And finally, in case, you didn’t know where the inspiration for Splendour’s name came from, these are the lines (from William Wordsworth’s Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood):
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.
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A few more pics from Jonny Weeks, who has just come back with another cache of random Splendour-ness. He’s heading back out again for the main bands this evening ... nudge, nudge, gallery, gallery (later on, of course).
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Meet the team
If Splendour were a gig, it would be round about now that I introduced you to the rest of the band. So here is Guardian Australia Team Culture, plus some Guardian branded cushion from the Guardian Lounge, snapped as we entered site this morning.
Clockwise from top left (skipping the cushions) are: writer and deputy audience editor Elle; head of video Bill; me, culture editor Nancy; deputy news editor Alan; guide and podcast editor Alex; deputy video and podcast producer Fred; and, centre where he belongs, picture editor and photographer Jonny.
I’ll be awarding the team their survivor medals later but for now I just want to say thanks to them and to you for sticking with us all weekend. We’re off to enjoy the rest of Sunday’s gigs. And Blur. Did we mention Blur were playing? There’ll be plenty more reviews and interviews still to post on Monday, so keep on checking our dedicated festival page.
But for now, Splendour, you’ve been splendid.
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As we head towards the final strait, it’s bedtime for some of the younger festival-goers on site. But it didn’t stop them having a party earlier.
Baby ravers @ #SITG2015 @GdnAusCulture pic.twitter.com/fsjwdze9r6
— Bill Code (@billcode) July 26, 2015
And Bill Code has been seeing Akouo in the Tiny Dancer tent.
To focus on Akouo’s physical performance seems a strange way to review this Tasmanian producer’s set. But I’ve never seen such energy from a DJ, certainly not someone with his roots in hip-hop. We’re not talking a hefty head-nodding, we’re talking full on circuits of the stage, arms flailing, bouncing around like he really meant what he was playing.
After the show, the Tasmanian dabbed off the sweat, caught his breath and told the Guardian that he tries to put as much energy into his set as humanly possible. “There’s so many producers who don’t. I feel like I owe it to the crowd to give it everything ... I just enjoy dancing as well’, he says, still panting 10 minutes after the set. “I’m fully exhausted.”
Me too – this old reviewer is from the folded-arms, head-nod school. But this was a set with such energy that a little bouncing was essential. There can’t have been more than a few dozen punters in the Tiny Dancer tent when Akouo (pronounced Akoo-oh) came searing out of the traps at such a pace it took nearby festival-goers by pleasant surprise.
And in they came. There were hectic machine drums, soaring vocals, big drops and plenty of bass in a tight and well-rehearsed electronic set. There were filtered vocal hooks and sampled rap bars, while Akouo even grabbed the mic himself from time to time to round off his first Splendour showing.
In more than a decade of playing, the Launceston-based musician has graduated from hip-hop producer making beats for MCs to rhyme over to, on the strength of this performance, a leading light in that beautiful space between electronic music and hip-hop filled in the US by artists such as those on Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label, and here in Australia by the likes of Hermitude and Koolism.
These are acts Akouo cites as early influences on his move into the electronic space. “I still feel like my sound doesn’t belong in clubs, it belongs in live venues,” Akouo says. With astute management and promotion – and more performances like this – he is sure to take his sound far beyond the Apple Isle. Epic party music and, for me, the surprise of the festival.
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Earlier this week, Alexandria from Brisbane was elected Triple J’s Mayor of Splendour, off the back of her confession she’d lied in her entry to a prestigious art prize and walked away with a cash prize from the Premier of Queensland.
As she swept through the Splendour backstage area, resplendent in her scarlet and no-longer white mayoral gowns, we nabbed her for a chat in which she talked about Carmada over Blur and her political ambitions. Read on below the picture.
What has been your biggest Splendour highlight, Alexandria?
We ended up catching Wombats, Flight Facilities and Florence + the Machine back-to-back with only little tiny misses. We ran through the mud and the rain, we had mud up to our knees pretty much and we caught all three!
And the best act so far?
Best act still goes to Porter Robinson his Live World show. He absolutely killed it, his stage presence, his musicality, the way he pulled the crowd into it; you have to listen
Who are you looking forward to seeing tonight?
Tonight its Carmada, the local boys. We’re a little young for Blur, but we’ll still go in and see it
What’s the best VIP perk that you’ve won as Mayor of Splendour?
We had our tents set up for us, beds, sheets, everything as we walked in, in the rain.
Is it good going backstage?
It’s a surreal experience. You spend so long in the crowd, moshing, watching the people on stage, and you get to walk back stage, and there are so many amazing artists wandering past
So is this the start of your political career?
I actually do a bit of politics. I’m a law student at Queensland University and I do politics on the side. All my friends have said: “This is your kickstart, this is your campaign.”
Will you run for Mayor of Brisbane next?
Mayor of Brisbane seems to have a curse on it at the moment, so I think I’ll step away from it for the small election scales.
