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NBA superstar Ja Morant continues to be under fire after being caught waving a gun on social media for the second time in three months. The debacle has again entered hip-hop circles, as Lil Wayne recently spoke on Ja’s turbulence in a new interview with Showtime’s All The Smoke podcast. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and […]
Andy Rourke, founding bass player with the Smiths, the iconic ’80s indie band whose reputation seems to grow with each passing year, has died following a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 59. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Bandmate and guitarist Johnny Marr confirmed the sad news: […]
Britpop kings Blur are back.
Damon Albarn and Co. return this summer with a new LP, The Ballad of Darren, set for release July 21 through Parlophone.
But first, the four-piece unleash the first track from it, “The Narcissist.”
Blur’s first fresh cut in eight years is a jangly piece of indie goodness, on which Albarn tells the tale of someone who simple loves themself too much. He sings: “I’m going to shine a light in your eyes/ You’ll probably shine it back on me/ But I won’t fall this time/ With godspeed I’ll heed the signs.”
Produced by James Ford and recorded at Studio 13, London and Devon, The Ballad of Darren is Blur’s ninth studio album.
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Spanning 10 tracks, it’s accompanied with artwork featuring an image by British photographer Martin Parr.
“This is an aftershock record, reflection and comment on where we find ourselves now,” comments Albarn.
Guitarist Graham Coxon adds, “The older and madder we get, it becomes more essential that what we play is loaded with the right emotion and intention. Sometimes just a riff doesn’t do the job.”
The surprises don’t end there. Blur return to their old stomping ground, Colchester, Essex, for a performance at Colchester Arts Centre on Friday (May 19), followed by a handful of warmup performances in the U.K.
Once warmed up, things should get hot when the group performs old stuff and new across the U.K. and Europe over the coming months, including their first ever shows at Wembley Stadium, July 8 and 9.
With a slew of hits including “Song 2,” Parklife,” “Girls & Boys,” Coffee & TV,” “Beetlebum,” “Country House,” and many more, Blur was one of the most successful British bands to emerge in the 1990s. They were head of the Britpop class. But unlike many of their classmates, they stayed together, evolved musically and remain relevant.
In their homeland, Blur landed 26 songs in the top 40, including two No. 1s. Six Blur albums have led the albums chart, including their most recent LP, 2015’s The Magic Whip.
“For any long-term relationship to last with any meaning you have to be able to surprise each other somehow and somehow we all continue to do that,” comments bass player Alex James on the new album.
Drummer Dave Rowntree continues, “It always feels very natural to make music together. With every record we do, the process reveals something new and we develop as a band. We don’t take that for granted.”
Stream “The Narcissist” and check out the album tracklist below.
The Ballad of Darren tracklist.
The Ballad
St Charles Square
Barbaric
Russian Strings
The Everglades (For Leonard)
The Narcissist
Goodbye Albert
Far Away Island
Avalon
The Heights
Ed Sheeran holds off The Amity Affliction on Australia’s albums survey, as Subtract (via Atlantic/Warner) starts a second week at No. 1.
With the British singer and songwriter’s latest chart feat, he racks-up 44 weeks at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart across his full-length six albums, all of them best-sellers.
Heavy stuff is close behind. Homegrown metalcore group The Amity Affliction open at No. 2 with Not Without My Ghosts (Warner), their eighth studio effort.
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The hard rockers this year celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band, and now boast seven top 10 appearances, including four ARIA No. 1s: Chasing Ghosts (from 2012), Let The Ocean Take Me (2014), This Could Be Heartbreak (2016) and Misery (2018). In the decade from 2010, the Gympie, Queensland heavyweights amassed five ARIA Award nominations, though none culminated in a pointed trophy.
Completing the podium on the latest ARIA Albums Chart, published May 19, is Taylor Swift’s former leader Midnights (Universal), up 4-3.
Further down the list, veteran Australian artist Kate Ceberano debuts at No. 6 with My Life Is A Symphony (ABC/Orchard), a collaboration with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. It’s Ceberano’s 17th ARIA top 50 album, according to the trade body, and seventh top 10, including 1989’s Brave, which peaked at No. 2.
