Sydney band Youth Group have released Forever Young – Remixed and Reimagined, a five-track EP marking two decades since their cover of the Alphaville song topped the Australian charts. The release pairs new band versions with remixes from favoured artists and coincides with a short run of east coast shows.
by Paul Cashmere
Youth Group have today released Forever Young – Remixed and Reimagined, a five-track EP that reworks their 2006 number one single for its twentieth anniversary. The collection includes two fresh recordings by the band itself and three remixes from musicians they admire, arriving alongside tickets for a short east coast tour that begins later this month.
The original Youth Group version of Forever Young became one of the defining Australian singles of the mid-2000s. Recorded for the soundtrack of the US television series The O.C., the track was initially approached with some caution by the band. Once they decided to put their own melancholy stamp on the Alphaville original, it took on a life of its own. It debuted high on the ARIA charts, reached number one, became the first song to top the new digital download chart, and went on to multi-platinum status. It also earned the group the ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist – Single.
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Toby Martin reflected on the song’s unusual journey. “We never predicted it would even be a single, let alone do as well as it did. It became a song that really resonated with people – played at graduations, and often at funerals too. Sometimes it felt like it wasn’t our song anymore, but had become something for others.”
The new EP keeps the focus squarely on that track. Youth Group re-recorded Forever Young (Acoustic) with a string section and produced a 2026 Redux that stays close to the 2006 arrangement while updating the performance. The remaining three cuts come from outside collaborators: The S-ft F-cus Remix, the Sweet Boy Sonnet Remix, and the Deep Sea Arcade Remix. Martin described the range of results as stretching “from euphoric dance floor to psychic journey, sometimes in the same track.”
2026 also marks the twenty-first anniversary of the international release of the band’s second album Skeleton Jar through Epitaph/Anti-. That record opened doors quickly. After Epitaph picked it up, Youth Group found themselves touring the United States and United Kingdom, sharing stages with Death Cab for Cutie, and playing Reading and Leeds and Coachella. The sudden shift from Sydney indie circuit to larger international stages remains a key chapter in the band’s story.
The Forever Young 20th Anniversary Tour keeps the setlists broader than a simple victory lap. Martin noted the band will resist the temptation to play the title track twelve times in a night. “We are not going to play Forever Young twelve times on this tour (although that was tempting!) but will probably play it once. Plus we will play Skeleton Jar tracks, and some other favourites.”
Support acts vary by city. Melbourne features The Remotes and Sally Seltmann. Canberra has Assassins 88. Sydney pairs Youth Group with Doldrums and Sally Seltmann again. The final date forms part of the Tidal Sounds Music Festival at the Hoey Moey in Coffs Harbour.
Youth Group formed in Sydney in the late 1990s around Toby Martin’s songwriting and the production sensibility of Wayne Connolly. Early albums Urban & Eastern and Skeleton Jar established a sound often compared to Teenage Fanclub, Pavement and Death Cab for Cutie. Casino Twilight Dogs, the 2006 album that contained Forever Young, became their highest-charting record. Later releases included The Night Is Ours and the 2019 album Australian Halloween. The band has continued to work, with Big Whoop released in 2025.
The anniversary EP and short tour offer a focused way to revisit a song that moved far beyond its original context. Two decades on, Forever Young still carries the emotional weight that turned a reluctant cover into a national chart-topper and a personal soundtrack for thousands of listeners. The new versions and the live dates give both the band and their audience a chance to hear it again in different lights.
Dates:
FRI 30 OCT – Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne
with The Remotes and Sally Seltmann
SAT 31 OCT – Dissent, Canberra
with Assassins 88
FRI 06 NOV – The Vanguard, Sydney
with Doldrums and Sally Seltmann
SAT 07 NOV – Tidal Sounds Music Festival, The Hoey Moey, Coffs Harbour
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