It looks like Australia may be included as part of Eminem’s world tour plans for the rapper’s much anticipated new album MMLP2 (The Marshall Mathers LP 2).
The real-life Marshall Mathers has just completed select live dates across Europe, including appearances at the Leeds and Reading festival in the UK to promote his new album, due this November, and is looking to hit Australia for a run of stadium shows in February and March next year.
According to the Herald Sun‘s music scuttlebutt reporter Nui Te Koha, promoter Paul Dainty is expected to officially announce an Eminem Australian Tour, including performances in Sydney and Melbourne’s Docklands, with support from international rap star Lil’ Wayne and homegrown heroes, the Hilltop Hoods.
Should the tour details prove correct, they mirror those of Eminem’s last visit to Australia two years ago, also presented by the Dainty Group, playing a concert at Melbourne’s then-Etihad Stadium on December 1st followed by two dates at Sydney Football Stadium, with support from Lil Wayne and Hilltop hoods.
A forthcoming Eminem tour could also use the Telstra Thanks presale service, which sees the telcom giant offering its subscribers data and userbase to ticketing platform BangTango and in turn promoters for exclusive presale to major concerts. The Dainty Group has been among the first to use the new service, presenting Bon Jovi’s forthcoming Australian tour in December and a forthcoming visit from Canadian crooner Michael Bublé. Promoter Paul Dainty is expected to officially announce an Eminem Australian Tour, including performances in Sydney and Melbourne’s Docklands…
Nui Te Koha’s music reports have had just as many (if not more) misses than hits, but for what it’s worth, he was right on the money recently when he leaked the Big Day Out headliners ahead of official release in July, and was accurate concerning the rumours that Nine Inch Nails were to headline Soundwave 2014, saying the festival was “close to securing” Trent Reznor and co before they turned promoter AJ Maddah down, much to his displeasure.
Te Koha also refers to concert industry sources that say Maddah was “invited to get involved” in negotiations for placing Eminem on the Soundwave 2014 bill, along with headliners Green Day, Avenged Sevenfold, and 50+ other acts, but “Soundwave withdrew its offer when it became clear Eminem preferred to do a solo tour, and not festivals,” writes Te Koha.
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Eminem’s Reading/Leeds sets last weekend saw the 40-year-old rap titan delivering two hour sets of 25 songs or more, opening each with his aggressive new track ‘Survival‘, followed by plugging in some of his biggest hits, including ‘The Way I Am’, ‘Stan’ (complete with a live cameo from Dido), a medley of ‘My Name Is / The Real Slim Shady / Without Me’ and an encore of ‘Lose Yourself’.
‘Berzerk’, the old skool-style lead single from MMLP2, was conspicuously absent from his live set. The new track sounds like a throwback to classic rap groups of the 80s, complete with lyrical references to Public Enemy, hi-top Reeboks and a promotional video with a vintage ghettoblaster boombox. The 80s allusions continue musically too, with a key sample of the decade’s staple, ‘The Stroke’ by Billy Squier, and the Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock and his iconic cry of “kick it!” from ‘(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)’.
UPDATE: Industry sources have now confirmed to TheMusic that the 2014 tour will be going ahead, and will incorporate single shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in February , as well as a visit to Auckland, marking his first show in New Zealand.
A source associated with Auckland’s Western Springs Stadium has revealed that they have a date pencilled for a large scale event on Saturday 15th Febrary, although they wouldn’t speak as to whether the pencil was for Eminem’s debut appearance in the country.
The source expects that tour dates will be officially announced in October.
