Big Day Out Promoter Ken West Slams Soundwave Rival

Big Day Out promoter Ken West has expressed concern with rival Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah.  

Maddah began promoting the Australian Soundwave Festival in 2004 and is headlined by top international hard rock and metal bands.  This year the event is to feature System Of A Down, Limp Bizkit, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot and Bush.  The festival takes place from late February / early March and tours through Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.  

In an interview with The Vine, West has slammed the Soundwave business model, stating there's "No financial logic" to what he is doing.  

West commented "I'll say it to his face - I don't think AJ's got any interest in anything but his own agenda. He hasn't got any interest in the Australian music scene whatsoever. He should go to another country. He's done more harm to what was a reasonably stable business here by being a financial anarchist. And it's a bit of a shame really. 'Cause having 90 international acts come in on one show -- I don't even know how that's legal. There's no financial logic to what he's doing, and I've just got to ride that out. That's all it really comes down to."

The promoter added "But the one thing is, we started first.  [We] planned it first, and [now] pretty much all the other events have taken the research and development that we've done and put it back into their own show. [Without] offering any new revelations or efforts, without [now] copying what we've already done. I'm more than happy to say that. And I think that in the long run I would hope that [Maddah] could become a little bit more...caring. You know, this is the guy who said he didn't like doing timesheets with Portishead. It's easy to write on your press release what [your festival's] going to be. It's really hard to do it."

Last week Ken West announced that Big Day Out had created a new partnership with C3, the touring company behind Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

This years Big Day Out begins in Auckland on Friday 30th January, before heading to Australia for shows in Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. It's headliners include Soundgarden, Kasabian, My Chemical Romance and Noel Gallagher.  

Click here to follow Libel Music's Facebook Page and keep up with the latest news!

Tagged as : Big Day Out | Soundwave | Ken West | AJ Maddah | C3 | news |