Founding Editor and Publisher of the AU review. Currently based in Toronto, Canada. You can follow him on Twitter @larry_heath or on Instagram @larryheath.
Last week, I jumped on board Virgin Atlantic‘s flagship route from Heathrow to JFK on board the new Dreamliner 787. How does the service stack up? Here’s today’s flight review… Airline: Virgin Atlantic Route: LHR – JFK (VS137) Aircraft: Boeing 787-900 Seat: 59G centre aisle 3-3-3 Flight Time: 6 Hours 45 Minutes (Scheduled at closer…
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To those in North America, Mother Mother need little introduction. The Canadian group, over the course of 7 full length records and almost 15 years, have amassed a passionate fanbase in both the US and at home in Canada. But to those overseas, they’re still a relatively unknown outfit – largely due to the fact…
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Last night in Toronto, Canada, iconic New York group The Strokes officially kicked off their 2019 tour – their first since 2017. The headline show was a part of the band’s “global comeback” that also saw the group play a surprise, intimate warm up show in Los Angeles earlier this month. The gig, which kicked…
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Back in 2009, a band by the name of Passion Pit – hailing from Boston, Massachusetts – made waves around the world with their debut LP Manners, just as their debut EP Chunk of Change had done the year prior with tracks like “Sleepyhead” and my personal favourite, “Cuddle Fuddle”. But Manners was truly a…
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“This is so incredible. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate them doing this.”, I heard a woman saying as I entered the new TWA Hotel at New York’s JFK, which opened yesterday alongside the modern Terminal 5. She said she used to work for the airline in the 70’s, and was wearing her…
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Last Friday, Belgian artist Warhola (real name Oliver Symons) released his long awaited debut album Young Loving – his first release since his 2016 EP Aura. The night before the album was due to drop, Warhola was playing The Great Escape in Brighton, England – so I sat down with Oliver to chat about the…
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It was year of the Aussie at The Great Escape in Brighton, with some 30 acts performing at the annual UK event. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and Confidence Man were definitely the talks of the Australian contingency, but there were also particularly strong showings for the likes of Press Club, Alex Lahey and Tropical Fuck Storm….
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The Great Escape has come and gone once again in Brighton, showcasing some of the world’s most exciting up-and-coming acts, alongside established stars who once were emerging acts at TGE themselves: Foals, Lewis Capaldi, surprise act Shame and even Australia’s own Confidence Man who attracted some of the biggest lines of the week. But ultimately it’s…
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Kicking off this Thursday in Brighton, England, this year’s Great Escape comes with an added bonus for fans of Australian music: Australia is the focus country for the 2019 festival, with some 30 Aussie artists hitting stages around the coastal city. But it’s not the only country with incredible music to show off. Here’s 9…
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Ahead of The Rapture’s long awaited return to the stage for the Just Like Heaven festival in Long Beach, CA (details HERE), on Monday night they played an intimate hometown show in Brooklyn, New York – a one night only performance that served as their second time on stage together since 2012*, as well as…
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Ahead of The Great Escape, which takes over Brighton in the UK next week, I caught up with the festival’s programmer Adam Ryan to talk about the growth of the festival, the involvement of Australian acts at it, working with Sounds Australia, and what it means for Australia to be the feature country in 2019….
