Big Day Out Line Up Announced

Welcome to the official BIG DAY OUT 2011 first announcement.

2010 was one for the record books and a stellar year for BDO.

We not only passed the emotional 100 show mark with a bang, but also staged our biggest shows to the largest and best behaved audiences of our 18 years of BDO. And so we thank you for your continued support in helping us produce the best and safest event possible for the patrons, the bands and our tireless team.

The more you care: the more we care.

Which brings us to 2011.

2010 is a very hard act to follow, so for 2011 it felt right to turn up the heat musically and visually. And what better way to explain this than to present you with over 30 exceptional acts from home and abroad for the first round alone.

This is by far our biggest and most diverse announcement ever. As well as the many incredible first timers on offer, we are enthusiastically welcoming back several iconic BDO veterans. They are some of the most exciting and uncompromising artists performing live today. We believe this combination of extremes for 2011 will create a spectacular event.

From the heaviest to the sweetest sounds in the world today, this will be a sensory overload not to be missed.

Full tickets details are below, but please remember the policies we’ve built your show on: You’re all VIPs (Very Important Punters). We don’t do elitist or bogus pre-sales: we’re either on sale or we’re not. We have what we believe to be one low ticket price for one high standard for everyone….

And we hope to see you there

Ken and Viv

Annoucement

“The sky will blacken, the ground will shudder, the earth will open up and BIG DAY OUT will once again tremble in the presence of the awe-inspiring TOOL. “Primal, poignant, poetic and, as always, utterly powerful” (Artist direct, July 2010). Touring Down Under for the first time in four years, vocalist Maynard James Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones, drummer Danny Carey and bassist Justin Chancellor will be fresh from the studio, where they have been slowly crafting a follow-up to 2006’s 10,000 Days. From Lateralus to Stinkfist, you know the music. But, backed by a video and laser light show unlike any other, TOOL live is also “the kind of visual experience you'll probably never have again” (CHARTattack, August 2009). Unmatched in the world of dark, heavy rock, California’s TOOL have over 20 years scorched themselves a place as “one of the best live bands in history” (ArtistDirect). Be blinded by their light at BIG DAY OUT 2011.”

A decade since ruling over BIG DAY OUT with a reign of fire, pyrotechnics, monstrous riffs, wicked humour and industrial savagery, RAMMSTEIN will return this summer to reclaim their sovereign territory. The RAMMSTEIN live experience is “dizzyingly ridiculous”, says the BBC. “Rock is at its best when confrontational, subversive, curiously camp and bold, which is why RAMMSTEIN are currently one of the most important bands in the genre.” Armed with their sixth album, Liebe ist für Alle da, Germany’s infamous techno-metal masters bring nothing less than the greatest show on earth: “RAMMSTEIN are in pulverising form, the crowd are going crazy, the atmosphere is electric and the firebombs launching from the stage are like World War III on apocalypse LSD” (The Quietus, February 2010). Bow down to your kings, BIG DAY OUT 2011, for RAMMSTEIN have returned.

Standing at the front line of mission BIG DAY OUT 2011 is the one-woman shock and awe campaign that is M.I.A. The Sri Lankan-British “singer/rapper/firebrand” (Pitchfork) fearlessly cuts through genre boundaries and lyrical taboos, blazing new ground from the clubs to the streets with powerhouse tracks like Galang, Paper Planes and, from her latest album /\/\/\Y/\, Born Free and XXXO. On record and on stage, M.I.A. delivers “pure, flashing brilliance, a lightning cognitive connection of word, idea and sound that few do so well” (NME, July 2010). Often controversial, always compelling, M.I.A knows only one way: all guns blazing. Take cover, BIG DAY OUT.

It’s time for a new generation to plug in to the raw power of IGGY AND THE STOOGES at BIG DAY OUT 2011. The band that invented punk rock return with iconic frontman Iggy Pop rejoined by guitarist James Williamson, drummer Scott Asheton, bass player Mike Watt and sax player Steve Mackay. IGGY AND THE STOOGES will be performing songs from their landmark 1973 album Raw Power, and cherry-picking the likes of Fun House, I Wanna Be Your Dog and Down On The Street from their incendiary back catalogue of which Kurt Cobain consistently listed Raw Power as his #1 favorite album of all time and Jack White will tell you that Fun House is the best rock and roll album ever made! It’s “the most chaotic and beautiful mess you could ever want” (Boston Herald, September 2010). As Iggy says, “The Stooges and I are cocked and loaded to deliver it live on stage.” And the only place to see IGGY AND THE STOOGES deliver it this summer is at BIG DAY OUT. Don’t be the one to say you missed it.

