Music

Gloria Brancatisano / December 7, 2020

News

Red Hot Summer 2021 expand tour – add dates in VIC & NSW

Red Hot Summer has announced a mammoth lineup chock full of Australian legends for their 2021 event

Red Hot Summer 2021 just got a whole lot bigger – adding dates in Victoria, New South Wales, and Australian Capital Territory for October & November 2021.

Summer is set to last a little longer than usual in 2021, with Red Hot Summer delivering a stellar all-Australian lineup for next year’s event.

Red Hot Summer tour veterans Jimmy Barnes and Hoodoo Gurus lead the way. They’ll be joined by Jon Stevens, Diesel, Vika & Linda and The Living End’s Chris Cheney when the tour heads around the country from March.

With hundreds of years onstage, a stack of ARIA awards and nominations, more albums and hit singles than we can count – and that’s only scratching the surface – we cannot understate just how big this tour is.

Promoter Duane McDonald says the return of the festival in 2021 has been a result of continuous hard work to ensure the tour can be presented in a COVID-safe manner, and can continue to support the incredible music scene within Australia. “We were disappointed to cancel much of the 2020 tour,” he says. “But safety was, and always is, our first priority.

“We continue to work with governments and stakeholders to make sure that we can continue the Red Hot Summer Tour in 2021, and to ensure that all the shows are delivered in a COVID-safe way.”

Jimmy Barnes surely needs no introduction, but as an Aussie music legend who has been a part of Red Hot Summer across the years he’s right at home on next year’s lineup. Holding strong as a pinnacle of Australia’s rock scene for nearly five decades, he released his 17th solo album, My Criminal Record, last year and recently dropped a new single, ‘Killing Time‘.

Another Red Hot Summer favourite, Hoodoo Gurus have been leaving their mark on stages around Australia and the world for more than 35 years. They haven’t stopped in 2020, releasing three new singles, and with a new album and 40th anniversary celebrations scheduled for 2021 expect big things on this tour.

Jon Stevens is promising to deliver hit after hit with a catalogue stacked full of solo tunes as well as favourites from his time with bands Noiseworks, INXS and the Dead Daisies. Diesel will bring a special re-injected 30th Anniversary show to the stage, celebrating over three decades since the release of his debut album Johnny Diesel and the Injectors.

As 2019 Music Victoria Hall of Fame inductees and with their most recent album Sunday (The Gospel According to Iso) landing at #2 on the ARIA charts, Vika & Linda have a very special place in the Australian music landscape, as does The Living End’s guitarist and frontman Chris Cheney.

“It’s time to stop playing songs in my house and start heading back out on the road,” Jimmy Barnes says. “I’m fired up and ready to go.”

Dave Faulkner from Hoodoo Gurus feels the same. “We’re really excited to finally get out and play some concerts after so many months of being cooped up at home,” he says. “As George Harrison said in his song, ‘Here Comes The Sun’, ‘little darling, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter’. It certainly has, but summers coming and we can promise you that when Hoodoo Gurus get back on sage, we’re going to be red hot.”

Red Hot Summer Tour 2021 kicks off in Tasmania in March before heading around Australia. Tickets via Ticketmaster.com.au.