Australia: Mariah Carey Cancels, Pink Reschedules, Glenn Wheatley Fundraises

Mariah Carey canceled her Australian and New Zealand four-show run for October, after rescheduling them from February 2018 and promising a “much bigger” tour. A statement from MJR Presents cited “a scheduling conflict” and added, “New dates for the areas are yet to be determined.”

The statement included a comment from the singer apologising to fans and adding, “However I promise to find new dates soon. I’ve been working away on new music and I cannot wait to share it with you later this year.”

Carey is said to be in the studio working on an album with longtime collaborator Jermaine Dupri, who said that the new material “feels aggressive.”

“I’m not contagious, I promise!” Pink quipped to the sold-out audience at Sydney’s Quodos Bank Arena when she made a triumphant and physically strenuous return to action Aug. 11 after a gastric virus saw her hospitalised and cancel four Sydney shows.

Live Nation has rescheduled the shows. The Aug. 3 date is now Aug. 24, Aug. 6 is now Sept. 17, Aug. 7 is transferred to Sept. 18 and Aug. 9 to Sept. 19. A Brisbane Entertainment Centre date on Aug. 23 is moved to Aug. 22.

Veteran artist manager Glenn Wheatley is assembling a major concert to raise money for the farming community. New South Wales is officially in drought., after its driest 18 months on record, and the big dry expected to continue until 2019.

Wheatley was approached by national carrier Qantas to organise the Hay Mate: Buy a Bale show to include a telethon on a free-t-air-channel. To be announced  Wheatley’s star client, John Farnham, headlines Scully Park in the country music capital Tamworth October 27, with R&B singer Guy Sebastian and country performer Adam Harvey confirmed so far.

In other initiatives, the inaugural Scene & Heard festival is giving away 100 tickets to farmers and singer Jimmy Barnes donated all 2018 royalties of the soundtrack to his cinema release documentary Working Class Boy based on his  best seller two-part memoirs.

Illusive Presents and Frontier Touring’s 2018 edition of the successful RnB Fridays Live Nov. 10-17 sees three of the five cities upgraded to larger venues. Melbourne scales to the 42,000-capacity Etihad Stadium, Sydney to the 45,000-capacity Spotless Stadium and Adelaide to the Showgrounds, with Brisbane and Perth remaining at outdoor nib Stadium and Brisbane Showgrounds.

Usher returns after seven years to headline a package consisting of Lil’ Jon, Salt –N-Pepa, T-Pain, Trey Songz,  Eve, Naughty By Nature, Ginuwine, Estelle, Next, Fatman Scoop and DJs Horizon and Yo Mafia.

Cardi B makes her first New Zealand appearances at the Bay Dreams festivals, in Tauranga Jan. 2 and Nelson Jan. 4. She joins a host of New Zealand and Australian acts including Shapeshifter, Tash Sultana, Sticky Fingers, Peking Duk, $uicideboy$, Macky Gee, Pnau and Katchafire.  Over 40,000 tickets for both events were snapped up first week, with remaining availability at less than 30 percent.

With sellouts in three cities for Keith Urban’s Graffiti U World Tour Australia Tour, TEG Live added second shows in two of them. These are at Brisbane Entertainment Centre (Feb. 1) and Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne (Feb. 6). Urban now plays nine shows Jan. 23 to Feb. 6, in the country that the New Zealand-born performer grew up in.

Adelaide music venue Fowler’s Live, teamed with South Australian tech company Netgigs to stream its shows globally from Aug. 24.  Managing director Peter Darwin said he took the step as it would allow his acts to earn more money and to spread South Australian music internationally to build on Adelaide’s status as UNESCO city of music. In a similar global initiative, at SXSW this year, Fowler’s Live began discussions with Austin, TX venues for new ways to collaborate.

Police confirmed that a man who died August 10 on a Sydney street apparently after being attacked by a samurai sword, was hip-hop figure Scepaz, who also headed Sub Conscious Records which he co-founded in 2007. Investigations are still continuing but media reports suggest that the 30-year old (born Jett McKee) may have entered a terraced house in the inner-city suburb of Forest Lodge and had an altercation with a man and woman inside. Neighbours saw him run down the street with blood streaming down his face and collapsed on the street. The couple has fled, according to authorities.