Exceptional artists added to 2021 Bluesfest

THE CHURCH

KATE MILLER-HEIDKE

THE LIVING END

THE ANGELS

ROSS WILSON AND THE PEACENIKS

BLUE KING BROWN

JEFF LANG

KARA GRAINGER

And many more to be announced!

Get your tickets on-sale now

The 2021 Bluesfest Third Artist Announcement is a legendary list of exceptional artists who join what is already an incredible line up of Australian talent confirmed to perform next Easter on April 1 – 5^th at the beautiful green Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm located 10 minutes north of Byron Bay.

 Commenting on the announcement Festival Director, Peter Noble OAM says “Look at this line up – all that talent. When it comes to musical talent Australia is an embarrassment of riches and it is a privilege to create a line up to clearly showcase that very fact.”

 Legendary psych-rock guitar stars The Church step on to the Bluesfest stage for the very first time and headline this Third Artist Announcement for 2021 Bluesfest.  Award winning singer-songwriter and Euro Vision 2019 success story Kate Miller- Heidke will bring her touch of class,  whilst punk inspired rock band The Living End with their blend of rockabilly and punk and eternal rock-stars The Angels bring their exhilarating and raw live energy to this powerful line up.  Rock royalty and bona fide legend  Ross Wilson & The Peaceniks have signed on and will be pumping out the non-stop hit machine featuring songs from Daddy Cool to Mondo Rock.  Joining them are festival favourites Blue King Brown,  headed up by the dynamic no-holds- barred pocket rocket Nattali Rize. “Bluesfest is one of our favourite festivals on the planet. We’re looking forward to returning to Australian shores and bringing the full power Blue King Brown show home!” Says Nattali Rize.

With 14 Bluesfest performances behind him, the first in 1994, Jeff Lang is a legend in his own right. Said to play the guitar with the devils in his fingers,  Jeff has won three ARIA Awards and his live performances are always a guaranteed showstopper. Adding more femme force to the bill is the return to Australia from the now Nashville based singer-songwriter Kara Grainger,  her soulful vocals and unique style of slide guitar has earned her ‘opening’ performance slots with Peter Frampton, Buddy Guy and Taj Mahal to name a few. Many in the business will be watching what this lead singer from the much-loved “Papa Lips” is doing now.

The Church

Australian psych-rock guitar masters The Church enter their fifth decade of making music with all the fierce creative energy of their early years. With new members introduced, the band are deep into recording the band’s 25th studio album, 40 years after their formation and will perform at Bluesfest for the first time in 2021. The 2020 epic line-up is bassist, vocalist and founder Steve Kilbey; with longtime collaborator Tim Ebandit Powles drummer and producer across 17 albums since ’94; guitarist Ian Haug who joined the band in 2013 and Jeffrey Cain, touring multi-instrumentalist who is now a full-time member of The Church since the departure of Peter Koppes in early 2020. The band have also recently recruited one of Australia’s finest and most respected guitarists Ashley Naylor (Even, The Grapes). Ashley and Steve have collaborated on many different projects over the years and now was the perfect time to bring Ashley into the band.

Kate Miller-Heidke 

Award winning singer-songwriter and Euro Vision 2019 success story Kate Miller-Heidke traverses the worlds of contemporary pop, folk, and opera.  She has released four studio albums including the top 5 album O Vertigo!, and Curiouser, which reached double platinum sales and featured the multi-platinum hits ‘The Last Day On Earth’ and ‘Caught In The Crowd’, which won Grand Prize in the 2009 International Songwriting Competition.

She won the 2016 Helpmann for Best Australian Contemporary Concert.

Trained as a classical singer at the Queensland Conservatorium, Kate has performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and several roles for the English National Opera. Her debut opera as a composer, The Rabbits, won 4 Helpmann Awards including Best Score and Best New Australian Work. With her collaborator Keir Nuttall, she has written the music and lyrics to Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical, which premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company and played throughout 2019 in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

 The Living End

The Living End consider themselves to be a rock ‘n’ roll band based on punk ethics, citing The Clash, Iggy Pop, The Who and The Jam as influences and bands with whom they share the same ideals.  Formed in 1994 and since 2002 the line up consists of Chris Cheney (vocals, guitar), Scott Owen (double bass, vocals) and Andy Strachan (drums).  The band rose to fame in 1997 after the release of their double A-sided single, ”Second Solution” / “Prisoner of Society”, which peaked at No. 4 on the Australian Singles Chart and went on to sell triple platinum. They have released seven studio albums and two reached the No. 1 spot on the Australian Albums Chart - self-titled album (12 October 1998) and State of Emergency (4 February 2006). They have also gained chart success in the United States and the United Kingdom.  Said to be one of Australia’s most ferocious live acts, their blistering live performances have earned the band an enviable position as one of Australia’s greatest live bands.

The Angels

Delivering raucous hard rock in the tradition of contemporaries like AC/DC and Rose Tattoo, the Angels are among the longest-lasting and most beloved bands ever to emerge from the Australian pub circuit. Their roots date back to 1973, when singer Doc Neeson and guitarist Rick Brewster first teamed up, but it was really in 1976 when they really started making their mark. Discovered by  AC/DC‘s Angus Young and Bon Scott, and signed to their label Albert Productions, their first single, ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’ was an instant hit – and set The Angels on their loud and proud rock journey.

