Matt Heath was in the first band on stage at the first ever Big Day Out in Auckland. The band was called Kid Eternity.
Kid Eternity was formed in Dunedin by Chris Stapp, Andy Poppelwell and Phil Brough. After the trio's first practice they decided to get a girl in the band because The Pixies had one. Sadly they couldn't find a female who could play. As luck would have it I was just out of school and in a stink G N' R covers band. I wasn't a girl, but I had long girlie hair so they asked me to join. Kid Eternity was complete and we set about using the band to meet girls and scab beer.
We achieved both goals when we got a call from Auckland saying we were playing the Big Day Out with Soundgarden and Smashing Pumpkin. There was a rumour back home that Soundgarden had asked for us by name. That was bollocks, but it made us look cool so we let the rumours fly.
Late January 1994 we hit the road, and one full-on drunken week later we turned up unannounced at Paul Rose's house in Grey Lynn. Being a good dude he let us sleep in his backyard. Five days of looseness in the big city later, it was Big Day Out Day.
Stage four was by the girl's toilets under the West Stand. We couldn't believe how awesome it looked. But suddenly everything turned to shit. We had no guitars, amps, drums, picks, sticks, or leads. Absolutely nothing. The stage manager couldn't believe how stupid we were and told us to "f**k off back to Dunedin". With nothing to play the gig with and one hour till we were on stage, we had no choice but to steal The 3D's gear from the main stage. We got yelled at and chased by security but managed to grab everything we needed.
