Mind you if you are going to go wandering down dark paths into the past of American music its best you take a knowledgeable tour guide and there is no better tour guide than T Bone Burnett, the producer of this album.

The album was initially recorded at the First Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, a location steeped in history as a key stop in the Underground railroad. The songs were recorded on a single 40’s microphone into 55 year old tape player with the band in a circle around that sole microphone. Later some of the songs were reworked at Sun Studios with the same (lack of) technology with others recorded again in Room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, the exact location of early Robert Johnson recordings.

The album was recorded in mono and released on the historic blues and roots label Rounder Records.

Now all of this could have been an elaborate way to contrive some sort of roots credibility and accordingly it could have been a big mistake if it weren’t for the fact that the songs are absolutely authentic and amongst the most legitimate body of work in Mellencamp’s career.

See, the thing about John Mellencamp is that he’s really, genuinely, got no need nor desire to be a rock star and thus when he strips away the vestiges and crutches of a rock star’s recording approach he does so with complete conviction and not a hint of regret or misgiving. And its that sense of conviction that makes No Better Than This a triumph above and beyond the sum of its authentic sounding parts and places.

These are songs that could have been written any time in the last hundred years and have had equal application to the writers set of circumstances.

No One Cares About Me sounds like its written about a lonely drifter in the tradition of Steinbeck’s America but on closer examination it as likely to be set in Obama’s America.  Similarly Love At First Sight “feels” like it’s a Baby Boomer battlers love story, but again it’s just as possible its about two kids struggling to make their way in 2010. Jack and Diane indeed!

On Easter Eve Mellencamp creates a fable of a man, his son, a drunk, a woman and a bar brawl. There’s a happy ending to the superbly constructed story but for all its countrified elegance the story could just as easily have been ripped from the pages of tomorrows Herald Sun.

Save Some Time To Dream opens the album in a laconic shuffling way and it’s tone of offering advice about ‘life and how to live it’ sounds both whimsical and apologetic.

On Thinking About You, Mellencamp opens with “It’s not my nature/ To be nostalgic at all” and then details his multiple efforts to contact an old flame just to say he’d been “thinking about you”. The self deprecating tone of the song its wryly humorous and it’s the kind of song that should be getting covered in another hundred years when someone gets some perspective on the nostalgia that underpins much of the “social networking revolution”.

Appropriately Right Behind Me was one of the songs recorded in the Gunter Hotel and as an update on the battle between Jesus and the Devil that Robert Johnson described so graphically it is the closest you get to a song haunted by the place of its creation. But it remains very much a Mellencamp original work.

That’s the beauty of this album. It would have been just as easy (actually way easier) for Mellencamp and Burnett to make it a journey through an American roots songbook and record a tribute to the blues and folk forefathers. He could have done a Leadbelly song, a Robert Johnson song, a Pete Seeger song and he would have done great versions of those songs. But that would have been an album of a rock star on holiday, and that’s not what Mellencamp is.

I’m just glad that he had the courage to acknowledge that and the result is one of the most striking pieces of work of his career.

Neil Young

Said Young, “Le Noise” is complete. It is a solo record. Playbacks are happening now. Release date is September 28th. It will be available in Vinyl, CD and I tunes in the first edition, followed by Blu-Ray, and an APP for I-Phone and I-Pad a month or so later. The app will be free. It gives you an interactive album cover. Forgive my use of the word “album”. I am old school. When you buy the songs/movies from I- tunes they show up in your APP.”

David Crosby had spoken to Rolling Stone magazine about the album a couple of months ago. “Neil told me last week that he was having a great time talking music with him and just relating to him,” said Crosby of Young’s collaboration with Lanois.

“He does that [solo acoustic] thing probably better than anybody,” added Crosby in the Rolling Stone piece. “One of my most favorite concerts of his was him at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. He had a circle of his guitars around him and a chair, and he walked out there and sang. It was mesmerizing. He’s a fantastic musician, but also a great storyteller. I was standing there in the wings with Bob Dylan. He and I are huge Neil fans, and we didn’t move. We stood there the entire concert and just watched. We were as mesmerized as much as the audience was.”

