Hardware Group is synonymous with music, festival & event culture in Australia. From the famous Hardware ‘Docks’ parties of the 90s, through to the mega festivals such as: Apollo, Two Tribes, Stereosonic and legendary events Welcome 2000 Millennium, Piknic Électronik, Tell No Tales, Belfast, Universe and TransAtlantic. This December sees the start of Hardware’s 30th birthday celebrations kick off with the True Faith Events in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, just in time for Christmas. There will also be the release of a coffee table book “True Faith : Tales From The Hardware Dancefloor", showcasing the Hardware journey so far and will feature photos, stories and flyers from what could arguably be called the beginning of the ‘festival’ in Australia. We spoke to Hardware owner Richie McNeill about the year-long celebrations planned, the changes he’s seen in the industry and what he hopes the future holds for Hardware Group.

Well, thanks for taking the time to speak to us. I know you're probably flat out, especially at this time.

That's Okay, thanks for having me.

I could do 1000 interviews with you after reading your bio and history. Firstly, congratulations on reaching the massive milestone, the 30 year anniversary of Hardware. Let's go back to the beginning. What led to the creation of Hardware, was there a pivotal moment that made you think “I need to do this?”

I was DJing at the time and I was playing for other promoters. Sound systems would blow up and cut out every five minutes which I found super annoying. I had a moment with my Dad and I was complaining, (I was really close to my parents) and Dad would ask me, “How was your night son?” “Well, the sound blew up again, blah, blah, blah.” My Dad encouraged me to look at doing my own events and suggested doing them for the charity he worked for and to raise money for them. It was called ‘Try Youth & Community Services’ and this was the first Hardware event on December 31 - New Year's Eve, 1991, down at the ‘Mercantile Rowing Club.’ So that was probably the moment when I decided to throw my first event.

Hardware has gifted this country some of the most amazing dance events it's ever had. Is there a moment or show that stands out as a turning point for the company?

There were many great moments, but it was probably the start of the Two Tribes event. Actually, I'd say Apollo which was in February 1998 and the first ‘real’ national electronic festival (outside of what the ‘Big Day Out’ were doing with the boiler room, some years prior). It was the first time we got Daft Punk to Australia and Basement Jaxx (their first time to Australia also) as well as Speedy J, Jeff Mills, Juno Reactor and Marmion. It quite a line-up and it was just a great fantastic sort of event, in Melbourne and Sydney. It then paved the way for Two Tribes, V Festival, Park Life and Good Vibrations and all these sorts of events. So, it was probably a real pivotal moment I think for us, but also for Australia in the festival landscape. After that, Two Tribes arrived, and SummaDayze started to pop up and looking at expanding nationally. Fuzzy started Park Life up in Sydney and there was V Festival, then Good Vibrations started as a national thing. So, it really was a monumental event for us, but also for the industry as a whole.

What is your proudest memory of the Hardware journey so far personally and professionally?

Personally, I think it was Hardware 5 with Laurent Garnier, because musically I gave him my set to play and musically that was a real taste of Europe and what was going on. It wasn't just a techno party playing in the same sort of vein of a techno night or whatever, it was like arole-playingg for disco. From Donna Summer ‘I Feel Love’ to Detroit, Chicago House to Acid, to modern day techno. Laurent showed Melbourne and Australia that you could bring these festivals and events here and they could be anything. It was a great way to bring all the music together and that was not only a real eye opener but a real inspiration to see Melbourne go off on a large scale. I think a previous show before that was around 2000 People but for Hardware 4, that one was like 5000 people and it was a really significant jump in numbers. As the scene was exploding then, it was also cool for someone to come along and play rock and disco and house and techno and Detroit and everything across the board. It was just a such a personal moment for me on what could be presented and what people were up for and all of that sort of stuff.

To celebrate the massive milestone, you've announced three Hardware 30 : True Faith shows taking place in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney this December. How did you decide which artists would have the honour of being on the line-up for these special shows?

