Helen Marcou and Ian ‘Quincy’ McLean of Bakehouse Studios, Melbourne have received the Order of Australia award in the Australia Day Honours.
Helen and Quincy have not only received the award for their service to the music industry but as promoters and advocate of live performance. Their role in organising the SLAM Rally led to real change in government attitude to Music as both business and culture and focused government on the music community as a valuable contributor to the economy.
In a statement Helen said:
To my dear friends,
Today Ian Quincy McLean and I were awarded an Order of Australia.
These awards were established by Gough Whitman in 1975 to replace the British Honor System.
It’s a humbling experience to be recognized by your community, however, it took a lot of soul searching for us to accept this award.January 26th is a day marked with the generational trauma of our First People, so It’s difficult to remove the politics. We acknowledge that Aboriginal Sovereignty remains unceded and respect the leadership and guidance from our First Peoples to #changethenation. Our privilege and that of all settlers comes from these stolen lands.
We found out a few weeks ago that a lot of people worked behind the scenes for over three years to make this happen. Quincy’s dad Malcolm had wished for this for a long time and never had the opportunity to nominate us. He would’ve been so proud to hear that many others already had ,we lost Malcolm in August.
It is rare for activists and volunteers like us to receive these sort of honors.
We will use this platform to further the importance of everyone’s right to participate and practice their culture through artistic expression in an environment free from discrimination, violence and unburdened by unnecessary regulation. Music is a pure art form and this land has a 60,000 year tradition of song lines.
The award recognizes our contribution to the value of music and artistic culture.
We’re so grateful to our friends, family, Bakehouse staff and the music community for holding us, standing beside us and putting their trust in us.
Bakehouse Studios has been the rehearsal room for choice for The Saints, Paul Kelly, Rowland S. Howard, The MC5, Mark Arm (Mudhoney), Evan Dando (Lemonheads), Tool, Janes Addiction, Deftones, Augie March, Little Birdy, The Panics, X, Died Pretty, Steve Kilbey, The Triffids, Beasts of Bourbon, The Scientists, Dallas Crane, Sufjan Stevens, Dave Stewart, John Butler Trio, Jimmy Little, Blackeyed Susans, Vika & Linda Bull, Daddy Cool, Deni Hines, Underground Lovers, Wanda Jackson, Olivia Newton-John, Jessica Mauboy, Tame Impala, Powderfinger, Bill Callahan, Beth Orton, Cat Power, Elvis Costello, The Rockwiz Orchestra, Ladyhawke, Icehouse, Neil Finn, Pere Ubu and many more have passed through the Bakehouse doors.
Elvis Costello described the rooms as “some of the best rooms in the world”.
In 2010 Helen and Quincy organised the SLAM Rally. 20,000 protesters marched to the steps of Parliament House in support of Live Music. The SLAM rally was described as “the largest cultural protest in Australia’s history”.
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