Splendour in the Grass is an Australian music festival that has been held annually since 2001. The festival has been held near Byron Bay, New South Wales for all but two years since its inauguration. In 2010 and 2011, the festival was held in Woodford, Queensland, while organisers made an effort to gain support for a new location at North Byron Parklands at Yelgun (30 km from Byron Bay). The event returned to Byron Bay in 2012, when it was held at Belongil Fields.[1][2] The 2013 festival was the first to be held at the new North Byron Parklands location, to much controversy from festival goers and the local community.
The festival was jointly created and promoted by the Village Sounds and Secret Service music companies, and began in 2001 as a one-day gathering to cater for Australia's winter season (a period that had traditionally been associated with very few events of this nature); the festival evolved into a two-day event in 2002. As of 2014, the capacity of the three-day festival is 30,000 and it is considered the country's largest winter music festival. The festival was awarded the FasterLouder Festival Award for 'Favourite Line Up' in 2009.[3] "Ode: Intimations of Immortality", by English poet William Wordsworth, was the inspiration for the naming of the event.[4]
The Strokes are an American rock band formed in New York City in 1998, consisting of Julian Casablancas (lead vocals), Nick Valensi (guitar, keyboard, backing vocals), Albert Hammond, Jr. (rhythm guitar, keyboard, backing vocals), Nikolai Fraiture (bass) and Fabrizio Moretti (drums, percussion).
Met with widespread critical acclaim, the Strokes' 2001 debut, Is This It,[5] helped usher in the garage rock revival movement of the early-21st century—and ranks number eight on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time,[6] number two on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums of the 2000s,[7] 199 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and number four in the NME top 500 albums of all time.
After its members embarked on a variety of side projects, the band regrouped for a fifth album, Comedown Machine, released on March 26, 2013.[8] The Strokes have sold over 5 million albums to date.[9]
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex, in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member. The Cure first began releasing music in the late 1970s with their debut album Three Imaginary Boys; this, along with several early singles, placed the band as part of the post-punk and new wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s, the band's increasingly dark and tormented music was a staple of the emerging gothic rock genre.
After the release of 1982's Pornography, the band's future was uncertain and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had acquired. With the single "Let's Go to Bed" released the same year, Smith began to place a pop sensibility into the band's music and their popularity increased as the decade wore on, with songs like "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love". The band is estimated to have sold 27 million albums as of 2004[update] and have released thirteen studio albums, ten EPs and over thirty singles during their career.