For Blur fans, it’s been an interminable wait – more than 18 long years – since everyone’s favourite Britpopper’s last played Melbourne. It was by all accounts, a modest affair in 1997 at Monash University, which apparently wasn’t even sold out. It’s fair to say there’s a HUGE contingent of music fans here tonight at Rod Laver Arena who are well and truly hankering for a large, fresh serve of Magic Whip!

How do you even begin to describe the excitement of seeing a favourite band revisit a landmark album live – as a once off? What’s more, it’s an album that has weathered incredibly well after 43 years – no betting person in their right mind would have ever considered these numbers would come up… but […]

These five ‘Soul Boys from the Western World’ graced the stage at Rod Laver Arena once again on Tuesday night to remind their devoted Melbourne audience just what qualifies them as true soul survivors.

This was formative music we were talking about…the lyrics to songs like ‘Sister Golden Hair’, ‘Sandman’ and ‘Ventura Highway’ are seared into the memory cells and despite getting on in years and apt to forget the simplest things, all I need to hear is the opening chords of any of these songs and the lyrics involuntarily come flooding back.

It’s always a good day when Edinburgh-born troubadour Mike Scott comes to Melbourne town with his latest incarnation of The Waterboys in tow. This band is a shape-shifting entity (featuring, to date, a mind-boggling 70+ musicians)…

The simple fact that Illinois rockers ‘Cheap Trick’ chose to introduce their Melbourne show at Margaret Court Arena with some cheeky self-referential Bart and Homer Simpson soundbytes was a pretty good indication as to what the audience could expect from the evening.

One for the memory banks but one which so easily may not have happened if I’d chosen not to take the punt. Well pleased I did. If you ever get the chance to catch them when they next return, be sure not to pass this band up.