Legendary local rockers Midnight Oil cook up a 17th ARIA top 10 with Live at the Old Lion, Adelaide (MGM), new at No. 7. Peter Garrett and Co. have led the ARIA Chart with seven titles: Red Sails In the Sunset (1984), Species Deceases (1985), Diesel and Dust (1987), Blue Sky Mining (1990), 20,000 Watt R.S.L. (1997), The Makarrata Project (2020) and Resist (2022).
The Eurovision Song Contest is done for the year, though the music lives on. A collection from the 67th annual event, The Eurovision Song Contest Liverpool 2023 (Universal), debuts at No. 15 on the albums tally. The compilation includes Australia’s representative for the 2023 Eurovision, Voyager with “Promise.” The plucky pop-rock outfit from Perth finished ninth in the annual competition, held last Saturday (May 13) at Liverpool’s M&S Arena.
Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Morgan Wallen clocks up a sixth consecutive week at No. 1 with “Last Night” (via Republic/Universal). It’s now just one frame from matching the seven weeks Billy Ray Cyrus logged at No. 1 with “Achy Breaky Heart” in 1992, a record for a single by a male American country singer here since the official ARIA Charts were launched in 1983.
“Last Night” leads an unchanged top three, closed out by Fifty Fifty’s “The Beginning: Cupid” (Warner) and Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” (Columbia/Sony), respectively.
The top debut belongs to New York City-based drill rapper Lil Mabu with “Mathematical Disrespect” (Independent) new at No. 21. Lil Durk‘s “All My Life” (Sony) featuring J. Cole isn’t far behind; it debuts at No. 23.
Written a decade ago, and circulated online for almost two years, Lana Del Rey finally gives fans that slice of heaven they were waiting for.
At the stroke of midnight, the U.S. alternative-pop princess gave a proper release to “Say Yes To Heaven,” a dreamy downbeat number, filled out with mellow guitar arpeggios and a touch of tambourine and kick.
Co-written in 2012 with Rick Nowels, “Say Yes To Heaven” leaked online back in October 2020 and took a journey of its own on TikTok.
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The track did not, however, appear on Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean, her ninth studio album, which dropped in March.
Tunnel was co-produced by Del Rey alongside Mike Hermosa, Jack Antonoff, Drew Erickson, Zach Dawes, and Benji, includes assists from Jon Batiste, Bleachers, Father John Misty, Judah Smith, Tommy Genesis, and SYML, and was an immediate international hit.
In the United States, the set went to No. 3 on the Billboard 200, her ninth appearance in the top 10; it blasted to No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart, her sixth No. 1 there and eighth top 10; and No. 1 on the ARIA Chart, her fifth No. 1 in Australia and eighth top 10 overall.
With that embarrassment of musical riches in her arsenal, Del Rey will perform a bunch of outdoor shows in the months ahead, including dates at Brazil’s MITA music festival in Rio De Janeiro (June 27) and Sao Paulo (Aug. 3), and Festival D’Ete in Quebec, Canada.
Her itinerary includes major outdoor summer shows in the U.K., beginning with a date June 24 at Glastonbury Festival, then, on July 9, she’ll close the BST Hyde Park series in central London with a headline performance. According to reps from Polydor Records, she’ll be “accompanied by an array of special guests that are still to be announced.”
Festival appearances in the U.S. follow at Lallapalooza, Outside Lands and All Things Go.
Stream “Say Yes To Heaven” below.
Taylor Lautner reacts to the news that Taylor Swift is releasing the re-recording of ‘Speak Now,’ BLACKPINK’s Jennie and BTS’ V were reportedly spotted out together, and Billie Eilish and Jesse Rutherford have split. The first weekend in June is set to be a party at OUTLOUD at WeHo Pride with major performances. Labrinth talks about his new album ‘Ends & Begins’ and his experience performing with Billie Eilish and Zendaya at Coachella during an exclusive interview with Billboard News!
TETRIS KELLY:We’ve got updates on the love lives of Billy Eilish and BLACKPINK’s Jennie. We’re running down what to expect at WeHo Pride. Labrinth tells us about his epic Coachella sets with Billie and Zendaya. And we learned Colombian slang from Goyo.
