“LIVE music in Newcastle isn’t dead, but it’s under threat.”
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They are words straight from the mouth of a man who has been fighting for the local music scene in Newcastle for more than 20 years.
Steven Pickett, the managing director of EAO Entertainment, with business partner Terry Lantry, represents a bevy of artists from Newcastle and beyond and has been an instrumental, pun intended, figure on the music scene since the late 1980s and early ’90s.
He has seen the highs and lows of live music, from 20 gigs in one night, all within walking distance, in the ’90s, to today where live music is not as prominent.
“Newcastle had the largest number of artists per capita in the world in those days, or so they said,” Pickett added.
“There’s no reason we can’t get a thriving scene back but everyone needs to work together.”
Captivated by the sounds that Countdown brought into living rooms in the ’70s and ’80s, the “country boy” from Taree juggled teaching full-time with mixing the sound for bands and doing late-night split shifts at KFC and Pizza Hut to scrape together the $120,000 needed to open Eastern Accoustic Recording Studio in 1998.
“It became religious watching. I remember seeing Kiss for the first time and being totally blown a way,” he said.
“The passion for music overrode everything else. I went from being in the top of my class to failing the HSC on my first attempt because I discovered the Doobie Brothers and Kevin Borich that year.”
Bands and artists flocked to the Eastern Accoustic Recording Studio, EARS for short, to work with Pickett and his then business partner David Best.
A chance encounter while trying to set up an electricity account for his recording studio eventually led to the lengthy partnership with musician and senior booking agent Lantry and the two have since been working tirelessly to strike the perfect balance between artist and venue.
“I remember a band came into the recording studio one time and I found out they were being ripped off by their agent,” Pickett said.
“There wasn’t ideal representation for artists back then and it got to a point where technology was changing and things were becoming digital – and while we were booked out, I couldn’t keep up.”
Pickett wound up the recording studio, and the booking agency Eastern Acoustic Organisation [EAO] was born. About nine staff members work as part of EAO and at Newcastle Live, a digital publishing site that features all things entertainment. It is part of Pickett’s push to give musicians and entertainers the platform that has been lacking in the Hunter music scene.
“I’m the owner and publisher of it but I can’t take credit for it,” he said.
“I have a team that does a wonderful job with it and doesn’t just focus on EAO artists at all.”
The proof is in the pudding with EAO winning more than a few awards including the entertainment agency of the year with the Australian Bridal Industry Association NSW for the 10th time.