The day was hot, bloody hot & after my skin scorching experiance at the Byron Festival I smothered myself in 15+ sunblok. If i had to guess i'd say there was over 10,000 people running around in the heat. The organisers had the forsight to supply several locations for getting saturated and cooling off.
I beat my way through the ocean of people and the minefield of aluminium cans and managed to catch several of the local aussie bands. After unsucsesfully trying on several pairs of disgarded shoes and adding several pairs of sunglasses to my ever expanding collection I found myself in THE BOILER ROOM (aptly named as it was at least 20 degrees hotter than outside). The techno was good in the hands of DJ XXXXX (generic DJ) and I found myself briefly jumping around to the DOOF DOOF DOOF, a somewhat rare and spectacular effort for this reporter. Luckilly i wasnt the only nerd trying on the 70's disco moves.
Having had my fill of the doof (a whole 20 min of it) I stumbeled over to the SKATE RAMP where the ramp wizards were busy blowing everyone away with their display of spectacular aerials and even more spectacular stacks.
One of this reporter's many highlights was a backstage run-in with the infamous TISM who were sporting red chineese pajamas, their signature black balaclavas and sphericle head gear which rose a good 3 meters into the air and played havok with the lighting scafolds. They pumped the crowd up with several of their current hits GREG THE STOP SIGN, ALL HOMEBOYS ARE DICKHEADS, and a few more, sexually questionable tunes about doing it with dogs etc. I was nearly entirely wiped out front of stage when one of the band dived off the stage and disapeared into the seething crowd, only to emerge a few minuites later in a half filled rubbish bin being carried over the heads of the audience!
Due to exhaustion and other altering factors everything went kind of blurry after that . All the fairly average acts kind of merged into one another in a nightmare montage of screaming distorted gitars and 4/4 drum rythems - risking a RADIOBIRDMAN coma I quickly made my way across the field just in time to catch the infamous Mr BILLY BRAGG.
Bill claimed that this was his first gig in australia after a 3 year self imposed sabbatical to enjoy the birth of his first child Jack. BILLY BRAGG bashed out many of his old favorites with the entire audiance on backing vocals. His memorable repertiore only broken up by a couple of new songs which no one knew. BILLY BRAGG is one of the few artists capable of holding a crowd on his own armed only with an electric guitar - his totally unpretentious on-stage presence and his mix of political anthems and sincere love songs makes BILLY BRAGG an artist well worth supporting - if you ever get the chance to see him live DO IT!!
After enjoying Billy Bragg someone handed me a mysetrious drink which even more mysteriously gave me the strength to continue my grunge expedition. Next on the list was NICK CAVE + THE BAD SEEDS. Their mix of blood red stage velvet, hamond organ sounds, murder lirycs and BLIXA'S eclectic guitar playing coupled with whatever unknown altering substances and a twist of lemon made this gig well worth watching. They were joined on stage by a couple of special guests, the most notable being the sparrow like figure of MISS KYLIE MINOUGE. They call me the wild rose shuffled along with KYLIE struggeling to make the notes and NICK struggleing with kylie. One was left wondering if this unholly union hasnt progressed bejond the stage and into the closet!. As the band finished the last song of the set Mercy Seat a fight erupted right in front of me, as the cord progressions climbed in intensity, so to did the drunken yobbo brawl. Finally the band finished and the security turned up and put a brutal end to the show of tetesterone.
The day finally ended for me with a spliff in the VIP tent and a bit of a dance to PORNO FOR PYROUS. They kicked along with a kind of funky latino grunge fusion just as the rain started to fall. The crooning of their ex Jane's Addiction front man pumping through the set as the last die-hard stage jumpers got their 50 cents worth of cranial damage.
All in all it was a BIG DAY OUT well worth getting bruised feet and a blistered nose for! Nice work folkz!
Special thanks to;
- The organisers for the pass's and water works
- The Security guy who didnt throw us out of the camera pit when everyone
else got thrown out for PORNO FOR PYRO's
- The 2 guys who gave us a ride back to Brisbane in thier stuffed
Woosley with extremly wobbly Rear end after we discovered we were in the
middle of no-where, in the middle of the night with no way home!
Have Fun Folkx
Tony Fox