The Big Day Out team have been scrambling to organise a replacement for Blur following the shock news that the co-headliners had cancelled on their first Australian shows since 1997.
While festival co-promoter AJ Maddah says that protecting the Big Day Out brand takes precedence over profits as they throw the net far and wide, Aussie frontman Andrew Stockdale has indicated that the festival team should just give him a call.
Ahead of the ‘reformed’ Wolfmother playing another ‘secret’ show last night, at Sydney’s Oxford Factory, the band offered to fill Blur’s shoes on the Big Day Out bill via a post on their social media, as FasterLouder reports.
Serious proposition or not, the post – which has since been deleted – was captured by Hasief Ardiasyah, the Associate Editor for Rolling Stone’s Indonesian Editor, who shared Wolfmother’s kind offer in a tweet.
Wolfmother have played the iconic long-running festival before, with various Andrew Stockdale-fronted iterations of the band playing on Big Day Out lineups in 2005, 2006, and as recently as 2011.
Wolfmother associates, Melbourne rock band The Delta Riggs – whose members Alex Markwell and Elliott Hammond both played on Stockdale’s solo debut Keep Moving before quitting the lineup earlier this year – also made a joke post on their Facebook page that they’d be replacing Blur on the Big Day Out 2014 lineup.
Both bands were already beaten in the joke stakes by the Californian kings of snark, Wavves. The Aussie garage pop faves tweeted “we’ll take their spot” shortly after news of Blur’s cancellation broke. Aussie frontman Andrew Stockdale has indicated that the festival team should just give him a call…
Wolfmother have been cautiously working their way back into the Aussie live music scene after 12 months of on-again, off-again comments from frontman Andrew Stockdale that can best be described as confusing.
Earlier this year Stockdale declared he was retiring Wolfmother in favour of a solo career, speaking of his regrets at not ditching the band name earlier, including booking an Aussie tour to launch Keep Moving, until axing a huge 14-date run just one day before it’s kick-off in favour of international dates booked as Wolfmother shows with Stockdale calling the band’s split “a lie”, just three months on from Wolfmother’s “last ever” shows in April opening for Aerosmith.
In any case, it appears that Wolfmother is back on, and last night, the band played the latest in a series of ‘secret’ late-announced live shows where they’ve been airing material for a new Wolfmother album, touted as the follow-up 2009′s Cosmic Egg, which Stockdale recently hinted would drop in March or April next year.
Meanwhile, the Big Day Out team officially responded to Blur’s statement, which blamed “very challenging organisers” and “shifting goalposts for the cancellation.
“We were disappointed to learn of Blur’s cancellation via their Facebook page yesterday morning. We are working on replacements and will bring you new additions to the Big Day Out lineup shortly,” read the statement.
Newly installed Big Day Out promoter AJ Maddah says that the Big Day Out team have been hard at work on finding a replacement for the festival, which kicks off in less than eight weeks.
“We have a list of targets and are making contact with them all,” says Maddah, who are approaching all and any possibilities – no matter the cost.
Who gives a hoot about profit at this point. It’s about protecting the show and the fans who put their trust in BDO,” he tweeted. And that is why we’ll go out there and spend whatever is necessary to get worthy replacement(s)”
Big Day Out 2014 Lineup
Primus
Vista Chino
The Drones
CSS
Kerser
Bluejuice
Violent Soho
Jungle Giants
All Of The Colours
Bliss N Eso (Not playing Adelaide)
360 (Adelaide Only)
Joining the already announced lineup of:
Pearl Jam * Arcade Fire * Blur
Snoop Dogg aka Snoop Lion * Major Lazer * Steve Angello (Swedish House Mafia) * Flume * The Lumineers * Tame Impala * Dillon Francis * Mac Miller * Ghost * Grouplove * Flosstradamus * Portugal. The Man * Toro Y Moi * DIIV * The Naked And Famous * Big Gigantic * PEZ * Mudhoney * Cosmic Psychos * Northlane * The 1975 * Loon Lake * Kingswood * Bo Ningen * The Algorithm * DZ Deathrays * Peking Duk * Ben Morris * Rüfüs
Big Day Out 2014 Dates & Venues
Friday 17th January ~ Western Springs, Auckland*
Sunday 19th January ~ Metricon Stadium & Carrara Parklands, Gold Coast
Friday 24th January ~ Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne
Sunday 26th January ~ Sydney Showgrounds, Sydney
Friday 31st January ~ Bonython Park, Adelaide**
Sunday 2nd February ~ Claremont Showgrounds, Perth**
*For New Zealand Big Day Out 2014 lineup and ticketing details, please refer towww.bigdayout.com and choose AUCKLAND
**Subject to council approval
