27 January 2006

We promised some changes to capers in 2006 to help make this site more interesting and exciting. To keep our word Country Capers will no longer be a weekly column but as news come to hand it will be posted on the site and older news will be placed into the archives.

This will mean that a lot of the news stories will right up to date and not a few days old when they are posted on the site.

A reminder will still be sent out weekly to subscribers, but from next week we encourage you to come back to capers every day for the latest country music news.

The treatment of Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman by the British ‘gutter’ press as prompted me to have my say on this subject.

I have known Keith and his family for many years having judged this talented young man at Country Music Festivals and offering my advice which hopefully helped his career. Keith is now the number one country music performer in the World of which I among many others are very proud. This lad from Caboolture certainly deserves better treatment by the media. Keith keeps his private life just that, Private and he is a caring loving person with very proud parents who now live on the Sunshine Coast.

His relationship with Nicole Kidman as blossomed in the past 12 months and because the British media could not find any gossip on these two Australians, fiction was created to help sell their newspapers.

Personally I deplore this kind of Journalism especially when it is aimed at someone I know and is totally untrue.

Admittedly a few years ago before his career took off in America in a big way Keith Urban went through a bad patch when he turned to drugs and drink. Several years ago during an interview with selected Australian journalists including myself Keith explained his behaviour at the time and how with determination and the will to make good he kicked the habit and since then he has been on the straight and narrow.

My message to the media is please leave Keith and Nicole alone and let’s keep their personal lives private, sit back and praise this couple for what they have done within the industry not what they might be doing behind closed doors.

Congratulations to all the winners and grinners in Tamworth this year. According to reports received this as been one of the most successful festival for many a year.

Toyota Starmaker winner this year is After a gruelling day of heats, the initial 20 finalists were whittled down to a top 10 who performed before a capacity audience, and the judges, in the Toyota Country Theatre in Country Music Capital on Sunday night.

Cat took the Toyota Star Maker 2006 crown from a strong line-up of grand final contenders... James Anderssen, Tim Farren, Belinda Harkness, Nick Kingswell, Brad Lee, Rebecca Lee Nye, Ryan Sampson, Jason-Lee Sharp and Craig Stewart.