Throughout the year, the AFL has showcased several Australian acts at half time in various games in the home and away season, such as Faker, Bluejuice and Lanie Lane, in its Live At The Footy program. And it doesn’t end there. The Grand Final this year is to be a celebration of Aussie music as well as the great game, and AFL Strategy and Club Support Manager Andrew Catterall joined us recently to talk about what’s going on In the biggest day in Australian sport, as well as the AFL’s commitment to giving exposure to Australian artists.
“For [the lineup at] the Grand, we’re wrapt,” he says. “We’ve got that really nice balance of iconic with Paul Kelly, really true-core footy fan in Tim Rogers as well and emerging Australian and international in Temper Trap, so we think it’s a really nice balance.
“We’ve had this plan for the year to encourage the connection that exists between Australia’s game and Australian music,” he says. “So at Live At The Footy we’ve had 14 or 15 concerts from emerging artists, and of course we had [AC/DC’s] Long Way To The Top as our signature track for the year in the stadiums and on our advertising. So that gave us confidence that we could have that offering for everybody, going iconic and also emerging. I think it’s great that Temper Trap can headline the Grand Final while they’re still in their upward curve. I think traditionally it’s been ‘heritage’ acts that have got that chance. It’s a big stage and a huge audience, so we’re wrapt that they’ve agreed to do it and also that our executive and our broadcasters are happy to showcase and excellent Australian act that’s making waves overseas.”
The pre-match entertainment at last year’s Grand Final copped a fair whack of criticism, after Meatloaf’s rather questionable performance. Andrew was diplomatic about that issue, and denied that this year’s lineup was a reaction to that performance and the flak that it copped, and took the opportunity to inform us how the day would run.
“We haven’t made the changes because of last year,” he says. “If you look at the format of the day it’s been pretty much the same for probably a decade. So changing the model to a really authentic celebration of Australia’s game, before the game, our Auskick’s before the game. Tim will play early in the day, Paul will play about half an hour before the bounce, so it’s a more natural build up to the bounce, have a real focus on the teams, and The Temper Trap at half time is new. Also after the game, after the team has been awarded the medals and the cup and done the lap of honour, we’ll roll out the post match party, the premiership party and have the big concert on the ground. That’s been inspired by us wanting to give fans more access to the grannie, and more fans can celebrate with their team.
“The idea to open up the Grand Final afterwards for a big concert and open up the gates and let everyone in there, let a thousand people on the ground, that idea is independent of last year. It’s just a great idea, hopefully it’s going to build equity from now on.”
The whole Live At The Footy concept is just a chance for excellent exposure for both well established and emerging Australian artists.
“It’s a really great stage,” Catterall says. “We worked with Channel 7 and Austereo, so what we were aiming to do was give the artists the opportunity to get some fantastic exposure. They would have played in front of crowds anywhere between 50 and 80,000 people, which is a great experience. We’ve got some great feedback from the music industry which has been terrific.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