You thought it was all over, but James Murphy’s genre-mashing LCD SOUNDSYSTEM couldn’t farewell the live arena without one last tilt at BIG DAY OUT 2011. The biggest name in punk funk for much of the last decade, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM is a “disco-ticking-time-bomb” (OC Weekly) that has done everything – from movie soundtracks to Grammy-nominated albums. Now, after winning raves for third album This is Happening, Murphy is about to flick LCD’s ‘off’ switch. But before he does, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM wanna put some dance, party and soul in your world one last time, via the likes of Drunk Girls, North American Scum and Daft Punk is Playing at My House. And they’ll be bringing “the heavy artillery… More muscular and frenzied than on record, the LCD seven-piece live line-up avoids the ‘live dance music’ cul-de-sac in favour of a looser, more dynamic sound… Wow” (The List, May 2010). You better believe this is happening – so be sure to get enough LCD SOUNDSYSTEM to last you a lifetime at BIG DAY OUT this summer.

SHIHAD, New Zealand’s greatest rock institution, now 21 years old. The General Electric, the band’s fourth album, released in 1999 and now revisited in one searing live performance that will take the BIG DAY OUT crowd through the entire album from its intro and storming singles “My Mind’s Sedate”, “Pacifier” and the crunching title track, to closer “Brightest Star”. The General Electric is an enduring classic in the Shihad canon, double platinum in NZ and still the group’s biggest seller on both sides of the Tasman. It’s time to testify to its greatness once again.

If BIG DAY OUT is beamin’, it’s because we’re psyched to be welcoming back hip hop superstar LUPE FIASCO. The MC with the madly energetic, fast-flowin’ live-band show kicked and pushed outta Chicago with two Grammy-nominated albums, Food & Liquor and The Cool. Since last hitting these shores, LUPE has wrapped a new album, Lasers. But where is it? Singles I’m Beamin’ and Shining Down were a tasty tease, yet the album proper remains so damn anticipated that the rapper’s fans have resorted to petitioning his label to have it released. That’s just the kind of passion LUPE FIASCO inspires, and that’s why we’re beamin’ to have him back at BIG DAY OUT 2011.

BIG DAY OUT is shivering with anticipation as the howling, growling, malevolent rock beast that is GRINDERMAN approaches. GRINDERMAN are Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos – Four Bad Seeds on a mission to take us somewhere else entirely. On album No.1 they were equal parts swagger and sexual frustration. On Grinderman 2, they’re simply ravenous and rampaging, “mixing horror and black humour with barely tamed musical malevolence” (The Guardian, September 2010). Fronted by Australia’s unarguable king of intense, intimidating performance, GRINDERMAN are coming to draw out the heathen child in all of us at BIG DAY OUT 2011.

BIG DAY OUT is daring to look deep into the Diamond Eyes of California’s favourite alt-metal sons, DEFTONES. The 2010 release and sixth album, is “a brilliant, invigorating reintroduction” (NME) to Chino Moreno, Stephen Carpenter, Frank Delgado, Abe Cunningham and new bassist Sergio Vega – the men who shook the world a decade ago with the groundbreaking White Pony – still “wield that balance between beauty and brutality better than anyone” (ARTISTdirect, August 2010). So brace yourself for extremes as you prepare to witness the long-awaited return of DEFTONES at BIG DAY OUT 2011.

Brothers and sisters, stomp your feet, nod your head and stroke your beard in time with the baddest blues-rock duo around, THE BLACK KEYS. “Patrick Carney beat on his drums like they just stole his girlfriend, and Dan Auerbach was a man possessed, wailing with his soulful voice and playing his fuzzed-out bluesy guitar riffs” (Chicago Examiner, August 2010). Ohio boys Auerbach and Carney have been knocking out crunchy blues-rock jams since the early 2000s, adding a little soul, glam and psychedelia on their latest album, the US No.3 hit Brothers. This is the real thing. No nonsense. Just pure, unadulterated THE BLACK KEYS at BIG DAY OUT 2011.

The meteoric rise of THE NAKED AND FAMOUS has been the biggest story in New Zealand music in 2010. The group had already won over alternative radio ears in their home country with two EPs where a home studio full of industrial strength electronica ideas underpinned some of the most melodic dream pop concocted down under, before they unleashed single Young Blood in May. But were they ready for that song to go straight into the NZ charts at number one, hook them up with NY indie label and blog Neon Gold, hit playlists from Triple J to London’s XFM, win them the prestigious APRA Silver Scroll and make them one of the hottest unsigned properties in the world? Probably not. But their self-produced album, Passive Me Aggressive You, has since appeared and garnered even more praise. Nudity? Not in public. Fame? Most definitely around the corner for these five kids from Auckland.