Young and Lanois have crossed paths musically over the course of many years, including Lanois’ performances at Young’s Bridge School Benefit Concert and Young’s performance at Farm Aid when Lanois was Willie Nelson’s music director, but this is the first time the two have recorded together.

The album was recorded in Daniel Lanois’ home in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles and  features Young on acoustic and electric guitars with Lanois adding sonic textures as only he can do.

The Los Angeles Times have already previewed the album and wrote : “What’s striking about Le Noise is the way it both summarizes and distills Young’s singular approach to music, predominantly just Neil and a guitar: his big, white hollow-body Gretsch electric slashing and burning for most of the tracks, a couple built around picked and strummed acoustic instruments. Both are recorded and amplified — literally and metaphorically — by Lanois’ signature soundscapes that loop vocals, and enhance the guitars’ bass notes through distortion boxes, synthesizers and other electronics.”

Sounds promising to say the least.

The track-listing for Le Noise:

Walk With Me
Sign of Love
Rescue Me
Love And War
Angry World
Hitchhiker
Peaceful Valley Blvd.
Rumblin

Roger Hodgson is giving a complimentary first song download of Dreamer at his website www.rogerhodgson.com as a taster for the album.

A series of big hits with formulaic ballads tarnished their reputation (but not their bank balance) but I’ve always maintained a belief that lurking behind the power ballads was a great colloboration waiting to return to centre stage.

If the early comments are any indication the new Heart album may just fulfil the wishes of long term fans.

Red Velvet Car is said to be the most personal and powerful work yet for Ann and Nancy Wilson.

It’s just been released in the US and Europe and  the album was produced by Ben Mink, who has collaborated with Rush in the past and produced albums for Barenakes Ladies, among others.

For their first new album since 2004′s Jupiter’s Darling, the sisters took an acoustic approach to a collection of songs inspired by the world around them, arranged for an assortment of strings including guitar, mandolin, dobro, banjo, fiddle, viola, cello and autoharp, all played by Nancy Wilson and the album’s producer, Grammy winner Ben Mink.

Nine of the album’s songs were written for, and appear for the first time on Red Velvet Car. The album’s closer, Sand, is a newly recorded version of a song originally written and recorded by the Lovemongers, Ann and Nancy’s 1990′s acoustic side project.

Red Velvet Car marks the return of Heart to the Sony Music Entertainment family. Heart’s last Sony-related release was 1983′s Passionworks on Epic Records.

“It feels good to have Sony Music holding our new baby. It’s sort of like coming home, since we worked with them on Little Queen, Dog and Butterfly, Bebe le Strange, Private Audition and Passionworks, among others,” said Ann Wilson. “We’re excited about taking it on the road. A fresh sound with all the original Heart magic.”

“This album feels so right for the times,” said Nancy Wilson. “We can’t wait to share this one with the world!”

Heart has been performing songs from Red Velvet Car, as well as classics from the band’s repertoire, during shows at selected Lilith Fair dates and in headline concerts across the U.S. and Canada from July through September.

Track listing:
1. There You Go
2. WTF
3. Red Velvet Car
4. Queen City
5. Hey You
6. Wheels
7. Safronia’s Mark
8. Death Valley
9. Sunflower
10. Sand
11. Bootful of Beer (bonus edition)
12. Closer to the Sun (bonus edition)

The media contents are packaged within an 80-page notebook containing facsimiles from Springsteen’s original notebooks from the recording sessions, which include alternate lyrics, song ideas, recording details, and personal notes in addition to a new essay by Springsteen and never-before-seen photographs. Containing a wealth of previously unreleased material, ‘The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story’ offers an unprecedented look into Springsteen’s creative process during a defining moment in his career. ‘The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story’ will additionally be released as a 3CD/3 Blu Ray disc set.

The set will be available as ‘The Promise,’ an edition which consists of only the unheard complete songs on two CDs or four LPs, along with lyrics and the new essay by Springsteen.

