How The Dig It Up! Gamble Paid Off
News posted Tuesday, May 1 2012 at 06:00 PM.
Related: Hoodoo Gurus, Dig It Up.
The Hoodoo Gurus’ Dave Faulkner has described it as a “huge gamble”, but the inaugural Dig It Up! may well have proved there’s a gap in an over-crowded market for genre-specific events.
The series – which travelled to Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, before wrapping up in Perth over the weekend – brought together complementary bands spanning psych, garage and ’50s-’60s rock’n’roll for the 30th anniversary of the Gurus’ watershed single ‘Leilani’. It featured iconic acts such as The Fleshtones, Redd Kross, The Sonics, Kim Salmon, The Sunnyboys and Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate), but also some “newer” bands including the Straight Arrows, Beaches, The Frowning Clouds and Royal Headache.
The response from fans was overwhelming, especially for an event in its first year. Perth and Brisbane legs sold out weeks in advance, while Sydney and Melbourne were close to capacity. And yet it was initially considered an “unlikely enterprise” when promoter Tim Pittman from Feel Presents first raised the idea with the Gurus. “Most people in the industry thought it was a very ‘brave’ undertaking (meaning: way too risky),” wrote Faulkner following the final leg in Perth on Saturday (April 28).
So why has Dig It Up! succeeded where other fledgling events have failed?
Some have put it down to demographics – a user on Facebook described it as the Big Day Out “for the beer bellied Rock Pig Fraternity” – but Pittman doesn’t really subscribe to that theory. He told M+N this week there was a sense of commonality between the acts that isn’t replicated at major festivals. If there was a demand for a new type of experience, he says, it was driven by genre, not age.
“For me this is a genre-based event as opposed to the lazy journalism analogy of ‘Big Day Out for grown-ups’,” he says. “It’s not a festival as such. It’s not any number of different types of bands thrown against the dartboard, and you want to see three out of the 17 that are playing. This is a genre-based event where you want to see everything. Perhaps if you’re an older person, you don’t know some of the new stuff, so you go and check it out. Or if you’re a younger kid, you go see some of the old stuff.”
Still, it’s hard to deny that an older demographic was drawn to Dig It Up!, despite the presence of some younger acts such as Royal Headache and Straight Arrows. “It was largely over 35,” Pittman concedes, “but after 20 or 30 years of loving this stuff, they still come out. You mightn’t be able to say the same thing about lots of other genres or styles. I can’t imagine people of that age group going to a dance festival.”
He says he was particularly pleased with the response from an older segment of the crowd to bands such as The Lovetones, Royal Headache and Straight Arrows. “What was great about Dig It Up! was introducing that stuff to them. Straight Arrows went down a storm to people that hadn’t see them. Royal Headache were great for anyone over about 35. Equally, reading forums, plenty of young people caught The Fleshtones and thought they were fantastic – they’ve been around since 1976. I reckon you’d have a hard time getting a younger person to [see] Kraftwerk at a bigger festival, and they walk away going, ‘Wow, Kraftwerk were amazing.’ I don’t think that really connects.”
"For me this is a genre-based event as opposed to the lazy journalism analogy of ‘Big Day Out for grown-ups’."
Dig It Up! may well be the first time an event of its kind has taken place in Australia. The short-lived Flip Out was a more contemporary take on a similar theme, while Melbourne’s Sugar Mountain encompasses a much broader cross-section of acts and scenes. In some respects, it’s comparable to Soundwave, the metal-oriented behemoth that’s taken the festival market by storm since debuting in Perth in 2004.
“A couple people have said it’s the best thing in 10 years, and I have to ask, ‘What happened 10 years ago?’ I can’t even think what it was,” Pittman says.
As for Dig It Up!’s future, Pittman says he’s hopeful it’ll take place again next year. “The response has been overwhelming really – not to the announcement or the build-up – but once were done people seemed to be pretty much out of their minds with excitement. I think it’d be silly not to go back and revisit it, or try and make it annual.”
