The Australian public broadcaster ABC is rebranding the free to air television channel ABC1 to ABC. The new theme, OurABC, includes launching a new hashtag (#ourabc), new artwork and features the classic Hunters and Collectors track Throw Your Arms Around Me as the channel anthem!

The recording of Throw Your Arms is a brand new one minute version, having recently been recorded by the band with ABC. It was only finished a couple of weeks ago and can now be heard on air.

For the newcomers, there are a healthy number of Hunters versions of Throw Your Arms Around Me released if you are looking for one to have and to hold yourself:

• 1986 studio recording – found on Human Frailty, Crucible and non Australian Collected Works albums
• 1990 studio recording – found on Australian Collected Works album
• 1984 live recording – found on Spare Parts album
• 1985 live recording – found on The Way To Go Out album
• 1991 live recording – found on the Spare Parts album
• 1998 live recording – found on the Under One Roof album
• 2009 live recording – found on the Sound Relief compilation album
• 1995 live acoustic recording – found on the Living In Large Rooms and Lounges album

Fans argue regularly about the best version. The band tend to lean towards the live version from Under One Roof, which is also why it can be found on the Natural Selection ‘best of’ album and is the one we include to your right in our Soundcloud ‘Featured Audio’.

It’s the news New Zealand has been waiting for. The Rolling Stones today confirmed the rescheduled dates and venues for both the Australian and New Zealand legs of their highly anticipated ’14 On Fire’ tour. Now, Frontier Touring is also delighted to announce that one of Australia’s most iconic rock outfits, Hunters & Collectors, will join the Stones at Auckland Mt Smart Stadium on the new date of Saturday 22 November 2014.

Visceral, mighty, and responsible for classics such as ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’, ‘Talking to a Stranger’,‘ Holy Grail’, ‘When The River Runs Dry’, ‘Do You See What I See’, ‘Say Goodbye’ and countless others, Hunters & Collectors will bring their powerful, ferocious live show to New Zealand with the Stones this November. Having just farewelled thousands of Aussie fans at wineries across the country as recent headliners of the ‘A DAY ON THE GREEN’ concert series, last weekend the reformed Hunters & Collectors performed two final indoor theatre shows, culminating in a sold-out, emotional goodbye at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre.

Tickets through Ticketmaster | Ticketmaster.co.nz | Ph: 0800 111 999

Jack Howard is the only trumpet player in the ARIA Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and has been described as “one of the great quiet achievers of Australian music”.

He spent 17 years as an integral member of Hunters and Collectors; and he’s played with the likes of Midnight Oil, The Living End, You Am I, Violent Femmes, Pete Murray, Little Red, Crown Of Thorns and The Break. Most weekends, you’ll find Jack out there playing somehow somewhere around Melbourne.

Along the way, Jack has been prolifically going about his business, independently releasing seven great records of his own music, culminating in 2012′s comprehensive “best of” compilation, The Story So Far, which also included a Live DVD.

In 2013, he played at the AFL Grand Final with H & C, toured the country with Rodriguez and The Break, put together a fantastic “Songs Of Bacharach and David” show (which recently sold out both The Caravan and Flying Saucer Clubs); and recorded his outstanding upcoming CD, “Day Of The Dog”, with his own band, the mighty Long Lost Brothers.

With Ed Bates on pedal steel, Nicky Del Rey on guitar, Mark Ferrie on bass and Cal McAlpine on drums, plus the Token Youths horn section, the band is a veritable super-group of Melbourne’s finest.

Day Of The Dog is a potent mix of muscular band grooves, soaring melodies and Jack’s soulful vocals and trumpet. His deft and moving lyrics tie the whole album together beautifully.

Get on it.

Click here to buy!

Over 1200 gigs. Over 1,000,000 albums sold. 19 hit singles and 16 hit albums.

Welcome to True Believers – the comprehensive fan managed official website for one of the greatest Australian rock bands of all time – Hunters and Collectors.

Formed in Melbourne in 1981, the Hunna’s became central to Australian culture through their distinctive brass rock sound and rigorous touring of the pub circuit. Disbanding in 1998, they left behind great memories and an impressive back catalogue.

We have something for everyone:

• New? Listen to the full audio tracks (look to your right -> ) and read the Biography.
• Latest? Check News, Articles, Gigs, Photos and rare tracks in The Vault.
• Music? Browse the comprehensive Albums, Singles and Tracks sections.
• Artistic? Click to enjoy Video, Album, Single, Photography and General artwork.
• Muso? Hunters bass player John Archer has provided full, compete Tabs.
• Nerd? You will love the Gigography and gory detail of the text Discography.

Mark Seymour (vocals, lyrics) and Jack Howard (trumpet, backing vocals) have comprehensive solo careers that we also follow here at True Believers.

The 2014 tour may be over but you can still get hold of the coolest merch around…

All Hunters and Collectors 2014 Tour Merchandise can be purchased online from Band T-Shirts. There are t-shirts in classic and tour designs, an array of AFL scarves, caps, tea towels, posters, stickers and our personal favourites – stubbie holders and drink coaster sets!

There has not been array of cool merch like this from the band in a generation!

Click here for Hunna’s Merch!

The great Hunters and Collectors tribute album, Crucible, is now out in both CD and digital forms. There are two different packages available in physical form – a standard 2CD jewel case and limited edition 2CD digipack.

Crucible is available everywhere, including iTunes, JB’s Hi Fi and Sanity.

To get a taste of what’s on offer, Click here to listen to the full album via streaming audio on the Mushroom Internet site.

Crucible includes an impressive collection of cover versions by a diverse range of high profile artists, including Birds of Tokyo, The Living End, British India, Something For Kate and Eddie Vedder and Neil Finn.

Stepping out of the airport mid-July, the true horror of Melbourne winter hits you. It is early afternoon yet barely ten degrees, the wind blows through you and the light rain aimlessly drifts down at 45 degrees. This sort of environment is comforting when you are in town to help digitise a few hundred tapes that have sat in dark, cold Melbourne cupboards for up to 32 years.

The fruits of this project are now here for fans to enjoy through From The Vault. Every week we present a new, random track from the archives, spanning all the way back to pre-Hunters in 1980 through to the final days of March 1998. It’s all here and it’s awesome.

Click here for the latest from The Vault!

Play the electric guitar? keyboards? trumpet? bass guitar? drums? gas cylinder?

Hunters and Collectors bass player John Archer has been creating complete tabs for many of our favourite Hunters tracks for True Believers!

The tabs are presented as MIDI files, which, using free software, you can see every note in every song for every instrument.

Click here for the tabs!