big day out
Ken West Reveals Lars Ulrich’s Party Blues
12:49PM Jess McGuire | Big Day Out founder Ken West has spoken to New Zealand’s Sunday Star Times about some of his favourite rock and roll memories from the festival’s history, and along with some amusing stories about Kim Thayil of Soundgarden trashing hotel rooms and Ian Astbury of The Cult driving around the Gold Coast looking to replace expensive plastic chairs he’d thrown off a hotel balcony the night before, there’s an absolutely brilliant tale of Lars Ulrich and the backstage party that never was.
“… the funniest [story] I remember was with Metallica. When we signed them for the Big Day Out, they were in nervous breakdown territory, really, as you can see in the doco they made at that time (Some Kind Of Monster).”
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Good Charlotte Confused As To Why They’ve Never Been Asked To Play At The Big Day Out
1:58PM Jess McGuire | Newly single Benji Madden recently talked to New Zealand’s Sunday Times about the fact his band Good Charlotte have never been asked to join the Big Day Out tour.
“The guy who runs Big Day Out doesn’t like us for some reason I don’t even know why,” Benji told Sunday News.
“We do all the other festivals and we enquired about it. Who knows maybe he’ll eventually crack, but maybe not. We’re just going to keep knocking on his door late at night saying, `Come on dude!”‘
Hopefully the door remains unanswered. Because Good Charlotte are shit.
Benji continues to open up about his time with Paris Hilton… More » 
First Big Day Out Line-Up Announcement Also First Not To Induce Massed Snoring For Some Time
11:07AM Clem Bastow | As the sun starts shining more regularly, so does the festival era dawn across the nation – and this year’s first Big Day Out line-up announcement could actually be enough to entice us to go along.
Here’s the first chunk in full:
Rage Against the Machine, Bjork, Grinspoon, Arcade Fire, Hilltop Hoods, Billy Bragg, Paul Kelly, LCD Soundsystem, Sarah Blasko, Faker, Midnight Juggernauts, Dizzee Rascal, Something With Numbers, Battles, Cut Off Your Hands
With the exception of the cockroaches of the Australian music biz, Grinspoon, that’s a pretty good range of artists.
Well, it’s no “keynote address by Andrew W.K.”, but you know, beggars can’t be choosers.
The second announcement is coming soon. More » 