The St Jeromes Laneway Festival has always held a special place in my heart... especially the Melbourne event.. The central business district of Melbourne Australia is a treasure trove of little laneways covered in street art, hole in the wall bars, cafes and one of our favourite places to photograph. Many a time whilst wandering I have come across random gigs, one that stands out was a rocking set I happened across in AC/DC lane during the busy lunch hour of the business day, it was all going on...

I just love music played in offbeat and off the wall locations, the higher the quirk factor the better... laneways are right up there...

So the annual Laneway festival has always been a favourite... this year however the decision has made made to move the Melb/Syd venues from laneways to more open spaces to enable more people to experience the event... well I supose you can only cram so many people into a laneway after all... so the Melbourne event will now be held at the Footscray Arts and Community Centre.. and the Sydney event at Sydney College of the Arts in Rozelle.

The festival will travel across Australia/NZ in 2010 as follows:

Brisbane Jan 29

Melbourne Jan 30

Sydney Jan 31

Auckland Feb 1 (the first time for the event)

Adelaide Feb 5

Perth Feb 6

Bands signed to play (alphabetically)

Black Lips (just wild as seen last weekend at Scion garage fest)

Daniel Johnston

Dappled Cities

Dirty three (only playing in Melb... one of the hottest acts at MFNW recently)

Echo and the Bunnymen

Eddy Current Suppression Ring (A favourite)

Florence and the Machine (love Florence!!!!!)

Hockey (gotta be seen)

Kid Sam

Mumford & Sons (oh yeah)

N.A.S.A

Radioclit

Sarah Blasko

The Middle East (love these guys)

The very best

The XX

Whitley

Wild Beasts

Some background about the event for you... St Jerome's Laneway Festival began in 2004 when Jerome Borazio and Danny Rogers decided that summers in Melbourne would be far better with more live music in unique settings. In a true example of actions speaking louder than words, they started to put great bands into St Jerome's Bar (RIP) in Melbourne's Calendonian lane.

First came the St Jerome's Summer Series each Sunday afternoon featuring "new" bands of the time like the presets and architecture in helsinki, then it extended to include a monthly Saturday night called Brains (which was actually a residency for the Avalanches who turned the little bar inside out). Still not satisfied that they were doing enough, one night Danny and Jerome convinced The Avalanches that they could close the lane, remove the bins and throw a proper laneway party. There mate Monkey quickly made up a poster, they asked a few friends to play and so began the annual St Jerome's Laneway Festival. The first laneway festival had 1400 people attend. it was packed, smelly and full to the brim with great local music and the vibe was awesome, utterly awesome....

Since that first, fateful day in a back alley, the festival has quickly developed into a national touring event and a favourite summer festival for many great, music loving humans. After the first couple of Melbourne events, sites were set in Sydney. Teaming up with Chugg Entertainment, St Jerome's Laneway Festival found itself nestled into The Rocks, taking a liberal reading of the term laneway but staying very true to the recipe of great music, unique spaces and boutique size. Sydney (and Melbourne) in 2006 hosted artists such as Broken Social Scene, Les Savy Fav, The Gossip, Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Avalanches, The Posies, The Hold Steady, The Raveonettes and The Drones, and Sydneysiders loved it. One respectable journo hailing it the most important counter cultural idea to happen for Sydney music in 10 years....

Just as Sydney Laneway was becoming established, Brisbane venue The Zoo took the lead in luring the festival north. Brisbane, long known for it's thriving indie music scene, grabbed Laneway with both hands and made it their own. The combination of street party and great music (including Midnight Juggernauts, Yo La Tengo, Peter, Bjorn and John, The Walkmen, Camera Obscura, The Sleepy Jackson and Gersey) proved to be a huge success and set the tone for years to come. In 2008 Laneway found a home at Fowlers Live in Adelaide and, not even the Indie cars (sic ... actually bigger sic since it was actually Clipsal 500) was a match for the indie music, atmosphere and the great crowd that made 2008's Adelaide Laneway so great. Specifically, we must pay tribute to Feist, Gotye, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Presets, Kevin Drew, Dan Deacon, The Panics, Okkervil River, Little Red, Devastations, The Brunettes, Via Tania, Bridezilla and everyone who played that year because Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide were all fantastic!

I hope to be in the thick of things at the Melbourne event bringing it back to you..

official web site