Howling Bells to play V Festival Australia

[blade]

We Brits are to lose our favourite people for a bit as they have booked in to play the Australian V Festival after the March UK tour.

These are the dates:

Sydney Centennial Park (28 March)
Gold Coast Avica Resort (29 March)
Melbourne Showgrounds (4 April)
Perth Claremont Showgrounds (5 April)

but it's not clear whether they're down to play one, two, three or four of the venues.

Here's the V Festival website:

www.vfestival.com.au/

It's a bit far for us to get to but maybe we could all get together and organise a bus trip or something....

And then, who knows, they may travel back to our pleasant land via the US to please our American friends. Whatever, we want them back in Blighty asap.

[mattcambie]

Howling Bells doing a show at University Of Wollongong (2 hours south of Sydney), for $16.50 AUD, 13th May 2009, So keep your eyes out for an east coast tour if you are not going to V Festival (there are only doing a 30min set anyway at the fest)

[blade]

I posted in a thread elsewhere that I didn't think we had any Aussie members. Obviously we do! Have a great time - we did over here.

[mattcambie]

ahhh yes there are a sprinkling of fans down here in Australia, and I headed along to the Sydney V Festival and despite playing for only 30mins (and only 45mins after the gates opened) they sounded GREAT live and they were LOUD! Really exceeded my expectations, I was beaming for the rest of the day!

[blade]

Here's a short review of the Sydney leg:

www.thevine.com.au/music/reviews/live-review-_-v-festival,-sydney-2009.aspx

Text:
V Festival
Sydney’s Centennial Parklands
Saturday 28th March 2009

Down the horse shit-strewn paths of Sydney’s Centennial Parklands and through the threshold, you came smack into the sound of Juanita Stein and the Howling Bell ex-pats playing to their modest but loyal home crowd supporters. Say what you will about their sophomore album – most people have – but Stein, and her vocals, and her sort of subdued headbanging thing, are as beguiling as ever live, and debut album favourites like ‘A Ballad For The Bleeding Hearts’ are lush nocturnal pleasures, even at a sizzling 2.00 pm.

[ledjarde]

If they're doing a few festivals, I'm hoping a radio broadcast or webast might capture our heroes in wonderful 128 kbp/s glory! Be another nice recording to add to all the radio sessions we've had this year.

[blade]

A couple more brief reviews:

Sydney
From:
thisisnewmusic.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/v-festival-sydney-review/

Text:
Howling Bells opened the main stage yesterday afternoon with a set that stated clearly that they should have been higher on the bill at Sydney V festival. This is a tough call though considering a bill that Guy Garvey named as one of the best he had seen in a long time. Juanita led the band through a laid back set with just the right crescendo for a opening act, playing to a small but appreciative audience. Although still coming through the gates in huge numbers the audience were quick to find their way to the see the Australians made good in London. A lot is said about Juanita, and fair enough, however yesterday the rest of the band showed why this is a solid unit with a great career in front of them.


Melbourne
From:
albionblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/v-festival-mebourne-040409/

Text:
Starting the day with Aussie act The Howling Bells was great, their slow rock was a nice build up to the high energy acts that were to follow. They also proved, at this large festival, on a main stage, how far they have come since their Waikiki days.


Melbourne:
From:
www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/14456/82/

Text:
Opening This Stage Howling Bells have seemingly changed seasons musically – once the summery indie pop group Waikiki, they are now onto their second acclaimed album of wintry, moody and melodic rock. Juanita Stein is a charismatic vision in blue, even good naturedly accepting a male wail of “You’re hot Juanita!” from the crowd, while her sweet ‘n’ sinister vocals meld perfectly with the whole band’s dramatic and sweeping arrangements.

[clac]

Apr 6, 2009 12:04:33 GMT Lee said:

Apr 6, 2009 11:47:10 GMT blade said:

Juanita Stein is a charismatic vision in blue, even good naturedly accepting a male wail of “You’re hot Juanita!” from the crowd

LOL!

love it ^^

[mattcambie]

Seriously one of the better acts of the day, should have been around the late arvo/evening circa The Do and The Kills timeslots, HB's ripped over their (Do/Kills) set, sound wise.

By The way, WTF V Festival, there were two different timetables floating around on the day and they were handing out timetables that were roughly 1 1/2 hours wrong