Australia: Frontier Touring Names Tour Director, TEG Acquires TicketWorld, More Acts For Download & Rolling Loud

Frontier Touring promoted Sahara Herald to tour director. She replaces Michael Harrison who, as reported in Pollstar, relocates to Los Angeles from Sydney as senior vice president at AEG’s new AEG Global Touring division.

Herald joined Frontier after 18 years with Big Day Out. She was its national event coordinator, working with its international and major Australian acts. In her new role, she joins fellow tour director Gerard Schlaghecke and managing director Michael Gudinski in securing tours.

Gudinski said, “Sahara has proven time and again her true passion for live music and hard work. Since joining Frontier, she has played a key role in the success of a number of our tours and I’m incredibly excited to see her take this next step with the company as we continue to grow and diversify.”

More appointments are expected, according to Gudinski. “Michael Harrison has been a core part of the Frontier team for almost two decades,” he said.  “It’s never easy to see a great staff member leave but I’m happy it’s to our good friends at AEG Presents. With his recently announced departure and Frontier’s rapid expansion in recent years, this has been a good time for us to review our situation and I’m pleased to say we will have some further exciting announcements about additions to the Frontier team soon.”

Sydney-based Asia Pacific ticketing, live entertainment and data analytics firm TEG acquired the Philippines’ TicketWorld. Founded in 1995 CEO Bob Sewell, TicketWorld services a wide range of events – including the last tours by Guns N’ Roses and Katy Perry, productions as The Lion King, Mamma Mia, Les Misérables and Wicked, and venues as Solaire Resort and Casino, Resorts World Manila, BGC Arts Center and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

TEG, which owns Ticketek Australia and New Zealand, has affiliated ticketing operations in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macau. CEO Geoff Jones said, “We see great opportunities in many Asian markets and our strategy puts us on course to becoming a truly pan-Asian promoter.” TicketWorld will access TEG’s ticketing technology, data-driven marketing expertise and e-commerce experience. Sewell noted, “The opportunity to grow the market in the Philippines by delivering more entertainment choices will be well received in the Philippines.”

Childish Gambino’s toe injury postponed U.S. and Australian dates, but he made it to New Zealand for the second staging of his three-night Pharos festival Nov. 23-25. The event premiered in 2016 at Joshua Tree National Park in California. The second version was at Tapapakanga Regional Park, south of Auckland. Before the festival, Gambino met with First Nation elders, sporting a feather cloak and performed a Maori hymn to nature.

Attendees were asked to wear green or their “frequency color.” Despite first night complaints about sound issues, no drinks and long queues into the plastic dome due to staggered entry, the result created by lasers and virtual reality was worth it. One attendee wrote, “It was pretty spectacular. The inside of the dome had some kind of projector system, and it showed heaps of natural things like coral – but then the coral moved into these crazy dancing humans – and then there was fires, rivers, caves. It was like being in (Glover’s) brain or his art space. I’ve never ever seen anything like it. He just danced and sang the whole time. It didn’t look like he ran out of energy.”

Norah Jones returns to Australia after six years for Frontier Touring with three theatre dates (April 12—17) before an April 19 Bluesfest Byron Bay appearance. She also does her first shows in 14 years in New Zealand, with five theatres  April 23— 29.

Between his Bluesfest set April 20, Nashville-based Australian guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel plays six theatres through Jeff Lewis & Rob Potts Entertainment Edge April 12—21, the last at the Sydney Opera House.

Kacey Musgraves who played a one-off Sydney club dates in 2015, returns for Rob Potts Entertainment Edge and Chugg Entertainment for four theatre dates May 10—17.

Grammy-winning South African singer, the “voice of Lion King, Lebo M returns on a solo tour, with two theatre shows mid-March through Michael Cassel Group.

Secret Sounds have LA-based trio Lany for five theatre stops July 1-21.

Three major NSW festivals had wins at the Australian Event Awards Nov. 21 on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Bluesfest Byron Bay won best cultural, arts or music event, while Vivid Sydney, which drew about 2 million attendees, trumped best tourism event and Splendour in the Grass 2017 and took best regional event. 