(Photo by Robert Carbone)
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oh i don't agree with this at all
(perhaps just a poor example)
The Lovetones? correction! 7th paragraph.
hey electricsound. i think tim was trying to say that'd you'd have a hard time getting a younger crowd to even see Kraftwerk at a big festival.
huh?
no no i got that, i just don't entirely agree with his view is all
Kraftwerk did play the BDO about 6 years ago didn't they? I seem to remember plenty of buzz from all types.
Was just coming in to agree with esound and say what blake said! I think Kraftwerk went down fantastically.
Really great piece, and I'm so happy this concept succeeded. I reckon there's a huge number of 30-something to 40-somethings that want to be back amongst the experience of real live music (rather than the massively overblown Chugg/Gudinski stuff that's pointed at them) - they've just lost their connection with it and don't know where it happens. I stumble across them frequently in suburbia....
Judging by the success of this and what flukazoid said, do you reckon ATP would have succeeded if it was done in a more city friendly format? That was definitely a niche line-up that would have been appreciated by slightly olders punters too....
was this ever really such a gamble? sounded like a pretty solid concept from the beginning, i guess taking it on the road all the way to perth might have been a stretch - but if promoters thought it was risky it just goes to show how little they understand about what's happening on the street. in an ideal world this festival will help for bands to breakthrough into that second tier from playing underground shows to better paid shows on bigger stages to more people - it would be nice seeing promoters take more of a risk with the sort of bands they bill. I'm so over the triple J beige-wave.
ATP is Sydney was sensational, best festival i've been to.
On reflection, I guess What Is Music is another recent example of this type of event
I saw this as a one day atp, especially with the focus on ''artist curation'' that was mentioned several times. Especially the sydney event, and to a lesser extent melbourne.
Gets around a lot of the excessive costs and difficulties of a event like that but keeping the spirit and allow a focussed and directed good time to be had by all..
Considering feel was involved heavily with ATP aus its probably not that unexpected.
Maybe ATP should work itself back into the local market with some ''I'll Be Your Mirror'' type events rather than something as ambitious as Buller?
Would totally think it would be worth consideration, the idea didn't exist when ATP Australia happened so it couldn't have been done then. Take advantage of the venues and infrastructure already in place.
Great article, great concept. I really hope this is the beginning of more events like this. They're moneyed that 30-40 'used to rock out in my younger days, don't go out a whole lot anymore but will take the wife to some of those gigs at the wineries' demographic.
I agree with electricsound - the Kraftwork juxtaposition was ill-considered by Tim. Kraftwerk continue to blow younger generations' minds whenever they play live, as do other ''heritage'' electronic acts like Harmonia, Silver Apples or Suicide.
Anyway, be this as it may, I agree that genre-specific or artist-curated events provide a genius alternative to to the hotchpotch try-to-please-everyone line-ups that dominate most Australian festivals. For me, the blueprint for events like this lies in the Flip Out festivals of a couple of years ago and the Mt Buller ATP experience: mix up some highly influential older acts (both local and international) with some exciting new acts, and you've got a line-up where everyone wants to see every single act.
Sure, Australia doesn't have the audience numbers to sustain a major event like ATP (and what a bummer that is), but it's perfect for smaller, inner-city events like Dig It Up, Flip Out, or What Is Music.
You can't please everybody all of the time, but you sure can please some of the people a lot some of the time.
Dig It Up Melbourne was a triumph, I reckon.
The blueprint?
Bad choice of words....
to me Melb did not feel like a ''don't go out a whole lot anymore but will take the wife to some of those gigs at the wineries' demographic.'' but maybe it was the places i stood & the faces i recognised! i'm sure there was a % of those rare gig goers there
what are you basing this on Frankie? young people who listen to Skrillex would probably hate Harmonia and Suicide!
The Caravan Music Club has been doing well with the heritage acts for the last couple of years, was the most people I know who go to gigs at the Sonics on Friday (a bunch also went to Yah Yahs straight after.)
