30Dec2000
- TPA: Gig report 30.12.00 <return to top>
Killing Heidi @THE FALLS Festival Lorne VIC Day 1
of 2 -all right !great show under freezing conditions. Great performance
also from 28 Days
29Dec2000
- AUSTRALIA: Success seeks Heidi <return to top>
By ARA JANSEN.
Australia's hottest young band play Perth on Sunday - New Year's
Eve. ARA JANSEN talks to an elated Jesse Hooper.
BY THE time they were walking up to collect their third ARIA, Jesse
Hooper says it all became too surreal for words. The writer and
guitarist for Killing Heidi says taking home just one of the pointy
awards would have been reward enough after eight nominations.
But what did they expect? The band burst out of nowhere and have
gone on to be one of the biggest debut album success stories in
Australia next to Savage Garden and silverchair.
"We were stoked," says Hooper, because he's really not sure how
to explain the elation he and the rest of the band felt about the
four wins. "We were honoured with the nominations and in some way
that was enough. Being grouped with all those cool bands was enough
for me. That was one of the best parts."
It's been a huge 12 months for the band, with chart-hitting albums
and singles. Now, to cap off a huge run of shows and action, Killing
Heidi will be hitting the stages for the Big Day Out as the last
shows for a while. The band will head to the US where they will
promote Reflector.
"The record is still to come in the US but it's gone to TV and radio,"
Hooper says. "Hopefully, people have started to see and hear it,
though it's not in stores yet. So far it seems to be working on
an underground level so, hopefully, we can go out there next year
and tour."
In the US, Killing Heidi are signed to 3:33, part of Shady Acres
Entertainment - a music, film and television production company
founded by Tom Shadyac, best known as the director behind box-office
blockbusters Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Liar,
Liar and Patch Adams.
HOOPER credits a lot of the band's initial Australian success to
Triple J. The station's Unearthed program discovered the Violet
Town band, originally just a brother-and-sister act with Hooper
and sister Ella. It played the band's first song, Kettle, and it
all grew from there.
"Triple J really helped get us off the ground," Hooper says. "A
lot of people got interested that way. And once we got a fan base
it just grew from there. It cost us a lot of money to keep Weir
out there for the four months when nothing happened. Then Weir made
the charts. A lot of kids took it as their song, made it their own."
In Australia, the award-winning Reflector album now comes with a
bonus live disc and CD-Rom. Tracks include Kettle, Mascara, Weir
and A Jar Labelled Small. Ten tracks are from the band's Live At
The Chapel show and there's one radio acoustic track. There's also
the American video for Weir and an interview by Courtney Cox, neither
of which have been screened in Australia.
Hooper says the band will start writing their second album when
they get back from their overseas adventures.
"We've done a few demos but we're all a bit anxious to get back
in the studio and do it. The ideas so far are looking really good."
Killing Heidi are the headliners at WOW, at the Claremont Showground
on New Year's Eve. Also on the bill are Jebediah, Frenzal Rhomb,
28 Days, Area 7, The Superjesus, Mindsnare, Heavyweight Champ, Headshot
and Lowdown.
Gates open at 3pm for the all-ages show. Photo ID is required for
licensed areas. No glass, skateboards, scooters, umbrellas, eskys
or boogie boards will be allowed on to the ground. Trains in both
directions will stop at the showground station. The show runs until
1.30am.
(c) 2000, West Australian Newspapers Limited.
Source:
WEST AUSTRALIAN 29/12/2000
25Dec2000
- NEW ZEALAND: KILLING
HEIDI LIVING OUT TEENAGE DREAMS <return to top>
Australian pop sensations Killing Heidi are a band
living every teenager's dream.
MIKE HOULAHAN of NZPA reports.
Wellington, Dec 25 - A lot of teenagers sit in school classrooms,
stare out the windows, and dream of dumping the text books and becoming
a rock star...Ella Hooper actually did it.
