with Dropping Honey, Babymachine, Smasheddybash and Kaleidoscope

Friday, March 15

Dicey Riley’s

Free entry

Punters can party like it's 1999 at Nineties World on Friday night, a celebration of the heyday of the Wollongong live music scene featuring bands and musicians who made their mark in that decade.

Darren Ireland, drummer for the headline act Dropping Honey, describes the night as a "big '90s get-together".

"We're all old Wollongong bands from the '90s, or were all part of the scene back then, so we decided to make a big show of it," he says.

Looking back on it now, Ireland says that era was a golden age for rock 'n' roll in the Illawarra.

"Back in the '90s there were heaps of venues and it was a really awesome time to be around," he says.

"I turned 18 in 1998 so was old enough to get out to the pub scene and see all the bands.

"It was the very last of the era of Wollongong being a major hub for music, before a lot of the venues started shutting down in the early 2000s.

"The music was really diverse. Tumbleweed, one of the more successful bands to come out of Wollongong, were stoner rock and there were definitely a lot of stoner rock bands around, but there were riot grrrls, punk, grunge, heavy metal - there was a huge mix.

"You could really see anything in Wollongong in the '90s, there was so much choice."

Ireland describes the Dropping Honey sound as a blend of many and diverse influences.

"We all came from different backgrounds," he says. "I'm from more of a punk/grunge background - the Pixies, Sonic Youth, Nirvana and things like that were high on my list.

"Damien [Lane] and Jo [Pagett] came from more of a Brit shoegazer scene - bands like Ride and the Cure and the Smiths.

"I think it's a great mix. It's raw and rock but it's also got a lot of loud guitar work. The vocals don't feature prominently, it's more about the music than the words and the singing."

Dropping Honey formed in 1998, releasing an EP and an album, before calling it a day in 2004 when a couple of the members moved to London, where guitarist/vocalist Pagett still lives.

The four-piece reunited for a few shows over the summer of 2010-11.

"We didn't really expect to get back together," Ireland says.

"It wasn't on anybody's agenda, it was just that we were all in the same country at the same time and it seemed like a good idea. Jo had come back from London and we decided to do a few gigs over that summer.

"We really enjoyed it and decided that whenever the opportunity came up, if Jo was back in the country, that we would get together for a few shows."

Ireland says it doesn't take long for the bandmates to slip into the old groove.