NIALL HORAN TO BRING GLOBAL NICE TO MEET YA TOUR TO AUSTRALIA IN SEPTEMBER
Global superstar Niall Horan has today announced he’ll be bringing his critically acclaimed Nice To Meet Ya tour to Australia to celebrate the release of his upcoming sophomore album Heartbreak Weather, out March 13 – pre-order here. Presented by TEG Live, the Australian shows will kick off in Brisbane on September 30 at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, before moving through Sydney to play Qudos Bank Arena on October 2, and wrapping up in Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena on October 3. This will be Horan’s second headline tour of Australia, who welcomed him with open arms back in 2018 where he played mostly sold out shows as part of his Flicker World Tour.
Pre-sale tickets will be available via Telstra Plus™ from 12.00pm (local time) Wednesday 26 February before the general public on-sale at 2.00pm (local time) on Monday 2 March from www.ticketek.com.au.
Thrilled to be including Australia on his worldwide tour, Niall says, “I am so excited to bring the ‘Nice To Meet Ya’ Tour to Australia. As you know it’s one of my favourite countries to visit and the shows and fans are always amazing!”.
Rolling Stone placed Heartbreak Weather on its list of the 70 Most Anticipated Albums of 2020 and praised Horan’s recent Saturday Night Live performances of Nice To Meet Ya and Put a Little Love on Me. If these beautiful songs, plus the latest single No Judgement, are anything to go by, Heartbreak Weather is set to be an absolutely stunning body of work. Horan is thrilled to bring his dynamic, impressive live show to fans in Australia, as he enthuses, “Can’t wait to be back down under soon! This is going to be a lot of fun”.
Originally from Mullingar, Ireland, Niall Horan has sold over 80 million records and toured the globe multiple times as part of the iconic One Direction. With his full-length solo debut Flicker (Capitol Records), he achieved massive global success and widespread critical acclaim. The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 in October 2017, debuted at No. 2 on the ARIA Album Chart and soon earned Platinum certification or greater in 20 countries, including the U.S. In addition to surpassing three million in worldwide adjusted album sales and 3.5 billion global streams worldwide, Flicker topped the iTunes Top Albums chart in 61 countries. The album included the 2x Platinum single This Town, and the 3x Platinum Slow Hands. Horan’s Flicker World Tour included sold-out dates in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe, Singapore, Japan, Brazil and Australia.
General public tickets will go on sale at 2.00pm (local time) on Monday 2 March from www.ticketek.com.au, with a 48 hour pre-sale beginning with Telstra Plus™ at 12.00pm (local time) on Wednesday 26 February.
TELSTRA PLUS™ PRE-SALE
12.00pm, Wednesday 26 February – 12.00pm, Friday 28 February (local time)
GENERAL PUBLIC ON-SALE
2.00pm, Monday 2 March via www.ticketek.com.au (local time)
NIALL HORAN ‘NICE TO MEET YA’ AUSTRALIAN TOUR
WED 30 SEP | BRISBANE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, BRISBANE QLD | ALL AGES | www.ticketek.com.au
FRI 2 OCT | QUDOS BANK ARENA, SYDNEY NSW | ALL AGES | www.ticketek.com.au
SAT 3 OCT | ROD LAVER ARENA, MELBOURNE VIC | ALL AGES | www.ticketek.com.au
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT UNVEILS LONG AWAITED NEW ALBUM UNFOLLOW THE RULES SET FOR RELEASE APRIL 24 AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW NEW SINGLE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS STREAMING NOW
“Like the rarest and greatest artists, Rufus Wainwright captures life in all its reckless glory and painful beauty…sometimes even in a single song. Any Rufus fan knows this: as soon as you hear him, you can’t imagine a world without him.” – Cameron Crowe, Rolling Stone
Singer-songwriter supreme, Rufus Wainwright has announced the release of his long-awaited new album. UNFOLLOW THE RULES arrives on Friday April 24 via BMG and is available to preorder now.
Unfollow The Rules is heralded by today’s premiere of new single Damsel In Distress, available for streaming and download along with an official companion video, created by award-winning animator Josh Shaffner.
