Perth has so much to offer as a destination- and more- but yet, the city remains the Rodney Dangerfield of Australia having no respect, ignored by many in Sydney and Melbourne who fob off anything from there as second-rate or “unworthy.”
Around three or four years ago, Perth hosted a musical event known as OneMovement which brought many in the music world to the city- the manager of Coldplay, songwriter Diane Warren, artists from all around Asia, parts of Europe and around Australia.
It’s where many of us first heard singer-songwriter Sarah Blasko- very good, but with a new Swedish producer in tow- trying too damn hard to sound like Bjork or another one of those annoyingly affected Scandinavian singers like Lene Marlin, Mette from the woefully badly- managed The Asteroids Galaxy Tour and Lene from the Cardigans.
As an aside, Mette should have been huge, but despite first being managed by IE who also managed Robbie Williams and then later in the hands of a management gremlin, she and the band seem to be grounded or else struck down by some mysterious asteroid.
My girlfriend at the time- Danish- found Sarah Blasko and her attempts to “go Scando” embarrassing though I disagreed. But what she and I agreed on- and we seldom agreed about anything as she was one crazy, dysfunctional bitch- was that Perth offered so much- but needed smart, strategic and effective marketing if it were to ever stand up and be counted.
Instead, Perth continues to be dismissed as being a very “uncool” area of Australia much like Florida is to the US- an Okay place for people to visit and, maybe, retire and call it quits- but not as somewhere to live and make things happen.
Well, that’s the perception sold by many outside of Western Australia to outsiders.
Personally, I love Perth and can see it being the Monte Carlo of Australasia. But this won’t happen through wishful thinking and blowing out birthday cakes and making wishes.
Speak to “Eastsiders” and Perth has no Sex In The City, no interesting people, and suffers from a dated mentality -and personality.
Perth has no music scene- bollocks as it has some VERY good acts- and is a place that doesn’t even attract hip new products and brands.
OneMovement with one of the organizers being veteran promoter Michael Chugg looked like introducing the city to a market who wouldn’t otherwise have known Perth from Colin Firth.
After all, here was an extremely successful promoter, very tight with another legend of the Australian music biz- Michael Gudinski- both also avid horse racing fans who had traveled widely, had all the global contacts and were not restricted to parochial thinking.
However, after one or two more attempts at creating OneMovements, everything seemed to have run its course.
Why? No idea.
Perhaps, there was no money in organizing these events, or, at his age, Chuggie couldn’t be bothered and had a pretty weak team of has-beens and never-beens on his payroll.
Meanwhile, a far more ambitious and creative Singapore offering so many incentives to businesses moved in and gave the entertainment world what Oliver Twist asked for: More- more of everything whereas Perth seemed content to plod along with not even AC/DC being good ambassadors for the city.
All very sad and also all very disappointing and one hopes Perth hasn’t just rolled over and gone to sleep.
Wake up, Perth to what you have and everything you CAN have!
Think about these facts and ideas: There is no time difference between Perth, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan. Not a big deal? A huge big deal. It simplifies everything.
What brings tourists from, especially, Greater China, anywhere? Gambling.
I’m unclear if Perth has a casino, but if conservative Swingabore can have two of them, and Macau is just one big casino, surely, Perth can have ONE and bung it into that Hilton that needs a severe facelift?
In fact, the more hotels- big muthas of hotels with the type of service Asian tourists are used to is what Perth desperately needs.
One ordinary hotel does not maketh a city.
As for horse racing and despite the influence of Singaporeans and Malaysians in the sport in WA, what about punters from Hong Kong?
Perth has some very good trainers, jockeys and has a history of having some great horses- Northerly, anyone?- but what’s being done to promote names like trainers Adrian Durant and Simon Donnell, horses like Mr Moet and Talent Show, jockeys like Daniel Staek, young Chris Parnham and Jarred Noske- outside of Perth?
Why not a Perth-Hong Kong Jockey Challenge? Right now, to many in Hong Kong, Perth racing started and ended with Willie Pike who rode here for a while with very moderate success with the limited rides offered.
Away from gambling, how is Perth being marketed as a location for events- and does it have the venues?
Where OneMovement held their two days of ‘live’ music was a brilliant venue- better than anything in Hong Kong.
This week, I spent some time with an old mate named Simon Fuller who was in town with someone he manages named David Beckham.
Simon once managed a Girl Power group known as the Spice Girls, created and owns the Idol franchise and also manages Victoria Beckham, Andy Murray, Lewis Hamilton, Adam Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox etc.
We were chatting about new ideas and I asked him what he thought of Perth. He hadn’t as he had never had a reason to go there.
There was no “brand awareness”. And this is what a “product” like Perth needs- brand awareness.
Hell, invite Oprah down there- even those trollops known as the Kardashians for an episode of their reality show where, perhaps, Khloe falls for a short white bloke for a change and not another Lamar.
Get Jimmy Fallon down there for a lip synch competition, have Senator Ted Cruz give another 21 hour speech and put Perth into the Guinness Book Of World Records.
Offer shisha at restaurants, get Snoop Dogg or whatever he calls himself today to open a restaurant over there, have Sesame Street filmed there, get that blowhard Donald Trump hold a Miss Universe Contest in Perth, adopt Heidi Klum, Angelina Jolie, Madonna and every Victoria’s Angels.
So, again, wake up, Perth- and Perthians.
You have a great city- a city to be proud of which MUST be seen to be believed and appreciated.
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