Australia News: World Tour To Melbourne, Sounds Australia & Sia

World Tour – the new global concert series produced by Apollo World Touring with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith’s production company Westbrook – will launch in Melbourne.

In association with Australia’s TEG Dainty and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, it stages March 14 at Lakeside Stadium on the opening weekend of the 25th Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix. 

Robbie Williams is confirmed to headline, his sole Australian date this year, with more bands and DJs to be unveiled.

As part of the concept of it being an all-year experience and with the UK’s John Giddings is World Tour’s global lead promoter, the series heads to Montreal, Berlin, Milan, Seoul, Taipei, Osaka and Miami through 2020.

In 2019 the Grand Prix set an attendance record of 324,100. 

Apollo World Touring chairman and co-founder Paul Morrison stated the event’s 25th anniversary celebrations “makes the occasion ever more special. World Tour will feed global audiences hungry for great content – bringing the best in entertainment to provide a unique platform which will celebrate the best that Melbourne and all future World Tour cities has to offer.”

Music export body Sounds Australia expanded its team with Leah Flanagan as First Nations export producer and Larry Heath as associate producer.

Flanagan, manager of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Music Office, will ensure Sounds Australia’s export strategy follows cultural protocols in promoting Indigenous artists abroad. 

She will attend key international showcase conference events such as SXSW, The Great Escape Festival, Folk Alliance International, WOMEX and Mundial, and work to establish a First Nations international bursary program.

Heath established the National Live Music Awards in 2016. His music/arts publication and website The AU Review worked with Sounds Australia from 2011 to 2013 to hold the Jet Lag Sessions at CMJ to provide Aussie acts late night showcases on New York’s Lower East Side.

Sia, performer and songwriter to the stars, is getting a laneway named after her in her birthplace Adelaide. Sia Furler Lane will be in the Hindley Street entertainment precinct, near where she played in the mid-90s with her acid jazz band Crisp at the Cargo Club.

Three other acts also get laneways. Rock band Cold Chisel’s will also be in Hindley Street, near the former Mediterranean Hotel where the had a residency in the early ‘70s. Singer songwriter Paul Kelly’s is behind the Adelaide Town Hall where he played frequently. The site for rock band The Angels is not decided yet. 

Guitarists John and Rick Brewster’s legacy with the city extends to a grandfather who founded the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra 1936 and a conductor father who led a 40-piece orchestra. Mayor Sandy Verschoor said, “The City of Adelaide is committed to celebrating Adelaide’s status as a world UNESCO City of Music (recognized 2015), promoting our renowned musical heritage and thriving music industry.”