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MARK KNOPFLER

GET LUCKY

When they agreed the unwritten law that time-honoured artists with brilliant track records get less creative as they go on, Mark Knopfler obviously wasn’t paying attention. He was too busy writing, recording, touring and enjoying it all.

‘Get Lucky’ is a beautifully crafted exploration of a lifetime of musical roots,fluently combining folk and blues with his original songwriting, the whole containing personalised British ingredients and vivid observational lyricism.

If ‘Get Lucky’ was a novel, it’d be another of Knopfler’s page-turners, full of characters who leap out of the lyrics, like the Glasgow lorry-driver of the opening track ‘Border Reiver,’ or the fairground worker and fruit picker of the title song, or his heartfelt remembrance of the great ships in ‘So Far From The Clyde,’ or real life tributes to a master guitar-maker in ‘Monteleone’ and the lost uncle he never knew in ‘Piper To The End.’

The autobiographical thread running through ‘Get Lucky’ is exemplified by the title track. “The first itinerant person I ever met would sing in soul bands in winter, then work part-time in fairgrounds or ‘go pick fruit down south’ when the weather turned warm,” explains Knopfler. “I was about 15 years old, stuck in school and envious. ‘Get Lucky’ came from him and other travelling characters I went on to meet in places I’d find myself working short-term, like farms, warehouses, building sites, before I got lucky with my songs.” ‘Border Reiver’ takes its title from the raiders who ran the Anglo-Scottish borders centuries ago.

On an album where the vibrancy of the characters is matched by the radiance of the instrumentation, the closing piece is the moving ‘Piper To The End,’ written for Mark’s uncle Freddie. He was a piper of the 1st Battalion, Tyneside Scottish, the Black Watch, Royal Highland Regiment, who carried his pipes into action and was killed with them at Ficheux, near Arras in May 1940, aged just 20.

Now Knopfler and the band are looking forward to hitting the road once again in 2010. “It’s like being captain of a little fighting ship really, and I enjoy the team thing of being on the road, I enjoy being with the crew. I suppose one of the reasons I like it so much is that I know it’s not going to be a year-long thing.”

In the end, Mark Knopfler thrives on never taking the audience for granted. “I think there’s still a place for the game that I’m playing,” he muses. “It’s not on the same pitch as a lot of other people are playing, mine’s over here and theirs is over there, but people still want to hear crafted songs.”

David Gray

Draw The Line

With 12 million album sales to date and the best selling album in Ireland ever with White Ladder, David Gray is certainly not one to rest on his laurels.

Four years after his No.1 album ‘Life In Slow Motion’, David Gray returns with his highly anticipated new album Draw The Line. The album was written and produced by David in his North London studio, The Church. Gray wrote the song ‘Draw The Line’ in June 2007, which lit the touch paper for the rest of the record and gives the new album its title.

It’s the warm sound of David Gray’s unmistakeable voice and intelligent song writing under a new, revitalised light. Lead single ‘Fugitive’ is one of the many standout tracks on the album, featuring a soaring contribution from a gospel choir. Other highlights include a joyous collaboration with Annie Lennox on the album’s epic finale ‘Full Steam Ahead’ and a telling duet with American singer-songwriter Jolie Holland on ‘Kathleen’. ‘First Chance’ is buoyed by the sound of a high-strung guitar, while soulful piano based ‘Transformation’ builds to a powerful crescendo.

The Black Eyed Peas
The E.N.D.

They are the best selling hip-hop group in music today, having sold over 26 million albums worldwide. In fact, they are one of the planet's most popular artists, and have toured more countries than any other artist.

Keri Hilson
In A Perfect World…

Have you seen that gorgeous model-looking chick that’s got Usher sprung in the video for ‘Love In This Club’?  Turns out, she’s a recording artist in her own right. Keri Hilson is about to be huge. And she's one of those rare people who deserve to be. For Keri, music was a childhood friend she kept throughout adulthood. "In school, I would get in trouble for singing all the time. I unknowingly hummed every chance I got. It got so bad my friend's nicknamed me 'Keri-okey'". She wears that name proudly on her sleeve, and in credits for every major hit she writes.

September 2008 will see the release of Keri Hilson's first album, In A Perfect World…  The highly anticipated debut features her indomitable songwriting skills, the genre-obliterating production of Polow da Don and Timbaland, and Keri Hilson's undeniably incredible voice.  In A Perfect World… represents a world where music is music and you can’t put it in a box. It’s a catalyst for Keri to defy categorisation,

For exclusive NZ updates and tour information on Kerry Hilson click HERE

EMINEM
Relapse

Slim Shady is back!
Eminem, the biggest selling music artist of the decade, officially announced the street date of his eagerly awaited new album; his first original studio album in over four years.  Relapse will be released on May 19, 2009.  The first single from the album and its accompanying video will see a simultaneous release on April 7th.  With the announcement of the release date for Relapse also comes confirmation of something that had been rumored in recent weeks: Eminem is already working on a follow-up album, Relapse 2, that fans can expect in the second half of 2009. Anticipation for Relapse has been building since the fall, when Eminem first announced the album title and debuted the freestyle, “I’m Having A Relapse,” during an interview on his Shade 45 satellite radio station.  Last month, the release of “Crack A Bottle” from Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent brought that anticipation to a head.  The track soared to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Eminem’s second #1 after 2002’s “Lose Yourself”) and set a Nielsen SoundScan record for opening week download sales (418,000).  The recording ranked third in the history of all weekly download sales.  “Crack A Bottle” will be included as an album track on Relapse.

For exclusive NZ updates and tour information on EMINEM click HERE

PEARL JAM
Backspacer

Pearl Jam is one of the most influential live bands of the modern era.  For the past 18 years, they have remained a relevant cultural and political force, having completed countless international tours and selling over 60 million records worldwide....

The band's ninth studio album, Backspacer, see them reunited with Brendan O'Brien who produced four of their earlier albums. While sticking with the tried and true in the production department, Pearl Jam are also offering fans a unique new opportunity. Those who purchase Backspacer digitally or on CD will be able to download the audio from their choice of two entire Pearl Jam concerts from a selection of 11 US shows. Both the limited edition and standard CD features an exclusive Ebridge which gives fans nearly 5 hours of additional audio. This exclusive giveaway marks the first-time an artist has allowed fans to access their live music vault while purchasing a new album.
‘The Fixer’, the first single from Backspacer, has already won over NZ fans, and as if having fresh Pearl Jam on our airwaves was not enough, it has been announced that they will play a series of outdoor shows in November in Australia and New Zealand - the legendary rockers will be returning to our shores for the first time in almost 10 years!!

PEARL JAM – LIVE IN NEW ZEALAND

Friday, 27 November, 2009

Mt Smart, Auckland, New Zealand

Sunday, 29 November, 2009

AMI Stadium, Christchurch, New Zealand