Golden Plains 2025: Irish rappers Kneecap and rockers Fontaines DC lead sublime weekend
The next day my friend tells me it wasn't a shooting star, but rather space junk. But we agree that whatever it was encapsulated a weekend at Golden Plains: a place where magic appears unexpectedly, and not all is as it seems.
Now in its 17th year, the two-day camping event is going from strength to strength. While it used to be easy to source last-minute entry in the lead-up to the long weekend, this year tickets were in constant demand, with wannabe punters still begging for leads even after it had already kicked off. It's not hard to understand the festival's appeal: it's an eclectic affair that provides an avenue of discovery for curious music lovers – a rarity in the time of algorithmic curation – and feels like a private universe, with tents and couches scattered across the Nolan family farm, and doof sticks sparkling like stars in the night.
True to form, some of this year's highlights aren't the headliners, but smaller acts from closer to home. Sydney's RMFC ramps up the energy on Sunday with a pummelling punk set sprinkled with saxophone. Cranking up the distortion to breaking point, Auckland rock duo Elliot & Vincent makes brutal noise that sounds like much more than the sum of their parts. Skeleten, the alias of electronic producer Russell Fitzgibbon, is surprisingly a full band setup – an extended version of early single Territory Day is blissful.
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Interstitial DJs also often provide highlights – a run of indie sleaze classics, from the Strokes to Bloc Party and Vampire Weekend, is a nostalgic Sunday evening delight, as is an intoxicating Radiohead remix in the drizzling rain.
This year, Irish flags and accents float around 'the Sup', as the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre is affectionately nicknamed; two of the country's acts are major draw cards. Hip-hop trio Kneecap requests that the stage lights are turned down low so barely anything is visible but a projection of their signature balaclava, with videos playing in the eye holes. It's a chaotic, energetic set – 45 minutes flies by, with an easy flow between the three vocalists, who encourage the crowd to open up a mosh pit and who lead memorable chants, from advocating for Palestine to irreverently condemning Jeff Bezos and Margaret Thatcher. They transition into a more club-heavy beat towards the end of the set, making way for late-night DJs.
The other Irish act, Fontaines DC, got my Boot. Their set draws heavily from the 2024 album Romance, and singer Grian Chatten lurches over the microphone, delivering his erudite songs with an Ian Curtis-esque drawl and energy. The intensity is broken up with tracks such as the jangly Favourite and the anthemic new single It's Amazing To be Young, but it's otherwise all mood, with minimal chatter. They're one of the world's best bands right now and only getting bigger, playing a sold-out 45,000-capacity show in London later this year – seeing them in the intimacy of the Sup is, well, supernatural. So is PJ Harvey's preceding set as a lightning storm is brewing overhead. The singer is bewitching as she flits between a chair and the rest of the stage, playing a mixture of old and new material as the sky flashes. The storm never completely hits, but the atmosphere is fittingly haunting.
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There are soulful moments, too. At first, Gamilaraay singer-songwriter Thelma Plum seemed to me like a strange choice for the festival, but the moment she takes the stage, it makes perfect sense. Plum's 2024 album I'm Sorry, Now Say It Back is far more dynamic live than it is on record – Nobody's Baby is a highlight, but it's all fabulous. Jada Weazel's Sunday morning set follows on in the same vibe – the Queensland R&B singer's awkward banter belies her confident vocals, and a moving cover of Olivia Dean's The Hardest Part washes any hangovers away.
The most unexpectedly entertaining performance of the weekend is Robin S, whose 1992 single Show Me Love has been given eternal life in samples by Charli xcx and Beyoncé in recent years. An announcement that sounds a lot like a late-night infomercial plays over the speakers not once but twice before the singer appears just past midnight. She sings Show Me Love a few times and leads 'the biggest choir I've ever taught' in scat-singing, before thanking the crowd for staying with her for 'well over 30 minutes' – she barely cracks 20. She's gone as quickly as she arrived, leaving a bemused Sup in her wake. It's utterly absurd, and we're still unpacking what we witnessed on the dusty drive home on Monday.
It's all part of the fun of Golden Plains, a festival that has deservedly achieved cult status in Australia for its community, adventurous programming and bucolic scenery. Hits and misses, sure – but it all adds up to something singular and sublime.
Golden Plains 2025 took place March 8-10 at the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre, Victoria.