A quick-file report on the Vaccines from the Amphitheatre stage:
The Vaccines don’t need to warm up. They’re punks goddamn it. Topman punks, sure, but that still counts in 2015, right? Singer Jay Jay Pistolet is on his knees after one song and suddenly no one at the amphitheatre stage is interested in the mud divers anymore.
After three quick, shouty ones, a slower track off the new album English Grafitti, introduces a meaty riff likely thanks to the lead guitarist’s vintage Fender and amps. It goes down well and the crowd is rewarded with a shift into more familiar, uplifting territory.
The set list is jumping from punk to rock to sunshine pop and back again. They’ve really nailed that genre-melting, single-favouring sound that has come to define popular music. It’s efficient and proficient but also a bit rent-a-bandy. Perhaps I need a beer.
Here’s our colleague Dave Simpson on the album, which he didn’t mind at all.
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More details from Elle on Splendour’s walking wounded (see post at 4.28)
Feeling intrepid, I carefully scaled the mountain of mud that is the Amphitheatre Stage. “We knocked the bastard off,” I thought as I reached the top (shoutout to my countryman Edmund Hillary).
Then I noticed a bloke on crutches, his leg wrapped in a plastic bag as he skipped his way merrily through the bog.
He refused offers of help from onlookers, who were concerned and impressed in equal measures. His girlfriend was back at the bar, he said, but he didn’t need her to accompany him to the bathroom.
Tonight, Blur are headlining and we’re all very excited.
Last night they were in Sydney playing their first show on Australian soil in 18 years (though Damon was here on his own at the end of last year).
It was a career-spanning set, with a mixture of hits, album tracks and five songs from new record The Magic Whip. You can see the full setlist from last night here.
Our colleague Pádraig was there, and loved it:
There’s No Other Way is reborn as a Faith No More-ish funk metal song. (I’m not kidding.) One of the Magic Whip songs (of which they played many) has been brilliantly Steely Dan-ified.
There’s a horn section. There are backing singers. Damon works the crowd like Jagger. Graham’s on fire. Dave brings the thunder and Alex, well, blessed are the cheesemakers.
Guardian commenter David Berg seemed to agree.
Here are the songs the five of us in the tent would most like to see:
Elle and Bill: Coffee and TV
Nancy: This Is A Low
Alex: Girls and Boys
Alan: Tracy Jacks
Fingers crossed!
So @Blurofficial are in the building / brightly coloured shed and they have their own (rather shy) doorman #SITG2015 pic.twitter.com/8YApSITjso
— Guardian Aus Culture (@GdnAusCulture) July 26, 2015
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Jonny’s been taking some great pictures again. This time he ventured into the campsites. Click through to see the full gallery.
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Is this the most dedicated fan at Splendour?
That's a bloke on crushes on top of the biggest, muddiest hill at Splendour #SITG2015 pic.twitter.com/EGs8NZ861R
— Elle Hunt (@mlle_elle) July 26, 2015
Guardian investigates
... the Splendour edition
In which Guardian Australia’s Alan Evans and Elle Hunt go beyond the music of the music festival to find what other fun and characters are out there in the quagmire.
In rhyme.
Indulge us.
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We take a break from working in our stuffy tent to poke our noses into the tents of our fellow media outlets, which ends up making us a little jealous.
MTV is, without doubt, the best dressed, with barely a speck of mud on any of them. At least two are wearing glitter. They’d be the only members of the press area who would be allowed into most clubs.
It’s Channel V which have the best-looking food, though. As I walked past, a woman emerged with two cardboard trays of falafels. There’s also a bowl of fruit visible – the only one I’ve seen all weekend.
Fasterlouder has already cracked out the Carlton Draught, and Rage has the best view, having positioned a red leather sofa facing outwards from which the team can observe the rest of us.
Rolling Stone has brought its own branded screen, which blocks the view into its tent. Anything could be happening in there.
The biggest tent belongs to Triple J, which has spared no expense. It has brought several potted ferns and has proper lights with lampshades and everything.
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Bill’s at the Tiny Dancer Stage
There’s hardly anyone here for the start of Tassie beats producer Akouo’s set, but he is off to a blinder. Machine drums, soaring vocals, droops and plenty of bass.
It’s nice, thoughtful, the sort of thing you might find on Flying Lotus’s stable Brain Feeder.
DJs and producers are not supposed to dance around like this. Loving the energy! One to watch. Come down, Splendour!
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Because we promised you an Azealia Banks write-up, here’s a taster of Fred’s considered opinions on Saturday night’s gig.
It’s safe to assume most of those gathered to see Azealia Banks were there on the strength of one song. I was one of those people – half attracted by the idea of that irresistible beat reproduced live and half interested in what else she has to offer.
Thankfully, taken as a whole, the set delivers. Sure, the musical highlight is 212 – played last and a little lacklustre – but the crowd remained onside throughout, even as we waited for the payoff. Desperado stood out as a tune to revisit. Others kept us bobbing despite sounding, as one friend put it, like generic beats waiting to be sampled in better tracks.