Not sure if Dig it Up would go as well if it was every year, needs to be something special.
Jose - I'm basing this on first-hand accounts of young people who've seen gigs by these old-timers, my own observations at shows I've attended, as well as the amount of newer acts who continue to be influenced by them. This seems to parallel the reverence of young garage rockers for bands like The Sonics or The Seeds.
You only need to look at bands like Chrome Dome, HTRK or Forces to see that people are translating the influence of older electronic music tropes into contemporary styles which find new audiences.
(Sorry about the random set of examples - I'm sure there are better ones)
i think the example was pretty apt in the context of the big day out. the majority of kids there to see my chemical romance or birds of tokyo aren't gonna pop around to see kraftwerk and come away wanting to buy a nord!
i should hope not!!
:)
i don't think dig it up should be annual either, but obviously they made some alright cash out of it and that's what makes the world go round after all. but does it mean hoodoo gurus would do it every year? cause i can see that getting old real quick.
I hope not. atp/i'll be your mirror doesn't have the velvets every year (or any year) and the name itself is catchy enough.
it was tim's concept according to brad from the gurus
BeiJJJe-wave
^^ Don't you mean ''The Fleshtones''?
Damn it, I can't delete posts. Sorry, I'm a Perthian and we only had two support acts.
They both played...
Thoroughly enjoyed the Melbourne show, especially The Fleshtones and Redd Kross who had not been to Australia since the early 1990s, but agree that doing it every year would be a stretch.
Everyone who went to All Tomorrow's Parties at Mt Buller raved about it, but the ''elephant in the room'' was that it drew a much smaller crowd than hoped for and it apparently lost a bit of money.
That's because it was at Mt Buller!
...and the accommodation situation was expensive and difficult.
As for other recent successfully curated events that brought together a diverse demographic, Overground, and MONAFOMA. Both with more interesting bands than this rock fest. Ten years ago, Short Attention Span - or was that too youth specific (I never went)?
''... reading forums, plenty of young people ...'' ha!
I hated Dig It Up. Sonics were a drawcard for me and they were balls. Perfect for an RSL. Oh yeah, how was that RSL gig? Old and young blinded by nostalgia.
Short Attention Span was indeed a genius festival. How many times was that put on? I can't remember (no pun intended)
Was going to mention Overground - the concept is quite similar to Dig It Up - ie. mix of old (established) and new, just in a different genre. Curated by knowledgeable people/artists, rather than profit-oriented events companies.
Don't get sidetracked by your own genre preferences. Look at the similarities, such as the audience mix of young and old, and the interest in seeing the maximum number of performances. That, to me, is the main difference, even to festivals like Meredith/Golden Plains, where different acts attract different audience. Not that I'm saying one type of event is better than another.
I get what Tim is saying. There isn't that many kiss the flag kids in the boiler room during Kraftwerks set. And it was pretty sweet watching parents being dropped off by their kids in the side streets of Enmore.
I didn't attend Dig It Up (the Brisbane one sold out pretty quickly), but it seems to me that on of the great things about it was the quality of the smaller local bands on the lineup. It seemed like a really well-selected group of well-loved veterans and exciting newer bands, and showed that the organisers had a good idea of what's actually going on in Australian rock'n'roll at the moment.
It makes a nice change from just having a bunch of boring industry insider acts whose label/management pushed them to the promoters (like so many other festivals). I hope that this doesn't change if Dig It Up continues in the future.
Mount Buller was problematic 'cos its attendee base was eaten away by the mini festivals put on around it. If it'd been run as a one-off, without those almost-kinda-sorta-full-lineup shows, it would've been more filled. Much as the ones OS are. I think that's about smart promotion and spacing of gigs, not the number of people prepared to go.
Which is a shame, as the setting shat all over Kutshers in the US, and I love that hole.
(More What Is Music a-la those nights with Merzbow and Fushitsusha, as an aside.)