Author: Larry Heath

Smack dab in the middle of Perth’s busy West End – sitting just 300m from the Murray and Hay Street shopping malls – is the Ibis Perth‘s 192 room hotel. Though only listed as a three star establishment, it seems unfair to throw it in the same category that many seedy motels around the country…

From the 8th of January, the city of Sydney will once again be transformed by the annual month long extravaganza known simply as Sydney Festival. The event will take over spaces around the city – some, such as the Famous Spiegeltent, are only here for the festival. But with hundreds upon hundreds of performances, it’s…

This morning on 2SER radio in Sydney, the AU review’s Larry Heath announced the winners of the first annual people’s choice award as part of the AU Awards – celebrating the best in live music in Australia. Close to 10,000 votes were cast as fans from Australia and around the world voted for their favourite…

While we were in Hong Kong covering a festival called Clockenflap, we sat down with the Scottish trio Chvrches. You may have already watched some of our chat – now read on as we talk to the band about Hong Kong, plans for their Winter and their work on the Hunger Games and Drive soundtracks….

Before he hits the stage as part of our LIVE AU sessions series in Sydney on Tuesday, December 9th, Canadian troubadour Tim Chaisson joined us at a park in Central Station to perform his beautiful track “Animals” for our AU sessions web series. Enjoy it here, and don’t miss his LIVE and FREE at our…

Over the course of its seven years, the uniquely named Clockenflap has become Hong Kong’s premiere contemporary music and arts festival, presenting a mix of local Hong Kong indie bands with the finest artists from around the world. This year, with music spread over 3 days and 9 stages, the event proved bigger than ever,…

Larry Heath talks to Raul Pacheco from Ozomatli about coming to Hong Kong for the first time and we reflect on their year of touring Place In the Sun, which included a jaunt in Australia that included the iconic Byron Bay Bluesfest.

Larry Heath talks to Stuart Braithwaite of iconic Scottish band Mogwai backstage at Clockenflap in Hong Kong to talk about their upcoming 20th anniversary, their experiences touring Asia, their year of touring Rave Tapes and their 2015 return to Australia – their first headline tour of our country in some six years… Mogwai Australian Headline…

Larry Heath interviews The Raveonettes backstage at Clockenflap in Hong Kong to talk about their latest album PE’AHI, its “surprise release”, recording the album (and living) in Los Angeles and we find out if they have any plans to come to Australia on this album cycle.

On the red carpet at the 2014 ARIA Awards, Larry chats with the Fariss brothers of INXS about Melbourne rocker Dan Sultan before the man himself turns out for a nice little reunion! Sultan, a favourite with industry and the public alike, went on to win the Best Rock Album ARIA that night, after being…

The Vaccines have been previewing new tracks off their yet-to-be-titled third record (due out in May 2015) as they return to the road, playing their first shows in over a year. In our exclusive interview with the band at Clockenflap (Hong Kong), they promised they’d preview three tracks from the next record, and indeed they…

The three day Music and Arts Festival Clockenflap just wrapped up its seventh edition in Hong Kong and we were there to bring you exclusive Australian coverage! Throughout the week you’ll read more reviews, see more photo galleries and watch more interviews from the event – but to kick things off, I’ve picked my five…

Photo: Perri Cassie the AU review sits down with CHVRCHES backstage at Clockenflap in Hong Kong, they talk about Social Media management, the business of the band and the long running tour for their debut record coming to an end as they look ahead to writing and recording record number three.

While they were at Clockenflap in Hong Kong on Friday night, I sat down with Justin Hayward-Young and Árni Árnason of English group The Vaccines, who made waves and received accolades with their records What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? and Come of Age in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Yes, there was a while…

In part two of our video chat with Adelaide brothers The Kin, Larry chats to the boys about some new songs, crafting their set lists, their future recording plans, and more. Stay up to date with The Kin on their official website HERE

We sit on the set of Once: The Musical at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre to talk to the “Guy” and “Girl” of the show, Tom Parsons and Madeleine Jones, about how they came to be in the production, their Glen Hansard and Swell Season experiences, their musical histories and more. Filmed in Melbourne in November 2014….

Click the PLAY Button to listen to the stream! If the pop-up doesn’t work, try this direct link HERE CURRENT SCHEDULE: HELLO ASIA! RADIO: Tuesday 2PM, Friday 9PM, Sunday 1PM ALL AU: Monday 8AM, Tuesday 5PM, Friday 5PM BANANA ROCKET RADIO: Wednesday 10AM, Friday 12PM, Sunday 9PM BEATSRADIO: Tuesday 10AM, Thursday 5PM, Saturday 11AM BRANKO’S…

I’ve been running the AU review for over 6 years now. During that time we’ve had over a hundred photographers come through our doors around the country – probably more… and though I’ve been behind plenty of video cameras, I’ve never dabbled much in photography myself. It can’t be that hard can it? Well, the…

As the Australian Music Industry gets ready for its “night of nights” at the 2014 ARIA Awards, New Zealand’s own industry had their own reason to celebrate last week with the 49th Annual Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards taking over the Vector Arena in Auckland with a phenomenally well run event. Naturally, Lorde was the…

The ARIA Awards return to Channel Ten tonight at 7.30pm and we’ll be live from the event all day, bringing you all the action from red carpet and backstage on Twitter. Stay tuned to the hashtag #AUxARIAs for all the updates. So what can you expect from the awards tonight? Here’s a few of the…

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The Mule marks the Directoral debut of Angus Sampson and Tony Mahony, starring Sampson as Ray Jenkins alongside Leigh Wannell (Gavin) as “brothers in life”, with Gavin roping Ray into becoming a heroin mule following a trip to Bali. After getting nervous at Sydney Airport, he gets taken away by the police for suspicious behaviour and in…

If you were reading The Iris back in March of this year, you may remember we posted parts of an interview we conducted with Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell to talk about their new film The Mule, which premiered at SXSW 2014. Some eight months later and the film has finally had an Australian release,…

Picture: Amy Hetherington captures Violent Soho in Darwin… Today the AU review – and parent company Heath Media – are excited to announce the nominees for the first annual AU Awards, a celebration of the best in live music in Australia. From the finest tours, to the best bands and our favourite venues, the AU…

The Singapore Tourism Board recently carried out some research that revealed that over one million Australians have missed their first day back at work as a result of a holiday, costing businesses thousands of dollars. In addition to the 1.1 million missing their first day back at work after a flight of 10 hours or…

Heath Media – publishers of this very website – are excited to announce that their annual photo book Austraila’s Year in Music – capturing the best in live performance – has opened for pre-orders. Releasing just in time for Christmas, Australia’s Year in Music: 2014 Edition takes us from Summer through to Spring, with close…

US metal band Prong kick off their debut Australian tour in Sydney tomorrow night, a run of shows which has been a long time coming for their fans out this way. Tommy Victor chats with the AU about their extensive catalogue, the dates they’ve got coming up and their new album, Ruining Lives. Few articles…

“A culturally ambitious nation” is the phrase that the Australia Council for the Arts are using to encapsulate the biggest changes to the way the Council issues grants in some 40 years. From structural changes to a new skill based board, the Council went through the finer details of their plans at a special panel…

As it seemed most of Melbourne were dressing as cats and making their way to the Katy Perry concert (#katycats), an nonetheless impressive contingent of the city’s less under-16 female crowd filled up the Corner Hotel for the second of two just-about-sold-out performances from Manchester Orchestra, supported by Ballarat’s Apes and Brooklyn based Kevin Devine….