MICHAEL GUDINSKI // Total Shroomin’ Legend

Few people have contributed to the Australian music scene the way Michael Gudinski AM has.

He co-founded Australia’s largest independent music company, Mushroom Group, and he’s taken Australian music to the world. With such a burning passion for Australian music and the industry it’s no surprise that after all this time he’s now teamed up with Molly Meldrum to give us a look at the Australian Music Vault. We caught up with Gudinski and talked Mushroom Group, the evolution of music, and of course the upcoming Australian Music Vault in Melbourne.

Hysteria: It’s very cool to kind of get my head around this and reading the language about it and what the cause is and what the message is. I imagine this is something that’s been on the cards for some time now. So why now?

Michael: Well look, it’s been a vision of Molly’s for a long time. Both of us are serious Victorians and both have been involved with music all our lives, and there’s been a number of things like this done in other areas. Like, the AFL had something in Federation Square, the VRC had something there and the biggest thing that I was concerned about and it took a long time, was a) History is so important and b) We really wanted to make sure that it was free to get in. That was a big thing for Molly and I and we’ve given a lot of stuff and after quite a bit of talking.

It also involves the ARIA Hall of Fame, which a lot of people wouldn’t realise there is no Hall of Fame or Music Vault in Australia and it was very important to us for it to be in Melbourne, because Melbourne seems to have been the home of music. Eventually we’re hoping there will be a standalone building for this.

Wow!

You’ve got to start somewhere but I was stumped at the collection of Kylie. We’ve done a couple of exhibitions and given all of her stuff that she wrote in there. The Curator, Janine Barrand, I mean, she has posters of before I even started Mushroom Records of gigs that I was involved with and you know, the most important thing is that it’s looked after properly. It’s in the heart of Melbourne and you know, you can do a lot of stuff with new technology these days but nothing beats original letters, contracts, guitars, costumes and I think that Australia’s got a very rich history. Hopefully it’ll inspire a lot of people.

A lot of people in the 60s and 70s when I was sort of starting up, music wasn’t universal like it is today in the sense that … I mean, I didn’t buy my first couple of singles until I was 12 and back then it was very much internationals; imported cars, imported clothes, imported music. As I was growing up I started to see how much great talent there was in this country and the music business was quite backyard, unprofessional.

Most labels told the bands what songs to record, who would produce them. Even the artwork of the cover. It just seemed ridiculous to me so when I set up the Mushroom label, it wasn’t any grand business plan or anything I thought would even grow into anything like it has. It was just more about really ensuring the artist I was working with had artistic control and it sounds ridiculous talking about this now, but it’s true.

AC/DC moved to Melbourne from Sydney before they became really successful. So it seemed very important, very fitting that the Music Vault was in Melbourne and I’m hoping as it stands today, you can see kids as young as two and people as old as eighty going to shows or certainly listening to music.

So I’d like to know from you and this might be like asking which one is your favourite child, so I understand if you just want to, you know, avoid the question. But between those two artists, between the era of AC/DC and you know, the more current stuff like Courtney Barnett, what’s your favourite moment to kind of look back on, or your favourite moment that will be represented in The Vault?

I grew up with it, so it just brings back so many great memories. There’s you know, obviously it’s not just about Mushroom. It’s about all Australian music and it’s really a celebration. Look, music is something that can be a bit cyclic. There’ll be very keen interest, is that the younger generation is listening to some of the great music because of Spotify and streaming, etcetera. You know they call it ‘throwbacks’, you can call it ‘Retro’, but great music will stand the test of time.

You can play The Doors today or you can play Jimi Hendrix today. You can play, you know, The Small Faces and Rod and when we’ve been doing some of the great artists that have been around for so long, I’ve found most of them, be it Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl or even the young superstar of the moment, Ed Sheeran. The real music success stories of so many of them are actually fans of the music themselves and you know … When we toured Springsteen it’s been amazing to see how many young people, a lot that wouldn’t even have been born when Bruce had massive success. So you know, I think age in a lot of ways, isn’t a barrier.

I mean there’s been over the years obviously, lots of one hit wonders and even looking through that’s quite interesting and if you look at the charts today on a singles level, half the top 10 roughly couldn’t sell out the corner pub.

Well I do have to say I’m noticing as well with my generation and I’m below 30, and I definitely was not alive when Springsteen was having his moment. But I could say yeah, I was very excited to go to that tour and I have a lot of friends that went as well. And I can safely say that was easily my number two favourite show of all time. So it was an absolute blast.

Like I said, great artists will stand the test of time and you know, with live performance I was very fortunate because when I was starting it was much more expensive to buy an album, than it was a concert ticket and luckily enough I’ve been involved in both areas, and it’s really flipped around the other way. The live experience, you know, with great live acts and look …

It’s about the fans and I think, you know, a lot of artists forget where they start and to me, the first few thousand fans that any artist has are the most important. You know, some of the greatest shows I’ve seen have been either acts that have become big in great small pubs or acts that are already big doing, you know, a one off surprise gig in some of those smaller venues and I think what’s happened is that it’s just really spread out and one of the things that’ll be well documented in The Music Vault will be the Sunbury Music Festival and really, Sunbury was the coming of age of Australian music.

Wow.

But you know, what a lot of people don’t realise in Melbourne, that Arts precinct that we’ve got, obviously the Arts Centre, the Gallery and all that is just incredible but from a venue point of view, you’ve got the most incredible group of venues close to the city. Unlike any other city in the world. You’ve got the Myer Music Bowl. You’ve got Rod Laver arena, you’ve got Margaret Court arena. You’ve got Hisense arena. You’ve got AAMI park. You’ve got the MCG, all within an incredible, you know … An incredible precinct that really, I would have been absolutely, personally, shattered if this was set up in any other city.

So it’s been a long road but the government have been very, very supportive and I think that at the outset we’ll really do a good job of it.

I think at the moment we’ve got an incredible variety of talent and you know, people forget how much rich history there is and I think that this will just open the doors and even yourself, you’ll find some acts where you’ll go, “Jesus, I like those songs.”
[MICHAEL]

Sure. Well I can say as a New South Welshman being in Sydney, our government is such that if you were to go with them with this idea you’d probably get fined just for suggesting it. So I’m also glad that it’s in Melbourne.

Yeah, Melbourne has so many … and when I was first going overseas, people commented about how good the Australian acts were live and that was because acts used to work five nights a week. I mean, Paul Kelly talked about the great venues in Melbourne. They were his University, if you know what I mean.

Yeah.

That’s where you learned your craft and I think that’s something that’s really coming back. You know, we’ve got some great music rooms down here and it’s not just all about the big international acts or the big Australian acts. It’s about some of the more obscure things. I mean a lot of people don’t realise that while the Sex Pistols were breaking through in England with a completely outrageous controversial style of music, in Brisbane which was very much a police run state at the time, there were The Saints who had a big hit here called ‘I’m Stranded.’

I think at the moment we’ve got an incredible variety of talent and you know, people forget how much rich history there is and I think that this will just open the doors and even yourself, you’ll find some acts where you’ll go, “Jesus, I like those songs.”

And that’s given me great joy in being part of.

My Mum grew up in that world and she lived with bands, bands which don’t exist any more. Their music is impossible to find, so I’m really excited to kind of get there and see if any of these bands pop up.

Look, it’s something where it’s a great thing to leave a legacy of really where it all started and the photography and artists in the Hall of Fame as such haven’t been really recognised because that’s something that there’s a lot more that’ll come out of what’s being started at the end of this year. So I suggest watch this space.

The Australian Music Vault arrives Tuesday, 19th December, with Mr. Gudinski as a founding patron. Click here for all the details!