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Published: January 27th 2006
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In the Boiler House...
..this was a big dance tent which seemed to us a bit like an airport hanger as it was huge and cavernous. God lighting though - lots of lovely colours, which we appreciated after a few Tooheys! Sydney’s ‘Big Day Out’ one day music festival is the Aussie version of Scotland’s ‘T In The Park’ (TITP). We managed to buy some last minute tickets online by basically sitting for an hour on the internet 2 days before Christmas Eve in Kalbarri waiting for an extra allocation to go on sale. We were lucky as so many peeps have tried and failed to get their hands on these tickets for some months now, such a popular event it is. This year’s line up was due to be really great with some of our favourites listed as playing; including gems such as White Stripes, Magic Numbers and Kings of Leon. With this in mind we’d been really looking fwd to the day arriving when we’d don our festy gear and trip along to the Olympic Park to catch some open air gigs, Down Under style.
In our minds’ eyes we’d imagined a fairly similar set up to TITP back home - with lots of greenery, stages set up every which way you look, drunken bods lying around on the grass in every direction, portaloos bursting the local plumbing, massive fights to get to the bar, big queues for everything,
Blue and Orange stages
The 2 main stages of the day which were set up side by side, in a big arena about the size of Murrayfield Stadium. Acts were alternated between the stages all day so no two bands were ever on at the same time. and maybe a bit of rain for good measure. What we got was something really quite different, and you see this is one matter where Australia and the UK are poles apart. They’re much more organized down here. Instead of setting up camp in the middle of nowhere on a farmer’s field or three, the organizers have taken full advantage of the fact that they have an Olympic village on their doorstep, fully equipped with various stadiums of differing sizes, transportation systems, and excellent toilet facilities. And there are civilized queues for the bar. NO pushing or shoving or you’re out - and a burly security guard watches over every queue to make sure this rule is adhered to. Decent booze aswell - in cans - including Jack D & coke, and Smirnoff ice red. Not a paper cup in sight - now that’s what we call recycling!
We arrived on a train which dropped us right at the gig door, about 1:30pm. There were no queues to get in, and we were whisked straight through the entrance gates to start enjoying the day. Once you’re in, you have to get wrist bands showing that you are over 18
Oh My Gawd!!!!
How many beers have I had????????????????
Alan feels the hangover hit home early. to allow you into certain licensed areas and buy drinks from the bar. You’re supposed to have photo id to get a band, and Shaz didn’t have her wallet with her (we always operate a system where we only take one set of currency and cards out with us, to avoid losing everything in the event we are held to gun point in a ‘stand & deliver’ stylee) so we had to ferret around a bit to find a ‘band hander outer’ who’d believe she was over 18. Fortunately it didn’t take long (first attempt actually - she was gutted) and we headed off to get a drinky and familiarize ourselves with the layout. Come 2:30, we were well sorted out, and bearings realized, we set off to meet Paula and her pals at the Toohey’s Snowdrome. This was a bar area which was cooler than 25 degrees, was cheaper than some of the other stalls for beers, and generally good fun until they started playing non stop ‘Birdy Song’. Seriously. Don’t know WHAT that as all about?
Our first gig of the day was the Magic Numbers, on the Converse stage - they were great although the atmosphere
A bong eyed Shaz sips her margherita mush while laying around at the Lillyworld stage
This is the stage that all the mental acts go on. A bit like the New Talent at TITP, except dafter. When we were here, there was a guy onstage walking about getting people to come up on stage to dance, then pushing them off and teling them that they had paid to come to the gig, but he was getting paid for being there. He was an arse, but it was quite funny. was a bit lame as they are new to the Aussie market and hardly anyone knew their music. Still, we enjoyed it and had a good bop around till they were finished and it was time to refresh ourselves with another drink or six. Paula and her mates had been watching with us up til this point, and then they headed off to see Wolfmother, who we’d never heard of, but have since been advised that they are a bit like a new Led Zeppelin. Hmmm… intellesting… Unfortunately we didn't manage to meet Pauls & CO again for the rest of the day - but we trust they had a top time.
