Interview by Kris Peters
It makes sense that someone who is already in a band would also want to dip their toes into promotion and putting on shows themselves, but it's not as easy of a process as you would think.
Dealing with bands and booking for bands is another stress level of its own, and often the two - although seemingly perfect bedfellows - are too difficult to negotiate.
It takes a special kind of person with an honest and genuine love of music to successfully blend the two into a functioning unit, and even then the constant source of emails and phone calls can become too much of a burden.
One such person who has managed to combine both passions without completely losing his sanity (yet) is Brisbane guitarist for Dirty Brew and head of Brewhouse Productions, Mick Brew. Mick is a well-known and highly respected member of the local music scene and has been juggling his time and energy between both band and promotions for a number of years now. He has put on a consistently large number of successful shows and played at some of those and other big-name festivals, but his sights presently are firmly set on Brewhouse Production's annual end-of-year celebration of music to be held at The Back Room, Annerley on December 30.
Featuring Counterfeit Limp Bizkit Show, F.U.C., Krave, Snake Mountain, We The Hollow, Dirty Brew and others, the annual bash will house 20 bands over two stages in one afternoon/night of entertainment that celebrates everything that is good about Australian music.
HEAVY managed to track Mick down recently to chat about the event and the constant demands of the music industry.
"It's gonna be a big day," he smiled. "Doors are at 12 with the first band starting around one o'clock. I just need to finalise those set times this week. It should be good. There's already a fair few tickets sold and if it's anything like last year, we sold nearly 400 tickets, so hopefully we can do that again."
While many people call the annual event a New Years Eve Party, this year it will be held the night before New Years Eve on Saturday, December 30. It seems like a good idea to us, but we ask Mick why he isn't keeping it to the actual date of New Years Eve so people can remember more easily.
"To be honest, New Years Eve was on a Sunday and everyone has the Monday off or whatever, but last year when it was on the Saturday and the Monday was a holiday it just gives you those extra couple of days," he explained. "It's not so much a New Years Eve party anymore, it's more of an end-of-year party for everyone to tell the whole year to get fucked and start again."
In the full interview, Mick runs through a few of the bands playing and why he put them on the bill, where to get cheaper tickets from, how to help out bands by buying direct from them, the venue and why it is the perfect place for live music, the range of sponsors on the night, future plans and more.