ARTIST SPOTLIGHT : BEN LEE
Having firmly made his mark on the Australian – and global – music platform, Ben Lee is back with a brand new album. After the momentous win of four ARIAs in 2005 – Best Male Artist, Best Independent Release, Single Of The Year for “Catch My Disease” and Best Cover Artwork; as well as APRA Song Of The Year in 2006, Inertia Recordings is proud to announce the release of ‘Ripe’.
Produced by John Alagia (who has worked with John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band, Ben Folds Five), ‘Ripe’ represents a new pinnacle for Ben, who has spent half of his 28 years crafting some of the catchiest pop songs to ever hit the airwaves.
“I think this record will connect with anyone who has a genuine love of pop music,” Ben muses. “This isn’t about using ‘pop’ as a means to a fast buck, or in a condescending way – it’s about how things used to be, when quality pop records won out, and the best selling records were, simply, the best records.”
‘Ripe’ also benefits from a guest appearance by pop princess Mandy Moore, who duets with Ben on the infectious “Birds And Bees”, based loosely on the Grease classic “Summer Loving”.
“That fell together pretty easily,” Ben says of the Moore connection. “I’d been thinking a lot about how innate the search for love is for people, and after I wrote it I went to a Mandy Moore show. Backstage she told me she was a fan, and it just came to me that she’d be the perfect voice on the track. I really had no Plan B – Mandy was just so perfect!”
“Besides,” he adds slyly, “anytime you can hand Mandy Moore a lyric sheet and hear her sing to you, ‘Come over here babe and give me a kiss’ – that’s a good day at work!”
Also joining Ben in the recording studio were pop band Rooney and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte – both bands that have been good mates with Ben for a long time.
“That’s one of the joys of being in the music game for a long time,” Ben enthuses. “You meet the occasional young band who are still learning how to change their guitar strings, and the next thing you know – bang! They’ve sold a gazillion records.”
Ben is also readying himself for the completion of ‘Ben Lee: Catch My Disease,’ a seven-years-in-the-making documentary by his friend Amiel Courtin-Wilson, “who’s interviewed everyone I’ve ever known, played with, and slept with!” “It’s quite jarring to let someone in like that, but the results should be pretty interesting.”
As for the new album, Ben is ready for the public to embrace his new direction. “I hope this album opens people’s hearts,” he says. “I don’t push a particular thing to believe in or political point of view; I’m interested in helping people discover their own feelings. I hope that Ripe touches people and gives them hope and courage.”
Find Ben Lee’s new single “Love Me Like The World Is Ending” in Nightlife’s lists: Top_100, Bar_Tunes, MOR, SurfnCity & Hotel_Mix.
AT YOUR SERVICE!
Advertising Billboards
Nightlife Music + Video not only provides a complete music management system, but also offers a comprehensive advertising solution. Your Nightlife HDMS™ features an inbuilt electronic billboard facility allowing you to use the TV screens in your venue for in-house advertising.
A picture tells a thousand words and hence the billboard advertising feature can be used as a major part of your venue’s promotional and marketing plan. With the aid of digital images and a bit of graphics knowledge your Nightlife HDMS™ has the ability to promote drink specials, meal deals, bands, sporting and special events.
As technology develops there is a need to keep up with the times to stay on top of the market. Nightlife’s Marketing Department can help you achieve this by assisting with basic JPEGs and help to co-ordinate the design of Flash, HTML and MPEGs with graphic design firms.
What are JPEGs, Flash and HTML Billboards?
In real words these are fancy, animated, attention grabbing professional pictures and photos that promote your message.
Scheduling Your Advertising Billboards
Using the Scheduler feature of the HDMS™ you can program your advertising billboards to show at certain times of the day.
Don’t have a Graphic Designer?
Call Nightlife Music + Video on 1800 773 468 to discover the full potential of billboard advertising.
...we are of course at your service!
Did you know you can...
Ring us for a music health check?
Nightlife's Client Services Team is available 24/7 to make sure that the music you are playing creates the right atmosphere for your venue. If you would like to talk about your music or have a music request, please contact us on 1800 773 468, we’d love to hear
from you.
Beatmix with music + video!
Nightlife's DJ Pro module allows you to search, preview, cue and beatmix with our extensive library of music video and audio tracks!
Make money with a jukebox you control!
The music on the Jukebox is customisable and you keep 100% of the takings! The attractive slimline wallbox interfaces with your existing HDMS™.
Liven up other areas in your venue!
You can multiply your impact by adding other channels of music. Chill out and relax in one area and party hard in the other, all with one HDMS™!
Call us on 1800 679 748 to find out more.
VENUE PROFILE
The Redcliffe Leagues Club
Located in Brisbane’s beautiful Redcliffe Peninsula is one of Nightlife’s valued clients and one of Queensland’s premier clubs, The Redcliffe Leagues Club; or as the locals fondly call it ‘The Friendly Club.’
With close to 30,000 members’ support, the club recently won the Redcliffe & Bayside Herald Business Achievers Award for the Pubs, Clubs & Entertainment Venues section for the 5th year in a row and were inducted into the hall of fame.
