Australian Shorts

After a sold-out tour in 2010, George Michael brings his Symphonica: The Orchestral Tour for five stops Nov. 13 to Dec. 1 for Dainty Group.

Carrie Underwood will tour Australia for the first time through Chugg Entertainment. Underwood did some shows last year as part of a promo visit. This time she does four arena/theatre dates June 26 to July 2.

Smashing Pumpkins, already announced for the Splendour in the Grass festival, do their own headlining arena shows for Secret Sounds. They land in Perth (July 26), Sydney (July 31) and Melbourne (August 2) with Wolfmother.

Sigur Ros are planning to tour Australia later this year. Tip is they’re on the Harvest Festival, which is in November.

DevilDriver, which axed its tour two days before it started due to singer Dez Fafara’s pneumonia, appears to be here for Soundwave. Stereosonic has confirmed it’s back between Nov. 24 to Dec. 2, with the bill unveiled in July.

Mark Smithers is the new booker for Sydney’s Annandale Hotel. The live music venue has sold 400 bricks in four months for its “Buy A Brick” fundraiser campaign. As a result, owners have begun renovating its toilets and giving the façade a paint job.

Multiplatinum hip-hop trio Hilltop Hoods’ first tour of the United States had its share of problems. DJ Debris was a no-show as his U.S. visa was delayed. Their drummer’s father died four days into the dates, and the drummer flew back to Oz.

It hasn’t been the best year health-wise for promoter Andrew McManus. After two stays in hospital – first for a stent after feeling faint backstage at a Lenny Kravitz show, and then when a stomach ulcer burst on a flight to Perth — he fractured two vertebrae after he tripped down stairs at his home in Melbourne.

Missy Higgins’ first road journey in five years, “The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle Tour” in June, saw the first shows in Sydney and Melbourne sell out in minutes.

The man who bid US$95,900 on eBay for Cher’s key to the city of Adelaide is now refusing to pay up. He said he made the winning bid in protest of the way Cher “insulted” Adelaide, he said. Cher disposed of the key to raise funds for her charity.