Australian psychedelic pop duo Empire of the Sun will make their awaited debut live appearance at this years Parklife Festival, which will span the country for five dates beginning Sept. 26 at Brisbane’s Botanical Gardens.
With little fanfare, promoters Fuzzy today announced Empire of the Sun would be main stage headliners on the line-up for the annual dance and electronic-flavored festival tour, with British rapper Lady Sovereign and Canadian alternative rock act Metric among the other confirmations.
“They have a very elaborate, visionary approach to how they want to present the show,” Mark Poston, chairman of the project’s label EMI Music Australia, tells Billboard.biz. “The show won’t be ready until the summer because they care so much about all the visual elements of this project, and they want to get it right.” U.K. and European live dates will follow.
Quite what Empire of the Sun will do on stage is still anyone’s guess. On the band’s Web site, singer Luke Steele (also frontman of alternative rock act Sleepy Jackson) comments, “The show is going to be epic, full of colors, dinosaur teeth chomping at the valleys of future. It will be more outrageous than the scents of imagination and will take the audience on a journey to another world.”
And it is claimed that partner Nick Littlemore (from electro act Pnau) does not perform in the live show. “We created the music as a celebration,” he comments, “this is an exciting new chapter in the Empire journey.”
Empire Of The Sun’s critically acclaimed debut album “Walking On A Dream” has been certified platinum in Australia (70,000 units), catapulted by the hits “We Are The People” and “Walking On A Dream,” which is nominated for song of the year at the 2009 APRA Music Awards on June 23.
The tracks respectively sit at No. 26 and No 74 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, while “Walking On a Dream” is at No. 29 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart. The third single “Standing On The Shore” will be released June 12 via iTunes and at Australian retail on June 23.
