The New Annual festival is coming of age, in a very Newcastle way - the extensive program for the third annual festival will be announced on Friday.
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Among the many headline events focusing on dance, art and music is a sensational book launch Q&A event with Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou of Silverchair fame, in conversation with Chit Chat von Loopin Stab (Glenn Dormand).
Love & Pain: Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou book launch, is on Saturday, September 30, at 7pm at the Civic Theatre. The book, Love & Pain, will be released on September 27, by Hachette. Writer Alley Pascoe is credited on the cover. Tickets to all of the festival's events go on sale today.
The story is bigger than Silverchair. That's the interesting thing to me ... Chris and Ben and Dan, they were best mates since they were five. That doesn't exist anymore.
- Glenn Dormand
Dormand, a music legend himself in Newcastle circles, as one of the forces behind the band Machine Gun Fellatio, will conduct the interview. He calls the book "completely carthartic" for Gillies and Joannou.
Despite their difficult relationship with Daniel Johns, who reached greater heights of fame and fortune in the music industry, both men have forged their own way forward.
"Yes, there is unresolved stuff," Dormand said. "But it's made them remember the good stuff. It's hard, it's double-edged."
Dormand said: "The story is bigger than Silverchair. That's the interesting thing to me. So much of it is before they started. Chris and Ben and Dan, they were best mates since they were five. That doesn't exist anymore. There are so many levels of it."
The Newcastle book launch will likely draw attention worldwide, based on the enduring, global popularity of Silverchair. "It's going to be a quite an event," Dormand said. "People want to know more ... people will want them to bitch about Dan, but they won't."
Tickets to all New Annual festival events will go on sale from Friday morning, June 30. Besides several free events and exhibitions, there will fee-paying events and exhibitions across art, dance, music, theatre and new mediums from Friday, September 22, through Sunday, October 1, at various locations around the city.
- For more information: newannual.com
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