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AC/DC announce first tour in eight years

AC/DC have announced their first European tour for eight years, including two shows at London’s Wembley Stadium.

The Power Up Tour will see the band play 21 dates across Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, Belgium, France and Ireland this summer. Tickets will be available from 10am on 16 February.

The dates will honour the group’s 50-year career. AC/DC played their very first show on the 31 December 1973 at Chequers Nightclub in Sydney, Australia and have sold more than 200 million albums worldwide.

The band, whose 2015/16 Rock or Bust Tour grossed $221.1 million from 88 shows, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 and into the Music Victoria Awards Hall of Fame in their native Australia.

The touring lineup will feature Angus Young on lead guitar, vocalist Brian Johnson, rhythm guitarist Stevie Young, drummer Matt Laug and a new bass player to replace the retired Cliff Williams.

Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose stepped in as guest singer for AC/DC in 2016 after Johnson was told by doctors to stop touring immediately or risk total hearing loss.

The full list of tour dates is as follows:

17-May Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Veltins Arena
21-May Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Veltins Arena
25-May Reggio Emilia, Italy, RCF
29-May Seville, Spain La Cartuja Stadium
05-June Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Johan Cruyff Arena
09-June Munich, Germany, Olympic Stadium
12-June Munich, Germany, Olympic Stadium
16-June Dresden, Germany, Messe
23-June Vienna, Austria, Ernst Happel Stadium
26-June Vienna, Austria, Ernst Happel Stadium
29-June Zurich, Switzerland, Letzigrund Stadium
03-July London, England, Wembley Stadium
07-July London, England, Wembley Stadium
13-July Hockenheim, Germany, Ring
17-July Stuttgart, Germany, Wasen
21-July Bratislava, Slovakia, Old Airport
27-July Nuremberg, Zeppelinfeld
31-July Hannover, Messe
09-August Dessel/Werchter, Festival Grounds/park
13-August Paris, France, Hippodrome
17-August Dublin, Ireland, Croke Park

 


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Foo Fighters confirm US stadium tour for 2024

Foo Fighters have become the latest act to confirm a 2024 stadium tour, announcing a slate of US dates for next summer.

The Everything or Not at All outing will take in New York’s Citi Field (17 & 19 July), Boston Fenway Park (21 July), Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey (23 July), Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark (25 July) and Target Field, Minneapolis (28 July).

It will then stop at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver (3 August), Petco Park, San Diego (7 August), BMO Stadium in Los Angeles (9 & 11 August), Portland’s Providence Park Soccer Stadium (16 August) and T-Mobile Park, Seattle (18 August). Support acts will include Pretenders, The Hives, Mammoth WVH, Amyl and The Sniffers, Alex G and L7.

The American band will also embark on a stadium tour of Australia and New Zealand from November 2023 to January 2024, with a slate of UK dates lined up in June in Birmingham, Cardiff, London, Glasgow and Manchester.

Other artists to have stadium dates locked in so far for 2024 include Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Morgan Wallen, Pink and Metallica

The Foos, whose 2017/18 Concrete and Gold Tour grossed $114 million from 113 dates, released their 11th studio album But Here We Are – their first since the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins – back in June.

The Dave Grohl-fronted group will play their first concert in the UAE next month with a headline performance at the Yasalam After-Race Concerts at F1’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend at Etihad Park on 26 November. The event, which will also feature Tiësto and Ava Max, is being presented by Middle East-based live entertainment powerhouse Ethara.

Other artists to have stadium dates locked in so far for 2024 include Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Morgan Wallen, Pink and Metallica.

 


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Def Leppard & Motley Crue extend blockbuster tour

Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe’s co-headline tour was the biggest North American stadium run of 2022 – and now they’ve announced a sequel for 2023.

Originally planned for 2020 before being delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, The Stadium Tour run, promoted by Live Nation, sold more than 1.3 million tickets this year for a gross of US$173.5 million (€165m).

And having already unveiled a number of European and Latin American dates for next year, the rock legends have now announced a further string of US dates with special guest Alice Cooper, kicking off on 5 August at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, New York.

The bands hit Latin America in February, followed by a string of European concerts and festival slots from May to July. The trek is currently due to climax at the Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso, Texas on 18 August.

“After finally getting back on the road this past summer, we’re beyond thrilled to bring this massive tour to a global audience”

“After finally getting back on the road this past summer, we’re beyond thrilled to bring this massive tour to a global audience including some special dates in America!” says Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott.

Def Leppard celebrated their 45th anniversary this year, while Mötley Crüe – who reached a new generation of fans with their 2019 Netflix biopic The Dirt – toasted their 40th anniversary last year.

“We had an incredible time playing The Stadium Tour in North America this summer and we truly can’t wait to take the show around the globe with The World Tour in 2023,” add Mötley Crüe in a joint statement.

