Tag Archive for "2009"
Amazingly not only have more than six months passed since the December 2009 10 days of ATP bonanza but Minehead has also played host to another couple of amazing looking ATP festivals, with Matt Groening curating the first weekend and Pavement the second. As usual, there were some amazing bands on both of bills and it’s increasingly depressing that ATP didn’t come back to Australia in 2010 and possibly/probably won’t come back in the foreseeable future, if ever. And in the meantime we’ll be inflicted by a continuous succession of music festivals where the line-ups are dominated by whatever is on Triple J’s increasingly limited playlist.
Minehead is only about 50 miles from where I come from in the UK and not only was it possible to get a bus there, the last stop was at Butlins’ front gate. Although it’s so close to home, it was actually the first time I’ve ever been there; the spectre of Butlins and being a ‘seaside’ town on the Bristol Channel always made it a the butt of jokes, a sentiment going back to at least my early teenage years. But whilst Butlins dominates the town, and particularly the sky line from the sea front, the town itself didn’t seem too bad and the bus trip through mid-Devon was glorious.
The most obvious differences between ATP Mt Buller and ATP Minehead is the location; whereas the Mt Buller location added to the whole event, particularly the backdrop to the second stage, Minehead, another West Country ‘seaside town they forgot to close down’ detracts from all the good bits of ATP, even more so when it’s in the middle of winter. The Pavilion Stage is a large, soulless void – Part Millennium Dome, part suburban mall – complete with amusement arcade and food outlets, whose culinary output is a fair match for Minehead in December, whilst the Centre Stage has the air, decor and odour of somewhere where they hold darts tournaments. Reds Bar, the third and smallest of the stages is a smaller version of the Centre Stage; Crazy Horse, where the quiz and bingo are held, and where most of the In Between Days action takes place, is a Western Theme bar. Make of that what you will. On the upside, all of the bars serve cider. In Pints. Australia please take note.
Having arrived just before lunchtime I end up having a few hours wait as my chalet-mates for the weekend were still driving down from London. I’ve booked the whole festival very late on and through adverts on Drowned In Sound and Facebook from people with spare tickets, ending up staying with a different group of people for each of the three parts of ATP that take place in December; The Nightmare Before Xmas weekend, the In Between Days mid-week four-day festival and the 10 Years of ATP weekend. The first thing that happens after they arrive is sorting out the wristbands for my bloody valentine. The band have decided to play on the smaller 2,000 person capacity Centre Stage rather than the much larger Pavilion Stage and play on each night of the festival so that everyone gets a chance to see them. This means choosing a night to see them and queuing up for an appropriate coloured wristband for that night. Waiting in the line it’s clear that everyone has decided to see them on the Friday night, probably as everyone wants to go and see Lightning Bolt on the Saturday night and leave Sunday free for the ‘TBC’ act (who end up being Lightning Bolt again) on the Reds Stage. Luckily we’ve timed it perfectly and although there are still a few Friday night wristbands when we get to the front of the queue the allocation is almost exhausted.
Chalet found, bags dropped off, it’s time for the music to start, with Wounded Knees on the Centre Stage being the first band of the weekend and the first band in my ten day ATP extravaganza. They sound a bit like an acoustic (i.e. quieter) shoegaze band, and it’s no surprise to find out afterwards that singer/guitarist Jimi Shields is the younger brother of MBV’s Kevin Shields. And you only thought that things like this happened in Brisbane?
My first Josh T. Pearson experience is a let down. His guitar and vocals are accompanied by a drums but the combination doesn’t work, with the drums overpowering everything else and not playing to his greatest strengths, which are the quieter, longer, soulful, narratives – a more country Nick Cave if you will. His second set of the week (on the Tuesday of In Between Days – which will get blogged about one day), when it’s just him, his guitar and a bunch of new songs was spellbinding and a much better measure of what he can do. Why he chooses to use a drummer for his set, I don’t know, but at both the weekend ATPs it seems like some of the bands – Primal Scream and The Drones as a couple of examples - are determined to play the loudest, fastest and hardest songs in their repertoire, maybe trying to compete with what else is on show over the weekends, maybe trying to appeal to fans of noise, instead of playing some of the songs that they might have expected to play if you were seeing them away from ATP. One final note about Josh T Pearson is that he’s everywhere over the weekend; but then it’s hard to miss a really tall guy with a huge, bushy beard in a cowboy hat and a long fur coat in a small seaside holiday resort in Somerset.
