FESTIVAL PROFILE: The Magic OfMeredith Music Festival

Fri 21st Oct, 2005 in Features

Now in its fifteenth year, the Meredith Festival continues to grow stronger. Festival Co-organiser Matt High tells FasterLouder all about this year’s showcase and the history and ‘allure’ of Meredith.

It’s really not that hard to believe how popular the Meredith Music Festival has become over the past few years, with tickets being snapped up in ridiculous times since the year 2000. Tickets have sold out in a matter of weeks; 10, 20, 25 over the course of these five years – but in 2005 we have witnessed every single Meredith ticket gone in only ten days (10 weeks before the gig), which is surely a glowing endorsement and testament to the Meredith organisers who have hand picked the eclectic and intriguing international and national musical acts who have signed on to play over the years.

With a plethora of musical moments and highlights to choose from in the Meredith Music Festival history – ranging from the early years when acts such as Ballarat’s Dead Salesmen, The Boxing Tostados and Kill Sarah kicked off the inaugural event in 1991, with tickets at the very reasonable rate of about $20. To the rise of Meredith regulars such as the Powdermonkeys, Spiderbait, Magic Dirt and the irrepressible early performances of the now world weary Melbourne underground instrumental rockers, The Dirty Three.

And we surely cannot forget the introduction of the Meredith Gift can we? In 1992 we found that high levels of alcohol and other assorted substances, when mixed together, will inevitably produce extreme cases of nudity which in turn = joy, good times, hilarity, jangly bits going off in every which way direction, some injuries, some major embarrassments, but always a bloody good laugh!

In 1996, whilst travelling through Hanoi, co-founder of Meredith, Chris Nolan suffered a multi-organ collapse in his sleep which resulted in severe brain injuries, placing him in a coma for six months, which would have thrown the plans for the Meredith festival of the same year into complete disarray if it wasn’t for the will and spirit of Nolan and the passion of his co-organisers, Gregor Peele, Marcus Downie and Matt High, combining with the local Meredith townspeople to continue on with the show.

Over the next few years Meredith would introduce many intoxicating features to its big December weekend, including the reformation and collaboration of artists ranging from the legendary X, many Tex Perkins outfits (Tex, Don & Charlie, The Cruel Sea, Beasts Of Bourbon), a plethora of Kim Salmon and Shane O’Mara performances, the debut shows by Matt Walker and Ashley Davies in 1997, along with the first electronic act, Snog (which would instigate the following years ‘Meredoof’) – a showcase of the best electronica from around Australia.

In the late 1990s Meredith introduced its first brigade of strong internationals, the temperamental musings of Chan Marshall or Cat Power to her friends, and the explosive and sexy punk rock of The Donnas. In 2001 the heaven’s opened up wide and ‘spewed’ buckets of rain (like Bob Log III would later imitate inside of his helmet) all throughout Victoria, severely affecting the roads into Meredith by turning them into slush. Luckily all the right plans and actions were put into place and the show rolled on to produce highlighted performances from the likes of You Am I, Bonnie Prince Billy, Silver Ray and Augie March who were slowly finding their feet in the live setting after quite several false starts – gorgeous stuff.  

With the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and the legendary Americana psych – rock of Dead Moon playing alongside the up and coming Dallas Crane. To the reformations again of Radio Birdman and Beasts of Bourbon, to the delicate pop of the Shins and the even more obscure antics of Architecture In Helsinki – not even Meredith punters were expecting what would happen at the beginning of the Dirty Three set in 2004. It was Saturday and as the sun was setting behind the stage, the Dirty Three started to play and somehow orchestrate one of the most amazing live shows in the events history with Warren Ellis striking at his violin in rhythmic timing with the technicolour lightning crashes from above. As the thunder pounded and rolled in, so did the drums of Jim White, transporting the Meredith crowd far away to a musical land or place in time known only as ‘magic hour’.

FasterLouder caught up with Matt High who was busying himself with final preparations for this December. I asked him how thing’s were shaping up and who he thought would be the ‘Dirty Three’ magic act of 2005?

“Yeah things are going well for this year and we’ve gone through the entire list of band demos and chosen who will play. I’ve been in my office all throughout August and September just filtering through all of the music which has literally come in from all over the place, and the thing is that we have to listen to everything, so it can consume your daily life for a while. Greg Peel and I would listen to the music in the office, in the car, the shower, anywhere we could, just to get through it all!”

And then when you decide who plays, it’s a matter of booking them in which is a task in itself yeah? “For sure – I mean booking the artists is really an intensive four month process and we have to ring around, email and then lock in all the performers and decide when they play over the weekend, so we’re definitely into a busy couple of months leading up to it.”

I asked High about the poetically haunting Austin Texas group Okkervil River who are playing this year’s Meredith and who have delivered one of the finest albums this year in Black Sheep Boy – so how did Meredith get these guys? “Well they were heading over here to Australia anyway and initially I resisted putting them on the bill but after hearing Black Sheep Boy enough times I realised that these guys were something special and needed to play! I didn’t take that album off my CD player for months and that’s always a great indication about how much a band has affected you so we can’t wait to see them play live at Meredith.”

And what about this years mystery act there Matt – any clues?

“Well… oh alright here are some for you. It’s not Motorhead like a lot of people have been saying and it’s not Ween (who have been mentioned for years). Let me just say that it won’t be the ‘biggest’ act going around – this will surely build the anticipation I’m thinking!”

Also on the bill for this year are Scottish rockers Sons And Daughter’s, The Kills, You Am I, Stephen Malkmus, Wolfmother and the Mess Hall to name just a few. Adding to this will be the Sunday ‘Meredith after party’ – the inaugural Car Park Festival, presented by the guys that did the Laneway Festival (St Jeromes) and Team Meredith. All on one stage in one day and featuring The Avalanches DJ show, Gersey and Bit By Bats – this should be a real winner and a fair compensation for those who missed out on securing Meredith tickets. High explains, “There was no great strategy behind this – it just made sense and it will be a strong and dedicated festival to be held at the Golden Square Car Park in Melbourne City on Sunday December 11th, from 12noon to 10pm, and ‘limited’ tickets will go on sale soon, so again you have to get in early.”

FasterLouder leaves Matt High with the question of what makes Meredith so damn special and keeps the punters coming back stronger every year?

“Meredith is bigger than all of us. It belongs to Australia and the spirit of the land that it is on… those who attend each and every year are like – minded art and music lovers and they embrace the sprit of the festival accordingly. Meredith is now in its fifteenth year and when I came on board in 1992, the original intentions were not solely and purely based on building a business – it was all about a few uni mates getting together and having crazy parties with friends – things haven’t changed that much since then and that’s just great.”

And one final last thing from the mouth of Meredith:

‘Every single ticket for the Fifteenth Anniversary Meredith Music Festival has been sold. That’s all Friday tickets, all Weekend tickets, everything. There will be no further allocation, no further sales, and no sales at the gate. All volunteer positions are also filled. Please don’t try calling stores because none of them have any to sell.’