After two massive sold out Melbourne shows last year, GOLD104.3 and Empire Touring are thrilled to announce, for the second year running, the PURE GOLD LIVE concert series. This year will be bigger than before and deliver your favourite superstar acts from the 70s, 80s and 90s at Melbourne’s iconic Palais Theatre on Friday, 13th May, 2016.
PURE GOLD LIVE will be a super three hours, full of hits & performances from seventeen of Australia’s most well-loved 70s, 80s and 90s acts. PURE GOLD LIVE saw its first incarnation in Sydney in 2014, which was presented by ARN’s Sydney station WSFM. The event was so successful, that it rolled out across the country in 2015 and since then, this series of concerts has now established itself as one of the most popular and successful live shows in the country.
GOLD104.3 is thrilled to be presenting PURE GOLD LIVE, hosted by Jo Stanley and Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann from Jo Stanley & Lehmo for breakfast on GOLD104.3. Lehmo said “introducing all my favourite bands from the 80s was a dream come true. I’ve never before seen an entire audience sing every word, to every song for a full 3 hours! It was a proper party.”
We can now unveil the following acts…
Known for enduring hits such as That’s When I Think of You, Compulsory Hero, To Love Me, Scars, Don’t Forget Me, and, of course, If I Could, 1927 made a devastating entry into the ears of its listeners with the Quintuple Platinum selling album …ish in 1988, which earned the band a slew of ARIA Awards as well as a lot of fans along the way. Following up …ish with the multi-platinum second album The Otherside, a self-titled third album, and countless live shows at home and abroad, the last couple of decades have certainly earned 1927 legendary status. Not content to rest on their laurels, after more than ten years, 1927 released a new studio album Generation in 2013.
DEBORAH CONWAY is a significant and eloquent contributor to Australian music, singing songs that chronicle the essential elements of life, love, loss, memory, the mundane and the spiritual. From the moment her band, Do Re Mi released the iconic Man Overboard, off their debut album Domestic Harmony in 1985, DEBORAH CONWAY has always followed her own path. Conway’s debut solo album String of Pearls, released in 1991, was a radical departure from Do Re Mi with its themes of youthful reflection and tongue-in-cheek irreverence, embodied in It’s Only The Beginning, Release Me and the bittersweet title track, won her the ARIA Award for Best Female Artist that year. A rare female agitator in a time when the music industry was male dominated, DEBORAH CONWAY continues to be a role model for young women and a mentor to emerging artists.
DALE RYDER formed Boom Crash Opera in 1985 and they quickly became one of the hottest live acts in the country. The release of their first single Great Wall was a huge smash hit and then the albums and hits just kept coming; Hands Up in the Air, Onion Skin, The Best Thing and Dancing In the Storm were all staples of radio stations across the country. DALE RYDER is without doubt one of the most charismatic front men in the country, gathering accolades and awards along the way
In 1979, WENDY STAPLETON signed with Mushroom Records and formed pub rock band, WENDY AND THE ROCKETTS, touring Australia and overseas with acts including Bryan Adams, ZZ Top and Hall & Oates.. Her self-penned single Play The Game went to No. 2 on the National Charts. In June 1981, they released Reputation which peaked at No. 40 on the ARIA charts. Wendy and the Rocketts, have always been renowned for their live performances.
REAL LIFE formed in Melbourne during the early 80’s. After working six nights a week, building a local following for a couple of years, they released their first record Send Me An Angel, from their first album, Heartland. The song was a big hit in most parts of the world. Other singles from that album were Openhearted, Catch Me I’m Falling and Always. REAL LIFE released their second and final album with the original line-up in 1985 titled Flame, which spawned some hits including Face To Face.
EUROGLIDERS took the charts by storm in the 1980s. Audiences were blown away, and Grace Knight captivated fans with her ‘manic ballerina’ stage persona. In 1984, EUROGLIDERS released their album This Island, which spawned their No. 2 hit single, Heaven (Must Be There). Heaven also peaked at No. 21 on the United States Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, and appeared on the Hot 100. Another Australian top ten album, Absolutely, followed in 1985, which provided three further top ten singles, We Will Together, The City of Soul and Can’t Wait to See You. Grace and Bernie, along with their superb band, have reunited to once again captivate audiences with their sophisticated and high-energy brand of pop.