Bluesfest was also  officially inducted into the NSW Tourism hall of fame after taking out best major festival & event for three consecutive years.  Bluesfest director Peter Noble said, “To be recognised for our achievements at both state and national level is something we’re absolutely thrilled about.”

A New South Wales (NSW) legislative council committee inquiry into the state’s music and arts economy has declared a “music venue” crisis and made 60 recommendations to fix the problem. 

The live sector, which was consulted, was particularly impressed with the call to increase investment in the live sector to A$35 million ($25.5 million) over four years and to cut red tape for small to medium sized venues.

It suggests more funding for associations as music export body Sounds Australia to increase international opportunities for NSW-based acts,  the Live Music Office to advocate regulatory reform and the state’s peak music association MusicNSW. The government’s arts ministry, Create NSW, is advised to set up a new post of minister of music, and a full time liaison officer with the contemporary music industry.

Also mooted were a Music Industry Office, a live music venue census every two years, more all-ages gigs, a marketing campaign to encourage live music event attendances, proper payment for musician and venue staff, a nighttime economy masterplan, and utilizing unused government buildings for rehearsal space. The entire report is here.

Millie Millgate, executive producer at Sounds Australia, told Pollstar, she was “thrilled” at “the depth and breadth of the findings” adding, ”Once implemented, the proposed support by the Committee for live music, infrastructure, funding programs and music education will be a game-changer for contemporary music artists and  businesses, living and working in NSW.” 

Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) chair Michael Rodrigues welcomed the suggestion to amend liquor legislation to remove “outdated” conditions for liquor licenses. But he was disappointed that controversial lockout laws would not be rolled back. “Approximately 176 night time entertainment venues have closed since the lockout laws were introduced (in 2014), with hundreds more under pressure,” he said.

Live Nation: has Red Hot Chili Peppers back for their first headline tour in 12 years (they headlined Big Day Out 2013) for five arenas and two A Day On The Green winery dates February 17 to March 5.

Frontier Touring confirms Bryan Adams at two arenas, one theatre and two wineries March 21-24.

Ireland’s Hozier, already announced for Bluesfest, do three theatre dates in Sydney and Melbourne for Chugg Entertainment April 22-25.

Chugg Entertainment also has rising UK soul pop singer songwriter Mahalia, here for Falls Festival and Field Day, for club dates in Sydney and Melbourne early January.

Minnesota five-piece Hippo Campus, making their Australian debut at Adelaide Festival in March, do three headlining club shows for Handsome Tours.

Auckland’s steering committee has unveiled a strategy at aucklandcityofmusic.nz/strategy/ on moving forward with its new status as an UNESCO City of Music  The music  industry city council and businesses will work together. 

“There will be increased spending on the production of live music, tickets to see live music and music tourism, as well as an increase in the creation of recorded music, publishing and music management in Auckland. This flourishing economy will also help to attract businesses and people to the city.”

Auckland will actively brand itself as a City of Music (research reveals seven in 10 Aucklanders have attended a music event in the last three years) and actively work at shoring up grassroots venues, collaborate with Creative Cities Network and specifically take tips from music cities as Austin TX and Adelaide in South Australia.

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The second Download Australia – returning to Melbourne and debuting in in Sydney March 2019 – added exclusive appearances by Sum 41 and Pennywise. The Live Nation, UNIFIED & Secret Sounds event already has exclusives from Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, The Amity Affliction, Halestorm and Rise Against.

The Australian debut of U.S.-based hip-hop festival Rolling Loud at Sydney Showground Jan. 27 included in its first artist announcement Future, Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti, Tyga, Smokepurpp and Manu Crook$.

Australia’s Ticketek ticketing agency is introducing Ticketek Marketplace end of November. It will cap ticket exchanges ay 10% face value.  Part of integrated live company TEG, Ticketek Australia managing director Cameron Hoy called the new service “a consumer-led, price-capped and ethical ticket exchange service for fans with a genuine need to buy or sell on the secondary market.”