The Veronicas have become the first Australian act in the 21st century to become platinum-selling artists in the United States.
“Untouched” sold 67, 000 digital units in the last week in the US, bringing its total sales to 1.01 million.
No other Australian act has even cracked the top 20 in the US since Kylie released “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” in 2003. This new milestone is definitely worth celebrating. Well done girls!
Image source: Newscom
As teenagers Charlotte Cooper and her Subways bandmates got their start playing Nirvana covers around their English neighbourhood. Now they’re part of the Soundwave Festival touring Australia. Today I chatted to this uber-cool bass player about her guitar heroes, working with legendary producer Butch Vig, and her love for Oz.
You’re out here to play Soundwave. How have the local crowds been so far?
It’s been really amazing so far. We’re just so, so happy to be in Australia. We all love the country so much and it’s so great to get the chance to play here. This is only our second time touring here. We’ve obviously been here separately, but this is only our second time playing here – we were here in 2006 for The Big Day Out – so we’re just glad to play here.
So what keeps you coming back to Australia?
Well we’ve all got family here and we’ve been coming over since we were kids, so I think we’re always going to have that connection to the country. And I absolutely love being here. I’m not really sure what it is about it, but I think it’s the only other place in the world I could live other than the UK.
Have you been able to see much your family or play tourist while you’ve been here?
I did, I got to stay with my aunt for night, which was good. Now we’ve got a couple of days off in Melbourne so we’ve all got different ideas of what we want to do and see.
What are you planning to get up to?
Well my first thing is shopping. That’s my days planned.
Have you been able to watch any of the other acts on the tour?
We’ve watched quite a few actually. And in Melbourne too, I don’t think we’ve got a flight too early so we’re going to stand around and watch some of the headliners too like Nine Inch Nails, Billy Talent, and Alice in Chains. I really want to see Lacuna Coil as well because she’s the only other girl on the whole festival.
You’re regulars on the festival circuit. What do you love about playing these big travelling shows?
I think that in terms of the audience, for us, it’s a great way to get new fans. And the whole thing with festivals is about having a good time, kind of escaping and forgetting about their lives for a day and having a good time. And that’s what our live show is all about, that’s the atmosphere we try to create every night. So being in a festival, that’s what we’re all about anyway so it’s excellent to do that. We get to go to a place like Australia where we’ve never really been before to perform. As well as for us it’s a chance to see bands. We’re very fortunate that we get to see huge bands because we don’t always get to do that.
I hear that both Oasis and Foo Fighters are really big fans of yours. What’s it like when such massive bands sit up and take notice of what you’re doing?
It’s amazing, especially since both bands picked us to support them as well. I can’t tell you what an amazing feeling that is, when someone like Liam Gallagher tells Billy [Lunn] and I that he really likes “Oh Yeah.” We didn’t really know how to take that, when someone we’ve idolised since we were young kids likes our song.
So what did you learn from being on the road with them?
I think really with the Foo Fighter, they’re just showmen, all of them. Particularly Dave Grohl, but Taylor Hawkins is an amazing drummer, he’s a showman as well as a drummer. And putting a show together, everyone has an amazing time at a Foo Fighters gig. You leave feeling quite euphoric I think. So we try and take a little bit of that away I think. That’s the kind of atmosphere we want to create at our shows as well.
There are so many great female bass guitarists like Suzi Quatro and Juliana Hatfield. Are there any that you particularly look up to?
D’Arcy who used to be in Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa Auf der Maur who used to be in Hole – I was a massive Hole fan. Obviously there’s been various different female musicians who’ve been in that band, and they’re all musicians that I look up to. PJ Harvey as well – I know she’s a guitarist rather than a bass player, but in the way that her stage presence is. Shirley Manson, amazing frontwoman. There’s lots of people.
After your first album Billy had to have surgery to remove polyps on his vocal chords and the band’s future was in doubt. What was that period like for you?
It was a very scary time for us, very uncertain time. I think that was the thing that we all found quite difficult. We’d been on this whirlwind of a tour after releasing Young For Eternity, two and a half years of touring the world, having an amazing time, and that came to quite an abrupt stop. There was nothing booked in the diary, we didn’t know how long it would take Billy to recover, and that’s what we found really hard. I think that’s why now we’re so grateful to be doing this.
You recorded your latest album All or Nothing with Butch Vig, who produced all those classic Nirvana records. Now I believe you got your start playing Nirvana covers, so did you get a bit star-struck meeting him?
