Over to Sydney Australia tonight for a set by You Am I, live at The Enmore Theatre from ABC Australia’s Live At The Wireless in April of 2021.
You Am I are a power pop band, fronted by its lead singer-songwriter and guitarist, Tim Rogers. They formed in December 1989 and are the first Australian band to have released three successive albums that have each debuted at the number-one position on the ARIA Albums Chart: Hi Fi Way (February 1995), Hourly, Daily (July 1996) and #4 Record (April 1998). Nine of their tracks appeared on the related ARIA Singles Chart top 50 with “What I Don’t Know ’bout You” (February 1998), their highest charting, at No. 28.[1] You Am I have received ten ARIA Music Awards from thirty-one nominations. The band have supported international artists such as the Who, the Rolling Stones, Sonic Youth and Oasis.
You Am I’s second studio album, Hi Fi Way, appeared in the eighth position in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums (October 2010). Their third album, Hourly, Daily was listed at number fifty five. The same two releases were also voted into the “Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time” list compiled by Australian youth radio station, Triple J, in 2011. Fourteen of their songs have been placed on the related annual Hottest 100 lists with “Heavy Heart” (July 1998), the highest at No. 9.
After recording Sound as Ever in August 1993, You Am I had performed “a handful of American showcase gigs.” At the Big Day Out festival in January 1994 they performed at the Gold Coast and Auckland shows, alongside Soundgarden. They undertook another Australian tour supporting Hoodoo Gurus and then US visitors, Redd Kross during April. In July and August You Am I supported Soundgarden on a six-week tour of North America. In 1996 You Am I played at the Lollapalooza festival and then supported Lemonheads on a tour of UK and other parts of Western Europe. In March 1997 they toured the US, again supporting Lemonheads. They headlined the Homebake festival’s Melbourne concert in January 1998. In the following month they supported Oasis, during the UK group’s first-ever Australian tour. Subsequently, they toured Hong Kong and Japan supporting Oasis.
The Strokes supported You Am I during their first tour of Australia, in July 2001. The opening show took place at The Arena in Brisbane, and they also played four shows at the Newtown Theatre in Sydney. On 29 January 2005 the group performed at WaveAid, which was to raise money for the relief effort after hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the 2004 Indian Ocean tidal wave disaster. In July and August 2007 they opened for Smoking Popes on a US tour.
You Am I performed at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 14 March 2009 for Sound Relief, a benefit concert for victims of the Black Saturday Victorian bushfires and the Queensland Floods. They performed at the 2010 NRL Grand Final in October.
The band was the pre-match entertainment for the 2015 SANFL Grand Final played at the Adelaide Oval. For frontman Tim Rogers who grew up in Adelaide and is a supporter of SANFL club Sturt (who did not play in the game) and attended over 600 games as a youngster (including getting his first kiss at one game), it will be his first time performing at the leagues showcase event.
It’s the weekend – breath a sigh of relief and hit the Play button.
