What’s On In Newcastle? Queens Of The Stone Age, Down To Nothing & Ash Grunwald
Thursday 6th March
Down To Nothing @ The Small Ballroom
Seven years after their first visit to Australia, 2014 will finally see Down To Nothing return to our shores in support of their monster new album “Life On The James” released on the legendary Revelation Records. While commitments to other bands have seen Down To Nothing less active in recent years, their live show has remained a must see event and with a new album full of classic hardcore tunes, the Richmond natives are back to full strength once more and ready to let loose across Australia. With a back catalogue spanning four full lengths and numerous EP’s, Down To Nothing has always looked for fun in their blend of heavy old school straight edge hardcore, their live show no different, stage dives and singalongs aplenty. Australian audiences finally have the chance to join in on the fun once more as Down To Nothing hit the country for a limited run of shows this March.
As close to a super group as it’s possible to be in hardcore, Piece By Piece are a rolling ball of fury. Featuring members of Terror, Internal Affairs, Carry On and more, Piece By Piece are an irreverent blend of all their previous bands while bringing something new to the table entirely. Their new 7” Primitive As Fuck, released through Dogfight Records, is an injection of attitude in a genre that frequently repeats old sentiment. Piece By Piece speak their mind and aren’t for the faint hearted and are sure to entertain this March as they make their first trip down under to share the stage with their friends in Down To Nothing.
Relentless have spent the last 12 months taking on the world. Having played at major festivals and touring in the US and traversing Europe with the likes of Deez Nuts and Stray For The Path, Relentless will return to the US this March to tour with Ringworm and Death Before Dishonour, but before they go, they will hit the road again to demonstrate why they are one of the most loved and tightest bands in the country.
Doors: 7:00PM
Tickets: Kingdom Sounds
Simply The Best - A Tina Turner Tribute @ Lizottes
Be prepared to stand in your seats as Rebecca O’Connor delivers her flawless rendition of the Queen of Rock-n Roll, Tina Turners greatest hits. Due to overwhelming demand Rebecca will begin her world tour in Australia for this the 2nd time in 15 months. It comes hot on the heels of her recent “standing room only” sold-out tour of South Africa and Botswana in April where audiences were astounded with her performances. No miming or backing tracks used in this show !! Rebecca tours with a world class band of rock musicians and her 2 dancers Ashleigh and Hayley, who she affectionately calls her “Rebeccettes”..this show rocks from start to finish with such iconic hits as Nutbush City Limits, Proud Mary, River Deep, Private Dancer, When the Heartache Is Over, Better Be Good To Me, and of course her anthem, Simply the Best. Tina’s fans or just lovers of great music will be gob-smacked at just how incredible this show is. When she last performed in Australia, she received standing ovations at every performance, including 2 sold out shows at the fabulous Palm Room at Crown Casino. Rebecca O’Connor grew up in County Cork, Ireland and was introduced to Tina Turner’s music through her parents as a young girl. She immediately loved everything about Tina and knew most of her songs word perfect as a young girl. “When I first heard Tina it was like a volcano went off inside me. I knew then this amazing woman would influence me forever…” Rebecca’s career was now in the early stages of construction. She joined her first band at 17 and incorporated Tina’s songs into the bands set list. When she won a local Karaoke competition singing a Tina Turner song, her mother entered her into the European Stars in Their eyes competition and she went on to take out the title in front of over 33 million viewers. Rebecca O’Connor looks and sounds like Tina Turner on stage, but she is adamant and quotes….”There is only one Tina turner, she is absolutely amazing and I admire and respect her so much and I hope that I can bring her power, energy and magic to each and every show I perform…Most performers don’t have what she has, and never will have” Tina Turner is one of the greatest live performers in music history. Her career has spanned 50 years in which she has received numerous awards including Eight Grammy’s. Her combined album and single sales total approximately 180 million copies worldwide. She has sold more concert tickets than any other solo music performer in history and her achievements have led many to call her ‘The Queen of Rock’n’Roll. Don’t miss your chance to see Rebecca with her wild hair, sparkling mini dresses, red lipstick and stiletto heels do the undisputed Queen of Rock’n’Roll pure justice in a performance that can only be described as “Simply The Best”
Tickets: Lizottes
Friday 7th March
Ash Grunwald @ The Great Northern
Hot off the stomping, hairy heels of Ash’s GARGANTUA album release and tour with Scott and Andy from The Living End, Ash is returning to the pavement as the lone troubadour, to pound his way up and down the coast
