Al Green Tickets

Short Biography
THE LEGENDARY AL GREEN TO TOUR AUSTRALIA FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME
"Watching Al Green sing live should be on any list of ‘Things to Do Before You Die'."
-- New York Times, June 2008
Chugg Entertainment is thrilled and honoured to bring to Australia and New Zealand for the very first time, the peerless prince of soul, the Reverend Al Green. Backed by his unbelievable 12-piece band, Al Green's first ever Australian and New Zealand shows in January next year promise to be once-in-a-lifetime concert events.
Al Green's Australian tour will kick off in the most spectacular fashion, with the legendary singer giving a very special free open-air conc...

Short Biography
THE LEGENDARY AL GREEN TO TOUR AUSTRALIA FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME
"Watching Al Green sing live should be on any list of ‘Things to Do Before You Die'."
-- New York Times, June 2008
Chugg Entertainment is thrilled and honoured to bring to Australia and New Zealand for the very first time, the peerless prince of soul, the Reverend Al Green. Backed by his unbelievable 12-piece band, Al Green's first ever Australian and New Zealand shows in January next year promise to be once-in-a-lifetime concert events.
Al Green's Australian tour will kick off in the most spectacular fashion, with the legendary singer giving a very special free open-air concert in The Domain in Sydney as part of the 2010 Sydney Festival First Night celebrations.
This will be followed by two intimate shows at Sydney State Theatre, then on to the Palais Theatre in Melbourne, The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre and finally a magnificent close to the Australian dates with a performance at the Perth Zoo.
Al Green will then work his way over to New Zealand for one night at the Civic Theatre in Auckland, giving his fans the sort of performance they've dreamed about for decades - up-close and intimate.
Considered by many to be the greatest singer alive, Rolling Stone Magazine recently wrote: "Al Green's voice sits at the perfect point between romance and sex."
"Let's Stay Together", "Tired of Being Alone", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)", "You Ought to Be with Me", "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?", "Take Me To The River" - Al Green's endless string of timeless hits from the 1970s made him one of the era's biggest stars and R&B's most celebrated innovator.
Since then, the Reverend Al Green has forged a career as unique as his music, releasing an incredible 42 albums so far, selling over 150 million copies, and he has been the recipient of a total of eleven Grammy Awards.
At 63, Al Green's voice and his magic are as perfect and spellbinding as ever. His latest release, 2008's Lay It Down, debuted at No. 9 on the US Billboard pop album chart, while the legend's most recent concert appearances across America and Europe have received universal rave reviews.
"An Al Green concert is a free-form excursion, a hodgepodge of virtuosity, teasing, flirting, preaching, making faces, dancing, flinging red roses and coaching audience participation ... he displays the voice and presence that make him one of soul's greatest singers." -- New York Times, June 2008
"He rocked the Royal Albert Hall as though it was an intimate club. After four decades of shows, the legendary Rev Al Green has lost none of his power." -- The Times [UK], July 2007
"Green showed that he still has the chops, stage presence and charm to wow an audience of any age and demonstrate why he is so revered by artists of various genres throughout generations." -- Seattle Local Music Examiner, August 2009
As every Al Green fan knows, the singer all-but-turned his back on the pop world in the mid-1970s to dedicate his life to God. He was ordained as a pastor and founded his own church in Memphis. But Reverend Green never stopped making music. His gospel albums alone have earned him eight of his eleven Grammy Awards.
It's only in recent years that Al Green has been tempted back into the world of secular music, encouraged by the young artists his music inspired. Green's recent Lay It Down album featured guest appearance from contemporary R&B heroes such as The Roots, John Legend and Corrine Bailey Rae.
As lifelong fans of Al Green know all too well, the great singer has never performed in Australia or New Zealand in his 40-year-plus music career, making him virtually the only true music superstar of the modern era never to visit our shores.
But that's all about to change. Everything is now locked in and confirmed - the Reverend Al Green will be in Australia and New Zealand in January. It's taken a lifetime to happen, but these are concerts no one will ever forget, from one of the greatest performers of all time.
TICKETS ON SALE 9AM, WEDNESDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2009

In-depth Biography
Al Green was the first great soul singer of the '70s and arguably the last great Southern soul singer. With his seductive singles for Hi Records in the early '70s, Green bridged the gap between deep soul and smooth Philadelphia soul. He incorporated elements of gospel, interjecting his performances with wild moans and wails, but his records were stylish, boasting immaculate productions that rolled along with a tight beat, sexy backing vocals, and lush strings. The distinctive Hi Records sound that the vocalist and producer Willie Mitchell developed made Al Green the most popular and influential soul singer of the early '70s, influencing not only his contemporaries, but also veterans like Marvin Gaye. Green was at the peak of his popularity when he suddenly decided to join the ministry in the mid-'70s. At first, he continued to record secular material, but by the '80s, he was concentrating solely on gospel. During the late '80s and '90s, he occasionally returned to R&B, but he remained primarily a religious performer for the rest of his career. Nevertheless, Green's classic early- '70s recordings retained their power and influence throughout the decades, setting the standard for smooth soul.