Thankfully, the Pavilion Stage is used sparingly over the weekend; two bands on the Friday, four on Saturday and four planned for Sunday, although stage and time changes mean only three end up playing on the final day. De La Soul are the first band on Friday and manage to make everyone feel really old within seconds of starting their set by telling everyone that they’re touring to celebrate 20 years of 3 Feet High & Rising. It’s probably been not a lot less than that since I last listened to their début album and I also get the feeling that I’m not the only person in that boat; there’s a very obvious air of nostalgia. They’ve obviously been booked and scheduled to get the party started and they manage to do this with aplomb, even though they still drag out all the old hip hop clichés, dividing the crowd into halves and doing the whole call and response/my side is louder than yours shtick.
As well as it being a soulless void with debatable sound, photographing from the photo pit isn’t as good as would have been expected as instead of having speakers on the front of the stage for the benefit of the front rows, in their greater wisdom they’ve decided to place three speaker stands in the pit. As well as providing obstacles in the pit to navigate on top of all the photographers in there, they also significantly reduce the view from in front of the stage and means that the photographers end up occupying even less space than they would have if the photo pit had been clearer.
Primal Scream are the second and final band using the largest stage on Day 1. From the very front row they sound and look amazing, although watching them from further back after the first three songs they don’t have the same impact and the sound got lost in the huge space. They’ve made the decision to focus on the harder and more Krautrock influenced songs for the majority of their 90 minutes, with their Stones influenced and Screamadelica era songs limited to the obvious singles. Having missed them last time they played in Brisbane, the reviews were less than flattering, with a disinterested Bobby Gillespie much of the problem by all accounts. Tonight it’s a completely different Gillespie on show and he barely stops moving or pauses for breath during their set. Funnily enough, whilst in reception earlier in the day, whilst waiting for my chalet-mates for the weekend to arrive, one of the first people I saw was Bobby Gillespie. He was looking very chipper considering it was before lunchtime (and I never realised how tiny he is) and asked reception where the toilets were. I’m not saying that there’s a correlation between the toilets and the energetic performance tonight. Or maybe I am. In terms of photographing the band I more or less ignore them to try and get a a really good photo of Bobby Gillespie, as I already have an idea in my mind of what I want to get; a good close up of him clapping. However, I don’t really get what I want thanks to the combination of less than ideal lighting and the fact that he doesn’t stay still for 1 second during those first three songs. Towards the end of their set I decide to head over to the Reds stage to see a bit of Television Personalities and it’s in these last 20 minutes that they decide to vary their set and play more from the older/classic/less Krautrock/more dancey albums; it’s something they probably should have done throughout their 90 minutes.
Going to see a bit of Television Personalities is more about checking out a band I don’t really know (other than their name) but probably should. From memory I think they were ok but not knowing any of their songs is an obvious hindrance. My memory of any music they play is lost to the easier to remember first impressions of Red’s photo pit, with the barriers pushed so far in at the front of the stage that you have to sit down on the seat on the back of the barrier and are stuck in the one position for the three songs, with there being no room to move around.
[As I see my bloody valentine three times over the weekend, I'll cover their Friday night set in a separate post along with thoughts on the following two nights' performances]
Final band of the Friday is Buzzcocks, who play for an hour between 12.45am and 1.45am, a very uncharacteristic time slot for a UK music festival where midnight is usually the end of the night. Having missed them both times they’ve recently played in Brisbane, this is the first time I’ve ever seen them. They’ve undoubtedly got the songs – tonight is very much a greatest hit set – and although they were a punk band based on their songs more than their image or their attitude, it’s hard to watch tonight thanks to Steve Diggle. He’s obviously been playing too much Guitar Hero or decided that he wants to really be playing in Guns n’ Roses as he struts around the stage, pulling out all the rock moves, playing his guitar vertically as if in Star Power mode. It’s just a bit cringeworthy and really detracts from the songs they play.
More photos from ATP Nightmare Before Xmas 2009 are on Flickr.
Friday was the last day of the conference. No live music and just a half day (luckily the afternoon session) photographing the Master Classes, seminars and Keynote Interviews. Was busy editing the photos first thing so unfortunately missed Glenn Wheatley‘s Keynote Address, which by all accounts was excellent. The easy highlight of the day was the final sesssion; Time Off‘s Steve Bell’s ‘interview’ with Robert Schneider. I say ‘interview’ as I think Steve managed to ask about two questions but that was more than enough for Robert to talk about for the 30 minutes long interview. Hugely entertaining and inspiring; you’d be hard-pushed to find someone so passionate about making music.