Doors: 8:00PM
Tickets: Bigtix
James Reyne @ Lizottes
James Reyne is one of Australia’s most loved singer songwriters. James led the seminal Australian Crawl to the top of the Australian music scene and followed this with a platinum lined solo career, releasing 9 solo albums to date. James hasn’t kept himself entirely in the studio or at live venues; his other projects have included hosting Dig TV for ABC 2, acting and some interview/hosting for various Foxtel VH1 specials. James recordings also feature on two Children’s books (Mr Froggy Went A Courtin’ and Save The Bones For Henry Jones). In the first half of 2010 James released a special CD titled “TCB”, where James recorded his renditions of many songs that Elvis made famous. 2011 will see James release his next solo recording of a collection of new songs he has written in the past year (as yet untitled it’s due out in the latter half of 2011) and touring around the country. James’ song-writing coupled with his idiosyncratic vocal style, has enabled James to transcend the disposability of music industry fashion and carve his place in the musical landscape of Australia. “The man who wrote the great Reckless is an accomplished lyricist, capable of lovely detail and nuance an on this (Every Man A King) his eighth solo album, the words and imagery are as strong as his best work. And that voice just gets better.” The Age Preview Mag, Peter Wilmoth. “It’s 21 years since Australian Crawl split up and the former frontman is as quirky, smart and inventive as ever. Reyne is a delightfully eclectic performer. You never get bored by his recordings” Sunday Herald Sun, Bryan Patterson. “Reyne makes mature-age rock that is consistently interesting” David Costello - Daily Telegraph.
Tickets: Lizottes
Saturday 8th March
Queens Of The Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails @ Newcastle Entertainment Centre
The Frontier Touring Company are thrilled to announce that two of the world’s most influential bands of the last decade, Nine Inch Nails and Queens Of The Stone Age, will join forces for a massive double headline tour to Newcastle on 8 March 2014.
Queens Of The Stone Age are possibly the single most critically acclaimed hard rock band of the 2000s. No strangers to Australian audiences, frontman Josh Homme declared earlier this year that “Everybody who knows me knows that Australia is my home away from home”. Emerging from its desert in environs with its 1998 self-titled debut then ascended the international major leagues with 2000’s Rated R. The band’s popularity on Australian shores was cemented in 2002 with the ARIA platinum selling and Grammy-nominated album Songs For The Deaf, featuring the #1 song in triple j¹s Hottest 100 of 2002, ‘No One Knows’.
Further commercial success ensued with 2005’s Lullabies to Paralyze and 2007’s Era Vulgaris, but it was with QOTSA album number six, this year’s Like Clockwork, that Homme and the current iteration of the Queens – veteran Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman, Dean Fertita and Jon Theodore - would come out bigger and better than ever.
Produced by the band at Homme’s Pink Duck studio in Burbank California, Like Clockwork (featuring Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, as well as Dave Grohl, Elton John and a host of others) ended the longest ever gap between Queens albums with the band’s first ever #1 album in the U.S., with a first week tally nearly doubling that of Era Vulgaris – not to mention the most fawning critical notices of the band’s 17 year career, including:
Nine Inch Nails are considered a pioneer in the industrial music movement and have been highly influential in the evolution of electronic music. Their recordings – which include the US Platinum-certified Pretty Hate Machine (1989), Broken (1992), The Downward Spiral (1994) and With Teeth (2005) – have revolutionised detailed digital production. The band have sold more than thirty million albums worldwide, released a remarkable collection of singles and received two Grammy awards.
Their latest studio album Hesitation Marks, marks the first new music from Nine Inch Nails in five years and was recorded with Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder, whom Trent Reznor worked with on the scored soundtracks for films The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, winning an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Grammy Award in the process.
Already with a reputation as one of rock’s greatest live bands and renowned for their multimedia live spectacles and elaborate stage productions, we couldn’t be more excited to see where Nine Inch Nails take their live show in 2014.
If that’s not enough to get your head around, Queens Of The Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails will also bring very special guest, Australian-born singer/songwriter/musician Brody Dalle along for the ride! Dalle will open the shows with a full band, playing a selection of songs from her extensive catalogue from her renowned punk rock bands The Distillers and Spinnerette and new songs from her fierce forthcoming solo album.
