Last week, before the clock struck Midnight on New Years Eve, iconic brand Ford helped introduce their brand new Ford Mustang to Sydneysiders, setting up a special live music stage right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge that helped get the party started well ahead of the fireworks, with a mix of Australian and International musicians performing with the Harbour behind them and the Mustang to their right.
The event, which kicked off at about 4pm, was hosted by Ella Hooper – who also performed as part of the event. She first welcomed the lovely Gossling to the stage, whose beautiful vocals and bouncy, electrifying energy was intoxicating. Much the same can be said for Zeek Power, who followed, bringing his musical prowess – mixing sounds of folk with hip hop and high energy – to the stage. Power was recently named the winner of the 2014 Telstra 2nd Chance competition and with millions of YouTube views to his credit, this is certainly an artist to watch.
Ella Hooper was on form with her band, as she performed tracks off her much celebrated debut solo album In Tongues. Thanks to all her media commitments over the last couple of years, Ella really has become a fine on stage host, but it’s when she sings that she really commands the microphone. Though most of the crowd had been sitting through what was a relatively relaxed event to now, things cranked up a notch when Germans Milky Chance came to wow the crowd.
People seemed to come from nowhere to get their spot in front of the stage and watch the set from the German duo who call themselves “folk” but embrace everything from EDM to Reggae and back again. Just listen to the song that made them stars (104 million views on YouTube!) – “Stolen Dance” – and you know what I’m talking about. As you’d expect, they closed with the popular number.
A fantastic way to kick off our New Years in Sydney Harbour – as we rung in the New Year at the Wonderland event happening next door, thanks to Ford and Telstra, where Art vs Science and The Temper Trap helped lead us into the epic countdown in what was unarguably one of the most amazing views the city had to offer. The Temper Trap teased a few new tracks as part of their hour long set, which streamed live on YouTube – as did the earlier Ford Mustang performances. The new tracks included “Burn”, “So Much Sky” and a special mention has to be paid to the inclusion of “Rock the Casbah” within their always amazing “Drum Song”.
Not a bad way to bring in the New Years if I say so myself. Big thanks to Ford for having us for the evening. And thanks to the City of Sydney for giving us such a great light show…
