• Good morning and welcome to your midweek edition of The Purge, which we’re kicking off with a question. Can Britney Spears’ classic debut album ‘…Baby One More Time’ really be 20 years old!? It certainly is. And her label Sony Music is celebrating, by readying the release of a limited picture disc vinyl next month (pictured above). It will feature the album cover on one side and an image of Britney from one of her early photo shoots on the other. It’s due at retailers everywhere on Friday November 23.
• Parts of outback New South Wales and Queensland may have received some decent drops of rain of late, but the drought conditions are far from over. Jon Stevens is doing his bit by recording and releasing a track called ‘Rain Down On Me’. He wrote the track during a songwriting trip to Los Angeles earlier this year and will donate all proceeds from the sale of the single to Rural Aid, to assist drought stricken families across the country. It’s out this Friday.
• It’s certainly starting to hit its strides now that the movie ‘A Star Is Born’ is in cinemas; Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s ‘Shallow’ is sitting pretty at No.1 on the iTunes singles chart here in Australia and is also making good gains on Spotify’s top 50 locally (up into the top ten at last check). It’s also scored a re-service to media this week, alongside the likes of Zara Larsson’s ‘Ruin My Life’, Calum Scott’s ‘No Matter What’, Missy Higgins’ ‘Arrows’ and the Ea Kaya track ‘Don’t Complicate It’. We’ll bring you our weekly wrap of the new tunes doing the rounds at media on our FACEBOOK page tomorrow.
• British producer Jon Hopkins will be in Australia early in the new year as part of the line-up for the Laneway Festivals across Australia. But he’s confirmed this week that he’ll also play two special headline shows (one each in Sydney and Melbourne) during his visit. The shows will form part of his ‘Singularity’ world tour, in support of his latest album, released back in May. Catch him at 170 Russell in Melbourne on February 01 and at the Metro Theatre in Sydney on February 07. Niche touring and venue pre-sales are live at 10am local time today. General sales, meantime, will hit the sales desk from 10am AEDT this Friday.
• Liz Phair will also be in Australia early in the new year. Local audiences will know her best from her breakout hit ‘Why Can’t I?’ back in 2003. Her superfans, however, know that she’s released two albums since along with a retrospective entitled ‘Girly-Sound To Guyville : The 25th Anniversary Box Set’. In addition to a spot on the line-up for Golden Plains, she’ll play the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney on March 08, the Croxton Bandroom in Melbourne on March 11 and The Triffid in Brisbane on March 12. Tickets are on sale from 11am local time this Friday.
• Ocean Sounds is a brand new festival, which will take over Churchill Island (right next to Phillip Island) in Victoria on January 19. Organisers are promising “smiling friends, local wines, gourmet food and some incredible live Australian music”. Speaking of music, and Dan Sultan has been announced as the headline act for the inaugural event, with Pierce Brothers, Jen Cloher, Oh Pep! and Mike Waters also set to appear. Tickets are on sale from 9am AEDT this Friday.
• Big news for fans of chart superstar Post Malone, with confirmation the hip hop superstar will be in Australia next year for arena shows in all five main capital cities. The tour kicks off our west at Perth’s RAC Arena on Friday April 26. It then makes its way to Adelaide (AEC Arena on April 28) and Melbourne (Rod Laver Arena on April 30) before heading north to Brisbane (Entertainment Centre on May 04) and back down to Sydney (Qudos Bank Arena on May 07). An Optus Perks pre-sale kicks off at 9am local time tomorrow. Live Nation pre-sale tickets are live from 9am local time on Monday. General tickets are then on sale from 2pm local time on Tuesday, October 30.
• Also in the hop hop sphere, Miami rapper Smokepurpp will be in Australia for the first time next year for shows in Sydney and Melbourne. He’s set to play the Prince Bandroom in Melbourne on Saturday January 05 before he heads to Sydney’s Metro Theatre the following night. Frontier members get first access to a pre-sale from midday today ahead of general sales, which are live from 10am AEDT this Friday.
• Falls Festival organisers have added more acts to the line-ups of all four events from late this year. Juice WRLD, Dizzee Rascal and LPX will appear on the bills for all dates. The East Coast trio of Lorne, Byron Bay and Marion Bay score Cut Copy. Little May will play Lorne and Byron Bay, Hayden James is headed to Marion Bay, while Dean Lewis and Carla Geneve will play the Fremantle gig. All the line-up details and the dates are HERE.
TICKETS PLEASE
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26 : Jon Hopkins (Sydney, Melbourne)
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26 : Ocean Sounds Festival (Phillip Island)
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26 : Liz Phair (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane)
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26 : Rüfüs Du Sol (Nationally)
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26 : Slash ftg. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators (Nationally)
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26 : Smokepurpp (Sydney, Melbourne)
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26 : Twilight At Taronga 2019 (Sydney)
MONDAY OCTOBER 29 : Bananarama (Nationally)
MONDAY OCTOBER 29 : Bryan Ferry (Nationally)
TUESDAY OCTOBER 30 : Post Malone (Nationally)
TUESDAY OCTOBER 30 : Zoo Twilights (Melbourne)
Australia's first stop for pop!