Thomas Rome Lecture 2012

Published on 02 August 2012, 1:49 p.m.

Michael Gudinski AM

Chairman of the Mushroom Group, Michael Gudinski has been announced to deliver the 2012 National Film and Sound Archive Thomas Rome Lecture in Melbourne on 13 August.

Recently named Australia’s ‘most powerful music figure’ by the Australasian Music Industry Directory, Gudinski will address the audience to talk about emerging challenges and opportunities for the music industry.

Gudinski has been called ‘the rock guru’, ‘the music mogul’, ‘the mushroom man’, and is widely recognised as one of the most important figures in the history of the Australian music industry.

In 1972 Gudinski founded Mushroom Records – which became the largest independent record label in Australian music – and Mushroom Music, which is today the principal independent publishing company in Australia. His music empire includes record labels, touring companies, agencies and a publishing arm which are amongst the most influential in the country. They include: The Frontier Touring Company, Premier Artists and The Harbour Agency, Liberation, Illusive, Mushroom Music, Mushroom Pictures and Mushroom TV, MCM Entertainment and venues Ding Dong Lounge and Trak Lounge Bar. He has also managed numerous Australian artists across the past decades.

Michael’s achievements and contribution to the Australian music Industry have been recognised by many awards including the ARIA Hall Of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award, the APRA Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music and the Order of Australia medal (AM) for service to the entertainment industry through the promotion of Australian music recording artists, as an advocate for young people in the music industry, and to the community.

In July 2006, he was listed in The Bulletin “100 Most Influential Australians” and in 2009 Michael accepted the prestigious JC Williamson Award at the 2009 Helpmann Awards. It is the foremost honour that the Australian live entertainment industry can bestow.

The public are warmly invited to be part of this free event and hear first hand from one of our most influential entertainment business leaders.

Established in 2008, the Thomas Rome Lecture provides a platform for leading figures in the Australian sound recording industry to present their thoughts and ideas on current issues faced by the sector, and to generate debate about the state of the industry, relevant public policy issues and the role of sound in society.

The Thomas Rome Lecture is named after the man who made the oldest known surviving sound recording in Australia. Rome’s recording, made in 1896, was a novelty song called The Hen Convention, which featured a shop assistant imitating a clucking chicken.(http://aso.gov.au/titles/music/the-hen-convention/ ). The lecture is part of the NFSA’s Sounds of Australia program to promote and celebrate the nation’s sound heritage. Sounds of Australia also includes the Cochrane Smith Award for Sound Heritage, as well as the National Registry of Recorded Sound.

We invite you to join Michael Gudinski on 13 August for this remarkable first hand insight into our music industry, as well as a special performance from 2012 Sounds of Australia patron, musician and producer David Bridie.

13 AUGUST at 6.15pm
MELBOURNE TOWN HALL, Swanston St, City