It’s a mix of new and old and it’s in three groups; like the 90s kind of rave era in Melbourne, especially like CJ Bolland and HMC. CJ Bolland was such a big part of Melbourne in the 90s and 2000s, playing into the millennium and he was a massive iconic act and such a pioneer of techno. The biggest artists coming out of Belgium were him and Frank de Wolf in the 90s and R&S Records, which was a staple label. He's such a beacon for techno, that European sound from the late 89 to 90 onwards, so that was an easy choice. HMC being from Adelaide and that 90s techno vibe was such a big part of Australia and even globally back then, especially in Melbourne. Then the next with Victor Ruiz & Sama’ Abdulhadi , they've been here before and she's a Palestinian DJ who is up and coming in the scene. Sama’s played a great Boiler Room Set and she plays amazing music and VictorRuiz who's doing his live show in Australia for the first time, just put out an amazing album. He's from Brazil. You've got techno producers from Palestine and Brazil, as part of this new wave of producers coming through in the last five years, that are really doing amazing things, technically and stylistically as DJs, but also production wise. Then we’ve got Joseph Capriati, who's played with us at PURE. He’s also good friends with Carl Cox and has been a big part of the appeal for us over the last four or five years and was fast in becoming one of my favourite DJs. He's part of that new ‘rising star’ camp out of Italy, following the footsteps of Gaetano Parisio and Marco Carola, for example. And he's, playing a really great range, he's very mature for his age. Like he plays like Inner City and really, really, early Detroit and Chicago house influenced stuff. So, he's a bit of a Laurent Garnier, he's playing broad and he's just a great DJ, a great party DJ. So that was an early choice. And then, I would have loved Carl or Jeff Mills or Richie Hawtin or all of them! Richie Hawtin is a big part of the book that's coming out, we've got lots of photos of Richie in there and he's been such a big part of playing for me over the years, playing numerous events for Hardware. He's played Two Tribes. He's played lots of different events for us over the last twenty years and he's such a cutting-edge trailblazer. Using technology and forging new sounds and really pushing the envelope, so it was a a no-brainer, and I'm totally honoured he’s part of this celebration. All these acts coming to play for us for our birthday is really great. For them to come and do it and make the weekend available given all the other things they could have possibly done, is incredible. It's been really inspiring and welcomed by so many people. If anyone buys two tickets to the event, they get a free book that's coming out in November (that has a retail of $99.95) they get that book with the order. So basically, it's pretty exciting, and I'm really looking forward to it.

“I’m telling the history as I’ve seen it from 1985 to now as well”

— Richie McNeill

Is there any way that people can purchase the book that aren't going to the event?

Yeah, they can via this website: https://hardwaregroup.com.au/truefaith/the-book, it'll be available via our shop for pre-orders, in the next week. And if people go to any of the events that are on sale at the moment, they can just buy the book there and it ships in November, or late November. They'll also be able to buy from bookstores in December for Christmas, through good bookstores. It's being published through Hardie Grant and they'll also be able to buy it directly from our website. They can pre-order it now. If people want to order it now, they can either buy two tickets to the birthday party and come and if it's included in that order and they just pay the postage and shipping and it will be shipped to them from the dispatcher as soon as it's in stock, or they can pre-order now through the events as well. We're putting out all the shout-outs from the artists, the birthday shout-outs also. We've got the information up there about the book and how to order the information for the events. We're going to start archiving all the old shows because one of the things during COVID I noticed is that the websites for: Future Music, Summer Daze, The Big Day Out, Sound Wave, V Festival, Two Tribes, all that great history, is no longer available online anymore, it’s only on Wikipedia. It's all gone, and all those domains have expired and were such a big part of our culture, which is a real shame. TwoTribes.com.au has expired and someone wants to sell it back to me for like $20,000. Sorry, guys, I'm just gonna re-start with an archive site. It's all my content, anyway, I put it up myself. So we've launched as part of the Birthday Celebration the True Faith website. It's going to be the archive and that's going to populate over the next six to 12 months with 30 years of photos, flyers, specifics, the event where it was, what time, who played, all that sort of stuff. So that's part of the project as well as celebrating the birthday and putting the book out. The book being so tangible, is 440 pages and two inches thick. It's a coffee table book of the highest quality. It's costing me a lot of money, but for the older people that came to my shows over the years, it's the least I can do as a thank you for their support. Also, the newer audiences that are coming to our shows, like the Piknic Électronik crew who are in their 20s, it's a great opportunity for them to read up, see these photos and read up on 30 years of history in Melbourne and Australia, through my eyes, because there is a short story in there. I'm telling the history as I've seen it from 1985 to now as well. So, it's a historical celebration over a series of events and the book, the website and all this sort of stuff. So yeah, it's very exciting.

Was it difficult to compile and work out which photos and memories you were going to include in the coffee table book, given it's had such a big history over the last 30 years?

It took a long time. I did it through COVID and it was an inspiring process.