The Deluxe Package includes ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town,’ digitally remastered for the first time.

CD 1: REMASTERED ‘DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN’
1. Badlands
2. Adam Raised A Cain
3. Something In The Night
4. Candy’s Room
5. Racing In The Street
6. The Promised Land
7. Factory
8. Streets Of Fire
9. Prove It All Night
10. Darkness On The Edge Of Town

“‘Darkness’ was my ’samurai’ record,” Springsteen writes, “stripped to the frame and ready to rumble…But the music that got left behind was substantial.” For the first time, fans will have access to two discs containing a total of 21 previously-unreleased songs from the ‘Darkness’ recording sessions, songs that, as Springsteen writes, “perhaps could have/should have been released after ‘Born To Run’ and before the collection of songs that ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ became.”

Highlights include the extraordinary rock version of “Racing in the Street,” the never-before-released original recordings of “Because the Night,” “Fire,” and “Rendezvous,” the supreme pop opus “Someday (We’ll Be Together),” the hilarious “Ain’t Good Enough for You,” the superb soul-based vocal performance on “The Brokenhearted,” the utterly haunting “Breakaway,” and the fully orchestrated masterpiece and title song “The Promise.” All 21 songs have been mixed by Springsteen’s long-time collaborator Bob Clearmountain. According to long-time manager/producer Jon Landau, “There isn’t a weak card in this deck. ‘The Promise’ is simply a great listening experience.”

CD 2: THE PROMISE (DISC 1)
1. Racing In The Street (‘78)
2. Gotta Get That Feeling
3. Outside Looking In
4. Someday (We’ll Be Together)
5. One Way Street
6. Because The Night
7. Wrong Side Of The Street
8. The Brokenhearted
9. Rendezvous
10. Candy’s Boy

CD 3: THE PROMISE (DISC 2)
1. Save My Love
2. Ain’t Good Enough For You
3. Fire
4. Spanish Eyes
5. It’s A Shame
6. Come On (Let’s Go Tonight)
7. Talk To Me
8. The Little Things (My Baby Does)
9. Breakaway
10. The Promise
11. City Of Night

The Deluxe Package also features “The Promise: The Making of ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town,’” a documentary directed by Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny. The ninety-minute film combines never-before-seen footage of Springsteen and the E Street Band shot between 1976 and 1978–including home rehearsals and studio sessions–with new interviews with Springsteen, E Street Band members, manager Jon Landau, former-manager Mike Appel, and others closely involved in the making of the record. Advanced word on the documentary is so strong that it was invited to debut at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival on September 14 and will make its television debut on HBO on October 7.

DVD 1: “THE PROMISE: THE MAKING OF ‘DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN’”

In addition, the set features more than four hours of live concert film from the Thrill Hill Vault, including the bootleg house cut (the footage that appeared on-screen at the concert) from a 1978 Houston show, and a 2009 performance of ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ in its entirety from Asbury Park. The special performance in Asbury Park was shot in HD without an audience and successfully recreates the stark atmosphere of the original album.

DVD 2: DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (PARAMOUNT THEATER, ASBURY PARK, NJ, 2009)
1. Badlands
2. Adam Raised A Cain
3. Something In The Night
4. Candy’s Room
5. Racing In The Street
6. The Promised Land
7. Factory
8. Streets Of Fire
9. Prove It All Night
10. Darkness On The Edge Of Town

THRILL HILL VAULT (1976-1978)
1. Save My Love (Holmdel, NJ 76)
2. Candy’s Boy (Holmdel, NJ 76)
3. Something In The Night (Red Bank, NJ 76)
4. Don’t Look Back (NYC 78)
5. Ain’t Good Enough For You (NYC 78)
6. The Promise (NYC 78)
7. Candy’s Room Demo (NYC 78)
8. Badlands (Phoenix 78)
9. The Promised Land (Phoenix 78)
10. Prove It All Night (Phoenix 78)
11. Born To Run (Phoenix 78)
12. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (Phoenix 78)

