Archie Roach National Tour

Archie Roach tours nationally through November and December celebrating the launch of the 25th Anniversary Edition of his iconic 1990 debut album Charcoal Lane. The songwriting great will perform in Newcastle on Saturday November 21 supported by Frank Yamma, Sydney on Sunday November 22 with a free show at Homeground at the Opera House, Castlemaine on December 3 with Jaime Torres, Melbourne on December 4 with Emma Donovan and the Putbacks and Briggs and a second just announced show on December 5 with special guests including Emma Donovan and at the Thornbury Theatre, Adelaide on December 6 at the Governor Hindmarsh with Corey Theatre, Perth on December 11 at the Fremantle Arts Centre and Pomona, Queensland on December 18 at The Majestic Theatre.

Charcoal Lane was co-produced by Steve Connolly and Paul Kelly and rocketed Roach into the national consciousness. The album won Roach two ARIA awards, achieved gold sales, and, unprecedentedly, an international ‘Human Rights Achievement Award’ for the song ‘Took The Children Away’. The song was written by Roach about his own experience as a member of the Stolen Generations: he was forcibly removed from his own family and community at a young age.

The awards never stopped coming for Roach (see attached list of achievements); most recently he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal(earlier this year), and ‘Took The Children Away’ was entered into the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA)’s prestigious ‘Sounds of Australia’ register. However the succession of albums that begun with Charcoal Lanewas momentarily halted in 2010 with the death of his wife and singer-songwriter Ruby Hunter, and his subsequent stroke and battle with lung cancer. Roach ‘came back’ with the much-acclaimed album Into The Bloodstream in 2012, which was followed by the 4CD collection Creation in 2013.

The 25th anniversary double CD release of Charcoal Lane includes the remastered version of the original album together with a second disc including 5 acoustic tracks recorded live for Triple j’s Live at the Wireless in 1990, and some new recordings of Charcoal Lane material by other artists (including recently released tracks by Briggs & Gurrumul & Dewayne Everettsmith and Emma Donovan & The Putbacks with Archie himself).