Punters at this year’s Splendour in the Grass were blessed with a bountiful harvest of Australiana, with a surprise performance by living goddamn legend Tina Arena (facilitated by the smooth businessmen of Client Liaison) and an equally surprising reformation of pub rock / dad rock fusion legends Powderfinger during Bernard Fanning‘s set.
Presumably, every single Australian with ears and a heart was absolutely thrilled. Everyone, perhaps, except for Jon Coghill, Powderfinger’s former drummer, who was apparently not invited to play.
Coghill told the ABC that he found out about the show after he got a text from a friend who was in the crowd:
“When I heard about it, someone texted me to say, ‘Oh I loved the gig’ and stuff like that, I just thought, what’s going on? And I saw it, and I thought oh that’s a bit strange. So I was a bit surprised, but it is what it is.”
I can only imagine that this is the equivalent of seeing IG posts of your mates doing fun shit without you, but approximately a hundred times worse.
He seems to think there’s a chance there might be holding some of his early-career behaviour against him, but also that it was probably above board:
“You got to remember that we were together for 20 years and for about the first 10 years of that […] I was a bit of a mean guy who didn’t like to lose an argument.“So if those guys feel like there’s a bit of bad blood, I don’t blame them. But I really don’t think there is, I think it’s completely innocent and it’s been taken out of proportion.”
According to Coghill, Fanning says the whole thing was spur of the moment and totally not a big deal, actually:
“All the other guys went down to Splendour, and I didn’t go because I haven’t been for a few years because we got the young kids and it’s a bit hard at the moment.“So they got together on a bit of a whim and went up on stage and played with Bernie. I was texting Bernie yesterday, and he was saying, ‘look it was sort of a last minute thing and it’s now been blown out of proportion’.”
Seems like they had the songs down pretty well for some dudes who hadn’t played them in seven years and spontaneously decided to play them.
It seemed pretty organised. Pedal boards, amplifiers, guitars, setlist etc…
— philjamieson (@philjamieson) July 24, 2017
But that’s none of my business.
According to the ABC, the band is “meeting with its management this week” but won’t confirm a tour at this stage. Fingers crossed, though.
Photo: Supplied / Stills In Time.
Source: ABC.