I’m Tetris Kelly and this is Billboard News. It’s Thursday, May 18th. We’ve got some romance rumors, breakups, and friendly exes to talk about. Billie, V and Jennie, Tay and Tay, and Halle and her prince — so much relationship tea to around up. Let’s dive in! The star of ‘The Little Mermaid’ was asked by People if her real-life boyfriend, DDG, was also a Prince Charming, to which she responded, “People love to talk about this. Yeah, I would say that.” And Taylor Lautner is saying John Mayer better watch out as his ex Taylor Swift prepares to release “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).” Both his and John’s relationships with the pop star will resurface. He posted #PrayforJohn. And it’s the K-pop power couple everyone’s talking about. Alleged video of BTS’ V and BLACKPINK’s Jennie holding hands and being cozy in Paris have surfaced sending fans into a frenzy with most asking to respect them, their decisions, and privacy. And lastly, Billie Eilish and her boyfriend Jesse Rutherford have split after seven months of dating. The two were last spotted together at Coachella as Eilish showed up to the Met Gala alone. Now we wait to see if Jesse’s new music will address it all.
Pride Month is almost upon us and here in Los Angeles, we celebrate in part with music, and OUTLOUD at WeHo Pride is bringing the party this year. With headliners like Carly Rae Jepsen, Grace Jones, Idina Menzel and Jessie Ware, OUTLOUD at WeHo Pride is about to be a banger. More acts for the first weekend in June include Tinashe, Orville Peck and ‘Drag Race’ winner Kylie Sonique Love.
Kylie released a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” as a message of support to the trans and drag communities who are under attack through hundreds of bills being passed around the United States. Tickets are still available for OUTLOUD at WeHo Pride and we’ll be there to talk to all your favorite performers.
Let’s move on to our interview with Labrinth. He told Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz that he worked on his latest album ‘Ends & Begins’ for a full year, but it was Coachella that helped him finally release it.
LABRINTH:I started putting the show together. And I was like, ‘If I’m going to do a show, I just want it to be the sickest thing that I think I’ve ever seen or haven’t seen.’ And so I just started kind of composing what my set would be. Me and Billie ended up doing the record ‘Never Felt So Alone.’ And I was like, “Do you want to maybe come to Coachella and perform it with me?” And she was like, “Yeah.” and I was like, “Really?” She’s like, “Okay.” That’s wild. And you know, me and Billie really loved the record that we did together. And it kind of felt like a natural progression into us performing it. And like actually ground-testing this record and seeing how the fans really enjoyed it. And it was wild. I was like, “[Zendaya], I’m going to perform at Coachella, I would love to do our songs together.” And she was like, “I would love to but I don’t have the time.” I didn’t think she could make it. And then I think last minute something happened that made her have to pass through. And she was like, “Lab, I want to do the show.” And I was like, “Really?” As soon as she said she wanted to do it. I was like, this is a moment. Like, I just knew it straight away. But then when we actually performed it, it was like, “Oh… right!” It was more than I thought it was going to be, like it was insane. We couldn’t hear ourselves. That’s how loud it was in there.
I share this quite often because I know there are a lot of people that have this experience or have had this experience where, like, I have ADHD, and I didn’t know I had it. Even for season one, I didn’t know I had ADHD. And before discovering that it made it very difficult for me to finish anything. Even though I did a lot for the show. It was very intense and very, like grueling. I think I’ve learned the process of taking care of my brain and my mind and mental health so that I can make sure I can deliver the things I want to deliver and also know my capacity as well, you know. So I think that’s been the process is kind of going okay, how do you achieve the thing you want to achieve? But also how do you make sure you don’t become a vegetable by the end of it? You know?
TETRIS KELLY:For the full interview head to Billboard.com!
CARLY PEARCE:Hey, Billboard, it’s Carly Pearce, and I’m so excited to see all of you on June 7th for the Women of Country Panel. Get your tickets now. See you then!
TETRIS KELLY:Before you go, we learned some new slang from Goyo at Billboard’s Latin Women in Music.
GOYO:¿Mi frases favoritas de mi países por ejemplo? Mi nombre es Goyo, soy de Colombia. Cuando hablo con slang, mi gusta mucho decir “clean”m porque estar clean es estar como con el outfit, con la pinta. Otra palabra qué me encanta mucho es “chévere”, porque es una palabra que mucha gente conoce que no solamente se conoce en Colombia, sino en diferentes lados de Latinoamérica, y suena… “¡chévere!” Otra palabra la verdad uso mucho, “chimba”. Yo soy del Chocó y en Medellín es donde más se usa, pero yo la uso todo el tiempo. “¡Esto es una chimba!”, cuando digo que algo está así como hard, lo máximo, una chimba. Estas fueron mis palabras o frases favoritas desde Colombia.
