The rumours are true: Powderfinger is getting back together.
After a mysterious billboard and social media campaign across Australia during the past several days, the rock band announced a national tour via an Instagram video Friday morning.
"We always said that if we were going to get back together to do some shows you'd be the first to know, and you're the first to know," said frontman Bernard Fanning.
The band will perform around Australia from September 2027, and hundreds of thousands of fans are excited at their return after a 16 year hiatus.
The only "live" reunion was their special One Night Lonely COVID-19 performance, when the band played in isolation from each other.
"We're going to build something pretty special just for you guys ... we will see you from the stage," said guitarist Darren Middleton.
Starting up in Brisbane in 1989, Powderfinger is one of Australia's most successful rock bands, with five albums topping the ARIA Charts and 18 ARIA awards over 21 years of recording and touring.
Their best known songs are firm favourites in the Australian songbook, including My Happiness, Lost and Running, Sunsets, and (Baby I've Got You) On My Mind.
The teaser campaign started earlier this week with billboards in capital cities featuring grids of numbers and letters, which could be decoded as references to the band's discography and the date of their final live show in Brisbane in 2010.
Graham Ashton, who scouted the band for Polygram Records when it was signed to the major label in 1993, said the band members would need to work hard to be physically prepared for a tour.
"They're all going to need to rehearse really hard and, you know, maybe make some lifestyle adjustments," he told AAP ahead of the announcement.
But Mr Ashton said the band's broad appeal was undimmed, and if anything their audience had expanded as a result of their long hiatus.
He said the secret of the band's success was its relatability.
"Everybody felt like they knew them," he said.
"They were five guys that could have been your mates."
There was one other not-so-secret sauce in the band's mix.
"They had a great f***ing rock singer," Ashton said.
"There's only a handful of people who can sing rock music as well as Bernard Fanning."
