Our project in Perth

Project Leader Professor Andy Bennett (Griffith Centre for Cultural Research, Griffith University) spent the first three weeks of July in Perth where he conducted interviews with a range of people involved in the Perth music scene. Among those Andy interviewed were personnel from local community radio, the State Library of Western Australia, and a music documentary production company. Andy also spoke to a number of local music fans and musicians and was given a special tour of Fremantle's High Street West End Spray Chalk Star Walk of Fame by organiser Carolyn Bailey. During his visit to Perth, Andy was interviewed about the Popular Music and Cultural Memory project on local radio stations RTR and Curtin FM and gave two seminar presentations at Curtin University (where he was Visiting Fellow for the duration of the trip) and Edith Cowan University.

Our research in Israel

The international component of the project began in earnest this month with Sarah's arrival in Tel Aviv, Israel. Sarah is working closely with one of the project's partner investigators, Professor Motti Regev (The Open University of Israel), and together they will be interviewing a range of people invested in preserving and documenting Israel's popular music heritage. In preparation for the trip Sarah viewed the 12 part documentary series End of the Orange Season, which charts the development of Israeli rock music. In addition to speaking with producers of that series, Sarah also plans to visit The Music Department Collections at The National Library of Israel and the music library at the army radio station Galei Tzahal. Sarah will be based in Tel Aviv until 15 August when the research moves to the UK.