“Damsel In Distress is an homage to Joni Mitchell in some ways,” says Wainwright, “particularly the structure. My husband and I now live in Laurel Canyon. I wasn’t that familiar with Joni’s music but Jörn became obsessed and took me on a journey into her music. We ended up hanging out with her and I get now why she’s one of the greats. So it’s part Laurel Canyon, part a song about a personal relationship that I’m trying to come to terms with, but mostly my Mitchell virginity being broken.”
Wainwright’s ninth studio LP and first new pop album since 2012, Unfollow The Rules finds the artist at the peak of his powers, entering artistic maturity with passion, honesty, and a new-found fearlessness while remaining as creative, bold, and mischievous as ever. Produced by Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Paul McCartney, Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, Randy Newman) at a variety of legendary Los Angeles studios – including Sound City Studios, United Recording, and EastWest Studios – the album serves as both bookend to Act I of an extraordinary career which, like Unfollow The Rules, began in the studios of Los Angeles, but also now as the first lines of a remarkable new chapter. Inspired by middle age, married life, fatherhood, friends, loss, London, and Laurel Canyon, songs like Only The People That Love and the spirited, symphonic Hatred find the gifted singer-songwriter ready to tackle new challenges, yet compelled to confront his past by making sense of how he has grown both as a musician and the contented family man he has become.
“What I would like this album to symbolise is a coming together of all the aspects of my life which have made me a seasoned artist,” says Wainwright. “My aim is to emulate the greats of yore whose second acts produced their finest work – Leonard Cohen when he made THE FUTURE, when Sinatra became Sinatra in his 40s, when Paul Simon put out GRACELAND. Pop music isn’t always about your waistline. Many songwriters improve with age. I’m flying the flag for staying alive!”
Unfollow The Rules was preceded late last year by the romping first single, Trouble In Paradise, available now on all DSPs and streaming services HERE. The rhythmically complex track arrived alongside a gender-blurring companion video, directed by award-winning Canadian photographer and filmmaker Mia Donovan and streaming now via YouTube. Trouble In Paradise was greeted by international media attention and unanimous critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone enthusing, “Over lush pop rock orchestration reminiscent of Billy Joel, Wainwright saunters through a vocal performance that lends a lavish edge to his wry lyrics.” “The new song dazzles, dances and blossoms into something altogether delightful,” declared Cool Hunting. “Wainwright fans will be pleased,” The Times of London hailed Trouble In Paradise for its “soaring harmonies and woozy romanticism.”
Unfollow The Rules has already been met with remarkable praise from some of Wainwright’s friends, fans, and fellow artists. “This is pop music on a grand scale; sweeping, symphonic, unabashedly emotional and fearlessly agnostic in style and delivery,” says Sting, while Cyndi Lauper described the album as “Rufus’ pet sounds. It sounds like a culmination of everything he has done. It’s a great album, catchy and intelligent.”
Long applauded as an ingenious, compellingly charismatic live artist, Wainwright has only just left Australian shores after charming audiences at Perth Festival and Odeon Theatre (Hobart) last week. He’s also slated a wide-ranging global tour schedule for 2020, including international headline dates, top-billed festival performances, and more, with a full-scale North American headline tour soon to be announced. For updates and additional information, please visit rufuswainwright.com/tour.
Praised by the New York Times for his “genuine originality,” Rufus Wainwright has established himself as one of the great male vocalists, songwriters and composers of his generation. The New York-born, Montreal-raised singer songwriter has released seven studio albums to date with, three DVDs, and three live albums, including the fantastic Grammy nominated Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall.
Musically Rufus has collaborated with artists including Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Robert Wilson, David Byrne, Boy George, Joni Mitchell, Pet Shop Boys, Heart, Robbie Williams, Jessye Norman, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Sting, and producer Mark Ronson, among many others.
Rufus has made a name for himself in the classical music world. His much acclaimed first opera, titled Prima Donna, premiered at the Manchester International Festival in July 2009 and was performed in London, New York, Paris, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong among others. Rufus’ second opera based on the on the story of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and Antinous premiered in October 2018 at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto and won a Dora Award for Outstanding New Opera.
Rufus has also distinguished himself by playing original orchestrated pop songs, his orchestral settings of 5 Shakespeare Sonnets and pieces from an extensive classical repertoire with orchestras around the world such as the Chicago Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Residentie Orchestra, Orchestre National de lIle de France, the orchestra of the Teatro Real.
