Esco's Mobile Blog: Something For Everybody: by Baz Luhrmann

"Welcome to the House of Iona on this starry night for an orgy of entertainment... trip away!" - Silky Dean

In 1997, Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin co-founded their Sydney-based production company, Bazmark Inq., and subsidiaries Bazmark Design, Bazmark Film, Bazmark Live and Bazmark Music. The Bazmark production studio was dubbed 'The House of Iona', and the company's first project was the concept album, Something for Everybody.

The album was also the first Bazmark production to bear the company crest, a design which resembles the Australian coat-of-arms. Along the bottom of the crest is the Bazmark motto, "A life lived in fear is a life half lived".

Something For Everybody is described on its inside cover as, "An eclectic collection of reinterpreted and remixed tracks from a decade of innovative and dynamic film, theatre and opera productions directed by Baz Luhrmann, including hits from Strictly Ballroom, La Boheme, and William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet."

The album booklet is illustrated with several impressive collages featuring sets and characters from all of Luhrmann's productions up until 1997. This beautiful artwork was designed by Catherine Martin and Tania Burkett using a magically inventive technique that was to become Martin's trademark style in future projects.

Luhrmann's decade of productions are listed in the booklet as follows: Lake Lost (Music Theatre Piece for The Australian Opera - 1988), Haircut (Rework of the musical Hair for Six Years Old Co - Sydney Theatre Co - 1988), La Boheme (Opera for The Australian Opera - 1990), Strictly Ballroom (Film for M&A Film Corp - 1992), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Opera for The Australian Opera - 1993), Labor Election Campaign (Labour Party televised campaign launch - 1993), and William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Film for 20th Century Fox - 1996). Feel free to visit my Facts About Baz section for more information about Luhrmann and these early productions.

A very informative page regarding the release of Something For Everybody was created by Hollywood and Vine. Unfortunately, this webpage has now been taken offline. However, luckily, I have been able to save much of the featured information here on my site. Hollywood and Vine included comments from Baz Luhrmann regarding each song on the album, and I have featured these quotes in my song reviews linked below. The Hollywood and Vine page also provided the following information about the making of the album:

"The album Something for Everybody was a project to bridge the completion of Romeo and Juliet and the commencement of work on a new film. Baz worked with Bazmark Music producer Anton Monsted under the alias BLAM; together they produced and remixed the music on this album with cutting-edge and established Australian musicians, technicians and performers.

A large reason for doing the project was to become reaquainted with the local scene and work with some of the burgeoning young talent in the Australian music industry. At the same time, it was a chance for the Bazmark team (which also includes Oscar nominated production designer Catherine Martin, and Romeo and Juliet co-producer Martin Brown) to flex their muscles on a project of scale that could be completed in a fraction of the time it takes to make a feature film. The team wanted to create a musical work which marked the journey of the past decade, before embarking on further travels."

Something For Everybody

Something For Everybody - US/UK cover Something for Everybody - Australian cover
Left: US/UK cover, Right: Australian cover
US release date: 31 March 1998
Click here to order your copy from amazon.com
Click here to order your copy from amazon.co.uk