Perth’s drought of being cut off from international music acts during the pandemic is well and truly over with the announcement that 10 massive hip hop and RNB stars are set to hit the city for a one-night-only gig.
After a two-year hiatus RNB Friday’s are back with a brand new name, Fridayz Live, and will be touring around the country later this year.
Macklemore. Credit: Supplied/Supplied
But even more epic is the news of the event’s bumper line-up, which includes Macklemore, TLC, Akon, Craig David, Ashanti, Shaggy, Jay Sean, Dru Hill, Lumidee, Havana Brown and Resident DJ Yo! Mafia, who are all set to light up HBF Park on Saturday November 5.
Get ready to jump back in time and dance along to party hits from way back in the 90s to now, as everyone’s favorite Gemini Abbie Chatfield teams up with Fatman Scoop to host.
Fridayz Live organizers have promised to “continue our legacy for presenting the sleekest production, insatiable visual candy, and pyro for days”.
So whatever your Flava, don’t be Foolish and be the one left saying It Wasn’t Me when your friends ask why you all missed out on tickets because you forgot to book.
Pre-sale begins on Monday morning, before general public tickets go on sale next Friday, August 12. Tickets will be available from frontiertouring.com/fridayzlive
Adelaide City Council is renaming a laneway after singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, with the music icon saying he is “honoured” by the gesture.
Key points:
Pilgrim Lane in Adelaide’s CBD has been renamed Paul Kelly Lane
The council is renaming a number of lanes after musicians
The next band to be honored in the laneways project will be The Angels
The newly named Paul Kelly Lane runs from Flinders Street to Pirie Street, behind the Adelaide Town Hall.
It features a series of artworks that light up and contain lyrics from various Paul Kelly songs.
Kelly was born and raised in the Adelaide suburb of Norwood and several of his songs reference places in the city.
“I’m honored to be a part of this musical laneway project and I’m glad the lane is so close to the Adelaide Town Hall where I’ve had an association for over 50 years, from playing trumpet at school speech nights, attending concerts and, later on, doing my own shows,” he said.
Adelaide Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor said Paul Kelly Lane — previously called Pilgrim Lane, after a church next to it — would become a destination for his fans.
“Our city has an incredible musical history and Paul Kelly is an icon,” she said.
“We have such great musicians who come from this city and continue to come from this city.”
Pilgrim Lane was renamed in honor of Kelly as part of the City of Music program.(ABC NewsRichard Davies)
South Australian artist Heidi Kenyon created the “love” light boxes along the laneway which quote some of Kelly’s famous songs.
“Really it’s just thinking about different forms of love and I guess love as a theme in song writing,” she said.
“For me, Paul Kelly speaks to love and friendship and kinship.
“I wanted it to be accessible and for people to be able to walk past and piece together some of the lyrics.”
Adelaide has been championing its musical history by naming several laneways after artists with ties to the city.
“The city of Adelaide is committed to celebrating Adelaide’s status as a world UNESCO City of Music,” Ms Verschoor said.
“Paul Kelly is the fourth City of Music laneway to be officially opened.
“We have Sia Furler, Cold Chisel, No Fixed Address [and] now Paul Kelly and the Angels will be joining. And I just said to Paul we will make a laneway for Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter.”
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Paul Kelly sings his classic How to Make Gravy on News Breakfast last year.(abcnews)
The Angels will be the next band to be honoured, with a lane off Gawler Place being renamed in their honour.
A lane in the western part of the CBD was named after Cold Chisel in March as part of the council’s planned City of Music Laneways Trail.
Lindes Lane, off Rundle Mall, was renamed No Fixed Address Lane earlier that month, after the Aboriginal reggae rock band that formed in Adelaide in 1979.
Sia Furler Lane, off Morphett Street, was also renamed in March.
Adelaide’s CBD also has a Don Lane and North Adelaide has a Lois Lane.
It’s a long way from a traditional stage, but the secluded paradise of a north Queensland island has provided the perfect backdrop to a unique musical celebration.
Audience members took a two-hour boat ride from Townsville to attend the intimate concert on Orpheus Island headlined by didgeridoo master William Barton.
“As a person who travels the world, coming back home to our country and our islands is a beautiful thing,” Barton said.
William Barton says nothing beats performing in Australia’s natural environments.(ABC North Qld: Lily Nothling)
The Kalkadunga man from Mount Isa has taken his craft to some of the world’s most prestigious stages but said “nothing beats” performing among Australia’s natural landscapes.
“It’s always special because this is where the language of the land comes from, this is where the songlines flow through you,” he said.
“In Australia, we have these beautiful natural amphitheatres, or outdoor spaces, that reverberate.”
Orpheus Island is a two-hour boat ride from Townsville.(ABC North Qld: Lily Nothling)
The Orpheus Island concert was a major drawcard at this year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music festival and attracted crowds from across the country.
Executive director Ricardo Peach said he hoped the tropical showcase would help introduce the genre of chamber music to a new audience.
“Chamber music, when you hear it and you experience it live with professional musicians, is one of the most magnificent experiences of your life,” Dr Peach said.
