Tour news: Fat Freddy's Drop, Kora, The Datsuns, Jimmy Barnes

Fat Freddy's are hitting the wine trail with The Adults, Anika, Boh and Hollie Smith. Photo / Supplied

Fat Freddy's Drop headline next year's Classic Hits Winery Tour with support from two Kiwi supergroups.

The Wellington seven-piece dub, reggae and dancefloor-soul masters will be joined by trio Anika Moa, Boh Runga, and Hollie Smith, and opening the concerts are the Adults featuring Jon Toogood, Julia Deans and Shayne Carter.

This year's 17-date tour starts at Ascension Estate in Matakana on February 2, finishes at Hamilton's Mystery Creek on March 3, and includes a show on March 2 at Auckland's Villa Maria Estate.

As well as trotting out their trippy tunes from previous albums, Based on a True Story from 2005 and 2009's Dr Boondigga and the Big BW, Fat Freddy's will also be playing songs from new album Blackbird, which is due for release in February.

Head honcho Chris Faiumu (aka DJ Fitchie, or Mu to his mates) says he and the fellow Freddy's can't wait to hit the road again in February. "The venues that we're playing are an amazing environment to hear our music - and this year's line-up is fantastic, edgy and dynamic. It's a great way to kick off the year."

Meanwhile, following their nationwide church tour, Anika, Boh and Hollie will perform a mix of their own songs as well as new material from their forthcoming debut album which is also out in February.

Runga says the three of them are looking forward to doing another tour, especially a crawl around New Zealand's flashest vineyards. "We're a bit more comfortable in wineries," she laughs. "So these shows can only get bigger and better. And with a line-up like this, how could you go wrong?"

Toogood agrees: "Totally looking forward to the tour. We get to see some beautiful parts of the country with good people and great music. What's not to love?"

Now in its seventh year the tour's 100th show will also be celebrated at Black Barn Vineyards in Havelock North on February 8. This year also sees the release of the Winery Tour commemorative album (out November 2), featuring a track from each artist from past and present tours.

For full tour dates and ticket information go to winerytour.co.nz or become a friend on Facebook. Tickets, which go on sale November 5, are also available from Ticketmaster.

Kora play an intimate and exclusive show tonight at Galatos in celebration of long awaited second album Light Years, which is out tomorrow. But come summer the band of Whakatane brothers - and their mate Dan McGruer - will be taking their new songs to the people with a eight-date summer tour starting at Black Barn Vineyard in Havelock North on Dec 22 and including dates at Matakana Country Park (Jan 2) and the Mangawhai Tavern (Jan 5).

For full tour dates and ticketing info go to muchmoremusic.co.nz. Presale tickets on sale Tuesday with general sales November 1 at Ticketmaster.

Also playing in support of a new album, and reconvening from their different home bases around the world, are hootin' and howlin' rockers The Datsuns.

The four-piece - whose members live in London, Stockholm, Auckland and Wellington - released their fifth album Death Rattle Boogie last week and play Wellington's Bodega on Dec 22 and Galatos in Auckland on Dec 23.

Tickets on sale from Undertheradar.co.nz and Real Groovy (Auckland).

Speaking of hootin' and howlin', Australian rocker and crooner Jimmy Barnes teams up with local lass Gin Wigmore for a Christmas holiday jaunt on the Red Hot Summer Tour.

The dates include concerts at Mangawhai Tavern on Dec 27, Coroglen Tavern, Dec 28, Matakana Country Park, Dec 30, Brewers Bar, Mt Maunganui, Dec 31. Tickets on sale Monday from Ticketmaster.

In other tour news, Elvis Costello was meant to play at last year's Grass Roots Festival until it was cancelled. But the singer, songwriter and showman will be back next year for his very own A Day on the Green concert at Auckland's Villa Maria Estate on Jan 19.

Backed by his trusty band the Imposters - keyboardist Steve Nieve, drummer Pete Thomas and bassist Davey Faragher - the show will take fans on a "refresher course" of Costello's vast musical catalogue and his classic hits.

In support will be Kiwi music's elder statesmen Tim Finn and Don McGlashan with his band Seven Sisters, and former Australian Crawl frontman James Reyne - remember Boys Light Up and Reckless? - also joins the line-up.

Tickets on sale Nov 1 from Ticketmaster.

Finally, Irish pop rock superstars The Script play Vector Arena on Apr 12 in support of their imaginatively entitled third album, #3.

The album features current top 10 single Hall of Fame featuring Will.I.Am, which has held steady at the top of the pops for a number of weeks.

Pre-sale tickets for Frontier members on sale from 2pm today until 2pm, Friday, at frontiertouring.com/thescript. General sales from Oct 29 at Ticketmaster.

-TimeOut