NOVOCASTRIANS might notice a familiar face when SBS debut its ambitious new historical drama New Gold Mountain.
Hamilton South product Leonie Whyman plays a young Aboriginal girl named Hattie in the four-part series, which explores a murder mystery during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s from the perspective of Chinese miners.
Whyman, a former Hunter School of Performing Arts student, has previously appeared in ABC's My Place and Redfern Now and Ready For This.
"What's really special about New Gold Mountain, is it's set in the gold rush era and it's an important story inspired by real life," Whyman says.
"I love it's from the perspective of Chinese miners and you have all these diverse cultures in the show that you don't hear about as they're not talked about or highlighted by history."
New Gold Mountain debuts on SBS on October 13.
* SILVERCHAIR drummer Ben Gillies released his long-awaited debut solo EP Relative Relatives on Friday.
The five-track EP was more than five years in the making and produced by Maitland's Jordan Power in Byron Bay.
The first of the EP's singles, Breathe In Breathe Out, debuted the mellow folk-pop sound last year, followed by the jazzy One Foot In Front Of The Other and the nostalgic Yesteryear.
*ROLLING Stones fans, and music lovers in general, were shattered by the news in August that drummer Charlie Watts had died aged 80.
However, they had something to smile about this week with the unveiling of a previously-unreleased Rolling Stones cover of the Chi-Lites' Troubles A' Comin.
The track was recorded in Paris in 1972 and will be included on the 40th anniversary edition of the Stones' 1981 album Tattoo You, due for release on October 22.
* MANY music festival punters have indulged in various substances over the years, but this is an Australian first.
On Friday North Queensland's Savannah In The Round offered COVID-19 Pfizer vaccinations to punters attending the music festival. Turning music festivals into pop-up vax hubs has previously been implemented at UK's Reading and Leeds festivals and in Canada.
Savannah In The Round runs all weekend and is headlined by John Butler and John Williamson.