The relationship between these two rock powerhouse bands is no secret; they’ve played over thirty shows together in the United States in 2005 and have teamed up for several recordings together over the years, including an appearance by Reznor on ‘Kalopsia’ from Queens Of The Stone Age’s Like Clockwork.
It’s evident these two bands share a musical affinity and are prodigies of the live show. Australia and New Zealand, you had better secure your tickets because this is going to be one mammoth, mind blowing, live event of the year that you definitely don’t want to miss!
Doors: 6:30PM
Tickets: Ticketek
Rhys Zacher @ The Cambridge
On Saturday the 8th of March I will be having an official launch for my new album Dark Passenger!It will kick off at 8pm at the Cambridge Hotel on Hunter St.There is a $6 door charge, no pre sale tickets.The new album will be available for $15 on the night.I will have a band of excellent musicians performing with me on the night and cannot wait to show these new songs in a live setting!Special Guests Billy Otto and Thomas Blake will also be performing on the night.Invite your friends along and lets make this a great night for local music. Hope to see you there!
Doors: 8:00PM
Tickets: At Door
Zombonimo @ The Small Ballroom
A night of Aural pleasure when four awesome acts from the Hunter, Newcastle and Coast release their CDs.
Doors: 8:00PM
Tickets: Kingdom Sounds
Steve Kilbey and Mark Gable @ Lizottes
Discover Australia - A Stumble Through Australian Pop History
Australian popular music is as good if not better than any other popular music in the world. Steve Kilbey (The Church) and Mark Gable (Choirboys) will prove beyond any doubt, that this is the case as they stagger, sing, crash and STUMBLE through every decade of the greatest pop and rock music that helped shape these 2 Aussie icons. Over the years Steve and Mark have created some Aussie music history themselves. So now it’s time for them to embrace, expose and tell the stories of all the local music by other Australian icons who they love. It’s funny, it’s rude, it’s tragic and exciting. Ronnie Burns, The Group, The Easybeats, Daddy Cool, Paul Kelly, The Bee Gees just to name a few that Steve and Mark will drag through the bushes backwards. If you love Australia you will love Discover Australia (A Stumble Through Australian Pop History) Staring Steve Kilbey and Mark Gable
Tickets: Lizottes
Sunday 9th March
Neil Murray and Jim Moginie @ Lizottes
Two of our most respected singer-songwriters and musicians, Neil Murray and Jim Moginie, will perform One of Those Tunes - a selection of songs spanning decades. Neil and Jim have contributed extensively to our musical heritage as founding members of the Warumpi Band and Midnight Oil and established individual careers outside of those iconic entities.They became friends in the mid-eighties on the outback Blackfella Whitefella tour and first collaborated in the studio on the Warumpi Band’s original version of My Island Home, with Jim on keyboards. Jim has contributed as producer and musician on most of Neil’s albums and since last year, has shared the concert spotlight for One of Those Tunes, also a co-write from Neil’s “Witness” CD. Neil celebrates a thirty year recording history in 2013 and has an immense catalogue which includes three Warumpi Band and ten solo albums. His most recent release is a double compilation, Sing the Song - the Essential Neil Murray, through ABC Music. Amongst his many accolades, Neil received the APRA Song of The Year Award in 1995 for My Island Home, originally written for the Warumpi Band and re-recorded by Christine Anu. This anthem was also performed at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and recognised in the 2001 APRA Best Songs of All Time list. His writing credits extend to the semi-autobiographical cult classic Sing For Me Countryman, collections of poetry, One Man Tribe and lyrics Native Born, plus two children’s books My Island Home and Blackfella Whitefella, Jim’s twenty-five year contribution to Midnight Oil cannot be understated - songwriter, musician and vocalist in a blistering band which also pioneered new ground, inflamed passions and challenged social justice and environmental concepts.Midnight Oil was a global phenomenon and produced fourteen studio albums plus their most recent release, Essential Oils, a thirty-six track compilation hand-picked by the band. Eleven ARIAs, an induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame and two songs - Beds Are Burning and Power and the Passion on the APRA Best Songs of All Time, are just some of their many accolades. Jim’s projects include touring/recording two albums with The Break, a surf/space/rock themed outfit whose members are ex-Midnight Oil, Violent Femmes and Hunters & Collectors, his folk band, Shameless Seamus and the Tullamore Dews, (one album) and solo debut, Alas Folkloric.Studio credits include working with Neil Finn, Sarah Blasko, The Fauves, Dan Sultan, Kasey and Bill Chambers, The Backsliders, Silverchair and more, as a producer, engineer and musician. Neil and Jim have a combined history and artistry that ensures One of Those Tunes will be an eclectic and engaging performance. Don’t miss this very special event!