A year ago she was a student in her local High School in Violet
Town, rural Victoria. Now she is known all over Australia as the
lead singer of pop sensations Killing Heidi, soon to visit New Zealand
to play next month's Big Day Out.
You may recall Killing Heidi's name from around about October, when
New Zealand's very own Shihad were nominated in three categories
in Australia's rock awards, the Arias. Killing Heidi were band which
won the categories Shihad were nominated in - and a few more for
good measure - with their debut album Reflector securing them all
the night's big prizes.
"Recording Reflector, I'd just left school. I walked out of the
maths room, out of the science room, and straight into a recording
studio to record this amazing album with great producers and engineers,
making these songs I loved sound so amazing," Hooper says.
"It was a crazy experience, but it was the only recording experience
I've ever had so I can't wait to compare it with the next one and
find out what I like best."
As for the Arias, the furthest thing from Hooper's mind a year ago
was attending the ceremony, let alone actually winning anything.
At the time Killing Heidi were the spare time project of Hooper
and her brother Jesse, a venerable 19-year-old. They weren't complete
unknowns: a few years before two early songs Ella had written had
won the siblings the Triple J radio network's Unearthed talent quest
competition.
Since that early flash of promise the pair had met and signed up
with producer/manager Paul Kosky. He found them a rhythm section
(drummer Adam Pedretti and bass player Warren Jenkins), set them
up in a recording studio, and sat back to watch his creation make
what is now officially the Australian album of the year.
"He's been vitally important, because we had no idea about the record
industry," Hooper says.
"We were just these little kids walking in and going `Huh, what
is this big crazy world?' Paul Kosky and Wah Wah, the company that
we built around us and him, has been great. We get final say about
everything. It means people can think we are picky and hard to work
with sometimes because we like to stick to our guns. It's like this
big guiding hand, which has been really welcome.
"As we've grown up as a band the role of the record company has
changed and Paul's role has changed. Jesse and I knew we wanted
to take Killing Heidi as far as we could, at our age and our level
of experience, however good we were.
"We were willing to do whatever was in our power, and we found this
guy who was willing to do whatever was in his power to help us.
It was unreal, but it was never unnerving. We're all friends, so
it was ever like some heavy-handed thing."
The moment most likely to cause the downfall of Killing Heidi before
the band even began was the introduction the Hoopers of their new
rhythm section. Fortuitously, the four immediately got on like a
house on fire: while they aren't family, Pedretti and Jenkins did
feel like old friends straight away.
What no doubt helped was the Hooper's desire that Killing Heidi
be a real band, rather than Jesse and Ella and their hired hands.
Everything is equal, from money to set lists to voting rights in
the inevitable band squabbles.
"Now they are part of the family. There's no Killing Heidi without
them," Hooper says.
Pedretti and Jenkins had the amazing good fortune to be put in touch
with an incredibly gifted pair of songwriters. Listen to Reflector,
catch yourself singing along to Mascara and admire Hooper's infectiously
singalong choruses, or nod along to Weir and think `What a great
song.' Then realise just how young this band is.
Sure, Reflector is a very polished and - in places - a very produced
album, but you don't go multi-platinum or soar into the top 10 of
the singles charts simply on the strength of slick production.
"When we wrote those songs we never conceived of them being the
way they've turned out," Hooper admits.
"There are some very highly produced songs on the album. I always
saw them as our acoustic folk/rock ditties, but then they became
these power pop, keyboard-laden, power riff-heavy rock songs, which
was amazing to see but was also a little bit scary for a while too,
thinking keyboards? Strings? Why are they in there? Do we need those
things?, but they just make it all the more powerful I reckon."
The band's Australian success already sees them in high demand overseas,
with America a definite Killing Heidi target for the future. First
however, Hooper wants to devote some serious time to the band's
next album, a recording which she is more than well aware may be
the making or the breaking of Killing Heidi.
