Bye from us and him ... for now
Our final interview of the day was Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, who Jonny captured in this portrait (taken behind the burger van in the artist area, rock music is a glamorous lot).
He talked about his Friday night guest spot with Mark Ronson:
It was probably my favourite Ronson show we’ve done. In Glastonbury, I was super nervous because I’d never really been a hired-gun before. Last night was the first time I really got into it. I managed to enjoy myself without worrying about singing a wrong note or totally fucking up and embarrassing myself and Mark.
It’s one of the most positive touring situations I’ve ever been involved in. Because the songs are all the best songs he’s worked on. Even when the band played Valerie by Amy Winehouse – there’s no one singing, it’s just the band and Amy’s vocal. Everyone is standing at the side of show with hairs on the back of their arms...
Kevin also discussed his new album Currents, which received a five star review from Alexis Petridis, the break-up that inspired two of its tracks, and his move from Paris back to his beloved Perth, where he’s hooked up with old friends Pond, also at Splendour this year.
We’ll post the conversation in full tomorrow when we can’t wait to hear Tame Impala go up before Blur on Sunday night. But we’re going to have to. There’s plenty more music to hear tonight which is why we’re signing off for now. Enjoy your evening at the festival – or following it on the airwaves from afar. And keep up with us @gdnausculture on Twitter and Instagram, where’ll we continue to post into the night.
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Bill Code managed to track down Wyatt Roy and asked him about his festival so far. He’s mostly happy nobody has pushed him over in the mud yet.
It’s about time to pop by the medics’ tent to see what damage has been done (if it bleeds, it leads, etc). But the paramedic has mostly been administering plasters: no one wears appropriate footwear or socks, he says.* He shows us a clipboard that has tallies next to “blisters” and “sunscreen”. I remark on the absence of a stall selling wellington boots when you’d presumably pay any price for them if you’re going without. “I know!” says the medic. “The comms guy here just said that’s what he’s doing next year.”
(*One male member of the Guardian Splendour team included, who is wearing some very fetching silver ladies wellies two inches too small due to a mix up on Aus/UK sizes. Who knews gumboots were gendered? But please sell them next year on site, Splendour. Surely there’s a corporate sponsor for such an enterprising scheme?)
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We can confirm it. Best Coast are Splendour’s finest hand models. Not only did Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno happily pose during a quick chat backstage, but Bethany showed off her array of fantastic hand tattoos to us too. This is how it’s done, J-Law. In case you’re squinting, those words says Trust No One (and, yes, Lana Del Rey has the same tattoo but Bethany likes her too so that’s OK).
Now this is how to do hand tattoos, JLaw. As posed by Bethany Cosentino of @BestCoast #SITG2015 pic.twitter.com/WFQV2d6iFo
— Guardian Aus Culture (@GdnAusCulture) July 25, 2015
Best Coast are on at 8.30pm in the GW McLennan Tent and Team Graun will be there.
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Pictures of the day
He did the absolute business for us on day one and Guardian Australia picture editor / Splendour snapper Jonny Weeks is back roving the site all Saturday.
Here’s a pick of his pics so far.
And here are some of the people he’s been stopping on his travels today.
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Bill’s been watching Dune Rats.
You have to feel for the humble rat. Maligned as a disease-carrying pest the world over, it is associated with the the worst human traits.
It’s impossible to quantify how the average rat would react to being lumped in with this foul-mouthed display of debauchery, nakedness, and constant drug references in front of a mud-caked crowd, some of whom were taking belligerence to a new level.
But if they were the kind of rat worth partying with, this is where they would have been if they were anywhere near Byron this afternoon.
The mouths of these Brisbane boys were as dirty and sloppy as the floor up front, and with Triple J radio apparently broadcasting a part of the set, the ABC must have been on high alert.
‘We’ve got one surprise cunts on the radio can’t see but hopefully they’re at home smoking the buge’ (bugle, one presumes), the frontman said halfway through the set.
Whether the powers that be knew that a man in a rat suit would be crowdsurfing within a giant plastic ball, we can’t be sure. Whether they were told he would get naked and run across the stage afterwards, we just don’t know.
It was a fantastically juvenile performance from a band truly appreciative of their fanbase’s needs.
‘Cheers, cunts’, the frontman said. ‘If you’ve taken loads of drugs, drink a heap of water,’ he added before throwing small bottles out to the crowd.
And the music? It was good, hard, dirty, and messy, unlike a lot of the other stuff on offer here. Shades of Nirvana, Sex Pistols and, dare I say it, Weezer, even if it stayed full throttle throughout.
All in all, a great raucous mess of a show bringing the grit amid the mud.
We talked to Mark Ronson backstage at Splendour. He spoke about discovering new talent here with the Australian music scene having “such a good thing going on right now”. He also shares his thoughts on the recent Amy Winehouse documentary, describing his one-time collaborator as “one of the best lyricists of this generation”.
