Big Day Out Headline Slot for Red Hot Chili Peppers?

So we don’t like getting your hopes raised unnecessarily about your favourite bands touring, only to back peddle and point fingers when they’re revealed to be wild rumours brewed up on the internet. But it’s important to join the dots sometimes, especially when a media fiend like Nui Te Koha comes out with the not-so-cryptic announcement: “Red Hot Chili Peppers 2013. They WILL headline the Big Day Out.”

Yep, if you’ve been patiently waiting for Anthony Kiedis and co. to return to Australia then you’ll be pleased with the mounting evidence. First it was a tweet from Flea, who let slip the Chilis will be “coming to Australia early next year” and that he “can't wait to feel the connection to [his] birthplace once again”. This hint had us pondering whether we’d get another Stadium Arcadium-style headline run or a festival headline spot, and now it looks likely to be the latter with Nui announcing the Chili’s BDO involvement on the Triple M breakfast show yesterday.

Never one to shy away from cracking an exclusive, Nui declared: “The Big Day Out has put me in the cone of silence after big revelations last week that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are headlining the Big Day Out 2013. They [the BDO] were very angry; I hadn’t signed the confidentiality agreement but I will and I will respect their wishes”. Well Nui, it’s a bit late now, isn’t it? We’re all hanging on your every word.

Nui’s two cents isn’t the only evidence for the headline spot, as the RHCPs are also set to headline BDO partner festival Lollapalooza in August. Hopefully BDO co-founder Ken West’s new partnership with C3 Presents (promoters of Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits Music Festival) means closer ties and a sharing of musicians on lineups across the Pacific.

It’s fair enough if you’re getting a little restless waiting for a return visit from the Chilis – the last time we heard the likes of ‘Scar Tissue’, ‘Californication’ and tracks from the more pop-centric Stadium Arcadium was back in 2007. They also headlined the BDO in 2000, alongside Foo Fighters and Blink 182.

WORDS: Jack Pilven