for at least three years, will also be home to the ARIA Hall of Fame. Gudinski, with Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum, Kylie Minogue and Archie Roach, is a founding patron.
“It was so important to me, Molly, Kylie and Archie for (the Vault) to be in Melbourne,” he said.
“Melbourne is the music capital and we thought we should give something back, so a key condition was it being free to get in.”
Gudinski said the Arts Centre was an ideal location for Melburnians and tourists alike to visit the Vault.
“It needs to be accessible and think, for all those tourists when they come out for the Australian Open, it’s right there and it’s free,” he said.
The Vault will feature memorabilia from the founders, as well as AC/DC, Men at Work, Split Enz, Midnight Oil, Skyhooks, Paul Kelly, John Farnham and Cold Chisel — to name a few.
Gudinski said exhibits included letters and contracts, “the real bits and pieces”, dating back to Mushroom’s early days.
Creative Industries Minister and Albert Park state Labor MP Martin Foley said Aussie music icons deserved to be celebrated.
“(The Vault) will turn up the volume on our local industry, providing a dedicated space to enjoy, celebrate and promote the successes of our nation’s music talent — past, present and future.”
Arguably the most powerful and influential figure in the Aussie music industry for the last four decades, Gudinski said Mushroom Records was started to prevent major labels taking control of “every little detail”.
“Believe it or not, in the ‘70s creativity was stifled,” he said.
“Big labels would tell you who was going to produce you, who was going to do your album cover and it just didn’t make sense to me as a manager of local artists — that’s why I started Mushroom Records.”
And life has been magic with Mushroom and its offshoots, including Frontier Touring.
“Australian music is what my life has been all about but the international touring has opened so many doors for me,” he said.
“If you would have said to me 15 years ago that I’d get Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones here I would have said if I get one of those three I’m a lucky man.
“McCartney hadn’t been here for 26 years and it’s an act I’ve been chasing for so long so it’s pretty humbling (to get him).”
Humbling is perhaps not a word you’d expect to hear from a man who has hosted some of music’s biggest superstars at his Toorak home.
He held a Thanksgiving dinner for Madonna, and hosted Sting and Billy Joel, but Gudinski said giving back, including through charity concerts like Sound Relief in 2009, was his greatest legacy.
“Out of everything I’ve done, that was the greatest thing,” he said. “Stuff like that makes me sleep at night.”
But his neighbours might not have slept through some of the legendary shindigs thrown at the music man’s home, including three days of joint 60th birthday celebrations for Gudinski and his wife, Sue, a few years ago.
Parties for different guests were held over three nights with a night off between each one.
“When I was a kid you’d go to parties and there’d be a band playing in the backyard so we set up a stage,” he said.
“Jimmy (Barnes) and Diesel played one night — it was loud, let me tell you, it was rocking.
“There was a bar next to the stage and when The Rubens played champagne glasses were cracking.
“The police turned up a couple of times and we stopped the music at a reasonable hour, but on the Monday, Stonnington Council rang and said ‘How many more parties are there to come?’”
“I swear I could hear the guy’s relief over the phone when I said: ‘Tonight is the last one’.”
Gudinski’s lifestyle and contact list would be the envy of most, but he has worked hard to get where he is and “stay relevant”, including taking a punt on a little-known redhead from the UK he now refers to fondly as his “stepson”.
“I’ve been involved with Ed Sheeran since he was playing to 40 people and now he’s just sold a quarter of a million tickets in Melbourne,” he said.
“I’d be bulls**ting if I said to you I had the vision he was going to go big but after about the second tour we sat in his hotel room, my wife and I, and he played some stuff for us and I thought ‘This kid is a superstar’.
“I call him my stepson now, and to be able to relate to someone who is younger than both my kids and spend so much time together, that has been really moving.
“He has been a great inspiration to me and I like to think I have been to him.”
Gudinski said calling the shots was the best part of his job.
“If I wasn’t my own boss I would have been fired at least 10 times.
“Whether you’re a plumber, an electrician, a journalist; if you’ve got a job you love, you’re going to be better at it and happier in life.”
Hot on the heels of a successful 2017, Gudinski is paving the way for a rockin’ 2018, with Foo Fighters, Sheeran, Harry Styles and The Killers among the acts announced so far. And retirement isn’t on the cards.
“I don’t think I’ll ever retire fully,” Gudinski said. “But the day I don’t feel I can relate or be relevant is the day I’ll step back a bit.”
Details: australianmusicvault.com.au
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