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Face To Face Touring

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FeaturedNews
August 21, 2024
Megan Milner

TINA ARENA & RICHARD MARX ANNOUNCE ADDITIONAL SHOWS

Face to Face Touring are thrilled to announce additional shows with Australian music icon Tina Arena live in concert alongside co-headline Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, producer and cultural touchstone, Richard Marx. They will be performing with special guests including Oz music legends Daryl Braithwaite, Kate Ceberano, Southern Sons, and 1927.

This live music experience will be dazzling, with a star-studded line-up and stacks of beloved hits performed live and under the stars. Get ready for a spectacular endless summer night of live music that will make memories.

Tina Arena is one of Australia’s highest selling artists of all time, selling more than 10 million albums worldwide. Her landmark second solo album Don’t Ask was released in 1994 which included one of her biggest hit singles to date Chains. The song cemented Tina Arena’s status as a powerhouse in the global music landscape with its hauntingly crafted lyrics and emotionally charged vocals that only she can deliver. The album has become one of Australia’s biggest selling of all time. It gained ten x ARIA Award nominations and won five including ‘Album of the Year’.

Richard Marx is a prolific singer, songwriter and producer whose career spans four decades long and boasts an extensive list of accolades. He has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and to this day, remains the only male artist in history to have his first seven singles reach the Top 5 on the Billboard charts. Over the course of his stellar career, hehas written and produced hits for a roster of artists that include Keith Urban, Hugh Jackman, Josh Groban, Barbara Streisand, Kenny Rogers, *NSYNC and Luther Vandross, of which he and Vandross won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year for Dance With My Father.

Richard Marx’ influence remains steadfast in popular culture today, having written, performed and released countless worldwide No. 1 albums. These include the self-titled debut Richard Marx, as well as Repeat Offender and Rush Street, all of which have spawned massive hits such as Hold On To The Night, Should Have Known Better, Don’t Mean Nothing, Endless Summer Nights, Satisfied, Right Here Waiting, Keep Coming Back and Hazard. Over the decades, these songs became staple tracks that continue to dominate airwaves globally and in turn, have stood the test of time. Marx has achieved a seven-year string of triumphs that rivalled any in pop-rock music history.

Daryl Braithwaite is an iconic Australian singer/songwriter and ARIA Hall Of Fame Inductee. As the frontman and vocalist for the 1970s band Sherbet, Braithwaite rode a wave of local and international success with songs such as Howzat and Summer Love propelling the band to superstar status.

Braithwaite went on to embark on a highly successful solo career which included a No. 1 ARIA Album Chart for his album Edge (1988), featuring the hit singles As The Days Go By and One Summer. Braithwaite’s 1990 follow-up album Rise included the single The Horses which reached No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart and to this day remains an anthem for generations of Australians. In 2020, he joined a host of local and international artists to perform at Fire Fight Australia, Concert For National Bushfire Relief in front of an audience in excess of 70,000 at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium.

Iconic artist Kate Ceberano has been electrifying stages with her presence for over four decades. 11 platinum and 8 gold albums, 10 Top 10 albums, 15 Top 40 singles, 3 Countdown awards, 5 ARIA awards from 20 nominations (9 X for Best Female Artist) and over 6000 live performances.

I’m Talking’s platinum debut, Bear Witness, brought Kate‘s jaw-dropping voice to national attention via their five Top 20 singles and is enshrined among Rolling Stone’s Top 200 Australian Albums of all time. There’s her record-breaking run with John Farnham in Jesus Christ Superstar, her triple Platinum smash debut solo pop album Brave, her Platinum selling jazz album You’ve Always Got The Blues, her 2014 induction into the Australian Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, Kate was a force of nature from day one. Kate Ceberano. Australian entertainment royalty and a bona fide national treasure.

Southern Sons, the iconic band from the 1990s are returning to their roots and revisiting the songs that kickstarted their music careers, bringing music lovers a nostalgic journey through their timeless hits. Original members Jack Jones, Geoff Cain, and Peter ‘Reggie’ Bowman will come together to deliver an unforgettable experience, featuring chart-topping classics like Hold Me In Your Arms and Heart in Danger, among others.

