RocKwiz
HITS THE ROAD for its FIRST EVER LIVE NATIONAL TOUR of AUSTRALIA!
It had to happen! Dugald is breaking the RocKwiz team out of the confines of the Gershwin Room and bumping them into a Live Australian Tour!
Mistress of ceremonies Julia Zemiro; firm but fair co-host Brian Nankervis; the legendary RocKwiz Orkestra and Dugald (with mystery guests in tow) will be touring live for the first time ever in the show’s five year on-air history! It will be just like you see on your tellie every Saturday night on SBS - but this time, so close you can smell them!
Tickets to the RocKwiz Live Show go on sale at Wrest Point on THURSDAY 29TH OCTOBER.
The RocKwiz Live Show love will be spread to 19 cities across all Australian states and territories, featuring all the usual kwiz mayhem plus more music and more guests! Brian will conduct his pre-show selection quiz to find contestants from the audience, there will be two mystery ‘Who Can It Be Now’ guests, as well as a special ‘Snob’s Choice’ performance in each show. Of course, the regular ‘Local and Or General’, ‘Million Dollar Riff’, ‘Master Blaster’, and ‘Furious Five’ rounds of music and questions will be happening, but be ready for some very special surprises too!
This incredible live tour of AFI Award winning RocKwiz’s witty and exciting music trivia show will be purely for the pleasure of the local audiences who are lucky enough to catch it on stage. These shows are not for broadcast, which is all the more reason that each is a not-to-be-missed live event!
In other exciting news, RocKwiz is soon to celebrate its 100th episode! It’s been an amazing journey since 2004 when SBS commissioned 10 episodes of RocKwiz after viewing a pilot funded and produced by Renegade Films. Shot at Chapel off Chapel in 2003, the pilot featured Ella Hooper and Stephen Cummings as the original guests. Fittingly, Ella Hooper returns to RocKwiz for the milestone 100th episode, which airs on SBS on Saturday, November 28th.
Since first screening in January 2005, RocKwiz has become SBS’s Saturday night staple for the stay at home crowd. Now in its seventh series, the ground-breaking program has presented over 200 Australian and international musical recording and touring artists, some legends and some performing live on TV for the first time. There have been over 400 music trivia tragics plucked from the Gershwin Room audience and given their 30 minutes of geeky glory. The RocKwiz Orkestra has provided the brilliant backing for a diverse selection of over 300 live songs and played more than 500 riffs. Over 5000 questions have been asked, and around 40,000 people have attended a RocKwiz Live Recording. In 2007 RocKwiz won the AFI Award for Best Television Entertainment Series and had a Gold-selling DVD release.
RocKwiz is unique and exciting television, cleverly blending live music performances with engaging chat and music trivia questions. In an era where there are precious few opportunities to see live music performances on prime time TV, RocKwiz rates as the best of them by making the music the star of the show. This happens right from the kick-off where both guest artists are asked to sing their own songs before the serious questioning begins. Each episode climaxes when the guests duet on a classic song with the RocKwiz Orkestra to produce a unique, one-off musical moment and sometimes the most unlikely pairing will deliver the most magical performance. RocKwiz clearly loves and respects all forms of music - pop, rock, soul, roots, country and alternate/indie acts have all found a welcome, open door at RocKwiz.
RocKwiz fans have even more reason to celebrate with a brand new CD and DVD being released early November. ‘RocKwiz Duets Volume 3 - The Beat Goes On’ is a collection of the show-stopping duets recorded live for RocKwiz Series 5 and 6 and features some of the best singers in the land performing songs together for the first time. Tina Arena and Canada’s Jeff Martin, Max Merritt and country singer Catherine Britt, Vanessa Amorosi and Even’s Ash Naylor all contribute to the sensational musical performances in this DVD collection. There are over 40 tracks including some “Snob’s Choice” artists who have appeared on RocKwiz performing just one song in the middle of the show. The DVD is complete with extras which feature a cast preview of each performance. The CD contains a hand-picked selection of the duets and it’s perfect for the car.