Michael Gudinski is ready for his commercial TV close-up.
Channel 7 schedules “Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story” for next Tuesday, April 9 on the commercial network’s main channel and digital station 7plus — marking the doc’s first time on national TV.
“Ego” rolled out in cinemas last year to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebrations for the Mushroom Group, the indie juggernaut Gudinski built from the ground up.
Filmed by Paul Goldman (“Such is Life: The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins”) and produced by Bethany Jones, Ego captures Gudinski at work and play, and houses exclusive interviews with many of the great acts which came into his orbit, including Jimmy Barnes, Vika & Linda Bull, Garbage, Dave Grohl, Vance Joy, Paul Kelly, Kylie Minogue, Mark Seymour, Ed Sheeran, Bruce Springsteen and Sting.
“Music man. Impresario. Natural born hustler. Gudinski repeatedly risked everything for his one obsession: Australian music,” reads a statement from the commercial TV network, teasing the documentary.
“There’s barely a living Australian whose life hasn’t been touched by the music he was behind.”
“Ego” traces five-decades in the life of Gudinski and his Melbourne-based Mushroom brand, which he seeded at age 19 with the launch of Mushroom Records. Over time, he went on to sign the likes of Skyhooks (whose song “Ego” gives the film its title), Split Enz, Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly, Hunters & Collectors, Kylie Minogue, Archie Roach and Yothu Yindi, and through its concerts business Frontier Touring works with many of the superstars of popular music, from Madonna, Taylor Swift, Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran, and Springsteen.
Today, Mushroom Group is a sprawling empire spanning two-dozen businesses reaching into all areas of music and entertainment.
Gudinski died March 2, 2021, aged 68, trigging an unprecedented wave of tributes from the global music world, from Paul McCartney to Springsteen and Sheeran, who wrote and dedicated the song “Visiting Hours” to his good friend.
Initially pitched with the working title Gudinski, and announced to the public in March 2022, “Ego” is a Mushroom Studios production.
Principal production funding is from Screen Australia in association with VicScreen, with financing support from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA).
“Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story”premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival on Aug. 10, 2023 before hitting cinemas nationally from Aug. 31 in the same year.