Following sell out shows across the country earlier this year in celebration of Baby Animals’ 30th Anniversary, Baby Animals and Killing Heidi will unite once again, due to popular demand, for a massive tour – “Back To Back 2020”. The tour will run from July 3 to September 12, taking in Melbourne, Emu Plains, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Newcastle, Thirroul, Canberra, Sunshine Coast, Miami on the Gold Coast, and winding up with two final shows in Vic, 11th and 12th September.
BABY ANIMALS AND KILLING HEIDI – BACK TO BACK 2020
Fri July 3 | Melbourne, VIC Croxton Bandroom
Sat July 4 | Melbourne, VIC | Croxton Bandroom
Fri July 10 | Emu Plains, NSW | O’Donoghue’s Irish Pub
Sat July 11 | Sydney, NSW | Manning Bar
Fri July 17 | Brisbane, QLD | The Triffid
Sat July 18 | Brisbane, QLD | The Triffid
Fri July 31 | Adelaide, SA | The Gov
Sat Aug 1 | Adelaide, SA | The Gov
Fri Aug 7 | Perth, WA | The Astor
Sat Aug 8 | Perth, WA | The Astor
Fri Aug 28 | Newcastle, NSW | The Cambridge
Sat Aug 29 | Thirroul, NSW | Anita’s Theatre
Thur Sept 3 | Canberra, ACT | The Basement
Sat Sept 5 | Sunshine Coast, QLD | Aussie World
Sun Sept 6 | Miami, QLD | Miami Marketta
Fri Sept 11 | Aspendale Gdns, VIC | Chelsea Heights Hotel
Sat Sept 12 | Doncaster, VIC | Shoppingtown Hotel
Baby Animals and Killing Heidi feature two of Australia’s most formidable frontwomen, Suze DeMarchi and Ella Hooper respectively. Between the two bands, the setlists read like a page from the Aussie rock songbook – ‘Early Warning’, ‘One Word’, ‘Painless’, ‘Rush You’, ‘Weir’, ‘Mascara’ and more.
Ella Hooper said today, “Killing Heidi and Baby Animals just feels like a match made in heaven, if I do say so myself, and the crowds response was so enthusiastic the first time we played together that we couldn’t resist having another go – AND extending the tour! When do you get to see two hard rocking female fronted bands back to back that happen to span two of rock’s funnest and most vibrant era’s – the 90’s and the Naughties! It’s a pretty powerful night out. We love it.”
Baby Animals have been one of Australia’s biggest bands since they burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut. The band was touring with Van Halen in the US when they heard the album had topped the charts. Baby Animals spent six weeks at number one in Australia – keeping Nirvana’s Nevermind out of top spot. Baby Animals went eight times platinum and won three ARIA Awards – Best Album, Best Debut Album and Best Debut Single. It was also declared one of the Top 25 albums of 1992 in UK rock bible Kerrang!, and Baby Animals performed ‘Painless’ on Late Night With David Letterman.
Baby Animals was later featured in The 100 Best Australian Albums, with the book explaining: “Baby Animals exploded on the Australian music scene with a bracing fusion of heavy metal bravura, a touch of glam dynamics and a look and a swagger.”
Fierce and uncompromising – the first single from the band’s second album was called Don’t Tell Me What To Do – Suze DeMarchi was also featured in the book Rock Chicks, The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now. “Baby Animals was like a breath of fresh air,” the book stated, “a hard-rocking band fronted by a guitar-wielding, tattooed temptress who could rock with the best of them.”
It’s been twenty years since Hooper siblings Killing Heidi released their disarming folk pop song, ‘Kettle’ on triple j unearthed. The band soon expanded into colourful teenage power pop and burst onto the national and international stage with their breakthrough debut album Reflector, released in March 2000. Anthemic singles ‘Mascara’ and ‘Weir’ made Reflector a blow-out success and cemented the work as one of Australia’s most loved pop albums.
The early naughties belonged to Killing Heidi with ‘Weir’ placing #2 and ‘Mascara’ #14 in triple j’s Hottest 100. Reflector went onto to take out four ARIA awards and reach 4 x platinum status. The Hooper siblings also won the critically-acclaimed APRA songwriters of the year award.