Tickets: Lizottes
Monday 10th March
For a bunch of weekly Monday Nights options, check out our guide
Tuesday 11th March
Open Mic Night @ The Great Northern
Life Drawing The Nude @ Newcastle Art Gallery
In this three-part introductory series of casual drawing classes, Audience Programs Officer Jade Hull will demonstrate life drawing techniques and help participants extend their skills.
$20 per class, $50 for all three classes.
Includes wine, light finger food, and all drawing materials
Time: 5:30PM - 7:30PM
Tickets: Call 4974 5100 to book
Wednesday 12th March
The Grigoryan Brothers @ Lizottes
Duos are common enough in the musical world, but sibling duos are a rare thing. Slava and Leonard Grigoryan are that rare thing. There is no rivalry, only the bonds of family and a love of music. Since their first acclaimed Australian tour in 2002, Slava and Leonard have astounded audiences worldwide with their guitar virtuosity. They have toured extensively throughout Australia and overseas: to Europe, the United States, Britain, Asia, South Africa and the Middle East. When not on stage they are in the studio, having released five duo albums the most recent ‘The Seasons’ in 2012 - all of which have been nominated for ARIA awards. The brothers also have performed with symphony orchestras and at international festivals in Australia and Europe. From having appeared at numerous festivals, Slava has taken on the role of giving form to a festival with his appointment as Artistic Director of the 2010 Adelaide International Guitar Festival. Although regarded as Australia’s finest guitar duo performing much of the instrument’s standard classical repertoire, their passion is to expand their horizons through new arrangements, their own compositions and commissions. This ambition can be heard as the brothers take the guitar into genres such as Latin, jazz, folk and contemporary music. There are no boundaries, only new frontiers to cross. Fuelling this thirst for diversity is the brothers’ sheer joy of improvisation. In concert, mix it all together and you have a dimension to guitar-playing rarely seen in the musical world. These qualities are evident not only in their own concerts, but in other projects in which they are involved: Slava and Leonard are one half of ‘Band of Brothers’, along with Joseph and James Tawadros. The quartet’s repertoire crosses cultural and stylistic barriers, from world music, to jazz, and classical. Slava is also a member of the guitar trio MGT which includes two giants of the jazz world, Wolfgang Muthspiel and Ralph Towner. Leonard is composer and performer in the Australian contemporary jazz ensemble FGHR. When Slava and Leonard Grigoryan pick up their guitars, they also step outside the norm. In doing so they never compromise their musical integrity, nor the integrity of the music. Their large and devoted base of fans know this, and applaud them and their music.
Tickets: Lizottes
Daniel O’Donnell @ The Newcastle Entertainment Centre
Ireland’s most popular “easy listening” entertainer returns to Newcastle 12 March 2014.
Daniel has enjoyed tour and chart success in Australia and New Zealand for a number of years and earned himself a loyal following that stretches across both countries.
Daniel, who was awarded an Honorary MBE in 2002 for services to the music industry, has an immense chart history with both record and video sales. To date he has had 20 UK chart albums and 14 UK Top 10 music videos. His most current video release “Songs Of Faith” topped the UK music charts. He is the only artist to feature in the UK album charts each of the last 20 years! Daniel has also received great chart success in Australia with his Showtime DVD reaching No. 6 and his album ”The Jukebox Years” reached No. 36 on the ARIA charts.
He may be a superstar, but Daniel remains as excited and enthusiastic about his work and his fans as when he first launched his career. Daniel has never forgotten that it was the public who gave him his success in the first place, especially as he struggled long and hard to achieve his ambitions.
A native of Kincasslagh, Co. Donegal, Daniel’s concert appearances have taken him from London’s Royal Albert Hall and Dublin’s Point Depot to New York’s Carnegie Hall and Sydney’s Opera House, but he still continues to set himself fresh ambitions and new worlds to conquer.
Doors: 7:00PM
Tickets: Ticketek
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