The AFL have been roping in the services of musicians already in the lead-up to this year’s Grand Final, employing Bliss N Eso and You Am I frontman Tim Rogers for separate ad campaigns, but now AFL organisers have confirmed this year’s musical entertainment for footy’s day of days.
Australian rock legends Hunters & Collectors and Birds of Tokyo, the most played act on Aussie radio, have been confirmed as the headline acts for this year’s AFL Grand Final, unveiled today as part of the AFL’s launch of the 2013 finals series.
Hunters & Collectors, who were recently the centre of attention of a new all-star tribute album put together by the Mushroom Group, will be re-forming to take the stage at the MCG on 29th September, presumably belting out their biggest hits, including ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’, ‘When The River Runs Dry’, and synonymous footy anthem ‘Holy Grail’, in a set to take place during the match’s Virgin Australia sponsored half-time break.
The seven-piece band, led by singer-songwriter Mark Seymour, were recently announced as one of the opening support acts on Bruce Springsteen’s Australian tour, opening for The Boss’ Melbourne concerts in February 2014 presented by Michael Gudinski’s Frontier Touring company.
The forthcoming AFL performance marks the band’s first reunion show since a 2011 appearance for the V8 Supercars in Sydney (as the band themselves recently tweeted), their first reunion show in two years since Michael Gudinski last convinced them to ‘get the band back together’ for the 2009 Sound Relief concert, raising funds in aid of Victorian Bushfire victims.
Opening the Grand Final Day entertainment will be Perth’s Birds Of Tokyo, who should be familiar to music fans for their popular track ‘Lanterns’, named as the most played song on Australian radio this year, and their #1 album March Fires, which snagged vocalist Ian Kenny the rare ARIA achievement of being the first singer to have two #1 albums in the same calendar year with two different bands.
Birds Of Tokyo will be performing prior to the Grand Final’s first bounce; both the Perth five-piece and Hunters & Collectors will also perform at The Premiership Party after the finals clash.
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The announcement follows last year’s successful AFL Grand Final entertainment format, which also featured one Aussie music legend (Paul Kelly) and a popular rock band with commercial appeal (The Temper Trap). Both bands drew over 11,000 punters following the Sydney Swans’ victory last year at the new format Premiership Party. AFL noted their pleasure with the success of the new live music model, implementing an overhaul to the Grand Final day entertainment format with a stronger focus on homegrown talent after learning its very public lesson from Meat Loaf’s disastrous mid-match performance in 2011.
