The Daily Telegraph
Hilltop Hoods Top Great Escape
By Kathy McCabe
April 07, 2007
THE Vines' Craig Nicholls showed his return to form, Wolfmother rocked and the Hilltop Hoods delivered a surprise encore - with strings attached.
Those were some of the highlights of Sydney's Great Escape festival, which - along with the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival in Byron Bay - yesterday kicked off a mega month of top-shelf music events.
Check out our gallery of the Great Escape top acts by clicking here.
Hip hop heroes Hilltop Hoods and a string quartet delivered one of the Great Escape's most exciting performances and were rewarded with that most rare festival moment - an encore.
Their return to the stage, after headliners Wolfmother, was a major surprise.
Earlier the Wolfmother boys had shared the stage with a fan who beat security to enjoy his five seconds of fame - and then capped the night with plenty of jams and scissor kicks.
At the close of the afternoon Nicholls revealed to an adoring crowd a new chatty persona before returning to destructive punk rock chaos.
Nicholls showed at the Great Escape festival he has made a remarkable return after the band had to stop to allow him to deal with Asperger's syndrome, a behavioural condition.
He was relaxed and smiling, addressing the crowd before and after every song, urging them to sing along and thanking them for the huge reception they gave the band – many of whom had thought they would never hear him play live again.
But technical difficulties with his guitar frustrated Nicholls at times and he hurled the instrument at Hamish Rosser's drum kit, which the band, true to form, almost completely demolished at the end of their electric set.
Nicholls joked about the problems and thanked the crowd, saying "I hope it wasn't too bad".
The Great Escape at Newington Armoury and East Coast Blues and Roots Festival in Byron Bay drew more than 25,000 punters keen to celebrate their Easter weekend with a dose of culture.
The fun cranks up from next Monday with A-list pop and rock acts including Pink, Beyonce and the Red Hot Chili Peppers scheduled to perform sold-out concerts at Sydney's biggest venues, including Acer Arena and the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers play three concerts at Acer from April 16, Beyonce will perform two gigs from April 21 and Pink has a five-night stand at the Sydney Entertainment Centre from April 30.
The sterling reputation of Aussie audiences, a strong dollar and fierce competition between promoters has resulted in the jam-packed schedule.
With major tours by Guns N' Roses, Bob Dylan, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and the Arctic Monkeys expected to be announced in the coming months, fans will be spending thousands of dollars to see the world's best.
Promoter Michael Coppel, who kicked off the mad music month with the inaugural V Festival in Centennial Park last weekend, said, while CD sales might be down, fans had demonstrated a voracious appetite for the live experience.
"They want their music live, to enjoy the sense of community that a concert gives them," he said.
"The acts all love coming to Australia and, with the dollar much improved from where it was at a few years ago, we can afford to bring them here without having to charge huge ticket prices."
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5001021,00.html
but Craig is such a dag 
