Australia: Sheppard, AC/DC, Blue Murder

In the wake of its Watching The Sky album debuting at No. 1 in its home country, Aussie band Sheppard announced its biggest tour yet. 

Amy Sheppard said, “We tried to take in as many places as possible, not just the usual capital cities, but rural towns and outer suburbs that usually get overlooked by touring bands.” 

The 28 dates, Aug. 10 to Oct. 20, begin at a rodeo in the red-mud mining town of Mt Isa and end at the after-concert of the V8 Supercars on the Gold Coast.  The band, under veteran manager/promoter Michael Chugg, has toured the United States and Europe numerous times.

In the meantime, AC/DC classics are set for a total reinterpretation, with the 30-piece Australian Symphony Orchestra teaming with members of Australian hard rock bands as AC/DC, Rose Tattoo and The Angels (along with a ringer from Britain’s Judas Priest). 

“Let There Be Rock – Orchestrated” plays four theatres November 30 to December 7 before heading to Los Angeles. It is at Belasco Theatre Jan. 19 with the LA Symphony and members of Guns N’ Roses, Whitesnake and Cheap Trick.

Sir Paul McCartney, singer-songwriter Gotye and the left of centre Mona Foma took out wins at the annual live performance Helpmann awards in Sydney July 16.

McCartney won best international contemporary concert for his “One On One” dates, co-promoted by Frontier Touring, MPL and Marshall Arts. Frontier’s Michael Gudinski told the audience he had pursued a McCartney tour for 20 years and “he delivered night after night.”

Mona Foma claimed best contemporary music festival for a second consecutive year, while Gotye’s tribute to French electronic pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey  saw him trump Midnight Oil, Gang of Youths and Armand van Helden for best Australian contemporary concert. This year organiser Live Performance Australia divided the awards ceremony into two nights. The first 20 of the 43 awards, covering artisans and those in supporting roles, were acknowledged at a cocktail event at the Sydney Town Hall on Sunday July 15. The major categories were covered Monday July 16 the Capitol Theatre, which was live broadcast on the national government-run ABC network.

Over the last two years, Stephen Wade’s Select Touring and Chris Moses’ Blue Murder Touring collaborated on visits by Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Good Charlotte, The Pogues, Thievery Corporation, NOFX, Missy Elliott, The Darkness, Ice Cube and Public Enemy.

Wade and Moses now set up SBM Presents. “We have been looking to take further steps into the touring marketplace and in Chris and Blue Murder we found someone who thinks the same way we do and brings a huge amount of experience to our team,” Wade .said. “It made perfect sense to join forces.” Upcoming tours for SBM Presents include Kesha, Bill Murray, Jan Vogler and Friends, An Acoustic Evening With Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness, and Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls.

Live Nation has Twenty One Pilots on their fifth visit Down Under. The schedule has them at Perth Arena (Dec. 7), Adelaide Entertainment Centre (Dec. 10), Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne (Dec. 13), Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney (Dec. 16), and Brisbane Entertainment Centre (Dec. 18).

Chugg Entertainment has Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson on a spoken word visit behind his best selling autobiography, What Does This Button Do? The shows include slides,  excerpts of the book and a Q&A session. The singer will be at Enmore Theatre, Sydney (October 18), Palais Theatre, Melbourne (October 19), Llewellyn Hall, Canberra (October 21), Civic Theatre, Newcastle  (October 23) and Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane  (October 24).

Two cases have arisen over alleged trademark infringement.

Melbourne’s live music venue, The Corner Hotel, a regular fixture in the Pollstar ticket sales quarterly charts, is taking McDonald’s to court over its use of the name Café Corner. 

It began testing the café menu in Camperdown, Sydney, in December 2014 with plans to roll it out nationally. The music venue’s owners Swancom say they trademarked the Corner name. The case goes to court September, with Swancom asking for damages and a name change.

Meanwhile, a year-old Australian funk fusion band called Ruby Tuesdays was sent a cease-and-desist letter from U.S. restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday. The chain, which does not have a presence in Australia, wants a name change and profits from use of the name. The band’s Shaun Snider says they just have A$1,000 ($439) in the bank and “we very much doubt that someone’s going to come to one of our gigs and mistakenly order a burger.” But if they do have a name change on standby: The Mintz Levin Infringement, after the California-based law firm that sent the letter.