New Zealand songstress Lorde is jetting her way to Byron to play Splendour In The Grass tomorrow, to be added as a last minute replacement in a lineup shuffle following Frank Ocean’s sudden cancellation of his Splendour slot, along with the remainder of his Australian Tour, yesterday afternoon.
Following the news of the cancellation, Splendour organisers were forced to act quick and soon called upon the 16-year old Kiwi sensation to fill the afternoon void left by a shuffle in playing times in the lineup.
Lorde will appear at 5.30pm at the Supertop on Sunday, with every other act scheduled to move up a slot, while Of Monsters And Men will be performing in the headline slot left behind by Frank Ocean.
The news of her last-minute addition to the bill was a surprise even to Lorde, with the ‘Royals’ hit-maker tweeting:
something absurd and cool just came up which involves me getting on a plane in about 24 hours
— Lorde (@lordemusic) July 26, 2013
Lorde’s follow-up single ‘Tennis Club’, released in June this year, has also found major success.
Meanwhile Frank Ocean is headed back to America after cancelling the remainder of his Australian shows on medical advice after he suffered a small tear to one of his vocal chords, according to a press release issued just hours before he was due to perform his second of two sold-out performances at Melbourne’s Festival Hall.
The Grammy winning neo-RnB singer’s debut Australian performance last Thursday night saw the channelORANGE star visibly struggling as the set wore on, telling the sold out audience that he was having health issues after a month’s touring.
Eight songs deep into the set at Festival Hall, Ocean – sat a rhodes organ to perform ‘Forrest Gump’ – told the audience “I’m sick… I don’t know if you care”. After an hour’s worth of performing, concluding the set with ‘Bad Religion’, Ocean told the crowd, “I don’t wanna speak much tonight but I do wanna thank you guys;” before wishing his farewells and swiftly departing the stage as the house lights came on almost instantaneously, putting an awkwardly abrupt finish to the concert without an encore.
After pulling the plug on the rest of his Australian Tour and Supertop Splendour slot, festival organisers weighed in on the cancellation. “With Splendour already in full swing this is devastating news for the event and will be for many of our patrons. We do want to remind everyone that over 70 of the best acts in the world right now are still here and ready to go including our previously billed mystery band, Alt-J.”
Splendour co-founders Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco added “We are totally gutted that Frank can’t make it and we know that many of our patrons will be just as disappointed as we are… Our sympathies go to Frank for his illness and also because he’s about to miss the best party of the year.”
A party that Lorde is super-excited to now be a part of.
see you at splendour bitches
— Lorde (@lordemusic) July 26, 2013
SUNDAY 28th JULY
Supertop Stage:
11.00 – 12.00: Of Monsters & Men
9.30 – 10.30: Passion Pit
8.00 – 9.00: Alt-J
6.40 – 7.30: The Rubens
5.30 – 6.15: Lorde
4.25 – 5.10: Airbourne
3.20 – 4.05: Fidlar
2.15 – 3.00: Surfer Blood
1.15 – 1.55: The Jungle Giants
12.30 – 1.00: The Growl
G.W.McLennan Stage:
10.00 – 11.00: Laura Marling
8.30 – 9.30: You Am I (performing Hi-Fi Way)
7.00 – 8.00: The Drones
5.30 – 6.30: Gurrumul
4.00 – 5.00: Snakadaktal
2.45 – 3.10: Little Green Cars
1.30 – 2.15: The Chemist
Mixup Stage:
10.15 – 11.15: The Presets
9.30 – 10.15: What So Not
8.30 – 9.30: James Blake
7.45 – 8.30: What So Not
6.45 – 7.45: Hermitude
6.00 – 6.45: Peking Duk
5.00 – 6.00: Everything Everything
4.15 – 5.00: Peking Duk
3.30 – 4.15: The Bamboos
2.45 – 3.15: Tyler Touche
2.00 – 2.45: Alpine
1.15 -2.00: Tyler Touche
12.30 – 1.15: PVT
