Big Day Out: behind the lineup

Thu 7th Oct, 2010 in Features

The lineup for next year’s Big Day Out, boasting the likes of Tool, Rammstien, The Stooges and Grinderman, has proven to be a massive drawcard with tickets for the festival quickly selling out in Sydney and on the Gold Coast. The demand for tickets has been so overwhelming that for only the third time in the festival’s two decade, 100+ show history a second show has been added in Sydney.

Viv Lees and his business partner Ken West have been running the Big Day Out since way back in 1992, when the Violent Femmes headlined the festival in Sydney with Nirvana, Beasts of Bourbon, Yothu Yindi, You Am I, The Meanies and Died Pretty on the bill.

Just before tickets went on sale, FasterLouder caught up with Viv Lees to chat about the biggest days out on the festival calendar and discover how the lineup for next year’s festival came together.

How early does planning and booking begin for the Big Day Out lineup
Pretty much in the past we’ve always finished up one before we’ve started booking the next one. It’s such a big mountain to climb each year that we like to get it over and then have a think about what we’re doing. Possibly there might be one exception – last year’s show we made a commitment to Muse way out. So we always knew they we’re coming back. But by and large we don’t really book in advance.

Does the Big Day Out still chase bands to play or has the job become easier with bands clambering to be included on the lineup?
It works in both ways. On a headliner level there are a good couple of handfuls of bands that can do it – be a real headliner. Then after that there’s a bunch of bands that might like to headline, but really can’t. And then you’ve got a bunch of other acts. So we’ll always have a pretty good idea of where the real headliners are with their touring cycle and so forth. We’re pretty much in touch with all of the agents on an ongoing basis, so it’ll be in a conversation or you’ll try to start working towards it or we’ll have a discussion at our end about what we want to do and then we’ll go after it

In general the best thing that can happen for us is when somebody indicates to us that they’d like to play. Then if they’re someone who can really close then that’d kind of like a no brainer and we move ahead with that. If we’ve got someone who we think can close, who is ‘hot’ who’s quite capable and interested in working with us that really is a long way to go. If you don’t have that, then you’ve got to get them warmed up; the money issue becomes really a huge issue and the agent wants to play it as hard as they can. So it’s good if you’ve got a motivated band that’s for sure.

So I take it you’ve had bands approach you wanting to headline that simply can’t headline?
Many times. Many, many times. They get their noses out of joint when they find out that we can’t make them an offer or that the money is not going to work for them. We’ll often try to look after someone and put them on the line up, but when it comes to the crunch they won’t play in third of fourth position. It’s a political issue with other bands that are on relative to where they see themselves.

They certainly often don’t look at where they are relative to the Australian market. They think ‘I’m doing such and such in England or America, therefore I can’t be seen to be playing underneath that act in Australia’ where we’ve got a whole different set of popularity issues and relativities that we have to take into account when we’re booking someone.

When Tool last headlined in 2007 they’d just released a new record – what will the 2011 shows offer that is different from the last tour?
As I understand it Tool takes a long period of time between albums. They’re not a band that puts out an album every couple of years and goes out on a touring cycle like that. They have really high quality control; they put out an album it’s billed as a major undertaking. Their fans are incredibly devoted.

They’re in the middle of a new project, they haven’t even told me if they’re playing any new material or not, so I can’t speculate on that at the moment.

Rammstien’s live show is legendarily extreme What makes the show so exciting for you?
I think that Rammstien have continued this amazing growth path. It’s not really evident in terms of radio play or album sales, but it’s a growth by word of mouth, by reputation and by historical reference to the vast and emphatic show they put on, which has got fireworks elements, it’s got theatrics. It’s got a huge stage set, kind of like a post industrial set, with flames and smoke.

Remembering back to the last time that they were here they had the same fantastic set. It just leaves an impact because no one else is really doing that in such a way – combining incredibly fantastic hard rock, all be it in a different language, a comedy take on hard rock and sex, with huge flames. It’s just a mind blowing show.

Iggy and the Stooges have played at Big Day Out before so obviously Iggy enjoys the tour. What’s it like working with him?
Iggy has had a fantastic long-standing relationship with Big Day Out. He’s been on before; he was on our second show. So it’s just great to work with him again. He’s a very fantastic, nice man… [struggles for the right words]… he’s a total legend, of course, but what he does on stage is the culmination of a long career of being the one of the first punks and having a long history of working with David Bowie (in the Iggy Pop stage and some of the fantastic albums of around that time The Idiot and so forth)… working with the likes of Lou Reed… He’s been through such a long journey. He’s unbelievable because guess what: he’s just fantastic.

I remember we did a tour in between [Bid Day Out tours] and he had Guns n Roses up on stage during the encore. Nobody in the audience knew that they were going to be there, but they had Slash and Duff (they didn’t have Axl) but these guys came on, just walked out. The atmosphere was already at a maximum, nearly at a maximum level of excitement, but when Iggy came back on with Duff and Slash and played Louie, Louie and the level just went up ten [notches]. I’ve never been on such a high level of adrenalin and rock excitement as on that night side of stage. And that band was just in awe, just looking at each other in they eyes and going ‘can you believe this? Can you believe what’s going on here?’. It was just so fantastic.

They’re the kind of moments that are there through out Iggy’s life, which he still has. He still creates. He get’s people up on stage with him still. He’s just a Zen-ed out, yoga rock and roller you know? He just loves his life. He loves traveling around and he loves still being part of it.