The three day Big Sound conference was a complete blast and I’m already looking forward to the 2010 conference.
Thursday morning was another morning off from photographing the conference, when I again got to sit in and listen to the talks, with my stint starting in the afternoon session. Again, the Keynote Interviews were the highlight, particularly Everett True‘s interview with Danny Goldberg.
Photographing the sessions was generally quite straightforward; a combination of wide-angle shots and changing to the zoom lens to get some more close up shots of the parcipitants. The hardest sessions to photograph were the small Master Classes, where everyone was sat around a large table, with the smallness of the room making your presence a lot more noticeable and where a very wide-angle lens would have been very useful.
After one of sessions, when there was a break for coffee I saw Van Dyke Parks and Robert Schneider chatting to each other and took a quick candid photo. Having been caught in the process by one of the conference’s PR people, she asks me if I can get a proper photo of the two of them together, with Van Dyke Parks then suggesting that I go up the stairs so that I’m above them and can get an overview shot of the two of them in the foreground with everyone else milling about in the back ground. Being given creative direction by Van Dyke Parks is definitely one of highlights of my photographic ‘career’. In retrospect I should have gotten the flash out and done a much better job, but for speed just decided to bump up the ISO, which wasn’t the cleverest of ideas given how dark it was where they were stood but how light it was behind them, thanks to the huge windows. Still, there’s always next time, right?
Later on in the day I also get a request to take a couple of quick photo of Robert Schneider with Mike Haydon, the drummer from The Middle East, one of which later gets printed in Rolling Stone Australia.
Thursday night follows a similar pattern to Wednesday; there’s a conference showcase at Artisan for soundslikebrisbane.com, featuring sets by Giants of Science (with Robert Schneider in front checking them out), Vegas Kings, My Fiction and Steve Grady and then another twelve bands across three venues over the evening. Again it was a case of only staying to see each band for about 10 or so minutes, but the evening’s definite highlight was Hunz (whose excellent second album you can download for free from his website, with Emma-Louise also putting on a really good performance at X&Y. Final band of the night was [Me], who were very perplexing and who I couldn’t work out if were really good or really terrible.
A selection of the best photos on Flickr and all the conference photos are on the Big Sound website.
[Me]![[Me]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/4389846110_cffd1a04aa_o.jpg)
Belles Will Ring
Tomas Ford
Super Massive
Grand Atlantic
Elke
The Devoted Few
Hunz
We All Want To
Dan Parsons
Cloud Control
Emma-Louise
Giants of Science
Vegas Kings
My Fiction
Steve Grady
For a few days back in September I got to play at being a proper bona fide photographer for a few days when I was commissioned by the organisers to be part of a three-person team of photographers covering the Big Sound conference in Brisbane. The work involved covering the panel discussions and also all the live music in the evenings. The sessions were divided up between the photographers, meaning that we each had to cover two half-days at the conference. The live music was roughly split up so that each photographer covered two of the six venues being used, with a bit of fine tuning to allow photographers to also choose some specific bands that they really wanted to photograph. I wasn’t needed to photograph the conference on the first day, so instead got to relax and listen to some really interesting sessions, particularly Noel Mengel’s Keynote Interview with the very inspiring and very legendary Van Dyke Parks and the very lively ‘Blogging, Twittering & Online Publishing: Time Wasting or Tastemaking?’ panel discussion, obviously a subject very close to my heart.
The live music started early with the invite-only Dew Process/Universal Music Showcase at Alhambra Lounge, with sets by Matt Walters, Washington, Dew Process’s latest local signings Last Dinosaurs and Yves Klein Blue, who replaced the late-cancelling Bluejuice. The showcase was the calm before the storm, with another ten acts photographed in three venues over the course of the evening. It was very much a case of turning up a venue, photographing the first few songs and then moving on to shoot the next band, allowing a bit of time in the military precision planning to move between and to also get into the venues. As such it was hard to properly check the bands out. Based on sheer numbers, The Middle East at Family was the show to be at, although sadly, and in typical Brisbane fashion, most of the crowd disappeared before Robert Schneider played.
A selection of photos is on Flickr, with all the conference photos on Big Sound’s website.
Robert Schneider
The Middle East
Sola Rosa
Rocketsmiths
Ladi6
Philadelphia Grand Jury
The Optimen
Hungry Kids of Hungary
Romy
DZ
Yves Klein Blue
Washington
Last Dinosaurs
Matt Walters
The cool kids would never contemplate it let alone accept it, but Alice Cooper > Iggy Pop and basically the classic Alice Cooper band (when it was the name of the band, not just the singer) > The Stooges.