Oh definitely, the first time we met him I was definitely quite nervous. I was definitely a bit nervous before going into the studio as well, a bit scared. He’s had an amazing career and worked with all of these amazing musicians, you sort of doubt yourself a bit I guess. But we had so much fun, and he’s such a lovely, lovely guy, such a disarming character. He made us feel so comfortable. I never had so much fun being in the studio. It was amazing.
And finally, do you have a message for your Australian fans?
I just want to thank everybody for coming to the shows. If you people didn’t come we wouldn’t be able to come out here. It’s quite amazing. We’re on quite early at Soundwave, and a lot of people have made the effort to come down early and see us, which is amazing. I really, really, really hope we’ll be back soon. We’re definitely trying to get another tour organized, maybe later this year or early next year.
Image used with permission from Warner Music Australia
Living legend Tony Joe White is returning to Australia in April. The gravelly voiced singer known as the Swamp Fox is a regular visitor to these shores, but we love having him here!
This time around he’ll play the blues festivals in Byron Bay and Perth, the Boogie festival in rural Victoria, and an amazing show with Dan Auerbach at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel.
The tour coincides with Tony Joe’s latest album Deep Cuts, which features reworkings of all his classic songs. The album doesn’t just update these iconic songs, it reframes them for a whole new audience. The album will be available exclusively at all Tony Joe’s Australian shows. Here are the dates!
7 April 2009 – Ruby’s Lounge, Belgrave
8 April 2009 – Toff in the Town, Melbourne
9 April 2009 – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
10 April 2009 – Boogie Festival, Tallarook
12 & 13 April 2009 – East Coast Blues and Roots Festival, Byron Bay
15 April 2009 – The Basement, Sydney
17 April 2009 – Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL
18 April 2009 – West Coast Blues and Roots Festival, Fremantle
19 April 2009 – The Gov, Adelaide
Image source: Tostadilla @ Flickr
The Australian music community, and some exceptional international artists, have rallied together to organize two massive concerts on March 14 to raise funds for the Victorian bushfire and Queensland flood victims. Sound Relief shows will be held at the Sydney and Melbourne Cricket Grounds.
Coldplay will perform an acoustic set in Sydney, while Kings of Leon will play Melbourne. Jack Johnson will also make the long trek from his Hawaiian home to play the Melbourne show.
That’s the young music fans taken care of, but there are plenty of reunions to excite the older generation. Icehouse will reform for the Sydney show, while Melbourne gets a triple treat with Hunters & Collectors, Split Enz, and Midnight Oil all earning a spot on the bill.
Jet and Wolfmother willdo more than their fair share, playing both cities. Each band will perform one city at the start, then jump on a plane to play the other gig. Now that’s dedication!
Tickets for the Sound Relief shows are a very reasonable $75, and all proceeds will benefit the Victorian Bushfire Appeal and The Premier’s Disaster Relief Fund Appeal in Queensland. Tickets go on sale next Wednesday March 4 from Ticketek.
We can apparently expect more artists to be added to the bill before then, but here’s the line-ups as they stand!
Melbourne
Sydney:
Image source: Sound Relief website
Melbourne Zoo’s Roar Sounds 2009 concert series is going out with a bang this Thursday.
Queensland urban outfit Resin Dogs will headline with special guest MC N’fa from 1200 Techniques. The hip-hop act will be supported by hometown hero Phrase and Alexx The Kidd.
This week’s show is kicking off a little earlier than the previous weeks. Alexx The Kidd will take the stage from 6:30 pm, but you can visit the animals until 7. Gates open at 5:30 pm.
The BYO policy means you can bring along a few beers and nibblies and save cash, or you can grab refreshments at the zoo. Just remember to pack plastic cups because glass ones aren’t permitted.
Tickets are on sale from Melbourne Zoo in person, by calling 1300 ZOOSVIC, or visiting zoos.org.au.
Image used with permission from AmpHead Music
The ARIA album charts might say Lily Allen’s claimed this week’s top spot with It’s Not Me, It’s You. But that’s not the whole story.
Bushfire Aid: Artists for the Bushfire Appeal was only on sale for four days of last week’s chart period, yet it outsold Lily’s sophomore effort two to one. But because it is a compilation album, it does not register on the album charts.
“The music industry has united together to support Sony Music Bushfire Aid release,” said Denis Handlin AM, Chairman and CEO of Sony Music. “The support of the artists, songwriters, music companies, music publishers, Sony DADC manufacturing and media partners has been fantastic.”
All artists involved in the project will donate their royalties to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal. The double-disc is expected to raise more than $200, 000.
