Aussie Ska Vets Area-7 To Embark On 20-Year Celebration Tour

You could be forgiven for perhaps thinking that we'd seen the last of Area-7, the Melbourne-based Aussie ska trailblazers having stayed pretty quiet over the past few years. However, the septet has announced that they will be hitting the road this year to celebrate a whopping 20 years together as a band.

So far, Area-7 have only announced three shows for the tour – one each in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide – but have promised further additions in due course. Otherwise, as it stands, your opportunities to celebrate the milestone come on August 30 at Marrickville's Factory Floor, September 19 at the Corner Hotel in Richmond, and October 17 at Adelaide's Black Market, Light Hotel.

Having graced the stages of premier Aussie festivals such as the Big Day Out, Falls Festival, Homebake and Warped over the course of their career together, Area-7 first skanked their way onto our radars with their debut full-length Bitter And Twisted (2000), featuring the wildly popular single Second Class Citizen.

Their sophomore effort, the following year's Say It To My Face, extended the love affair, with their track Nobody Likes A Bogan hanging around the ARIA Top 40 charts for eight weeks, and Individuality being synced to the Rocket Power movie for Nickelodeon.

The band's most recent release was their 2005 third LP Torn Apart. Since that album's release, the veteran purveyors of offbeat/up-strum raucousness have taken the foot off the gas but never “officially” broken up, so who knows what other opportunities you might get down the line to catch up with these old friends?

Still, you wouldn't want to test your luck and miss out – keep an eye on the Gig Guide or Area-7's Facebook page for more information as it develops.