Dave Matthews Band Announce Australian Tour

Australia Tour Official.

The band has announced their mini-tour Down Under, by way of an e-mail to their mailing list. The e-mail states that "tickets for the other DMB dates will go on sale to the general public in Australia on Monday, February 7, 2005," indicating that tickets will not be made available through the Warehouse, or even through American ticketing agencies, presumably giving Australians a far better shot at gaining admission to these small venues than would-be globe-trotting Americans.

The Australian tour dates are as follows:
Mon / Mar 21 / Palais Theatre / Melbourne (St. Kilda)
Wed / Mar 23 / QPAC Concert Hall / Brisbane
Thu / Mar 24 / East Coast Blues and Roots Festival, Byron Bay
Sat / Mar 26 / State Theatre / Sydney

Tickets and information for the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival areavailable at www.bluesfest.com.au. Single day festival tickets will go on sale in Australia on Tuesday, February 1, 2005. Tickets for the otherDMB dates will go on sale to the general public in Australia on Monday,February 7, 2005.

Ben Folds New Album News

It's official ..... Ben is back with his first full new album since 9/11!

* It's called Songs for Silverman and will be out April 26!

* "Landed", the first single, is already on some radio stations (if it's not on yours...call them and request "Landed"). It officially goes on the air and online digital stores February 1!

* We are remastering Whatever And Ever Amen and adding 7 lost classic bonus tracks...out March 22!! Stay tuned for more details on all!

Garrett keeps politics out of Wave Aid

Midnight Oil lead singer turned-politician Peter Garrett told last night's Wave Aid concert in Sydney that he may have performed with the band for the last time.

The band was the closing act at last night's Wave Aid concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground, which has raised at least $2 million for tsunami relief.
But Mr Garrett refused to be drawn on questions about his role in the Labor Party or whether he had invited the newly-elected Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley to watch the show.
He says the night was about raising money for tsunami relief.
"Look, today was all about Wave Aid and the Oils coming together to do something really good," he said.
"It was on that basis that we came to the stage to play and it was on that basis that we're sort of here, doing this press conference."

During the performance Mr Garrett said he was probably the only Labor MP performing live that night, but refused to comment afterwards on the state of the Labor Party.
"Mate, I'm not gonna duck and weave, I'm just gonna honour the moment, you know?" he said.
"Tonight is actually about Wave Aid, it's actually about a bunch of Australian performers coming together, it's about all the crews, about the caterers, it's about the security people, it's about everybody that volunteered.

"It's about us getting up and me being lucky enough to be able to get up with the guys I played with for so many years in a band that meant more to me than anything else."

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE BEER.

You can now vote for your favourite beer by pressing the "Vote" button below. It will take you directly to the comments section.

Your vote doesn't have to be for one of the beers pictured above.

----View the current standings. ----

WAVE AID To Be Broadcast On Radio and Pay TV

With ticket sales expected to reach 48, 000 the event is well on track. Event organisers have secured delayed broadcasts with both Triple J (nationally) and Triple M (Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne) as well as FOXTEL and AUSTAR. In a television first highlights of WAVEAID will air Sunday 30 January from 7-11pm EST across eight Australian subscription TV channels. Airing simultaneously on FOX8, Arena TV, Channel [V], MAX, Club [V], MTV, VH1 and the Country Music Channel.

Stay tuned for more news as it comes to hand

PISS BEER

Aussies have been on the piss, getting pissed, drinking piss, drinking more piss and, most definitely, taking the piss for the past two hundred years. The amazing thing is none of us thought to bottle it earlier. (Too busy getting pissed, probably.)

Piss first came to life in 1998 as the house beer at popular Melbourne watering hole, the Great Britain Hotel. Like big volume Aussie brews such as Fosters and XXXX, Piss is a simple lager style beer. Unlike the mass market brews, our Piss is preservative free and made with all natural ingredients. - Piss shot to national prominence in mid 1999 when a couple of freelance admen, Greg Wilmott and Giovanni Lovisetto, mocked up a series of TV ads for a show reel they were putting together and, in the great aussie tradition of taking the piss, pitched it to the major dailies as a full blown launch.

