Search Results for: australia

One of Australia’s most successful rock exports, the Grammy-winning trio Wolfmother, has been torn apart by “longstanding frictions,” according to a statement published on the group’s Web site on Thursday. Bass/keyboard player Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett have resigned, while singer/guitarist Andrew Stockdale plans to find other musicians and begin making a new Wolfmother album. “Please understand that in spite of their best efforts over a long period of time, they just could not find a harmonious way to work together,” the statement said. Wolfmother’s self-titled debut album, released in 2006, sold more than 500,000 copies in the United… Read more »

Fears of race clashes on Monday led organizers of Australia’s biggest outdoor rock concert to bar fans from carrying the national flag, sparking a furious reaction from the country’s prime minister and war veterans. After fights between ethnic Croatian and Serbian fans outside the Australian Open tennis tournament last week and 2005 race clashes on Sydney’s beaches, Big Day Out concert organizers said Australia’s flag was a “gang color” which could incite hatred. “It was racism disguised as patriotism and I’m not going to tolerate it,” event producer Ken West told Australian newspapers. The concert Web site said the flag… Read more »

Pop star Pink has apologized to Australians for backing a world animal rights campaign against Australia’s wool industry, saying she had her facts wrong. During a December concert in Paris, Pink called on consumers to boycott products made with Australian wool in protest at the “sadistic” practice of mulesing, where farmers cut loose skin from the backsides of sheep to discourage flies. Australia is one of the world’s top wool producers. But ahead of Australian concerts starting in April, Pink, whose real name is Alecia Moore, said she had been misinformed. “I probably could have done a lot more research… Read more »

Australian rock band the Vines, who have gained a reputation for delivering erratic performances, have backed out of their planned support spot on Incubus’ summer North American tour, citing “mental and physical exhaustion.” The band was thrust into disarray following a recent performance for a Sydney radio station, when bassist Patrick Matthews walked out following the first song. A full show the next evening was promptly canceled. “The decision has been made to take a break to deal with the mental and physical exhaustion issues the band currently face(s),” the group said in a statement. “The Vines have not broken… Read more »

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney (news) said on Sunday he would postpone the final and biggest concert of his current world tour in Melbourne out of respect for the victims of the Bali bomb blasts. The only Australian show on November 23 in front of over 30,000 fans was to be McCartney’s first date Down Under in more than a decade, but the singer’s spokesman said a nationwide tour was now under consideration for 2003. “As a mark of respect to both the families who have lost loved ones and to the families of the injured, I have decided to… Read more »

Limp Bizkit’s tour manager said today (March 1) that a Sydney concert where a teenage girl was killed was understaffed and poorly managed. Alexander Murdoch MacLeod was the first person from the Fred Durst-led band’s management to appear at the Australian inquest into the death of 15-year-old Jessica Michalik, who was caught in a crowd crush and suffered a heart attack at the concert on Jan. 26, 2001. She died five days later. Six other people were hospitalized after the multi-band Big Day Out show, which drew a crowd of 65,000. Limp Bizkit pulled out of its Australian tour afterward… Read more »

An Australian firm said yesterday that it has purchased and restarted KaZaa, the Dutch-born Internet file-sharing program that the world’s biggest media companies have sued for becoming the new Napster. Sharman Networks Ltd., a privately held multimedia company, purchased certain assets of KaZaa BV, including the popular KaZaa Media Desktop file- sharing program, Sharman chief executive officer Nikki Hemming said in a news release. KaZaa stopped all downloads of the free Media Desktop program last week pending a Dutch judge’s ruling in a copyright infringement case filed against the company in the Netherlands. But Sharman Networks resumed downloads yesterday morning,… Read more »