The full list of confirmed shows is as follows:

10-11 February: Atlantic City, NJ Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena

18 February: Mexico City, Mexico Foro Sol

21 February: Monterrey, Mexico Estadio Banorte

25 February: Bogota, Colombia Parque Simon Bolivar

28 February: Lima, Peru Estadio Nacional

3 March: Santiago, Chile Estadio Bicentenario de La Florida

7 March: Sao Paulo, Brazil Allianz Parque

22 May: Sheffield, UK Bramall Lane

25 May: Mönchengladbach, Germany SparkassenPark

27 May: Munich, Germany Koenigsplatz

29 May: Budapest, Hungary MVM Dome

31 May: Krakow, Poland Tauron Arena Kraków

2 June: Prague, Czech Republic Prague Rocks

3 June: Hannover, Germany Expo Plaza

7 June: Solvesborg, Sweden Sweden Rock Festival

9 June: Hyvinkää, Finland RockFest

11 June: Trondheim, Norway Trondheim Rocks

14 June: Copenhagen, Denmark Copenhell

18 June: Dessel, Belgium Graspop Metal Meeting

20 June: Milan, Italy Ippodromo SNAI San Siro

23 June: Lisbon, Portugal Passeio Maritimo de Alges

24 June: Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Spain Auditorio Miguel Ríos

27 June: Thun, Switzerland Stockhorn Arena

1 July: London, UK Wembley Stadium

2 July: Lytham, UK Lytham Festival

4 July: Dublin, Ireland Marlay Park

6 July: Glasgow, UK Hampden Park

5 August: Syracuse, NY JMA Wireless Dome

8 August: Columbus, OH Ohio Stadium

11 August: Fargo, ND Fargodome

13 August: Omaha, NE Charles Schwab Field Omaha

16 August: Tulsa, OK H.A. Chapman Stadium

18 August: El Paso, TX Sun Bowl Stadium

 


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Machine Gun Kelly’s US tour wraps at 425k tickets

The North American leg of Machine Gun Kelly’s Mainstream Sellout Tour has wrapped up with more than 425,000 tickets sold.

The 41-show run reached its climax this past weekend with a sold-out hometown concert at the FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio.

It capped a weekend of festivities that turned the entire city pink to celebrate the 32-year-old star.

For only the second time, Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame had hosted an official tailgate event. The Machine Gun Kelly Pre-Show Tailgate Party featuring Tri-C High School Rock Off winning artist Detention, with additional local performers including DJ Ace, Montage, Seeing Scarlet, Little G Fresh and the Cleveland Youth Orchestra, who also joined Kelly onstage at his concert later that evening.

Produced by Live Nation, the 15-stop European leg kicks off on 17 September at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne

Inside the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame building was a display with MGK’s signed signature pink guitar and a piece from his tour wardrobe. Earlier in the day at The 27 Club, the Mayor of Cleveland hosted a special press conference officially declaring 13 August “Machine Gun Kelly Day”.

The North American leg included several sold-out shows, including Madison Square Garden in New York, TD Garden in Boston, and Honda Center in Anaheim. Special guests  included Avril Lavigne, Travis Barker, Blackbear, Trippie Redd, Willow, Iann Dior, Pvris and 44phantom.

Throughout the run, Kelly partnered with 12 charity organisations, providing them with tickets for their students and musicians.

Produced by Live Nation, the 15-stop European leg kicks off on 17 September at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, making stops in Prague, Brussels, Frankfurt, Munich, Milan, Zurich, Paris, London, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Dublin, before concluding at AFAS Live in Amsterdam on 12 October.

 


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Man dies in escalator fall after Weeknd concert

A 32-year-old man died after reportedly plunging 40ft from an escalator following the opening night of The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn stadium tour in Philadelphia.

The incident took place at Lincoln Financial Field at 10.47pm last Thursday (14 July). Police say the man, whose identity has not yet been released, had been sitting on the escalator rail before he fell and suffered major head trauma. He was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead just after midnight on Friday.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that no foul play is suspected and the fall appears to have been accidental.

Bob Lange, SVP of communications for the Philadelphia Eagles, which operates the stadium, told the Inquirer he believed the concert was over and people were leaving at the time of the incident. Tour promoter Live Nation is yet to comment.

The preceding show marked the belated start of The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn global stadium run, which was previously rescheduled three separate times due to the pandemic.

The tour’s scheduled opening night at Toronto’s Rogers Centre in Canada was postponed due to a power outage

The tour’s scheduled opening night in Canada was postponed due to a power outage. The singer-songwriter’s 8 July hometown show at Toronto’s Rogers Centre was pulled after telecoms giant Rogers Communications, which owns the 55,000-cap venue, experienced a major service outage affecting more than 12 million users.