Alice Cooper was one of the first things I ever got into and I’ve got more albums by him than anyone else in my collection. There are a lot of them and there’s a lot of good stuff in there (as well as some REALLY bad stuff). In a lot of ways there’s a real ‘Bowie’ approach to his music; he’s a bit of a chameleon and his musical direction changes every few albums. The first couple of albums are very Psychedelic and sound like Love, then there was the classic rock/glam period of Love It To Death (one of my very favourite albums), Killer, School’s Out, Billion Dollar Babies (although the Alice Cooper band period ends with the disappointing Muscle of Love), the classic solo album period with Lou Reed’s backing band, in particular Welcome To My Nightmare and Alice Cooper Goes To Hell, a variable period of good and average albums in the late 1970s/early 1980s, including a brief sojourn into New Wave with Flush The Fashion and Special Forces, the excruciatingly bad/hilariously funny Zipper Catches Skin (featuring the ‘unforgettable I’m Alive (That Was The Day My Dead Pet Returned to Save My Life), the really intriguing Fairlight-based DaDa (which thanks to his alcoholism he sadly has no memory of making), the largely forgettable mid/late 1980’s ‘comeback’ albums of Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell and the mega-successful-but-not-actually-that-good Trash and Hey Stoopid, the less successful but really excellent The Last Temptation, the darker/heavier, industrial sounding Brutal Planet and Dragontown, a attempt to return to a more classic early 1970′s sound with The Eyes of Alice Cooper and Dirty Diamonds and finally a return to the mid-70’s solo period with Along Came A Spider. Even though recent albums could never be classed as true classics, there’s still a handful of songs on each of these albums that hold up well to the best of his work. Despite continuing to make music, and some of it being very good, it’s depressing to see him being interviewed and hearing the same questions about playing golf, getting killed on stage and having his daughter tour with him. Sadly no one seems to want to know about the music.
So getting to photograph him is a really big deal for me, especially after having missed out on the photo op last time he toured, and I also came close to missing out again this time.
Checking out the set list whilst waiting in the photo pit only builds the excitement; so many classic songs, as ever really focussed on the 1970’s golden years, even though he has a new album to promote.
Annoying the photo pit is really narrow and with so many photographers, it’s a case of claiming a space and pretty much having to stay there for the three songs. I end up in a fairly good spot, a few in from the end but in a lot of ways it didn’t really matter much as he works the stage really well, giving all the photographers something to work with. The three songs go by in a flash and everything is so quick that I don’t take any photos of any of the band. Annoyingly the fourth song, played whilst we’re being escorted from the pit and whilst I’m being directed to my seat is ‘The Ballad of Dwight Fry’, one of his best songs and a personal favourite, and I also manage to miss the first of his onstage executions whilst walking towards the back.
My seat is in Row S. It’s not the very back of the Convention Centre but isn’t far off it. It’s a bit of a come-down from being in the very front, with all the onstage madness happening right in front of your face. Disappointingly the show doesn’t really work from this far back. Iron Maiden can play at the considerably larger Entertainment Centre and I can be in the very back row (as I was on their last tour when I bought a last minute cheap ticket on eBay on the day of the gig) but the stage set-up and the show is so huge that it projects to the very back. But the Alice Cooper ‘Theatre of Death’ tour is a lot more intricate and you really need to be close to get the full impact. From back here the subtleties are lost and at some points it’s like watching the audience close to the stage enjoying themselves watching Alice Cooper. Also the sound is less than ideal at the back, booming and echo-ey, even though you couldn’t fault the choice of songs being played.
Still, to get to photograph one of my musical heroes was a real thrill for me and I’d jump at the chance to do it again. Hopefully it won’t be too long before he’s back again and next time I’ll just have to try to get a ticket a lot closer to the stage.
Some more photos on Flickr.
For the non-believers, here’s some classic 1972 Alice Cooper for you; Public Animal #9 from the School’s Out album.
And as this is allegedly a photoblog, heres an excerpt from a David Bailey documentary featuring Alice Cooper photo shoots for Vogue and the images for the 1973 ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ album cover.
