Florence + The Machine, Marlon Williams and Billie Eilish are heading to Geelong for a day on the green

Famed for a breathtaking and powerful live show, the unstoppable Florence Welch and her band are returning to Australia for a string of national headline dates including this one-off ‘a day on the green’ performance.
Known for worldwide hits including ‘You’ve Got The Love’, ‘Dog Days Are Over’, ‘Shake It Out’, ‘Spectrum (Say My Name)’ and ‘Never Let Me Go’ among many others across three celebrated studio albums, this marks Florence and her band’s return for the first time since their epic sold-out November 2015 tour, and comes in celebration of their recently released fourth album, High As Hope.
Featuring collaborations from the likes of Kamasi Washington, Sampha, Tobias Jesso Jr, Kelsey Lu and Jamie xx, the album showcases a mix of high and low – from a tribute to Patti Smith one minute, to being ghosted over text by a date the next.
High As Hope is made up, says Florence, “of joy and fury”…but with the joy arguably winning out, in the end. “It’s always a work in progress, and I definitely don’t have everything figured out. But this feels like quite a pure expression of who I am now, as an artist, and an honest one. I’m just more comfortable with who I am.”
It’s clear this album encompasses the sound of an artist who appears more certain than ever of herself – and it’s a certainty we can expect from her live show. Now, Florence writes about her teens and twenties with a renewed, more mature perspective of growing up in South London, of family, relationships and art itself, which has resulted in a record that is as intimate as it is epic, with the more restrained sound – relatively speaking. “I’m never going to be minimal,” she says, mirroring this sense that happiness doesn’t always have to be big and dramatic: it can often be found in the mundane, in the everyday things that aren’t always celebrated in songs. “There’s a lot of love in this record, loneliness too, but a lot of love.”
With her innocent speaking voice, she sings like a heavenly god has taken over on this album and frankly, it’s just incredible. Mesmerising doesn’t begin to cut it and rest assured, once you see this absolute stellar performance in the surrounds of Mt Duneed Estate, you won’t be disappointed.
It doesn’t stop there though. Joining Florence next January will see New Zealand singer-songwriter Marlon Williams bring his effortlessly distinctive voice to the winery surrounds.
For the past few years Williams has been busy captivating crowds across America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, impressing the world with his uncanny ability to turn his classically trained voice into an effortless, worldly, seductive instrument of storytelling.
Finding his way into music at a young age as a choirboy in New Zealand, which no doubt has contributed to the establishment of his beautiful and soothing vocals, it was his father who originally introduced Williams to music and whom we can thank for encouraging Williams to pursue his love of music.
“My dad always introduced me to new music and encouraged me to follow my interests when he saw that they were such,” he reveals. “Because he was a singer too, it always seemed like an obvious and respectable path to pursue”

It wasn’t until the end of high school however that Williams began making music with his first band The Unfaithful Ways, alongside becoming one half of a duo with acclaimed country singer Delany Davidson.
“When The Unfaithful Ways disbanded I was about 18. I had already started working with Delany a little bit and we started making albums together. At that point, he had come from a lengthy career as a solo artist so I got a lot of inspiration from watching him work as a lone wolf. I just got this glimmer of what it would be like to be a solo artist travelling the world and that really helped pave the way for me.”
Inspired to go in the direction of a solo artist, Williams went on to release his solo self-titled album in 2015 to immense critical acclaim, selling more than 30,000 albums worldwide. It’s his most recent release however that marks Williams’ exponential growth as a songwriter, with Make Way For Love being hailed hailed as ‘one of the best breakup albums in a long while’.
Led by the singles ‘Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore’ (a duet with Aldous Harding – Williams’ ex-partner and presumably the subject of most of these songs), ‘What’s Chasing You’, and ‘Come To Me’, the 11 original songs expose Williams as you’ve never heard him before – exploring new musical terrain and revealing himself in an unprecedented way, in the wake of a fractured relationship.
The finished result not only sees Williams created a timeless classic, but also moves the musician several paces from “country” – the genre that has been affixed to him more than any in recent years – with forays in to cinematic strings, reverb, rollicking guitar and at least one quiet piano ballad.
“I don’t know if I would call it ‘rock’ per se,” he explains of Make Way For Love. “It was an intense outburst, creatively, and I’m still trying to piece together what happened exactly. Regardless, genre and direction are not something an artist should hope to narrate to themselves. I just want to make better music, whatever it is.”
With a voice that gets compared to everyone from Elvis to Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash, Williams is elated to be on the bill for a day on the green alongside Florence + The Machine, following his previous a day on the green stint alongside Paul Kelly, Lucinda Williams and Kasey Chambers back in 2015.
“I never imagined it, but at the same time, I don’t wake up every morning bless my lucky stars,” he says. “It’s just what’s happening. It’s just my life. I’m just another guy trying to pass the time.
“She’s [Florence] always existed just on the periphery of my musical listenership. I have massive respect for the way she navigates her way and maintains her integrity within the pop ouvre. I’m super excited to watch how she works night in and night out and try learn a thing or two.”
Breakout 16-year-old sensation Billie Eilish is another name joining what is looking to be an larger-than-life concert at a day on the green.
As one of the most prolific and exciting artists around, Eilish is heralding attention from all over the world following the release of her debut EP Don’t Smile At Me (2017).

Her meteoric rise began after she uploaded her first song ‘Ocean Eyes’ to SoundCloud, to send to her dance teacher for an upcoming recital. The song quickly caught the attention of the blogosphere, gained support from Spotify on a global scale and was championed by the likes of Zane Lowe (Beats 1), Annie Mac (BBC Radio 1), Jason Kramer and Chris Douridas (KCRW).
Catapulting her into the music limelight, Eilish has since joined festival lineups all over the world, including Australia’s Laneway, and has just recently wrapped up her three month long sold-out Where’s My Mind tour which took her across the world visiting Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Europe, Great Britain, and the United States.
Touted as the future of pop, especially with the release of ‘Lovely (with Khalid)’ earlier this year that has become officially certified platinum, Eilish, alongside Florence and Williams, is sure to set fire to the stage at a day on the green next year.
As Williams puts it, “It’s a fun concept. Music, sun and wine, what can go wrong?”
It all goes down at Mt Duneed Estate, Geelong – January 19. Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster.