Suzi Quatro Announces Down Under 2026 Australian Tour with Baby Animals

Suzi Quatro brings Down Under 2026 Tour to Australia

More than five decades after Suzi Quatro established herself as one of rock's most recognisable performers, the Detroit-born singer and bass guitarist is heading back to Australia for an extensive run of concerts.

The Down Under 2026 Tour begins at the Coliseum Theatre at Rooty Hill on Saturday 14 November before reaching the Sydney Opera House on Sunday 15 November. Quatro then travels to Hobart for Wrest Point Entertainment Centre on Thursday 19 November and the Gold Coast for The Star Gold Coast on Friday 20 November.

The tour will also intersect with the Red Hot Summer Tour, with Quatro headlining outdoor dates at Brisbane's Roma Street Parkland on 22 November, Speers Point Park at Lake Macquarie on 28 November, Torquay Common on 29 November and Seppeltsfield Wines in South Australia on 5 December.

Her standalone dates resume at Melbourne's Palais Theatre on Wednesday 2 December, with the Australian run concluding at Fremantle Prison on Sunday 6 December.

Baby Animals are the special guests for Quatro's headline concerts, while the Red Hot Summer appearances place her alongside a broader Australian rock bill featuring artists including Jon Stevens, Baby Animals, Rose Tattoo, The Screaming Jets, Dragon and Choirboys, with line-ups varying between locations.

More than 50 years of Suzi Quatro rock history

Quatro arrives in Australia with a catalogue stretching back to the early 1970s and a new record that demonstrates she has not become a heritage act content to live exclusively on past hits.

Born in Detroit in 1950, Quatro started playing music as a child and was performing professionally as a teenager. She joined her sister Patti in the all-female band The Pleasure Seekers when she was 14, years before her solo career transformed her into an international star.

Her breakthrough came after moving to Britain and working with producer Mickie Most. The combination of Quatro's bass playing, black-leather stage image and forceful vocal delivery provided a striking alternative to the conventional roles then available to women in mainstream rock.

"Can the Can" became her international breakthrough in 1973, followed by enduring singles including "48 Crash" and "Devil Gate Drive". Her catalogue later expanded through songs including "If You Can't Give Me Love" and "Stumblin' In", her duet with Smokie singer Chris Norman.

Quatro's significance went beyond a run of hit singles. A woman fronting a hard-rocking band while playing bass was still sufficiently unusual in the early 1970s to make her a highly visible precedent for generations of women who followed her into rock music.

The 2019 documentary Suzi Q examined that influence as well as the less straightforward realities behind her pioneering career, with musicians including Joan Jett and Debbie Harry among those discussing Quatro's importance.

Freedom adds a new chapter in 2026

The Australian tour follows the release of Freedom, Quatro's 18th solo studio album, on 27 March 2026.

Rather than functioning as an adjunct to an oldies tour, the 12-track record continues a recording career that began more than half a century ago. Freedom runs for approximately 42 minutes and includes the title track alongside "Little Miss Lovely", "Choose Yourself", "Going Down", "Hanging Over Me", "Here's Ya Boots", "Can't Let It Go", "Nobody Held My Hand", "Shakedown", "Take It Or Leave It" and "Woman's Song".

It closes with a particularly Detroit-flavoured connection to Quatro's roots: a version of MC5's "Kick Out the Jams" featuring fellow Detroit rock veteran Alice Cooper.

Quatro worked on Freedom with her son Richard Tuckey, continuing a creative partnership that has helped shape her recent recordings. The album deals with identity, survival and independence while deliberately returning to the direct rock 'n' roll approach on which she built her reputation.

Her longevity remains especially striking because Quatro continues to approach live performance as a working musician rather than simply the figurehead for a back catalogue. At 76 during the Australian dates, she remains the bass-playing centre of her band.

That was evident during her 2026 British concerts, where songs from across her career continued to sit alongside the defining 1970s material. "Can the Can", "48 Crash", "Devil Gate Drive" and "If You Can't Give Me Love" remain central pieces of a catalogue now spanning six decades.

Quatro has sold more than 55 million records worldwide across that career.