KIDS IN THE KITCHEN took Australian audiences by storm, which saw them rise to the top of the charts, as their music stood squarely within the New Romantic movement that dominated the music scene in the mid-1980’s. Forming in Melbourne in 1983, KIDS IN THE KITCHEN enjoyed strong chart success with four Top 20 hits on the Australian Singles Chart, “Change in Mood” (1983), “Bitter Desire” (1984), “Something That You Said” and “Current Stand” (both 1985). The related album, Shine (20 May 1985), reached No. 9 on the Australian Album Chart.
PAUL NORTON started playing bass in various bands, which led to the formation of Melbourne band The Runners, who were signed to Mushroom Records in 1981 and released their first hit single Sure Fire Thing in 1982. He went on to play with Wendy & The Rocketts, Steve Hoy and the Hoy Boys before launching his successful solo career in 1988. PAUL NORTON then released his first hit single Stuck On You which received immediate airplay and reached No. 2 on the Australian charts. Paul then went to London, to work with producers Paul Muggleton and Mike Paxman on his next single, I Got You and the album Under A Southern Sky (the song Southern Sky was later chosen for Australia Day Celebrations at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney).
SHANE HOWARD is one of Australia’s most important and influential writers and singers – he combines a deep understanding of poetic & musical folk traditions, as well as capturing something essential of the spirit of Australia, through his words and music. Shane was the founding member of legendary band, Goanna, who released three albums. Spirit Of Place, released in 1982, was the first Australian album to go to the top of the charts in its first week of release. The album spawned the powerful and iconic hit song, Solid Rock, which to this day, still continues to be heard across the airwaves. SHANE HOWARD went on to release solo albums and has gained an incredible amount of accolades for his contribution to the folk & indigenous communities, as well as human right campaigns across the country. He was awarded a Fellowship by the Australian Council for the Arts in 2000, in recognition for his contribution to Australian musical life.
MOVING PICTURES’ seminal debut album, Days of Innocence, came out in October, 1981 and went to No. 1 in February the following year. In January 1982 they released their single, What About Me, which reached No. 1 here in Australia, No. 29 on the American Billboard Hot 100 and appeared on the associated year-end Hot 100 list for 1983. In October 1983 MOVING PICTURES released their second album, Matinee, reaching No. 16 with their non-album single, Never, appearing on two major motion picture soundtracks – Footloose and Hot Rod. By the end of 1987, the group had disbanded reuniting again in 2005, 2011 and 2013. Lead singer, Alex Smith, has been living in the UK for the past 21 years where he works in special needs education using music to help children with profound and complex needs to communicate.
PSEUDO ECHO formed in 1982, releasing their first album, Autumnal Park, in 1984 which skyrocketed the band to household name status across the country. Their second album, Love an Adventure, spawned another string of hits including its title track, Don’t Go, Try, Living in a Dream and their remake of the Lipps, Inc. song Funkytown, which brought the group their biggest international success and spent seven weeks at No. 1 in Australia from December 1986. In 2012 Pseudo Echo celebrated their 30th anniversary and this year released their sixth studio album, Ultraviolet.
When he was 16 he inveigled his way into a Sydney hotel to hang out with the Rolling Stones. From that day on, RICHARD CLAPTON knew he was going to be a rock star. It’s now almost 50 years since that fateful day -years filled with a lifetime of incredible experiences, outrageous good times and a catalogue of iconic and timeless songs. Through the glory years of rock ‘n’ roll, in cities as varied as London, Berlin, Sydney, Los Angeles and Paris, Richard forged his own career and built up a significant body of work while living, loving and partying with the biggest names in the Australian and international music world. For 40 years, Richard Clapton has been, above all else, a songwriter-a wry observer of human behaviour and an astute commentator on the Australian condition. His best songs- Deep Water, The Best Years of Our Lives, Goodbye Tiger, Glory Road, Lucky Country, Girls on the Avenue, Trust Somebody and Capricorn Dancer – capture the essence of this country and the meaning of our lives like few others.