DVD 3: HOUSTON ‘78 BOOTLEG: HOUSE CUT
1. Badlands
2. Streets Of Fire
3. It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City
4. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
5. Spirit In The Night
6. Independence Day
7. The Promised Land
8. Prove It All Night
9. Racing In The Street
10. Thunder Road
11. Jungleland
12. The Ties That Bind
13. Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town
14. The Fever
15. Fire
16. Candy’s Room
17. Because The Night
18. Point Blank
19. She’s The One
20. Backstreets
21. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
22. Born To Run
23. Detroit Medley
24. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
25. You Can’t Sit Down
26. Quarter To Three

Ray Davies

Various confirmed and unconfirmed stories seem to suggest that some of these suggestions are close to the truth.

In 2009 Davies recorded a version of Better Things with Bruce Springsteen, while Bon Jovi contributed to Celluloid Heroes. An American magazine has reported that Billy Corgan has been working on the new album, with the Smashing Pumpkins singer contributing to a new version of  Destroyer from the under-rated Give The People What They Want album. If you know the song you can just hear Corgan sneering his way through that one with Davies playing the paranoid role!

Big Star frontman the late Alex Chilton is said to have recorded his contribution prior to his death earlier this year while Lucinda Williams also due to appear.

That would be worth the price of admission alone.

But to add to that there’s a few more contemporary stars said to be lurking around the studio.

Mumford and Sons,  Paloma Faith and Amy MacDonald are all expected to appear although a rumour of The Killers being involved is false.

Work on the new album is continuing with recent visitors to the studio including members of Spoon and possibly even Frank Black.

The bad news is that Peter Gabriel will no longer be headlining the November 1st Concert at Intimate Arena Mode, Etihad Stadium. The cancellation is said to be due to scheduling issues.

But there’s a very bright silver lining to this dark cloud. Brian Wilson will replace Gabriel on the November 1st Concert as the headline international guest. Australian fans can expect to hear Brian Wilson’s greatest hits along with his solo classics and a selection of songs from his new album Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin.

America, Chicago, Peter Frampton, Blue King Brown, Daryl Braithwaite, Ross Wilson, Joe Camilleri, Stephen Cummings, Deborah Conway and Danielle Spencer will continue to perform as scheduled on Monday 1st November at Intimate Arena Mode, Etihad Stadium.

Andrew McManus Presents will refund any disappointed ticket holders in full and tickets are still on sale via Ticketmaster for Brian Wilson fans. Having seen Wilson a couple of times in the last decade you wont want to be getting a refund, trust me!

Brian Wilson is one of popular music’s most deeply revered figures, the main creative force behind some of the most cherished recordings in rock history.   It is no exaggeration to call Brian Wilson one of the most influential composers of the last century.

Beginning as one of five members of the Beach Boys, Wilson’s career took off when the single ‘Surfin’ hit big locally and made ripples on the national charts, the Beach Boys were then signed to Capitol Records. Seven albums later, the Beach Boys became one of the most popular touring acts in the world. Wilson remained a key contributor to their albums, writing some of his most affecting work. Behind the timeless songs of surf, sun, sadness and longing is the quintessential prince of introspection and inspiration, Brian Wilson.

Claimed by Paul McCartney as having written the greatest pop song ever ‘God Only Knows’. In early 1966, while the other Beach Boys were on a tour, Wilson embarked on a trip of his own and created what many today consider ‘The Great American Pop Album.’ With the release of Pet Sounds, Wilson became recognised as a groundbreaking musical force. Anticipation was sky high for the Beach Boys’ next album. However, the Smile album became the most legendary album that never was. Through profound personal setbacks and professional frustrations, Brian Wilson has overcome many obstacles and remains one of the most influential pop composers of the last 50 years.

The Brian Wilson live show is a wonderful example of recreating the magic of the timeless melodies and complex harmonies that made the Beach Boys sound.

They went on to record seven albums and in Canada and elsewhere became a highly respected and credible art-pop band considered in the same ilk as the likes of Roxy Music. In other parts of the world they remained known for one song only and were considered a one-hit wonder.