TETRIS KELLY:That’s it for today. Come back tomorrow for our Friday Music Guide and we’ll see how well Saweetie and Baby Tate know each other.
Tributes are flowing for Andrew Penhallow, the dance music visionary who created twin platforms for the genre, exposing millions of young Australians to DJ culture and electronic tunes through his Volition Records label, and in a live setting with Big Day Out’s Boiler Room.
U.K.-born Penhallow got his career underway in the 1980s when he and business partner Paul Gardiner pooled together $30,000 and set up Gardiner and Penhallow company, otherwise known as GAP.
“Paul got $10,000, I got $10,000 from my then mother-in-law. Then Paul got another $10,000 from his wife’s ex-husband who was a brain surgeon,” he recounted to Scream City fanzine.
Through GAP, Penhallow and Gardiner landed a licensing deal for Factory Records, the label helmed by the late Manchester scene-builder Tony Wilson. Factory Australasia would operate as an extension of that great British label, unleashing its roster of alternative rock and indie gems onto the Aussie market, from Joy Division and New Order, to Happy Mondays and others.
Penhallow learned the business, formed contacts and embarked on a path that would lift dance music from the underground and into the spotlight.
With the formation of Volition Records in the late 1980s, Penhallow assembled a stable of this country’s finest electronic acts, from Severed Heads to Boxcar, Itch-E and Scratch-E, Single Gun Theory, FSOM, Southend, Vision Four 5, and Sexing The Cherry.
The hits would come, thanks in part to the expansion of the BDO and the national rollout of the triple j radio network, which latched onto Severed Heads’ remix of “Dead Eyes Opened,” Southend’s “The Winner Is…” and Itch-E and Scratch-E’s “Sweetness and Light,” an ARIA Award winner for best dance release.
Volition’s acts were at home in the buzzing rave and club scene of the 1990s, but with a Penhallow masterstroke, found a fresh new audience with the traveling Big Day Out, and its Boiler Room, a specialist dance-music space within a wider one-day riot of rock and alternative.
Penhallow’s signings, and other major stars of electronic music, from the Prodigy to Fatboy Slim and Aphex Twin, would pack out the Boiler Room, which he co-produced (the Gold Coast Parklands leg was, appropriately, a site storage room which would reach boiling point late in the day).
At its peak, the Big Day Out, co-founded by the late Ken West and Viv Lees, would sell 330,000 tickets in one round trip. Many would have been exposed to DJ and PA culture for the first time by paying a visit to the Boiler Room, a space that “impacted the electronic live music space in Australia for eternity,” reads a message from the producers of Sydney’s Electronic Music Conference. “Thank you for your incredible contribution, and thank you for the music, Mr. Penhallow.”
Penhallow even had a hand in the breakthrough of OMC and their hit “How Bizarre,” by inviting the NZ group on the 1997 BDO tour.
Volition would reach its end in the late ‘90s, and Penhallow ultimately handed his Boiler Room duties to the next generation. But his legacy is being remember by those who worked with him.
“We’ll miss you so much AP,” reads a social post from Boxcar. “You changed us and Australian music forever, from Severed Heads to Falling Joys, Vision Four Five, Itch-E & Scratch-E, Single Gun Theory, Sexing the Cherry, FSOM, Sisters Underground, Southend, Scattered Order, Ups & Downs…the sensational Robert Racic and Factory Music before that! A.P was a TRAILBLAZER”.
A post from Vision Four 5’s reads: “Definitely way too soon for a man with such drive, passion, energy and damn good artwork – ALWAYS. You’ll be missed Andy – you changed many many people’s lives for the better.”
Details on Penhallow’s death were unclear at the time of writing. He’s survived by his partner Virginia and brother John.
The struggle is real, and Genesis Owusu is taking us for a closer look. Announced today (May 18), the Ghana-born, Australia-raised funkster will release his sophomore album Struggler on Aug. 18, via Ourness. Spanning 11 tracks, Struggler was recorded between the United States and Australia with such producers as Jason Evigan (Rufus Du Sol, SZA), Mikey Freedom Hart (Jon Batiste’s 2021 Grammy of the Year Album, We Are), and Sol Was (Beyoncé’s Renaissance).The first taste from it is “Leaving The Light,” a tale of survival and perseverance, and, musically, a fusion of punk and rap over a synthwave soundbed. On it, he sings: “Put my hand up on my heart, I beat my chest/ The chaos moving down and down, seep in my flesh/ The obstacles wont block my path, I see the test/ They can try and swat me down, boy I’m the pest.”The official music video, a collaboration with visual artist Lisa Reihana, dropped Thursday (June 18) and can be seen in full below.