Obviously, you can't include absolutely everything. It must have been hard working out what you would include and wouldn't include

I think managed to get 60 or 70,000 photos down to 1500, and that was doing a significant amount of reduction sorting each time. And then the flyers also, there's 1000, close to 1000 flyers and we had to change those as well. So, it was definitely a massive project and I kind of started collating everything in that second year of COVID in 2021. I saw the writing on the wall, we were still in lockdown and all this shit was going on and events weren't going to happen during that summer. I ticked off everything during that nine months of 2020, after the national lockdown and Housing Commission lock down in Victoria, that started in July, and it was like, “Oh, we’ve got another 12 months of this.” So I started going through photos and contacting photographers and told them that our birthday was coming up in 10 months and I'm not gonna be able to do anything, so then we got ready for the following year. There were lots of influences to do it, and the lack of content out there made me want to do it. The fact that it was our birthday, I wanted to give thanks back to all the people who supported us over the years and put a time capsule out, something tangible, of some history that really happened in photos. You see the transition from 1990 from the early artwork, fashion, technology and in the range of productions, to what they are now. You just see the last 30 years from the start of the book to the end of the book transform, in all ways. The productions, the artwork and technology with Photoshop, and all that sort of stuff in 3D graphics, it's amazing to see the transition in the book.

There's talk of a documentary or a movie to showcase the impressive history of Hardware. What formats will this be released on and when can we look forward to watching it?

Yeah, we've been workshopping. We have done some preliminary workshops now about it, and it's in discussion. To be honest, I had a bad case of COVID last December that went right through to mid-February, before I was able to work a full day at work again. So, I kind of struggled with Covid, I have asthma and I've had pneumonia before, and I've just got compromised lungs. My grandpa sadly passed away from asthma, so I had a really rough trot with COVID. I couldn't have talked to you back in January of this year. I would have just run out of puff after two minutes. It was really difficult, I had all these plans, but I was going to do an exhibition as well at the National Museum in January or February 2023, because this celebration is just starting now, it's going to go on significantly for the next 12 months. So, by this time next year, everyone will know about the book, people will have the book, and people will say “wow look at this book” and will go out and buy it. The website will be up, with all the archival information as we're currently loading that in. The book will be out, we'll have celebrated a birthday with 10,000 people nationally in December, with Richie and everybody. Then we’ll continue to celebrate it, and one of the things I’m hoping for is a documentary. Whether it’s a fictional story type thing or not I’m not sure at this stage. We've workshopped a few ideas with a couple of Melbourne-based and really well-known production houses, and I've kind of shelved it just for the six months until I get the book out and the December events out of the way. The project releasing the book, is a massive project and is 440 pages. There's 100 pages of dialogue where we're introducing things that I had written when I was going through all the photos. All the flyers, rounding up all that stuff, going to the publisher, figuring it all out and laying out pages. We've been working on the book with the publisher and laying it out since February or March, and there's been five or six revisions and a sign-off on the final version, only a couple of weeks ago. If you look at my Facebook page, you'll see the photo of me in the office, looking at the negatives in the films and it goes to print next week.

We've liked those posts on Instagram.

The book is big. It's a 25 X 25 big square thing and people are gonna love it. I'm really excited to get that into people's hands. From December and through to January, we’ll continue the celebrations of the birthday right through the year. It’s important to me, that by the end of next year you’ll have all the flyers up or at least a whole lot of photos. There’ll be all the times of the events, you’ll know event by event, which city and who performed, and all that sort of history, reviews and information tied to the True Faith website that sits under Hardware Group. So finally, all of our history at least, will be back up there (because it's only on Wikipedia at the moment and like I said, all the history is missing).

You've worked with some of the most influential and most famous people in music, is there anyone that blew you away with their presence or talent that you didn't expect?

There were so many talented people in one way, shape or form really, that really blew me away but basically, I think realistically Laurent Garnier blows me away every time. I’d also say Richie Hawtin because he's just always at the forefront of the technology side, he’s just amazing. Jeff Mills on three decks where he was the three-deck wizard, what he was doing and his intensity, always blows me away and of course Carl Cox who’s the godfather of rave to me! Then there's this there’s deadmau5, like the deadmau5 show he played for us which I think it was in 2008 or 2009 Stereosonic, his show in the dark, the cube and everything and what he has put into production. Everyone was blown away in the late 90s by the Daft Punk pyramid show. And then deadmau5 comes along with his cube and does like a modern-day version, with his music and he was such an influential and genre-defining producer and so talented when he came out. Then Eric Prydz has kind of taken the mantle with his HOLO shows, those guys really blow me away. In terms of New School, Reinier Zonneveld from Holland. I went to a gig of his at De Markentine in Amsterdam, in October of 2019. He played the whole night, an eight-hour set. It was live and it was just incredible. I've always been inspired by someone that could do that. An artist playing eight hours live can kind of get lost in the music, but they can also just get lost in themselves and kind of bore the crowd after a while. But he just plays incredible music and full guts rave and is just incredible. Speedy J over the years has always blown me away. He's always so technical, his productions are incredible. There's just so much talented stuff out there. Sub Focus on the bass side that are playing Festival X that's coming up, from a bass point of view, original drum and bass. I love LTJ Bukem, Roni Size, Andy C and Ed Rush and Optical and all that sort of stuff. Sub Focus is one new show I think is great. His visual thing he did was incredible. Aphex Twin blew me away in the past with his show. There's so many good electronic producers and new ones, like Bicep. There's some really, really good stuff going on.

