A Day On The Green are known for their good wine and good food, and this year the festival has created a reunion unlike any other for Aussie ‘90s rock legends You Am I.
Since 2001, the national music, wine and food festival has hosted international and Aussie artists at some of our country’s finest wineries. Though this November, the festival is not only bringing together the best of food and wine, but seemingly the very best in rock music too.
For the very first time, Aussie favourites You Am I, Spiderbait and Something For Kate are uniting in what they’re coining a rock music ‘frat house’ alongside Jebediah and The Meanies. “It could be dangerous! There’s some bad eggs in that mob that could go off on everybody,” You Am I bass guitarist Andy Kent laughs.
“We all share a history and we’ve all shared times together over the years, whether it be overseas or touring together here, just being friends and catching up. We all share a time and a place in Australian musical history, so it’s going to be really fun.”
In the peak era of Aussie rock, the young lads made their debut back in 1992, quickly becoming a staple within the Australian rock & roll scene and on festival line-ups.
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The foursome, fronted by Tim Rogers, played at the inaugural Big Day Out in the same year as their debut record release, and won the first of their string of music awards throughout their 25-year career. Now seven Big Day Outs, ten albums and thirty ARIA nominations later, the band are known as the elder statesmen of the genre.
However, they’ve undoubtedly continued their remarkable rock & roll reign into a new era. “Big Day Out was a bunch of kids just packed in there and carrying on… we were all about big-city festivals. They were held right in the cities, and they just don’t happen any more. If you look regionally, that’s where all the big festivals are, like Big Pineapple and Groovin The Moo,” Andy says.
“Nothing stays the same forever, and it’s just the movement out of the cities and into the regional areas, and it’s hard to understand why. At the same time, I think it’s really healthy. People still love to go to big festivals, they’re just in different places now.”
Although the moshpits of Big Day Out are no longer pumping, A Day On The Green has often been described as the Big Day Out for adults, just with the civilised addition of fine wine and food. But, with November’s epic bill, one can certainly expect no shortage of fantastic music to bring the house down. “We’ve played these shows before, and we’ve always been supporting, it’s not really been our show or we’ve been invited along as part of the bill… [This time] we feel like it’s our show,” Andy says. And according to the band, it really is unlike any other event on the calendar.
“You look out into the crowd and there’s people having a good time, dancing about and singing the songs, which is really fun to watch. Then you look out and there’s usually some poor chap who’s spent too much money trying to impress his girlfriend, and he’s sitting in a plastic seat drinking wine he probably doesn’t really understand and feels out of place,” Andy laughs.
As their second round with A Day On The Green, You Am I, alongside musical friends Something For Kate, will be showing good mates Spiderbait the ropes of the winery stops. “As much as we all know each other, everyone travels, they tour and whatever, and we don’t spend that much time together. We’re going to be spending a few weeks together, so that’s going to be nice; drinking nice wine, playing good music and hanging out. It’ll be good times.
“There’s a fairly high level of respect across everyone musically. Musicians generally have a kinship which is hard to explain, but which [eventually] builds into people liking each other and their music. It’s a nice camaraderie that has been on and off over the years.”
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Though the friendships aren’t exclusive to the old-boys club. As the exciting new generation of rock talent make waves on the tour circuits, they’re all becoming part of the gang too. “There’s a shitload of really, really good Australian bands at the moment. It’s a healthy, fertile country for rock & roll. There’s bands like Bad//Dreems, The Delta Riggs, Sticky Fingers, The Smith Street Band; they’re all big bands,” Andy says.
“We played a festival recently and Regurgitator, Smith Street and Bad//Dreems were all on it, and all those bands just really love watching each other play and hanging out. It wasn’t so much about age or generation or whatever, it was just appreciation of solid music.
“There’s a lot of spirit in young bands and lot of intent, and that’s incredible to watch. I suppose you know, all bands are similar, they’ve got a lot to inject into what they do, we were no different. There’s some very exciting bands around right now that are doing great things, so it’s good to see."
Thanks to the energy of the young guns though, the old boys certainly aren’t rocking any less than they were back in the ’90s. “All these old bands are still playing, so it’s not like anyone has pulled some old drummer out of his fucking day job, and they’re back out on the road and he’s trying to relearn stuff from 20 years ago,” Andy jokes.
“Listening to new records and watching them play, [the young bands] are totally inspiring and awesome. We’re up there watching Delta Riggs and Smith Street Band and you go ‘yes! Those guys are fucking great and I want to play music now’, and when we play late in the day after all those bands have played, they’ve got us into the spirit.
“Musically people evolve and change with age and become more mature, but at the same time but there’s still that passion and energy that rock & roll has when you’re lucky enough to be in a decent band.”
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You Am I, Something For Kate & Spiderbait ADOTG Dates
Sat 5 Nov - Bimbadgen (Hunter Valley)Sun 6 Nov - Sirromet Wines (Mount Cotton)
Sat 12 Nov - Mt Duneed Estate (Geelong)
Sat 13 Nov - Rochford Wines (Yarra Valley)
Sat 19 Nov - Peter Lehmann Wines (Barossa Valley)
Sun 20 Nov - Kings Park & Botanic Garden (Perth)
