Here are the major music events, births, deaths and album releases on this day in music for 22 August:

The 2025 Art Music Awards were celebrated in grand style at Sydney’s City Recital Hall on Thursday, 21 August, bringing together Australia’s leading voices in contemporary classical, jazz, experimental music and sound art. Presented by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre (AMC), the event recognised outstanding achievement, innovation, and contribution across the national art music community.

Spandau Ballet, one of the defining names of 80s British pop, will revisit their origins with the release of Everything Is Now – Vol 1: 1978-1982, a nine-disc box set capturing their most creative and radical formative years. The collection, due September 12 through Parlophone, brings together their groundbreaking debut albums, singles, BBC sessions, demos and rare live footage in the most comprehensive archive of the band’s first chapter ever assembled.

Australian electro-pop exports Parcels have joined forces with dance titans PNAU for a remix of their latest single ‘Yougotmefeeling’. The track, now reimagined with PNAU’s unmistakable French Touch-inspired sheen, is out via Because Music.

Jack White didn’t just take aim at Donald Trump’s garish Oval Office makeover, he weaponised it. Posting to Instagram this week, he scoffed at the president’s golden revamp, likening it to “a vulgar, gold-leafed and gaudy, professional wrestler’s dressing room.” A fiery riposte, to say the least.

In an unexpected, yet profoundly moving moment this past weekend, Kiwi music icon Neil Finn stepped into Aotea Square, Auckland, and lent his voice to a pro-Palestine rally, delivering a stirring a capella performance of “Don’t Dream It’s Over” to a gathering estimated at 300–500 people braving the elements.

Ed Kuepper, twice inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame as a founding member of both The Saints and Laughing Clowns, will finally bring his acclaimed collaboration with Dirty Three drummer Jim White to the United States for the first time this November. The pair will perform in Los Angeles on November 4 and New York on November 17, with support from none other than Mick Harvey of The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds.

Beyond The Valley, Australia’s largest multi-day music festival, will mark its 10th anniversary with the biggest line-up in its history. The 2025/26 edition will return to Barunah Plains, Wadawurrung Country, from 28 December to 1 January, celebrating a decade of New Year’s festival memories with a truly global lineup.

Skunkhour will mark three decades since the release of one of Australia’s most enduring funk-rock singles with the Up To Our Necks In It national tour this October and November. The tour celebrates the 1995 breakthrough hit Up To Our Necks In It, a track that helped Skunkhour break from the Sydney underground into national recognition.

Florence + The Machine announced their sixth studio album, Everybody Scream, slated for release on October 31, 2025. The eponymous title track premieres today, accompanied by a visually arresting video directed by Autumn de Wilde.

‘A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical’ is coming to Melbourne in August 2026.

Australian and New Zealand punk fans are in for a treat: California punk stalwarts Lagwagon will return early next year for a marquee tour marking the 30th anniversary of their seminal 1995 album, HOSS. The band will perform the album in full—track-by-track—alongside fan favourites, reviving the raw energy and emotion that defined the ‘90s punk explosion.

Split Enz, one of the most original and daring bands ever to come out of New Zealand, are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their debut album Mental Notes with the release of Enzcyclopedia Volumes One & Two on November 14. The massive archival set arrives as a 5CD collection, a 3LP vinyl edition, and a Blu-Ray Atmos mix, offering fans the deepest dive yet into the early, experimental years of the band.

Here are the major music events, births, deaths and album releases on this day in music for 21 August:

Tyler, The Creator’s Melbourne stop at Rod Laver Arena was not a rap show. It wasn’t a pop spectacle either. It was something stranger, funnier, more vulnerable and completely his own.

Ian Gillan, the iconic vocalist of Deep Purple, celebrates his 80th birthday (19 August 2025). Still blessed with a powerful, wide-ranging voice—even into his eighth decade—Gillan has traversed the peaks and troughs of rock history with a rare grace and tenacity.

Sydney’s Electric Pandas, the cult pop-rock outfit who made their mark in the mid-80s with one album and a hit song 'Big Girls', are officially back together. Lin Buckfield has revived the Pandas for 2025 with a refreshed line-up, and they’ll share the stage with James Reyne this November.

Bernie Leadon, the multi-instrumentalist best known as a founding member of the Eagles, is set to release his first solo album in 22 years. Titled Too Late To Be Cool, the record arrives on October 10, 2025, via Straight Wire Records. It marks the third solo effort in Leadon’s career and his first since 2004’s Mirror.

DEVO, the radical New Wave pioneers who turned art-school satire into international pop stardom, are back in the cultural conversation with the release of DEVO, a feature-length Netflix Original documentary. Directed by Chris Smith (Wham!, Fyre, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond), the film premiered to acclaim at Sundance 2024 and is now streaming globally, giving audiences a definitive portrait of one of music’s most original and eccentric bands.

Melbourne/Naarm-based soul singer WILSN (aka Shannon Busch) has announced her second album, Bloom, set for release on 17 October 2025. Alongside the announcement comes the release of her heartfelt new single ‘GIRL’, an ode to the bonds of female friendship.

The Beatles have dropped what can only be described as a clear placeholder across their website and socials, an animation tracing the outline of the Anthology albums, counting “1-2-3-4.” Fans are already convinced this is the long-awaited signal for Anthology 4.

Here are the major music events, births, deaths and album releases for 20 August:

On July 31, 1985, John Cougar Mellencamp released Scarecrow, his eighth studio album. Reaching #2 on the US Billboard 200, the album became a commercial milestone, eventually earning 5× Platinum certification in the U.S.

Staffan Öfwerman, best remembered as the energetic keyboardist, percussionist, and backing vocalist for Roxette during their world-conquering years, will release his long-awaited debut solo album Lost and Found (restored, remixed, reborn) on September 5, 2025 through ManoverMusic.

After three years, Southern California’s punk trio Joyce Manor, featuring Barry Johnson (vocals/guitar), Matt Ebert (bass/backing vocals), and Chase Knobbe (guitar), are back with a new single, “All My Friends Are So Depressed.”

Melbourne's own Dallas Crane are back in the studio crafting their sixth studio album. In a nod to their signature blend of swagger and grit, they have already unveiled the lead single, “Trouble Knows My Name,” offering fans a raw taste of what's to come.

Chrissie Hynde, legendary singer-songwriter of The Pretenders, returns with an unexpected, warmly intimate project: Duets Special, issued under the inviting banner Chrissie Hynde & Pals, set for release on 17 October 2025 via Parlophone (and Rhino).

After more than a decade of sold-out seasons in London, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet is about to receive its first Australian staging in a bold, live-orchestrated performance at Melbourne’s Astor Theatre from September 23 to 28.

Four-time Grammy winner Keith Urban and the Tamworth Country Music Festival have unveiled the “Keith Urban Rising Star Scholarship,” an initiative primed to propel Australia’s next crop of country artists into the Nashville spotlight. The scholarship promises a career-changing journey, live performances, songwriting, industry meetings, and even two days recording at Urban’s own Nashville studio, The Sound (formerly the iconic Tracking Room).

Vernon Reid, the Grammy-winning guitarist best known for his incendiary work with Living Colour, has announced the release of his new solo album Hoodoo Telemetry, due October 3 via Artone / The Players Club Records. Ahead of the full release, Reid has unveiled the single Beautiful Bastard, a song he originally considered for his Yohimbe Brothers project but has now reclaimed for this collection.