Big Day Out 2012 lineup: Thefacts, the leaks, the bullshit

Wed 28th Sep, 2011 in Local News

CLICK HERE FOR THE 2012 BIG DAY OUT LINE-UP.

The Big Day Out 2012 lineup will finally be revealed on Thursday 29th September when the festival unveils the first 17 acts between 8pm and about 10pm. This will be followed up by the announcement of three headliners the following morning, plus something else that is “sick” (according to the Big Day Out team) and no doubt kick off a flurry of excitement, debate, complaints and punters speculating on the second round announcements.

So far only one band – Kasabian – has broken ranks and confirmed their place on the Big Day Out 2012 lineup. Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan revealed in an interview that the band will be “doing the Big Day Out and I think we’re second before the headliners, which is amazing. I love it, man. We’re not on at 2.30pm in the fucking afternoon, which was horrendous.”

So who else will be joining Kasabian on the lineup on Thursday and Friday? Here’s a recap on the whirlwind of rumours, speculation, red herrings and outright bullshit that has touted in the lead up to the big announcement.

The rumours really began to boil in mid-August when the king and queen of rumour mongering Miss Info and Triple M/Herald Sun music reporter Nui Te Koha began dropping hints and ‘exclusive’ guesses. At that stage the rumour royalty both claimed that “ Blink 182 and Prince have been snared to headline” the festival, with Nui also reporting that the Big Day Out “promoters have been in Europe in the last couple of weeks. It’s looking like Blink-182 is back on the table [and] QOTSA, who put on a blistering performance at Glastonbury, they’re also on the table as well. Rival promoters are saying that the BDO are sounding out Prince. It seems like a weird fit but apparently talks happened in Europe with Prince for BDO or one of the Summer festivals.”

However a week or so after this Nui realised that he had overlooked one vital piece of information – drummer Travis Barker’s reluctance to fly – and broke the big news from 2008 by announcing that “We will not see Blink-182 any time soon. The deal is that Travis refuses to fly… There’s been talk of getting a replacement drummer to play with Blink-182 and the band have ruled that out.” At this stage Nui was also backing Eminem for a Big Day Out appearance and we all know what happened there.

Then in early September the BigDayOutSpy appeared and began dropping ‘hints’ about the lineup. The Spy claimed to have the inside word through a job with a “company who works very closely with the Big Day Out Promoters” and announced that the source of the information was “an email from BDO staff about the acts that were 100% confirmed by start of Sept”. At first the tips were fairly believable and even inspired a more obvious troll TheRealBigDayOutSpy to jump in on the action. However a series of wild claims soon destroyed the spy’s credibility with the likes of Opeth, Chase and Status, The Killers, A Perfect Circle and Radiohead all ‘announced’ by the spy but ruled out for a variety of reasons.

Perhaps afraid of having his place as rumour king usurped, Nui Te Koha leapt back into the fray the day after the arrival of the BigDayOutSpy. He announced that My Chemical Romance are “pretty much secured” for next years Big Day Out and also threw Foster the People, The Shins and Cage The Elephant into the mix. A week later he chimed in again, commenting that “There have been internet rumours on top of other rumours. Pearl Jam, My Chemical Romance and Kasabian are pretty much locked in, but the internet is saying Radiohead, System Of The Down [sic] and The Killers.” That Pearl Jam rumour had sprung from an unexpected source – the owner of Melbourne’s famed Cherry Bar, James Young – who had made the announcement that “The word is that the Big Day Out next year could [see] Pearl Jam in every [major capital] city in Australia.”

Hot on the heels of the Pearl Jam claim came the revelation that The Black Keys wouldn’t be back on the Big Day Out lineup to make up for their late cancellation earlier this year. Instead of visiting Australia, the duo will be trekking through Europe with dates in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Holland and the UK during January and early February. And we also uncovered an old tweet from Odd Future’s Hodgy Beats which revealed that he would be in Australia in January.

After sitting back and watching all the rumours without much comment the Big Day Out promoters quietly dropped a significant tip off shortly after confirming their plans for the official lineup announcement by revealing that ” there are no headliners on the 2012 BDO that start with an R!” This obviously rules out Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rancid and R. Kelly. Not to be deterred by fact, on the morning after this announcement Nui Te Koha told Triple M listeners that “Pearl Jam have changed their mind and the BDO has thrown a lot of money at another act… and it looks like Radiohead, which is a fair replacement.”

The confirmation of the announcement date also lured out an almost convincing press release which has been posted on several music forums claiming that the lineup will feature Pearl Jam, System of A Down, The Killers, Kasabian, Soulwax/2manydjs, Florence and The Machine, The Living End, My Chemical Romance and others.

So what’s the truth? Who knows for sure, at least we’ll find out very soon and this speculation madness will be over for another year.

Update:
Big Day Out has posted another clue about the lineup: “I am feeling kind so here is another hint (I told you yesterday no headliner starts with an R): No headliner starts with a P!” So no Prince or Pearl Jam folks!