Chugg Entertainment today confirmed John Mayer's seven-date tour of New Zealand and Australia this April and May, including concerts in Newcastle and Wollongong.

Bringing, in song, his latest on love, heartbreak and life lessons, it's a wiser, more enlightened Mayer who, with the 70's and 80's California rock/pop sound of his new album, Battle Studies, heads to the Antipodes for a tour of the same name.

The tour plays New Zealand first kicking off at Wellington's TSB Bank Arena on Tuesday April 27 and Auckland's Vector Arena on Wednesday April 28.

In Australia the tour starts at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on April 30, then Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena on May 3.

Mayer plays Wollongong for the first time at the WIN Entertainment Centre on May 5.

The Newcastle Entertainment Centre plays host for its second time on May 7, and on May 8 Mayer wraps up his tour in Sydney at the Entertainment Centre.

All of Mayer's concerts will be configured with Gold and Silver price categories and tickets go on general sale Friday February 19.

The TSB Bank Arena tickets will be on sale from www.ticketek.co.nz and the Vector Arena tickets from www.ticketmaster.co.nz.

The Sydney Entertainment Centre tickets will be on sale from www.ticketmaster.com.au and all other shows from www.ticketek.com.au.

In New Zealand, a special Visa Entertainment pre-sale will start at 9am local time on Monday February 15 and run until 5pm Wednesday February 17. Pre-sale ticket details are available at www.visaentertainment.co.nz.

In Australia, shows ticketed by Ticketek will run a special Visa Entertainment pre-sale from 9am local time on Monday February 15, until 5pm Wednesday February 17. Pre-sale ticket details are available at www.visaentertainment.com.au.

Four studio albums, seven Grammy Awards and nearly 13 million album sales in just nine years, the now 32-year-old isn't just getting older - a worry he cast adrift with the 2006 release of his here-I-am, blown-open, mega-success, Continuum - he's getting better.

Since his 2001 debut, Room For Squares, and the world-wide radio group hug given to its hit, Your Body Is A Wonderland, as well as the Grammy it brought; to 2003's Heavier Things and two more Grammys; to his first co-producing turn with Steve Jordan on the four-time Grammy Award winning, hit-harnessed, Continuum, which included Waiting On The World To Change, I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You) and Gravity; to his latest and fourth studio album, his second time producing with Jordan, the November 2009 released, Battle Studies; Mayer's kind of gravity heads only one way. Up.

He calls Battle Studies a "from-the-gut" confessional and, if it can be said of his album, it is definitely true of his concerts. They're intimate with the same "efficiency of simplicity" he says marks his new record.

There's no assembly-line dancers or manufactured costume changes; it's Mayer's sweet voice and what's been called his "guitar ninja-dom" that style-up the room-and both these he lets rip.

Whether it's his heart on his sleeve or the watch on his wrist - both are obsessions - Mayer wears them proudly.

Fans keep time.

Mayer makes a practical symphony of the screaming upon screaming upon screaming which is universally in-chorus at all his live shows. He speaks with his audience, tells them things about himself, lets them know him.

Fans talk of an 'afterglow' having seen him live and they bathe in it for days.

"John makes them feel like he's singing for just them, to just them, it's very personal," says promoter, Chairman of Chugg Entertainment, Michael Chugg.

Synchronise your watches people, Mayer is here in April and May.

Tickets on general sale Friday February 19.

JOHN MAYER TOUR DATES - AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Tuesday 27 April
TSB Bank Arena, Wellington
Ticketek: www.ticketek.co.nz

Wednesday 28 April
Vector Arena, Auckland
Ticketmaster: www.ticketmaster.co.nz or 09 970 9700

Friday 30 April
Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
Ticketek: www.ticketek.com.au or 132 849

Monday 3 May
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Ticketek: www.ticketek.com.au or 132 849

Wednesday 5 May
WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong
Ticketek: www.ticketek.com.au or 132 849

Friday 7 May
Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Newcastle
Ticketek: www.ticketek.com.au or 132 849

Saturday 8 May
Sydney Entertainment Centre, Sydney
Ticketmaster: www.ticketmaster.com.au or 1300 883 622

Tickets for all shows on sale at 9am, Friday 19 February