Held in honour of the thirty-one year recording career of Australian garage legends the Hoodoo Gurus, Dig It Up! highlights the iconic bands finely honed musical taste and inspiration by way of multi-band / multi-venue appearances in both Sydney and Melbourne and single stage events in other capital cities.
The April 2012 Dig It Up! featured a debut Australian appearance from sixties garage-legends The Sonics, power-pop deities Redd Kross, NYC garage-pop combo The Fleshtones, paisley-underground pioneer Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate), Japan’s trashy but fun The 5,6,7,8’s and a stellar list of Australian underground rock royalty (old and new) in Died Pretty, Tek & Younger (ex-Radio Birdman), Hard-Ons, Royal Headache, The Frowning Clouds, The Straight Arrows and of course, Hoodoo Gurus.
For the 2012 Dig It Up! Hoodoo Gurus performed Stoneage Romeos their much loved debut album in its entirety. For the 2013 edition of Dig it Up! Hoodoo Gurus will again perform a full work, their equally as impressive second album Mars Needs Guitars (a feature listing in 2010 book: 100 Best Australian albums) and home to singles Like Wow, Wipeout! Death Defying and the classic Bittersweet. It’s another first in a series of firsts for Dig It Up! 2013 where once again the Hoodoo Gurus have put together an ultimate (live) mix-tape for fans of real rock ‘n’ roll.
Between 1972 and 1978, San Francisco’s Flamin’ Groovies – featuring core members Cyril Jordan (guitar/vocals), Chris Wilson (vocals/guitar) and George Alexander (bass/vocals) – produced some of the decade’s most vital recordings, including the classic singles Shake Some Action and Slow Death. The band’s 1976 masterpiece album (also titled Shake Some Action) combined the early pop and R&B leanings of both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones with the focused energy of the emerging US and UK alternative rock scenes, landing the band god-head-status for a new generation of music fans looking for the sort of kicks not heard of since the high of the mid-sixties. Sire Records label-mates the Ramones’ 1976 London debut was in support of the Flamin’ Groovies while Australia’s Radio Birdman were the support act to the Groovies for their one and only European tour in early 1978. Dig It Up! will be the first time since 1981 that the Jordan/Wilson/Alexander line-up of the Flamin’ Groovies have appeared anywhere in the world.
Blue Oyster Cult may be the ultimate ‘cult’ band. Revered by punks, metal heads, sci-fi geeks and horror movie fans alike, B.O.C. have carved out a 40-year career via a string of complex hard rock albums and killer live shows. The author Steven King adores them and so does Dave Graney. Their best known track Don’t Fear The Reaper, was a U.S. top twenty hit in 1976 and the album it came from, Agents Of Fortune (featuring a collaboration with songstress Patti Smith) achieved platinum status while the overall catalogue sales are in excess of 24 million. They also provided Radio Birdman with the album title Radios Appear, a lyric taken from the track Dominance and Submission. This will be the first-ever Australian tour for Blue Oyster Cult, l thanks to Hoodoo Gurus.
UK punk pioneers Buzzcocks are no strangers to Australian shores and it’s not hard to see why. Their trademark mix of hi-energy guitars and pop smarts resulted in some of the greatest songs of the punk-era: Ever Fallen in Love, What Do I Get, Love You More, timeless tracks that resonate over and over with younger generations. A key influence on Australian acts as disparate as Hoodoo Gurus, Hard-Ons and The Mark Of Cain, their trademark sound has also provided the blueprint for every wanna be punk band since 1976 and their live show is always top shelf. Original ‘Cocks Shelley & Diggle will lead their band of merry pranksters through Dig it Up! Sydney and Melbourne and for headline appearances in most capital cities.
Peter Case made a name for himself in the late seventies via power-pop pioneers The Nerves. That band only ever released one EP in their time but it featured the original version of the Blondie hit, Hanging On the Telephone. Case then moved onto eighties combo The Plimsouls and provided us with a string of alternate-hits including the all-time garage-pop classic A Million Miles Away. Fast-forward to the nineties and Peter Case has been nominated at the Grammys for both best song and best production via his skills on debut solo album Old Blue Car. Move into the noughties and it’s another Grammy nomination, this time for best traditional folk album. For Dig it Up! though, Peter Case has assembled a crack-band to perform those Nerves and Plimsouls classics as well as solo material. It’s another first not just for Dig It Up! but for the world.
Had it not been for all of the above The Stems may not have happened. Heir apparent to the Hoodoo Gurus in the early eighties, The Stems produced a stunning run of garage inspired pop-singles and EP’s (Make You Mine, Love Will Grow, At First Sight, For Always) and one great album (the gold selling At First Sight, Violets Are Blue) before leaving us in 1987 to ponder what could have been. Reforming due to demand in the early noughties The Stems would perform in the U.S at Little Steven’s prestigious Underground Garage Festival and tour Europe before releasing their long awaited second album Heads Up in 2007. The Stems then toured Europe and Australia before again disbanding for good in 2009. However, in 2013, the call went out, Ladies & Gentlemen: The Stems. Dig it Up!
In addition to the above nominated acts Hoodoo Gurus will select an all-star all quality support cast to assist in bringing the streets and venues of Sydney and Melbourne alive with the Dig It Up! sound. Stay tuned for those choice cuts.
General public tickets on sale 8th February.
