Radio Info Australia

Photo – Rodney Magazinovic

What happens when a teen duo grows up? They buy a brewery. And their fans grow up too.

Nine years ago, Bernadette Agostino waited outside Adelaide’s Mix102.3 from 12 midnight for the chance to catch a glimpse of her favourite band, Hanson. Bernadette and her friends even trailed the band in her car as they left the station. Eventually, Hanson had to pull over and ask her to stop following them.

This week that determination finally paid off when Bernadette won a Mix102.3 search for Adelaide ‘s biggest Hanson fan, and Mix 102.3’s Jodie, Soda and Snowy took her to West End Breweries Bar 107 to join the band for a cold MmmHops Ale, named after their global hit MmmBop.

The Hanson Brothers are passionate craft brewers, and loved the chance to compare their own brew with some of the local product at West End Breweries.

And no, this time Bernadette didn’t follow Hanson home.

3news

Pop-rockers Hanson have vowed to press on with their Australia/NZ tour after doctors prescribed “vocal rest” for one of their members.

Drummer/singer Zac Hanson has fallen sick on the band’s tour Down Under and he has been ordered to rest his voice.

His brother bandmates have decided not to cancel the upcoming shows and will press ahead with a gig at Sydney’s The Hi-Fi venue on Wednesday night.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Zac reveals he will still take to the stage with his siblings, but won’t be singing as usual.

He writes, “Well I have lost my voice all together, but if you all are willing we will still make the HiFi rock tonight. You can’t stop us!… Went to the DR (doctor) today and was told I need ‘vocal rest’ so I need the crowd tonight to do all my parts. You guys up for that?”

Hanson are due to perform in Auckland at the Powerstation on August 17.

WENN.com / 3 News

AMH Network

Picture this – it’s 1997 and a venue full of screaming teenage girls (much like a modern day One Direction concert) are all sweating with excitement and anticipation for their dream boys to take the stage. The lights dim, the girls scream so hard that they pass out and a very young Hanson take the stage. Now imagine that exact same scene seventeen years later, only the teenage girls are thirty year old women and their dream boys are now grown men. Thirty year old women are scary at the best of times, but thirty year old women in Hanson t-shirts are straight up terrifying.

Whatever bubblegum pop 90′s image you have in your head about Hanson – get rid of it. Just as their fans have grown, so has their sound; they are no longer the talented preteens that you remember. Their musical growth and maturity is so incredibly obvious, and seeing them live only solidifies that. Hanson are the type of band that continuously shock and surprise audiences with their capabilities, and it’s what I was able to witness upon seeing them at the Palais Theatre in St. Kilda on Saturday night.

Opening the evening was The Voice Australia contestant, Adam Martin. Despite playing to an initially less than interested crowd, he managed to capture people’s attention and prove why he was so unjustly eliminated from his stint on the show. With a mix of original songs and a smooth as silk Coldplay cover to boot, Martin ended his half hour set by getting everyone to pose for an Instagram picture (which the women in the audience fell head over heels for).

Fast forward forty minutes or so and the champagne fuelled crowd basically fell over each other as Zac took to his drum kit, and Taylor and Isaac followed with giddy, graceful greetings. Diving right into Fired Up from their latest album,Anthem, followed by the classic Where’s the Love, their harmonies were enough to melt everyone right into their seats. Clad with cheeky, amused smiles, the boys lapped up every second of stage time and adoring feedback with quality banter and intimate audience appreciation.

Whether they were playing throwback songs or tracks from their latest and greatest, the flow of effervescent feedback did not cease. As each of the brothers took the stage for solo songs, their individual strengths and charms were on display and were far from evading. If anything, it only proved how underrated they currently are in a mainstream music sense and that they are capable of far greater moments than MMMbop(which, after twenty years on this earth and endless years of preteen lust, I still was not prepared to witness live).

Despite my knowledge of the Hanson catalog extending as far as five or six songs, the sheer intensity of the ladies around me more than made up for it. I left with confirmation that Isaac can only be described as handsome, Taylor’s smile is capable of lighting up an entire room and that Zac is undoubtedly an angel.