This time last year I blogged that 2008 had been a hectic photographic year, little knowing that 2009 would be even more extreme, and end up looking as follows:
- Stars
- Black Keys
- All Tomorrow’s Parties - Mt Buller
- All Tomorrow’s Parties – Brisbane Powerhouse: Fuck Buttons, Dead Meadow & Afrirampo
- Bon Iver
- Laughing Clowns
- Jeff Beck
- Gareth Liddiard
- Gary Numan
- Summer Tones
- The Stranglers
- Andrew Morris
- Duke Spirit
- The Kills
- Evan Dando
- Easy Star All-Stars
- Giants of Science
- School of Seven Bells
- UnderExposed – 25 April
- The Drones
- UnderExposed – 1 May
- UnderExposed – 2 May
- 4ZZZ Rumble Rock
- Screamfeeder
- Violent Soho
- Brisbane Sounds
- …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead
- Red Riders
- DZ
- The Middle East
- Ladytron
- Flipper
- Deerhunter
- Wolf & Cub
- Washington
- Incremental Records Launch
- + 1 Records Launch Night
- Philadelphia Grand Jury
- Timothy Carroll
- Splendour In The Grass
- Cannot Buy My Soul
- I Heart Hiroshima
- X
- Alice Cooper
- Monster Magnet
- Violent Soho
- Big Sound 2009 – Weds
- Big Sound 2009 – Thurs
- Big Sound – Friday
- Frankly Festival
- Van Dyke Parks
- DZ
- Spiral Stairs
- Vivian Girls
- Tiny Vipers
- Butcher Birds
- Yves Klein Blue
- All Tomorrow’s Parties – Nightmare Before Xmas
- All Tomorrow’s Parties – Inbetween Days
- All Tomorrow’s Parties – 10 Years of ATP
As last year, I managed to meet my target for the year of 52 gigs (i.e. an average of one a week), although in retrospect I’ve really struggled to keep on top of it this year, as can be seen from all the blogs and photos I’ve yet to sort out. I’ve been out of Brisbane for about 5 months during the year, which meant that I’ve never managed to catch up with the backlog.
Counting up the number of acts I’ve photographed during 2009, the total is a somewhat scary 259, with the end of the year’s ATP adventure resulting in 60 bands being photographed in 10 days (although I didn’t shoot many bands at the 10 Years of ATP weekend as didn’t have a photo pass but security were fine with me taking my camera in and no one seemed bothered by me photographing from the crowd).
In terms of venues, The Zoo has again been my second home during the year, with 17 of the gigs being there, with The Troubadour a distant second with eight gigs. The plan to try and get some bigger gigs has largely been a FAIL, with only three gigs at The Tivoli (and none since March), two gigs at the BCC (Jeff Beck and Alice Cooper), one at The Riverstage (Kev Carmody: Cannot Buy My Soul, which was a mixing desk shoot apart from the last song) and NONE at the BEC. The full breakdown for 2009 is shown in the pie chart below.
On top of the gigs I photographed there’s another 12 gigs I went to as a non-photographing punter, including Big Day Out, ATP in Brisbane, Neil Young, The Who (both at the BEC) and Iron Maiden in Christchurch.
Photographic highlights of the year include:
- All things All Tomorrow’s Parties – From the Mt Buller weekend, which was one of the best music festivals I’ve ever attended to getting to photograph a UK festival at the Nightmare Before Xmas weekend to seeing and photographing Dirty Three on a tiny stage in front of about 100 people;
- Getting to show a load of my photos from the last few years at the UnderExposed exhibition;
- The complete insanity of photographing Flaming Lips at Splendour, wondering if being in a photo pit to photograph a band will ever be as good; and
- Being given artistic direction by Van Dyke Parks when taking his and Robert Schneider’s photograph at the Big Sound conference.
Overall gig of the year was probably All Tomorrow’s Parties at Mt Buller, which being at the end of the first week in January set the bar ridiculously high for the rest of the year. Other exceptional performances were of Flaming Lips, The Specials and Gutter Twins at Splendour, The Who at the BEC (which I was really disappointed at not getting to photograph), Van Dyke Parks’ exquisite show upstairs at The Powerhouse, seeing My Bloody Valentine three times in three days at ATP Nightmare Before Xmas and Dirty Three three times in a week, including an impromptu, unrehearsed run through of ‘Horse Stories’ in front of about 100 people at ATP Inbetween Days. Best local show I saw was DZ’s 1am show at The Troubadour at the end of May.
Musical lows of the year were again so many mediocre-at-best bands at Splendour, with the weekend largely saved by Flaming Lips’ unforgettable show and another fairly poor bill at the Big Day Out, although not as bad as the 2010 festival line-up.
Photographic lows? Any gig with rubbish/no lighting, which was probably most of them…as usual. And missing out on photographing a lot of the big gigs and festivals I really wanted to photograph.
