Pat Benatar to headline Summer Concert Series

Singer Pat Benatar. Photo / AP

Eighties rock chick Pat Benatar is heading to New Zealand for the first time to play a series of shows this summer.

The Hit Me With Your Best Shot and Love Is A Battlefield singer will be joined on the triple-header Summer Concert Series bill by her husband and long-time guitarist, Neil Giraldo, along with classic rock favourites America and Randy Bachman and Fred Turner of Canadian rockers Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

They play the Amphitheatre in Taupo on February 16, Matakana Country Park, Matakana February 17, and Gibbston Valley Winery, Queenstown, February 23. The concert series follows last year's inaugural event headlined by the Doobie Brothers and Little River Band.

Though Benatar is best known for her 80s' songs, which also include We Belong and Sex As A Weapon, her breakthrough came with Heartbreaker from 1979 album In the Heat of the Night.

Meanwhile, Bachman-Turner Overdrive's most recognisable tracks are Taking Care of Business and You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet from 1974.

And America, formed 42 years ago by Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and the late Dan Peek (who died in 2011), shot to the top of the charts in 1972 with their signature song A Horse With No Name.

In 2002, when the band toured here, TimeOut asked Dewey if the horse ever did get a name?

"Of course not, that would spoil the whole thing. The enigma of the nameless horse will remain forever."

Tickets on sale Monday, September 24 from Ticketek.

-TimeOut