Southern Amp 08 is coming

Southern Amp is returning with a stella lineup including The Dandy Warhols, the Living End,Die! Die! Die!, Dimmer and a swarm of others, all congregating onto CHCH this November.

Southern Amp shifts up a gear for 2008… The third staging of the South Island’s biggest music festival takes place on Sunday 9th November at Westpac Arena Festival Park in Christchurch from 12.30pm. Southern Amp is bringing in more international acts than ever before and each of the 3 stages this year will be completely UNDERCOVER making the event a ‘weather-free’ festival with a strictly limited capacity!

The festival site is being specially designed and will be built around the existing Westpac Arena to comprise 3 fully-covered live music stages, more great thrill rides, a separate buskers’ stage, market stalls, loads of other stuff to do and plenty of bars & food outlets. Southern Amp 2008 is R15 restricted and will be held once again at the start of NZ Cup & Show Week, the busiest week on the Canterbury calendar.

The Main Stage will be inside the Westpac Arena with a mix of International, Australian & NZ rock acts; the Ministry Of Sound Stage will be in a huge mega-marquee outside the Arena featuring the best of Australasia’s current dance talent and a third NZ Music Stage in a big top circus tent will be presenting some of NZ & Christchurch’s best live bands.

Earlybird Tickets
As with previous years the 1st release of tickets will be a LIMITED EARLYBIRD SPECIAL at just $79.50 (excl booking fees) exclusive to Southern Amp database members, Vodafone Music subscribers and Speight’s Mates database members. This is the SAME PRICE as last year’s Earlybird tickets which sold out in less than 2 weeks. A special password will be required to purchase Earlybird tickets and this will be sent out to all database members separately. These tickets will be strictly limited to FOUR tickets per person and will only be on sale through TICKETEK (either online, by phone or at any Ticketek Outlet) from 9am Monday 28th July.

For all details visit - www.southernamp.co.nz


SOUTHERN AMP 2008 LINE-UP – first announcement

It has been more than 10 years since The Living End released their breakout double-A sided single “Second Solution”/“Prisoner of Society” – with many hit songs, gold & platinum albums, sold-out shows, festival headlining appearances, world tours and thousands of satisfied punters in between. The Melbourne trio’s 5th studio album “White Noise” is released 19th July and is kicked off with the powerhouse new single “How Do We Know”. As a live act, the band’s reputation around the world is unquestioned – on a great night there is barely a band on the planet that can touch them! The band returns to NZ for their 2nd appearance at Southern Amp 2008. We are STOKED to have them back!

The Dandy Warhols need little introduction but pose, if not an actual threat, then at least a series of pressing questions; Where do they come from? What drives them? And perhaps most of all, what do they want with us…? Returning to NZ for their first live appearance since Big Day Out 2004 equipped with a brand new album “Earth To The Dandy Warhols” on their own brand new record label might help answer some of those questions for the band from Portland, Oregon who have given us a swag of psych-pop hits over the last decade-plus. One of the few bands in the music business whose name constantly means ‘quality’ and ‘unpredictability’, with no questions asked!

Do you believe in fate? The Potbelleez certainly do! From being a couple of Irish tourists landing in Sydney, Australia in 2001/2 with not much more than a record bag to their name, Dave Goode and Jonny Sonic have become the hottest property in the Australian dance scene. If recent form is anything to go by, with “Don’t Hold Back” being the biggest dance hit of the year on both sides of the Tasman, all sorts of awards and being snapped up by Ministry Of Sound to mix the recent “Sessions” CD, the sky now seems the limit! With their full 4-piece live set up seen for the first time in NZ, The Potbelleez will close out the Ministry of Sound Stage at Southern Amp 2008.

Artist, Producer, Engineer Tiki spent the previous twelve years playing to the world as frontman for one of NZ’s most successful live exports, Salmonella Dub. Doubling as an audio engineer for some of the country’s finest acts as well, including Shapeshifter, Tiki’s unique gift for taking music into an innovative new realm has finally and totally deservedly resulted in a highly successful solo album “Past Present Future” in 2008 and a #1 single with “Always On My Mind”. Southern Amp pays much respect to Tiki’s achievements this year and looks forward to his captivating Acoustic/MC/DJ set on the Ministry of Sound stage.

Testament was one of the first thrash metal bands to emerge from the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980's. Their powerful sound made them one of the All-Time Top 5 Metal Bands in the company of Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth & Anthrax. In 2007 the original line-up got together again to record “The Formation of Damnation” winning the 2008 ‘Metal Hammer Golden Gods’ Award and achieving their highest charting album in USA in their 24-year history. Testament are currently touring USA with Judas Priest & Motorhead playing some of the biggest metal shows in the world this year. They attack Southern Amp 2008 for their FIRST EVER & ONLY NZ live performance.

