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Around 6pm last night, I took a walk away from the Big Day Out main stage area. All the way on the opposite side of the Flemington Racecourse precinct on a small side stage, there they were. Playing to a few hundred fans, Australia’s big rock exports…. Wolfmother?!

Watching a band of their level playing a tiny side stage made me realise – If I was in a rock band, I would DEFINITELY be a massive douchebag.

Assuming my band was signed to a major label and had sold plenty of units, there is NO WAY I’d look at ANY draft festival timetable and ACCEPT being relegated to a stage like that. My message to Wolfmother…what happened to good old fashioned ROCK EGO guys !?

Now I TOTALLY get that not EVERY act can play the main stage..it’s what makes festivals awesome. The diversity of the different styles, being able to see acts at different stages of their careers. That’s cool.

But when your band has signed major label deals all over the world and your songs are in big Hollywood movies…surely you say….FESTIVAL ORGANISER THANK YOU….BUT WE WANT MAIN STAGE!!! If we don’t get it, we don’t play.

Soundwave Festival organiser, AJ Maddah, dealt with major rock ego last month when the mighty AVENGED SEVENFOLD decided that “despite having originally confirmed a mid-afternoon spot, that they are now unwilling to play unless it is night time. At the same time, they are refusing to play at the same time as MAIDEN… In other words, they want MAIDEN to play in the afternoon”. That’s a direct quote from AJ’s twitter & was reported by my mates at blabbermouth.net

Now don’t get me wrong the Soundwave festival team rock, and I can’t wait for the festival in any case. But I’m gonna give the Avenged guys some credit. Thank you for backing yourself…and thank you for being a f&&king ROCK BAND!

Sorry…but big ego is what rock music should be about. It’s meant to be dangerous & unpredictable. It should get people talking.

Wolfmother I know you aren’t naturally a bunch of douchebags….but take some notes from Avenged Sevenfold on this one. If I was you, I would have done exactly what they did!

A7x fans and lovers of rock….do you agree with me? Were they right to cancel? Should Wolfmother have done the same? Comment below… and while you are here, enjoy “Buried Alive”… one of my fave rock tracks ever from their latest record “Nightmare”

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 You read more of Byron Cooke's antics over at byroncooke.com