An all-star lineup of Australian and international artists gathered in Melbourne on Sunday (Sept. 20) to honor John Farnham, the Australian music icon behind “You’re the Voice,” at a star-studded tribute concert at Rod Laver Arena.
Billed as The Songs of John Farnham: A Living Legend – The Celebration Concert, the one-off event drew more than 120 performers, a 38-piece orchestra and the John Farnham Band before a capacity crowd, with proceeds going to Head and Neck Cancer Australia. The concert launched the organization’s year-long Lend Your Voice campaign, aiming to raise $1 million for the charity that supported Farnham through his own cancer treatment since 2022. Emcee Richard Wilkins noted that Farnham has played the venue in a record 94 sold-out shows over his career — “so I guess tonight makes it 95,” he told the crowd.
An archive of early Coldplay recordings — studio tapes, alternate mixes and demos from the formative sessions that predated and helped shape the band’s debut album, Parachutes — is heading to auction this week through Wax Poetics, offering a rare look at the band before it broke worldwide.
The bulk of the collection comes from British producer, mixer and engineer Chris Allison and centers on Coldplay’s “Blue Room” sessions at London’s Orinoco Studios, recorded shortly after the band signed to Parlophone.
The auction house describes the material as a window into the period that laid the groundwork for Parachutes — including “High Speed,” which would become the only track on the album not produced by Ken Nelson; Allison produced it alone. The song first surfaced on the Blue Room EP, Coldplay’s first release for Parlophone, in October 1999, before being re-recorded for the album.
The lots also include original DAT mixes, unreleased alternate versions, a previously unheard take of “We Never Change,” and a nine-track cassette holding some of the band’s earliest known recordings — two of those songs never released in any form.
Among the more unusual items, the auction house says the archive contains an acoustic demo that Chris Martin recorded as a pitch for the title song of the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.
