Number 1... By Me!
 

The day of the Sydney BIG DAY OUT 1999 had finally come, there was clouds everywhere and the rain was starting but it never bothered me as I'd been waiting for this day for at least 3 months! It was my first ever Big Day Out and ,boy, was it good! If every one is like that then they will never keep me away :)
 I was going with my mum and as we were driving into Homebush we were deciding and making sure we knew exactly who we were going to see and when we were going to see them and what stage, we didn't want to miss anything.

  We had decided our day would go as follows, Jebediah 12:15-1:30, Living End 1:30 - 2:15, Sean Lennon 3:30-4:00, Regurgiator, 4:00- 5:00, Manic Street Preachers 5:00-6:00, Powderfinger 6:00-7:00, Korn 7:00-8:00, Manson 8:00-9:00 and finally Hole 9:00-10:00.
    When we got to the gate we stood there for about half an hour waiting and looking around at all the strange places people had holes in them :) The security guards got us all through the gates and herded us about 5 metres forward.......and then we stood there for about another 20 mins....well that was worth it. Ahead of us we could see this huge net cage type thing that had guns and pipes coming from all over it, no-one had any idea what  this was supposed to be or do exactly. After about another 10 mins they moved us forward another 10 metres and the big thing started shooting fluffy toys at the crowd, and spitting fire out its pipes, very exciting. 
  We finally got let loose and we started by trying to find out where everything was and just looking around the markets..... But 12:00 finally came and we went and found our spot on the grass for Jebediah, what I thought was a pretty big crowd, had gathered around and we were nearly in the middle of it so we had a pretty good view.  I can't remember what order any of the bands played their songs but what I do remember was being up fairly close to the stage all sweaty and sticky already and then Kev screaming into the micro-phone "This is for all the ladies out there," and then they started to play Harpoon, it was magic!! My first concert (if you don't count Rod Stewart, Micheal Jackson etc.... ) the whole crowd was singing along,Kev screaming the words into the mic, Ness going skitz on the guitar, it was brilliant!! They played Leaving Home and all their other big hits and by the end the crowd was huge!
    We moved across to the stage next to it and got even closer for the Living End show, now the sun was blaring, everyone was burning and sweaty and stinky but it didn't seem to bother anyone at all. Chris came up on stage and the crowd went wild, they played Second Solution, All Torn Down and plenty of others but the highlight for  me was when they started up the first cords for Prisoner Of Society, the whole crowd was moving up and down and by this time it was getting a bit rough in there, as most of them were bigger then me and more then half of them already drunk, but I didn't care all that much. I think the crowd ended up singing more of Prisoner of Society then Chris did, and I'm sure when the chorus came on you would've been able to hear it all through Sydney.

    We then went and had lunch and went and bought our T-shirts and stuff and then at 3:30 we went into the Green Stage to see Sean Lennon, who I had never heard any of his songs and mum only wanted to see him because he was John Lennon's son. He was about 15 minutes late to start of with and the crowd wasn't that big, mainly most of the older people that had come He was pathetic, he has this little tiny squeaky voice and sounds like he should be in the Chipmunks or something I don't think many people in the crowd were very impressed by the looks on all their faces. Luckily mum didn't like it either so we left after one song.
    We went back to the orange stage to wait for Regurgitator but they had already started when we got there so we couldn't get down into the crowd and we didn't really want too as it had got bigger and a lot rougher since Living End was on. We went and sat in about the 4th row of the stands and watched the show, they were good, not as good as I'd hoped but they were alright. All they seemed to do was swear and scream at the mosh pit, they played The Song Formerly Known As, which I thought was their best one.
  Manic Street Preachers came on and they were better then I had thought, I only knew about 3 of the songs that they played but the show they put on was great, they didn't do anything spectacular, the music was just great.

 By this time it had begun to rain pretty heavily and we were getting pretty wet and it wasn't much fun, so we went and found a spot higher up in the stands and stayed their for the rest of the night, but I think we had the better spot then anyone that was in the mosh because you could see everything from where we were, you wouldn't have been able to see anything down there, well I wouldn't' anyway because I'm too short, and it was getting really really big down there.
 Powderfinger was next, one of the ones I had wanted to see the most but when they came on stage, well it was pretty disappointing, the had no lights except this one up in the corner of the stage which they would flash on and off occasionally and they never spoke to the crowd they just stood there and played their songs like they didn't want to be there at all. The last song they did was Good Day Ray which is my favourite of theirs and that was the best song out of the whole set as the crowd went mad and everyone was singing with them.
    The mosh had got massive, it filled up around 3 quarters of the ground area, and they were all screaming for Korn. When the lead man came up on stage they went wild. I didn't really like Korn before I saw this concert and the only song I knew was Got The Life, but that didn't matter during the concert. They were terrific! I think if it had been darker when they had been on and they had been able to use more of the lights they would've topped the bill, even above Manson!  The singer (I'm not sure of his name) went sick with the mic, screaming and jumping. He was wearing this sparkly black and silver kilt and came out half way through the concert to play his bagpipes to the crowd. It was truly magnificent!!!! I didn't care that I didn't know any of the songs, the show they put on just made you turn and watch them, you couldn't take your eyes off them!!!

