Vance Joy and The Living End will perform at this year’s AFL Grand Final with a mystery international

THE Australian line-up for this year’s AFL Grand Final has been named and it features two acts who literally are playing on home soil.

MELBOURNE musicians The Living End and Vance Joy will be the hometown performers at this year’s AFL Grand Final.

However, the previously promised “all Australian” line-up has been put on hold, with a mystery international headline performer yet to be announced.

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“It’s the biggest gig in town,” Riptide hit maker Vance Joy said.

“Everyone watches the Grand Final in Melbourne. It’s on everyone’s radar. It’s also intimidating because everyone has their opinion on every performance over the past few years. And no one ever forgets the entertainment either, good or bad.”

Joy used to play VFL football for Coburg and also ran around for St Kevin’s College Old Boys — back when he was James Keogh, before adopting his stage name for his music career.

“It was intimidating for me as a VFL footballer playing on an AFL ground,” Joy said.

“We played at Optus Oval and Skilled Stadium, which was a bit overwhelming. I didn’t have it in me to be that ‘big occasion’ footballer, but I’m better as a big occasion musician. It’s less scary singing than actually being on the ground playing.”

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Vance Joy was a VFL footballer before embarking on a music career.

The Living End’s frontman Chris Cheney said his chart-topping trio were pinching themselves at the “once in a lifetime” gig.

“It’s not even really a gig, it’s an event,” Cheney said.

“We were footballers before we discovered rock and roll. I don’t know if we thought of ourselves as a footy band, but I think we’ve become that. We were the band that didn’t really appeal to the footy crowd when we first started. We’ve kind of become that somehow; I’m not sure exactly how that has happened, but I guess rock and roll and Aussie rules go hand-in-hand.”

The Living End will return from an American tour for the Grand Final and are expected to dive into their two decades of rock anthems, including Prisoner Of Society, White Noise, All Torn Down and Roll On. Their seventh album Shift was a Top 5 hit earlier this year.

“We’re not really a ballad band,” Cheney said. “We’ve got a number of songs we can draw from that will hopefully do the job on the day. We’re a live band, we’ll be all right. We’ll get up there and slay it.”

As in previous years, The Living End and Vance Joy will also perform a free concert on the MCG after the final siren, which even those without Grand Final tickets can attend.

The Grand Final will also be the perfect victory lap for singer/songwriter Joy — it will be the last show he’ll play off the back of his million-selling debut album Dream Your Life Away, home to international hits Riptide, Georgia, Mess Is Mine and Fire and the Flood.

Big day: The Living End are a perfect fit for stadiums and football. Picture: Nicole Cleary

Playing to a crowd of 100,000 people will also set a record for both acts. Joy played to over 70,000 people in both Sydney and London last year while opening for US superstar Taylor Swift on her 1989 world tour.

Rumours that Swift would play this year’s Grand Final have been flatly denied.

While he has wound down his touring this year, Joy will get match fit with a handful of Canadian festival shows this month before returning home to rehearse with his band ahead of the AFL Grand Final on October 1.

“I’ve just been hanging out in Melbourne a bit, recording in America, going back and forth,” Joy said. “I went into rehearsals in Melbourne a week ago and it was cobweb central. I had to warm the voice up. So we’ll play three festival shows in Canada this month then get match fit to play to the biggest crowd we’ve ever played to.”

The Living End have previously played the NRL Grand Final and have long been suggested as a perfect Melbourne band for the AFL’s big day.

“This goes above and beyond any other thing we’ve done,” Cheney said.

“People have said to us for about five years: ‘When are you going to play the AFL Grand Final?’ Playing the NRL Grand Final was great, but we’re from Melbourne and it doesn’t get more nerve-racking than playing in front of that many people — not only in the stadium but watching on TV.”

The AFL have yet to announce who will sing the national anthem.

