It will be a case of girls just wanna have fun when Blondie and Cyndi Lauper perform at Bimbadgen Estate on April 1 next year.
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And no, it’s not an April Fool’s joke.
In what is a world first, these two amazing artists are teaming up to co-headline an Australian tour in April 2017.
The New York natives will play A Day On The Green winery shows nationally and, in conjunction with Frontier Touring, arena shows in Melbourne and Sydney. As co-headliners, each artist will alternate in closing the shows.
Supporting them on the day will be The Clouds, who are reforming especially for the tour, and exciting new talents Montaigne and Alex Lahey.
The Clouds were one of the shining lights of the Australian indie scene in the ’90s, led by the duel female vocal attack of Jodi Phillis and Patricia Young and their classic album Penny Century. The band reformed in 2014 and will again for this tour, with a new EP planned for release early next year.
Montaigne and Alex Lahey both firmly belong in the “ones to watch” category. A Sydney girl, Montaigne’s debut album Glorious Heights debuted at No.4 on the ARIA charts and, at just 21, she has been nominated for three ARIA awards including Best Female Artist and Breakthrough Artist.
Melbourne singer-songwriter Alex Lahey has just completed her first national tour, released her first EP B Grade University and has had plenty of airplay with the catchy single You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me.
As for Lauper and Blondie, led by the enigmatic Debbie Harry, both enjoyed great success in Australia over the past four decades, fuelled by a stream of timeless top-10 pop classics that sound as good today as they did in their heyday.
Both Lauper and Harry have always escaped the usual clichés of women in rock and are unquestionably two of the most important and influential women to have graced the stage.
“Blondie were the true trailblazers of the New York City new wave and punk scenes,” Lauper said.
“As a young artist, they had such a big impact on me. I just thought that Debbie was so cool. She is still a hero of mine. I’m so excited to do this tour of Australia with them. We are going to have a blast.”
Blondie emerged from the late ’70’s New York punk scene and quickly became music, style and pop culture icons, selling more than 40 million albums. They scored hits with reggae, rock/disco, hip-hop and pop songs bursting with great hooks and brilliant, ironic lyrics. Heart Of Glass was Blondie’s first US No.1 in 1978, opening the floodgates to a run of 14 top-10 US hits including The Tide Is High, Call Me, Rapture, Picture This, Rip Her To Shreds, Hanging On The Telephone, Union City Blues and Atomic, racking up a phenomenal five US and five UK number one singles.
Debbie Harry, founding member and song-writing partner Chris Stein, long-time drummer Clem Burke and band have just completed a new as-yet-untitled album to be released in March 2017.
Thirty-three years and 50 million album sales since her debut, the ever-versatile Lauper, one of only 20 people to earn Emmy, Grammy, and Tony awards, shows no sign of slowing down.
Her celebrated musical journey took an unexpected southern turn on her acclaimed 11th studio album Detour released in May this year, where she put her signature spin on a dozen classic country songs.
Australian fans have, of course, loved Lauper since her 1983 debut solo album She’s So Unusual and its hits Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Time After Time, She Bop and All Through The Night. Just a few weeks ago, she was in Melbourne to attend the opening night of a project dear to her heart, the extraordinary musical Kinky Boots, for which she wrote the music.