Banks focused on the crowd and seemed happy to be here, which is notoriously not always the case. However, it was the backup dancers we came away talking about. This male duo appeared at random intervals to dance with an explosive energy that belied their tight choreography. They even took solo turns front and centre, whipping the mainstream crowd into a frenzy with high camp freestyle, like entrants at a drag ball walk-off.
Perhaps another day, a less mud-soaked, more sober audience would demand more. Then again, perhaps rolling out a closer like 212 all but guarantees any mediocrity elsewhere is forgiven.
Okay, we’ll admit it. This is also an excuse to rerun perhaps our favourite photo that Jonny took all Saturday. Captions on a postcard / tweet / below the line please ...
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Meg Washington in the house/tent
Just arrived at the Guardian tent is Megan Washington, who’ll be playing the GW McClennan tent at 7.15pm. But first she’s a guest on our Splendour special podcast, which we are recording live on site but pushing out later this week. Given our tent is squished between Triple J on one side and Rage on the other, we thought it was time to sharpen our broadcasting chops.
Here’s Alex, Meg, Elle, Alan and Fred (our producer for the day) ready for air. Conditions a little cramped but we’re all professionals here (ahem).
Meg @WASHINGTONx is in the #SITG2015 Guardian Tent for our Splendour special podcast - recording now. Sssh! pic.twitter.com/Wx1Qf2i7Dz
— Guardian Aus Culture (@GdnAusCulture) July 26, 2015
Guardian Australia last chatted to Meg a year ago, when she spoke very candidly to Janine Israel about the challenges of the past few years. “The idea of having achieved the apex of whatever you were going to achieve and then having to walk down the hill on the other side – it makes you crazy,” she said. As with the Splendour mud mountains, watching where you step is key.
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Spotted in the Tent of Miracles: an Australian mail box dancing alone to 50s crooners.
Spotted by @itsalanevans in the Tent of Miracles on Sunday morning. Bleak or brilliant? #SITG2015 cc @australiapost pic.twitter.com/svFTspA7uH
— Guardian Aus Culture (@GdnAusCulture) July 26, 2015
Could this be a knock-on effect of this news we reported on last month?
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Public service announcement time. We hear from Splendour’s head honchos that Adelaide rapper Allday has been forced to cancel his Sunday appearance “due to a family emergency”. But it’s going to be OK because Shlohmo will now “step up” to perform his 4pm set, as well as his scheduled appearance, meaning there is no excuse not to get your beatbox box ticked today.
Allday sent this message: “Kills me to say this because playing Splendour has been a goal of mind forever.” Here’s his track, Right Now, even if, right now, we have to wait.
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Like a trouper, Bill Code has already headed out into the field to see some music. Apparently, it’s the thing to do here.
It’s looking a bit like the Somme (quel surprise) around parts of the festival site today, but there was enough fresh wood-chipping for a small crowd to make it out of their tents in time for the opening set on the main stage.
Adelaide band Bad//Dreems describe their music as “outsider rock”, and they certainly don’t seem beholden to trends. On the tail of the Church’s performance last night, there was a distinct Aussie pub rock vibe to this set, too – certainly not a criticism from me. My finest hours have been spent in or around pubs.
You can imagine these guys cruising around in a Kingswood, cracking some VBs. They might need them for these blues – “You’re my only friend, you don’t even like me” were some of the anxious lyrics closing the set off. Hold on, guys, I thought you were pretty decent. A simple “thanks” to close the set and they were off. No show-boating here, just simple but effective rock fare with some nice touches.
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Jonny was busy snapping all Saturday and you should totally check out his day two gallery. Here, as a taster, are some of the highlights from last night:
Azealia Banks, who did show (despite Alan’s wager that she wouldn’t). Review to follow.
Splendour revellers. Party night. We told you.
And the massive Amphitheatre crowd for Florence and the Machine. Teetering on the edge of a mass mudslide. Living on the edge.
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Sunday morning ...
Day three in the the Guardian Australia tent and spirits are high for a Sunday, even if there’s no day of rest for us, with some of the festival’s best acts performing, including Tame Impala, Earl Sweatshirt and the mighty mighty Blur.
Saturday night was party night at Splendour and saw the troops divide between Florence and the Machine at the amphitheatre and Flight Facilities in the Mix-Up tent, both of whom put on quite the show.
Here’s a radiant pic of Flo from our team Guardian snapper, Jonny:
And here’s Elizabeth Rosey, one of many guests for a Flight Facilities set that ended in a mass sing-along to Love is in the Air and a rousing Happy Birthday to half the act, Hugo Gruzman.
Woah! @flightfac + @ElizabethRosey taking off at the Mix Up Stage at #SITG2015 pic.twitter.com/7kcTQcPpeW
— triple j (@triplej) July 25, 2015
How did you spend your Saturday night at Splendour, or otherwise? Let us know @GdnAusCulture or in the comments below. And stay with us ... to the blurry end.
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Blur were the first band ever to give the entertainment centre atmosphere last night!