Glenn Shorrock, Australasia’s most successful singer ever, the voice of the Little River Band – together with New Zealand’s greatest female rock artists Sharon O'Neill, Shona Laing, Debbie Harwood and Annie Crummer come together to perform in one huge afternoon of rock among the vines at Ascension Wine Estate on February 26.
Rock the Vines, set in the beautiful grounds of Ascension Wine Estate, will feature some of the biggest rock hits of our generation. With songs including Cool Change, Help is on its Way, Home on a Monday, Reminiscing, Maxine, Asian Paradise, Glad I’m Not a Kennedy, Melting Pot and See What Love Can Do, this concert is not to be missed.
The event will bring together the biggest names in rock in Australasia. Together they are unrivalled in their success. Shorrock, as lead vocalist in Little River Band, boasts 25 million record sales and 13 top 40 US hits. He will perform with a full band.
Give it a Girl featuring Laing, O’Neill, Crummer and Harwood will perform their own hits and represent rock royalty in New Zealand.
Laing is New Zealand’s most commercially successful female artist ever, with her controversial song Glad I’m Not a Kennedy charting internationally and being banned in the States.
O’Neill’s name is synonymous with Kiwi rock. With chart toppers such as Words, Asian Paradise, How Do You Talk to Boys, Maybe and Maxine, she is one of our finest rock divas.
Crummer’s first single ‘Once or Twice’ at age 16 reached No 16 on the charts. Her signature sound was cemented in NZ pop history on the Netherworld Dancing Toys No1 hit ‘For Today’. Annie’s first solo album ‘Language’ reached platinum status and spawned the No 3 hit ‘See What Love Can Do’ recorded with Herbs. Her second album ‘Seventh Wave’ was mixed at Prince’s studio Paisley Park in the States. She has supported Ray Charles, KD Lang, Paul McArtney, Michael Jackson and Sting. More recently she had the female lead role of the Killer Queen in Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’.
After three solo releases Debbie Harwood formed the Kiwi phenomenon When the Cat's Away that in the late 80s was named ‘Top Group’ at the NZ Music Awards as well as celebrating a gold album and the No 1 single Melting Pot. She sang on the official song for the Commonwealth Games in 1990 and then joined Jimmy Barnes' and Diesel's bands as backing vocalist and toured Australia extensively. Since 1996 Harwood has produced several albums (she was a finalist for 'Producer of the Year' at the NZ Music Awards for her album Peaches). When the Cat's Away toured and recorded again in 2001 and 2002 achieving Platinum sales for their live album with Sharon O'Neill and had yet another hit single with Asian Paradise. In 2004 Debbie recorded her critically acclaimed languid album Soothe Me and continues to write and record original material.
In 2009 Debbie wrote and recorded a radio series on the history of women in NZ rock ‘n’ roll called ‘Give It a Girl’. Ten weeks after open-heart surgery she produced a series of live shows featuring some of the women from the series – Shona Laing, Margaret Urlich, Annie Crummer, Julia Deans, Lisa Crawley and Sharon O’Neill. With Debbie completing the line-up the shows sold out.
Part of the Give It a Girl philosophy is to allow young singer/songwriters to show-case their emerging talent to the large crowds that the established and respected women of GIAG draw to their shows.
Introducing new talent:
Gala Harwood – At just 17 years of age Gala Harwood is already recognised as a formidable songwriting and singing talent. A self-taught bass player, guitarist and pianist she was signed up by SonyBMG as a 14 year old with her band Minus 37 and released a single. Since then she has mesmerised crowds as a solo artist with poignant original songs and a powerful voice which belie her age. She has won songwriting awards, was a winner at RockQuest for ‘Best Song’, performed at the Louis Vuitton Cup regatta and wowed 5,000 people as support act for Give It a Girl at the Harvest Hawkes Bay Food & Wine Festival. Gala is the daughter of Rikki Morris and Debbie Harwood.