  They finished up and everyone started to move over to the next stage to watch Manson, the first half of the mosh was just a sea of black hair!! And you could tell everyone was very hyped about this one!!! There was a glittery white screen hanging infront of the stage and then all of a sudden there was a green glow and smoke and behind the screen stood Twiggy and Manson in wings and Feathers ,making the crowd scream and chant " Manson, Manson!!" The screen lifted and there stood Marilyn all in black and ,christalmighty, he was soooooo good!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it!!! He sung Dopeshow, Beautiful People, Antichrist Superstar, I don't like the drugs, Rock is Dead and plenty more but I just can't remember them all. He went and  changed into his Red Sparkly Corset thingy and was just GREAT!! Before he played I don't like the drugs he got the crowd to do a chant of D-R-U-G-S for him and then before anyone knew it, it was time for him to get off, but no-one wanted him to go, and luckily he didn't!! He came back in these skin tight leather pants and nothing on the top, standing behind his antichrist podium swinging and flapping around like a puppet! The biggest part of it for me was when he screamed out at the crowd "I just have one more question to ask you people......How does it feel to be one of the BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE???" He went straight into beautiful people, dancing and jumping around the stage, I was so excited! I couldn't believe I was actually at a Manson concert!! Now I think about it I probably embarrassed myself pretty badly sitting up in the stands screaming and singing along....and I think I may have been the only one up there doing that...oh well! :) Finally he had to get off but still no-body wanted him to go....he had been up there for an hour and a half and it still wasn't enough for us! But there was no more Manson as it was now time for Hole!!
  She came on after about 15 mins wait and was not in a very good mood it seemed. I love Hole's music, I think it's brilliant but honestly I was a bit upset when I was watching her up there swearing at the crowd and stopping the show to get people thrown out because she thought they were too ugly to be in her crowd and at one point someone threw a bottle which hit her in the head and she threw it back at them and then finished the song and at the end of the song stopped and got them kicked out too. The best part I thought was when she sung Paradise City...that was just wonderful! The last song she did was Celebrity Skin and the crowd went wild for her for that...but that was about the only time the crowd honestly seemed to be fully listening to her.
  After that I was pretty dead tired and we left.
All in all I think it was the best day I have ever ever had!! And I will definitely be going back there next year and the year after and after...and so on :)
                                                                                                     Lisa
 

Sure enough, the only act to run late at the Big Day Out music festival turned out to be the one least worth waiting for. Super-hyped Marilyn Manson kept everyone waiting for his entrance, which had been billed as the highlight of the 13 hour event.
    A white curtain hid the band from the audience, until finally, he appeared silhouetted by a green light. Manson looked like a frilled-neck lizard that had walked straight of the set of Priscillia, Queen of the Desert.
    Hits like Sweet Dreams and Beautiful people drew a huge response from the crowd, but mostly they seemed underwhelmed. The non-stop mosh pit was filled for most of his hour long performance. But several fans expressed their disappointment with his appearance by hurling missiles-mostly bottles and cans- on to the stage. In the end the so-called Shock-Rockers set was about as shocking as a Wiggles concert.
    Manson in his trademark red corset ensemble, postured, lectured the crowd and sang from a pulpit. But most of the older fans in the crowd said they had seen it all before - in Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osborne and Kiss, among others.
    The crowds biggest applause was saved for his finale, when Manson predictably trashed the drum kit.
    But where Manson disappointed Courtney Love's Hole thrilled. Hole quickly whipped up concert goers back into a screaming frenzy, bursting straight into a searing set of angst ridden rock.
    Frontwoman Love -widow of the late grunge Prince Kurt Cobain- carefully controlled Hole's performance, interspersing perfect renditions of hits like Celebrity Skin and Malibu with lengthy patter to the band.
And the crowd went wild when Hole produced a local favourite in a cover of Hoodoo Guru's Bittersweet.
    Other international acts to impress the crowds were Korn, Sean Lennon, Manic Street Creatures and then Sun Lovin' Criminals. Australian bands such as the Living End , Jebediah, Powderfinger, The Superjesus and Regurgitator also kept the ever-expanding mosh pit in a frenzy.
 The night ended with thousands trying to fight their way into the boiler room for the much anitcipated appearance by UK Techno act Fat Boy Slim and the very dated Underworld.
Some of the largely well behaved crowd became unruly as night fell throwing fireworks into the sprawling masses.

                                                       Sunday Telegraph
                                     Sunday 24th January    By Kathy McCabe
 
 

Ok Ok I know what all you people out there that were actually at the Sydney BDO are thinking......where did she get this from, right????
  I'd just like to point out that actual names of the Manic Street CREATURES is Manic Street Preachers and the Sun Lovin' Criminals are actually the FUN lovin criminals.
  Also I don't know how she can go along saying that Manson was the concert least worth waiting for...when half way through the article she points out that they held a 40,000 strong crowd and a huge mosh pit the whole way through it????
 She's also got it wrong that they threw things at Manson when they were actually throwing things at Love.... and she was throwing them back....everyone that was there saw it!!!
And the 'Unruly crowd' that were throwing fireworks into the crowd would've been about 10 people who let off about 5 bungers in the audience at about 7 o'clock.... The only other fireworks that were let off were the authorized ones by the people running the Triclops.
  I just felt that needed to be pointed out and I'd just like to know what concert this lady was at because the way I read it she couldn't have been at the Sydney 1999 Big Day Out!!