Summer getting hotter

Photo / Supplied

Save your pennies because the summer gig season keeps getting busier.

The latest high-profile overseas act to announce tour dates are British dance music veterans The Prodigy, who played the Big Day Out earlier this year. They return for a headlining show at Trusts Stadium in West Auckland on February 25 and will be supported by rowdy up-and-coming British group Does It Offend You Yeah?, who just released their debut album You Don't Know What You're Getting Yourself Into.

Speaking of dance acts, also returning to New Zealand are the dynamic British duo Basement Jaxx who headline Splore on February 19-21 at Tapapakanga Regional Park on the Firth of Thames. The pairing - made up of Felix Burton and Simon Ratcliff - last played here at the 2004 Big Day Out and are touring off the back of their fifth album Scars.

Also joining the line up at Splore is Lupe Fiasco, who was also last here for a killer performance at the 2007 Big Day Out.

In more festival news, the final line up of Auckland's Laneway Festival on February 1 at Britomart includes American lo-fi folky Daniel Johnston, as well as Sarah Blasko, Hockey, and locals The Phoenix Foundation, Surf City, The Naked and Famous, and Street Chant. They join headliners Echo and the Bunnymen and reunited New Zealand band the 3Ds.

Meanwhile, hip-hop soul diva Lauryn Hill joins her former Fugees band mate Wyclef Jean on the bill of Rotorua's Raggamuffin Festival on January 23.

And get your undies ready because Welsh singer Tom Jones is willing and able to catch them from a stage near you when he plays four shows in New Zealand next year including an A Day On the Green Concert at Auckland's Villa Maria Estate on February 21.

And the Backstreet Boys are back - all right. Yes, the American boy band - these days made up of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell and AJ McLean - are heading to New Zealand for a show on March 11 at Vector Arena. The tour is in support of latest album, This Is Us, but they will also be playing hits like Everybody (Backstreet's Back), As Long As You Love Me, and The Shape of My Heart.

Finally, American harpist, pianist and singer/songwriter Joanna Newsom returns for a series of concerts in New Zealand, including a show at the Dorothy Winstone Centre (Auckland Girls Grammar School) on February 2; and LA hip-hop trio Dilated Peoples make their first trip here for a show at Auckland's Powerstation on January 7.