Green was born in Forrest City, AR, where he formed a gospel quartet, the Green Brothers, at the age of nine. The group toured throughout the South in the mid-'50s, before the family relocated to Grand Rapids, MI. The Green Brothers continued to perform in Grand Rapids, but Al's father kicked the boy out of the group after he caught his son listening to Jackie Wilson. At the age of 16, Al formed an R&B group, Al Green & the Creations, with several of his high-school friends. Two Creation members, Curtis Rogers and Palmer James, founded their own independent record company, Hot Line Music Journal, and had the group record for the label. By that time, the Creations had been re-named the Soul Mates. The group's first single, "Back Up Train," became a surprise hit, climbing to number five on the R&B charts early in 1968. The Soul Mates attempted to record another hit, but all of their subsequent singles failed to find an audience.

In 1969, Al Green met bandleader and Hi Records vice president Willie Mitchell while on tour in Midland, Texas. Impressed with Green's voice, he signed the singer to Hi Records, and began collaborating with Al on his debut album. Released in early 1970, Green's debut album, Green Is Blues, showcased the signature sound he and Mitchell devised -- a sinewy, sexy groove highlighted by horn punctuations and string beds that let Green showcase his remarkable falsetto. While the album didn't spawn any hit singles, it was well-received and set the stage for the breakthrough success of his second album. Al Green Gets Next to You (1970) launched his first hit single, "Tired of Being Alone," which began a streak of four straight gold singles. Let's Stay Together (1972) was his first genuine hit album, climbing to number eight on the pop charts; its title track became his first number one single. I'm Still in Love With You, which followed only a few months later, was an even greater success, peaking at number four and launching the hits "Look What You Done for Me" and "I'm Still in Love With You."

By the release of 1973's Call Me, Green was known as both a hitmaker and an artist who released consistently engaging, frequently excellent, critically-acclaimed albums. His hits continued uninterrupted through the next two years, with "Call Me," "Here I Am," and "Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)" all becoming Top Ten gold singles. At the height of his popularity, Green's former girlfriend, Mrs. Mary Woodson, broke into his Memphis home in October 1974 and poured boiling grits on the singer as he was bathing, inflicting second-degree burns on his back, stomach, and arm; after assaulting Green, she killed herself with his gun. Green interpreted the violent incident as a sign from God that he should enter the ministry. By 1976, he had bought a church in Memphis and had become an ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle. Though he had begun to seriously pursue religion, he had not given up singing R&B and he released three other Mitchell-produced albums -- Al Green Is Love (1975), Full of Fire (1976), Have a Good Time (1976) -- after the incident. However, his albums began to sound formulaic, and his sales started to slip by the end of 1976, with disco cutting heavily into his audience.

In order to break free from his slump, Green stopped working with Willie Mitchell in 1977 and built his own studio, American Music, where he intended to produce his own records. The first album he made at American Music was The Belle Album, an intimate record that was critically acclaimed but failed to win a crossover audience. Truth and Time (1978) failed to even generate a major R&B hit. During a concert in Cincinnati in 1979, Green fell off the stage and nearly injured himself seriously. Interpreting the accident as a sign from God, Green retired from performing secular music and devoted himself to preaching. Throughout the '80s, he released a series of gospel albums on Myrrh Records. In 1982, Green appeared in the gospel musical Your Arms Too Short to Box With God with Patti Labelle. In 1985, he reunited with Willie Mitchell for He Is the Light, his first album for A&M Records.

Green tentatively returned to R&B in 1988 when he sang "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" with Annie Lennox for the Bill Murray comedy Scrooged. Four years later, he recorded his first full-fledged soul album since 1978 with the U.K.-only Don't Look Back. Al Green was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. That same year, he released Your Heart's in Good Hands, an urban contemporary record that represented his first secular album to be released in America since Truth and Time. Though the album received positive reviews, it failed to become a hit. Green did achieve widespread recognition eight years later with his first album for Blue Note, I Can't Stop. One and a half years later, he followed it with Everything's OK. His third Blue Note album, 2008's Lay It Down, featured an updated sound that still echoed the feel of his classic earlier soul style. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi