Thursday 4 February 2016

WE'RE BACK!!



Welcome to 2016 and another big year for RocKwiz.

We will be recording seven new episodes between late February and April 
which will start screening on SBS in May 
so if you're not on the Kwizlist, you won't be able to get tickets,.

We have a big live show for SPECTRUM NOW in Sydney on MARCH 10 
and we're also going to have a REALLY REALLY GOOD FRIDAY 
at Arts Centre Melbourne's Concert Hall on March 25 - Good Friday.
And Brian Nankervis Introduces THE LAST WALTZ REVISITED 
at The Sydney Opera House on April 1 and 2

(click the links for tickets)

SBS are currently repeating some episodes on Saturday nights, 
we're building a new website
Brian's doing ABC radio on Fridays in Melbourne, 
and it's all looking good!!

Saturday 4 July 2015

ROCKWIZ SALUTES THE ARIA HALL OF FAME TOUR

STARTS 30 SEPTEMBER!
Following the highly acclaimed 13th series of RocKwiz (RocKwiz Salutes The Decades) Australia’s favourite television music trivia show is once again going on the road to present... 

ROCKWIZ LIVE! 
SALUTES THE 
ARIA HALL OF FAME.

Since 1988, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has inducted 73 artists into its annual ARIA Hall of Fame, honouring performers, songwriters and others who have made a lasting impact on music culture in Australia. RocKwiz maintains a close relationship with ARIA and has always featured Hall Of Fame artists and drawn from their repertoire over its ten-year history. In 2010, RocKwiz produced the broadcast of the legendary ARIA Hall Of Fame awards night.

The combination of RocKwiz and the ARIA Hall Of Fame is a match made in rock and roll heaven!
These amazing, fun-filled live shows, in theatres and concert halls around Australia, will feature some of your favourite Australian music legends performing their hits, alongside the brightest and best contemporary artists interpreting genuine Australian classics. As usual, four contestants will be drawn from the audience on the night to sit alongside rock and roll royalty and participate in the madness and mayhem that is RocKwiz Live!

Queen Of The Kwiz, Julia Zemiro, and Rock Brain, Brian Nankervis, will ask the curly questions, the Human Scoreboard, Dugald, will manage the stage and hold up scores and the original RocKwiz Orkestra - James Black, Peter Luscombe and Mark Ferrie, will be joined by Even guitarist Ashley Naylor and the sensational Vika and Linda Bull.


This will be the teams 4th national tour and they are raring to go! ROCKWIZ LIVE! SALUTES THE ARIA HALL OF FAME will be based on the television format, but with at least four guest artists each night, increased audience involvement, the legendary Contestant Karaoke segment and questions, songs, riffs and anecdotes based on the artists and bands who are in the ARIA Hall Of Fame ... many of whom will appear in these shows. See below for a full list of the ARIA Hall of Fame inductees.


These live shows won’t be filmed; so being there, front and centre, is the only way to experience the special magic of a RocKwiz Live! performance ... bigger, bolder and looser than the television episodes. As Brian says, We stretch out and improvise more in the live shows, taking risks and experimenting without worrying about cameras and lights. It’s liberating and often produces delightfully unexpected results.”

What the public have said about RocKwiz Live! concerts (from the Ticketmaster feedback page):

It freaks me out that these guys deliver the quality of entertainment we see every Saturday night on the small screen with such effortless precision, with humour that never misses the mark and flawless delivery of every aspect of the show. These guys are just brilliant at what they do! Not a single blemish on the whole performance and of course the musical acts were outstanding as well. A million billion stars out of 5’.

‘RocKwiz was an epic adventure in fast comedy and audience participation. The funniest karaoke I've ever seen! Had me laughing till I cried. Great performers, fun, fun, funny! No one was left out and the crazy antics of the RocKwiz hosts kept everyone involved! Just a great night to be had.’

‘Fantastic, I was blown away how really good this show is. I've been a fan for a long time, but never seen them live, I didn’t want to miss a thing. I love their connection with the crowd, amazing! They are all great at their parts, amazing talent, including the band (fantastic guys).

Tickets for ROCKWIZ LIVE! SALUTES THE ARIA HALL OF FAME go on sale at 10.00am local times on Monday, 13 July 2015 and are expected to sell FAST! 

Tuesday 2 September 2014

Friday 27 June 2014

UPDATE

No news is, well, no news... unfortunately.

Bluesfest 2014 was our last RocKwiz Live event 
and we currently have no plans for more live shows. 



Keep up to date on FACEBOOK 
or sign up for the KWIZLIST 
for the most up to date information about 
ROCKWIZ LIVE

Monday 3 March 2014

HELLO PERTH... Are you ready for us??