Upon its "launch", Piss received praise and scorn in almost equal measure. The nations most respected talkback radio host referred to it as "part of our moral decline" just one month before being exposed in a "cash for comments" deal he had going with the major banks. Our trading name, the Pi55 Beer Co, came about because the regulators would not have us lowering the tone by registering Piss as a company name. (Sure, they can use names like Enron, One Tel and HIH for that!) And to date, the major distributors have refused to carry the brand but surely not, as one state manager suggested, because they "wouldn't want to jeopardise their relationship with the major breweries"…

Despite these early setbacks, public support for Piss has been unwavering. A joke started doing the rounds about a year after our first release that we were going to bring out a light beer called Piss Weak. In no time a number of our regular stockists began calling with orders they needed filled. After three or four months it became clear that if we didn't come up with the goods someone else would. So our second label literally materialised around us. Such is the Australian appetite for a beer and a good laugh!

Curb Your Enthusiasm DVD

Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 3 has just been released in America on DVD.
If you have never seen this show and are lucky enough to have Foxtel, look out for it on Saturday nights on the Comedy Channel.

Co-creator of Seinfeld, Larry David has a charmed life--success, famous friends, a patient wife, a dedicated manager and a trendy new restaurant...so what's his problem? See Larry spike some brownies, recommend a deranged nanny, thwart an Alanis Morissette concert, rob a grave and get a kid drunk. Along the way he encounters Martin Scorsese, Cheri Oteri, Richard Lewis, Krazee-Eyez Killa, and the Holy Family...and manages to piss them all off.

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Series 1.-------------------- Series 2.-------------------- Series 3.

Hird Astounds Fitness Staff

Just when you thought he couldn’t get any fitter, couldn’t drive his body any harder, Essendon captain James Hird comes out and runs a personal best time for a 3.2km time trial around Princes Park. Hird astounded Essendon fitness staff earlier this week running a 15-second personal best and in the process made a mockery of those who think physically, we have seen the best of the Essendon champion.

"Right now he is as good - if not better - than he has ever been and the trip to Ireland with the Australian team hasn’t had any adverse effect on his preparation for the upcoming season," Essendon fitness coach John Quinn said. "He has not missed a session during the pre-season and has done everything asked of him. He is training like a new recruit."

But Hird isn’t the only Bomber flying with more than half the group running personal best times in the post-Xmas time trial.
"Kepler Bradley did a 34-second personal best for the 3.2km time trial which is fantastic. Ted Richards beat his best time by 45 seconds and was just a few seconds behind Mark Bolton who is generally the benchmark for us," Quinn said.

"Matthew Lloyd broke 11 minutes for the time trial for the first time ever which is a great result for someone of his shape and size – I can’t imagine any other full forward now or prior who could run around Princes Park in sub 11 minutes."

Quinn said the players had been asked to come back with improved skinfold measurements off the Christmas break and that all bar two players had done just that.
"Jay Nash improved his skinfolds by 15% which is a terrific effort and not surprisingly he reaped the benefits of that in our testing. He ran a personal best by 15 seconds for the 3.2km time trial, he did personal best for the 5m, 10m and 20m sprints – all three times the best of anyone at the club – and he also did a personal best in the beep test – he is in great condition."

BLUES & ROOTS MUSIC FESTIVAL

More amazing artists added to The 16th Annual International East Coast Blues and Roots Music Festival

The second round of artists scheduled to perform at the 16th Annual International East Coast Blues and Roots Music Festival is today announced, making 2005 a truly stunning line-up.

