Colin Hay is bringing his LA-based Men At Work band to the Palais Theatre in November, marking 45 years of the record that made an Australian pub band a global name.
Men At Work will play Melbourne’s Palais Theatre on 4 November, part of an Australian run that celebrates the enduring catalogue of one of the country’s most successful musical exports.
The tour lands 45 years on from Business As Usual, the debut album that spent 15 weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200 and five weeks atop the UK albums chart. Down Under, Who Can It Be Now and Be Good Johnny still turn up on radio playlists around the world, and the record’s success helped push Australian rock onto the international stage during an era dominated by synth and sequins.
Men At Work’s 2026 Australian tour
- Tues 20 Oct – State Theatre, Sydney NSW
- Fri 30 Oct – Royal Theatre, Canberra ACT
- Wed 4 Nov – Palais Theatre, Melbourne VIC
- Thurs 12 Nov – Fremantle Prison, Fremantle WA
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Frontman Colin Hay has kept busy in the decades since, touring as a solo artist and playing alongside Ringo Starr in his All-Starr Band. The current Men At Work lineup gathers a group of LA-based players — including Cuban, Peruvian and American musicians — to bring the band’s distinctive sound to audiences at home and abroad.
The 2026 run promises a setlist spanning the band’s full catalogue, from the songs that broke them internationally to material drawn from across their other records. It’s a chance for longtime fans and newcomers alike to hear a body of work that shaped the trajectory of popular music in Australia and well beyond its shores.
Hay has framed the recent tours as something of an experiment — a test of whether the songs still land with an audience decades on. The answer, across shows worldwide, has been a resounding yes, with crowds spanning generations turning out to hear the tracks that became part of the national fabric.
Presale tickets are available from 13 August, with general tickets on sale from 14 August.
For more information, head here.
