John Mayer - May 3 2010 - Setlist - Melbourne, Australia

The complete setlist from the John Mayer gig in Melbourne.

1. Assasin
2. No Such Thing
3. Vultures
4. Waiting On The World To Change
5. Perfectly Lonely
6. I'm On Fire (Bruce Springsteen cover)
7. 3x5
8. Stop This Train
9. All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye
10. Belief
11. Who Says
12. Bigger Than My Body
13. Heartbreak Warfare
14. Half Of My Heart/Midnight Train (Journey cover)
Encore
15. Why Georgia, Why?
16. Gravity

The most successful song of all time? Perhaps...

Happy birthday is quite possibly the most successful song ever written. Check out this article on its origins and current revenue including how it got snatched up by the biggest music publishing company in the world!

Source - http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp

Origins:   "Happy Birthday to You" is by far the most well-known song in the English-speaking world, and perhaps the whole world, too. For nearly a century, this simple ditty has been the traditional piece of music sung to



millions of birthday celebrants every year — everyone from uncomprehending infants to U.S. presidents; it has been performed in space; and it has been incorporated into untold millions of music boxes, watches, musical greeting cards, and other tuneful products. It therefore surprises many to discover that this ubiquitous song, a six-note melody composed in the 19th century and accompanied by a six-word set of repetitive lyrics, is still protected by copyright — and will be for decades to come.



The "Happy Birthday" story begins with two sisters from Kentucky, Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill. Patty Smith Hill, born in 1868, was a nursery school and kindergarten teacher and an influential educator who developed the "Patty Hill blocks" used in schools nationwide, served on the faculty of the Columbia University Teachers College for thirty years, and helped found the Institute of Child Welfare Research at Columbia in 1924. Patty's older sister, Mildred, born in 1859, started out as a kindergarten and Sunday-school teacher like her sister, but her career path took a musical turn, and Mildred became an composer, organist, concert pianist, and a musical scholar with an speciality in the field of Negro spirituals. One day in 1893, while Mildred was teaching at the Louisville Experimental Kindergarten School where her sister served as principal, she came up with the modest melody we now know as "Happy Birthday"; sister Patty added some simple lyrics and completed the creation of "Good Morning to All," a simple greeting song for teachers to use in welcoming students to class each day:

Good morning to you,

Good morning to you,

Good morning, dear children,

Good morning to all.

The Hills' catchy little tune was unleashed upon the world in 1893, when it was published in the songbook Song Stories for the Kindergarten. (The composition of "Good Morning to All" is often erroneously reported as having occurred in 1859 by sources that confuse Mildred Hill's birth date with the year she created the melody.) After the song proved more popular as a serenade for students to sing to their teachers (rather than vice-versa), it evolved into a version with the word "teacher" replacing "children" and a final line matching the first two, and "Good Morning to All" became more popularly known as "Good Morning to You." (Ironically, in light of the copyright battles to come, "Good Morning to All" bore more than a passing resemblance to the songs "Happy Greetings to All" and "Good Night to You All," both published in 1858.)



Here the trail becomes murky — nobody really knows who wrote the words to "Happy Birthday to You" and put them to the Hills' melody, or when it happened. The "Happy Birthday to You" lyrics first appeared in a songbook edited by one



Robert H. Coleman in March of 1924, where they were published as a second stanza to "Good Morning to You"; with the advent of radio and sound films, "Happy Birthday" was widely popularized as a birthday celebration song, and its lyrics supplanted the originals. By the mid-1930s, the revamped ditty had appeared in the Broadway musical The Band Wagon (1931) and had been used for Western Union's first "singing telegram" (1933), and when Irving Berlin's musical As Thousands Cheer made yet another uncredited and uncompensated use of the "Good Morning to All" melody, Jessica Hill, a third Hill sister who administered the copyright to "Good Morning to All" on behalf of her sisters, sprang into action and filed suit. By demonstrating the undeniable similarities between "Good Morning to All" and "Happy Birthday to You" in court, Jessica was able to secure the copyright of "Happy Birthday to You" for her sisters in 1934 (too late, unfortunately, to benefit Mildred, who had died in 1916).



The Chicago-based music publisher Clayton F. Summy Company, working with Jessica Hill, published and copyrighted "Happy Birthday" in 1935. Under the laws in effect at the time, the Hills' copyright would have expired after one 28-year term and a renewal of similar length, falling into public domain by 1991. However, the Copyright Act of 1976 extended the term of copyright protection to 75 years from date of publication, and the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 added another 20 years, so under current law the copyright protection of "Happy Birthday" will remain intact until at least 2030.



