touring

Third Kylie Show Announced For Melbourne

10:27AM Clem Bastow | Evidently Kylie’s fans in hometown Melbourne just can’t get enough – or rather, are assuming they just won’t be able to get enough – of her X2008 tour, and so Frontier Touring and Mushroom have announced a third helping of the singing budgie for the M-Town leg of her December tour (Sydney and Auckland lag with two shows each). From the presser that was just sent out: After selling out her first Melbourne show in just minutes, it didn’t take long for Kylie’s second concert in Melbourne to follow suit. With demand for tickets still high promoter Michael Gudinski was on the phone to Kylie’s management in the hope of securing a third show for Melbourne. It’s with great delight that The Frontier Touring Company confirm that a third concert has now been announced for Melbourne on Monday 22 December at Rod Laver Arena with tickets going on sale on Friday 12 September at 9am. So there you have it, hot-pants fans – ready your dialing fingers and rapid-credit-card-number-recall skills come Friday morning! More »

Kylie Tour Tix: Blink And You’ll Miss Them!

10:25AM Clem Bastow | Did you get ten kinds of excited when Kylie Minogue’s Australian tour was announced last week? Did you spend days practising your dialing reflexes? Did you commit your credit card number to memory and then rehearse spitting it out in double-speed? Did you do one-handed push-ups to the tune of Better The Devil You Know, just because? You’d better hope you had (except maybe the musical push-ups), since tickets for Kylie’s December tour were gobbled up at ludicrous speed when they went on sale yesterday: Fans have snapped up tickets to Kylie Minogue’s Australian concerts with lightning speed, both shows selling out in just two minutes. More »

Ready Your Bedazzler, Kylie’s ‘X2008′ Tour Announced For December

10:09AM Clem Bastow | Our illustrious Editor’s heart – or even two of them, as it were – will be beating together when she reads this news (presently she is resting after making last night’s I’d Rather Jack Radiothon show possibly the best two hours of radio I have ever heard – but more on that from the woman herself later!): Kylie has announced an Australian tour! Quick, to the official-press-release-mobile! More »

Blackpool Councillor Overturns Stones Ban, Makes Dad Joke Heard Around The World

9:00AM Clem Bastow | Given that they are, in most people’s eyes at least, the bastion of granddad rock these days, it’s worth remembering that there was a time long ago in a galaxy far, far away when The Rolling Stones were public enemy #1. One of those places was in Blackpool, where the Stones were banned from playing in 1964 following rioting at a gig they played there – and the ban remained in place until yesterday (though we don’t really imagine there were too many times when Mick and Keef and co tossed up touring options and said, “You know, boys, as much as I love Wembley and all, what I really want is to play Pleasure Beach in Blackpool… oh yeah, we can’t,” before they all drowned their sorrows in a round of quadruple whiskeys). But what struck us was the way in which one of Blackpool’s councillors was clearly so excited to make the Stones joke he’d been sitting on for the past fifteen years or so that he just had to slip it into his official statement. See if you can spot it: “They are icons and I for one would certainly welcome them back,” council leader Peter Callow told The Gazette newspaper in Blackpool. “It would certainly give me some satisfaction if they did play here.” Oh Peeeeterrrr! We’re surprised he didn’t go on to say that he was close to his 19TH NERVOUS BREAKDOWN after telling the people of Blackpool that YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT for the millionth time before he realised it was time to START ME UP and let his people RIP THIS JOINT. Peter Callow, DON’T STOP, you make us so HAPPY when you get your ROCKS OFF! Here endeth the punning section of today’s Defamer Australia edition. We now return you to your usual coverage. More »

Shannon Noll Meets His Destiny At Viper Room (I.e. To Play Gig, Not Die In Pool Of Vomit On Sidewalk)

10:30AM Clem Bastow | Just when you thought Telstra commercials and featuring heavily (arf!) on The Biggest Loser was about as massive as Shannon Noll’s career was going to get, turns out the little bugger has booked himself a couple of cheeky gigs at LA’s infamous Viper Room! No word on whether or not he plans to ‘method act’ his way through the gig and speedball while chugging neat bourbon, but one thing there’s certainly no doubt about is that Shazza is just a little bit excited. “So much has happened at a place like that, just walking in it hits you like a tonne of bricks,” Noll told AAP from Los Angeles. “It’s going to be a real thrill to get my 45 minutes, or whatever it may be, on stage.” Noll is even thinking of writing a song about the experience. “There’s something in that to write about for sure – being a shearer or being a tractor driver and then doing a gig at The Viper Room, I don’t think that would happen too often.” Cute! We’re actually rather taken with his unabashed enthusiasm, particularly when you think about most of the jaded old-timers and hard-nosed rockers that pass through its stage doors. We’re willing to place bets on Shannon being so excited he asks a passing drug lord to take a picture of him standing in front of the venue giving a double thumbs up. More »

Just How Much Does Kylie Love Her Gays?

