Wow what a year!

Just four months ago, YELO was merely yet another ADHD-fuelled bright spark idea, being floated between two mates over some hippy-dippy cosmic cookies.

And what a Pandora’s box it has turned out to be, with so many cool cats on the local music scene we’ve now come to love.

The Sunshine Coast live music community has warmly welcomed us with open arms since launching in September, and it wasn’t long before YELO took a gamble on dominating the South-East corner, by adding Brisbane and the Gold Coast to our jurisdiction.

We fell in love with Redcliffe’s best-dressed bikie (right), Ryan Elson who has the world’s biggest heart and wardrobe to match.

Ryan opened Tribe Clubhouse after tragically losing his 18-year-old son Jake to bone cancer, and his fully-licensed community ‘venue for all’ is a huge promoter of original music, and has become his way of giving back to the community which cared for him.

After interviewing Ryan, we quickly realised we shared core business values (and bad-assery fashion choices – check out when he met brother-from-another-mother, YELO co-founder Marty!) so we decided that we should collaborate with this fine creature. And we have loads of crazy plans ahead. Rock awn!

Another partnership we’re incredibly excited about is with the ever-delightful ABC Sunshine Coast Mornings presenter Sarah Howells (from Triple J and Double J fame). We got the OK from the big wigs at ABC just this week to have Sarah guest blog for YELO, and she will kick that off in the new year, with a round up of the region’s not-to-be-missed gigs each month. “I’m excited to share my love of music and the Sunshine Coast through YELO. There’s so much incredible talent here that I can’t even fit it all on the radio!” Bring it, Sarah!

And then we met this slick critter… Adam Niven is the Coast’s cartoonist to the stars and he’s currently working on a sick little YELO banana man for the new year and we can’t wait to be supporting this exceptional talent.

Keep your eyes peeled for Adam’s collection of music monsters at Solbar as he takes up the venue’s artistic residency this month.

Singer/songwriter Andrea Kirwin, Powderfinger drummer Jon Coghill and celebrity music manager Ian “Dicko” Dickson were all gracious with their time and gave us interviews when we didn’t even have a website yet. And they need to be thanked for being super-rad local champions who supported a gal on a mission (two girls including Marty).

Our biggest Aussie celebrity interview for the year goes to Ben Lee, who also took a chance interview on our little music rag promoting Woodford, and we can’t wait to see him. The biggest international interview would have to be Jimmy Smith from Foals, and thanks to Scrabble PR for the hook ups!

We took Loose Goose rockstar Ryan Barwick (right) under our wing as YELO’s Gold Coast correspondent, who gave us an epic wrap up for December. Keep an eye out for his monthly spot, “Golden Gigs”.

Watch out for Breeza Beers and Bands next year (below). Breeza (who also works for Tribe) will take on the Brisbane round, giving us her fave picks each month, with juicy video interviews with local artists.

Lastly, we owe a special thanks to musician and YELO music journalist Jarrod Tutbury, of Noosa music group Ampersand, who wrote some kick-ass yarns including this one about the Coast’s best recording studios, and it’s one of our biggest article hits yet.

And a fist bump to Ben Russoniello from Green Room Media who became YELO’s first music photographer. He captured Chamber Lane at Nambour’s newest live music venue The Presynct last month, and we’re massive fans now. Check them out!

So, from all at team YELO, have the bestest-evs Christmas and New Year, and we cannot wait to work with you all in 2024.

YOLO!

M.Grillz and P.Driz, YELO co-founders AKA “that tech guy” Marty Reynolds and “that spring chicken who does the writing part” Penny Brand.