Springsteen's Australian tour winner

One young Bruce Springsteen fan joined The Boss on stage in Brisbane to sing before doing a knee slide. Courtesy YouTube/TheLouie01

BRUCE Springsteen's Australian tour has reinforced his position as The Boss of concert revenue.

Bruce Springsteen's ten Australian dates generated over $25 million in ticket sales, putting him at the top of American music magazine Billboard's global Hot Tours tally this week.

Source: news.com.au

Who is 11-year-old boy at Springsteen's Brisbane concert?

Springsteen's ten Australian dates put him ahead of 11 US dates in March by Rihanna, which generated $11 million and 23 UK dates through February and March by British pop star Olly Murs which generated $10 million.

Four-year-old Coolbinia boy Aleksandar got the chance of a lifetime, to sing with Bruce Springsteen during a recent Melbourne concert.

Bruce Springsteen's Brisbane concert tops sizzling summer of music

Snakes, Vegemite and bats freak out Springsteen's E Street Band

The Top 10 also includes a UK X Factor tour, UK Justin Bieber tour and tours by Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran.

Billboard reports Springsteen played to 47,796 fans over three shows at Sydney's Allphones Arena and 46,740 shows over three shows at Rod Laver Arena. Both venues generated over $7 million in ticket sales for the shows.

Bruce Springsteen at a press conference before the Brisbane gag -  his Australian tour has been the most financially rewarding of any this year.

The songs Bruce Springsteen played in Australia

Two Hanging Rock shows - to over 34,000 fans - generated over $5 million, while the two Brisbane shows to over 24,000 fans generated $4.2 million.

Jimmy Barnes joins Bruce Springsteen on stage at Hanging Rock

The $25 million generated from the Boss' Australian tour will be broken down and spread out between the artist, his musicians, local promoter Frontier as well as associated costs including concert production, venue hire, travel, security, insurance, crew fees, management, advertising, marketing and GST.

Legendary rocker Bruce Springtsteen has kicked off his Australian tour, lighting up the stage in Brisbane.

Springsteen's Wrecking Ball tour now heads to Europe. The tour was the second-highest grossing jaunt of last year, behind Madonna.

Springsteen's Australian tour figures make him one of the most lucrative international visitors since Pink's Funhouse tour in 2009, which generated over $80 million.

Videos to some of Bruce Springsteen's favourite songs

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Drones to greet Australian skies

HIGH SPIES: Queensland police plan to introduce drones similar to those used by the military in Afghanistan for surveillance Source: The Courier-Mail

QUEENSLAND police plan to send drones into the skies for bikie and anti-terror surveillance ahead of the G20 conference in Brisbane.

The $30-an-hour drones would also be used for covert drug crop identification, traffic operations and natural disasters following a successful trial last year.

The Courier-Mail can reveal Police Minister Jack Dempsey wants the aircraft, possibly second-hand ex-military drones used in Afghanistan, in time for the trans-national G20 conference in November next year.

But the plans have angered privacy advocates, with the head of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties saying they amount to "Big Brother in the sky".

Mr Dempsey said drones would be a "cost-effective" measure in police aerial intelligence, with an hourly operating fuel price-tag of $30 compared to $500 per hour for a helicopter.

"Originally even basic drones cost upwards of a million dollars but today they can be purchased for as little as $50,000 and the price continues to fall," Mr Dempsey said.

"Furthermore, with many countries continuing their withdrawal from various theatres of war we may see their high-end surplus military drones come on to the market at very low prices.

"I believe if the business case for drones stacks up they'd be invaluable for a range of policing tasks, including traffic management, covert drug crop identification and even surveillance for events such as the 2014 G20 meeting and reconnaissance during outlaw biker runs.

"Additionally there are many emergency applications such as being used for spotting bushfires for the Rural Fire Service and providing real-time aerial intelligence from flood or cyclone affected areas."

HIGH SPIES: Queensland police plan to introduce drones similar to those used by the military in Afghanistan for surveillance

Mr Dempsey said helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft were useful "when it comes to search and rescue activities".

"But of course they are limited by fuel capacity and fuel availability in remote areas," he said.

"With some drones able to fly and hover for days and weeks on end, we'd be able to keep a single aircraft up for much longer while beaming back real-time video which, together with traditional aircraft, would complement most search and rescue activities."

