Australia: NZ Celine Tickets, ‘Nothing Compares 2 Prince’, Sydney Nightlife, Meltdown Festival

Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press via AP – Celine Dion
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada

NZ Fans Chide Ticketmaster Over Celine Dion Tix

Ticketmaster was in the firing line from Celine Dion fans when the singer’s tickets to two New Zealand shows went on sale at midday Feb. 19 sold out in less than a minute – and appeared on Ticketmaster’s resale site at inflated prices that afternoon. Dion is playing two shows at Auckland’s Spark Arena Aug. 11-12 for Frontier Touring and Concerts West/AEG Presents, her first NZ shows in 20 years. Tickets are priced NZ$119 (US$87.90) to NZ$399 ($294.79).

But resale prices were being advertised from NZ$800 ($590) to $NZ1,150 ($849). Frustrated fans criticised Ticketmaster for “allowing scalpers to raid the tickets then sell at 150% market while is absolutely dire hard music fans can’t go to the shows even though we are online right on 12 as scalpers taken the whole lot.” One posted a screenshot of four tickets being sold by a scalper for over NZ$25,000 ($18,474) and asked Dion to intervene, noting, “It’s looking like [only] the rich can go to your concert here in Auckland.”

Ticketmaster responded to criticism with statement: “This is a highly popular event with thousands of people trying to secure multiple tickets” and that people should “keep trying.” It added, “While part of the same family, Resale operate independently to Ticketmaster.” The only events protected by NZ law, via the 2007 Major Events Management Act, are sporting ones, and more for “commercial exploitation” from ambush marketing.

In Australia, where Dion has been absent for 10 years, Frontier Touring added Feb. 17 a second Brisbane Entertainment Centre for July 31. The tally, following additions in three other cities, has doubled the number of dates from the original announcement.

Three More Prince Alumni Added To World Premiere Celebration Shows

Three more Prince alumni were added to a two-city, late April celebration of the late superstar’s music. The latest additions to “Nothing Compares 2 Prince” are his younger sister, Tyka Nelson, New Power Generation keyboard player Cassandra O’Neal and Tori Ruffin, guitarist with Morris Day & The Time. The shows, billed as world premieres, are April 27 at Sydney Opera House and April 29 at Melbourne Hamer Hall. They feature 12 musicians, singers, producers and composers who, at various times, were directly involved in Prince’s career.

They include PNG’s St. Paul Peterson who is serving as music director for the shows, PNG singers Shelby J and Andy Allo, Jellybean Johnson of The Time, Ricky Peterson who produced the “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” single, bassist Nik West from his final Piano and a Microphone Tour in 2016, the NPG Hornz and Stokley Williams of Minneapolis band Mint Condition.

City of Sydney Assembling Nightlife Advisory Panel

The City of Sydney is assembling its Nightlife and Creative Sector Advisory Panel to help shape its strategies on the city’s after-dark activities. There will be 16 members who will serve three-year terms. There will be specific number of seats designated for venue owners, festival producers, nightclubs, builders, retailers, urban planning and development and three for reps aged under 30. Lord Mayor Clover Moore said that the city would continue to lobby against the NSW state government’s lockout laws, which venue owners declare destroyed their business. 

“They were a sledgehammer blow when what we needed was evidence-based policies that allow well-managed venues to trade as part of a safe and sustainable late-night culture,” Moore commented. The advisory panel is the latest initiative in the City’s OPEN Sydney strategy from 2012. It has already adopted recommendations to make safe and vibrant the nighttime hours, including a live music action plan, late-night safety ambassadors, grants to businesses that offer diversity to late-night trading, more public transport, CCTV and food trucks, and updated laws that encouraged more small bars.

New Hard Rock Festival Meltdown Announced

Booking management and promotions Dirthouse Agency announced the inaugural Meltdown hard rock festival will stage in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane clubs May 12-26. Seven up-and-coming acts will play all dates: Gay Paris, Child, Arteries, The Black Swamp, Sumeru and Never, Others will be added for different cities. 

Meantime, the inaugural Australian installment of the UK’s Download – presented by Live Nation, UNIFIED and Secret Sounds on March 24 at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne – added two more Australian acts, Make Them Suffer and High Tension to the bill. Headliners Korn will play the sole Australian show, while others on the 27-act show include Prophets of Rage, Limp Bizkit, Mastodon, Good Charlotte, NOFX and Suicidal Tendencies.