The Across the Great Divide tour was a concert tour by Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 bands Powderfinger

Powderfinger

Powderfinger was an Australian rock band that formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their breakup the band lineup consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bassist John Collins, and drummer Jon Coghill....

 and Silverchair

Silverchair

Silverchair were an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Merewether, Newcastle with the line-up of Ben Gillies on drums, Chris Joannou on bass guitar and Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars. The group got their big break in mid-1994 when they won a national demo...

 in 2007

2007 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2007.-January:*January 1 - George Shearing is knighted for services to music in the Queen's New Year Honours List. Evelyn Glennie becomes a Dame...

. The tour featured concerts in 26 towns across Australia and multiple shows in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. According to Powderfinger frontman Bernard Fanning

Bernard Fanning

Bernard Joseph Fanning is a musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer and frontman of Australian alternative rock band Powderfinger from its formation in 1989 to its dissolution in 2010....

, the aim of the tour was to "show [that] both bands are behind the idea of reconciliation." Both bands aimed to increase awareness of the efforts of Reconciliation Australia

Reconciliation Australia

Reconciliation Australia is the non-government, not-for-profit foundation established in January 2001 to provide a continuing national focus for reconciliation. It was established by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation...

 to reduce the current 17-year gap in life expectancy

Life expectancy

Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...

 between the average Australian life and that of Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

. A triple DVD set was released with the same title as the tour

Across the Great Divide Tour (DVD)

The Across the Great Divide Tour was a live DVD and release by Australian rock bands Powderfinger and Silverchair. Released on 1 December 2007, it followed two Melbourne concerts during the bands' two month-long nationwide tour, titled the Across the Great Divide tour...

 on 1 December 2007 with the Melbourne performances for both bands and backstage occurrences from the tour.

Background

Prior to the tour, Powderfinger and Silverchair performed numerous MySpace

MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

-exclusive concerts, with only 200 tickets made available. The majority of tickets were sold within 30 minutes.

Unlike many conventional tours, the Across the Great Divide tour entered many regional centres across the country, which was supported by the districts the bands went into, being regarded by some as "phenomenal". At nine weeks long, the tour was the longest yet for both bands. The tour began in Silverchair's home town of Newcastle

Newcastle, New South Wales

The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...

, and then moved directly north to Powderfinger's home city Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

, before continuing to other parts of Australia.

Tickets went on sale on 9 July and the shows in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Wollongong all sold out within half an hour. The Gold Coast and Newcastle shows sold out by mid-morning, and Perth also sold out within hours. Extra shows were announced in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Wollongong, Newcastle and Perth to meet the high demand.

Powderfinger and Silverchair appeared onstage together for the first time in the tour on 8 September, in Sydney, performing a cover of The Who

The Who

The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...

's "Substitute" to close the show. Fanning said of the performance, "This is the very first time we've done this", and it was reported that he and Johns showed a mutual affection and respect for each other and their bands. Together, the band wrote the song "Jake", which they recorded and released as a free 39 second ringtone on the tour's website.

On 9 September, while performing at Sydney's Acer Arena

Acer Arena

The Allphones Arena is a large entertainment and sporting complex located in Sydney, Australia. It is situated in Sydney Olympic Park, and was completed in 1999 as part of the facilities for the 2000 Summer Olympics....

, Fanning made news for attacking the 2007 APEC Australia Summit

APEC Australia 2007

APEC Australia 2007 was a series of political meetings held around Australia between the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation during 2007...

 in Sydney. In a pause between songs, Fanning described the participants in the summit as "fuckwits".

The Ballarat show originally scheduled for the 16 September, was postponed due to a fifteen-metre tear in the performance tent, which is being used in regional areas as the concert arena, where large enough venues are not available. The concert instead went ahead the next night.

Show format

As the show entered many rural and regional centres, many locations did not have arenas or stages available, and for these locations, a tent was constructed in which the bands would perform for their audiences. An illustration of this tent was shown at the bottom of the promotional posters and the cover of the DVD of the tour.

The performances schedule consisted of three main parts, beginning with the supporting artist performing one set, followed by Silverchair and then Powderfinger would play the final set of the night. The two bands united for only three performances onstage at the one time throughout the tour. The supporting artists varied from location to location. These artists included Epicure

Epicure (band)

Epicure are an Australian rock band from Ballarat, in regional Victoria. Triple J radio helped bring Epicure to the Australian consciousness when they added "Feet From Under Me" and "Johnny Venus" to their playlists in 2000. Both songs are featured on the Fold album...

, Dan Kelly

Dan Kelly (musician)

Daniel "Dan" Kelly is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is the second oldest of six children and the nephew of Paul Kelly. He grew up in Queensland and learnt the guitar at thirteen, studying Environmental Science at University, in Brisbane, in 1990...

, Expatriate

Expatriate

An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...

, Youth Group

Youth Group

Youth Group are a rock band based in Newtown, Sydney, Australia signed to Ivy League Records.- Biography :Youth Group formed in Sydney in the late 1990s. They have released four albums in Australia, with the three most recent albums also gaining releases worldwide...

