It will be curated by RMIT Gallery Director and Chief Curator Suzanne Davies; Dr Kipps Horn who is Program Director of the B.A. Music Industry in the School of Media and Communication RMIT; and Mushroom Group CEO Michael Gudinski AM.
The Gallery is an apt location for such a showcase. Gudinski pointed out how many bands got their start in the Storey Hall band room upstairs, and how he saw an unknown Hunters & Collectors for the first time. “Something Paul Kelly said at the SLAM rally (over unfair laws targeting music venues which drew 20,000), that venues were his university, has stayed with me.” He also pointed out how Triple R started out at RMIT and went on to play a major role in the development of Melbourne’s music.
Gudinski recalled that when he started in the business as a teenager, rock music was a rebellious thing. “Now it’s about enjoyment and there are so many formats to get (music). At the Mushroom 25th anniversary concert, guys would come up to me and say ‘This is the first event I’ve attended with both my son and my father’. It’s become such a generational thing.”
The 40 years retro will be recreated through music, songs, posters, photographs, costumes, memorabilia (including items from the personal collections of Gudinski, Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum (his hat), Kylie Minogue (her diamond microphone), Skyhooks, Split Enz and Crowded House) and venues spread over five spaces. There will be live performances, a recreation of Michael Gudinski’s office in Mushroom’s Dundas Lane, Albert Park warehouse headquarters, a Top 40 jukebox of Melbourne hits chosen by Triple M listeners and Herald Sun readers.
Suzanne Davies said that the exhibition developed from the research by RMIT’s School of Media and Communication into aspects of celebrity, nostalgia and the popular music culture. “Melbourne is Australia’s home of live music and over the past 40 years, live music venues, fashion and all other aspects of fandom and celebrity have become integral to the lives of many Melburnians – something this exhibition will celebrate.”
The exhibition’s interactive component allows RMIT to research how music triggers memories and the allure of celebrity. It also activates opinions from music fans if Melbourne really is the music capital of Australia and allows venues to incorporate their own memories and anecdotes. The revolutionary use of audio is a world-first, devised by RMIT students.
Music, Melbourne + Me is sponsored by The City Of Melbourne (which awarded Gudinski the title of Melburnian of the Year last year), the Bank of Melbourne is the presenting partner allowing the event to be free to the public, and Telstra is aboard as its technology sponsor.