Next up we mooched around various stages including the Boiler House (humungous dance tent famed for getting temperatures up to yon degrees), Lillyworld stage (where all the loony acts are put), and the Hot House which was an outdoor arena showing (from what we could tell) was Hip Hop type stuff, with a bit of rap. Not really our bag, so we buggarred off and hung about the main stages waiting for Kings of Leon to come and strutt their stuff for us. We weren’t disappointed -
White Stripes on Stage
What can we say. We were gutted at the sound quality, and the performance was less than average. They also cut their set short by 15 mins and played most of the songs too fast. After waiting all day for them, we were sorely disappointed. The sound engineer should be sacked. they were totally ace and we LOVED every minute. We could hardly see a thing due to our vertically challenged dispositions however we adored them all the same - especially ‘Time on me is wasted time’ & ‘ Molly’s Chambers’ - pure class. The guys all round about us in the crowd were a brill lot, and we had lots of laughs and a good carry on, especially when the stewards came round with the water hoses soaking us - that was fantastic as we were getting a bit hot. Although - at first we were hacked off because we thought someone was throwing beer at us constantly. How we laughed when we realized our mistake, a- ha-ha-ha-ha!!!! (they said smirkingly)
The day passed really very quickly - couldn’t believe how time sped along ‘till it was time for the White Stripes. We’d been so looking fwd to this for ages and we’ve been dying to get tickets to see them for some time. Well, the trouble started when Iggy Pop wouldn’t wind up his act. We think that someone probably had to come on with a big hook to pull him off stage coz he wouldn’t go away
Hot House.
An open air arena which filled up more and more as the day went on. Seemed to be lots of rap acts and a bit of nonsense going on with big inflatables and bods dressed up. We didnt much hang around this arena. - he was repeating tracks he’d done already by the end of his set - we couldn’t believe it. He went on for about 15 mins longer than he should. The Stripes came on eventually and we were gearing up for a fabulous performance, however the sound was atrocious. We knew we’d have difficulty seeing - as usual - however we were not prepared to be struggling so much to hear even what song was being played. Alan thinks that the Sound man needs a written warning - at least. It really was dire. Anyone who thinks otherwise must have been wearing some of the brightly coloured earplugs that we saw so many people sporting throughout the day (for why would you ever wear those to a music festival?). Anyway - so now we feel pretty disappointed and double so because we go to Tasmania tomorrow morning, with our first stop Hobart. And guess who’s playing in Hobart at the start of the week? Yip, White Stripes. Had we known that, we’d probably have got separate tickets to see them in an environment more conducive to their musical style, with better sound set up. Sod’s Law isn’t it. But like
the Guinness, we’re not bitter. We had a great day, everything was easy, the atmosphere was relaxed and fun with no aggro, and we were able to get home OK with no hassle afterwards. Plus also we managed to get a bit of colour back in our faces after spending all day in the sunshine! Now that’s what we call a good day out! It is quite interesting however, to look back at our blog from T in the Park last year and compare the two events. They were very different in so many ways.
So, we now have to go and do our packing for the morning. Our flight is at 09:!5 so we’ll need to be ready to rumble from first thing. We’ll be back on the blog again soon though with, hopefully, some stories about all the excellent trekking we are hoping to do in Tassie. We really need to work off some extra weight we've piled on during our few weeks in the smoke!
See you all later,
Alan & Shaz.
PS: Trivia point: People from Tasmania are called TASWEGIANS. We love it already!
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Gaz
non-member comment
Hobart
While you are in Hobart, can you check something out for me? You know the St Etienne song, "Hobart Paving"? I've always wondered what that is all about. Can you check out the paving in Hobart while you are there and see if it has some sort of remarkable paving or summat? much obliged- yir pal Gaz xx