Features
Ken West: Why I Couldn’t Let Big Day Out Die
By Tim Scott
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the iconic Big Day Out, but it’s hardly been cause for celebration for its founder Ken West. With his long-time business associate Vivian Lees opting out, he tells TIM SCOTT why he’s prepared to put his “lush life” at risk to keep it afloat.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] It's been a rollercoaster 12 months for Big Day Out founder Ken West. Leading up to the 20th anniversary of the iconic national music festival he’s had to deal with a more competitive (some would say saturated) music festival market, a high Australian dollar, slow ticket sales, the near cancellation of the New Zealand leg, his long time businesses partner Vivian Lees walking out and Kanye West's ego. Little wonder he's back on the darts.
But with a new partnership deal with US-based C3 – the promoter behind Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits – the affable West is pulling no punches. Sitting in a site office at Flemington Racecourse, the festival site in Melbourne, the promoter was unblinking and strikingly candid as he chatted about the new business partnership, the challenges of running a music festival in 2012 and his emotional attachment to the festival he co-founded in Sydney in 1992.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
What’s the deal with C3? Is it a partnership?
It's a partnership. I came into this year quite honestly and simply thinking: “No one can unravel this but me. I'm going to have to wear it holus-bolus. If I lose the home, lose the office lose everything, whatever. The Big Day Out has give me a lush life and I'm not going to just let it die like that.” The ridiculous pressure and confusion that went on because of the 20-year thing actually created, in a weird way, an exact parallel to how the first Big Day Out started: pleading with the artists and trying to work out all their insecurities and problems. We were trying to get across to a confused audience which back then didn't know what a festival was.
So why C3?
They know their strengths. They are really good at working fast, they are fantastically connected with all the artist management and the artists directly. They have a good relationship with the agents but they don't put up with any bullshit. They're Texan. They're not New Yorkers or LA types. They are not Australian.
Do they have much experience in touring festivals? Austin City Limits is in Austin and think Lollapalooza now is just in Chicago.
C3 got involved with Lollapalooza the year it got resurrected. The great thing about it is that they are in the resurrection business. [Laughs] They do lots of bands. They do 700 or 800 shows a year and the artists know that they are in safe hands which has always been the same with Big Day Out. But safe hands went out the window when people were leaving us to go to people and festivals that just paid more. That trust was the backbone of what we were about. But, of course, it was more than just that. It was also the collapse of the local music scene, record labels, independent stores, the growth of the internet, the growth of eBay, the scalping problems, the over supply of events.
You say C3 is in the resurrection business. Are they integral in keeping the Big Day Out alive?
They are integral in keeping me alive to be honest. [Laughs] They really see the Big Day Out as being important so therefore their passion is to fix the problem.
So Viv left and you needed them to step in?
Well, I haven't done the shows yet! There was two ways of doing it. The way I thought it was going to go is that no one would want to touch it until I had gotten through this year. Then after the shows I'd be able to say, “Well there you go. We've lost money. I’m a worn man. The shows are great. We've kept our relationship with the artists OK”, but this year’s slogan that I've been working with is, “Crazy but not stupid.” All I know is that I couldn't let it die like that. I didn't care if I lost everything, I still don't care if I lose everything because it's only transient. It's screwdrivers. It's food until you reach a certain age then it's screwdrivers. It's a Bunnings voucher and money is the screwdriver that helps you put the Ikea thing together. [Laughs] But I would be very handicapped without something like C3 because everyone would be very nervous about going forward. I accepted that and knew all the problems were going down when I was calling all my friends overseas and big bands and they weren't able to help this year. But now with C3 it comes back to the “safe hands” thing again.
Will the C3 relationship see more opportunities for Australian bands in the US?
They will be relying on our advice a lot. Also, they have the same thinking … I've been fighting for quite a few years now the idea of governmental special events. Things are really annoying because they only care about sports and the Grand Prix or V8s, and the music industry means nothing unless it hasn't happened before and somebody else can get the credit. Even if it's a disaster.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
What do you mean by that?
Well they only put money into events that haven't happened. They don't support anything that already exists. I've seen the trainwreck coming for a while now. The thinking is that, “The big events can afford it. We'll charge this.” I just got a $130,000 user pay police bill just for the Gold Coast. $100-an-hour for police. That's not right. If the police [themselves] were getting a $100 an hour, maybe.
