26Feb2001NEW ZEALAND: 5000 FLOCK TO SUMMER JAM
<return to top>
By Tara ROSS.
It was a concert that was heavy on the jamming and light on the
summer feel, which was just what excited Christchurch rock fans
wanted.
About 5000 swooped on the WestpacTrust Centre for Summer Jam yesterday,
the first of a series of fundraising rock concerts for child cancer
charity Canteen.
Teen magnets Zed were a last-minute billing alongside top Christchurch
band Stellar*, Garageland, Breathe, and Aussie rockers Killing Heidi
for the six-hour concert, which will be repeated in Wellington and
Hamilton this week.
Event manager Neil Cox was delighted to draw a strong youth crowd.
"It's great to have something decent for them in the city.
"Let's hope these become annual events, because we desperately need
events like this in Christchurch - not just the free events in the
park but good solid support for New Zealand music."
He said it was a coup to have attracted Australian band Killing
Heidi, and Zed.
Zed fans made up a large and frenzied portion of the audience, but
Mr Cox said the squealing choruses of teenage girls curbed their
adoration enough for there to be "no casualties".
The concert was the first South Island gig for Stellar* for about
a year, and fans of the Christchurch band made the most of their
return. "It's just been a great day out for everyone," Mr Cox said.
All the money from Summer Jam goes to Canteen.
Review, page 22.
(c) The Christchurch Press, INL 2001.
Source:
THE CHRISTCHURCH PRESS 26/02/2001 P3
25Feb2001
- TPA: Gig report 25.02.01 <return to top>
Killing Heidi @ Westpac Trust Centre at Christchurch
New Zealand as a feature artist on Summer Jam concert series presented
by Edge FM network and the Heidi did us proud !Played strong , done
well. current NZ single 'Live Without It' is now #28 on NZ National
Charts and rising.....
24Feb2001
- AUSTRALIA: A LOVE of
talking was a prerequisite... <return to top>
By PATRICK McDONALD and EMMA KIBBLE.
A LOVE of talking was a prerequisite for SAFM breakfast radio announcer
Amanda Blair - but even she couldn't answer the 15,000 phone calls
to the Kids Help Line that go unanswered yearly due to staff and
funding shortages.
Blair and announcers at Austereo radio stations around Australia
are aiming to raise $500,000 for the free, 24-hour national counselling
service via a 50-hour Radiothon which ends at 6pm tomorrow. Blair
and on-air partner James Brayshaw will lead a Radiothon show from
8am to 10am today ahead of one-hour interviews with Russell Crowe,
Killing Heidi, Susie O'Neill and more. Tomorrow's interviews will
include Lenny Kravitz and Mark Bickley. Listeners are invited to
a barbecue with SAFM announcers at Moseley Square, Glenelg, from
1.30pm tomorrow. Donations to Kids Help Line can be made during
the weekend at any Blockbuster Video store or by calling the Optus
phone room on 1800 505 137.
(C) 2001 Advertiser Newspapers Limited.
Source:
ADVERTISER (ADELAIDE) 24/02/2001 P25
16Feb2001
- NEW ZEALAND: ENTERTAINING ELLA <return to top>
By Nick GORMACK.
Killing Heidi are one of the hottest rock bands in Aussie at the
moment. A large part of that success is down to their talented teenage
singer Ella Hooper. She talks to NICK GORMACK.
`She's a bitch," laughs Ella Hooper when asked what Heidi ever did
to her. Hooper, the engaging and upbeat 18-year-old singer for Aussie
rock sensations Killing Heidi - who are playing in Christchurch
next Sunday, February 25 - then gets more serious and says, yes,
the band's name is based on Heidi (the pig-tailed Swiss girl of
the famous children's storybook), and is really meant as a "metaphor
for adolescence".
"I mean Heidi is just so perfect and so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,
and Killing Heidi is all about losing that perfect innocence and
becoming something more real, not necessarily dark or negative.
Like when you're a little kid you think everything is perfect and
then there's a crucial stage where you go you crash, you might have
a first experience that tells you `Nah, not everything's perfect,
that's just how life is'."
Not that Hooper has much to complain about with life at the moment,
and, since she and older brother Jesse, the core of the band, were
discovered two years ago their own lives have taken on an almost
storybook twist.
The Hoopers, who hail from the small rural hamlet of Violet Town
in the backblocks of Victoria, were first unearthed when their song
Kettle won a competition run by influential Australian national
radio station Triple J. Shortly after they were signed to producer
Paul Kosky's (Crowded House) new label and teamed up with bassist
Warren Jenkins and drummer Adam Pedretti.
The rest, as they say, is history. Their first single Weir, and
follow-up Mascara, both went No. 1 in Aussie, as did last year's
debut album Reflector, which has now sold a staggering 225,000 copies
in Oz. The group also scooped the four big gongs at the Australian
Record Industry Association Awards last year, taking out best album,
best group, best new artist (album), and best rock album - beating
off heavyweights such as Powderfinger, and Kiwi sonic-rockers Shihad
in the process.