Chamber music director Ricardo Peach says the festival is the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.(ABC North Qld: Baz Ruddick)
The Townsville-based festival began in 1991 and is the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, but major performances were put on hold for two years during the pandemic.
“More than 60 per cent of our attendees come from interstate … and more and more internationally as well,” Dr Peach said.
“They support this festival like festival groupies — they kept us alive during the lean years during COVID and now they’re back with force.”
The concert attracted audiences from across the country, including chef and classical music fan Maggie Beer.(ABC North Qld: Lily Nothling)
Among the crowd at Orpheus Island was celebrated Australian chef and classical music fan Maggie Beer, who has long wanted to attend the beachside concert.
“You have to pinch yourself that this could happen. It’s so Australian, isn’t it?” she said.
“It’s nothing short of a joy.”
Mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean traveled from the UK to perform at the festival.(ABC North Qld: Baz Ruddick)
After three canceled trips to Australia due to COVID, mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean was finally able to travel from the UK to sing on the island alongside the musicians.
“I think all of us performers today felt like it was a surreal moment in all of our performance lives,” she said.
“To be able to perform on a beach with bare feet in the sand in this idyllic spot, it’s just gorgeous.
“I think I will really remember this performance for a long time and treasure it because it’s just unlike anything else.”
Crowds enjoyed the sounds of chamber music with the sand between their toes.(ABC North Qld: Lily Nothling)
Monica Lewinsky wants Beyonce to remove a reference to her from one of her old songs.
The former White House intern —who famously had an affair with then-President Bill Clinton, with the scandal leading to his impeachment in 1998 — suggested the singer should change the lyrics to her 2013 hit Partition after the 40-year-old star pledged to remove an ableist slur from her new song Heated.
Tweeting an article from Variety about the change to a new song, Lewinsky wrote: “’uhmm, while we’re at it…. #Partition (sic)“
The song in question features the lyrics: “Now my mascara running, red lipstick smudged/Oh, me so horny, yeah, he want to f**k/He popped all my buttons, and he ripped my blouse/He Monica Lewinsky- ed all on my gown.”
This isn’t the first time Lewinsky has objected to the words of the song.
She said back in 2014: “Thanks, Beyoncé, but if we’re verbing, I think you meant ‘Bill Clinton’d all on my gown’, not ‘Monica Lewinsky’d.”
The former intern’s comments came after Beyonce pledged to change the lyrics to Heated, which was co-written with Drake and features the line: “Spazzing on that a**, spaz on that a**.”
The lyric was branded “offensive” and “ableist” for its use of the word spaz, a derogatory term for spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy.
“The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced,” Beyonce’s rep said.
UK disability charity Sense initially said it was “disappointing” Beyonce was “using an offensive term” in her son and called for “more education to improve awareness of disability”.
They have praised her for agreeing to change the lyric.
From the top of Arnhem Land, where musicians take inspiration from his timeless words, to the streets of Melbourne’s Fitzroy, where fans leave floral tributes on the steps of Charcoal Lane, there seems no place in the country that has not been touched by Archie Roach .
His sons, Amos and Eban, said Archie died surrounded by his family and loved ones at Warrnambool Base Hospital in Victoria.
Archie’s family has given permission for his name, image and music to be used.
However, the love felt for Archie extends far beyond that hospital ward, far beyond state lines and color lines to every corner of the land we call Australia.
Archie leaves behind a legacy of tireless work towards reconciliation and a new generation inspired to carry on his message of healing into the future.
As Australia comes to terms with the loss of one of it’s greatest storytellers, those who were touched by Archie are opening up on what he meant to them.
Tributes were laid outside the Charcoal Lane Aboriginal social enterprise in Melbourne, which shares its name with the singer’s first album.(ABC News: Barrie Pullen)
‘He kept struggling, he kept fighting, he kept believing’
Goanna frontman Shane Howard, a longtime friend of both Archie and his wife, Ruby Hunter, was emotional at the death of a man he considered a brother.
It’s very raw. It’s very real. It’s a lot to lose, but I think Ruby might be calling him home,” Howard said.
The pair toured Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland together with the Black Arm Band and saw each other just days before Archie’s death.
Archie Roach and Shane Howard toured the world together as part of the Black Arm Band musical theater group.(Facebook: Shane Howard—Goanna)
Remembering his friend as a “deeply cultural being”, Howard says Australians mourning Archie’s passing should continue the reconciliatory work the Gunditjmara (Kirrae Whurrong/Djab Wurrung) singer strove towards for much of his life.
“His ability to keep forgiveness at the front — after all that had happened to him and all that has happened to First Nations people here in this country — his capacity to keep believing that we could reconcile this nation, that we could become a just and fair nation,” he said.
It comes as discussion swirls around the enshrining of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in the Constitution, an issue Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pledged to settle as soon as possible.
“Archie’s passing reminds us that we must redouble efforts, and the greatest way we can honor him is to honor those things,” Howard said.
“There is still so much wrong and Archie knew that, but he kept struggling, he kept fighting, he kept believing.”