The economy for these festivals has been going ballistic though.
Yeah it's a bubble. Over supply. It takes 10 years for a band, if they are amazing, to become a headliner. We are overfished and we are being sold fish, but we are running out of tuna. The bubble has burst. It had burst elsewhere and it's the number one problem for festivals worldwide. I think something like 30 or 40 European festival collapsed in the last two years so therefore the agents are getting more concerned, but they don't know how to fix it because they want to look like they are getting the most amount of money for their acts. You have to make them think again back to trying to develop acts rather than just sell them off.
Were there problems this year between Kanye and Soundgarden closing?
It was never possible for Kanye to play before Soundgarden for musical reasons as well as status. Basically we had a problem with two acts who weren't quite perfect to close and neither would play second last and so getting that through was sold in a way that was very expensive. [Laughs] The formula is actually supposed to be quite simple. You get a bonafide headliner: Muse, Metallica, Chili Peppers, whatever, and then everyone falls into line. You can't say, “I want this much money because your headliner isn't strong enough.” But this year’s lineup got built from the ground up because we have been waiting all year for Prince to say yes. We were warned but we were like, “Oh come on, it's 20 years, he will want to do it.”
You are working to schedules too, right?
Exactly! That's the thing that people forget about. One of the amazing things when going through the process when this collapsed was talking to the Gudiniskis, and [those sorts of] people. They didn't quite get it. As a promoter you are used to getting the tour but not getting it the week you want it. So your process of negotiation is really difficult and if you don't have it all pinned down in enough time to say, “Stuff it, I'll get someone else”, then you are going down a very dangerous road. Sometime it has worked for us really well. This year we didn't have a Boiler Room closer or a Green Stage closer and the two main stage spots were still open a week out from announcement.
Do the slow ticket sales reflect both the lineup and the current economic situation?
Yeah the lineup stalled the momentum of sales. The over anticipation and expectation of what the lineup was going to be. The Chili Peppers were mentioned and talked about in the media as well. In the end of the day you either do the festival or you don't do it. You pay what you have to pay when you are in a spot like that, but you don't ever want to be in that spot again. People started buying things because they were worried other people would take them. Future has done the same fuck up as we have done. They took stuff because they were afraid we would take it, not because they wanted them. I really wanted Aphex Twin. I really wanted Skrillex. I wanted Fatboy Slim but they jumped in with a really huge offer in the middle of me talking to them and I was like, “I'm out!”
“If I lose the home, lose the office lose everything, whatever. The Big Day Out has give me a lush life and I'm not going to just let it die like that.”
Have you considered doing another more dance-orientated event that would allow you to compete with Future?
Yeah, I've considered all that before but I think genre-specific events are tough. [It has to be] the ultimate melting pot. It's got to be a platform for diverse acts to play to a diverse audience. So we get the best performance out of each act because they are playing out of their comfort level: they have to work harder. If you play a genre-specific festival nobody is happy. The audience gets bored. The bands are bored. I won't name names but there are some people who are like, “Oh Jesus, is he playing? I will have to speak to them again.”
It's got to be a good experience for the artists. That has driven the Big Day Out; artists wanting to play it. Björk wanted to play before Rage, and Neil Young wanted to be on the festival so he could play to a younger audience. Metallica wanted to do it because they were in the middle of Some Kind of Monster, having nervous breakdowns, and so Lars wanted to be at the Big Day Out so he didn't have to hang out with his own band. Chili Peppers in 2000 got on the show because they'd just found [guitarist John] Frusciante in the Chateau Marmont no teeth left on his deathbed.
In ’97, you were ready to walk away. Are you glad you didn't?
I'm really glad I came back. I'm really glad I stopped it. One of the problems here is that I've always wanted to have another years break but it's got to be a break when it's at a peak, not a trough.
Viv walked away because he had enough?
No, because it was too hard and I agree, but I couldn't let go because emotionally the Big Day Out owns me whereas emotionally the Big Day Out doesn't own Vivian. I created it so I got to bury it. Not accounting [Laughs] Death by accountancy is a horrible way to die.
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