From Happy Days to the West End and radio

Music accounts for only part of Quatro's unusually varied career.

Television gave her a different kind of international recognition when she appeared in Happy Days as Leather Tuscadero, the younger sister of Pinky Tuscadero. The recurring role introduced Quatro to American viewers who were not necessarily familiar with the scale of her record success elsewhere.

She later moved into musical theatre, taking the title role in Annie Get Your Gun in London's West End. She has also written books and built a substantial broadcasting career, presenting programs for BBC Radio 2.

Those parallel careers have never displaced live music. Quatro has continued recording and touring through successive decades, and Australia has remained an important market since her breakthrough years.

Baby Animals join the headline concerts

The choice of Baby Animals as special guests gives the Down Under 2026 Tour a significant Australian rock connection.

Fronted by Suze DeMarchi, Baby Animals emerged from Sydney at the beginning of the 1990s and quickly produced one of the most successful debut albums in Australian rock.

Their self-titled album arrived in 1991 and climbed to No. 1 on the Australian albums chart in February 1992. It remained there for six weeks and ultimately achieved eight-times-platinum status.

Its best-known tracks include "Early Warning", "Rush You", "Painless" and "One Word", songs that established DeMarchi as one of the defining Australian rock voices of the period.

The group's success rapidly moved beyond Australia. Baby Animals toured internationally with Van Halen and Bryan Adams, while "Painless" was performed on Late Night with David Letterman in the United States.

At the 1992 ARIA Awards, the group's breakthrough translated into major industry recognition, including Album of the Year for Baby Animals.

The band followed its debut with Shaved and Dangerous in 1993, which reached No. 2 in Australia, before eventually splitting in the mid-1990s. A later reunion returned Baby Animals to recording and touring, including the 2013 album This Is Not the End and the 25th-anniversary edition of their debut, BA25, in 2016.

Pairing Quatro with DeMarchi also creates a natural through-line in the tour. Both built reputations in periods when hard rock remained overwhelmingly male-dominated, yet neither performer's career has been defined simply by gender. Their longevity rests on distinctive voices, strong catalogues and identities forged as front-line rock musicians.

Suzi Quatro joins the Red Hot Summer Tour

Four dates take the Down Under tour beyond theatres and concert halls and into the outdoor Red Hot Summer Tour format.

Quatro will headline at Roma Street Parkland in Brisbane on Sunday 22 November, Speers Point Park at Lake Macquarie on Saturday 28 November, Torquay Common in Victoria on Sunday 29 November and Seppeltsfield Wines in South Australia on Saturday 5 December.

Those concerts broaden the bill considerably. Jon Stevens brings a catalogue spanning Noiseworks and his later solo career, while Rose Tattoo, The Screaming Jets, Dragon and Choirboys add further chapters from Australian and New Zealand rock history. Baby Animals also appear as part of the Red Hot Summer line-up.

The exact supporting line-up differs by state, making individual event details important for concertgoers choosing between the headline Down Under shows and the festival dates.

For Quatro, the Red Hot Summer appearances also continue an established association with the Australian touring festival. She has previously appeared on Red Hot Summer bills, including alongside Australian rock acts such as The Angels and The Screaming Jets.

Suzi Quatro Down Under 2026 Tour dates

Rooty Hill NSW
Coliseum Theatre
SAT 14 NOV

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Sydney NSW
Sydney Opera House
SUN 15 NOV

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Hobart TAS
Wrest Point Entertainment Centre
THU 19 NOV

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Gold Coast QLD
The Star Gold Coast
FRI 20 NOV

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Brisbane QLD
Roma Street Parkland
SUN 22 NOV

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Lake Macquarie NSW
Speers Point Park
SAT 28 NOV

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Torquay VIC
Torquay Common
SUN 29 NOV

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Melbourne VIC
Palais Theatre
WED 02 DEC

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Seppeltsfield SA
Seppeltsfield Wines
SAT 05 DEC

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Fremantle WA
Fremantle Prison
SUN 06 DEC

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Tickets for the newly announced concerts go on sale at 10am local time on Wednesday 12 August 2026.