Following Blur’s shock exit from the next year’s Big Day Out lineup due to “the constantly shifting goalposts and challenging conditions of the organisers,” newly enlisted co-organiser AJ Maddah has confirmed that organisers will today announce the replacement act/s that will attempt to fill the Blur shaped hole left in our hearts following the Britpop juggernaut’s surprising cancellation announcement.
@LOUIS_8888 You’ll have it tomorrow.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) November 28, 2013
Responding to a tweet from a BDO punter inquiring about the timeline for the announcement of a replacement, Maddah said “You’ll have it tomorrow” aka today, Friday the 29th of November.
When we interviewed BDO co-founder Ken West earlier this year he explained that the top heavy structure of the new lineup had forced them to squeeze out mid-level artists they would have liked to have pursued otherwise.
“This year was a really good bumper year in terms of acts with new
product that would be really perfect for the Big Day Out. Be that Arctic Monkeys or Phoenix or Queens of the Stone Age
and they were all in the mix with us at some stage,” he said. “This year was
really awkward in terms of the number of acts that were out there and
the number of acts who wanted to have a position. So when Pearl Jam said
“yes”, and then Blur and Arcade Fire said “yes”, the show had to
change. We’ve had to redesign the show accordingly. There’s a lot of
costs involved. Unfortunately, for better or for worse the next acts
down that we would have loved to have had on got squeezed out of the
equation. The top end has crunched us. The mid-level acts we would and
could have gotten didn’t fit into the budgetary restrictions.”
Organisers have already ruled out the likes of Foo Fighters, PJ Harvey, The Cure, Outkast, Daft Punk, The Strokes and The Prodigy as potential Blue replacements. Their winter peers over at Splendour In The Grass addressed a similar situation earlier this year after headliner Frank Ocean pulled out due to “illness” by turning to the bosom of the Lorde. Perhaps BDO could turn to Yeezus?
Watch this space…
