CHAPTER 25

Alternative Nation

The Worst Day Out - April '95

During the 95 shows, we became aware that finally, the big boys had decided to get the cheque books out & show us how it was done. The three Michaels (Gudinski, Chugg & Coppel) had finally given up on importing Lollapalooza, (thanks Perry), & decided to produce their very own cutting-edge event. We first thought, “fuck this is it, it’s all over”, but then, as things unravelled we realised they had no idea what the fuck they were doing.  It's not that the line-up was bad, in fact, it was incredible. The problem was they had no idea what motivated festival-goers to buy tickets. They had the wrong venues, at the wrong time, fucked over the local bands, promoted it like a mainstream event, chest-beating about how great it was & best of all came up with a stupid name........ALTERNATIVE NATION.  For god's sake, no one in the alternative scene ever wanted to be branded that, especially by the mainstream.

The whole alternative tag was bullshit, created by the mainstream to keep obsolete rock crap in the charts.

After Nirvana the term Alternative stank, it meant nothing. A festival called that automatically stank. The artwork was shit, and instead of ‘international food fair’ they had 'multinational food fair’. Lots of KFC vs Macca jokes on that one.

This was just the start of their problems. They launched with a big TV campaign, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were the headliners, the problem was I knew that they had pulled out of the shows weeks ago. Initially, I thought, live & let live, but as the days turned into weeks, I became angry that the fans were being ripped off. I eventually called consumer affairs to lodge an official complaint. This was also an official declaration of war.

As we sat & watched the supposed best promoters in the country totally fuck it up, desperate to find a show closer & being crucified by the street & even mainstream media, I realised something else. Part of the reason why they fucked up was due to how I promoted the BDO. Promoters for years had emphasised touring party numbers, truck numbers, PA, lights & even kilometres of wire to impress the average Australian to give up their hard-earned money. My approach was the opposite, I sounded cavalier about the show, ignored the production & pretty much said I didn't know what we were doing. The truth was we worked our arses off & knew exactly what we were doing.

The funny thing was that this was the story for the public, not the industry, and anyone involved in, or who had even been to the show knew it was all about hard work, skill, teamwork & faith in the music and show. But it appeared to me that these guys actually believed we just lucked out & were clueless. In fact, these guys were so clueless that they tried to overnight the shows, this is hard to do for a concert, it’s physically impossible for a festival. All we could do was sit back & watch the train-wreck take place.

Eventually, two weeks out they secured Nine Inch Nails to close the show at a reported 700k for the three events. Good idea but way too late to save them.

Ticket sales in Brisbane were so bad that they reportedly arranged a deal with Pizza Hut to include a ticket with each home delivery. This of course went down well with people who had paid the full ticket price.

The weather couldn’t have been worse. A tropical depression with heavy rain started in Qld & rolled with the event down to Melbourne.

I arrived home from London the weekend of the shows. In Sydney, it was wet & cold & curiosity got the better of me. Even though they were throwing tickets away, I felt the only way to judge the event was to drive out and buy a ticket like a punter. I parked the car, walked in the rain, bought the ticket & entered the surreal world of Alternative Nation. Three stages, good production, great talent, no vibe.

It was a festival produced by numbers, they had no idea about atmosphere, markets, food, or other activities. All the extras that give the event colour. It was like a bad pub gig........in the rain.

In Melbourne, just when they thought it couldn't get any worse, a cold snap & rain created a massive temperature drop in an hour, resulting in large numbers of hyperthermia victims.

The end result was a media disaster and a multi-million dollar loss. What a debacle.

The reviews of Big Day Out were over the top both here and overseas. In the US edition of Rolling Stone, David Frick went so far as to say ‘The Big Day Out is a lot bigger than Lollapalooza. It is also vastly superior in at least one way; the bold, and proud, emphasis on underground local talent’. 

On the other hand, Alternative Nation and the three Michaels were being crucified by one and all, with even pre-tour stories in major newspapers being brutal.

Journalist Bruce Elder, the day before the Sydney event started his SMH article with. ‘Let’s be realistic about Alternative Nation. It’s a bunch of wealthy old guys trying to make a buck out of a musical movement they don’t understand’. It was all downhill from there and finished off the public execution with……‘What I want to see is the Wise M3 decked out in fetching pink tutus and sporting their usual elegant three days growth. And when ol’ Lou warbles “ And the coloured girls say…” want them to prance across the stage, lean into the microphone and go “Do de do de do de……..dooooo!”

It may not be a pretty sight or sound but it sure would be alternative.’

What a legend.

Needless to say, my relationship with the three Michaels as they were known was now non-existent. 

© Ken West January 2022