Not everyone is a delight to work with, especially in an industry where egos can be larger than life. Are there any clients, artists or managers for example, you refuse to work with again?

Yeah, there are some pains in the arses you know. We all want to enjoy the work environment as much as possible and enjoy what we're doing. And some people can just be overly demanding and difficult. We understand persistence and people want answers and whatever else, but there are some people that are just difficult to work with, and we avoid them wherever we can. And there are some artists, who are real prima donnas, and you know just pains in the arses. I think this occurs in all genres of music and entertainment!

Is there any way anyone who is still on the Hardware ‘wish list’ that you’d like to work with who you haven't had the opportunity to work with yet?

Yeah, there always is. There definitely is. We've never worked with Eric Prydz. I would love to do the HOLO show here. That would be an achievement and I'd love to do it. There's always an act you want to work with. I mean, there is definitely the odd one and there's acts I’d just like to bring here, but it would be too expensive and there isn’t the market for them here and it wouldn't be financially viable and would just be a passion thing. I've done passion things before, but you’ve gotta pay the bills, especially when you’ve got six or seven staff working for you and you’re coming out of COVID. It's been a really tough time over the last two years.

You are heralded as Australia's longest-running electronic music promoter and a pioneer in the industry. How do these titles sit with you? Are they a heavy burden to carry?

Well, longest running just makes me feel old. I wouldn't say it's a burden, and I don't think we know everything.We’ve just been around and we're older than some of the more recent promoters like Untitled, Five Four Adelaide, Habitat Perth, Thick As Thieves and stuff. They’re doing great work and I really admire them, how they're forging their direction and the way they do things and there's lots of other little crews also around the country. I'm excited by the new artists coming through and new promoters and how everyone's keeping the scene going and keeping it fresh. And I think ‘responsible promoters’ is what’s a good keyword. There are promoters being responsible about sustainability and diversity and all those sorts of things and really kind of being responsible also in the way they conduct themselves. It used to be the wild wild west in the 90s, lots of promoters and club owners. And, there was always this connection in the media/authorities about drugs and dance parties/nightclubs, and all this sort of stuff. It was a bit wild, you know, back then, it's a lot more corporate and a lot more responsible these days and yet still got that 90s feel about it. Some of the venues, style of artwork, types of mash-ups and DJs and things they're doing musically have a 90s vibe to it. A lot of artists who are throwing in old 90s trance tracks (like Nina Kravitz has been for ages), such as Charlotte De Witte, these sorts of DJs throwing in old classics and people doing mash-ups of old classics and stuff, house and techno DJs you know, playing records that were made when they weren't even born yet. It's like it's a hail to that era or bringing back the party and the rave, and I think that's a good thing!

“I think that’s probably the biggest significant change and say in 30 years is the influence the mobile phone has at a gig with who comes and how they interacted and their interaction at the events”

— Richie McNeill

To say the music industry has changed in 30 years would be an understatement. In your opinion, what are the positives and the negatives of that change?

