Gig Reviews

Cameron Jibril Thomaz, popularly known as Wiz Khalifa, is teaming up with Maroon 5's Adam Levine and Crish Brown for his upcoming album’s tracks. The well known rapper, who is currently dating Amber Rose, is recording the follow up to Rolling Papers, which is his 2011 debut album. The title of Wiz Khalifa's new album will be O. N. I. F. C. It will be released late in this year.

The NZSO concert was recently held in the Auckland town Hall and this is really the hot topic of the moment. After a short Fanfare from Ross Harris, rising up from a Wagnerian underworld to herald a bright and triplet-laced new world ahead, Anthony Ritchie's A Shakespeare Overture provided the first salute to The Bard.

As impressed as one might be with this student work of the composer, given with all the pizzazz that the players and conductor Hamish McKeich could muster, it still remains a 21-year-old's meld of assorted mid-20th-century masters.

Why is Robyn not one of the biggest popstars in the world like Lady Gaga? We don't know. Perhaps she forgot to tick a box on the application form. Perhaps it's because she doesn't wear dresses made of meat (or dresses that show her meat). Perhaps pop, as we've been warned, is all one big terrible conspiracy and its all rubbish and we should grow up and get a proper hobby.

For those watching sporting events at The Diamond, the headgear of choice is usually a baseball cap. On Saturday, it was cowboy hats all the way as the Wagon Wheel Country Music Festival returned to the Lake Elsinore stadium. A few thousand concertgoers (in V Festival Tickets) enjoyed sets by six acts –- including stellar turns by Lee Ann Womack and Dierks Bentley.

We all know that the music industry makes most of its profits in the run-up to Christmas, but even so, November 12 seems a bit early to be wearing paper hats and breaking out the mince pies. But in Andrea Bocelli’s mind, at least, the festive season is already raging. The second half of the show was peppered with elderly Yuletide chestnuts roasting on the open fire of Bocelli’s lush orchestral and choral accompaniment, with videos of snowy Alpine scenes for good measure. Coming back onstage to sing Silent Night, Bocelli had changed from a black jacket into a white one.

DESPITE being around for nearly five years now, Mystery Jets have yet to throw in the towel; a commendable persistence since they’ve never really fulfilled the promise they showed all those years ago, at least not commercially.

At the Glee Club, supported by great new act Is Tropical, it was clear that the Jets weren’t interested in merely trading on old glories.