Music – Reviews Archive

Resplendent in purple sequins and high-heeled boots, 65-year-old Sir Elton John still cuts a dashing figure. He is perhaps the only 5’7” gay man capable of inciting mass hysteria by tarting it up atop a piano in top hat and tails. The enigma …

It’s not often you get to see a band this good play a venue this small. When we rock up to get in I’m gobsmacked to see they haven’t sold out this venue. I suppose they mustn’t be getting much, if any, …

“Jazz” according to acclaimed Sydney pianist Mike Nock, “is the most fun you can have with your clothes on”. Tucked away in fertile wine country between the gushing Ovens and King rivers of north east Victoria lies the sleepy town of Wangaratta. …

Whether you’re in the mood for a holistic relaxing weekend, a tepee experience, fancy dress parade or just want to brush up on your Bollywood dancing techniques, Peats Ridge has you covered. Boasting a three-night sustainable music and arts program just two …

Dan Freeman from Fanny Lumsden and the Thrillseekers, caught up with Dianne Cohen to talk about their upcoming gig at this year’s Peats Ridge Festival. We’re in Juice’n Java in Surry Hills where all the locals go for lunch and seem to …

Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain of 1917 – his infamous display of a porcelain urinal (signed R Mutt) as a work of art – was the Big Bang of all art that followed. Art could now be Thought and not necessarily Action. That was …

Purity. There’s not much of it about in the modern world. In fact, there seems a conscious effort to move away from purity towards distortion, clumping amalgamation and cloying over-decoration. This trend is so all-pervasive that you only notice all this impurity …

A century after his birth and twenty years after his death the work and life of legendary musician John Cage will be celebrated in a two-day festival at the Sydney Opera House next weekend. A number of compositions in honour of Cage, …

The wonderful time machine that is the modern period ensemble is one of the true delights of music today. When that ensemble has as much fun as the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the delight is doubled. Under the direction (and buoyant spirit) of …

People seem amazed when I tell them that I saw Led Zeppelin at the Sydney Showground in 1972, when the four rock deities descended from the sky to perform for us and then returned to Asgard (or maybe London). Could it ever …