The band effectively has been the nucleus of Martha Johnson and Mark Gane for the best part of the last twenty five years. Partners both in life and music Johnson and Gane continue to live in Toronto, Canada where they have a family. Earlier this year they released an album called Delicate which came 18 years after their last record. Delicate is an exceptionally good record and it manages to simultaneously sound contemporary and yet recognisably Martha and the Muffins, combining pop guitars and melodies with washes of synthesised keyboards and intelligent and thoughtful lyrics around themes of urban alienation and social dislocation. It’s certainly not the work of a duo who should be seen as a transient pop act!

But what bought them to my attention again was an email providing a link to the 30th Anniversary re-recording of Echo Beach. Curiosity led to me clicking on the link where I was transported back in time to that almost perfect electro pop hit. Except in 2010 they have recast it as a moody, evocative and brilliantly rendered piece of music. It’s a dark and almost chilling recording that manages to provide several whole new layers of meaning to that memorable lyric.

Just to show that they have lost none of the pop sensibility the new Echo Beach is joined by a shimmering new electro pop song called Big Day, which believe it or not is a potential chart topper waiting to happen. All it needs is a movie or tv show to adopt it as a theme and Martha and the Muffins could become “two-hit wonders” thirty years apart. Who would have thought?

Questions had to be asked.

HHMM: Congratulations on the new version of Echo Beach, the 30th Anniversary version. It’s very different to the original and I suppose it’s safe to say there wouldn’t have been any point in doing it if it weren’t very different to the original.

MJ: That’s true. We didn’t want to just do what we’d done before. Several people have covered the song and so we thought it was time that we gave it a try. We played that version at a show we did here in Toronto in February and it went over so well and people loved it. They liked the quietness of it and it took them back to what they were doing thirty years ago and how the song touched them back then. It has a lot of nostalgia to it.

HHMM: There’s a very haunting mood to the song. To me, it makes the place Echo Beach feel like some sort of foreboding ghost town rather than a place of frivolity and escape.

MG : I agree. There is a darkness to it. I think that there is thirty years of living beyond the original, You cant help but have lived through certain things that give a different perspective to it.

HHMM: Maybe I’m interpreting it too much but I guess that’s what songs are for right? But I’m interpreting this version of the song as suggesting that Echo Beach never really existed and that it was a figment of the singer’s imagination. Is that a fair interpretation?

MJ : I think that’s what Mark intended.

MG : Well it always was a place of the imagination. People have asked over the years where the real Echo Beach but when I first wrote the song I had no specific place in mind. Over the long period people have emailed to tell me there was an Echo Beach here or there, but it was always a figment of my imagination. In a sense it still is but now it’s an imaginary place from a fifty year old perspective rather than a twenty year old perspective.

HHMM: I had this vision of the singer being a crazy old woman in a mental institution mumbling incessantly about this place named Echo Beach that she used to go to and everyone looking at her thinking “but there is no place named Echo Beach”.

MJ: (laughs) I like that. Maybe we could turn that into a video or something.

HHMM: By recording this new version it emphasises the adage that a great song is a great song and there’s any number of ways to perform it.

MG: Echo Beach was a very early song of mine but it’s still fascinating to hear how people react to it. Even your reaction to the new version is really cool because we wouldn’t have necessarily seen it that way. But there is a constant interaction between songwriter and performer and listener which is something that both Martha and I have enjoyed.

HHMM: And as you said, that relationship does keep evolving. I wouldn’t have had the interpretation I did thirty years ago. I’m bringing thirty years of life experience to it as well.

MG: Exactly, It’s that evolution of age as well that adds certain richness to it as well.

MJ: I think the version we have done now suits the time and space where we are at and the previous version suited where we were at in the 1980’s.

HHMM: The perception of Martha and the Muffins is really interesting. In some parts of the world and with some people you would clearly be perceived as a one hit wonder. In other places and with other people you are perceived as a Canadian equivalent of Talking Heads or Roxy Music or The Fall. Are those extremes of perception something that you are aware of?

