Oz Dates: Fleetwood Mac, Atlas Genius

Live Nation locked in Fleetwood Mac for eight Australia/New Zealand dates in November.

It kicks off Nov. 10 at Sydney Entertainment Centre, with other stops being Hope Estate Winery, Hunter Valley (Nov. 16), Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Perth Arena, The Hill Winery, Geelong, and Brisbane Entertainment Centre Nov. 16 to Dec. 2. Pre-sales for many shows begin next week.

The band has strong ties to Australia. In a pre-announcement interview, Stevie Nicks revealed that she almost moved to Australia to beat her cocaine habit.

“It was either check into the Betty Ford clinic, or go to Australia and hang out in the desert,” she said. Mick Fleetwood also bought a house in Australia intending to relocate from California, but gave up the idea after five years when he ran into financial problems.

Live Nation also announced that Adelaide band Atlas Genius in addition to opening for Stereophonics, will do three headlining club dates July 17-28. The act just finished a two-month U.S. visit, its first headline run, which included two sellouts at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom.

Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour is downunder Sept. 18 to Oct. 13, doing four cities.

Brooklyn’s Beach Fossils rescheduled their visit after postponing last October. Handsome Tours has them playing two clubs in Sydney (Sept. 20) and Melbourne (Sept. 21).