The Spank! Records Blog

On tour with the Big Day Out and a little DJ called Mark Murphy (Part 3)

It’s over! I can still remember when I stepped off the plane in the Goldie for the first Big Day Out with the hopes and expectations of a young virgin on her wedding night. Look…no knickers!

Anyway, I flew into Adelaide, the smallest of the BDOs (over 30,000), and what a hot day! Jeez Louise, I felt like I dropped a pant size from the airport to the hotel. I stayed on the outskirts of the city centre with the air conditioning turned up so that the windows were frosty. I could even write the words ‘Mark Murphy sux!’ in big, bold letters.

This one was held at the showgrounds in Adelaide and it was a little dustier than the others. This and Perth were probably the drunkest of the five, but not in a bad way, if there’s such a thing. I hit the Boiler Room which was a massive shed and was surprised to feel it was cooler than outside, which was a blessing. Played my set after Spank Rock (Lilly Allen was doing the West Coast only) and that was fun. It was apparently being broadcast live on Fresh FM but I was more concerned about my cheese platter melting in my dressing room. Oh yeah, baby, I had a rider just like the real stars!

Adelaide was a little perplexed by Peaches. I think they got her but they didn’t react until after every track, which was weird. The Streets were great. The singer was HOT! No, he really was hot. I caught him sunbaking out the back of the Boiler Room. It must've been 40 degrees!

Decided to catch some local talent but after hearing my stomach over the noise, thought better of it and headed to the food hall. Sat down with the drummer of Jet and tucked into a lovely salad and a slice of crispy bread. ROCK N ROLL!!!! He was eating some sort of rice dish. I pretended to be somebody and nodded.

Ventured back out into the heat. I had bought a hat in Melbourne so I thought I would wear it because I got really burnt there. I didn’t realise what a knob I looked until I got home and saw it in the mirror. Thank god there were no photos taken.

Hung around for a while and then headed back to the hotel. Justice were doing a gig at a small club in the city called Rocket so I went there to meet up with them and Ming (Fuzzy). Nice club and the crowd were getting into the stuff they were playing…and was that an old Madonna track I heard?

Onto the last BDO of the tour – Perth. This year it had sold out and was double the attendance of last year (42,000). I caught a cab to the hotel which was in the business district. The driver's name was Fran, a lovely lady who suddenly started telling me that where I was staying was in the middle of nowhere and that I was better off staying at Freemantle. Not knowing anything about Perth except for Rose Porteous Hancock, I started panicking. What should I do? I was here for three days. I wanted cafes and shops and people and stuff like that. It turned out she was totally wrong. There were heaps of shops and I bought a couple of pairs of pants, which I now regret.

I played in a club called Ambar on the Saturday with Dopamine which was crankin and such a good little club. I was a little worried as I think the night is usually a breaks night but the only breaks I had was the one in my knee – a little accident I had with a rocking horse when I was ten. I played my usual fare and they loved it which was really encouraging. My friend drank my entire $100 drinks card while I was playing so it was time to leave.

Arrived at the BDO on the Sunday. No private tent for me this time but I still got the beer – woohoo! The Boiler Room was a small stage outdoors around the side of the showgrounds. It was more intimate and no less fun. After I played, I decided to catch the acts I hadn't seen so we went and checked out John Butler (not my thing), Muse (good) a bit more of Tool (not my thing) and finally the Violent Femmes who were fantastic. ‘Gone Daddy Gone’ was an absolute highlight!

I liked Perth. It's certainly not what I expected. I went to the after party for one drink and had to go home to bed 'cause I was stuffed! The flight home was long and uneventful until the guy next to me had a fainting spell and had to lie down at the back of the plane. They thought it may have been a heart attack, but it wasn't. I offered him my copy of Woman's Day when he got back. Thought that may help.

Anyway, that was my first Big Day Out tour and I loved every minute of it. It's such a great event and it was great to be part of it. I have nothing left to say but goodbye and thanks for the memories, although I can't remember a thing!

Rock on.

Mark Murphy

On tour with the Big Day Out and a little DJ called Mark Murphy (Part 2)

Whores, drugs and rock 'n roll…and that was just the latest issue of New Weekly I was reading at the café where I was having breakfast last Thursday morning (I like my eggs scrambled, not stirred). After a nice café latté, we jumped in the car and headed out to Homebush for the Sydney leg of the Big Day Out. This event sold out in a few hours and apparently the whole tour is now the biggest selling Big Day Out in history. Could it be because of me, perhaps?

Got there to find it pretty busy already (the biggest difference between Sydney and Melbourne is that Sydney gets sooo messy so early. Melbourne, I find, are much more relaxed and less into getting wasted but more into the music…man. Anyway, both are fun).

Now, because I am doing the whole tour, my pass has been upgraded to AAA (Access All Areas) so I thought I would utilise this to the fullest today. You know, as much star-spotting as these peepers can handle. Why not! It’s not every day you have a lanyard that can get you anywhere!

Started my set at sometime after three. Got my first track on and had a terrible time with the first mix. Couldn’t work out whether it was the stylus or something else. Second mix was fine but the third or fourth track, it happened again. But this time the stylus got stuck. I had to nudge the needle three or four times to get it into the next groove. It got stuck again and I realised there was no hope so I did the quick mix to another track. I was sweating that much I could’ve bottled it for the thousands in front of me. They looked like they needed it. I worked out what was wrong (I’m not telling as it could spell the end of my DJing career, although it wasn’t my fault, I swear) after the sound guy changed the stylus and from then on, I was fine.

I got through it, relieved myself and thought I’d try and use the AAA passes and get backstage to the main stadium. Can I tell you, it’s another world. We got onstage to the side and watched The Killers perform. We were right there in front of 20-30,000 people. At that moment I wanted to throw my DJing career out the window and become the singer in a rock band. Sure, I was too old but who cares…Iggy Pop is still going! I wanted what they had. Why can’t I have it?