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His first session with Boyd at Sound Techniques studio in March 1968 — found on a mono listening reel squirrelled away more than 50 years ago by Beverley Martyn, a singer and the late John Martyn's ex-wife. A full reel recorded at Caius College by Drake's Cambridge acquaintance Paul de Rivaz. It had gathered dust in the bottom of a drawer for decades. Boyd says: 'I have never been a big enthusiast for these endless sets of demos and outtakes — so I was highly sceptical about this project. 'But when my wife and I were sent the files a few months ago, we sat down one evening and listened through all four discs. 'I was tremendously moved by Nick. You can picture the scene of him arriving for the first time at Sound Techniques. 'This is what he's been working for. He's got his record deal and here he is in the studio. I was stunned.' 5 Five Leaves Left was released in 1969 In pristine sound quality, the first disc begins with Boyd saying, 'OK, here we go, whatever it is, take one.' Drake then sings the outtake followed by some of his best-loved songs — Time Has Told Me, Saturday Sun, Day Is Done among them. It's just man and guitar, recorded before musicians such as Pentangle's double bass player Danny Thompson and Fairport Convention's guitarist Richard Thompson (no relation) were drafted in. Boyd continues: 'The trigger for those recordings, that first day in the studio, was wanting our wonderful engineer John Wood to get a feel for Nick's sound. 'Nick was wide awake and on it. He was excited about being in a studio and he wanted to impress.' All these years later, one song in particular caught Boyd's attention — Day Is Done. 'He takes it more slowly than the final version. This gives him time to add more nuance and the singing is so good.' Back then, as Five Leaves Left took shape, Boyd witnessed the sophisticated way Drake employed strings, oboe and flute. Inspired by subtle orchestrations on Leonard Cohen's debut album, Boyd had drafted in arranger Richard Hewson but it didn't work out. 'It was nice, but it wasn't Nick,' he affirms. When Drake suggested his Cambridge friend Robert Kirby, a Baroque music scholar, everything fell into place. Boyd says: 'Nick had already been engaging with Robert about using a string quartet but had been hesitant about putting his ideas forward.' SUBTLE ORCHESTRATIONS The producer also recalls being 'fascinated by the lyrics — the work of a literate guy'. 'I don't want to sound elitist but Nick was well educated. British public school [Marlborough College] and he got into Cambridge. 'Gabrielle told me he didn't like the romantic poets much. But you feel that he's very aware of British poetry history.' This is evident in the first lines of the opening song on Five Leaves Left — 'Time has told me/You're a rare, rare find/A troubled cure for a troubled mind.' 'When I think about Nick, I think about the painting, The Death Of Chatterton,' says Boyd. 'Chatterton was a young romantic British poet who died, I think, by suicide. You see him sprawled out across a bed.' I ask Boyd how aware he was of Drake's struggles with his mental health. 'It's a tricky question because I was aware that he was very shy,' he answers. 'Who knew what was going on with him and girls?' Boyd believes there was a time when Drake was better able to enjoy life's pleasures. 'When you read of his adventures in the south of France and in Morocco, it seems he was more relaxed and joyful. 5 Drake at home with mother Molly and sister Gabrielle 'And when I went up to Cambridge to meet Nick and Robert Kirby before we did the first session, he was in a dorm. 'There were friends walking in and out of the room. There was a lot of life around him.' Boyd says things changed when 'Nick told me he wanted to leave Cambridge and move to London. 'I agreed to give him a monthly stipend to help him survive. He rented a bedsit in Hampstead — you could do that in those days. 'Nick started smoking a lot of hashish and didn't seem to see many people. I definitely noticed a difference. 'He'd been at Marlborough, he'd been at Cambridge and suddenly he's on his own, smoking dope, practising the guitar, going out for a curry, coming back to the guitar some more. He became more and more isolated and closed off'. Boyd describes how Drake found live performance an almost unbearable challenge. He says: 'He had different tunings for every song, which took a long time. He didn't have jokes. So he'd lose his audience and get discouraged.' 'It still haunts me that I left the UK' For Drake's next album, Bryter Layter, recorded in 1970 and released in 1971, Boyd remained in charge of production. Despite all the albums he's worked on, including REM's Fables Of The Reconstruction and Kate and Anna McGarrigle's classic debut, he lists Bryter Layter as a clear favourite. It bears the poetic masterpiece Northern Sky with its heartrending opening line – 'I never felt magic crazy as this.' Boyd says: 'I can drop the needle and relax, knowing that John Wood and I did the best we could.' However, he adds that it still 'haunts me that I left for a job with Warner Bros in California after that. I was very burnt out and didn't appreciate how much Nick may have been affected by my leaving'. Drake responded to Boyd's departure by saying, 'The next record is just for guitar and voice, anyway'. Boyd continues: 'So I said, 'Well, you don't need me any more. You can do that with John Wood'.' When he was sent a test pressing of 1972's stripped-back Pink Moon, he recalls being 'slightly horrified'. 'I thought it would end Nick's chances of commercial success. It's ironic that it now sells more than his other two.' Then, roughly a year after leaving the UK, Boyd got a worried call from Drake's mum. 'Molly said she had urged Nick to see a psychiatrist because he had been struggling,' he says, with sadness, 'and that he had been prescribed antidepressants. 'I know Nick was hesitant to take them. He felt people would judge him as crazy — a typically British response.' Boyd again uses the word 'haunting' when recalling the transatlantic phone call he made to Drake. 'I said, 'There's nothing shameful about taking medicine when you've got a problem'. I know Nick was hesitant to take them [antidepressants]. He felt people would judge him as crazy — a typically British response Joe Boyd 'But I think antidepressant dosages were way higher in those days than they became. 'Doctors didn't appreciate the rollercoaster effect — how you could get to a peak of elation and freedom, then suddenly plunge back into depression. 'Who knows but it might have contributed to the feeling of despair Nick felt the night he took all those extra pills.' 5 Boyd says of Drake: 'He's unclassifiable and that's one of the reasons he endures' Drake died at home in Warwickshire during the early hours of November 25, 1974. As for Boyd, he made a lasting commitment to the singer who had such a profound effect on him. He says: 'When I left, I gave my company to Chris Blackwell because there were more debts than assets — and he agreed to take on the debts. 'But I said, 'I want it written in the contract that you cannot delete Nick Drake. Those records have to stay. 'I just knew that one day people would get him.'