"The next recording is going to completely defined by how we jam
as a real band, now that we've played together," Hooper says.
"When we met it was basically when we were recording Reflector.
That's a funny way for a band to get its legs, rather than touring
or gigging. I'm really looking forward to jamming together, seeing
how all the different parts fit together, and how that shapes the
new sound.
"I reckon there will be a bit of a drum roll. Okay, Reflector was
really good, what are they going to come up with now? Are they going
to stick around for years or will they just be a flash in the pan?
Hopefully we can produce something that will make people believe
that we'll be around for a fair while yet."
* Killing Heidi perform at the Big Day Out in Auckland on January
19.
(Eds: Pictures available from (09) 979-5310.).
(C) 2000 New Zealand Press Association.
Source:
NEW ZEALAND PRESS ASSOCIATION 25/12/2000
21Dec2000
- AUSTRALIA: They did what to Heidi,
mum? <return to top> By Louise Milligan.
CHILDREN at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital cancer ward squealed,
clapped and, well, cried yesterday as ARIA-winning Killing Heidi
put on a private performance.
The musically precocious Ella Hooper and her genial, dreadlocked
brother, Jesse, performed a rousing acoustic version of their hit,
Weir, as children forced to spend Christmas in hospital mouthed
the words.
"Here's Santa's weird love child," Hooper said, pointing to her
guitarist brother.
It was all too much for Tia Tripanoska, 1, who burst into tears
after her mother presented her to the young stars.
Stefan Crimmins, 14, from Bendigo in central Victoria, came to the
hospital for "one of the strongest doses of chemo you can get" to
treat his leukaemia.
"I get really sick and it's quite disgusting," he said, matter-of-factly
explaining how his nasal gastric tube worked.
But he said Killing Heidi helped keep the children's minds off their
illnesses.
"I reckon it's pretty good of them to come here," he said, adding
that he preferred the acoustic renditions of their songs because
he played an acoustic guitar.
He later joined Hooper for an impromptu jam session, which broke
up in laughter as they forgot the second half of a song by Australian
band Grinspoon.
Hooper, 17, from tiny Violet Town in Victoria, rocketed to fame
with Jesse, 20, after being discovered in the Triple J Unearthed
competition. She said that yesterday's concert, organised by children's
cancer support network Challenge, was a "very cool" experience.
"It's really nice to give something back to kids who are having
a hard time - playing for them is the least we can do," she said.
But she found it somewhat "scary and exciting" playing for children:
"Kids are really hard to win over."
(c) Nationwide News Proprietary Ltd, 2000.
Source:
AUSTRALIAN (THE) 21/12/2000 P5
20Dec2000
- AUSTRALIA:
Vic - Teenage rockers Killing Heidi give kids with cancer a treat
<return to top>
Teenage rockers Killing Heidi today treated kids with
cancer to a special Christmas concert at the Royal Children's Hospital
in Melbourne.
Up to 100 children with cancer and other life-threatening blood
disorders were joined by their families as they swayed and clicked
their fingers to the ARIA award winning music.
Tinsel draped around drips and monitors, paper chains hanging from
the ceiling and paintings daubed on the walls added to the festive
spirit in the oncology and haematology outpatients department.
Four-year-old Sean Marantelli, who suffers leukaemia and sat patiently
hooked up to a monitor and a drip during the 20-minute concert,
is one of Ella and Jesse Hooper's biggest fans.
"He knows all of their songs and watches them on television and
has their album," his sister Shannon Power said.
Sean, who was diagnosed 11-and-a-half weeks ago, has been at the
hospital for treatment almost every week.
Stefan Crimmins, 14, who also has leukaemia, took the opportunity
to follow in the band's footsteps and picked up a guitar and strummed
a few tunes.
In addition to the private concert, a number of kids and their oncology
doctors parachuted from a plane into the grounds behind the hospital.