According to The Globe and Mail, the network failure impacted critical venue operations, including security, point-of-sale functions and ticket processing. Live Nation says it was impossible to even open the doors to the venue.

Live Nation-promoted shows by Keith Urban and Roger Waters were able to go ahead at Budweiser Stage and Scotiabank Arena, respectively.

A spokesperson for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns and operates Scotiabank Arena, told the publication the outage mostly affected access to mobile tickets, prompting the venue to provide free Wi-Fi on site as a solution, while Waters’ performance was delayed to accommodate delayed ticket-holders.

The Weeknd’s After Hours tour was originally scheduled to hit arenas in June 2020

Rogers president and CEO Tony Staffieri apologised in a message to customers.

“We now believe we’ve narrowed the cause to a network system failure following a maintenance update in our core network, which caused some of our routers to malfunction,” he said. “We disconnected the specific equipment and redirected traffic, which allowed our network and services to come back online over time as we managed traffic volumes returning to normal levels.”

The Weeknd’s After Hours tour was originally scheduled to hit 105 arena dates beginning June 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic – first to 2021 then January 2022 and finally to summer 2022. Retooled as the After Hours Til Dawn stadium tour, the North American leg is slated to wrap up with a two-night stand at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium from 2-3 September, with international dates still to be announced.

The rejuvenated tour came after The Weeknd scored the longest-charting Billboard Hot 100 song of all time with Blinding Lights and the second longest-running No.1 album on the Billboard 200 for 2020 with After Hours.

 


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Foos confirm Oz/NZ tour after Always Live launch

Foo Fighters have confirmed a 2022 stadium tour of Australia and New Zealand after kicking off Always Live, an initiative envisioned by the late Michael Gudinski to revitalise Victoria’s live music scene.

Last Friday (4 March), the US band become the first international act to play a stadium show in Australia since the pandemic began, performing a sold-out, one-off concert to 30,000 fans at the GMHBA Stadium in Geelong, Victoria.

They have now announced their first headline tour of the region since 2018. Promoted by Frontier Touring, the rockers will visit Perth’s HBF Park (30 November), Aami Park, Melbourne (4 December), Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane (10 December), Accor Stadium, Sydney (12 December) in Australia.

They will then head to New Zealand for shows at Sky Stadium, Wellington (15 December) and Auckland’s Western Springs Stadium (17 December).

More events will be announced shortly for Always Live, a series of shows intended to bring music fans into Melbourne and regional Victoria and help to support local jobs and tourism businesses.

“Always Live was a passion project for my dad to ensure Victoria continued to be recognised as the music capital of Australia”

Gudinski, one of the best-known and most-loved figures in the concert business down under, passed away unexpectedly last year.

“Always Live was a passion project for my dad to ensure Victoria continued to be recognised as the music capital of Australia, and Melbourne as one of the leading music cities in the world,” said Gudinski’s son, Always Live chair Matt Gudinski.

“Dad worked tirelessly over many years to bring his vision and concept to life and to obtain the support of the Victorian government. The initiative has been in the works for a long time and has been impacted by Covid-19 leading to several postponements of its launch and delivery.

“I’m honoured to be part of now making it a reality at a time when the live music scene needs all the support it can get. The focus of this year’s instalment of Always Live is reinvigorating and reconnecting the state through the power of live music.”

Australia recently reopened its international border for the first time in nearly two years. The country imposed some of the world’s strictest travel bans after shutting itself off in March 2020 due to Covid.

 


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Six60 to set new stadium record in New Zealand

–New Zealand band Six60 will set a new record for the most amount of NZ stadiums visited during one tour.

The tour will kick off in March 2022, visiting six stadiums including Rotorua International Stadium (cap. 34,000) in Rotorua, Forsyth Barr Stadium (30,700) in Dunedin, Orangetheory Stadium (18,000) in Christchurch and Sky Stadium (34,000) in Wellington.

The 2022 jaunt will also visit Napier’s Mclean Park (19,700), where the band will make history as the first act to play at the sports ground.

The 2022 jaunt will also visit Napier’s Mclean Park, where the band will make history as the first act to play at the ground

The tour will conclude with a concert at Auckland’s Eden Park (50,000), a year after Six60 became the first band to headline the stadium with their sold-out concert in April.

The Eden Park show was also the world’s largest concert since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ahead of next year’s tour, Six60 are encouraging fans to get their jabs to ensure they don’t miss out on next year’s dates, as vaccine passports will be mandatory for anyone in the country wanting to attend live music events.

The introduction of vaccine passports has divided the country’s live music industry, with some promoters insisting certification will be the key to summer festivals and others warning it’ll create a ‘two-tier’ society.

 


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