When it’s time to party, BIG DAY OUT knows exactly who to consult – the ultimate authority on partying hard, ANDREW WK. Infamous for his bloody nose, regarded for his motivational speaking, famous for his high-life attitude, beloved for his songs like Party Hard, She is Beautiful and It’s Time To Party, New Yorker ANDREW WK is coming our way with his full band for the first time ever to create feelings of pure joy, fun, freedom, and possibility. How does he do it? “His fast and hard party anthems whip the crowd into a fist pumping frenzy … ANDREW takes command of the crowd and bids them to live it up while they can” (mxdwn, September 2010). So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to party. It’s time for ANDREW WK to take command at BIG DAY OUT 2011.

Brothers and sisters sound the siren. A new moon has risen and the return of WOLFMOTHER is well and truly upon us. It was a whirlwind journey the band went on with the Wolfmother album, a voyage that resulted in over one million sales, sold out riots disguised as shows the world over and multiple Awards including a Grammy. In 2009 they regrouped and returned with a thundering 2nd record, Cosmic Egg, which they describe as “the sound of the Wolfmother world being rethunk and cracked wide open, with a sprawling, jubilant galaxy of musical and metaphysical harmony spilling forth”. We couldn’t have put it better ourselves and BIG DAY OUT are couldn’t be happier to have them cracking it open again in 2011.

THE JIM JONES REVUE will be burning the house down at BIG DAY OUT 2011. THE JIM JONES REVUE manifesto is simple, and ferocious: "If you're going to get on stage,” says guitarist Rupert Orton, “deliver." And that they do, riffing on Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis for a rock’n’roll sound that could have come direct from the 1950s, if it wasn’t fused with the so dang wild, loud and loose vibes of The Cramps and The Birthday Party. The Londoners may have only dropped their debut in 2008, but don’t let that fool you – these five punk rock bluesmen have been around. Hot on the heels of their blistering second album, Burning Down Your House, THE JIM JONES REVUE are set to fire up BIG DAY OUT this summer.

With their magic tour bus painted all the colours of the rainbow and their fearless leader at the wheel, EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS are on the road to BIG DAY OUT 2011. The (at least!) ten-strong, Hottest 100-conquering neo-hippie combo from California are putting a skip in the step of the world with smile-inducing songs from the name-making Home to the happy-go-lucky Janglin’ and 40 Day Dream. This is the stuff group singalongs are made of, music to bring people together. As the Denver Post put it: “At an Edward Sharpe show, everybody is family.” So get on board with EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROES – next stop, BIG DAY OUT. You’ll feel right at home.

20 years after taking the sounds and spirit of the second summer of love and acid house and melding it into one of the greatest albums of the 1990s, British rockers PRIMAL SCREAM will remake history by performing their epoch-defining classic Screamadelica in full at BIG DAY OUT 2011. Two decades on, these songs still sound like the future: Loaded, Movin’ On Up, Higher Than the Sun, Come Together, Don’t Fight it, Feel It. Bobby Gillespie and the band will be joined by gospel singers, horn section, and a field full of memories. Come together to see PRIMAL SCREAM do Screamadelica at BIG DAY OUT.

BIG DAY OUT has seen the future of dance music, and it goes by the name of BLOODY BEETROOTS DEATH CREW 77. Bob Rifo’s Italian gang may be DJs, prolific producers, masked avengers and remixers extraordinaire, but this summer it will be BLOODY BEETROOTS DEATH CREW 77 invading the Boiler Room. This isn’t just a live set, this is live communal anarchy, an electro punk rave-up that has made BLOODY BEETROOTS DEATH CREW 77 one of the most talked about dance music acts on the planet. Madly energetic, or just plain mad? Whatever the answer, you’ll be showing mad love for BLOODY BEETROOTS DEATH CREW 77 by the time they’re done with BIG DAY OUT 2011.

Berlin duo Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier are BOOKA SHADE DJs – Get Physical label bosses, producers of immense electronic club music, newly-minted DJs. At BIG DAY OUT 2011, it’s BOOKA SHADE in DJ guise that’ll take to the Boiler Room. A BOOKA SHADE DJs set isn’t just about flinging vinyl onto a turntable – “Bringing together new tracks and new beats and creating something new around it, is more the spirit of our music,” says Kammermeier. It’s also about capturing the feeling of a great party. Grab the feeling and don’t let go with BOOKA SHADE DJs at BIG DAY OUT this summer.

