At yesterday’s inaugural “Music In The House” luncheon held in NSW Parliament House, rocker Jimmy Barnes was presented by Support Act Limited with an “Excellence in Community Support” Award in recognition of his many years of performing at and helping out with charity events throughout Australia.

Hosted by Virginia Judge MP, the event was attended by a number of rock heavyweights, industry stalwarts, parliamentarians and distinguished guests. Premier Morris Iemma opened proceedings confessing that “music has been a big part of my life ever since I sported a flannelette shirt, a leather jacket, and a mullet back in the 70’s and 80’s”. Commenting that his all-time favourite band, the Foreday Riders, were regulars at the Cat and Fiddle in Balmain, Premier Iemma made mention that the Government is reforming the liquor laws at the moment and acknowledged the strong representations from the music industry about the future of live music. He advised that the package to be taken to Cabinet will include a special new type of liquor license for music or entertainment venues… separate from ordinary hotel licenses. The Liquor Act will also include a specific new objective… namely the development of live music and entertainment within our liquor industry. “Our hotels, particularly the pubs of Sydney and Newcastle, have been the birth-place and testing ground of some of our best bands. We don’t want to see that die” commented Iemma.

Billy Thorpe spoke of the achievements of Support Act Limited over the last eight years and mentioned the number of fellow musicians who were now aging and regrettably suffering illness and hardship. Billy outlined his vision to raise a million dollars to ensure SAL can continue to assist the “family” of musicians over the coming years in a meaningful way.

Keynote address was a spirited speech from Michael Gudinski AM, Chairman of the Mushroom Group who made comment on a number of issues facing the Music Industry today, in particular the lack of support by television to screen Australian produced video clips.

The event was topped off with an acoustic performance by Jimmy Barnes who was joined by all his children, including a very dapper David Campbell.

ABC weatherman Mike Bailey was MC for the proceedings which was very well attended by the media.

For further information please contact Meryl Gross, Support Act Limited, 0408 971 220