‘He took the words we could not speak’
Beyond his legacy as one of Australia’s most-acclaimed songwriters, Archie’s passing carries a special meaning for the Stolen Generations.
Born in Mooroopna, in Victoria, Archie was just three years old when he was forcibly removed from his family.
Yorta Yorta man and Stolen Generations survivor Ian Hamm said he was shaken after hearing the news of Archie’s death.
“When I heard, it was just like a gray shadow fell across me,” Mr Hamm said.
“Archie was a special person in his ability to convey stories and songs and bring to life what it means to be just an ordinary Aboriginal person.”
For Mr Hamm, Archie’s music provided an outlet for unspeakable pain and a way to make sense of his own traumatic experiences.
“He took the words that we could not speak and he turned them into song so that our voices could be heard,” he said.
“When we were unable to articulate what it meant at a really human level, the song ‘They Took The Children Away’, it just said it all for us.”
Mr Hamm said Archie’s strength and courage in sharing his own story was crucial in establishing initiatives such as the Stolen Generations Redress scheme.
“I don’t think we’ll see his like again and I can only hope that we will never forget that we were lucky enough to be graced by his presence,” he said.
Daniel James says he had the deep privilege of interviewing Archie Roach on numerous occasions.(ABC News: Simon Winter)
Writer and broadcaster Daniel James interviewed Archie numerous times and described the singer as a “powerful but humble presence.”
“He was someone [who] wasn’t a voice of his generation, he was a voice for generations,” James said.
James said Archie was integral in starting a conversation around truth-telling in Australia.
“This sounds counterintuitive, but there was nothing performative about his music,” he said.
“He was someone [who] was singing into a void before there was an audience ready to hear what he had to say.
“And then, eventually, that void was filled with an audience and then, eventually, that audience was filled with love. Love for him, love for his music.”
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‘We want to do it the same way our Uncle Archie did’
For Aboriginal musicians such as Victor Rostron, Archie’s storytelling served as an inspiration.
“We’re here in Garma because we’ve seen our elders telling stories, singing songs, from their hearts,” he said.
“His music tells us a story from his heart.”
Based in Maningrida in north-east Arnhem Land, Rostron plays in the Indigenous rock band Wildfire Munwurrk and wants to emulate the strength of Archie’s music.
“He was our mentor, and we want to do it the same way our Uncle Archie did, really strong and powerful,” he said.
Victor Rostron says Archie is an inspiration to Indigenous musicians from all around the country.(ABC News: Gary-Jon Lysaght)
Rostron said Archie’s breakout song, ‘Took the Children Away’, brought with it an important message not just for people in Australia, but also for those around the world.
“Me and my boys, we’re going to miss him,” he said.
“His music really means something, and we don’t want his music stopped, we want his music to be a memory for him and stay there forever.”
‘A song can be a medicine to heal’
For opera singer Deborah Cheetham, the loss of Archie represents the loss of a pillar of the Australian community.
“Today our world has changed forever. Our work becomes so much more difficult because Uncle Archie was holding up so much of our nation’s spirit,” Cheetham said.
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Opera singer Deborah Cheetham says Archie Roach united people through song.
Cheetham said Archie’s deep connection to music allowed his message to break through racial barriers and unite the country.
“His understanding, deep within his DNA, that a song is so much more than just a song,” she said.
“A song can be a medicine to heal the many wounds that have been inflicted on not only Indigenous people in this country but [also] on every Australian.
“It’s often said that we stand on the shoulders of giants,” Cheetham said.
“The whole of Australia can say that it stood on the shoulder of a giant in Uncle Archie.”
Taylor Swift has responded to critics after she topped a list of celebrities who have taken the most private flights.
The ‘Shake It Off’ hitmaker has been accused of damaging the environment after her jet flew 170 times between January 1 and July 19 2022.
The research gathered by Yard revealed that Taylor, 32, spent more than 22,000 minutes in the air – the equivalent of 16 days – but a representative for the star claimed she is not solely responsible for the emissions.
They told Rolling Stone: “Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals. To attribute most or all of these trips to her from her is blatantly incorrect. ”
The research alleges that other celebrities are guilty of damaging the planet, including the former boxer Floyd Mayweather, legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg and talk show legend Oprah Winfrey.
Meanwhile, Taylor confessed that she went through a “very hard time” during her public feud with music mogul Scooter Braun.
The pop star was involved in a public row with Braun after he purchased her back catalog in a big-money deal and allegedly placed restrictions on her performing her hits live.
Taylor lifted the lid on the troubled time during a talk at a New York screening of her new film ‘All Too Well: The Short Film’ and said of the feud: “It was a very hard time for me. A lot of my hardest moments and moments of extreme grief or loss were galvanized into what my life looks like now.”
Swift directed the project – which stars Dylan O’Brien and Sadie Sink – and claims that it marked a new chapter in her career.
She told the audience: “(This is) me stepping out of what I usually do, which is writing songs and singing them … It was a vulnerable moment where you’re sort of on the precipice of finding something new and you’ re just really hoping you do everything perfectly. It is also important to remind yourself that you shouldn’t do everything perfectly because you need to learn and grow.”
