During 2021 and 2022, Australian singer-songwriter Liz Stringer played to the sort of crowds some would say she had always deserved. Arenas of loud, passionate fans, 10,000 or more at a time, baying every last line back at her. Unfortunately, they weren’t her words: Stringer had been employed as a backing singer for Midnight Oil, […]
Liz Stringer: The Second High Read More »
Live music promoters TEG Group and British band New Order are facing a public backlash after announcing they would go ahead with a scheduled concert in Brisbane as the city grapples with major flooding in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. The concert, part of the Manchester synth-pop pioneers’ Australian tour, is set to take place Tuesday
New Order face cyclonic backlash in Brisbane Read More »
Tex Perkins has been around the ruthlessly ageist Australian music industry to know an opportunity when he sees it. “As far as Boomers and Generation X punters go, it’s all about anniversaries these days,” he says with a dry chuckle, somewhere on top of a hill (the mobile reception is better) near his home in
The Cruel Sea: Honeymoon spark returns Read More »
For more than a decade, you could be forgiven for thinking that Jack White – rock & roll’s last great aesthetic purist – had diverged from his righteous path, if not lost his way entirely. Once an unbridled force of nature, his music had become so self-conscious and studied that, if nothing else, you had
Jack White: Live, 6 December 2024 Read More »
How do you follow up an instant classic? This was the challenge faced by King Stingray, the self-described Yolŋu surf-rock group from Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land, whose self-titled 2022 debut sounded more like a greatest hits collection than a first album. It deservedly won the Australian Music Prize. Thankfully, the band hasn’t overthought things. Their answer
King Stingray: For the Dreams Read More »
At 6.30pm on this day in 1974, Countdown made its television debut. Perhaps it didn’t change Australia overnight – that really happened on 1 March 1975, when Skyhooks heralded the dawn of colour transmission in Australia with a special midnight broadcast – but it’s safe to say music television would never be the same again. This
Countdown: appointment television that changed Australia Read More »