In the US the Pentagon has splurged on drones, reportedly increasing the number to 7000 compared to about 50 a decade ago.

However, the government is currently locked in a fierce political debate on how they are used and associated privacy concerns.

In Australia, 34 organisations are certified to use drones for activities including aerial photography, surveying and power line inspection.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman said giving police access to drone technology was a "huge boost" to their powers and shouldn't be done without legislation and parliamentary debate.

"There is a real concern about the eye in the sky, the flying Big Brother who can see everything and anything, in the hands of police," he said. "Bikies are just the selling point, it will be used across the board."

He said using drones to monitor public protests was unjustified and could make people afraid of expressing themselves publicly.

View the original article here

Drones to greet Australian skies

HIGH SPIES: Queensland police plan to introduce drones similar to those used by the military in Afghanistan for surveillance Source: The Courier-Mail

QUEENSLAND police plan to send drones into the skies for bikie and anti-terror surveillance ahead of the G20 conference in Brisbane.

The $30-an-hour drones would also be used for covert drug crop identification, traffic operations and natural disasters following a successful trial last year.

The Courier-Mail can reveal Police Minister Jack Dempsey wants the aircraft, possibly second-hand ex-military drones used in Afghanistan, in time for the trans-national G20 conference in November next year.

But the plans have angered privacy advocates, with the head of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties saying they amount to "Big Brother in the sky".

Mr Dempsey said drones would be a "cost-effective" measure in police aerial intelligence, with an hourly operating fuel price-tag of $30 compared to $500 per hour for a helicopter.

"Originally even basic drones cost upwards of a million dollars but today they can be purchased for as little as $50,000 and the price continues to fall," Mr Dempsey said.

"Furthermore, with many countries continuing their withdrawal from various theatres of war we may see their high-end surplus military drones come on to the market at very low prices.

"I believe if the business case for drones stacks up they'd be invaluable for a range of policing tasks, including traffic management, covert drug crop identification and even surveillance for events such as the 2014 G20 meeting and reconnaissance during outlaw biker runs.

"Additionally there are many emergency applications such as being used for spotting bushfires for the Rural Fire Service and providing real-time aerial intelligence from flood or cyclone affected areas."

HIGH SPIES: Queensland police plan to introduce drones similar to those used by the military in Afghanistan for surveillance

Mr Dempsey said helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft were useful "when it comes to search and rescue activities".

"But of course they are limited by fuel capacity and fuel availability in remote areas," he said.

"With some drones able to fly and hover for days and weeks on end, we'd be able to keep a single aircraft up for much longer while beaming back real-time video which, together with traditional aircraft, would complement most search and rescue activities."

In the US the Pentagon has splurged on drones, reportedly increasing the number to 7000 compared to about 50 a decade ago.

However, the government is currently locked in a fierce political debate on how they are used and associated privacy concerns.

In Australia, 34 organisations are certified to use drones for activities including aerial photography, surveying and power line inspection.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman said giving police access to drone technology was a "huge boost" to their powers and shouldn't be done without legislation and parliamentary debate.

"There is a real concern about the eye in the sky, the flying Big Brother who can see everything and anything, in the hands of police," he said. "Bikies are just the selling point, it will be used across the board."

He said using drones to monitor public protests was unjustified and could make people afraid of expressing themselves publicly.

View the original article here

Franco slams Australian Film Board

James Franco is disappointed with the Australian Film Board. Picture: AP Source: AP

JAMES Franco isn't happy with the Australian Classification Board and he wants them to know about it.

The Oz the Great and Powerful star has labelled the board's decision to ban screenings of Travis Mathew's gay-themed film, I Want Your Love, "hypocritical" and "disappointing."

The ACB banned the film from being shown at two gay-themed film festivals in the country, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and the Brisbane Queer Film Festival, "citing the sex scenes between men as indecent", reports the Hollywood Reporter.

Franco took to YouTube to express his outrage, saying that the ban was "such a disappointment to me and it just seems really silly".

"It's how we create children, it's how we connect," he said. "To keep it away from films that want to explore it as human behavior is very shortsighted and I think very hypocritical. I don't think we would be having this conversation if he had made a very violent film.

"And frankly adults should be able to choose. They're not going in blind. I don't know why this day in age something like this, a film that's using sex not for titillation but to talk about being human is being banned."

Franco previously co-directed a bondage sex film, Interior.Leather.Bar, with the film's director Travis Mathews.

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