The bands come out to play
THE BLACK SORROWS with VIKA & LINDA BULL
COLIN HAY (Men At Work)
DEBORAH CONWAY (Do Re Mi)
MENTAL AS ANYTHING
The annual Apia Good Times Tour returns for its fifth consecutive year with another once-in-a-lifetime line-up of Oz music legends including The Black Sorrows with Vika + Linda Bull, Colin Hay (Men at Work), Mental as Anything and Deborah Conway leading the sing-alongs across the country.
The 2017 Apia Good Times Tour kicks off on Wednesday, 17 May in Darwin before taking in Adelaide, Perth, Bunbury, Melbourne, Bendigo, Geelong, Newcastle, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Tweed Heads, Sydney, Thirroul, Canberra, Launceston and finishing the party in Hobart. Tickets to all shows go on sale at 10.00am local times on Monday, 6 February.
2017’s line-up of legends have a huge array of hits to draw from including Harley & Rose, Chained to the Wheel, Hold on to Me, Down Under, Who Can It Be Now?, Overkill, Nips Are Getting Bigger, Live it Up, Too Many Times, It’s Only The Beginning and Man Overboard, to name a few. Each artist performs a solo set of their hits before joining in an extraordinary finale with all four sharing the stage.
The Black Sorrows are one of Australia’s most enduring touring bands and live up to their reputation as a dynamic live act every time they hit the stage. Their musicianship and energy appeals to music fans everywhere and at their helm, Joe Camilleri steers the band through an interplay of solid grooves mixing blues, soul, R&B and gospel, with flashes of country and Brill Building pop.
The Black Sorrows are in top form after completing over 150 shows in the past 6 months alone to celebrate the release of their critically acclaimed 20th album, Faithful Satellite featuring Fix My Bail and the latest single, Raise Your Hands (with Vika + Linda).
For 30 years the glorious voices of Vika + Linda Bull have comprised one of the most distinctive, versatile and emotionally charged sounds on the Australian music landscape and have been an integral part of The Black Sorrows. Vika + Linda are world class singers in their own right and feature on many of the band’s hits including Never Let Me Go, Chained to the Wheel and Raise Your Hands.
Colin Hay is familiar to millions of music lovers around the world as frontman, songwriter, and vocalist of pop sensation Men at Work. Over the past 15 years, Hay has reinvented himself as a solo artist, regularly selling out rooms around the world and introducing himself to a new generation of fans in the process.
Finding himself in the unprecedented place of having both 80s fame and indie credibility, Colin Hay has created an impressive body of work and in March, 2017, he will release his new album, Fierce Mercy, described as an epic, cinematic step forward exploring the themes of love and loss, but always with the singular perspective and acerbic wit that has defined Hay's work since his days with Men at Work.
Colin Hay takes his audience on a journey, through hilarious stories and songs from his extensive catalogue, sometimes straight down the main road, and sometimes taking the twists and turns of the road less travelled. You’ll laugh, you may shed a tear, but you will most certainly be more than entertained. Colin Hay is returning to Australia exclusively for the Apia Good Times tour and these shows will be the first time Australian audiences get to hear him perform Men at Work classics alongside songs from the new album.
Nearly 40 years of recording and non-stop touring, 25 Top 40 hits in Australia and an induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, and Mental As Anything are still going strong. “The Mentals” started off as students who put a band together to play blues, sixties pop, rockabilly, country and increasingly their own original compositions to fill in time at art school in Sydney in the mid 1970s. Initially playing to students at parties, pubs and Uni dances they caught the attention of new independent label Regular Records who in late 1978 sold out 1300 copies in a fortnight of the three track vinyl "Mental As Anything Plays at Your Party" with one track: The Nips Are Getting Bigger on everyone's radio over Christmas.
Mental As Anything with their two original lead vocalists Martin Plaza and Greedy Smith have been touring since the late 1970s honing the craft of performing their songs live and perfecting the art of just being Mental. And nailing it.
Deborah Conway has been a significant and eloquent contributor to Australian music for over 30 years. Conway’s first band, Do Re Mi, topped the charts and her first solo album achieved platinum sales and earned her an ARIA Award. Conway will be joined onstage by long time collaborator, Willy Zygier, who she started working with in 1991, together they have written, recorded & released 9 albums that have all won appreciative audiences & critical acclaim from reviewers.
Alongside the core business of writing, recording and performing songs Conway and Zygier have pioneered the house concert concept in Australia; produced ‘Broad’, the national concert series of all female singer/songwriters from 2005 – 2008; Conway was the Artistic Director for the Queensland Music Festival 2009 – 2011; and they are running the Shir Madness Melbourne Jewish Music Festival as Festival & Artistic Directors in 2015 and 2017.
In 2016 Conway and Zygier’s 1993, 5/4 anthem “Alive & Brilliant” was inducted into the National Film & Sound Archive and both Leaps & Bounds Festival and Rolling Stone Magazine recently named Conway a Living Legend. Their new album Everybody’s Begging was released last September to rave reviews.
Tickets to the Apia Good Times Tour go on sale to the general public at 10.00am, local times, on Monday, 6 February 2017.
Tour Dates
Wed 17 May – Darwin Entertainment Centre, Darwin NT
Fri 19 May – Adelaide Entertainment Centre – Theatre, Adelaide SA
Sat 20 May – Perth Concert Hall, Perth WA
Sun 21 May – Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre, Bunbury WA
Fri 26 May – Hamer Hall, Melbourne VIC
Sat 27 May – Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo VIC
Sun 28 May – Geelong Performing Arts Centre, Geelong VIC
Wed 31 May – Civic Theatre, Newcastle NSW
Thu 1 Jun – Empire Theatre, Toowoomba QLD
Fri 2 Jun – QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane QLD
Sat 3 Jun – Twin Towns Services Club, Tweed Heads NSW
Fri 9 Jun – Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW
Sat 10 Jun – Anita’s Theatre, Thirroul NSW
Sun 11 Jun – Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra ACT
Fri 16 Jun – Princess Theatre, Launceston TAS
Sat 17 Jun – Wrest Point Entertainment Centre, Hobart TAS
All shows – All Ages
