Thunder From Down Under: Ed Sheeran, SIX60, More

Ed Sheeran
Zakary Walters / https://www.zakary-walters.com – Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran Lets Slip Of 2023 Tour

Ed Sheeran has told Australian fans he will return to Australia to tour in 2023. During an appearance on radio network Nova’s Red Room he revealed, “I will announce it in the New Year, I reckon” adding, “All the dates are booked.”
The shows, through his late father figure Michael Gudinski’s Frontier Touring, will include “a really special venue that I’ve never played at in Melbourne.”
This would be the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). In early September a number of projections were cast across Melbourne venues featuring the symbolic butterfly art cover of the song “Visiting Hours,” which he wrote for Gudinski and with the message “MG Forever #1”.
The projections were on Festival Hall, Rod Laver Arena, AAMI Park and Marvel Stadium. He’d played these on past tours. The inclusion of the MCG provided the clue it would be where he’d perform on his next visit.
SIX60 Extends Record Breaking ‘Saturdays’ Stadium Run
New Zealand rock band SIX60, which earlier this year’s topped Pollstar’s Global Tour ranking when its six-date Six60 Saturday run shifted 175,000 tickets, has an encore run next year.
Six60 Saturdays 2022 is the first ever all-stadium run in New Zealand with six shows. “It not only sets the bar for ourselves, but we see it as a challenge to international acts too,” the band said. “There’s so much more to a New Zealand tour than just playing one or two cities.”
The tour, through Eccles Entertainment, starts at the 26,000-capacity Rotorua International Stadium (March 5), then Dunedin’s 30,000-seat Forsyth Barr Stadium (March 12), the 18,000-seat Orange Theory Stadium in Christchurch (March 19), Wellington’s 34,500-capacity Sky Stadium (March 26), and the first ever concert at Napier’s 22,000-capacity McLean Park (April 2).
The run wraps at the 50,000–capacity Eden Park in Auckland (April 9). It’s their second show there in 2021: SIX60 were the first band to headline there with a sell out in April.  
The band is currently playing the US and Europe. At home SIX60 (3) was certified 5 x platinum and spent over 80 weeks as the #1 NZ album while latest single “Pepeha” debuted at #1.


Music Biz Welcomes 22 Recommendations But Opportunities Missed
The House of Representatives’ communications and the arts committee outlined 22 recommendations on how the federal government could reboot the creative sector after COVID and the bushfires of 2019 and 2020.
The committee was set up last year by federal arts minister Paul Fletcher.
It suggested a national cultural plan to assess medium and long term needs, but acknowledge the sector’s social and wellbeing importance as well as its economic benefits of A$112 billion (US$84.1 billion) of gross domestic product in 2016/7.
Ideas included a live events app, additional funds for music charity Support Act, closer government and tourism ties with the music industry, more free instruments and facilities in schools, and increased funding to the Australian Bureau of Statistics to provide more breakdowns of type of employment, trends and revenue across the creative and cultural industries.
However, there were missed opportunities. The committee suggested tax offsets for the gaming industry but not for live and recording music, which the biz had long called for. 
The report advocated that streaming services use 20% of their revenue to make Australian drama and children’s content. But not a quota for Australian music by streaming services, which the industry has lobbied for.
Music rights group APRA AMCOS was disappointed with the suggestion the Productivity Commission inquire into laws governing funding of art activities, and consider barriers and opportunities for arts programs at different levels of government.
Its chief executive Dean Ormston stated: “The Productivity Commission has a long track record of advising government with recommendations that misunderstand the creative economy, pursuing an agenda that undermines the rights of creators and the value of their intellectual property.”