THE WHITLAMS ANNOUNCE ‘LOVE THIS CITY’ 25TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

e Whitlams Love This City 25 Years Tour goes on sale this Thursday 20 June at 10am.

Visiting their favourite theatres and pubs around Australia over 12 dates, the band will tour with one of the country’s best brass sections to punch out the interwoven melodies that so defined the lushly orchestrated long player.

Love This City (1999) was The Whitlams fourth album, a much anticipated big-budget follow-up to the award-winning Eternal Nightcap which had led them to Best Group and Best Song at the ARIA Awards the previous year. 

Since 2022, a reinvigorated Tim Freedman has led The Whitlams in a resurgence, touring heavily and releasing two new albums – Sancho (2022) and Kookaburra (2024), the latter an Americana-shaded album which still sits at #3 on the ARIA Australian Country Albums chart three months after its release.

With one eye thus firmly in the present, Freedman will take the time in October and November to look back fondly to an album that, at the time, seemed like it would make or break him. The initial critical reception was rapturous (see below), but the surprising choice of first single ‘Chunky Chunky Air Guitar’ proved to be a stumble, considered as a puzzling novelty song unrepresentative of the band.

The second and third singles corrected the ship, when ‘Blow Up the Pokies’ and ‘Thank You (for loving me at my worst)’ were successful at radio and drove the album to double platinum status. Love This City has retained its solid reputation and was placed along with its predecessor in the Rolling Stone’s 200 Greatest Albums of All-time, with Eternal Nightcap at #36, and Love This City at #101.

Tim Freedman will be joined by long term cohort’s guitarist Jak Housden and drummer Terepai Richmond, who were both part of the sessions back in 1999, with new member multi-instrumentalist Ian Peres.

It will be an evening of memories, melody and humour as the band delivers its usual rambunctious performance, complete with the power of brass.

‘LOVE THIS CITY’ 25^TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR DATES:

Friday 4^th October – Corner Hotel – Richmond, VIC

Saturday 5^th October – Corner Hotel – Richmond, VIC

Friday 11^th October – City Recital Hall – Sydney, NSW

Thursday 17^th October – Canberra Theatre Centre – Canberra, ACT

Friday 18^th October – Odeon Theatre – Hobart, TAS

Saturday 19^th October – Craigie Knowe Vineyard – Cranbrook, TAS

Saturday 2^nd November – Princess Theatre – Woolloongabba, QLD

Friday 8^th November – Anita’s Theatre – Thirroul, NSW

Saturday 9^th November – Newcastle Civic Theatre – Newcastle, NSW

Thursday 14^th November – Astor Theatre – Perth, WA

Friday 15^th November – Shelter Brewing Co – Busselton, WA

Saturday 7^th December – The Gov – Hindmarsh, SA

Tickets on sale Thursday 20^th June and available via https://thewhitlams.com/tour/:

https://www.facebook.com/TheWhitlamsOfficial/

https://www.instagram.com/thewhitlams.official/

The Whitlams