(c) 2000 AAP Information Services Pty Ltd
All rights reserved. Available for personal use but not for sale
or redistribution for compensation of any kind without the prior
written permission of AAP.
Source:
AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS 20/12/2000
14Dec2000
- NEW ZEALAND: SETTLING
DOWN THE SINGING SIBLINGS <return to top>
By Steve RENDLE.
Warren Jenkins is a rock'n'roll babysitter ... sort of. But in Killing
Heidi, the kids are the bosses, especially 17-year-old Ella Hooper.
STEVE RENDLE writes.
TYPE the words "Killing" and "Heidi" into a computer search of New
Zealand news and the results go back to the murder of two Swedish
tourists 10 years ago.
It's an eerie irony, but the reality of Australia's latest rocky
pop sensation couldn't be further away from that grim piece of history.
Killing Heidi are a fairytale come true.
A brother and sister, Ella and Jesse Hooper, tucked away in the
northern Victorian town of Violet Town, start writing songs. They
whip a tape off to radio station Triple J's Unearthed competition,
and wha'dya know? They win.
Enter producer-manager Paul Kosky who got the kids together with
drummer Adam Pedretti and bass player Warren Jenkins, and two huge
singles - Weir and Mascara - ensure their debut album Reflector
is the most eagerly awaited album in Oz for yonks.
It's thrown 17-year-old Ella into the spotlight, and on to every
magazine cover in the land.
Behind the scenes, Jenkins admits there's something to the suggestion
that at 26, he's got a babysitting role in the band. "It is a little
bit ... but Ella to me particularly is what I call an old soul.
She taps into something when she sings."
If it all sounds a bit Partridge Family, it probably is. But Jenkins
says he and Pedretti know what a minefield sibling spats can be.
"It's actually quite funny. Adam and I, every so often we're in
the middle of the sibling argument, or whatever, and it's like `c'mon
guys, settle down'. And that's the worst thing you can do is get
involved, 'cos you end up getting turned upon."
Despite technically being a hired hand - he's on a five-year contract
with the band - Jenkins says the foursome have formed a bond deeper
than mere cash.
"It's kind of like a really cool little family," he says.
"In playing with these guys I feel a really cool freshness about
it, but everyone is a fantastic musician, excellent technical players,
and on top of that really nice people to get on with."
Aaaargh!
The sweetness of it all is near overwhelming - there must surely
be some seedy underbelly of life back in ol' Violet Town. Right?
Not quite ...
"It's like, one post office, one fruit shop, one train station,"
says Jenkins, neglecting the fact that the place wouldn't even be
on the map if it didn't have a pub.
And the Heidi kids are definitely public property when they venture
home. "It's funny 'cos sometimes I go back with Jess when he drives
up to see his dad or something, and there'll be a sign, like `Jesse
is back in Violet Town today'."
Jenkins has been knocking around the music biz for a few years now,
playing with the likes of Jimmy Barnes. It's tempting to think this
is a golden goose for a bloke in his position, but he maintains
Killing Heidi have taken him back to his musical youth.
"It's a totally different scene. It's like I'm 15, I'm still going
to school, but I'm rehearsing on the weekend in a friend's garage
... there's a feeling that you guys can take on the world."
And they probably can, though they've already had to deal with the
flak that comes with big success.
"We've had things like, this is a manufactured band, but we basically
shut everybody up when we played live," he says.
With Australia won over, they have already played a couple of sell-out
showcase gigs in New York and Los Angeles and, of course, leap-frogged
Kiwi rockers Shihad to win a bucketload of prizes in the Australian
music awards.
* Killing Heidi will play the Big Day Out in Auckland on January
19.
(c) The Evening Post, INL 2000.
Source:
THE EVENING POST (NEW ZEALAND) 14/12/2000 P16
04Dec2000
- AUSTRALIA: Killing Highett <return to top>
By GRETA McMAHON.
IT'S been a while since rock siblings Ella and Jesse Hooper played
to a crowd of less than 100 people.