9:22AM Clem Bastow | Enough to consider a return to the Mardi Gras stage in 2008, if the latest rumours are to be believed. Our Kyles appeared at Australia’s biggest gay and lesbian PAARRRTAAAYYY in 1994 and 1998 but has not been back since. Despite canning a touted 2008 world tour (as she didn’t feel well enough yet), it’s a one-off gig she’d likely seriously consider, if she knows what’s good for her, since the pink dollar has kept her career afloat even BGHP (Before Gold Hot Pants). The princess of pop looks set to have the queens of Sydney spinning around at the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras next year, if Kylie Minogue’s enthusiastic interview with DNA magazine is any indication. Rumours have been circulating the divine Miss M would headline the 30th anniversary of the annual event and the singer has now confirmed her interest, telling the mag she would “absolutely love” to perform at the parade. It goes without saying that we’d love to see this happen. In fact, we’d love to see Kylie spend more time in Australia full-stop. Surely it’s time for her to quit that maddening mid-Atlantic accent and return to her Charlene roots? Especially since it looks as though Libby won’t make it through the Neighbours cliffhanger. More »

Spice Girls Tickets Selling Like Coldcakes

3:55PM Clem Bastow | The Spice Girls tour that initially seemed like the most exciting thing EVER OMG has started slowing down somewhat, with ticket sales waning and critical reception cooling. Now, with Emma Bunton hobbling around with a busted foot, it seems that booking seventeen gigs in London may have been a little too optimistic on the part of the promoters as the arenas’ seating stands become speckled with gaps. It seems Girl Power is on the wane as the group’s second performance, on Sunday, was reported to be less than full and Monday’s had plenty of seats available. Saturday’s show at the O2, the Spice Girls’ first performance together in the UK for eight years, was boasted to have sold all 23,000 tickets in 38 seconds. The girls, included Mel B who was spotted at Cipriani with husband Stephen Belafonte on Sunday night, then added 16 more dates because of the overwhelming enthusiasm. But the initial rush on tickets was not all it seemed as the internet touts, who bought thousands, started selling them for less than a third of their face value. And audience members at the venue on Sunday said it was noticeably empty, with one saying there were “a couple of hundred” spare seats. On Monday, seats were available on the O2 website. Look, this really only says one thing to us: it bodes well for a secret gig at Melbourne’s Tote Hotel when they eventually arrive in Australia! Only 350 tickets available, send us your money now! More »

Things Looking Even Better For Spice Girls’ Tour As Baby Spice Busts Her Foot

11:11AM Clem Bastow | The whole Spice Girls reunion tour thing is really starting to take on a smell of death; first Fay Weldon laid into them (with good reason), then the arenas started emptying out, and now this: Emma “Baby Spice” Bunton has buggered things up by tripping and hurting her foot. They are claiming that the show will go on, but they have already cancelled one pre-record and now fans are feeling uneasy, what with SEVENTEEN shows coming up in the UK. Good one, Emma. You should think long and hard about how this is going to affect everyone else, and when you’ve had a think about it, then you can have some pudding. Baby Spice took a tumble on stage, spraining her ankle, at the girls’ Las Vegas show during the last of their U.S. dates earlier this week. Her injury was unknown to fans until she was photographed hobbling on crutches on Wednesday night at the unveiling of a Virgin Atlantic plane named ‘Spice One’ in their honour, at Los Angeles International Airport. Despite her vow to be on stage at their first London gig, the group have cancelled their pre-recorded performance on Strictly Come Dancing on the Sunday semi-final show. The band were expected to sing their hit 2 Become 1 in the taping tomorrow, but have decided to let Emma rest her ankle. As the article goes on to note, it’s not the first time she’s busted her foot; she “fell off” her trademark stupidly-tall platforms back in the Spicies’ heyday, prompting moral guardians everywhere to tut tut about the choice of footwear. The rest of us just knew that the “shoes” were hopelessly ugly and thus saved ourselves the bother. Maybe, since being unsteady on her feet seems to have become a trademark, it’s time for Emma to start considering a nice, comfy pair of flat Homy Peds? We’re sure Roberto Cavalli could tizz them up with a few rhinestones. More »

Two Tickets Become One As Spice Girls’ Tour Dates Empty Out

11:05AM Clem Bastow | Well, it couldn’t have been all wine and roses (or whatever the bloody saying is) for the Spice “Girls” on their reunion world tour. They’ve enjoyed a number of high-profile television gigs, a fairly warm critical response, and good ticket sales – until now, that is. They recently played the second of two dates in Las Vegas and the auditorium was about as “full” as North Geelong Basketball Stadium was when we went to see Spice Force: The Australian Spice Girls Experience in 1997. Promoters boasted of a sell-out tour, but it appears a number ticket holders had second thoughts about seeing the Spice Girls perform in concert last night. Almost half of the seats in the Mandalay Arena auditorium were empty as the group took to the stage for their second show in Las Vegas. …It’s not the first disappointment the Spice Girls have encountered since their reunion. Their charity comeback single Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) is the worst selling Children in Need song ever after it scraped into the UK midweek charts at No.10. It’s funny, isn’t it – if you were a struggling young indie band, it’s safe to say you’d pretty much lose your shit if your single “scraped in” at #10. But this obviously means the death knell for the Spicy reunion. We gather that these “friends forever” will be gagging to never see each other ever again come the final dates of this tour. More »