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Last month, I sat down with Mirek Stiles, the head of Audio Products at Abbey Road, and Karim Fanous, Innovation Manager at Abbey Road Red, to learn more about the way the iconic British studio is embracing and helping develop the next generation of technologies, from spatial audio – which aims or the audio experience better…
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As a travel journalist, sometimes you get into the habit of saying yes to things before you know what you’re getting yourself in for. In 2011, this was taken to the literal extreme when I took part in a Destination NSW campaign where I would be led on a surprise itinerary designed by Danny Clayton…
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Fresh off the release of the first part of their two part record Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, UK quartet Foals are on a world tour that tonight saw them play Toronto venue Rebel supported by Canada’s Preoccupations and Atlanta outfit Omni. First up, three piece Omni were singing songs with entertaining lyrics like…
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Late last year, I flew with Canadian carrier WestJet from Halifax, Nova Scotia to LA via Toronto. It’s a long journey – about as far from one side of North America to the other as you can get. And there’s no way to do it direct. You start off with a two hour flight from Halifax…
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Arriving on a train into Cardiff station, it was a 15 minute walk through the heart of the busy city on a beautiful Sunday afternoon to take me to the relatively recently opened Hotel Indigo Cardiff; hidden away in the Dominions Arcade. Like many Hotel Indigo’s around the world, this hotel has been built into the…
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Armed only with an I amsterdam City Card, which provides entry into almost all of the city’s iconic attractions, free public transport, and the city’s preferred mode of transport, a bike, I set out on a 48 Hour journey around Amsterdam – in particular checking out the hip Westerpark area of the city. Along the…
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While she was on the Upper West Side in NYC, filming the second season of Pose for FX, I caught up with Charlayne Woodard to talk about her role as Mrs. Price in the film Glass, which is about to enjoy a home release. It’s a role she first came to perform some 19 years…
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Over the last two Sundays, a songwriter night has been running at Giant Dwarf Theatre in Sydney under the helm of Georgia Mooney of All Our Exes Live in Texas. With two more shows left to go, we caught up with Georgia to learn more about the show, find out how it’s gone so far and…
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The first trailer for Star Wars Episode IX just dropped and there is a LOT to unpack. Firstly, the title of the film: The Rise of Skywalker. Though both Luke narrates the piece and Leia makes a tearful appearance (cue the tissues), this will no doubt once again enlighten debate as to the lineage of…
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I’ve always heard Korean Air offered one of the best in flight experiences, and last month, with my flight from Vietnam to Korea being requisite of a Delta Air Lines ticket, I got to try them out for the first time. So how do they compare to other Asian airlines in the market? Read on!…
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With Singapore’s Bicentennial commemorative events in full swing, one hotel which promises to keep you in the heart of the action is the The Fullerton Bay Hotel. The hotel, which opened in 2001, sits in Singapore’s GPO building, built some 100 years ago – a tradition which will continue in Sydney later this year when the…
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Aussie Country star Catherine Britt has spent a lot of time in the USA over the years, but last month marked her first ever appearance at the iconic SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. While at Australia House, I sat down with Catherine to talk about playing the event, her experiences in the USA and what…
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Melbourne musician Jo Schornikow has spent a big chunk of her professional musical life as a musician in Phosphorescent, the acclaimed project of her partner Matthew Houck – but that hasn’t stopped her from working on her own material. Though she’d be the first to admit it’s slowed it down. An impressive touring schedule and sneaking…
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Currently doing the film festival rounds – with its Australian premiere happening at the Gold Coast Film Festival on Monday – is Waiting: The Van Duren Story, from first time Australian directors Greg Carey and Wade Jackson. The film documents the life of Memphis based songwriter Van Duren, a much loved artist by those in…
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One of the many Australian artists making their debut at SXSW last month was Brisbane’s Max Byrne, who has spent the last few years producing some beautiful indie electronic music under the name Golden Vessel. Arriving in Texas off the back of his new single “Dizzy”, we sat down to talk about his experiences in Austin,…
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I’ve heard a lot about the JetBlue service over the years, with the US airline often topping domestic lists for in flight experience, comfort and customer satisfaction. Though in more recent years the airline has fallen from grace on certain lists. Within 12 months I saw it sitting near the top of some lists, and…
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In a spontaneous, last minute decision, tonight I attended the latest arena spectacular by rock legends Muse in Toronto, Canada. The show comes off the back of their latest record Simulation Theory, with the tour in question given the same name. Hype articles have been floating around over the last few weeks talking about how the current arena show…
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One of the buzz acts at this year’s SXSW was rising star Cautious Clay, who also happened to be one of the best acts we saw at the annual Texas festival. While at the Vevo House, I caught up with the Brooklyn based artist – real name Joshua Karpeh – to find out more about his…
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Caroline Smith is a Minneapolis-based songwriter who has been steadily building her career since 2006; first as a solo artist, then in a band (Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps – releasing the record Little Wind in 2011), and then as a solo artist again – which saw her release the underrated 2013 record Half…
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