Renowned For Sound

The first thing I thought when I walked through the doors of Sydney’s Enmore Theatre last night for a skip through nineties pop nostalgia was, ‘Well, you’ve gotta given these boys some serious credit for this”. The pop landscape is a ruthless one and it’s been more unforgiving to bands with a lot more commercial weight behind them than sibling trio Hanson. Yet, in a world where bands come and go and reality shows turn out stars so quickly, as if the world was about to come to a sudden halt, Hanson have matured gracefully into a powerful threesome that seem to have gained more credibility as the years have rolled by. As far as success goes, the road has been very well travelled for the Oklahoma brothers. While success for Taylor, Isaac and Zac was at its peak in the nineties with hits like Where’s The Love and MMMBop, they have retained fans and industry respect as seasoned musicians, performers and songwriters over the past 22 years with early studio albums like Middle of Nowhere, mid-career highlights like This Time Around and more recent records like 2010’s Shout It Out. The lads have also dabbled in Motown/Soul recently with the release of new album Anthem, gaining a wider fan base as they take the new collection on the road to fans around the globe. Having already blown away the crowds at Brisbane’s Tivoli Threate and the Gold Coast’s Coolangatta Hotel earlier this week, the wheels were well oiled by the time the trio took to the staged last night at The Enmore Threatre, a venue well experiences in hosting bands from the nineties over the years with Aqua, Vengaboys and most recently 5ive all setting up shop at the Newtown venue and drawing the masses. Last night was no different with the intimate venue overflowing with fans; crowds of teenage girls packing the venue all ready to take a selfie with the band and sing along to some of pops staple hits. Without an inch of floors space spared by the time the band took to the stage at just after 9pm with the appropriate Fired Up which also serves the new album as its opening track before launching into I’ve Got Soul, a nod the predominant style heard on the latest studio collection, and the mammoth Where’s The Love which was, along with MMMBop, an unsurprising highlight of the night. The opening of the show successfully had the crowd worked into an early sweat as they danced and sang along with the band at a deafening volume. There wasn’t much of the Hanson back catalogue left untouched last night as the band were on top form and delivered a strong 25-song set for the sold out crowd in Sydney, touching on early commercial songs right through to the band’s latest studio effort with tracks like the lead single Get the Girl Back, with its Motown-esque vibe filling up the venue, and Juliet which saw Taylor swap his usual piano embraced position on stage with brother Zac on drums for the memorable addition to the set. You also could not really ask much more from a band when it comes to stage time – performing non-stop for a solid 2 hours and while Taylor took the lead vocal lead for the majority of the set in his front-man role, Zac was given some time to shine on tracks like Scream and Be Free and his solo performance of the yet to be released track Get So Low. Isaac also delivered a memorable performance of the rollicking Hand In Hand during the solo centre of the night. While new songs like You Can’t Stop Us Now with its We Will Rock You-esque drum beat and the summer road-trip feel of Penny & Me were welcomed by the crowd who lapped up every moment that they were in the presence of pop royalty, particularly as Taylor neared the front rows to gasping fans and when Zac released his flowing locks to the hollers and squeals from the over-excited teenage girls in the audience, the golden oldies were the key crowd-pleasers within the set. The cheers were almost unbearable as the band launched into early up-tempo highlight Where’s The Love and MMMBop which showed up further down the set with almost everyone in the venue raising their camera phones in the air to get a snapshot of the nights key moments. The audience gushed over the ballads just as much; Weird was an obvious scene stealer within the set, as was the mid-section of the set-list as each member took to the stage alone to perform a number for the crowd. We were also treated to a cover of the Bee Gees hit Too Much Heaven by the trio who stood centre stage around a microphone, delivering an acapella version of iconic ballad to their adoring fans. Although the band started out in almost bubble-gum-pop territory in the early nineties, Taylor, Isaac and Zac have made the successful transition from teenybopper pop stars to fully-fledged musicians who have retained and gained a very loyal fan-base over these past 22 years in the business. The lads deliver a powerful set and have a sturdy catalogue to fuel a very memorable performance. Set List: Fired Up I’ve Got Soul Where’s The Love Scream And Be Free Thinking Of You You Can’t Stop Us Now On And On Weird Too Much Heaven Hand In Hand Get So Low A Song To Sing Juliet You Never Know Tragic Symphony Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’ Waiting For This A Minute Without You Penny & Me Give A Little MMMBop Get The Girl Back Something Going Round Encore: This Time Around In The City

Mix 1023

Joda, Soda, Snowy and our lucky prize winner Bernadette headed down to SA Brewing to meet and greet Hanson!