MG : Oh for sure. The whole one hit wonder tag is all geographical. It all depends what part of the world you are talking about.  In Canada we’ve had something like five or eight charted songs and a bunch of those reached top ten. In the States we had a number two dance hit with Black Station,White Station. So there is a definite division between those people who through no fault of their own only know us for Echo Beach and those people who are devoted fans who know every album we ever did and probably know more about us than we know ourselves. It is a weird kind of thing and a lot of it has to do with circumstances that are out of a bands control. If you get released in one territory and not another or have a hit in one territory and not another then that’s what happens. We never started the band to have hits anyway, so judging us as a one hit wonder band in the light of the eight albums we’ve done, three of which we’re produced with Daniel Lanois, is a gross mis-interpretation of what this band is all about. But I understand why that has happened in some places. It also suggests that you are only successful as a band if you have hits. You can think of a band like King Crimson who only had one hit in 1968 but they’ve been going 40 plus years. No-one would think of bringing the term ‘one hit wonder’ up with Robert Fripp! So it’s all a relative thing.

HHMM: The eighteen year gap between the last two albums almost served to have music come the full circle and to me listening to Delicate now, it sounds very contemporary. Is that something you subscribe to?

MG: Particularly from a Canadian point of view, with this current crop of bands, I feel like I’m in their neighborhood or that they are in our neighborhood, or that we are all in the same neighborhood whereas in the late 70s and 80’s we did not relate to any other well known bands in Canada other than what was going on in punk and new wave locally in Toronto. They were being ignored and a lot of those bands deserved to make records and they never got the chance. And even in the 90’s it was still basically either rock oriented or earnest folk singer oriented. Then a few years ago bands started to emerge that sounded really cool and were doing innovative things and were following their own path. Arcade Fire is a great example. And it must be a wonderful thing to be an indie band and not have some record company saying “but we don’t hear another…whatever their equivalent of Echo Beach is”. They can do whatever they want and that’s a wonderful development and in some respects the internet has made that possible.

HHMM: I love the textures on the new album both musically and vocally. Do you feel like you’ve been able to take up where you left off in those respects?

MJ : I don’t know. I’m glad to hear that you find it contemporary. When you have an 18 year gap its hard to know. I thought it was a contemporary sounding record but it’s hard to be objective.

MG: I’d say that in a sense if you have a strong artistic purpose or “vision”…although I don’t want to say “vision” and sound too grandiose. But I think if you stick true to your sensibilities you almost operate outside of fashion. Obviously there have been certain times in our 30plus year career when we were fashionable but more important are the artistic sensibilities that make you who you are. I mean you look at Canadian artists like Joni Mitchell or Neil Young and they’ve always done a very wide variety of music, but its always them. Sometimes they are cooler than other times but they carry forward that personal vision and they use whatever is at hand, at whatever period they are doing an album in. I think that’s what we are about too. It’s very nice to hear you say that its contemporary and its good that it is but I think you can hear still hear an iconic sound, even though its not what we were doing in the 90’s and 80’s.

Lloyd Cole

It almost invites the suggestion that Cole has devolved from a cutting edge, highly lauded, mainstream, popular artist to a fringe player surviving on the goodwill of a few loyal fans and slipping from relevance as he painfully extends a career by tediously repeating himself.

Of course if that’s actually where Cole found himself he wouldn’t be likely to admit that by making such a prominent self reference in the opening song, now would he?

No, the fact is that Cole’s relevance continues to be enhanced by this charming, small scale album and in fact his legacy is enhanced by this excellent collection of new material.

On a superficial level some will suggest that he’s gone a little bit country on this record but to me that’s a lazy response based on the frequent (and very tasteful) use of the pedal steel on a number of tracks along with occasional appearances from a banjo and mandolin. To me these are not genre defining contributions but rather a response to songs that called for the melancholy tones that these instruments provide.

The way I look at it there’s probably half a dozen tracks that could make it onto a (reasonably generous) “best of” album and that’s an impressive strike rate.

