Alternative Nation 1995
Karleen Chura
Alternative Nation was a series of music festivals held in Australia in 1995. It was organised by a consortium of concert promoters, Michael Coppell, Michael Chugg and Michael Gudinski and backed by the Triple M radio network as an alternative to the Big Day Out. The event was held in three cities over the Easter long weekend: Brisbane on 13 and 14 April,[1] Sydney on 15 April and Melbourne on 16 April.
The festival had an excellent line up but suffered when both headlining acts, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Stone Temple Pilots, withdrew from the event. Lou Reed was added to the bill in their place but without the show's main drawcards, ticket sales were slow. Unlike the Big Day Out, which featured various local acts at each city, Alternative Nation's line-up was the same at all three events, except in Brisbane where four more Australian bands, Budd, Catfish, Dreamkillers and Chalk were included. Somewhat cynically, however, all of the Australian bands that performed in Melbourne and Sydney, except Def FX, were relegated to smaller stages away from the main performance area. In Melbourne, future Australian music superstars Powderfinger played on the back of a flatbed truck for a crowd of approximately 40 people.
The headlining acts were Faith No More, Lou Reed, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Violent Femmes, Ice-T, L7, Ween, Primus, Bodycount, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Flaming Lips, The Tea Party, The Prodigy (Melbourne), Therapy?, Live and Pennywise. Local acts included Regurgitator, Horsehead, Powderfinger, Supergroove, Def FX and Spiderbait.
The Brisbane show experiences good weather on the first day, but was marred by rain on the second day. The track around the perimeter of the velodrome main stage venue provided some respite from the mud. Some line-up and venue changes occurred without warning such as Therapy? playing earlier than scheduled on a different stage, although the eventual return of the downpour during Faith No More's set at night seemed fitting as they played "Epic".
The Sydney show was marked by constant rain throughout the day that transformed the venue, Eastern Creek Raceway, into a mudbowl and several bands were pelted with mud by the audience. Live's Ed Kowalczyk retaliated to this behaviour by throwing a guitar into the crowd at the end of his band's set. In Melbourne the rain cleared in the afternoon and a very good set was performed by Tool in front of a fairly large crowd, the music enhanced by a very powerful sound system. In the evening, Faith No More also lived up to their reputation and kept the crowd happy, though fans were kept out of the entertainment centre by security and police where Pop Will Eat Itself and Ween were playing the festivals closing sets, leading to discontent with the promoters.
Early in 1995, a group of people, including me, came up with the idea of staging an outdoor festival called Alternative Nation. Its primary purpose was to wipe the Big Day Out off the face of the earth. BDO promoters Ken West and Vivian Lees had succeeded in turning a Sydney one-day event into an annual, national touring rock carnival in the space of two years. What a nerve!
In my childhood and teen years, I fondly remember MTV being a terrific network that was led by creative professionals that were all about premiering quality music and entertainment. Much of their programming was all about introducing new and innovative music to the audience. Come reflect with me for a moment and let's revisit wonderful shows like "120 Minutes," "The Headbanger's Ball," "Yo! MTV Raps," "Alternative Nation," "AMP," "Beavis And Butthead," and "Liquid Television."
I had a conversation with a friend the other day. We were reflecting on what a fine network MTV had once been. Maybe it's just me getting old, but I believe that the network has now become a neglected, irritating, lost clone of what it once was. Then I came across a new book in our library system. It is called I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story Of The Music Video Revolution, opens a new window and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It follows the years from 1981 - 1992. The only problem that I had with the book is that it stops at 1992, right at the creative boom of alternative music and hip hop. Perhaps this means that the 90's era will have a book of it's own someday.
"120 Minutes" was a show on MTV that premiered in 1986 and ended in 2001. From there the series was then adopted by MTV2 and officially ended in 2003. Finally in 2011, "120 Minutes" found it's way back on the air once again on MTV2. The show celebrated everything alternative and educated the audience on the origins of alternative music and the where it was going. The show usually ran between one and three am and I spent many high school nights up late doing homework while watching. It was the best music for concentration. It was a place for everyone who felt somewhat different than everyone else and were always welcome here. I always thought the best quote for the show would've been "Our little group has always been and always will until the end". -Kurt Cobain. The focus of the show was on new videos, guest interviews, and the show ended every week with a classics vault that would spotlight a particular innovator of alternative music like Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, David Bowie, The Cure and Elvis Costello. There is a wonderful archive that displays every single episode and personally is the playlist on my IPod: the 120 Minutes Archive. This is the show that launched Nirvana, Soundgarden, Sinead O'connor, Pearl Jam, Tori Amos, Bjork, Sarah Mclachlan, Beck, Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Beastie Boys, R.E.M.and Stone Temple Pilots. Due to the popularity of alternative music in the 90's, MTV had an evening spinoff that was shown weeknights and was called "Alternative Nation."
The metalheads were given a show of their own as well."The Headbanger's Ball" was basically "120 Minutes" but specialized in Metal, Thrash, Industrial, and Hardcore Death Metal. The show became so popular that it was eventually given a three hour slot. The series went from 1986 to 1995 and featured bands like Metallica, Pantera, AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, and Guns N Roses. "Yo! MTV Raps" was the same formula but focused on everything Rap and Hip Hop. It ran from 1988 to 1995 and spotlighted many great artists like Ice Cube, Digital Underground, Tupac Shakur, N.W.A., Easy E, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. For the ravers and electronic audience MTV aired "AMP" which was two amazing hours of essential Electronic, House, Trance and Trip-Hop music. It ran from 1997-2001. "Liquid Television" was a mostly animated series of shorts that ran from 1991-1994 and gave birth to remarkable series like Aeon Flux and Beavis And Butthead. The Beavis and Butthead show had a knack for showing current and obscure music videos while the two subjects offered hilarious commentary. It is the diversity and quantity of talent that I miss the most about the classic MTV.
The soundtrack to The Crow was 1994's most effective gateway drug: Taken to Number One by Stone Temple Pilots' ubiquitous modern rock staple "Big Empty," the soundtrack ripped the flannel off millions of alterna-teens, sealed them in black vinyl and minted a new generation of goths. Pantera, Nine Inch Nails and Rollins Band laid their influences bare, covering late-Seventies/early-Eighties alt-icons like Poison Idea, Joy Division and Suicide, shoving new fans down a pre-blog rabbit hole of discovery. And in the days when albums didn't leak and hunting for B-sides was a sport, The Crow was a treasure trove: Rare one-offs from the Cure, Violent Femmes and Rage Against the Machine; a pre-album look at new music from Helmet; and a quick industrial education via Machines of Loving Grace and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. Tom Mallon
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In the days before file sharing, odds 'n' sods comps were the ultimate in fan service. Between their numerous B-sides, EPs, and compilation cuts, Smashing Pumpkins had enough material to release a rarities collection a mere two albums into their career, and, as Rolling Stone declared upon its release, "It's better than a lot of albums that bands labored hard to put together." This pile of songs cohered because of Billy Corgan's musical vision being squarely at its center, though there are a few clear standouts. "Starla" is an 11-minute opus of guitar pyrotechnics, and "La Dolly Vita," which originally appeared on the Pumpkins' contribution to the Sub Pop Singles Club (which the band recorded the day they met Butch Vig) begins placidly then opens up into a pummeling coda. Maura Johnston
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