He has appeared at many of the world’s greatest concert halls and festivals including Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera, Teatro Colon, Hollywood Bowl, the Elbphilharmonie, the Olympia, Glastonbury, Roskilde, and the Kennedy Honors
He has written and recorded songs for a wide variety of movies and TV shows including Brokeback Mountain, Shrek, Judy, Meet the Robinsons, The Aviator, Moulin Rouge, and Boardwalk Empire.
He and his sister Martha Wainwright continue the legacy of their mother, Canadian folk icon Kate McGarrigle, and raise funds for the Kate McGarrigle Fund funding sarcoma research and a music therapy program.
Wainwright is currently working on a number of films, podcasts and musical projects and lives in Los Angeles with husband Jörn Weisbrodt and shares custody for his daughter Viva with her mother Lorca Cohen.
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT UNFOLLOW THE RULES
Release Date: Friday, April 24 (BMG)
TRACKLISTING
(written track by track available on request)
ACT I
1. Trouble in Paradise
2. Damsel in Distress
3. Unfollow The Rules
4. You Ain’t Big
ACT II
5. Romantical Man
6. Peaceful Afternoon
7. Only The People That Love
8. This One’s For The Ladies (That Lunge)
ACT III
9. My Little You
10. Early Morning Madness
11. Hatred
12. Alone Time
SOLOMON CROOK (NZ) DROPS RAW AND AFFECTING NEW SINGLE & VIDEO ‘THE DAY I THOUGHT ABOUT DYING’
The enigmatic Solomon Crook has today announced his new single The Day I Thought About Dying, an immensely powerful track that will prompt the listener to consider the mark they will leave on the world once they’ve left it, out today, October 25. Solomon Crook has also announced a truly stunning clip to accompany The Day I Thought About Dying. Directed by Oscar Keys and created in collaboration with talented choreographer Raquel Abolins-Reid, lighting designer Sebastian Fraser, designers Ruby Malcolm and Charlie Walkley and cinematographer/blocker Solomon Drader, the clip is a precise, divine experience with profound meaning.
The Day I Thought About Dying is a track that will remain with the listener long after it finishes. As steeped in meaning as the title itself, this eclectic song will bouy even the most downtrodden spirit; something about the deep introspection and bravery that emanates from The Day I Thought About Dying is undeniably magnetic and hypnotic. Produced by Devin Abrams (Pacific Heights, ex Shapeshifter and producer for Drax Project, The Adults et al), and for fans of Bon Iver and Matt Corby, this track maintains a bed of electronics that lays the foundation for a breathtaking vocal performance from Solomon Crook. Acoustic elements enmesh themselves amongst sharp production, and the end result is a deep, swelling, mighty piece of music. “This song explores the uncontrollable feelings of loneliness and isolation that we can all face,” says Solomon. “I wrote this song in a time when I was feeling separated from people I should have felt closest to. I felt this need to escape and break free of this helpless feeling but not knowing how. This song is me internalising these feelings and thoughts, reflecting on them and trying to understand them.”
The clip for The Day I Thought About Dying is appropriately commanding. Set amongst the ornate, story-laden walls of the Greek Orthodox Church Of Transfiguration, Solomon deals with unrest, in the form of shrouded figures contorting around him. These figures overtake him, as they cover him, twisting him around the church. Through a sliver in time, he spies a way out of this turmoil. Once complacent, Solomon finds himself now fighting his demons, managing to break free for an instant – and hurtles himself towards the darkness.
It is impossible to look away, as Solomon sings desperately into the camera, and the viewer is sure to be irrevocably moved by this clip. Describing the creation of the clip, Solomon says, “The filming of the music video was a such a special experience – the collaboration that was shared throughout the whole process allowed for a common vision of what we all wanted to achieve. Oscar’s original narrative and concept beautifully supports the lyrical content within the song, whilst giving it a hopeful sentiment that you can break through these feelings of darkness, like the figures in the video. I couldn’t be more grateful to work with such creative and expressive friends.”
The Day I Thought About Dying is just a taste of what’s to come from this talented young artist, and plans are in place for a second EP from Solomon Crook in 2020. Already having supported the likes of Amy Shark and The Teskey Brothers, and garnering hundreds of thousands of streams for his debut release Love Juice, it’s quite clear that this is just the beginning for Solomon Crook.
The Day I Thought About Dying is available to stream and buy now.