Entertainment plays a big part in the venue’s success with all entertainment including live shows absolutely free. Live shows are a prominent feature of the club with 10 acts scheduled weekly. For every other minute of the day and night, Nightlife Music + Video’s HDMS™ plays through the halls, rooms and bars of the Club. Redcliffe Leagues’ Marketing Assistant, Carissa Lynch says that members enjoy the Nightlife system and that it “is very popular in the One Eyed Dolphin, which is our English pub in a club”.
With entertainment on every day of the week, there is something to suit everyone’s musical tastes. So if you’re around Redcliffe, pop down to the Redcliffe Leagues Club and enjoy the great service that has earned the club the nick name of ‘The Friendly Club’.
The club offers some great options for dining including the Koopa Cafe & Wood Fired Pizza Oven for a quick snack or the very popular Bunny’s Family Restaurant, open 7 days for lunch and dinner (and breakfast on Sundays), Bunny’s serves up quality meals at a competitive price. Highlights include the International Buffet (Wednesday and Sunday nights) and the famous ‘door-stopper’ steak sandwich.
Check out the Redcliffe Leagues Club’s website for more information:
www.redcliffeleagues.com.au
How would you like to feature your venue in our monthly newsletter? Distributed to more than 1200 venues throughout Australia, the Nightlife newsletter will put your venue in the limelight! Call us on 1800 679 748.
Ben Lee's new album 'Ripe'.
Thanks to the mighty fine people at Inertia, we have five copies of Ben Lee’s ‘Ripe’ to give away. Just drop us a line at music@nightlife.com.au and tell us your name, the name of your venue, your postal address and the name of one of Ben Lee’s songs from his back catalogue.
MUSIC MUSE FOR YOUR VENUE
GYROSCOPE – ‘Snake Skin (Warner)
Fresh off the back of a national tour with Fall Out Boy, these Perth boys are ready to claim Aussie rock back as their own with this awesome new single from their third album. You may remember these guys from such hits as ‘Fast Girl’ and ‘Beware Wolf’, a couple of cracking rock anthems that quickly put them on the map. A combination of great Triple J airplay and a rapidly rising reputation as one of the nation’s best live bands will soon see them receive all the attention they deserve.
Find the single ‘Snake Skin’ in Nightlife lists: PUB_ROCK, ALT_SOUNDS, HOTEL_MIX, & MODERN_ROCK.
ALICIA KEYS – ‘No One’ (Sony BMG)
The nine-time Grammy award winner Alicia Keys has once again come up with the goods for the first of tasty goodness from her third studio album ‘As I Am.’ Capturing the same universal sentiment of romanticism that laced previous hits ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ and ‘Fallin’, ‘No One’ sees Keys dedicating an ode of love to her significant other while a simple piano melody backs her. Produced by Kerry “Krucial” Keys and Dirty Harry, this single is a gorgeous little slice of smooth soul/pop for your playlists.
Find the single ‘No One’ in Nightlife lists: BAR_TUNES, MOR & HOTEL_MIX.
ANGIE HART – ‘Cold Heart Killer’ (ABC/Warner)
You may remember a little moment in Australian music history known as ‘Accidentally Kelly Street’, a song that not only launched the quirky pop group Frente into the stratosphere but also one that makes the then 17 year old singer still cringe. 15 years later and Angie Hart is back with her debut solo album Grounded Bird and this killer lead single. If for no other reason, this song is good for the pure fact that it’s putting her superb voice back into our ears. Luckily, none of the quality associated with the singer is missing on
this track.
Find the single ‘Cold Heart Killer’ in Nightlife lists: LITEnEASY, ALT_SOUNDS, SURFnCITY, HOTEL_MIX.
MATTAFIX – ‘Living (Dafur)’ (Virgin)
Mattafix are back. After an extraordinary 18 months that saw the duo tour the world (30 countries and counting), sell records everywhere from South Africa to Australia to the Eastern Bloc and back and score a Europe-wide chart-topper with classic debut single ‘Big City Life’, they’ve headed back to the studio and are ready to unveil the follow up to 2005’s Signs Of A Struggle – called Rhythm And Hymns. Formed by the disparate forces of a steel-pan playing virtuoso from a West Indian island and an unashamed computer geek of Indian/Harrow Road heritage, it’s not surprising to hear international influences on this first single, which utilises South African Zulu singers to remarkable effect. Shot in a refuge camp in Dafur, the video was an opportunity for the duo to make something that meant something and, with the United Nations conference held in New York in November, was too good an opportunity to ignore.
Find the single ‘Living (Dafur)’ in Nightlife lists: BAR_TUNES, HOTEL_MIX
BRIGHT RED – ‘New York Kid’ (RiSH Records)
Bright Red is a new, rapidly rising four-piece from Sydney featuring sisters Neige and O Koppes, daughters of Aussie rock legend Peter Koppes of the Church. Lead singer Neige says the song originated in a dream O had where she was scribbling words on a Joy Division vinyl cover. Recalling the best bits of Violet Femmes, L7 and even Aussie one-hit wonders Maybe Dolls (remember them?), Bright Red are definitely
one to watch!
Find the single ‘New York Kid’ in Nightlife lists: ALT_SOUNDS & HOTEL_MIX.
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