State of Origin: Grinspoon to rock half-time entertainment during game two at Perth’s Optus Stadium

Grinspoon has played at the Australian Open, Commonwealth Games, V8 Supercars and the NRL grand final. This month the ARIA Award-winning alternative rock veterans, who formed in Lismore, NSW in 1995 to enter and win Triple J’s Unearthed competition, will add game two of the NRL State of Origin at Optus Stadium to their resume. Frontman Phil Jamieson said providing the half-time entertainment in Perth on June 26 is “tremendously exciting”. “And I’m yet to go to Optus Stadium in Perth, so it’s ticking lots of boxes,” the affable singer said from his adopted home of Port Macquarie. Jamieson said he loved the AFL pre-game entertainment last year, especially electrifying Yolgnu rapper Baker Boy and Fremantle singer-songwriter Stella Donnelly, although he wondered why WA’s famous Kevins – either Parker of Tame Impala or Mitchell of Bob Evans/Jebediah – did not perform. The mighty Grinners, who have released seven albums between 1997 and 2012’s Black Rabbits, have been no strangers to WA audiences during a year the rocker has dubbed “the great rescheduling”. Jamieson joked that they were the oldest band at Out of the Woods in Busselton alongside Holy Holy, North East Party House and Hot Dub Time Machine in April, and the youngest band at Spring Loaded at Red Hill Auditorium in May when they rocked out with old mates You Am I, Regurgitator and Jebediah. Grinspoon flew directly from Spring Loaded to flood ravaged Lismore to headline One from the Heart, a free benefit concert also starring Paul Kelly, Daryl Braithwaite and Lime Cordiale. “It was very moving,” Jamieson said. “It was very real being there and I was glad we could help lift the spirits. “But I felt a sense of hopelessness leaving,” he added. “There’s so much work to be done there and I love that city so much. “It was very, very moving. It was hard. “The mood in the town was resilient, they’re a strong community,” Jamieson continued. “It was also really wet and muddy the day we played. There was no power in the town, no gasoline or food (outlets) that I could see open. All the shops were boarded up. “It was kind of like a climate war zone. It just so happens to be in our town where we formed and wrote all those songs.” On July 29, Jamieson will release his debut solo album, Somebody Else, a collection songs he felt would not work with Grinspoon recorded “all over the place” in 10 different studios during the past five years. While he said it’s an “incredible relief” to have the album ready, he admitted to being “a little nervous as well”. “I hope people like the material, but I can’t really control that,” Jamieson said. As for Origin, the South Sydney Rabbitohs supporter and band mates Pat Davern and Joe Hansen will be cheering on the NSW Blues while drummer Kristian Hopes will hope the Queensland Maroons to wrap up the series in Perth. “He’s one up in the series so he’ll arrive in WA full of confidence the way Queenslanders usually carry on,” Jamieson laughed.