As Tone Deaf reported earlier this morning, Australia is finally set to get its own Music Hall of Fame. As part of the Andrews Government’s multi-million dollars Music Works program, Melbourne’s Victorian Arts Centre will house the new Hall of Fame and museum.
Kylie Minogue, Molly Meldrum, and Mushroom Records founder Michael Gudinski will be patrons of the Hall, which will have free entry and will bring an end to what Gudinski referred to as a “15-year-plus struggle” to get an Australian Music Hall of Fame built.
“It will be an opportunity for all generations and all types of people including the next generation to be educated on music and the experience of it,” Gudinski told the Herald Sun. “If people are going to walk through it and if they feel inspired in any way then we’ve achieved our goal.”
It’s not yet clear whether the Australian Music Hall of Fame will operate in a similar way to the US Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which host yearly inductions in New York City. However, if they plan on doing so, we’ve got a few suggestions about who the first round of inductees ought to be.
The Easybeats
How can you look past the first ever Australian rock band to have an international chart hit? With the release of the timeless 1966 single ‘Friday On My Mind’, Sydney’s Easybeats ushered in a new era of Australian rock and roll that hasn’t yet slowed down.
AC/DC
There’s only two names that come into contention when we debate who the biggest band to come out of Australia are. One is The Wiggles, and the other is the mighty Acca Dacca, who deserve a place in any rock hall of fame.
Divinyls
The Divinyls not only made incredible Australian music, with immortal singles like ‘Boys In Town’, ‘Pleasure and Pain’, and ‘I Touch Myself’, they are trailblazers in ever sense of the word. Chrissy Amphlett is Australia’s foremost rock chick and brought a new level of showmanship to Aussie rock and roll.
The Saints
Speaking of trailblazers and boundary-pushers, how do you look past The Saints? Virtually unknown outside of Australia, The Saints came up with the formula for what the kids would go on to call punk rock before anybody, but never quite got their due.
Carol Lloyd
This Brisbane singer may not be as recognisable as Chrissy Amphlett, but Carol Lloyd is not only one of the most respected women in Australian rock and roll she had massive national and international success as the frontwoman of Railroad Gin.
INXS
Wanna talk massive national and international success? INXS redefined just what big meant for an Australian band. Sure, AC/DC were already huge by this point, but INXS showed how a pub band from Sydney could take over the international charts and get so big that Wembley Stadium is the only place big enough to fit their UK fans.
The Birthday Party
The importance and influence of The Birthday Party really cannot be overstated. Anyone who’s ever tried to make a guitar sound like anything but a guitar owes a huge debt to Rowland S. Howard and Nick Cave is nothing short of an Australian music icon.
Jimmy Barnes
There’s two good reasons why Jimmy Barnes belongs in the Australian Music Hall of Fame. He’s not only the frontman of one of Australia’s most respected bands, Cold Chisel, his solo career rivals the success of his band and indeed the success of any frontman that’s ever gone solo.
Yothu Yindi
Yothu Yindi have earned their place in the record books as the makers of the first song by a predominately-Aboriginal band to chart in Australia and the first song in any Aboriginal Australian language to gain international attention. They’ve more than earned a place in the Aussie Music Hall of Fame, too.
Kylie Minogue
If you think INXS are big in the UK, our Kylie is everything to the Brits. Of course, she’ll always be ours. Kylie has not only maintained an incredibly successful career for decades, she’s gone through countless evolutions in style, image, and genre.