Does this mean that everyone who warbles "Happy Birthday to You" to family members at birthday parties is engaging in copyright infringement if they fail to obtain permission from or pay royalties to the song's publisher? No. Royalties are due, of course, for commercial uses of the song, such as playing or singing it for profit, using it in movies, television programs, and stage shows, or incorporating it into musical products such as watches and greeting cards; as well, royalties are due for public performance, defined by copyright law as performances which occur "at a place open to the public, or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered." So, crooning "Happy Birthday to You" to family members and friends at home is fine, but performing a copyrighted work in a public setting such as a restaurant or a sports arena technically requires a license from ASCAP or the Harry Fox Agency (although such infringements are rarely prosecuted).




A common rumor holds that Paul McCartney owns the publishing rights to "Happy Birthday to You," but that rumor is false. Although Paul McCartney did buy up many song catalogs after seeing the publishing rights to most of his Beatles songs slip away in a series of bad business deals (his MPL Communications is now one of the world's largest privately-owned music publishing firms and controls the rights to the Buddy Holly catalog, among others), he does not own (and never has owned) the publishing rights to "Happy Birthday to You." (In yet another bit of irony, Michael Jackson, who was introduced to the benefits of song ownership by Paul McCartney himself, eventually outbid the former Beatle for the
publishing rights to the Lennon-McCartney catalog.)



Who does own the publishing rights to "Happy Birthday to You"? They were acquired by a New York accountant named John F. Sengstack when he bought the Clayton F. Summy Company in the 1930s; Sengstack eventually relocated the company to New Jersey and renamed it Birch Tree Ltd. in the 1970s. Warner Chappell (a Warner Communications division), the largest music publisher in the world, purchased Birch Tree Ltd. in late 1998 for a reported sale price of $25 million; the company then became Summy-Birchard Music, now a part of the giant AOL Time Warner media conglomerate. According to David Sengstack, president of Summy-Birchard, "Happy Birthday to You" brings in about $2 million in royalties annually, with the proceeds split between Summy-Birchard and the Hill Foundation. (Both Hill sisters died unmarried and childless, so the Hill Foundation's share of the royalties have presumably been going to charity or to nephew Archibald Hill ever since Patty Hill passed away in 1946.)



As writer Bruce Anderson noted in "Beyond Measure," his excellent article on the "Happy Birthday" phenomenon:

The next time you hear "Happy Birthday" in a movie — and now that you’re listening, it won't be long — stay for the credits at the end of the movie. Think about how Hollywood would love the story of the Hill sisters, two Southern kindergarten teachers who write a song that they only hope will be a useful teacher’s aid. Instead, the song is a hit that never goes away. It is sung hundreds of millions of times each year, a musical juggernaut that tops the efforts of Tin Pan Alley’s best. Appropriately, then, film credits are the one place left where Mildred and Patty Hill still get their due.

My Tribute To The King: Michael Jackson

When I was 13 years old Michael Jackson announced his very first tour to South Africa. I begged and pleaded with my mom to let me go and eventually she agreed. So I scraped together some of my recently acquired Bar Mitzvah money, convinced my sister to let me go with her and her new boyfriend and ventured off to my very first concert.

The date was October 12 1997. A day that would change my life forever. I had been listening to the best of the Jackson 5 all day. I knew all the lyrics and was ready. I remember standing in the rain for hours while everyone took shelter under my sister’s boyfriend’s golf umbrella. I would have frozen to death if it weren’t for the sweatshirt that was leant to me. Eventually the lights dimmed and MJ appeared on the screen, in a spaceship destined for earth. From the crate of Coke on which I was standing, I witnessed HIStory. The concert blew my mind.

I went home and listened to everything Michael Jackson I could get my hands on. I spent hours and hours cooped up in my room listening to MJ cassettes. That was it. I was a fan. From then on everything was Michael Jackson to me. All the music I bought, the clothes I wore, even my school speeches were centred around my new found hero. I was hooked. All my pocket money went to MJ CDs, books and merch and when I had all that it went onto the Jackson 5 and Jacksons. Today my collection is worth tens of thousands.