As Ella Hooper admits the last year certainly has been a whirl.
"The Big Day Out in Australia last year was like the watermark,
when it just turned around and really started going insane.
"We've been to so many places since then: America twice, to New
Zealand twice, everywhere - it's been fantastic, really, really
good."
As singer and frontperson the much-photographed Ella has herself
has come in for a lot of the attention from fans and the media -
in one month alone featuring on the cover of four Aussie magazines.
However Hooper says while in some ways it's almost inevitable people
may focus on her as much as the band's music, she doesn't see herself
as a sex symbol.
"Definitely not. I'm much more concerned with things like body image
and empowerment issues for young girls. But I guess there is a certain
something that you can't help about when you're on the cover of
a magazine - they want something that's gonna look really, really
funky, and spunky, and I guess sexy too."
Hooper says while she does go to lengths to make sure nothing is
"too sexy" she's also not afraid of being herself.
"I'm happy to show my tummy and stuff. Hey, I'm not 16. I'm happy
to show a little bit of skin, I mean I have a lot of its (laughs).
I've got a big belly, I've got a big bum, and I've got boobs, because
I'm a girl I'm not trying to be this waif-thin disgusting model
look."
She says that whole "image thing" of what teenagers are supposed
to be like and the pressures on teenagers today, which sparked many
of the songs on Reflector, was brought home to her on a recent visit
to the States.
"Like all these girls over there are saying `All I want is perfect
teeth and perfect hair, and I'm waiting till marriage till I have
sex', and all this just unobtainable bullshit your average teenager
just cannot connect with, but thinks `oh, oh that's the right thing
to do, and we can all be like prim and proper till we die'.
"That's bullshit, you know. We're real. Teenagers are very interesting
animals and they're not like that at all."
Killing Heidi, with Stellar*, Breathe, Garageland. Summer Jam, Sunday,
February 25, at the WestpacTrust Centre. Tickets $19 from Ticketek.
(c) The Christchurch Press, INL 2001.
Source:
THE CHRISTCHURCH PRESS 16/02/2001 P17
10Feb2001
- TPA: Gig report 10.02.01 <return to top>
Killing Heidi @ Half Moon Festival at Moama near Echuca
on Murray River.3300 punters rocked under the stars in a natural
amphitheatre setting. Fresh from the Big Day out the local band
(KH) kicked bigtime for friends, family and tourists.
Thanks to promoter Tammi for all her hard work
02Feb2001
- AUSTRALIA: Triple
J give Powderfinger a double treat <return to top>
POWDERFINGER blitzed Triple J's Hottest 100, taking
top spot for the second year running. The multi-ARIA award winner
topped the chart at No 1 with My Happiness and also took the No
3 spot with Not My Kind Of Scene. It capped off an extroardinary
few months for the band whose latest album has sold close to 400,000
copies. "I didn't realise all of our mothers bought so many CDs,"
band member Darren Middleton said. "It's been pretty ridiculous,
bizarre, mind-blowingly good for us. People still seem to like us."
The band was forced out of second position by U2. U2 also found
themselves appearing twice on the chart with The Ground Beneath
Her Feet in position 94. Last year's ARIA award winner Killing Heidi
who held the No 2 position in the 2000 chart only slipped into the
chart this year at 96 with Live Without it. Australian bands dominated
the chart again this year but top US acts Red Hot Chilli Peppers,
Foo Fighters and Wheatus pushed the Aussies out of the top spots
along with UK band Coldplay. Paul Kelly was the only other Australian
to appear in the top 10. Triple J's Top 100 is in its 13th year
with more than 600,000 voters.
(c) 2001 Nationwide News Pty Limited.
Source:
CAIRNS POST 02/02/2001 P20
01Feb2001
- AUSTRALIA: Thrills on water,
thrills on land <return to top>
THE Southern 80 is the world's biggest waterski race,
with up to 300 skiers travelling at high speed over an 80km course.
The race, described as Bathurst on water, will be on Saturday week
along the Murray River, from Echuca to Torrumbarry.
As well, there will be the Halfmoon Music Festival, with groups
including Killing Heidi, the Mavis's and Nokturnl and local Echuca
up-and-comers Punch Drunk and SpiderMcGlirk playing at the Moama
Recreation Reserve on the Saturday evening.
Hit has a fantastic prize to give away. It comprises three nights'
accommodation for two, chauffeured limousine transfers to the race
start and finish, a double pass to the Southern 80, entry to the
VIP marquee, limousine transfers to the concert, champagne and backstage
passes.
The winner and friend will have to make their own way to Echuca.
For your chance to win, ring 1900 969 534.
Calls cost 50 cents. Broadsystem. Higher from mobile or public phones.
Lines close midnight tomorrow. Winners notified by mail.
(C) 2001 Herald and Weekly Times Limited.
