The Big Day Out arrived on our shores from Australia in 1994, opening two decades of incredible shows. But the curtain came down for the last time at Auckland’s Western Springs in 2014, after a big drop in ticket sales. Before his death, co-founder Ken West opened up about the
Big Day Out remembered: Lifting the lid on 90s sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll in Auckland
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In one chapter – titled The Year of the F*** You – West outlined how wild things got in 1995 when the line-up included Hole, The Cult, Primal Scream, The Offspring and Ministry.
“Over those three days, seeing what was coming off the plane brought home to me what we had taken on,” West wrote of his 6am trips to the airport to collect artists in the lead-up to the festival.
“Ministry were chemically dependent, Courtney [Hole lead singer Courtney Love] was certifiably self-destructive, The Cult were AA, Mark Lanegan from Screaming Trees was a basket case and of course, Primal Scream were out of control.”
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Scottish rock band Primal Scream were renowned for their love of the wild side.
But when they came through Customs, the band, including lead singer Bobby Gillespie, were surprisingly “cold sober”.
West soon learned why.
“Primals flew from London via LA and being 15 guys on the road, did what you would expect and got drunk rotten,” he wrote.
“Then, with a 4hr transit at LAX, they decided to drink their duty-free as well. Some of the guys, Rob and [guitarist Andrew] Innes in particular, were trouble, but their mate-cum-security guy was a real nightmare.”
The group were involved in what West described as a “minor confrontation”.
While allowed to board the flight to Auckland, they were later escorted off the plane by “fully armed police” and locked up for a day.
“All that seemed standard Primals,” he wrote.
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The sober version of Gillespie didn’t last long: “Bobby could go back to being the ‘out of it’, fragile, rock-star”.
West said it felt like everyone was in for a “wild ride” on the eve of the Auckland gig.
The bar at Central hotel was the first port of call, before a pre-tour party at Squid bar – a venue owned by former Push Push singer Mikey Havoc.
The event was sponsored by an alcoholic spirit featuring “real gold flakes floating in it”.
“People walked around with bottles and just poured it down your neck,” West wrote. “By midnight, we were in trouble, by 2am we were toast.
“I was meant to go to the venue at 6am ... it didn’t happen. This was the first time I missed the opening of the gates. It was a very, very hard start.”
He wrote that the backstage area that day was “very shabby”.
There were “myriad” issues, including West having to “break up a fight” between Ian Astbury, lead singer of The Cult, and a security guard, after the guard stopped Astbury for not wearing a backstage pass.
Later, West saw the male singer from one of the top bands throw a well-known female musician “over his shoulder” and take her off to his dressing room.
“And this was the first show,” he recalled.
“But even with all this intensity, it was sort of innocent. There was f***-all usable drugs in New Zealand.
“People like Courtney were on prescription drugs and the rest hoped we could find our poisons once back on Australian soil.”
Next stop was Melbourne.
But Love was late – after missing her first flight across the Tasman, she was arrested for abusing a flight attendant on a later one.
1994 – The tragic PR trip and a premature hotel room trashing
Big Day Out began in Sydney in 1992 with a gig headlined by the Violet Femmes and Nirvana. Two years later, it came to New Zealand.
For organisers it was a journey into the unknown. While still trying to cement Big Day Out into the entertainment landscape across the Tasman, West and Lees decided to give New Zealand a crack.
In a chapter titled, The Year It Went Boom, West wrote he was “worried how Auckland would go”.
So, in November 1993, he went over to promote the concert and work on gig logistics.
During one of his interviews – live on air with student radio station bFM – the police Eagle helicopter and a small plane flying traffic patrol collided over the central Auckland motorway system.
Tragically, the pilots of the plane and helicopter, as well as two police officers on board the helicopter, died.
“I remember well my interview with bFM ... I decided to break the rules and play an advance cassette copy of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun’,” West wrote.
“This wasn’t to be released for two months so I was risking big repercussions.
“The DJ was excited, so excited in fact that when another staff member ran into the studio to say that the police helicopter had just smashed into the freeway overpass, we had to decide which was more important.
“It was a long three minutes to the end of the song.”