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Owusu was anything but a struggler with his debut full length album from 2021, Smiling with No Teeth, which cleaned up nearly every major award in Australia.
By the time it had completed its victory lap, Smiling with No Teeth had won the Australian Music Prize, triple j’s J Award for Australian album of the year, ARIA Awards (including album of the year), a hattrick of AIR Awards (including independent album of the year), an APRA Award (for breakthrough songwriter), and his song “Gold Chains” won the Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition and earned a spot on President Obama’s 2021 playlist. Few artists in living memory has swept the Australian awards calendar quite like Owusu. The forthcoming set is said to take inspiration from a close friend who hitting rock bottom, but got through, along with Owusu’s contemplations of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis.Genesis is currently touring North America in support of Paramore and Bloc Party, including dates at Madison Square Garden. He’s set to return home later this year for a six-date tour, kicking off Friday, Dec. 1 at Ice Cream Factory in Perth.
Struggler tracklist:
Leaving The Light
The Roach
The Old Man
See Ya There
Freak Boy
Tied Up!
That’s Life (A Swamp)
Balthazar
Stay Blessed
What Comes Will Come
Stuck To The Fan
Bad Bunny teased a new track on TikTok and fans are excited for his potential return to music. Billboard looks at which Britney songs are ruling her streaming numbers over the past 18 months. Luke Combs recently gave Ed Sheeran a life lesson in the quintessential American art of suds-based party tricks. And more!
TETRIS KELLY:Bad Bunny teases new music and puts his romance on display. We run down Britney’s success while on hiatus. Luke Combs teaches Ed Sheeran a classic American tradition. We get to know Rita Ora a little better, and we find out who would be in Nicole Zignago’s ultimate girl group. Hey guys, Tetris Kelly here for Billboard News. It’s May 17th and Bad Bunny has been busy. Let me break it down for you.
Bad Bunny hopped on TikTok to tease new music, and I must admit the track is a banger. After a melodic intro the beat drops and Benito couldn’t control himself. Fans are ready for the new track — and a change in his dating life. One user commented “Benito you need to drop this song and Kendall [Jenner] at the same time.” The two have been inseparable, spending time partying after the Met Gala in New York and hanging courtside in LA at Lakers games. Do you approve of the new music? How about Benito’s boo? Well let us know in the comments.
Now it’s time to talk about my girl Britney Jean. Fans still love Britney Spears. Despite releasing only one song in the past seven years, the pop star’s music still resonates. Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz joins us to discuss how her music is doing 18 months after the #FreeBritney movement.
JASON LIPSHUTZ:It’s been a year and a half since Britney Spears’ conservatorship ended and we were just interested in looking at what her streams and sales and biggest hits look like in that time period when people are just kind of experiencing Britney Spears’ music once again, kind of in a different reality of post-conservatorship Britney.
TETRIS KELLY:I was surprised to learn ‘Toxic’ has become Britney’s biggest streaming hit over the past year.
JASON LIPSHUTZ:It peaked at No. 9 on the Hot 100, but aside from ‘Hold Me Closer,’ her newest single, it was her most streamed song over the past year. It was her most played song on radio over the past year, nearly 20 years since its release. And ‘Toxic’ is basically as strong as ever. It’s kind of the de facto biggest Britney Spears catalog hit at this point.
TETRIS KELLY:As you just mentioned, Britney’s only release in seven years ‘Hold Me Closer’ with Elton John did pretty well debuting at No. 6 on the Hot 100.
JASON LIPSHUTZ:People really love this song. It’s become basically Britney’s biggest hit in years and it was never a sure thing that that it was going to last beyond that first few weeks.
TETRIS KELLY:So Jason, tell me when can we expect new music from the pop star?
JASON LIPSHUTZ:There’s no announced plans for a new single or new album but one thing that ‘Hold Me Closer’ did suggest is that there is an openness to releasing new music at some point.
TETRIS KELLY:Let’s talk about international relations. The U.S. and the U.K. have a long history. We’ve got a new event to add to the history books.
