The Source: False start for Jacinta Allan’s new media manager

Victoria’s premier-in-waiting Jacinta Allan is on the lookout for a new spin doctor, after her last appointment threw in the towel in a matter of weeks.

Jacinta Allan is in the box seat to step into Daniel Andrews’ shoes. Picture: David Crosling

Putting the squeeze on Victoria’s movers, shakers and headline makers.

Preparations for the Post-Dan Government, tipped to commence anytime between this week and 2024, have not gone entirely smoothly.

Brendan Roberts, formerly of the Herald Sun and Channel 7, was hired to run media affairs for now Transport Minister Jacinta Allan, who is the frontrunner to be the next premier if and when Andrews holds his last premier’s press conference.

Roberts started two weeks ago.

Perhaps there was a misunderstanding about workload expectations. Maybe it was the process-heavy culture.

Roberts has since resigned, to return to his role in media relations with the Police Association.

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‘Blur vs Oasis’: The grudge driving Melbourne’s Rising festival

Australia’s winter arts festivals, Melbourne’s Rising and Sydney’s Vivid, wound down their 2023 events at the weekend with in-house high-fives and jubilation over visitor numbers.

In Melbourne, Rising will roll out official numbers on Monday, and say 630,000 visitors attended the festival across 185 events between June 7 and 18.

Behind the scenes, festival organisers are comparing those numbers to premium events like last year’s AFL Grand Final, which drew 100,024 people, and the Australian Grand Prix in March, with a 444,631-strong crowd.

Given the footy grand final is a one-day event, and the Grand Prix, across three, Rising’s event comparisons, even on the quiet, is very showbiz, but also commendable, given the ongoing debate about arts-versus-sport funding.

But what about the relationship between Rising, Vivid and Hobart’s Dark Mofo? Is it bitter or bonhomie?

“We coexist,” Rising’s co-artistic director Hannah Fox said. “It’s created a pathway for touring acts in a winter time frame that wasn’t there before.”

She added, with a laugh: “With the other festivals, we have a healthy Blur-Oasis competition.”

Given Oasis grump Noel Liam Gallagher once wished death on Blur’s Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon, The Source hopes the interstate festival rivalries are more collegiate.

Melbourne’s Rising attracted 63,000 visitors. Picture: Mark Stewart

Is Coldplay coming to Melbourne next year?

Coldplay’s run of Asian dates in early 2024 might be the, excuse the very clever pun, ‘Fix You’ Australian fans in the forgotten eastern states are hoping for.

Famously, Coldplay’s 2023 world tour plan goes, ahem, ‘Something Just Like This’: Perth shows only, in November. Those dates, at Optus Stadium, sold out within minutes, with a hefty percentage of punters doing a FIFO from interstate to see the gig.

However, this week, Coldplay announced another run of Asia dates, in Singapore, Bangkok and Manila in January and February 2024.

Accordingly, it doesn’t take ‘The Scientist’ to calculate the opening of an Australasian window and potential dates Down Under in the first quarter next year.

If it happens, ‘Viva La Vida’ to that.

Since launching in March, Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour has sold 7 million tickets; the most for a concert run over the last two years. The shows have received rave reviews from critics, and was named Tour of The Year at the 2023 iHeartRadio Awards.

The Source has sought comment from Coldplay’s tour promoter Live Nation.

Asian tour dates suggest Coldplay could book in a Melbourne show early next year. Picture: James Marcus Haney

Kids who saw Jason Moran gunned down

This week is the 20th anniversary of the shot which blasted the city’s rules of criminal engagement.

The killing of gangland killer Jason Moran shifted the public’s mood from fascination to fear.

It also triggered a police response in secret schemes which are still being legally analysed to this day.

Moran was sitting in the driver’s seat of a Mitsubishi van when he slumped from a fatal shotgun blast.

His mate, alongside him at an Essendon North footy clinic, was killed moments later with another gun.

In the back of the van sat 10 dazed and deafened children.

Some of them have turned out pretty well.

One girl in the van went on to finish year 12, get a criminology degree and serve the community.

Police collect evidence from the Cross Keys Reserve crime scene.

One boy was last reported to be an apprentice carpenter – who pays his taxes.

Then there are the young Moran twins.

One of them may have given the thronging media the finger at their father’s funeral soon after the killings.

Their mum Trish took them to Perth to keep out of the way.

She changed their name to Middleton, apparently a family name, which coincided with the rise of one of the world’s most famous women, Kate Middleton, a future queen who may be unaware that she shares her name with Melbourne crime royalty.

The family returned to Melbourne, where the twins are said to have been well-regarded.

The son was a handy private school footballer.

He is thought to believe that two decades is long enough, and is set to resume the Moran surname, although his sister is not.