I took a lot of ridicule during high school for being such a fervent Michael Jackson fan. I had pictures of him on my files and on my bedroom walls and the others laughed at me for “loving the freak”. I spent my youth defending and promoting him. Michael Jackson was the person, more than anyone else, that made me realise what I wanted to do with my life. Music.

The man that shaped my life is gone and for the first time EVER I have to venture into a world without Michael Jackson. It will never be the same again. He finally gets to rest. No more tabloids, no more ridicule, no more lost childhood. Let them remember him for the music, the videos, the dance moves, the humanity, the kindness and the way he shaped music as we know it.

The King is dead. Long Live The King.

And the winner is...

I've been working in the music industry professionally for 6 years. 3 of those years I have been at the record label, Sheer Sound. In that time I've had 18 SAMA nominations (well, 18 nominations for albums that I have promoted - including this year's). At the 15th annual South African Music Awards, which was once again held at Sun City this year, Sheer Sound managed to garner 15 nominations. 10 of those were for albums that I had worked on. Are you managing to keep up with the figures? :D

This year i finally won my first SAMA. 340ml (who had a mammoth 6 nominations) took the awards for "Best Engineer" and "Best Alternative" (a category I've previously had 6 nominations in but never won).

I hobbled up to the stage on crutches (still have a sprained ankle) and made it up to the stage at the same time as Rob, Sheer's GM.

Rob: "On behalf of Sheer Sound and 340ml thank you. 340ml will be here tomorrow night"
Brett: "And they say 'Sorry For The Delay'"



I still await a similar apology from the SAMA committee ;)

All together Sheer Sound received 3 awards
Best Tradional Jazz: Zim Ngqawana
Best Engineer: 340ml
Best Alternative Album [English]: 340ml

The Living End

During my travels in Australia I spotted some top Aussie bands. Check The Living End out

White Noise

Sorry, no offical video for this one, but listen to the song



Raise The Alarm



For more on the band click here.

And this day will go down in history...

I'm too young to remember Apartheid. I do, however, remember one of the most historic days in recent world history - South Africa's first democratic election. I was 10 years old. I remember being told that i was living through history. All that I was interested in was that there was no school and KTV was going to be on TV ALL day! Score!

It's now 15 years later and South Africa is probably having its most important election. 1994 was the most significant, but this one is the most important. We all know the outcome. The country is now at a watershed and it can slop either way.

Zuma says he's for the people... so did Hitler and Mugabe. Let's see how it goes. Whatever the outcome in the long run, tomorrow is the start of a new chapter in South African history. Things will be different.

My first blog

Well, that's not entirely true. More like "My first blog with blogspot" or "My first blog in ages" or "My first blog of the day". I can go on for weeks, but I won't.

Last night I spent the evening at Tanz Cafe with the inimitable Paul E. Flynn (Sugardrive) and Cito (Wonderboom) watching their concept band, Absinthe. These are two guys that I used to idolise in High School and now I work with them professionally.

Wonderboom was my first concious experience of South African music. My buddy Jord and I saw them open at Live's South African concert in 2000 (remember "Lightning Crashes"?). I had actually seen them the night before when I went to the concert with all my other friends. Jord had graciously given me his ticket so that I could invite someone else to come with us. That person's long gone. Anyway, I digress. We both became fans and spent the week listening to the EP "Never Ever Ever". It was like nothing we'd ever heard before. The following week we decided to go to our first gig. The gig was at Bugsy's in Randburg and obviously being only 16, we weren't allowed in the venue. My mom called the venue manager (his name was Steve I think) and told him that her son and his friend just wanted to come to the gig and were not there to drink. Steve told her that if she could put that in a letter and get Jord's mom to do the same then he'd allow us entry to watch Wonderboom.

Jord and I were dropped off at the door and went on to show the bouncer our letters of permission from our mothers. After consulting with Steve, he let us in. That's right.. I was allowed entry into my very first gig thanks to a letter from my mom. Reminded me of primary school days when a letter from her would get me out of the cross country. Aah.. bless flat feet!

Jord and I followed Wonderboom as much as we could and thanks to them we were introduced to the music of Sunways, Sugardrive, Boo! and well, thanks to the snowball effect every other South African band I listen to today.

I never tire seeing Paul and Cito perform together. We spent the rest of the night after the gig talking shit, discussing the awesomeness of Oasis, laughing, watching my video clips from the Sound Relief Concert (more on that at a later stage but it was Kings Of Leon and Midnight Oil we were watching) and having my new converse shoes stepped on by Cito ("you gotta get them dirty!").