contemporary

It’s hard to believe it’s been 24 years since Australia lost one of its most iconic musical sons—Graeme “Shirley” Strachan, the charismatic lead singer of Skyhooks. Today, on 29 August 2025, fans, friends, and fellow musicians remember the voice that defined a generation, the performer whose presence lit up stages, and the personality who made Australian rock both fun and unforgettable.

Russell Morris was almost apologetic when he stepped onto the Hamer Hall stage in Melbourne for the first night of The Farewell Tour on Wednesday (27 August 2025). He admitted to his fans that a 60-year career can look confusing from the outside. The truth is, Morris was never one to sit still.

Steve Martin has spent decades balancing comedy, acting, writing and music, but his love for the banjo has always been more than a hobby. On October 17, Martin will join forces with banjo trailblazer Alison Brown for their new collaborative album Safe, Sensible and Sane, a star-studded roots music project set to be one of the year’s most intriguing releases.

Tom Waits’ Nighthawks at the Diner is being reissued for its 50th anniversary on October 24, with ANTI- Records pressing the landmark album onto three limited-edition yellow vinyl variants. More than just a re-release, this marks a celebration of one of the most unusual and defining recordings of Waits’ early career.

For fans of Queen, John Deacon has long been the enigma of the band, a brilliant musician, masterful songwriter, and humble presence behind the scenes. Since the early 1990s, Deacon has shunned the spotlight, retiring quietly after Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991. But now, years later, he has quietly resurfaced, lending his signature alongside bandmates Roger Taylor and Brian May on a charity auction item, signalling, perhaps, that even the most private of souls can still make their mark in unexpected ways.

In 1975, Patti Smith entered Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in New York City with a vision: to fuse the jagged energy of punk with the fluid imagery of poetry. That vision became Horses, one of the most groundbreaking debut albums in rock history. Now, half a century later, Sony has announced the 50th Anniversary Expanded Edition of Horses, a release that both celebrates the legacy of the record and offers fans newly unearthed material from Smith’s early years.

On 25 August 1975, Bruce Springsteen released Born To Run, the album that transformed him from a New Jersey barroom songwriter into one of the most important voices in rock history. Fifty years later, the record still stands as a landmark, both for its ambitious sound and for the way it defined Springsteen’s career.