Live music back on despite COVID-19 restrictions
The Gold Coast council has invested $100,000 in a music festival this week to boost interest in live music and support local acts and venues, which suffered under the COVID-19 restrictions.
However, due to ongoing restrictions, venues are unable to let patrons dance indoors, with artists feeling extra pressure to perform and provide a positive experience to make up for it.
Hail storm leaves residents homeless
Many residents whose homes were damaged in a Brisbane hail storm over a month ago have still been unable to return to living in their houses.
Despite around $305 million in damages, necessary repairs have been unable to go ahead quickly due to low resources of construction materials and many workers being unable to travel interstate during the lockdowns.
Rent in the area has skyrocketed, leaving many families competing for the same properties and many still unable to afford to move, but unable to live in their damaged homes.
Climate change critically threatening to Australia’s natural landmarks
An advisory body of the UNESCO world heritage committee has found that climate change threatens a third of the world’s natural heritage sites, including five within Australia.
The conditions of the sites, which include the Great Barrier Reef, Blue Mountains, Gondwana Rainforests, Shark Bay, and Ningaloo Coast, have all worsened significantly in the past three years, with the Great Barrier Reef now in critical condition.
Sydney hotel worker tests positive to Covid-19
A Sydney hotel worker has tested positive to Covid-19, ending the state’s 26-day streak of no locally acquired cases.
Confirmed by the NSW health minister Brad Hazzard, it is said the woman worked at both the Ibis and Novotel hotels in Darling Harbour doing ‘domestic work’.
The woman’s test returned positive yesterday morning, however her five family members returned negative results, further investigations are now underway.
Singapore gives green light to world-first lab grown chicken nuggets
Singapore has given a US startup their approval to sell lab-grown chicken meat, a world-first regulatory approval for a slaughter-free meat product according to the organisation.
In its first launch, the meat will be sold in the form of chicken nuggets at a restaurant in Singapore with its price similar to that of premium chicken.
The introduction of this new food product reflects a surge in demand for alternatives due to environmental, health and animal welfare concerns.
UK approves coronavirus vaccine
The UK has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, becoming the first country to approve a vaccine for the virus, with 800,000 vaccines doses set to arrive soon.
As the vaccines will be stored in hospitals, they are likely to be used there initially, before staff and residents of elderly care homes are prioritised first.
While the vaccine will not be compulsory, it will be free and accessible from hospitals, specialised vaccination clinics and community GPs and pharmacists.
The Double Happiness - 'Surfgazing'
‘Surfgazing’ is a reverb-drenched ode to afternoons spent sun-kissed and wave-side, to letting the wind take your hand as it dangles out the car window along the highway and to '60s beach parties and the dance crazes that accompanied them.
After three sun-soaked singles released over the unique year that was 2020 - 'Wild Bikini', 'Coochiemudlo' and 'Oysters Can Dream' - the full length album is brimming with chiming guitars, ear-worm guitar hooks, shimmering cymbals, thunderous toms, driving bass-lines and dreamy call and response vocals.
The surfgaze sound encompasses the band’s love of pioneering shoegaze and post-punk artists such as Slowdive(band), Underground Lovers and The Go-Betweens with a splash of The B-52's for good measure, as well as the lush reverb-soaked hazy music of La Luz and The Shacks.
"There is a strong undercurrent of surf guitar on all our tracks," says Kristin Black (guitar, vocals). "But some answer the call of the waves more than others. 'Wild Bikini' harkens back to 1960s B-grade Beach Party movies and sitcoms, think Frankie and Annette meet 'I Dream of Jeannie' whereas 'Oysters Can Dream' swells in shoegaze trippiness."
The album features the tireless efforts of Pete Fergusson (guitar, vocals) who spent many hours on the DIY recordings, searching for that authentic '60s surf sound by employing multiple reverb effects and spending many nights in the company of The Atlantics, The Shadows and Man... Or Astro-Man?
The drums and additional vocals were recorded at Music Industry College with mastering done by Kieran Fergusson (Colu, Riverine). After a long search he obtained the perfect acoustics in his parents’ tool shed.
Catch their live set on 4ZZZ Exit Stage Zed on November 28 in studio!
La Fetts
La Fetts formed as The Immortal Corpses in Goodna QLD in 1979. The band name changed to The Fits shortly after, and in 1983, settled on the name La Fetts.
The band had its roots in old school punk rock, but also had hard rock and other influences. The band calls this “Punk N Roll”. Under the National Party government of the 1980s, independent music was seen as subversive, and La Fetts had many live shows closed down by the police.
9AM ZEDLINES - DECEMBER 3RD
By 4ZZZ reporters Bri Dunigan and Brittany Dever
Image credit: Louis Varrite
Public transport fares for south-east Queensland to be frozen for 2021
Transport minister Mark Bailey has announced that public transport fares will be frozen in 2021 in order to encourage commuters to return following the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns.
TransLink has been hiking public transport fares since 2018, but this and the COVID-19 lockdown have caused a decrease in public transport users by about 80% at the height of the pandemic.
In addition to freezing fares, a new app that will forecast transport capacity and extra bus and train services will be added to aid and prepare commuters for social distancing.