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This post is a part of a series: V Festival 2009 Australian Tour. Plenty of photos of all the bands from all the shows!

One of the first surprises of the Australian V Festival Tour was the opening act Black Rose, fronted by Rosso (from Merrick and Rosso). I can’t remember if they were a part of Virgin Mobile’s Right Music Wrongs campaign, but I guess after seeing these guys perform, they’re a hilarious parody of anything that the campaign stood for. I don’t think you can go wrong with a cock-rock band like Black Rose though!

Black Rose stands up for all those blokes and what it means to be “Australian”. Who else can sing about crashing Holdens and Peter Brock in the same song? Bring on the booze! The Sydney performance (I think) was recorded for Merrick and Rosso’s show on the Comedy Channel. 

It was actually quite pleasant to see so many people in the crowd for an opening band. Though, it is Black Rose after all…

With such great support from fans, Rosso asked if they could do it again. Though the Gold Coast V Festival was the day after the Sydney one, Virgin Mobile penned them in for opening the Melbourne show. Hilarity ensued!

Can you see what I mean when I say “cock-rock”? If you can’t, look closer…

Not pictured in these Louder Lounge photos is Vanilla Ice who was totally lapping up the attention from fans. I think he was meant to be interviewed in this area, but the seats were never really used. Rosso and his band just decided they’d lounge about here for a while. Friendly blokes, they were!

And so, where to from here? Maybe we’ll see more of them on the TV. I don’t have Foxtel so I don’t know if the footage has been shown yet. They were freakin’ awesome though and were a great start to the V Festivals.

There are more photos in my Flickr V Festival photo set.

Stay tuned for more updates from the Australian V Festival tour!

This post is a part of a series: V Festival 2009 Australian Tour. Plenty of photos of all the bands from all the shows!

A quick detour from your usual rock band posts. You can’t have a tour without travelling and accommodation!

I thought I’d start off with the best hotels. Pictured above is the view from my 19th floor room at the Mantra Lounge hotel on the Gold Coast. I’d like to thank the floor-to-ceiling windows for letting me take this spectacular shot! You like the early morning surf? Man, I so wish I was down there at 5am.

As much as I’d like to gloat about these uber-luxurious hotels that I stayed in, the reality is that I never had the time to make use of them. In the Mantra Lounge Gold Coast hotel, I spent (at most) five hours staying in it. That’s coming straight after (free drinks at) the Gold Coast V Festival and leaving early in the morning to catch an early flight back to Sydney. This room had a kitchen (unpictured: with a microwave!) and… I can’t get over the views from my window and the balcony! I don’t think I saw my spit land from this height.

Most of my time was spent in Sydney at the Mercure Sydney hotel, right in Central. Before the V Festival I was in the above room on the 5th floor. In-between V Festival shows I was in a mirror image of the room on the 12th floor. And, imagine it a bit more messy - I did stay in that room for five days. It was a very conveniently placed hotel, almost right on top of the bus station on Broadway and easily accessible Central train station.

At least the views got progressively better… the 5th floor view was almost in-line with the massage parlour in the opposite building. Whereas on the 12th floor, you could probably spot people “gettin’ jiggy wit’ it” on the balconies below. Sexy times! Though, it was bucketing down half the time I was in Sydney, so I say… WET sexy times!

Of note, here’s a photo of the Mercure Airport hotel, just after the Sydney V Festival and before flying to the Gold Coast. I don’t really have a lot to note about that place… the view was a bit meh and I think it smelled a bit funky too.

The next best hotel was the Vibe Savoy in the middle of Melbourne, and yet another hotel I did not stay in long enough. But… look at the views! It’s like… Melbourne at night, but AWESOME!

After a quick drive through Melbourne from Tullamarine Airport to the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, I really would like to spend more than a day in this fine city. It looked absolutely gorgeous.

Finally, back home in Perth was the Parmelia Hilton hotel just off the Esplanade/Mounts Bay Road. Yes, I stayed in a hotel when I was home. You would too if it was all paid for, right?

Myself, Noodlez (pictured), Courtney and Grum and sufficiently defaced the room… I guess? While we almost used room service for a pizza, we ended up going for a nice stroll to Fast Eddy’s for a bite and then off to Deville’s Pad for the V Festival After Party. 

Pity the view though… blocking the Swan River was some construction site and another building. Apparently, most of the bands were staying in this same hotel. We were woken by workers, so I’d imagine everyone would have too! I’m also kicking myself for not being able to spot bands checking-in and out of the hotel!

Anyway, that’s about it for a bit of a filler post about my V Festival tour. You may look at more hotel photo (if you wish) on my Flickr photoset of the V Festival.

Stay tuned for more exciting band photos!

This post is a part of a series: V Festival 2009 Australian Tour. Plenty of photos of all the bands from all the shows!

I’m back home in Perth from my whirlwind photographic tour of the Australian V Festival and going through all my photos. Easily, the greatest spectacle of the whole tour were the Kaiser Chiefs with frontman Ricky Wilson doing his signature craziness both on and off stage!

Though I didn’t catch the last part of their set, apparently Wilson climbed onto That Stage (from This Stage) and started mucking about with Snow Patrol’s gear - crashing the drums and everything. Security went nuts and tried to grab him. A bit of biffo was averted when the Kaiser Chief’s bodyguard came in to pull Mr. Wilson out of there. PHEW!

There are a few more photos in my Flickr V Festival photo set.

Stay tuned for more updates from the Australian V Festival tour!