Guns N’ Roses Australian tour dates expected to be rescheduled

Promoters are scrambling to save giant rock tours as US superstars Guns N’ Roses and Kiss face a hitch with their Aussie tour dates.

Promoters are scrambling to save giant rock tours as US superstars Guns N’ Roses and Kiss are expected to reschedule their Australian tour dates.

Promoters are scrambling to save giant rock tours as US superstars Guns N’ Roses and Kiss are expected to reschedule their Australian tour dates.

The US groups had planned to launch national runs in ­November – Gun N’ Roses in stadiums with a date at the MCG, and Kiss in arenas including three shows at Rod Laver Arena.

On Tuesday, Kiss’s long- time Australian tour promoter Andrew McManus said: “I’m moving the Kiss tour dates. I have to. Within the current (Covid-safe) guidelines the government is purporting, most shows and tours will move back to 2022. There is no way you can run a tour properly at the moment.”

It is believed Kiss dates will be moved to March, and promoters are discussing a 2022 run for Guns N’ Roses. Both bands are playing extensive US tours this year.

Guns N’ Roses’ Australian tour promoter Paul Dainty said “no decision” had yet been made on the band’s 2021 tour.

McManus’s comments follow consensus from other promoters that the Australian tour calendar is stuck on pause for international acts.

Guns N Roses are expected to change their tour dates.

“The authorities won’t let international bands in until next year, we’re pretty sure of all that, unless there’s special dispensation,” said another top promoter, Michael Chugg.

“But the way the dispensations have been working lately, like letting C-class celebrities in for bulls. t reality TV shows, it’s making it really tough.

“Every week we’re having to cancel and move tours, and it’s been going on for months. It’s a crazy mess,” he said.

Under a November tour plan, Kiss and Guns N’ Roses would trial an Australian tour bubble and 14 days’ quarantine to keep them and fans safe.

In March, Kiss frontman Paul Stanley said: “It’s the rules and the law, you do it out of ­respect. I certainly wouldn’t want to endanger anyone else. Whatever the requirements are, we will meet them.”

The tour reshuffle came as a parliamentary inquiry called on the Victorian government to provide certainty and support for the state’s struggling events and tourism sectors.

KISS are expected to reschedule their concerts.

Save Victorian Events spokesman Simon Thewlis said the sector had suffered losses of well over $10bn during the pandemic.

“Victoria’s event industry is at the point of sheer desperation. Our industry is largely closed, and there is no indication of when many events will be allowed again,” he said.

The Department of Health had not consulted event organisers in the same way it did with the AFL and theatre companies, he said.

Victorian Tourism Industry Council chief executive, Felicia Mariani, said: “We need a clear plan by the federal and state governments that is implemented and followed. We need to be able to trust that if and when vaccination rates increase, there will be a ceasing of reliance on lockdowns and rolling restrictions.”