Gyroscope have nailed it on their third album, “Breed Obsession” with the four best friends from Perth Australia pushing far beyond the infectious and intelligent pop-rock of their breakthrough 2006 album “Are You Involved?” From the standout piano-driven first single ‘Snakeskin’, to the intricate electronica-tinged ‘1981’ and personal, anthemic ‘Australia’, the band’s 3rd album’s beauty is in its subtlety and complexity. Gyroscope are making strong waves on Kiwi radio and make their first NZ festival appearance at Southern Amp 2008.

The Jordan Luck Band, featuring front man and pop-writing genius of one of NZ’s iconic and legendary bands The Exponents, has clocked up a staggering 18 Top 40 singles over the years, with “Victoria” recently being voted by the public as one of the top 10 greatest NZ songs of all time. Today you’ll hear 20,000 rugby fans singing in unison to “Why Does Love Do This To Me?” ‘Legend’ is a word suffering from unwarranted overuse syndrome these days, but its original intention is 100% intact when describing the affection the Kiwi public has for Jordan’s songs.

Goodwill is not only one of Sydney’s finest DJ’s over the last 10 years, but also one of Australia’s! In recent years his production credits, including ‘Happenis’, ‘Go Away Baby’ & ‘Outta Control’, have made him Ministry Of Sound’s highest selling Australian artist and a producer in demand, resulting in him mixing the recent MOS “Sessions Five” CD with The Potbelleez. Goodwill returns to Southern Amp for the 2nd year running this year and is a DJ well worth checking out!

Autozamm are carving out quite a niche as one of this country’s fine live acts having supported Powderfinger, Shihad, Silverchair and The Black Crowes recently. The release of their 2nd album “Drama Queen” in March has seen them return to the live stage with a new sense of high energy and their latest single ‘Closer To Home’ is fast becoming a major hit on NZ radio.

Concord Dawn have been making major waves in the world of electronic music for many years, dubbed the “NZ pioneers of Drum & Bass” and have released their distinctive sound on some of the world’s most distinctive dance labels and earned a fearsome reputation for their live performances from extensive touring around the world. They return to the Ministry of Sound Stage this year.

With a couple albums and plenty of gigs, Little Bushman give the feeling they’ve finally got a foot in the door. After some excellent NZ festival appearances over summer and a recent concert with the 40-piece Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, Australia beckons later in the year.

Dimmer featuring the enigmatic Shayne Carter rose from the ashes of Straitjacket Fits some time last century... their first album "I Believe You Are A Star" was released in 2001 on Flying Nun which the NZ Herald made their album of the year. With a brand new album currently being recorded, Dimmer will play their only South Island show this year at Southern Amp.

Die! Die! Die! are worthy of their Russ Meyer–like name… Hailing from Dunedin and having toured the world over, this sickeningly tight power-trio have little patience for pop concessions! Abrasive and bare-bones, the band makes a lot out of a little… the result is mind-numbingly satisfying!

Hailing from Wellington, Fur Patrol are now two thirds Melbourne residents and one third back in Wellington again! With two albums, one producing a huge NZ #1 single, and two EPs to date in Australasia since forming in 1996, the new album, “Local Kid”, is due for release later this year.

Its been a major year for Goodnight Nurse, their hit single ‘The Night’ was played non-stop on radio and their 2nd studio album “Keep Me On Your Side” debuted at #5 – They’ve won MTV Video Awards and their MySpace profile is the most prolific in NZ, with over 2 million song plays to date! The success of State of Mind a drum and bass duo, both abroad and in NZ has been recognised over the last few years, where they have achieved a host nominations and were awarded the 2006 BNet Breakthrough Artist of the Year and Single of the Year for ‘Aces High’ with Concord Dawn.

The Valves are one of the South’s success stories of the last year. A huge live resume now boasts support slots to Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne and Whitesnake plus literally loads of their own gigs. This tight kick-ass rock band deserves their slot on any major festival and we’re glad to have them back.

Pitch Black have pumped their way through NZ’s electronic music scene since their inaugural performance at the Gathering New Year's eve festival in 1997 and have spent the last 10 years rousing dance floor punters, generating rave reviews and gaining fans across the world.

The Exiles seemingly came from nowhere when their debut single ‘The One’ became the first independent NZ track to reach Top 30 on radio play and digital sales alone. Their Big Day Out appearance this year caught attention of The Herald who judged them the band with “Best Attitude”

More announcements on the NZ Music Stage will follow in the next few weeks.

Southern Amp 2008 - It’s gonna be a huge day, we’ll see you there.