ARIA’s Peach gets pipped
p2pnet.net News:- While p2pnet was down for a re-bore over the weekend, Andy Nonymous-Coward posted an item from Australia’s Rocknerd on the continuing adventures of Stephen Peach, boss of the ARIA (Australian Record Industry Association) …
… you know. The Big Music senior exec caught being creative about whether or not he (ab)uses his position to collect freebie CDs?
From an earlier Rocknerd interview:
Do you personally get free CDs from record companies who are members of ARIA?
STEPHEN PEACH: Yes, I do.
RONAN SHARKEY: How many would you have got, say, in the last three months this year?
STEPHEN PEACH: Oh, the last three months? A few. Ten maybe.
Peach’s ex-publicist at ARIA, Marcella McAdam, said Peach was in the habit of handwriting lists of titles he wanted and getting staff to source them from the record companies – sometimes from back catalogues and sometimes two or three of the same title.
Australian music business analyst Phil Tripp, who’s calling for Peach to resign, was at the recent APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) awards that, says Rocknerd here.
According to Tripp, Peach arrived to find a one metre tall inflatable dinosaur in his seat, with a CD of JJJ’s coverage of the freebie affair taped to its chest.
Here’s what Rocknerd quotes Tripp as saying about the occasion:
When ARIA CEO Stephen Peach and his partner Emma McDonald (lawyer for XYZ Entertainment (Channel V) arrived at their table at the APRA Awards, they were surprised to find a blow up dinosaur a little over a metre tall sitting in Peach’s seat which a burned CD taped to its chest titled “Peaches is Creamed”.
The CD contained the original two programs of Triple J’s The Hack program which featured Peach being ambushed by J reporter Ronan Sharkey over his and ARIA employees free CD booty as well as the interview with former ARIA PR Marcella McAdam, an industry attorney and APRA executive refuting Peach’s claims.
The dinosaur was a reference to a standing industry story about when Peach had started at ARIA and did the rounds of MDs, CEOs and Chairmen, introducing himself to them. To one CEO, he was said to have spoken glowingly of the new younger powers in control of record companies replacing the old dinosaurs that used to rule the industry. Except for one highly respected and powerful CEO who he referred to as a dinosaur… not thinking that the story might get back.
When he did the rounds with the other company heads, his final meeting with the CEO in question was scheduled but Peach was left waiting in the foyer … 15 minutes … 30 minutes … 45 minutes … and was finally admitted to the inner sanctum. There, the CEO was standing on one side of his office with his hands folded across his chest while on the other side, an inflatable dinosaur was perched on the chair behind the CEO’s desk–with a small doll of a man in a suit clenched in its jaws.
Peach reportedly approached the CEO, hand extended, and was told to shake hands with the dinosaur, after all, that was who Peach was coming to see, the dinosaur. When he nervously tried to talk again, the CEO again told him to ‘Talk to the dinosaur, don’t talk to me.’ Peach supposedly left the office highly embarrassed and told the story to a few close associates, fearing for the repercussions. Of course, word got out and it’s been a bit of an industry joke ever since.
The APRA dinosaur was removed from his seat, after hundreds of the attendees saw it sitting in his place and was put behind him for the remainder of the night, sitting on the floor, forlornly staring at the back of his chair with the CD ripped from its chest. The inflatable was finally purloined by the Mushroom table and batted about the ballroom from table to table at the conclusion of the event.
Well, well. However did the dino get there? The normally talkative Tripp doesn’t say. Rocknerd can exclusively reveal, however, that the inflatable was not wearing a tuxedo.
And the awards? John Butler won Song of the Year – beating media favourite Delta Goodrem, who had to be content with the Breakthrough award. There are some pics of the evening up over at the APRA site. None of the dino, though.