West also recalled how the station “almost got shut down” after one of its announcers made a crass joke about the tragedy.
Fast-forward two months and Big Day Out was ready to rock Auckland with a line-up including Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, The Breeders, Urge Overkill, Def FX, the Headless Chickens and Shihad.
The night before the show, promoters took Soundgarden out for dinner which left the band’s guitarist Kim Thayil “really excited that he had eaten lobster for the first time”.
“So excited in fact that he went back to the hotel and trashed his room,” West wrote.
“In the morning he was in the lobby feeling very pleased with himself that he had achieved such a grand rock gesture until [You Am I manager] Kate Stewart pointed out that he had another night to stay and ‘traditionally’ you trash your room, then check out.
“He seemed quite disappointed with himself and went back and tidied up.”
West said the promoters displayed “blind faith” in coming to Auckland.
Promoting outdoors shows in New Zealand was a “horrific process” as so many people held off buying a ticket until the last minute. Because of that, bad weather could sink an event.
That year, just 5000 tickets had been sold three days out from the day-long concert. But 16,000 fans ultimately attended the Mt Smart Stadium show.
“So, after looking at a financial disaster a few days out, we ended up with a great success on our hands,” he wrote.
1996 – The pop star who liked the ‘dark side’ and the paparazzi
The Big Day Out had hit the big time by the time the 1996 musical roadshow set up at Mt Smart.
In a chapter titled, F*** Friendship, Let’s Festival, West said what started as a “summer event in concept and workload” was now a “full-time job”.
Venues and artists were confirmed mid-year.
And the line-up for 1996 featured overseas heavyweights such as Porno For Pyros, Rage Against the Machine, Elastica and Tricky, with Shihad headlining the local offerings.
The festival would be bittersweet for Shihad.
Just hours after performing one of the most legendary sets of Big Day Out’s Auckland existence, their manager Gerald Dwyer died of a drug overdose.
Not only did the 1996 festival feature some of the biggest alternative and indie bands of the day, but pop queen Kylie Minogue also made several one-song cameos.
The former soap star performed Where the Wild Roses Grow on four stops of the festival with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. In his memoir, West claimed Auckland was one of the stops where she performed - but that was actually not the case.
During the tour, there were rumours linking the pair romantically, which led to a media frenzy, including while he was in Auckland for the NZ leg of the tour.
“In the world of the paparazzi, or should I say para-sitie, it was another story,” West said.
“Having Kylie on the road sounded like a fun idea. To us, she was a nice girl with an okay voice that lucked out in the commercial world.
“But to the media, especially when she was now linked to Nick, it was a chance for some parasite to make a quick buck.
“The funny thing with Kylie on the road was that for us it was no big deal. She was a pretty suburban girl from Melbourne, had gone out with friends Mark Gerber, then Michael Hutchence, and seemed to like the dark side.
“Nick, on the other hand, actually was the dark side and confessed to us that he had a lust for checkout chicks. I guess he had a point; Kylie was the ultimate sexy checkout chick.”
The media circus over Minogue wasn’t the only drama Big Day Out bosses had to contend with in Auckland in 1996.
Wild weather almost meant the show was cancelled six hours in.
For the opening few hours, it was a “smooth day”. Hourly satellite weather updates sent to the production office signalled ongoing fine weather.
That was until the most “intense storm” over the venue as Elastica took the stage, dumping 3cm of rain in an hour.
West recalled that as the venue manager was swinging his arms and demanding the show be stopped, the sun suddenly returned.
The final drama West had to deal with that day was tension between rapper Tricky and Rage Against the Machine’s crew.
“Halfway through his set, the Rage crew started sound checking the bass and drums,” West wrote.
“This did not go down well with Tricky. Before we could get them to stop, he simply walked from his stage, through the centre PA tower dividing the stages, then walked up to them with his radio mic in hand and yelled, ‘shut the f*** up!’
“It was a beautiful moment. The audience cheered and so did we.”
* The original version of this story quoted West’s memoir in saying Kylie Minogue performed at the Auckland leg of the 1996 Big Day Out tour. His recollection was incorrect.
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 30 years of newsroom experience.