And finally, personal favourite photos from the year include the following images, although there might be a load more in all the photos I’ve still yet to go through:
Back to Brisbane next week, although don’t have any gigs lined up for January yet. Will hopefully be getting a bit further through catching up on all the photos and blogs from this year in the meantime.
Happy New Year.
The Tyde
The Membranes
Sun Ra Arkestra
Harmony Rockets
The Pastels
That Petrol Emotion
J Mascis & The Fog
The Horrors
Spectrum
Sonic Youth
Robin Guthrie
My Bloody Valentine
No Age
Fucked Up
Sunday doesn’t exactly go to plan, with the slow editing and general Sunday morning sluggishness meaning I manage to miss both Danananananakroyd and Jack Ladder and despite aiming to get onto site to photograph White Lies, the traffic means I miss half of their set. So the day starts at a more leisurely starting time than planned of 3:15pm, with Friendly Fires’ set in the Mix Up Tent.
Flaming Lips
Hilltop Hoods
MGMT
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Gutter Twins
Doves
Bob Evans
Friendly Fires
Technology-wise, things didn’t go quite to plan, with the house we were staying in having no mobile reception for me to use my phone as a modem and upload some photos yesterday morning. Saturday morning’s blog post was made by parking my car on the top of the nearest big hill and uploading from the front seat, but I didn’t have time to do that again yesterday, with editing going really slowly (despite my 6am alarm) and I didn’t have the time to go in search of an internet cafe either. Onsite there were more technology glitches, with mobile connection being unreliable so tweeting was in fits and starts when I could get connected, meaning I had to revert to the old ways and use a pen and paper to jot some notes down.
So here, somewhat belatedly, are a few photos from Saturday. More on Flickr, more on their way
Bloc Party
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Happy Mondays
Sarah Blasko
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The Living End
The Specials
Little Birdy
 
Birds Of Tokyo
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You Am I
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Bluejuice
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Dappled Cities
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Bridezilla
Yves Klein Blue
 
Leader Cheetah
Manchester Orchestra
The closing hours of Thursday bring with them rumours that Jane’s Addiction – of all the bands on the 2009 Splendour bill, the one that I most what to see and the one that I most want to photograph – have cancelled their whole Australian tour. Friday morning brings confirmation of this, with Stephen Perkins hospitalised in LA with an elbow infection. The misery is further compounded almost instantly with news that the organisers have drafted in The Living End to replace them. Of all Australian bands, The Living End.
In theory you would think that it just couldn’t get any worse and yet there’s a nagging feeling that this isn’t rock bottom. There are a number of occurrences that would make the current situation even worse than they already are: Firstly, The Living End will inevitably either include a Jane’s Addiction cover or at the very least segue one or two of their own songs into JA songs for a few bars. And this will more than likely want me to start throwing things at the band. Heavy inanimate objects, small sharp implements, anything close to hand; the choice is endless. Secondly, if JA reschedule their shows it will either be when I’m out of the country or I’ll be put forward to photograph them and they’ll whip out their current rights-grabbing contract five minutes before they’re due on stage and I’ll have to walk away. It just doesn’t feel that this story that has a happy ending.
I’m not sure how the news has been taken by Splendour’s paying punters. Part of me can’t help but think that the majority of Splendour’s main demographic will be delighted at the changes to the line-up, especially as I’ve experienced similar Jane’s Addiction ambivalence before. At the Leeds Festival in 2002 Jane’s Addiction played on the main stage at the same time The Vines were playing one of the smaller tent stages. You could have walked straight up to the barrier without many problems and watched Perry Farrell etc from the very front if you wanted, whereas you couldn’t even get anywhere near getting into the tent to watch The Vines. Oh, how we laughed. And a similar thing happened a year later at an MTV2 gig at Brixton Academy when The Darkness, at the height of their fame, supported Jane’s Addiction. Half the audience left after The Darkness. What is wrong with these people?
The rest of Friday doesn’t really improve; despite being a day off I end up going to work to try and clear the backlog of overdue reports and proposals, which means I don’t leave Brisbane until 3:45pm, hit the Friday afternoon rush hour and take almost 3 hours to get down to New Brighton, just north of Brunswick Heads, where I’m staying for the weekend. And just as I leave the motorway, the heavens open to an extent that I can hardly see where I’m going, even with the windscreen wipers on their highest speed. It’s some sort of navigation miracle that I manage to find the house.
But here now and enjoying good company, good food and a few drinks. And it’s suddenly 12:30am and it all starts in less than 12 hours.
