It’s the news fans around the country have been waiting for.
The mighty Hunters & Collectors today announced their first tour since 1998 performing ten a day on the green concerts nationally, followed by two special indoor concerts at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre and Melbourne’s Palais Theatre (Frontier Touring).
Appropriately kicking off on the Australia Day long weekend in January and stretching across weekends until mid April, this powerhouse Australian outfit is once again set to enthral and thrill not only devotees from the past, but also a whole new generation of music lovers.
Hunters & Collectors will be joined at the majority of winery shows by You Am I, with Diesel taking the stage at the others. Something For Kate and British India, who both pay tribute to the Hunters on the ‘Crucible’ album, will be special guests at all winery shows. The Panics will be the supports for the theatre shows.
The tour news comes amidst a hub of recent Hunters & Collectors activity – their upcoming performance at the AFL Grand Final on Saturday, as special guests at Melbourne’s two Bruce Springsteen concerts in February, and most importantly, the release of “Crucible – The Songs Of Hunters & Collectors”, the lovingly curated album featuring 15 stunning tributes from the likes of The Living End, Birds Of Tokyo, Neil Finn & Eddie Vedder and Paul Kelly accompanied by 15 original H&C recordings (Liberation Music).
The album is testimony to the extraordinary Hunters & Collectors legacy, one that was built not only their uniquely-Australian songs and Mark Seymour’s razor sharp lyrics, but also on their commanding and powerful live performances. The album has been the fillip for the band’s reformation.
Ask anyone to describe a Hunters & Collectors gig and words like ‘primal’, ‘sweat-soaked’, ‘intense’, ‘ferocious’ come to the fore. Few bands made their mark in the live landscape like ‘The Hunnas’ did. It was a badge of honour they wore with pride and fought to sustain at every show –
approaching 2000 of them across 15 countries – resulting in a profound connection with audiences everywhere.
When they called it a day in 1998, Hunters & Collectors was a multi-platinum selling band, with five top 10 albums boasting classic songs like ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’, ‘Talking to a Stranger’,‘ Holy Grail’, ‘When The River Runs Dry’, ‘Do You See What I See’, ‘Say Goodbye’ and countless others.
In 2005 they were inducted by Peter Garrett into the ARIA Hall of Fame. In March 2009 the Sound Relief benefit concert at the MCG brought them temporarily out of retirement, with a set that won rave reviews: “The band’s visceral, gutsy performance makes us feel proud of our musical heritage” (In Press); ”they had people everywhere hugging and belting out the words to some Aussie classics. All delivered to rapturous response: (Beat Magazine) and “they sounded like they had never stopped touring – an amazing set.” (Richard Kingsmill Triple J).
Mark Seymour has, of course, continued a vibrant and successful solo career but for now, he’s looking forward to rejoining his former band mates Jack Howard, Michael Waters, Jeremy Smith, Doug Falconer, Barry Palmer and John Archer in this long-awaited reformation tour.
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