Southern Sons’ debut self-titled album, which received an ARIA nomination, soared to the top of the charts, captivating audiences with hits like Heart in Danger, Hold Me In Your Arms, Always & Ever, and Waiting For That Train. The release of their first single, Heart in Danger, in 1990 solidified their position as a formidable force in the music scene, dominating charts for years to come. Their 1992 album, Nothing But The Truth, continued their streak of success, featuring singles such as Lead me To Water and You Were There. Additionally, three Southern Sons tracks were included in the acclaimed 1993 Sydney Dance Company production of Beauty & The Beast. The band’s third and final studio album, Zone, released in 1996, showcased a guest appearance by Men At Work’s Colin Hay on the lead single, Don’t Tell Me What’s Right.

Way before Australian Idol and The Voice existed, a wily kid named Eric Weideman was talent-spotted after a scorching performance on Red Faces for Hey Hey It’s Saturday! Weideman teamed up with former Moving Pictures songwriter Garry Frost, his brother Bill Frost and James Barton to form 1927.

They gigged until they were tight then landed a hit with smoky, rocking chugger That’s When I Think of You. It was the first single taken from debut album …ish (1989), followed by yearning power ballad If I Could, a song that still blindsides you with its vulnerability. They weren’t done, releasing You’ll Never Know and Compulsory Hero, all from …ish which topped the album charts and helped the band win at the 1989 ARIA Awards for Breakthrough Single and Breakthrough Album.

Next came The Other Side (1990) which went to number three on the ARIA Album charts backed by soaring pop hit Tell Me a Story. 1927 disbanded and things went quiet, but the music remained until 2009 when there was a demand for 1927, people wanted to hear them play those jams live. The demographic of the band has changed and developed. The songs have managed to reach a new generation of music fans – punters who know greatness when they hear it.

TINA ARENA & RICHARD MARX
DON’T ASK…AGAIN TOUR 2024

Saturday 23rd November

Seppeltsfield Wines, Barossa Valley SA

***Full line-up***

Tickets available at Ticketmaster

Saturday 30th November

Sandstone Point Hotel, Sandstone Point QLD

***Full line-up***

Tickets avalable at Ticketmaster

Saturday 7th December

Mornington Racecourse, Mornington VIC

***Show already announced and on-sale***
Presented by ALWAYS S LIVE and Face To Face Touring

Tickets at Ticketmaster

Monday 9th December

Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Sydney NSW

***This show features Tina Arena & Richard Marx only***

Tickets available at Sydney Opera House

Pre-Sale:

Friday 23rd August 10:00am – Monday 26th August 9:00am local time

General Public On Sale:

Monday 26th August 10:00am local time

For all tickets & tour information, please visit:

www.facetofacetouring.com.au

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Gig ReviewsReviews
April 16, 2024
Wendy Smith

[Review] Live and Incubus @ Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne 14/04/2024

When confronted with a lineup featuring Incubus and Live, I definitely thought that Incubus would have the bigger Australian fan base, having been regular visitors to our shores over the last 15 years or so (this is my 4th go round with Incubus).  So I was surprised to see Incubus coming on first and having the slightly shorter set of the two.  There is a lot to be said for a dual headlining show – all thriller, no filler and I was excited to be seeing 2 excellent bands on the one bill.

Incubus appeared just a couple of minutes after the prescribed time and there was no mistaking when charismatic frontman/heart throb Brandon Boyd took the stage as the cheer was a loud one.  Sporting long hair these days and a seriously dodgy 70’s porn star mustache which should be shaved off immediately, he nonetheless cuts a fine figure at the front of the stage.  The VIP setup for this gig was a strange one.  On each side of the stage was a little fenced off area where 20 or so excited die-hards stood awkwardly waiting for the show to start – well I guess you can’t get much closer than that for your money. 

