Ticket to Ryde

It’s being billed as Suburb versus Suburb – The Ultimate Musical Showdown. The organisers welcome massed tuba bands and the rules specify that the words ‘My lovely horse’ are allowed, if poetically justified. With Eurovision once again just around the corner, it was only a matter of time before someone put two and two together…

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Sydneyvision Song Contest.

Projects Director at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, Ken Saunders, is cheerful about the unabashed tackiness of both Eurovision and its offspring. “It’s one of those things that is so unashamedly kitsch, it just has to be admired,” he says. “I have to admit, I regarded it as a very peculiar idea, but when I mentioned it to the Dendy (Theatre) and Sandringham Hotel, they were both really enthusiastic – it didn’t need a hard sell at all.”

The entry rules for the contest are simple enough. A video recording of an original song is the only requirement, with the provision the song contains the name of the suburb the artist or group claims to represent somewhere in the lyrics.

Unlike the big-budget Eurovision extravaganza, Sydneyvision is entirely premised on people having a go – according to Saunders, the budget for Sydneyvision is a decidedly un-grand “nil”. But fortunately for Eurovision fans, this doesn’t mean all vestiges of the high cultural standards maintained by the contest have been lost in the wash. The rules mandate at least one of the performers must wear sequins, or at the very least, wink shamelessly at the camera.

Nevertheless, Saunders is keen to clarify an important difference. “Unlike Eurovision, we’re actually planning to judge the songs on merit!”

Regardless, what of the prospect of turning up Australia’s answer to ABBA? “One of the things of being a Newtown-based agency is that there’s certainly a lot of people in the area that think the music scene begins and ends with the frontiers of Newtown,” Saunders says. “In reality, Sydney has a wealth of talent and it can come from all over. The idea is to appeal to the songwriters and performers who have a bit of creativity and derring-do. I think it’s somewhat analogous to TheatreSports – you’ve got a very limited time to come up with a song that has ‘Abbotsford’ in the lyrics somewhere.”

The contest closes on August 2 and culminates on Grand Final Night at Dendy Newtown on August 25, where the 14 finalists will be screened and the winning Song of Sydney chosen. In addition to knowing they have written the best song in the history of the world about Hurlstone Park, Woolloomooloo, or Bondi Junction, there will also be cash prizes for the three top-ranked groups. For more details, call Ken Saunders at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre on 9516 4755, or email projects@newtowncentre.org.