Albums ‘The Angels,’ No Exit’, ‘Face To Face’, ‘Night Attack’, ‘Beyond Salvation’ and more followed …
and the Angels rock juggernaut rolled on through the decades. They lost two original members, Chris Bailey and Doc Neeson, but have never wavered in their musical mission.

Thirteen studio albums, eight Top 10 albums, 17 Top 40 singles … but that tells only part of The Angels story. It’s the relationship with the audience that means everything to the band, built via thousands of gigs. An exhilarating exchange of energy, legendary live shows, raucous audience ‘call-backs’, high-energy, high-voltage sets have made The Angels synonymous with Aussie pub-rock – and continues to keep The Angels at the forefront of our music industry as one of the most beloved rock bands in Australia. The Angels remain fierce and uncompromising. They have always done things their own way. So many of their songs   ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’, ‘Take A Long Line’, ‘Comin’ Down’, ‘Shadow Boxer’, ‘No Secrets’ … and more…. are bone-fide Australian anthems, calling out to be sung at high volume in a hot sweaty atmosphere. Featuring Dave Gleeson [Screaming Jets] on lead vocals and still run by founding members John Brewster and Rick Brewster you better answer that call and rally front and centre when The Angels play their first Bluesfest show.

Ross Wilson and The Peaceniks

From ‘Daddy Cool’ to ‘Mondo Rock’ and as a solo artist with no less than 26 ARIA Top 40 hits to his credit as a singer, songwriter and producer, Ross Wilson is one of Australia’s most awarded, respected and well-known artists! The legendary band ‘Daddy Cool’ whose number one anthem ‘Eagle Rock’ smashed all previous sales records in Australia, to the 1977 formation of ‘Mondo Rock’, delivering 80’s hits ‘Cool World’, ‘State of The Heart’, ‘Chemistry’, ‘No Time’, and ‘Come Said The Boy’ and into the 21^st century as a solo performer, Ross Wilson has never been out of the limelight. Twice inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, Wilson has written hits for Jimmy Barnes, John Farnham and Joe Cocker, and produced smash hit albums for Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, Skyhooks and Screaming Jets. Come back again to see an absolute solid gold legend of rock and his full band ‘The Peaceniks’ perform all his hits this year at 2021 Bluesfest.

Blue King Brown

Hailed by Santana as “The voice of the street and the band of the future!” Blue King Brown, is Australia’s premier live urban roots & reggae powerhouse act. Their cross-generational groove and socially conscious sound is lead by the multi talented, relentless energy of Nattali Rize. Powerful vocal & lyrical delivery’s meet a roots, rock & afro groove mash-up built on an irrepressible percussive foundation, cementing their highly regarded live reputation. A force of nature onstage Blue King Brown are festival favourites and return to Bluesfest for the eighth time this year.

Jeff Lang 

This will be the 15^th Bluesfest performance for Australian guitarist-songwriter-vocalist-producer, Jeff Lang who made his Bluesfest debut in 1994. Jeff has built a reputation for making startling music that is accomplished, intricate, gutsy, melodic and loaded with soul. Often taking unexpected turns, he has consistently inspired his audiences by creating a stylistically diverse catalogue of over 30 albums.  As many journalists have written over the years, Jeff is not one to be easily pegged, though in a general sense it’s fair to say he largely trades in roots-oriented rock; wider reaching in collaborations with the likes of roving guitar anthropologist the late Bob Brozman, American blues-rocker Chris Whitley, India’s desert-dwellers Maru Tarang and world music virtuosos Bobby Singh and Mamadou Diabate. Jeff’s work with the latter won the 2010 ARIA for Best World Music Album, while he and Brozman took one home for Best Blues and Roots Music Album in 2002. Jeff received that same award on his own in 2012 for the album ‘Carried In Mind’. In 2020 Jeff published his first book – “Some Memories Never Die” – a memoir of three decades on the road; Memories of gigs where the pay was akin to blood money, reflections on how the road’s twists and turns can be lightened by the presence of fellow travellers and occasionally darkened by them too.

Kara Grainger

Some people just have music running through their veins. Kara’s music journey has taken her all around the globe. From her inner city beginnings in the town of Balmain, Sydney Australia, she has since performed and toured in Japan, Indonesia, India, Switzerland, Germany, the UK, and the USA. Her soulful vocals and unique style of slide guitar has caught the attention of many well renowned artists, she’s opened the show for Peter Frampton, Buddy Guy, Johnny Lang, Taj Mahal, Marc Cohen and Eric Johnson to name a few. Kara has been based in Nashville and returns to Australia after a long stint abroad. Many will be watching what she will bring to the stage on this occasion.

All ticket types and Add-Ons are on-sale now.

For further information on the line-up or artists please see here.

Bluesfest 2021 is being held from 1 – 5 April 2021. Tickets are on sale now via Moshtix.

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