After a short instrumental introduction, the familiar scratchy scratchy intro to Nice to Know You began with Brandon adding his breathy beat box over the top.  I love this song and from the enthusiastic singing of the assembled, I am not alone – Goodbye, nice to know you.  Following along on the all thriller, no filler theme, next up was the incomprehensible Anna Molly.  I swear I have only just discovered as I write this, that this was the song title.  For years, I thought it was Indubitably.  En-unc-iat-ion, please.

Sick Sad Little World was next featuring a long instrumental interlude which gave Brandon a chance to shake his skinny booty and brought Chris Kilmore out from behind his decks to spin what must be 30+ years of dreads in a circle headbang.   Speaking of Circles, this song from the wonderful Morning View album of 2002 was up next and gave new girl, bassist Nicole Row a chance to show her chops.

Is it my imagination or did it suddenly get very hot in here?  To the strains of The Beatles’ Come Together, Brandon shed his t-shirt and I had to remind myself that I was here for the music.  Come Together was not the only cover of this set.  Are You In morphed midway and seamlessly into Riders on the Storm from the Doors, and back again without skipping a beat.  They also did a short, sexy cover of Glory Box by Portishead, and one of my faves, Let’s Dance by David Bowie.

After a hit packed, but all too short set, Incubus finished on a definite high with the singalong favourite – Drive.  This brought Brandon and guitarist Mike Einziger down to the front of the stage for an acoustic intro.  The audience singing could be heard clearly over the music – Would you choose water over wine, hold the wheel and drive.  It was a given that the set would end with Wish You Were Here.

I Googled Live yesterday and a live version of all the music my husband and I watch on Youtube on a Saturday night over the pool table came up, but no Live the band.  I had to delve way deeper down the Google wormhole to find Live the band.  Probably a poor choice of a band name in this digital age but as they have been going in one form or another since the early 80’s when the world wide web was just a concept in an English computer lab, you can’t blame them. 

My experience with Live begins and ends with the hits.  I love me some post grunge, alternative rock (as Wikipedia describes their style) but some Live songs skirt just a wee bit close to country for my liking.  And tonight, Ed Kowalczyk explained why that is.  Hailing from York, a town in Southern Pennsylvania, an area that is known as Pennsyltucky as it shares a border with West Virginia and there to the Southern states of Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama and explains why “I talk funny” says Ed.  And yes, there is a definite southern twang in his voice.  “I hope all y’all are having a good time.” 

If anything, the floor of MCA is more tightly packed for Live than it was for Incubus.  Their set started with the radio friendly Hold Me Up, followed by the very recognizable All Over You which brought a massive singalong from the packed house which continued for Selling the Drama whose lyrics read like a passage from the bible.  Although not known as a Christian band, Christian themes seem to appear regularly in Ed’s lyrics. 

The Dolphin’s Cry was up next and has there ever been a more melodramatic song title in all of rock?!  I think not.  The mullet in a flanny sitting in front of me was in raptures and much fist pumping and finger pointing accompanied this song. 

The next song Ed says was a new one, Leave the Radio On.  It began innocently enough but after a few bars, I heard a sound that made my heart drop and my jaw clench – slide guitar.  You’ve just crossed the line.  The hits of Live with a grungy feel had always made me think that Ed Kowalczyk was more Billy Corgan than Billy Ray Cyrus but I may have been mistaken. 

The main set finished with the wonderful Lakini’s Juice.  A constant on the Triple M playlist and a masterpiece of post grunge angst.  Ed was winning me back and the 2 song encore featuring I Alone and Lightning Crashes had the mullet in a flanny, AND me leaving MCA with a smile on our faces (not together….EEEEWWW).

So my takeaways from this gig is that co-headlining tours are awesome.  Great value for money (and let’s face it, concert tickets in Australia are getting RIDICULOUSLY expensive) and shorter sets are guaranteed to be packed to the gunnels with hits and the songs the fans want to hear.  Promoters of Aus – More Please!

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