Well, it's obviously become bigger and more commercial and that's a good thing. The types of people coming to events. There are more people who come for the spectacle and the social aspect of it I think. The music obviously is first and foremost and a big part of it, but I think it was very much (in the 90s let’s say), more music-based people coming to our events, purely into CJ Bolland for example. We didn't have mobile phones back then or social media. So, it was fairly underground. How people found out about gigs was via posters on the streets and the newsletter I used to send out to mailing list members, through the record stores and word of mouth. Now it's all through social media, advertising and really fancy videos and selling a dream. It's all very different now and the people that come to events. I was in Byron Bay, I was invited to Splendour with Red Bull and checking that out and went to a party before we went on the Saturday. I went to a brand party for a vodka drink, and it was just all these posers kind of standing around in their skimpy outfits taking photos. There’s a photo opportunity and whatever else and I was like “What the hell this?” “let's go” and after half an hour, we left. So things have just changed a lot. I think, you know, social media has bought in a fantasy, image and fantasy land to people's lives and its infiltrated the music scene a little bit as well. I think it's helpful in some ways. It's a marketing tool and probably the most direct now. We use it to do whatever and stuff but it’s kind of a distraction that I think is taken away from the music. It’s a little bit more like, a lot of the crowd that goes to a lot of events, including ours, but probably a bit less so. You know, it's more about that Instagram moment and being on their phone and taking photos for snapchat, rather than putting their phone in their pocket and actually closing their eyes and getting into the DJs playing for the next hour. I find the attention spans at the festivals and the events are a lot shorter. I think that's probably the biggest significant change in 30 years, is the influence the mobile phone has at a gig, with who comes and how they interact at the events. Also the sort of stuff you don't see, like bands demanding people to put their phones away. You can see that they (the acts) feel it, the crowd’s there, but they’re kind of not. They're just going to a live site, taking photos, and recording a video. We'd prefer more of them to feel the music instead. How it used to be back in the day you know?

Your first gig was at 19. As you mentioned as part of a charity event your father was running for youth in Melbourne. Fast forward to 2019 and you and your Dad have joined to create the Hardware Foundation. It assists various charities across Australia to help families and young Australians in need. It's giving back an important McNeill family quality that your Dad has instilled in you. And is it your hope to pass on that quality to your kids by involving them in the Hardware foundation?

Sure, well my son is only 15 and will probably start working soon, just casual work to get that work ethic and experience. Like my Dad ran Try Youth & Community Services for I think 30 years and the very first Hardware I was raising money for them. So, I used to work at the raffle stall at the Bingo Centre on a Thursday night selling raffle tickets and things, it's all in the book also. My Mum worked for a philanthropic trust (The Newsboys’ Foundation) and for us for hardware 20 years as well in the cash office. My Mum and Dad have always been involved in charity work and around that, so that's kind of had a big influence on me. Then my Dad retired many years ago and talked about the foundation and every ticket that we sell, we put a small amount of that into the foundation and give to various charities. They include Lighthouse, Miracle and Cottage by the Sea, helping primarily Victorians and Australians in need. It focused on more youth development type angles (Cottage by the Sea, down on the south coast). It’s running free camps for underprivileged kids, to learn teambuilding, networking and developing personality and strength and all that sort of stuff. So, it's all good, good core stuff that you know, I get guided from Dad. He’s involved on the board and Mum helps them decide which ones, because if they've got the experience and worked with hundreds of charities, giving grants and she will single out new ones as well. We've just been giving back, 10,000s of dollars here since we started, obviously during COVID we couldn't do much. It started again last year, and it's been good, a rewarding feeling of giving back. It's tough times for people out there at the moment, especially with COVID and inflation and all that sort of stuff. There are people who need help. I think it's good for us and it's good for the community of people that come and buy tickets to our shows and to give a little back and help those less fortunate,

No, I think it’s fantastic that you do that, and it really sets you apart from others in the industry.

“if I ever lose that drive, and I’m not inspired by events and music around me, then that’s when you know, but hang the boots up”

— Richie McNeill

What’s next for Hardware, what do the next 30 years look like?

30 years, I don’t know about 30 years. By that time I will be 80. I wouldn't want to be promoting still at 80, I’d probably have a heart attack if I kept doing it like I was 50.

Oh, Wow. You look really good for 50

Thank you. I'm a Libra. I'm turning 51 in October. So, I feel old, but I feel young. But yeah, the next thirty years look, I've got a good team and partners in projects that we’re doing and in the next few years it's about building those staff up, into more senior roles to take on driving the ship. I feel like I'm the captain still and I'd like to be the lieutenant at some point, but at the same time, there's great music coming through. I'm happy. I've got a really close-knit kind of family and staff and some of them have been working with me for a very long time like Damien Kease, he’s the GM for Festival X. Damien has worked with me for like 17 years. So they've been around a long time, I feel like they are family. You know what I mean? So, for me long-term care in the future is you know, it's about them. It's about the employees and job security. I think for them and to keep doing shows while I’m still interested in the music and they still want to hang out. That's what kind of drives me you know, if I ever lose that drive, and I'm not inspired by events and music around me, then that's when you know, it’s time to hang up the boots.