ED SHEERAN:“By the way, for context, Luke is — what is this, shooting?”
LUKE COMBS:“Shotgun. Shotgun.”
ED SHEERAN:“Luke is teaching me how to shotgun a beer.”
TETRIS KELLY:Luke Combs taught Ed Sheeran an essential American party trick just in time for summer: shotgunning a beer.
LUKE COMBS:“You want me to go first or you want to go together?”
ED SHEERAN:“I think let’s go together, all right?”
LUKE COMBS:“All right count us down.”
LUKE COMBS“Be mindful of where your top is here right? Because once that opens beer’s coming out of that if it’s pointing to the ground, so you want this point in the sky and once you’re up then you crack the top and it’s just just gonna go.”
TETRIS KELLYI personally never had shotgunned a beer before, but I may follow those steps and give it a try
JELLY ROLLWhat’s up y’all it’s your boy Jelly Roll. I want to encourage you to get your tickets now for my show with Billboard on June 6 at Music Marathon Works in Nashville, Tennessee. Tickets available now. I’ll see y’all there.
TETRIS KELLYIf you want to learn more about Rita Ora, you’re in luck. We played a little rapid fire game with the pop star.
KATIE BAINWho has made you the most starstruck?
RITA ORAPrince was a moment for sure. I remember when he walked into a party with the most gorgeous twins, honestly it was like the seas parted and he just like walked through slowly and that was the first time I saw him but then we met afterwards.
KATIE BAINDid he ever give you any advice?
RITA ORAI think he just told me to own my masters. And now I own my masters.
KATIE BAINAmen, thank you Prince! Weirdest thing I do before I go onstage?
RITA ORAI warm up. And then I sort of like just hum but I’m alone. I have like 10 minutes to myself to just focus and think about the show.
KATIE BAINWhat is your favorite late night snack?
RITA ORAI mean pizza. I just love pizza. Who doesn’t love pizza? Or cheese?
KATIE BAINYou have an endless budget to start the ultimate group — who is in your group?
RITA ORAOh my gosh, I think Sam Smith. Yes, I love Anitta. Oh yeah, Charli XCX. Perfect, Nicki Minaj I mean, how big is this group because we like Beyoncé, David Bowie if he were still alive yeah and me! And the whole of BTS.
TETRIS KELLYBefore we let you go, we needed to know who Nicole Zignano would put in her ultimate girl group. So we asked her at Billboard’s Latin Women in Music.
NICOLE ZIGNANOBlackpink and Rosalia. The Bombastic Four that will be our name.
TETRIS KELLYThat’s the show, come back tomorrow where we’re interviewing Labrinth about his new music. I’m Tetris Kelly and this is Billboard News.
Falls Festival, one of Australia’s top touring fests, will skip its 2023/24 edition.
Secret Sounds, the Live Nation-affiliated producers of Falls Festival, announced Wednesday (May 17) that the annual event would not go ahead this December and next January in either of its three locations – Melbourne, Byron Bay and Fremantle.
“After an impressive 28 years ringing in the New Year with some of the world’s biggest acts, the Falls team are today switching on their OOOs and taking this New Years’ season off to rest, recover and recalibrate,” read a statement posted to social media.
It’s the third time in the past four years the event has been nixed, after the 2020 and 2021 events were scrapped due to the pandemic.
Falls is one of the hottest tickets on the calendar, and, in a typical year, is held during the summer holiday with legs in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia.
A long-running show at Marion Bay in Tasmania was officially discontinued during the health crisis, and organizers last year walked away from ambitions to host a Falls Birregurra in Murroon, country Victoria, citing a time-consuming and expensive application process. The pre-NYE event went ahead at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, with Arctic Monkeys and Lil Nas X among the headliners.
“We send huge love and appreciation to all our patrons for their ongoing support and for the great vibes they brought to the 2022/23 events,” the Falls statement continues. “You really are the heart and soul of Falls Festival, and we look forward to updating you with our plans when the time is right.”
Spearheaded by Jess Ducrou and Paul Piticco, Falls Music & Arts Festival originated in 1993 as a one-day concert in Lorne, Tasmania under the banner Rock Above The Falls. In the years since, the likes of Iggy Pop, Jack Johnson, Billy Bragg, the Black Keys, Blondie and many more have graced its stages.