If you don’t have your copy yet, why not? You can pick it up from music stores across Australia or online no matter where in the world you are.
Image source: Undercover News
When I was a young teenager I saw Simply Red play at the Newcastle Entertainment Center. I admit that I wasn’t a big fan of the band, but I enjoyed “Fairground” which was all over radio at the time, and I didn’t want to be left at home while my parents saw the show. I may not have adored the band before the show, but when I left I was converted.
I admit it; as I looked back years later I wondered whether I was just excited by such a large-scale show. I had only seen one or two concerts before, so seeing any band was a big deal. Were they really as good as I remembered?
After catching Simply Red again at Bimbadgen Estate on Saturday, my answer is an unreserved yes. But of course any Day on the Green show is about more than the main act so allow me to backtrack a little.
It was a soggy day in the Hunter Valley on Saturday. We were all thankful when Dragon took to the stage, providing some respite from the relentless downpour. Mark Williams did his best to fill the very big shoes left by Marc Hunter, but he didn’t quite cut it. The vocals didn’t have quite enough punch, but the crowd helped to fill in the gaps. Hit after hit after hit came. “Rain” was a real highlight considering we were all soaked through to our underwear!
Kate Ceberano has always struck me with her warmth and sunny disposition, so it seemed fitting that the clouds parted for her performance. She treated us to a covers-heavy set, drawing from her recent albums Nine Lime Avenue and So Much Beauty. But fans of her original recordings weren’t disappointed either, with “Brave,” “Pash,” and a reggae-flavoured “Bedroom Eyes” finding their way into the set. I think we all had as much fun dancing along to those songs as the permanently smiley songstress did performing them.
Just when we thought we might have seen the last of the rain it began to bucket down again. I was beginning to really resent being cold and wet until Simply Red appeared. They are just that good.
Mick Hucknall is the quintessential frontman. He knows how to work a stage, and his voice isn’t showing any signs of old age. In this age of technical wizardry it’s so rare to see a band that can reproduce that studio quality in their live performance, but Simply Red can. His vocals are effortless, flawless.
His sexy dance moves and charisma may ensure all eyes are on Mick, but every member of the Simply Red band has a role to play. They are such superb musicians, bringing these iconic songs to life with guitars, saxophone, and keys.
This concert was a celebration of 25 years of fabulous music, and celebrate we did. I only wish I hadn’t found myself stuck amongst drunken yobbos. Have fun by all means, but no one needs to drink so much they’re falling over and becoming obnoxious. They may not remember this concert for years to come, but I certainly will.
Image source: own photo
Dan Auerbach made a big impression as the lead singer and guitarist for The Black Keys. Now he’s continuing to impress with his first solo effort, Keep It Hid.
Dan will showcase tracks from this amazing release, plus plenty of Black Keys hits, at his very first Australian shows in April. He’s out here to play the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival in Byron and the Boogie Festival in Melbourne, but there are also plenty of chances to see him up close and personal at some intimate side shows.
Here are all the dates!
3 April 2009 – Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay
4 April 2009 – The Zoo, Brisbane
6 April 2009 – The Basement, Sydney
7 April 2009 – The Annandale Hotel, Sydney
9 April 2009 – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
10 April 2009 – East Coast Blues and Roots Festival, Byron Bay
11 April 2009 – Boogie Festival, Melbourne
Image source: PR Photos
The New South Wales government has just worked out what Melbourne realised last year: 2 am pub and club lockouts don’t reduce alcohol-related violence.
So they’ve scrapped the plan they brought in four months ago, and are hoping to introduce a “safety star rating system” instead. It will see each venue given a star rating so the public could make more informed choices. Minister for Gaming and Racing Kevin Greene will present a discussion paper to cabinet next week. From there it’ll be debated within the government before receiving comments from the hotel industry and concerned members of the public.
Honestly I’m not sure this solution is going to help curb the violence, but it will probably make sure that people like myself don’t get stuck in the middle of it!
Image source: Orin Optiglot @ Flickr
Australia loves Lily Allen. Local music fans sent her sophomore album It’s Not Me, It’s You straight to the top of the charts, and now the loudmouthed Brit is heading Down Under to say thanks.
But if you don’t live on the east coast, or you’re under the age of 18, you’re going to miss out. Lily’s announced just three gigs, and a MySpace Secret Show.
Given the small venues and Lily’s massive popularity, I’d get in quick when tickets go on sale March 2 if I were you. Consider yourself warned!
8 June 2009 – Tivoli, Brisbane
9 June 2009 – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
10 June 2009 – The Forum, Melbourne
Image source: PR Photos