Melbourne music fans in for ‘epic year’ of gigs

Starved of live gigs, Melbourne punters are being promised a flood of world-class tours. See who’s coming to Australia in 2021.

Billie Eilish will be playing multiple sellout shows in Melbourne: Supplied/ ARIA's

Australian concert promoters say punters are set for an “epic year of live entertainment ... nothing like we’ve seen before” as big gigs reboot in theatres, arenas and stadiums.

Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Kiss, and Guns N’ Roses have already been locked in tours Down Under and music lovers can expect an invasion of top-tier superstars throughout the next 18 months.

Industry whispers say US pop star Pink and British supergroup Coldplay will lead the charge of stadium shows in late 2022 and early 2023.

Piano Man Billy Joel, who almost announced an Australian run in 2020, is also in the sights of leading promoters.

Other marquee names expected to bring their shows here in 2022 and 2023 include crooner Michael Buble, post-punk icons Blondie, pop star Justin Bieber and rockers Pearl Jam, Green Day and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran are also likely to lock in Australian tours during the same window.

Coldplay could be coming to Australian shores. Picture: Supplied / James Marcus Haney

Live Nation Australia boss Roger Field said: “The pipeline for artists coming through in 2022 and beyond is nothing like we’ve seen before.

“But in order to bring the world’s biggest stars to Melbourne and Australia, we need borders down and freedom of movement around the ­country.

“With Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa already scheduled to play next year, if we can fully open up the country, we have the potential to welcome all the global stars and have an epic year of live entertainment.”

Andrew McManus, of One World Entertainment, said: “Australia is back and rocking. Kiss is coming to Melbourne to knock down the doors and reopen Rod Laver Arena to music fans.

“The (music and touring) industry has been in hibernation, but we never went away and now we’re ready.”

McManus is touring Kiss, Cheap Trick, Stone Temple Pilots and Bush in the first half of 2022.

“It’s a very exciting time for punters. We’ve gone from a famine to a feast of touring acts.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers front man Anthony Kiedis. Picture: Jason Edwards

Paul Dainty, of TEG Dainty, which is touring Kings of Leon and the Gunners, said: “It’s a fantastic time for music and live events. It’s going to be a very, very big year of tours.

“With 80 per cent of the nation already double vaxxed, we’ll get back to the new normal very fast, and back into arenas for shows.”

RISING FESTIVAL TO RETURN TO MELBOURNE

Melbourne’s cutting edge arts and music festival Rising will return in June next year.

The inaugural festival was cruelly shuttered by a snap lockdown five hours after opening on May 26.

Rising’s 2022 event will run from June 1 to 12.

The 2021 festival, which sold 100,000 tickets, planned to stage 130 events by 750 Victorian artists across hubs in Chinatown, Birrarung Marr and Town Hall.

The festival’s artistic directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek said the 2022 festival will reboot events and sites such as The Wilds at Myer Music Bowl, which included a supernatural forest, giant ice skating rink, and gourmet restaurant.

Meanwhile, Melbourne artist Patricia Piccinini’s exhibition, A Miracle Constantly Repeated, which launched in May, has reopened at the Flinders St Ballroom.

Piccinini, known worldwide for her hyper-real silicon sculptures, has transformed the railway station’s upper floor into a “walkable ecosystem” of art, video, sound and light.

She said her sculptures depicted “difference”.

“People initially turn away because we’re hardwired to be anxious around difference. But I hope people can see a beauty in difference,” she said.

Ms Fox and Mr Obarzanek said the 2021 shutdown was swift and devastating.

Ms Fox was trialling Flow State, a sonic bathtub experience on Herring Island, when doom descended.

“I remember laying in this hot bath listening to industrial sounds being quite worried about what was going to happen next,” she said.

Mr Obarzanek added: “It really hit like a sledgehammer the next day.”

Three public artworks — Rivers Sing, an echo of voices on the Yarra; Wandering Stars, a giant glowing eel on the riverbank; and Ancestral Memory, a digital projection weaving its way across Hamer Hall — played on through lockdown.

“Rising was symbol of a hopeful time in 2021, when we thought we could put 2020 behind us and celebrate cultural work and the community coming together,” Mr Obarzanek said. “In the end, it was an indicator that it’s not over.”

Ms Fox said the 2022 program would include more contemporary music and international artists.