There are no songs here that don’t earn their stripes the album starts wistfully with the title track, Like A Broken Record. There’s probably few writers who would contemplate their lovers return from “a writers retreat” with only a hint of a smirk, but Cole does that on Writers Retreat and emerges unscathed. It’s a rollicking up-tempo song that mines the collection of irresistible melodies that Cole has aplenty.

Later on Side One (yes it’s actually called that) two songs with almost lullaby qualities are the highlights. The Flipside is the first of these which benefits from a salubrious vocal while If I Were A Song takes a lyric that could have been problematically coy and provides it with a sincerity that allows it maintain its grace.

Side Two is almost flawless. That’s Alright is a deeply grooved pop-rock song that oozes casual cool – it is followed by the completely contrasting Oh Genevieve which is impossibly perky almost to the point of being a little too cheesy.

Man Overboard is a beautiful song that takes the form of a gentle sea shanty and blends writing styles that seem to merge Luka Bloom with early Springsteen. It’s a little gem of a song. Rhinestones is a wordy self-deprecating, folk song with a sting in its tail and humour on its side.

The album closes with perhaps my personal favorite song on the album Double Happiness. It’s a strange little song – on one hand it’s flirtatious and immediate and on the other it concludes with an unorthodox instrumental outro that emphasises that this is a band album, not a solo folk collection. It’s a creeper of a song that rounds the album out well.

U2

Tickets for the shows have also been priced for every budget starting at $39.90. General admission floor tickets start at $99.90.

‘U2 has alays been at their best when surrounded by their audience, and this extraordinary production makes that happens in stadiums,” says U2 manager Paul McGuiness. “It was important to the band that we were able to bring the whole production to Australia and New Zealand so fans could experience the latest of U2’s legendary productions.”

The U2 360° Tour kicked off again in Turin, Italy this month and will visit 17 cities, including Moscow and Istanbul, before finishing at the Olympic Stadium in Rome on 8th October. By the time it reaches New Zealand and Australia, U2 360° will have been seen by over 4 million fans.

With a cylindrical video system of interlocking LED panels, and a steel structure rising 150 feet from the floor over a massive stage with rotating bridges, the band has truly created an intimate 360º experience for concert goers. Long-time U2 Show Director Willie Williams has worked again with architect Mark Fisher (ZooTV, PopMart, Elevation and Vertigo), to create an innovative 360 design, which affords an unobstructed view for the audience.

“To have an in-the-round transportable stadium production is something that the touring industry has been trying to figure out for some time. The extra capacity U2 360° gives us means that there are a large number, several thousand in fact, of low priced tickets at every show”, said U2 tour producer/promoter Arthur Fogel, CEO of Live Nation Global Touring.

In keeping with the concept that this tour is more about a unique staging configuration with excellent sight-lines tickets in all 5 cities will be available starting at $39.90 with general admission floor tickets available at $99.90. Additional reserved seat tickets also available starting at $99.90.

Recent reports from the tours latest stop in Helsinki suggest an interesting setlist has developed.

The songs performed in Helsinki yesterday were:

1. Return Of The Stingray Guitar
2. Beautiful Day / Singing In The Rain (snippet)
3. I Will Follow
4. Get On Your Boots
5. Magnificent
6. Mysterious Ways / My Sweet Lord (snippet) / Norwegian Wood (snippet)
7. No Line On The Horizon
8. Elevation
9. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
10. Every Breaking Wave
11. Glastonbury
12. In A Little While
13. Miss Sarajevo
14. City Of Blinding Lights / Singing In The Rain (snippet)
15. Vertigo
16. Crazy Tonight
17. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
18. MLK
19. Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

Encore(s):
20. One / Rain (snippet)
21. Where The Streets Have No Name
22. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
23. With Or Without You
24. Moment of Surrender / Singing In The Rain (snippet)

Dates are:

November 25, Auckland, Mt Smart Stadium
December 1, Melbourne, Etihad Stadium
December 8, Brisbane, Suncorp Stadium
December 13, Sydney, Olympic Park
December 18, Perth, Subiaco