, The Scare

The Scare

The Scare is an Australian rock band formed in 2004 by Kiss Reid, Samuel Pearton and Liam O'Brien in Brisbane, Queensland. They released their debut EP, Masochist Mimes, in November 2004. Brock Alexander Fitzgerald joined in 2005 and the band released a second EP, Vacuum Irony in October...

, Nabarlek

Nabarlek (band)

Nabarlek are an Indigenous Roots band from Manmoyi, a tiny community in Arnhem Land, 215 kilometres from the remote community of Gunbalanya . The band formed in 1985 as a group of singers and dancers with a couple of busted guitars and flour tins for drums...

, Blue King Brown

Blue King Brown

Blue King Brown are a Melbourne-based, Australian urban roots band. They have released a self-titled EP and a full length album, Stand Up . They released their follow-up Worldwize Part 1 - North & South on 20 August 2010...

, The Beautiful Girls

The Beautiful Girls

The Beautiful Girls are an Australian band, predominantly playing roots music. They have released three EPs, Morning Sun, Goodtimes and Weight Of The World. Plus four full length albums, Learn Yourself, We're Already Gone, Ziggurats and Spooks. They played at Dusty Days on 15 March 2008 in Wagga...

, Something With Numbers

Something with Numbers

Something with Numbers is a rock band based in Australia. The band was formed on the New South Wales Central Coast, in Australia, in 2001. They have released an EP and three studio albums in their 7 year career...

, Kev Carmody

Kev Carmody

Kevin Daniel "Kev" Carmody is an Indigenous Australian singer-songwriter. His song "From Little Things Big Things Grow" was recorded with co-writer Paul Kelly for their 1993 single; it was covered by the Get Up Mob in 2008 and peaked at #4 on the Australian Recording Industry Association singles...

, Kisschasy

Kisschasy

Kisschasy are an Australian rock band formed in Victoria, Australia, in 2002. Since forming, their line-up has consisted of lead vocalist Darren Cordeux, bassist Joel Vanderuit, guitarist Sean Thomas and drummer Karl Ammitzboll....

, Andrew Morris, Wire MC and Street Warriors

Street Warriors

Street Warriors are an Australian hip hop group. The group is made up of brothers Abie and Warwick Wright from Local Knowledge. They perform in both English and the Awabakal language...

.

Response

The response to the Across the Great Divide tour was highly positive, both musically and for the purpose that it was held. Following the tour's second concert at Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Brisbane Entertainment Centre

The Brisbane Entertainment Centre is a centre, located in Boondall, a Brisbane City suburb, in Queensland, Australia.The arena has an assortment of seating plans, which facilitate the comfort of its users, subject to performance. Specific seating plans usually are allocated, depending on the...

, Rave Magazine reviewer Simon Topper comments Silverchair as "Visually stunning, and giving goosebumps during 'The Greatest View

The Greatest View

"The Greatest View" is the first single by rock band Silverchair released from their fourth album, Diorama, which was released in 2002, as was "The Greatest View". The song was released as a single and a video was made in which the band plays in hotel room representing Daniel John's inner space...

' and 'Straight Lines', Silverchair still elicit the screaming throng mentality, although it's not until final blast 'Freak

Freak (song)

"Freak" is a song by Silverchair, released as the first single from their second album Freak Show; both were released in 1997.The song reached number 1 in the Australian charts, being the second single by Silverchair to reach that position. The first single of Silverchair's to reach number 1 was...

' that anything resembling a mosh starts." Topper's comments of Powderfinger are equally positive, though defines them differently as "still just a bunch of blokes who could just as easily play a beer garden, but happen to have written some of this generation's anthems." Law enforcement representatives praised the tour's low rate of incidents, some attributing the success to the maturity of the crowds, with Wodonga police officials commenting that less than 1,000 of the 8,000 people in attendance at the Wodonga show were under the age of 18 and that the average age of attendance was "about 30 [years old]".

