Splendour Organisers Just Dished The Goss On That Time Lorde Had To Fill In For Frank Ocean
"The Frank experience went on for many weeks beyond Splendour," Piticco says.
Listen, I’m genuinely not trying to upset you. But: Splendour In The Grass would have been going down right about now, were it not for the coronavirus pandemic.
Yep, in the possible world where we dodged the coronavirus bullet altogether, we would currently be heaving at the front of a moshpit with our mates watching some of the biggest artists in the world play.
But hey, it’s not all bad. Instead of getting the actual festival, we have been gifted with a tell-all interview from the two music titans who organise it, Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco.
In a long and fascinating chat with triple j’s Al Newstead, Ducrou and Piticco went long on their favourite headliners — Smashing Pumpkins, Kanye West, LCD Soundsystem — that time Chance The Rapper cancelled at the last minute, and their favourite year of the festival, 2010.
It’s all good stuff. But particularly interesting is the side-bar on that time Lorde filled in for Frank Ocean.
“As we try to, we spotted Frank’s talent much earlier than his career had developed so we booked him at a reasonable price,” Piticco says. “And a day, maybe two days before our announce, the call came that they’d run the budgets and it just wasn’t going to work. They needed extra. There was – let’s call it a renegotiation of the fee.”
Then, when Ocean did arrive in the country, he pulled out from the Australian tour after a gig in Melbourne. Rushing against the clock, Ducrou and Piticco had to negotiate to get Lorde on their bill. But eventually, it all locked into place.
“Something was lost and something was found all in the same day for us.”
Oh, and wilder still? It took them a long time to get Ocean and his team to pay back the deposit Splendour had given them.
“The Frank experience went on for many weeks beyond Splendour,” Piticco says.
The whole interview is great, and well worth your time — read it here.
Header image of Frank Ocean: Wikieditor666 / Flickr