I also flinched watching the kids being dragged from the mosh pit after nearly being crushed. The lead singer of The Killers had to say something. It really did look frightening down there. But it was great to see the kids passionately mouthing every word and phrase to every song. Watched Jet brush past us as they went on stage to do their thing. They were alright.

I had to play on the Gold Coast that night so I had to leave early. Made it to the airport just in time. Relieved myself once again before boarding. You don’t want cramps and you certainly don’t want to use the toilet on the plane. I always feel you could fall right through.

On to Melbourne. It had sold out (obviously, they knew I was playing) and was set in a massive field on the outskirts of Melbourne. It was stinking hot and being somewhat pale, I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to get some colour. So I said ‘no’ to sunscreen which now sounds absolutely foolish as I look like a lobster, fully cooked!

The set up was great although there was no stadium so you couldn’t sit down and watch the bands. This was also like the Gold Coast. Lots of big tents. I liked the carnival aspect of this or maybe I just love a big tent.

Started my set after Lilly Allen again. She had the place packed and was slamming George Bush and saying how Melbourne was a much better audience than Sydney, where on cue, the crowd went berserk. I’ll let you know if she does the same thing in Adelaide. A tired trick, but effective.

I put my first track on and had the monitors turned way up and thought that it sounded great. I actually started ‘grooving’ but couldn’t understand why most of the crowd was leaving. Sure, I realise that the majority of people are here to see the internationals, but I was foreign – I was from Sydney. Anyway, I then hear these footsteps approaching from behind and there was the sound engineer leaning over to turn the master volume up. There was no sound out there! Who had turned the master down? Nobody does that! Anyway, the rest of the set was great.

Tried to catch some other acts I hadn’t seen like Hot Chip, who were good, but didn’t see a lot of them. Something About Kate were alright, but really depressing. The jumping castle behind the main stage was fun and I had dinner with Simon Day (hi Lia) from Ratcat which was great. Caught a bit of Tool but being a dance head, was not really into 20-minute songs about stuff I don’t really didn’t need to know. And Justice were amazing, again.

Adelaide and Perth next, so stay tuned. Rock on.

Mark

On tour with the Big Day Out and a little DJ called Mark Murphy (Part 1)

…so N-Zed was busy making me these delicious chicken sausage wraps (he’s moved up to the Gold Coast to live). He was doing the hospitable thing but I couldn’t stop looking at my watch. It was nearly 2pm and I was due to play the first round of the Big Day Out tour in the Boiler Room at 3.15pm. I was starting to get a little concerned. I brought up the time with him so he scoffed his wrap, we said goodbye to his girl, Skye, got in the car and started to drive off after he said it would only take ‘30 mins max’. I think he’s in ‘Gold Coast mode’.

With 20 mins to go before I was due on, we arrived. I guess I was a little pale although I rarely see the sun. We had the wrong passes and they wouldn’t allow him to park the car in the artist space. That’s where I left him, apologetically. I jumped out and walked briskly (bolted, actually) back stage to be greeted by Ben – the man behind the Boiler Room. He looked relieved. I apologised profusely and was fiddling with my lanyard (they never face the right way!) and on looking up walked straight into a massive bit of scaffolding.

The sound of my head hitting the pole was deafening. Shocked, Ben checked to see if there was blood. Luckily, there wasn’t but it felt like I was hearing Kate Bush’s ‘Babooshka’ ten-fold. I raced up onto the DJ stage, albeit a little wobbly, just in time for the last couple of tracks from Lily Allen. She looked like fun and the crowd were lapping her up.

The main difference between the Sydney and Gold Coast BDOs is the fact that most of the stages are tents, bar the two main band stages. The Boiler Room was massive and was packed when Lily was playing. I did my thing, played well and got the crowd ready for Peaches. She was her usual dominating self and having seen her twice before thought I’d venture around the grounds and check out the festival. It was huge! The people were in the process of getting trashed, but boy were they polite. There was always an ‘excuse me’ as they barged past. I like that. You can knock me to the ground but throw me an apology while you’re doin’ it and I’ll be happy.

Caught Spank Rock who were great then moved on to witness the rammed Lillypad where Sneaky Sound System were doin’ their thing. It’s crazy how massive these guys are! The kids love em and good luck to em, I say. Checked out a bit of The Killers and had a good little sing-a-long with a couple I hung around with all day. We were out of tune but lovin’ every note.

Headed back for a nice slice of Diplo (cool) and the strains of New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’. Watched my manager, Carl, eat a hotdog with mustard and couldn’t believe he was doing that shit in front of me. We ventured back stage to my little area where we tucked into a nice cheese and fruit platter. Delicious! I felt like a rock star so I thought I’d trash the place with the plastic chairs but then realised how untidy it would look so I actually cleaned up. We ran out of beer, thought about nicking The Presets’ stash but didn’t and then ventured back into the Boiler Room to catch the set I was most looking forward to for most of the day – Justice.

They came on after The Streets and played an hour and a half of pure rave-noise. Awesome! One of the guys was drawing and it was being projected on the back screen. They opened with ‘Waters Of Nazareth’ and finished with it and in between played everything from ACDC to Boys Noise to their new track ‘Phantom’ to Scissor Sisters and a couple of old rave tracks. The crowd loved it. Pick of the day for me, but you, know, I’m a little biased 'cause they’re one of my fave producers of the moment. Caught a bit of The Presets and then strode off to see Tool, then decided to head home as I had to play at 'Elsewhere' on the Gold Coast later that night. Great day, great fun, great scott!

See ya next week with more stories on my travels with this beast that is the Big Day Out. Rock on!

Mark Murphy