Get a load of these great names added to the festival line up:Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews Band, Angelique Kidjo, Sarah McLachlan, John Butler Trio, The Wailers, The Beautiful Girls, Fred Eaglesmith, Roy Ayers, Ernest Ranglin, The Waifs, G. Love and Special Sauce, Violent Femmes, Michael Jerome Browne, Missy Higgins, Nessa Morgan, Cubanismo, Los Mocosos, Gomez, Eugene 'Hideaway' Bridges, Jeff Lang, Steve Arvey, Mia Dyson, Bomba, Butterfly Boucher, Bright Eyes, Ian Moss, Jimmy Barnes, Fruit, Pilate, Joel Turner and The Modern Day Poets, Chris Whitley, Ash Grunwald, Sonia Dada, Vassy, Monkey Boy, The Others, Guy Davis, Wiley Reed, Andy Cowan, plus Music Maker Presents - Pura Fe, George Higgs, Willie 'Sonny' King, Albert White, Beverly 'Guitar' Watkins.

Its no surprise the East Coast Blues and Roots Music Festival is considered to be one of the best music festivals on the planet, having been nominated in the category of Music Festival Of The Year in the 2004 Pollstar Concert Industry Awards held in North America annually. Other nominees include such prestigious events as Glastonbury, Montreaux and V Festival, among others.
This is the first time an Australian festival has been nominated.Extraordinary artists continue to wow audiences every year in Byron Bay, itself among the most beautiful and idyllic settings in the country. Five and three day passes to the festival are selling quickly and one day tickets will be available from February 1st.
To recap, here's the blistering array of blues, soul and roots legends already announced back in December 2004: George Clinton Parliament/Funkadelic, Solomon Burke, Bebel Gilberto, John Lee Hooker Jr., Bo Diddley, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Eric Bibb, Kasey Chambers, Anne McCue, The Cat Empire, Janis Ian, The Frames, George Thorogood, Luka Bloom, and The Whitlams.

The above text was taken directly from The Wampy Portal.

WAVE AID, NOT SOLD OUT!!

After selling out of the allocated tickets for the Waveaid concert at the SGC on 29th Jan in less than 4 hours.
The powers that be have found 4000 more tickets, to go on sale today, Sat 22nd Jan at 9am."

WAVEAID SOLDOUT

Tix To WAVEAID...All GONE!
If you were planning on getting along to WAVEAID at the SCG on January 29, think again...tix to the all-Oz star-studded concert have completely sold out! If you got lucky and scored one, check out the running order and stage times for the day here...

With an all star-studded lineup including Midnight Oil, Silverchair, Powderfinger, Nick Cave, John Butler Trio, Pete Murray and more, it's no wonder ticketek.com.au all but nearly crashed yesterday when thousands of eager punters logged on to buy tickets to the next week's WAVEAID concert at the SCG!! The concert's entire ticket allocation was completely exhausted within hours of going on sale at 9am and while that might be bad news for fans who missed out on getting them, it's brilliant news for the collective of Australian charity organisations who will receive equal shares of funds raised from ticket sales, to continue providing aid to the millions of victims affected by the Asian tsunami disaster.

For those of you that DID manage to get your hands on a ticket to this phenonmenal one-off gig, the on-stage times and running order for WAVEAID are:

WAVEAID - Saturday January 29 Sydney Cricket Ground From 2.00pm - 10.30pm. Gates open at 12 midday. Acoustic sets with 15min changeovers 2:00 - 2:30pm : The Waifs (30 mins)- full band 2:45 - 3:15pm : Missy Higgins (30 mins) 3:30 - 3:50pm : Nick Cave (20 mins) 4:05 - 4:35pm : Kasey Chambers (30 mins) 4:50 - 5:20pm : Pete Murray (30 mins) - electric 5:35 - 6:05pm : The Finn Brothers (30 mins) Electric sets with 20min changeovers 6:25 - 6:40pm: The Wrights - Evie 1, 11, 111 (15 mins) 7:00 - 7:40pm: John Butler Trio (40 mins) 8:00 - 8:40pm: Silverchair (40 mins) 9:00 - 9:40pm: Powderfinger (40 mins) 10:00 - 10:40pm: Midnight Oil (40 mins)

** Line up subject to change without notice at any time**