September
It’s the Kylie and Troye show as ARIAs go for the masses again
After a concept album about a cockroach won in 2023, the industry voters for Album Of The Year in 2024 have picked more mainstream fare.
- Michael Bailey
People don’t want ‘challenging’ music, says Peaceful Piano king
Chad Lawson writes music to improve your mental health – which has meant this stalwart of Spotify’s Peaceful Piano playlist repressing some of his own creative impulses.
- Michael Bailey
- Exclusive
- Performing arts
Why Missy Higgins stopped therapy to make an album
Two decades on from the multi-platinum The Sound Of White, Missy Higgins is looking inward again – only this time it’s to cope with being a newly single mother of two.
- Alexander Gow
It’s Asia’s answer to Burning Man. And why not buy a villa, too?
Meet the Russian tech multimillionaire who’s building a 44-hectare playground for adults in Bali.
- Emma Rapaport
August
The ACO is 50 years old and still rebelling
Born out of disaffection with the strictures of symphony orchestras, the Australian Chamber Orchestra has a typically wild and eclectic party planned for its golden jubilee.
- Michael Bailey
- Opinion
- Performing arts
Oz rock legends unite - but expect to be surprised
Australian songwriters Bernard Fanning and Paul Dempsey have joined forces and released a collection of bombastic, synth-laden sideways pop tunes. The arrangements are scintillating and the interwoven vocals charm.
- Alexander Gow
This is why a ‘Frankenstein’ violin can still be worth millions
The Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Satu Vanska is in a dream collaboration with the Sydney Dance Company, but has nightmares about losing her violin.
- Matt Teffer
July
- Analysis
- Michael Gudinski
‘Bunnings of music’: why Matt Gudinski remade Mushroom
Most roads in the Australian music business used to lead to the Mushroom Group, and a restructure announced on Thursday seeks a return to those glory days.
- Michael Bailey
June
Renaissance renditions of Bee Gees? Only at one festival
With portraits ‘singing’ Aussie pop classics, fires in the botanic gardens and dinosaurs at the zoo, Adelaide’s Illuminate Festival wants to lure you out this winter.
- Michael Bailey
Electronic duo Justice return to the dance floor
After an eight-year hiatus, the disruptive Parisian dance music duo unleash an overdose of electronica à la française.
- Divya Bala
May
$6m Wu-Tang Clan album to be played in MONA
The two CDs are the only physical copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album recorded in secret over six years, and sold for millions at auction.
- Michael Bailey
Opera Australia bets on musicals, property development as losses widen
Australia’s largest performing arts company will produce more musicals, and play more cannily with its property, as it tries to turn losses around.
- Michael Bailey
What Shane MacGowan told this rebellious folk band
Like a more political Pogues, Dundalk’s The Mary Wallopers have won acclaim for a rousing live show they bring to Australia this month.
- Michael Bailey
March
This genius drummer puts on a show - with no drum solos
Yussef Dayes is a virtuoso with the sticks, but at this Sydney show he preferred to blend in with the band on his progressive jazz jams.
- Michael Bailey
February
Meg Washington passes the classical test at Sydney show
The Brisbane-based performer writes songs with crescendoes in-built, so to hear them with actual crescendoes from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was impressive.
- Michael Bailey
November 2023
- Exclusive
- Funding
Aussie songwriter’s tech firm is now worth $879m
He used to write songs for Delta Goodrem. Now Paul Wiltshire has a growing band of investors including Richard White, Perennial and Epic Games supporting his platform for musicians.
- Tess Bennett
September 2023
The Rolling Stones to release new album October 20
“Hackney Diamonds”, the band’s first album of new songs in 18 years, features guest appearances from the likes of Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.
- Jill Lawless
June 2023
Record labels fight to scrap cap on what radio stations pay them
The likes of Lachlan Murdoch’s Smooth FM pay less than 1 per cent of revenue for the records they play. The labels providing them have had enough.
- Michael Bailey
Foo Fighters to return to Australia, their 3rd biggest market
Frontman Dave Grohl has a love affair with Australia, which has seen the stadium rock giants play here more than anywhere apart from the US and UK.
- Michael Bailey
- Opinion
- Review
Budjerah review: First Nations soul sensation set for world domination
The rise of the big-voiced singer-songwriter seems undeniable, and based on Wednesday’s Sydney show, it couldn’t happen to a nicer kid.
- Michael Bailey