COME AND SEE US ON MARCH 22 AT THE PERTH ZOO 
WHEN WE PRESENT.



JOIN JULIA, BRIAN, DUGALD, THE ORKESTRA, 
AND A CAST OF VERY SPECIAL GUESTS
AS WE SALUTE 
AUSTRALIA'S MOST SUCCESSFUL SONGWRITERS AND PRODUCERS.

Harry Vanda and George Young are responsible for writing and producing some of Australia’s biggest hits:Friday On My Mind, Good Times, Love Is In The Air, Hey St Peter, St Louis, Walking In The Rain, Evie (Parts 1, 2 and 3) and the list goes on and on and on. These songs have become part of our pop history and some of them became international hits for artists like Grace Jones and The Bay City Rollers.  As producers,Vanda and Young shaped the sound of Aussie Pub Rock, producing and guiding bands like The Angels, Rose Tattoo, Choirboys and AC/DC no less!

Here are some clips from previous RocKwiz LIVE shows where we have covered Vanda and Young songs.

Harry Vanda and George Young met at the Villawood Migrant Hostel in Sydney in 1964. They were founding members of The Easybeats, with Vanda on lead guitar and backing vocals and Young on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, along with Stevie Wright, Dick Diamond and Gordon Fleet. Vanda and Youngco-wrote many of The Easybeats hits and produced the group from 1967.

After The Easybeats disbanded in 1969, Vanda and Young were songwriters and producers for their own projects such as The Marcus Hook Roll Band, Haffey's Whiskey Sour and Flash and the Pan. They produced the first 6 albums for AC/DC (George is the older brother of AC/DC’s Angus and Malcolm Young) and were staff producers for Albert Productions from 1973, writing and producing Stevie Wright’s #1 single Evie (Parts 1, 2 and 3), along with Ted Mulry, Rose Tattoo, William Shakespeare and The Angels. They wrote and produced hits for John Paul Young including I Hate the Music, Yesterday’s Hero and the international smash hit, Love Is In The Air.

In 1988 Harry and George were inducted into the inaugural ARIA Hall of Fame and in 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association surveyed 100 music industry personalities and declared ‘Friday On My Mind’ the best Australian song of all time.

As Glenn A. Baker says “Harry and George transcended pop stardom to become one of the most impressive and important creative units of the rock era: vital writers, producers and conceptualists … exhilarating song and sound craftsmen”.

As John Tait remarks in his book Vanda and Young, Inside Australia’s Hit Factory … “Australian Musician Magazine dedicated it’s June 2007 issue to the 50 most significant moments in Australian pop rock history … ranked at number one, ahead of Countdown, the Sunbury Rock festivals, The Beatles Australian tour and other critical developments in Australian music, was the day that Dutch teenager Harry Vanda met Scottish teenager George Young at the Villawood Migrant Hostel in Sydney. The article argued that without this partnership … “there would not have been an Easybeats as we know them, possibly no Stevie Wright solo career, certainly not the Albert productions that made AC/DC a huge success and none of those classic Countdown songs by artists such as John Paul Young, William Shakespeare, Cheetah etc, as well as their own hits under the Flash and The Pan name.

ROCKWIZ SALUTES VANDA AND YOUNG will feature an eclectic mix of Australian heritage artists alongside contemporary stars, performing songs written, played or produced by Vanda and Young, to create an un-missable live event.

ROCKWIZ SALUTES VANDA AND YOUNG will of course be hosted by the wonderful Julia Zemiro and wrangled and adjudicated by Brian Nankervis. The legendary RocKwiz OrkestraJames Black, Peter Luscombe and Mark Ferrie will back the artists and play those Million Dollar Riffs and Australia’s favourite roadie, Dugald, will hold up the scores and tune the guitars.

And of course … it wouldn’t be a RocKwiz show without contestants being drawn from the audience to hit those buzzers and answer curly questions. It could be you, up there on stage!


Wednesday 27 November 2013

Bluesfest 2014

We are very excited and honoured to have been asked back 
to present three shows at Bluesfest in Byron Bay 
over the Easter weekend 2014. 

We are joining an amazing line up of artists 
and we have already begun talking to some of them 
about spending some time with us on the RocKwiz stage.




In the past we have been joined by Irma Thomas, The Flatlanders, Tex Perkins, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, CC Adcock, Dan Sultan, Allen Stone, Trombone Shorty, Ruthie Foster, Marcia Hines, Barrence Whitfield, and many more..

If you missed the RocKwiz BluesFest special from 2013, you can still 
but you will need to use rockwiz as the password.

Come and see us (and the other performers on that incredible bill) at Bluesfest 2014.