Summer of 1977 – my first massive outdoor gig

(January 1, 2013) By Julius Grafton At the end of 1976 I sold my lightshow business Zapco to Roger Barratt who was soon to be acclaimed as Australia’s greatest lighting designer. We met in late 1975 after Roger told Rob Nicholls at Strand Electric that he needed someone to look after his lights. Roger was…

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Summer of ’75. My first theatre lighting gig

28 DEC 2012 By Julius Grafton Somehow as a 17 year old I found myself convincing adults I could do a mans job of something I’d never done before. Bob Maza had been appointed to the Black Theatre in Redfern, which was fashioned inside an old printing factory. He was to direct a new play…

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Guitar owners find unlikely friend

21 December 2012 Today’s Smart Company reports that liquidator of Jackson’s Rare Guitars in Sydney will attempt to help the suppliers of the store’s guitars get their property back. This is a remarkable and honorable gesture from a practitioner of the insolvency profession, where seize and sell in haste is the usual mode. “I just…

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JACKSONS: Fraud Investigation (rumor) – and PPSR warning!

16 December 2012 In earlier posts CX detailed the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the closure of Jacksons Rare Guitars in Sydney’s inner west. At the time a large collection of rare and valuable guitars were seized by Deloittes, called in as ‘Administrators’. Problem is that many guitars, perhaps as much as a million dollars worth, were…

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Sydney’s International Convention Centre : Problems

13th December 2012 Sydney will have a new Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Centre, after a three year shutdown. Plans announced yesterday by the state government have failed to excite the exhibitions industry. Right now, Sydney offers 25,000 metres of continuous space across five halls – with NO columns. An extra 2,500 meters in hall 6…

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Wireless: The (ALMOST) new laws. Time for a quick comment!

(13 Dec, 2012) Here we go – the ACMA held a Wireless Mic workshop last week. The upshot is that YOU have a short period to make comments, and then the following becomes LAW: 1. FROM the end of December 2014 the digital dividend spectrum (694–820 MHz) is NOT available for wireless audio transmitters. This…

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St Kilda Screen Collapse – near miss for punters

12 December 2012 While CX doesn’t have ALL the details, it appears the collapse of an outdoor cinema screen structure at St Kilda last week could have maimed or killed audience members, had the timing been different. This is the picture of the structure as collapsed: Entertainment rigger Michael (Nitrox) Petrani was driving past on…

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Rumor today: Norwest to acquire Cairellie

11 December 2012 (Fresh denial at bottom) CX usually lets these fly through to the keeper. But today the biz is abuzz with the possibility that Sydney production firm Cairellie will join Norwest. Cairellie is a technical production supplier who supply sound, lights, vision and communication systems – a one-stop shop. They have arena capability,…

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Can this be the same structure at St Kilda?

December 10, 2012 We asked for info about this structure failure, and were amazed when a reader pointed us to The Age on December 4: “High winds have forced the organisers of St Kilda’s open air cinema to cancel tonight’s screening”. “A spokeswoman for Openair Cinemas has hit back at suggestions that the screen fell…

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Nexo STM: Is the CX story fair and reasonable?

Now we’ve recovered from the Behringer X32 excitement, it would be fair to throw the Nexo STM into the conversation circle that is CX. Matt Girgis starts the ball rolling. “As a long time reader of CX I’m pretty shocked about your article on Nexo STM in the latest issue. I was at that launch…

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Guitar Armageddon for Jackson clients

When Jacksons Rare Guitars went broke last month guitar customers suddenly faced immediate loss. For many years the Sydney firm had sold rare guitars on consignment and were slow to pay owners. Now it appears unsold guitars, totalling almost $1 million worth, may not be returned to angry owners. A year ago CX reported the…

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Local Conman ‘Ran Recording Label’

29 NOV 2012 – SYDNEY Now that he’s been convicted, CX can discuss our neighborhood conman freely. Dimitri de Angelis seriously weirded out Mrs CX by appearing often in and around North Turramurra where she works. One night he was at (now closed) Tables Restaurant at a nearby table with some suits as she dined…

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