SEAN KELLY started his career in the early 70s as lead singer of Teenage Radio Stars and is best known as lead singer of Models, who formed in 1978 and had a run of massive hits including the Number 1 hit Out Of Mind Out Of Sight, Barbados, I Hear Motion and Big On Love. Models disbanded in 1988 and Sean formed Absent Friends with Wendy Matthews, James Valentine and Garry Gary Beers of INXS, the band had a massive hit with ARIA award winning song I Don’t Want To Be With Nobody But You. Sean then went on to form The Dukes whose debut album was nominated for an Album of the Year ARIA award. Since that time on various occasions line ups of the Models have reformed and in 2010 Models were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Born and raised in Nelson on New Zealand’s South Island, SHARON O’NEILL, first began performing around the area with her acoustic guitar in the late 1960s before going on to be crowned Top Female Vocalist in the NZ Music Awards for three years running (1978, 1979, 1980) and heading across the ditch to Australia. With hits on both sides of the Tasman with Words and Don’t Let Love Go, SHARON O’NEILL, truly burst into our consciousness with Maxine, the super hit from her 1983 release Foreign Affairs, chronicling the life of a Kings Cross prostitute. It was a contractual dispute in the early 80s that forced Sharon to stop recording and focus on song writing leading to her writing for the hit ABC series, Sweet and Sour, including the title track, as well as songs for Dragon and Robert Palmer.
It’s a unique band that finds itself cherished as a bona fide legend in the ARIA Hall of Fame while remaining a virtual enigma to the world that knows its name but the church, led by the enigmatic STEVE KILBEY, is just that. Since arriving in Australia half a century ago, STEVE KILBEY has forged a unique and frighteningly individual stream of musical thoughts including the church’s accidental signature tune, Under The Milky Way, being sung along with him by countless Australians. A songwriter of many musical tongues, STEVE KILBEY – band singer, songwriter and bassist, painter, writer, poet, actor, sage, dispenser of arcane wisdom, and much loved national treasure – has created an all-embracing artistic universe of unearthly beauty.
John ‘SWANEE’ Swan is a blue blood of the Australian rock scene. In 1978 he released his first album ‘Into the Night’ but his first major chart success was a rendition of Tim Hardin’s If I Were a Carpenter from the album ‘This Time It’s Different’. Success with the next two singles from the album immediately followed. Lady What’s Your Name and Temporary Heartache both screamed up the charts. SWANEE played all over the country, winning new fans wherever he went. He built a reputation as one of the best and most respected rock n roll singers in the country. Along came the Party Boys self-titled album which went number one in 3 weeks due to the success of the number one single He’s Gonna Step On You Again and top 10 hits Hold Your Head Up and Gloria.
WA WA NEE broke the Australian tradition of pub rock in the mid-’80s with a combination of expertly packaged funk-pop, designed for a mass audience. WA WA NEE’s ascent of the Australian charts began with the April 1986 release of the single Stimulation, which peaked nationally at No. 2 on the Singles Chart. Three further singles also made the Australian Top 20 and their self-titled debut album yielded platinum sales of over 70,000 and a Top 30 hit in the US with Sugar Free. Sadly the band called it quits in 1988 though founding member, Paul Gray, has continued working as an in-demand writer, producer and musician between reformation shows.
PURE GOLD LIVE
FEATURING:
1927
Deborah Conway
Dale Ryder
Real Life
Eurogliders
Kids In The Kitchen
Moving Pictures
Paul Norton
Pseudo Echo
Richard Clapton
Shane Howard
Sean Kelly
Sharon O’Neill
Steve Kilbey
Swanee
Wendy Stapleton
Wa Wa Nee
FRIDAY, 13TH MAY 2016
PALAIS THEATRE, LOWER ESPLANADE, ST KILDA
Tickets on sale from Monday, 15th February at 9.00am
www.ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100
