Splendour In The Grass @ Belongil Fields, Friday 27 July 2012
First it was on, then it was off, then it was maybe, then it was most definitely off again. For a while it looked like I might be heading down to Sydney for a one night sideshow, but with the flights getting more expensive by the day, eventually that plan priced itself out of reckoning, leaving the […]
Splendour Not So Splendid
Following on from the demise of Rave, and the loss of 80% of my photo opportunities, yesterday came the news that I was dreading; that my photo pass for Splendour In The Grass, which I was covering for Rave and which was the only confirmed gig I had left in my diary, had been revoked […]
Splendour In The Grass 2011 @ Woodfordia, 29.07.2011 – 31.07.2011 – Part 1
First published on Collapse Board Some thoughts and photos from last year’s Splendour In The Grass. My greatest weakness/photographer crime is showing too many photos, so it’s funny that I only selected 18 from three days for this post originally, when I’ll usually show more than that from a single show and 4 – 5 […]
Splendour In The Grass 2010 – Day 2
To my surprise my alarm wakes me up on Day 2, meaning that (1) my make-shift tent didn’t fall over; and (2) it hasn’t rained during the night. After some more extensive tent repairs (involving snapping off the broken one inch piece of tent pole and putting the tent back together properly, albeit with one pole an […]
Splendour In The Grass 2010 – Day 1
From a personal point of view 2010’s Splendour In The Grass is one disaster after another, everything that could go wrong does go wrong and combines into one big mass of Splendour-related EPIC FAIL, and it all starts way in advance of the festival weekend itself Firstly the dates are announced and clash with a […]
Me vs Splendour In The Grass 2010
Having photographed Splendour In The Grass in 2008 and 2009, I find myself in an interesting position for 2010. I have a free media pass but because Mess+Noise (who I’m covering the festival for) forgot to apply for a photo pit pass before the deadline and before all of the passes were allocated, I don’t […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Part 5
MGMT were really shocking when they played at The Tivoli at the end of last year; really terrible and disinterested, a band that had obviously spent far too long on the road. But in seemingly typical style the Splendour organisers obviously waited to see what songs were towards the top reaches of Triple J’s Hottest […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Part 4
All plans for an early start and a timely return to the festival site don’t materialise. The early start does happen but the time is spent editing Saturday’s photos, then thinking about making a move, waiting for other people whilst they think about it and then think a bit more about it, then have some […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Part 3
 From the sublime to the ridiculous; The Living End. There are so many things that are wrong before they even play a note; they’ve replaced the late-cancelling Jane’s Addiction, hardly a like-for-like exchange, they have just had The Specials essentially support them, the crowd reaction they get from the crowd as they walk onstage […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Part 2
 Bluejuice are a band that’s yet to win me over, having seen them at last year’s Splendour and then a few months later supporting We Are Scientists at The Zoo. As Stav from the band kindly commented on that post (and which shamefully I didn’t get around to replying to), they’re obviously not my […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Part 1
 Having arrived at our house for the weekend in New Brighton in the dark and just as a heavy rain storm passed overhead, Saturday starts with a quick walk around the locality to try and find if any mobile signal can be found so that photos and blogs can be uploaded. As not even […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Sunday Quick Round-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 […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Belated Saturday Quick Round-Up
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 […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Friday
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 […]
Splendour In the Grass 2009 – Thursday
 Another year, another Splendour. It’s been a hard few weeks, what with a combination of work, working weekends to make up for the days I’m having off to go to Splendour, gigs, next day photo deadlines and The Ashes, so instead of feeling well rested and full of energy for a hard weekend’s photographing […]
Me vs Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Part 2
The final additions to the 2009 Splendour In The Grass festival were announced today, to go with the already announced list that I blogged about last month, with the final 18 bands being as follows: Happy Mondays Doves Architecture In Helsinki You Am I The Beautiful Girls Downsyde & Drapht Kisschasy Little Red Bluejuice Children […]
Me vs Splendour In The Grass 2009
I’m confirmed to photograph at this year’s sold-out-in-75-minutes Splendour In The Grass festival down at Byron Bay at the end of July. The lineup so far is: Bloc Party Flaming Lips Jane’s Addiction MGMT Hilltop Hoods Grinspoon Midnight Juggernauts The Specials Augie March Sarah Blasko Friendly Fires White Lies Little Birdy Josh Pyke The Gutter […]
Splendour In The Grass 2008– Part 6
I saw The Vines on their first UK tour at ULU in April 2002 (for bragging rights it was a shame I didn’t go see them a month earlier at the Camden Barfly…) and watched a really boring show in amongst an mostly arms-folded, unexcited crowd who were not being convinced that they were worth […]
Splendour In The Grass 2008– Part 5
Eighteen year old teen sensation Laura Marling pulls a pretty sizeable crowd in the GW McLennan tent. Although I’d seen the name before, mainly in the UK broadsheets, I’d not heard her music. It’s quiet, acoustic, sounds a bit like Joni Mitchell and is a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon soundtrack. On stage she cuts a […]
Splendour In The Grass 2008 – Part 4
The alarm goes off at 6am, although feeling pretty tired and in a world of pain, much like I did when I climbed Mount Warning earlier in the year, I don’t manage to get out of bed until 6:30am. It’s straight into editing and I manage to get the ones I’m sending off for consideration […]
Splendour In The Grass 2008 – Part 3
Back over at the Supertop and it’s time for Cold War Kids. Looking at the line-up for the weekend you can’t help but get the feeling that the organisers had their ears glued to their radios on the 26 January, when Triple J does it annual Hottest 100 run down, and then rushed out on […]
Splendour In The Grass 2008 – Part 2
Saturday afternoon continues with The Music, who I might have seen before at Reading a few years back, although my memory of gigs and especially festivals is getting a bit fuzzy, even more so having recently celebrated the 21st anniversary of my first gig (U2 at Cardiff Arms Park, 25 July 1987). Either way they […]