Bernadette won the prize for being “Adelaide Biggest Hanson Fan”. She told us:

“In 2005 I met Hanson out the front of the Mix 102.3 station, after getting there at 1am in the morning. We tried to follow them in my car but they pulled over and told us to stop following them. I LOVE HANSON SO MUCH, It would be the best 30th birthday gift if I could have a beer with Hanson.”

Isaac and Taylor from the band proved very knowledgeable on beer and even brought along some of their own beer Mmmhops for everyone to try!
Read more at

b-side scene

After having my name ticked off the door list, I sheepishly join the two lines that are growing from the pavement and converging into one dense line at the bottom of the stairs.

It’s a Wednesday night at the Cooly Hotel and having worked all day and battled thick peak hour traffic from Brisbane, I’d normally have gone for comfortable shoes.

But not tonight.

From past experience, height is necessary.

Surveying the others in the lines, I’m satisfied with my selection of Camper wedge heels, but then am suddenly flooded with a feeling of apprehension and a knotted fire burning within. Claustrophobia perhaps? Or nerves?

The lines begin to swell forward and it’s not long before I’m up the stairs and inside a large, dimly lit open room, with a bar in the rear and an illuminated but still, set stage.

Without thinking I head for the far side of the stage where it’s less crowded.

A fifth row position with uninterrupted views of the grand piano, drums and mic stand, where I know the guitarist will be, is mine.

Right on 8:30pm, the support act Adam Martin takes the stage and warms us up.

But adding to my apprehension and confusion are the conversations happening around me from women in their 30s sharing photos of babies and talking about toy trucks. Something I’m used to in other circumstances but not really at concerts and the like.

Their stories are cut short as we’re hit by a deafening high pitched roar that swarms the crowd as Hanson bound on stage and take up their expected instruments, with Taylor grabbing his mic and moving to centre stage.

An explosion of soulful and unstoppable Hanson rock ’n’ roll permeates the room and my body. Finding it hard to be in the moment and believe that I’m at my fourth Hanson concert since 1997, I realise I have to decide whether I’m going to be an onlooker or return the energy and enthusiasm.

It feels so foreign from my daily life, but as soon as I give over to the beat, the lyrics, the riff and melody, I realise that the fire burning inside is excitement. I’m Fired Up! And don’t want to be anywhere else.

As the first Australian Hanson concert of the Anthem Tour to have a fan voted set list, we were in for over two hours of surprises.

Following Fired Up, the first set included:

Where’s the love
And I waited
This time around
Crazy beautiful
If only

Switching to an acoustic set, we were treated to:

Weird
Wish that I was there
Save me

The third set saw their energy levels go one better and Hanson engage more with the crowd between songs, introducing:

Juliet
Lost without you
Been there before
Penny and me
Georgia
A minute without you

Whilst, Fired Up, Weird and Juliet were highlights for me thus far, Taylor then announced that the next song was a rarity.

“We’ve never performed this song before in Australia. But voted by you, this next song is Cried/Cry,” Taylor said.

Immediately I was transported to my teenage bedroom of 1997 and saw myself enjoying the ‘I will come to you’ single b-side song, Cry/Cried.

Thinking ‘Bout Something and Give a Little from their 2012 Shout It Out album release followed, before they gave the 20-odd males in the room some advice on how to Get the Girl Back when they, the guys, occasionally blow it with their girl.

The set closed with MMMBop and Lost Without Each Other before the guys returned for an encore with You Can’t Stop Us from their latest release, Anthem, and Man from Milwaukee from their 1997 Middle of Nowhere album. I was in rock ’n’ roll power-pop heaven!

With their final bow, the crowd made an agreement with Hanson that we’d all come back and support them when they return for another tour.

Count me in, but I can’t help but feel fired up and inspired to do more than just that.

Although it’s been a few years since I embraced my inner gypsy, somehow packing away my Thermomix and cookie-cutter 9-5 job for a few months on the road myself is very appealing.

Chasing live music across America for a few months and staying alive to the 13 year old dreamer inside might just be worth diggin’ my hot heels in for.