Watch the video above, and read the full Q&A here.
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The Grates appear on the main stage and the thumping bass can be felt in our bones all the way over in the media tent.
The Brisbane band make short, sharp, catchy indie rock songs, and Guardian Australia is very much hoping to relive a certain part of its early twenties if they play their floor-filler 19 20 20.
As you’ll no doubt have worked out, it is getting a bit boggy. So far today, it’s been dry with blazing sunshine, but the ground hasn’t had a chance to recover with gumboots trampling all over it. So what’s the prognosis? Are things going to firm up, or will it descend further into a filthy pit?
According to WeatherPro (other weather apps are available), it’ll remain warm and dry for the rest of Saturday, reaching a low of 13C and with just a 3% chance of rain. Sunday’s forecast is also pretty good, with a 35% chance of rain overnight but just 4% chance during the day. It should be warm too, peaking at 23C and remaining clear all day.
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Years & Years were meant to take to the stage at 4pm. Right now, theyre 20 minutes late. The crowd is big, almost filling the Mix Up stage, and getting a bit restless. Some bros led a rendition of “Hey baby, I wanna knoooow …” while they waited.
That, coupled with the silly costumes (a trend of sorts: self-referential custom T-shirts, some identifying first-time Splendourgoers, others self-appointing “Splendour referees”) and double-fisted beverages give the sense that I’m at a football match.
There’s definitely a more festive feeling than there was at this time yesterday – sunshine will do that. The mud’s nowhere near drying out, but in the absence of rain it’s kind of like a feature, like wading in Play-Doh. (I haven’t fallen over in it yet, obviously)
Speaking of politicians, young Liberal Wyatt Roy has tweeted a picture of himself with the Greens’ Larissa Waters before the forum started.
With my loveable leftie friend @larissawaters - about to do @SITG forum #auspol pic.twitter.com/nJNq1yrrBu
— Wyatt Roy MP (@Wyatt_MP) July 25, 2015
Somehow they have both managed to remain spotless so far. We fully expect to see them stomping about in the mud during Flight Facilities later.
The two Queenslanders may also be interested in going to see Frackman, a film about the effects of the coal seam gas industry in the state, tomorrow morning. If that sounds like the sort of thing you’d also be into, read our film writer Luke Buckmaster’s piece on Dayne Pratzky, the subject of the film, and head to the Guardian Forum for noon tomorrow.
It’s 4pm and the big acts are just starting to kick off on the main stages. I’m on my way to see Years and Years when I notice an actual queue of people outside the Guardian Forum.
The Q&A panel is under way, and includes guests such as human rights commissioner Tim Wilson, Queensland Greens senator Larissa Waters and the Guardian’s own columnist, Van Badham).
It’s completely packed with young women in bikini tops and young men in singlets (many wearing the ubiquitous floppy felt hats) straining in their seats, hands waving above their heads, to put their question to the panel.
Who are these nerds? Thanks for supporting the Guardian! Facts are sacred!
Our resident celeb chatter Alex Spring has been accosting them them left, right and centre, and her latest interview is live ... this time with Johnny Marr, who charmed the Splendour crowds last night (and our reviewer Will Woodward in Sydney earlier this week).
He talked nostalgia, THAT autobiography (no, not THAT one) and new music.
Some little tasters:
You can’t be too precious about everything. You can be a bit precious about most things but you have to draw the line.
Everyone is asking me about it all the time, it’s like I’ve not finished my homework.
I believe pop culture can be art ... It’s also everyone’s prerogative to say, it’s a piece of crap, that they didn’t mean anything by it.
Follow the link below to enjoy their full and illuminating conversation.
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We’ve been chatting to solicitor Naomi Carter working a stall pro bono to give free advice to festival-goers who are apprehended by police for drug offences.
She says two days every year are set aside at Byron Bay court to process charges laid at Splendour every year. The judge takes a dim view of such cases given the high profile drug ban, says Carter, and so nearly all charges result in a conviction. The police presence at the festival is huge, with drug detection dogs – which are highly effective – and also horses.
A police spokesman says there were a “concerning number” of all types of drugs seized yesterday, including ice. He wouldn’t give precise numbers, saying a media release would be put out first thing Monday morning, but last year’s festival resulted in 271 seizures.
Elle is out and about enjoying the music at the other side of the Splendour site.
Shantan Wantan Ichiban is just finishing up his DJ set at the Mix-Up stage, playing a remix of Missy Elliott’s Get Ur Freak On (I’m sure we heard this out of a few PAs yesterday, too). Even though it’s sunny, it seems a bit early to be bumping and grinding to R&B – but I expect his set tomorrow will go off with those who’ve tired of guitar bands and want to hear some club bangers. His decks are wheeled off stage so suddenly by techs bang on the half hour that I wondered if it was against his will. But nope. Your time’s just up Ichiban.
