Features
Australia: Dates, Margaret Court, Queen’s List
Dates: Lorde, Styles, Migos, Weeknd
– The Weeknd
Starboy World Tour poster
After her current 29-date run of North American, European and Japanese festivals and club dates June 11 to Oct. 19, Lorde will return to where it all began for her as a teenager.
Frontier Touring has her doing six intimate dates in five cities in her native New Zealand Nov. 7-15. These are followed by five major open-air shows in Australia Nov. 18-26. She’ll be the youngest act ever to play the Sydney Opera House forecourt and also has a slot before 20,000 at Canberra’s Spilt Milk festival.
Harry Styles, already set for a one-off appearance at Sydney Enmore Theatre Nov. 26 that sold out in a minute, is back for a larger run 2018.
Frontier Touring has him at four Australian arenas April 21-28 and one in New Zealand Dec. 2.
John Davisson – Lorde
Lorde performs at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in Louisiana April 30.
Frontier also has Migos making their debut Down Under, in New Zealand with a one-off show in Auckland Oct. 10, with four arena shows in Australia October 13 to 17.
TEG Dainty teamed up Lionel Richie and Chic’s Nile Rodgers for six Australian arena stops Sept. 30 to Oct. 17 and two in New Zealand Oct. 19 and Oct. 21.
Secret Sounds has London Grammar in five Australian cities Sept. 16-26 and in New Zealand Sept. 30. The Weeknd tweeted a poster of Phase 2 of his world tour to include debuts in Australia and New Zealand, as well as Canada.
Venues were not announced but he will be in Auckland on Nov. 29 and in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth through December.
Media speculation has Paul McCartney to be announced for a November/December run, The Killers for a one-off appearance at the Australian Football League grand final Sept. 30 in Melbourne, and Pearl Jam headlining the entertainment for the National Rugby League in Sydney Oct. 1.
Promoters Coppel And Dainty In Queen’s Honors List
Live Nation Australasia Chairman Michael Coppel and TEG Dainty President Paul Dainty were among more than 600 Australians honoured June 12 in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List. Both were made Members of the Order of Australia (AM). Coppel joined LN in 2012 after it acquired his Melbourne-based company Michael Coppel Presents.
He expanded LN’s presence in the region, acquiring Auckland’s
UK-born Paul Dainty launched Paul Dainty Corporation with tours by ABBA and The Rolling Stones and went on to shift 50 million tickets with music acts, musicals and sports events. In July 2016, his company was acquired by TEG, this year touring Guns N’ Roses, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, WLive, Lionel Richie & Nile Rodgers, Cat Stevens/Yusuf and k.d. lang.
– Michael Coppel
Also receiving AM status were performing arts veterans Ian Scobie, WOMADelaide director and Arts Projects Australia founder; and theatre promoter Greg Hocking, for building up Melbourne’s comedy scene.
Denis Handlin, Sydney-based head of Sony Music operations in Australia, New Zealand and Asia, was made an officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in addition to being made a member (AM) in 2005. In his 40-year tenure in Australia, he signed the globally renowned Men At Work, Midnight Oil, Tina Arena, and Human Nature, fought for artist rights as longtime chair of the Australian Recording Industry Association, and for his multimillion-dollar charity endeavours.
Receiving the medal of the Order of Australia was Robie Porter, who after a series of chart toppers in the 1960s as Rob E. G went on to become a label executive, early manager for musician/actor Rick Springfield, and produced records for Air Supply, Tommy Emmanuel, and Daddy Cool.
Google Changes Margaret Court Arena Name ‘In Error’
While the furor in Australia continues over whether Melbourne’s
U.S.-based tennis champion Martina Navratilova, in an open letter that slammed Court’s comments, suggested a name change to Goolagong, the indigenous Australian who won 14 Grand Slam events in the 1970s and ’80s.
“I think the Evonne Goolagong Arena has a great ring to it,” Navratilova wrote. “Now there is a person we can all celebrate. On every level.” A similar call in a Change.org petition directed at Tennis Australia and the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust had by June 12 reached 10,908 of a 15,000 target signatures Google called it an error caused by a third-party user and had fixed it.
“Unfortunately there are some users that inaccurately label info, but we’re continually improving our algorithms to prevent this from happening,” a spokeswoman told SBS World News.
Sigur Ros, which is playing the venue July 27 on its eighth visit to Australia, is making a statement at the arena itself. It has commissioned a special T-shirt for the show, which will also be sold at its sets in Sydney and the Splendour in the Grass festival.
Proceeds from which will go toward support of Australian Marriage Equality.
The band, noting its home country of Iceland legally approved same sex marriages in 2010, said in a statement: “Let’s make July 27th Margaret Court Arena’s most inclusive night ever and call for every Australian to have the same dignity and respect right here on centre court.”
Court, a 24-time time grand slam champion turned Victory Life Church pastor, made comments that marriage should be only between man and woman, tennis is overrun by lesbians and that transgendered people were influenced by the devil.
Seven Arrested In NZ Stadium Death
Seven people were arrested and a 20-year-old man charged with murder after a fight at Stadium Southland in Invercargill, New Zealand. Police believe the 19-year-old victim knew his alleged assailants, according to the Otaga Daily Times.
He died at the venue after the assault June 7. Also arrested were three males aged 21, 19 and 18 and three females aged 23, 18 and 16. They had their names suppressed, as did the victim’s.
The six faced Youth Court in Invercargill June 9 and remanded until their case is heard in the High Court June 27.