And it's usually a well-lit stage where the dreadlocked duo and
other Killing Heidi members pump up the volume and belt out their
radio-friendly tracks.
But when they made a surprise visit to a picnic in a Highett park
yesterday, the expressions on the faces of about 40 children made
it just as memorable as any sell-out concert.
A pre-Christmas gathering for GordonCare, which houses children
at risk or in need of protective care, turned into a mini rock concert
- with the surprise clearly evident on the faces of the children.
"It was ace, it was really great," said Ella. "We find it really
good for us just playing music in a small environment too ... you
can see the faces of the people who are listening to the music."
Their surprise appearance was set up their aunt, Denise Keighery,
a social worker with GordonCare.
(C) 2000 Herald and Weekly Times Limited.
Source:
HERALD SUN 04/12/2000 P10
01Dec2000
- AUSTRALIA: Plan to ban teen
body piercing <return to top>
By TANYA TAYLOR.
BODY piercing among teenagers may be outlawed if proposals before
the Department of Justice are approved.
The decision on juvenile piercing is now left to the discretion
of operators, but a review of the Summary Offences Act is expected
to see body piercing join tattooing as out of bounds for under-18s.
The Department of Human Services last month lodged a submission
to the review recommending body piercing be specified in the Act.
Spokesman Bram Alexander said several parents had called the DHS
to complain after discovering their children had exotic piercings.
While parents have applauded the move, doctors warned that banning
the procedure could see teenagers turn to backyard operators.
"Putting any arbitrary age limit on it makes it more exciting and
it will certainly drive it underground," Australian Medical Association
Victorian vice-president Mukesh Haikerwal said.
"If it is done at home or by unlicensed practitioners it may be
done in unhygienic conditions, where there are risks of blood-transmitted
disease, hitting nerves or arteries, and damaging tissue."
Australia's most famous pierced teen, Ella Hooper of rock band Killing
Heidi, agreed.
`Prohibiting something always makes it more attractive, especially
in my experience," said Ella, 17.
"I wish the powers that be would have more faith in the young people
of today and in their common sense and discretion."
Under the existing Act, anyone who performs tattooing or a "like
process" on someone under 18 faces penalties of up to $500. Under
the DHS proposal, the law would be amended to specify body piercing.
Mr Alexander said the recommendation was that body piercing be banned
for juveniles who did not have parental permission.
But legal experts suggested the planned ruling could also apply
to ear piercing unless a definition of the procedure was spelled
out.
Susan Hughes, a spokeswoman for the Victorian Parents Council, said
parents would support the amendment.
"I think, given current health concerns, parents would support the
idea that parental permission be required for body piercing procedures,"
Ms Hughes said.
"In a way it's a form of assault, but it is difficult when it is
so fashionable among teenagers, but hated by most parents."
Health Services Commissioner Beth Wilson said there had been an
increase in complaints by parents.
"If it is unlawful for tattoos, I don't see why it should not be
for body piercing as well," Ms Wilson said.
"It is invasive, there are infection control issues, it can leave
permanent scars and (tongue piercings) can damage teeth."
SHOULD YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE PIERCING?
SUKI PADDINGTON, 16, East Malvern: I got my body pierced
because I think it looks good. When I got my tongue pierced I did
not get permission.
ELIZABETH GRAHAM, 16, Port Melbourne: I think it is
a good idea to get parental supervision. When I got my body pierced,
my mum came along.
SARAH SUNDBLOM, 16, Seymour: I think it sucks because
the government tries to dominate everything. I have had my chin
pierced since April. I did it myself.
JORDY FAYMAN, 16, Malvern: I think the change would
be a sensible idea. Parents deserve the right to have a say in their
children's life.
LEESA SHULKIN, 16, East Brighton: I think people aged
16 and over should have the right to do what they like ... they
know what they are doing to their body.
(C) 2000 Herald and Weekly Times Limited.