And so it’s on with the next act, Elliphant, who bursts on to stage with admirable energy and her single, Look Like You Love It – and for a moment, she gets the crowd on side too. A former collaborator of Jungle, she’s Swedish and talks with a Scando accent but raps in a definite Jamaican patois. I guess it’s a global world we live in, I muse, as the airhorns blare.
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MUD MADNESS!
It’s a bold festivalgoer who commits so early in the day, but by lunchtime this gentleman had already dived head first into one of the deep furrows ploughed by Friday’s storm and, much to the delight of the crowd, rolled around like the proverbial pig.
A nearby security guard was less delighted, telling the by now-unrecognisable man to gather his belongings. As he walked away, the surfer took one last dive, sliding 50 metres away from his nemesis. As someone close to me said: “Well, that’s one way not to get sunburnt.” Slip, slop, slap indeed.
MUD. It's mad, like! #sitg2015 #festivalbingo pic.twitter.com/VHuhcwxKqg
— Guardian Aus Culture (@GdnAusCulture) July 25, 2015
And the fans are still coming out for the music ...
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Saturday’s music kicked off earlier with Eves the Behavior on the Mix Up Stage. We can’t believe it’s been half a year since we chatted to the former Cairns Got Talent star as the first in our New Faces interview series.
But who needs a review when the singer herself is saying this ...
FFFFFFFFFFAAAAAAHHHNNKKMMMMNNNNNNNNNPPPOIJBDNDMSKAKANGSBSN @SITG WTF I just got off stage........, you filled the tent at 12.15 !!!!!!!
— Eves The Behavior (@evesthebehavior) July 25, 2015
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So the general feeling around camp is that Friday night’s headliner Mark Ronson pretty much delivered despite the teeming, pouring, torrential rain he had to do it in and an already spirit-dampening 45 minute wait after Monsters and Men who preceded him with a monster set, reports our Guardian colleague Anna Cotton.
Nothing stops Mark Ronson. Playing in the pouring rain at the Amphitheatre. #SITG #SITG2015 #Splendour https://t.co/dsWRhZXdPV
— FasterLouder (@FasterLouder) July 24, 2015
There was plenty Uptown Funk, of course, but the tweets afterwards were reserved for Ronson’s tribute to Amy Winehouse – “one of the greatest voices of all time” – for which the backing supergroup fell silent for Winehouse’s original vocals.
Alex Spring chatted to Ronson earlier in the day and asked him if he’d seen Amy, the film.
I’ve seen it twice. I think it’s a very well made film. I knew when I saw [Asif Kapadia’s early documentary] Senna, I was like, its going to be respectful and well done. It’s obviously hard, its very emotional watching 80% of the movie, but I loved seeing all the footage of her when she was younger. You see the lyrics on the screen, you remember how amazing they were, even the lyrics from before I worked with her, like Stronger than Me. I’m like, she really was one of the best lyricists of this entire generation. So it’s a bit like hanging out with an old friend again, seeing the movie, that’s the nice part.
We’ll be running Alex’s full interview and a video later this afternoon – link to follow
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Is it bragging to say that First Dog pulled a full house at midday on a Saturday at Splendour (akin to the early hours of the morning in any other setting)?
Introduced by MC Adam Brereton (otherwise known as Guardian Australia’s comment editor), Dog turned up on stage in a full shark suit (let’s hope Mick Fanning isn’t about) and proceeded to delight his fans who, if you’ll forgive the pun, “lapped up” his half hour set. Loudest boos went to any mention of Tony Abbott (prompting our new mission today, to find a loud and proud Abbott supporter on site) but they’re a refined bunch, these doggites, as they loved his ode to windfarms too.
Meanwhile, he’s been busy tweeting his impressions of north NSW. And we thought dogs liked mud?
There is a lot of mud here in NSW. In Melbourne we have nice bluestone laneways but here it is all mud.
— Mr Onthemoon (@firstdogonmoon) July 25, 2015
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Hello campers (and readers at home)
Top of the morning to you. It’s day two and we’re back blogging live from the Guardian Lounge at the Splendour Forum in North Byron Parklands .
We’re sitting on Guardian cushions, dosed up on Guardian coffee, and we’re listening to none other than First Dog on the Moon, the Guardian’s award-winning marsupial cartoonist, entertaining the midday crowds next door. Dog’s fans are a dedicated bunch – much of the festival has yet to wake up.
That might have something to do with Friday night’s STORM. The 60% chance of rain we chatted about on the blog turned into an 100% washout just in time for Mark Ronson’s headline act (more on that in a bit), so the Splendour site is a glorious mudbath this morning, albeit one that is slowing baking dry in the Saturday sun.
Team Guardian Splendour is back to work and today we are in the Guardian Lounge. Can you tell? #SITG2015 #CUSHIONS pic.twitter.com/gmdEcd2WR5
— Guardian Aus Culture (@GdnAusCulture) July 25, 2015
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