Tour itinerary

Tour venues

Date	Venue	Location
29 August	Newcastle Entertainment Centre Newcastle Entertainment Centre Newcastle Entertainment Centre is a multi-purpose Australian arena located within the Newcastle Showgrounds and was opened in 1992 at a cost of A$12m....	Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle, New South Wales The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
31 August	Brisbane Entertainment Centre Brisbane Entertainment Centre The Brisbane Entertainment Centre is a centre, located in Boondall, a Brisbane City suburb, in Queensland, Australia.The arena has an assortment of seating plans, which facilitate the comfort of its users, subject to performance. Specific seating plans usually are allocated, depending on the...	Brisbane Brisbane Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of... , Queensland Queensland Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
1 September	Brisbane Entertainment Centre	Brisbane, Queensland
2 September	Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre The Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre located on the Gold Coast Highway in Broadbeach, Gold Coast was opened on 29 June 2004 at a cost of $167 million and is linked by a covered walkway to Conrad Jupiters...	Gold Coast, Queensland Gold Coast, Queensland Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
4 September	Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre is an Australian arena, located approximately 5 km south of the Tamworth Central Business District, in the suburb of Hillvue...	Tamworth, New South Wales Tamworth, New South Wales Tamworth is a city in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Peel River, Tamworth, which contains an estimated population of 47,595 people, is the major regional centre for southern New England and in the local government area of Tamworth Regional Council. The city...
6 September	Coffs Harbour Showgrounds	Coffs Harbour, New South Wales New South Wales New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
8 September	Acer Arena Acer Arena The Allphones Arena is a large entertainment and sporting complex located in Sydney, Australia. It is situated in Sydney Olympic Park, and was completed in 1999 as part of the facilities for the 2000 Summer Olympics.... , Homebush	Sydney Sydney Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people... , New South Wales
9 September	Acer Arena, Homebush	Sydney, New South Wales
11 September	John Dunmore Lang Place	Canberra Canberra Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne... , Australian Capital Territory Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
12 September	Gateway Island, Lincoln Causeway	Wodonga, Victoria
14 September	Ornamental Gardens	Mildura, Victoria
15 September	Bendigo Showgrounds	Bendigo, Victoria
16 September	Ballarat Showgrounds (postponed)	Ballarat, Victoria
18 September	Rod Laver Arena Rod Laver Arena Rod Laver Arena is a tennis stadium that is part of the Melbourne Park complex located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and has been the main venue for the Australian Open in tennis since 1988, replacing the ageing Kooyong Stadium...	Melbourne Melbourne Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater... , Victoria
19 September	Rod Laver Arena	Melbourne, Victoria
22 September	Claremont Oval Claremont Oval Claremont Oval is an Australian rules football stadium located in Perth, Australia. The capacity of the venue is 10,000 people and was opened in 1905 and is the home of the Claremont Football Club....	Perth, Western Australia Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
23 September	Claremont Oval	Perth, Western Australia
26 September	Adelaide Entertainment Centre Adelaide Entertainment Centre The Adelaide Entertainment Centre is an indoor arena located in the South Australian capital of Adelaide, and is used for sporting and entertainment events. It is the principal venue for concerts, events and attractions for audiences between 2,000 and 12,000. It is located on Port Road in the...	Adelaide Adelaide Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million... , South Australia South Australia South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
29 September	Derwent Entertainment Centre Derwent Entertainment Centre Derwent Entertainment Centre is a multi-purpose arena and is the primary venue, in Hobart, for large indoor functions/events. It was constructed in 1989 and is situated in between the waterfront of the River Derwent, the Brooker Highway and Tattersalls Park.Between 1989 and 1996, it was the home of...	Hobart Hobart Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as... , Tasmania Tasmania Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
5 October	Darwin Showgrounds	Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
7 October	Cairns Showgrounds	Cairns, Queensland
8 October	Townsville Entertainment Centre Townsville Entertainment Centre Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre is an indoor sports arena, located in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The capacity of the arena is 5,257 and was built in 1993....	Townsville, Queensland
9 October	Townsville Entertainment Centre Townsville Entertainment Centre Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre is an indoor sports arena, located in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The capacity of the arena is 5,257 and was built in 1993....	Townsville, Queensland
11 October	Mackay Showgrounds	Mackay, Queensland Mackay, Queensland Mackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
12 October	Rockhampton Music Bowl	Rockhampton, Queensland Rockhampton, Queensland Rockhampton is a city and local government area in Queensland, Australia. The city lies on the Fitzroy River, approximately from the river mouth, and some north of the state capital, Brisbane....
14 October	University of Southern Queensland University of Southern Queensland The University of Southern Queensland is based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. The institution was established in 1967 as the Queensland Institute of Technology...  Oval	Toowoomba, Queensland
16 October	Westpac Arena	Christchurch Christchurch Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of... , New Zealand
18 October	TSB Bank Arena TSB Bank Arena The TSB Bank Arena, formerly known as the Queens Wharf Events Centre, is an indoor arena, located in Wellington, New Zealand. The arena hosts mainly basketball games and is the home arena for the Century City Saints and part-time home arena of the New Zealand Breakers when they play in Wellington,...	Wellington, New Zealand
19 October	Arena Manawatu Arena Manawatu Arena Manawatu is the current name of the 180,000 square metre publicly owned recreational complex just west of the Palmerston North city centre in the Manawatu-Wanganui region of New Zealand.It has three linked indoor stadiums, with movable tiered seating...	Palmerston North, New Zealand
20 October	Vector Arena Vector Arena Vector Arena is a 12,000-seat arena for sports and entertainment events in Auckland, New Zealand. Named for a sponsor, Vector Limited, the arena is located at Quay Park, Parnell, very close to the former Auckland Railway Station...	Auckland, New Zealand
23 October	WIN Entertainment Centre WIN Entertainment Centre WIN Entertainment Centre is a multi-purpose indoor arena, located in downtown Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia....	Wollongong, New South Wales
24 October	WIN Entertainment Centre	Wollongong, New South Wales
26 October	Newcastle Entertainment Centre	Newcastle, New South Wales

External links

• Official website