Former life: James Keogh playing for Coburg Tigers in 2009. Supplied

AFL boss Gill McLachlan with Vance Joy. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

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That’s how you do it: Lionel Richie knows how to work a stadium

BEST

2010: Lionel Richie

You may have forgotten, but INXS (with JD Fortune) performed before Collingwood and St Kilda. But when the match was a draw, promoter Michael Gudinski had to get another act, fast, for the rematch. Enter Lionel Richie. The US superstar jetted in and treated it like the Super Bowl. He’s had so many iconic hits he could toss away Hello as his first song and bring it home with Easy, Dancing On the Ceiling and All Night Long — a 15-minute masterclass in how to charm a crowd. He also christened AAMI Park as a concert venue.

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2009: John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes and Mark Seymour

What’s better than Farnsey singing the other national anthem, You’re the Voice, in front of 100,000 people? Barnesy, Mark Seymour and some bagpipes joining him for ultimate goosebump action. The Grand Final should always have an event moment.

Sorely missed: Powderfinger stepped up for the biggest gig in Oz rock in 2008

2008: Powderfinger

The AFL still haven’t secured AC/DC to play the big day, so Powderfinger played the anthem AC/DC no longer perform, It’s a Long Way To the Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll), after belting out their own (Baby I’ve Got You) On My Mind. As far as pub rock on the biggest stage in town, the ’Finger delivered. Can we have Midnight Oil or Cold Chisel next year? Cheers.

Ed Sheeran and Tom Jones closed the generation gap at the MCG. Picture: Alex Coppel.

2014: Ed Sheeran & Tom Jones

It looked weird on paper, and Tom Jones has got shoes older than Ed Sheeran. Yet on stage, the cross-generational cover of Prince’s Kiss worked a treat. Plus Sheeran got in some practice as a one-man-band stadium filler.

Hunters and Collectors’ Mark Seymour has played the MCG several times. Pic Tim Carrafa

2013: Hunters & Collectors

They launched their comeback by wearing asylum seeker T-shirts, sounding amazing and performing accidental footy anthem The Holy Grail at the holy ground. Tick, tick and tick.

WORST

Irene Cara and pals

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2006: Irene Cara

Her song Flashdance (What a Feeling) had been used in a beer ad, so Cara, understandably, took a wad of cash to come out and sing it in front of dozens of dancers. She was great, and it was a nice payday for five minutes, but what was the point apart from selling beer?

Look it’s, um, Millsy and, Guy and um, Shannon, and um ...

2003: Australian Idol Top 12 finalists

Remember when Guy Sebastian, Shannon Noll, Millsy, Cosima and, um, mates sang One Day In September? No? Probably for the best. They’d clearly never heard the song before and also clearly prerecorded it in a studio and karaoke’d it up on the day.

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1991: Angry Anderson

Long before his divisive political views, bonsai rocker Angry Anderson sang Bound For Glory (first line: “Life’s tough, so what?”) standing inside a Batmobile at Waverley Park. His vocals demonstrated that he was at least singing live.

Ellie Goulding joined Chris Isaak and Bryan Adams at the ‘G last year. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

2015: Ellie Goulding

Technicalities on the day — echo, feedback — mean singers often rely on prerecorded music. Such technicalities saw Goulding face accusations she was miming ... But really, did we need to hear the ‘love’ theme from 50 Shades Of Grey at the Grand Final? Was Kylie not available?

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2011: Meat Loaf

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. Mr Loaf’s 13 minute flat-out-of-hell medley still haunts everyone involved with booking AFL entertainment. Or anyone with functioning ears. Any time Grand Final musical entertainment is mentioned, Meat Loaf will follow shortly thereafter. The lowest benchmark has been set. The singer is yet to return to Australia and has point blank refused to discuss this performance while promoting his new album. “You couldn’t play any worse, could you?” Chris Cheney said of the infamous show. “I’ve never actually seen the full performance, just snippets. I didn’t really need to see someone drowning in front of that many people.” That, folks, is what YouTube is for.