From their bleak student flat at 660 Castle Street Dunedin comes a unique sound that is the freshest twist on the Kiwi love of fusion of roots, reggae, hip hop, dubstep and drum’n’bass. With a catch cry of “live and massive” that has resonated around the country SIX60 are the most in-demand new band in New Zealand and selling out shows on the strength of word of mouth and a huge internet fanbase that regularly create the incredible experience of gigs where a thousand voices enthusiastically sing every word of the band’s (then myspace-only!) songs. Six60 have just inked a deal with Universal Music and saw their first single ‘Rise Up 2.0’ debut at No.5 in the NZ Charts in September.

Comin’ straight outta Cape Town to BIG DAY OUT 2011 are South Africa’s interweb-conquering, next level, hip hop heroes DIE ANTWOORD. The-hard rhyming Ninja, Yo-Landi Vi$$er and DJ Hi-Tek burst on to the scene with serious gangsta skillz and viral videos for Enter the Ninja and Zef Side, then quickly became the “so zef, so fresh” smash hit of Coachella 2010 – “Pound for pound the most engaging and legitimately surprising act of the weekend,” said the LA Times. Part anarchic art project, part the-future-of-rap, total mystery. Are DIE ANTWOORD for real? Find the answer at BIG DAY OUT this summer.

The temperature guage is rising as BIG DAY OUT ushers in the artist who ushered in a whole new era of dance music, VITALIC. The man born Pascal Arbez has always been one step ahead of the electro game, his 2005 debut OK Cowboy preceding the rise to worldwide dance-dominance of every other Frenchman with a laptop. In 2009, he re-stamped his authority on the scene with the highly-charged Flashmob. Using big synths, big beats and a big slice of glittery disco as his building blocks, VITALIC creates a sound as pulverising as it is infectious. No messing around – “This guy is incredible” (inthemix, November 2008). Keep up if you can, as VITALIC flashes forward at BIG DAY OUT this summer.

Jordan and Sam were born in 1988. In 2009, they were the toast of the music world with the chart conquering disco sleaze of their platinum selling debut My House. They followed up with a string of throbbing electro anthems culminating in the release of the insanely catchy, wildly electric journey of 21st century dance pop discovery that is their 2010 debut album Sugarpills. As their recordings and remixes have been filling club dance floors, KIDS OF 88 have since smashed their way around New Zealand and Australia, lighting up clubs and sharing the stage with everyone from the Passion Pit and Scissor Sisters to Cassette Kids while ducking back to their home studio to remix stars like Ke$ha and Cobra Starship.

Representin’ for São Paulo at BIG DAY OUT 2011 are Brazil’s hot, hot band of the people, CSS. “The physical embodiment of the best party ever” (NME), CSS have shared their unquenchable thirst for good times and all things pop and art via two albums, Cansei de Ser Sexy and Donkey. On the eve of the release of their next blast of post-punk-electro-art-school madness, CSS are back to doing what they do best – creating unbridled joy live on stage, in a set that’s equal parts dance party, urban circus, and out-and-out chaos. As the band’s technicolour frontwoman Lovefoxx would say: get up, get up, get up! Get up, and get your CSS while it’s hot at BIG DAY OUT.

BIG DAY OUT is reverting to PLAN B. But Ben Drew is no back-up plan, he’s the recalcitrant renaissance man of British music: rapper, actor, guitarist, storyteller, filmmaker and now chart-topping soul singer. After shocking the nation with his 2006 debut Who Needs Action When You Got Words, PLAN B took a sharp turn with The Defamation of Strickland Banks, a surprising, slick album filled with “stonking tunes” (NME) that trace the rise and fall of a smartly-suited soul singer. But don’t be fooled – this sweet soul morsel has a razor-sharp edge. Quite simply, no one else cuts it like PLAN B, and he’s suiting up for BIG DAY OUT 2011.

When BIG DAY OUT is rockin’, RATATAT will come a’knockin’. New York duo Mike Stroud and Evan Mast have been mixing electronics with guitars for the past decade, combining the power of noise and dance, collaborating with Kid Cudi, remixing Bjork, dropping four albums. Songs like Lex, Wild Cats and Seventeen Years have made them completely hip, but it’s when you see RATATAT live on stage – an aural, visual and physical assault of synths, guitar, hypnotic video and boundless energy – that the hype makes perfect sense. If you’re ready to be blown away, you’re ready for RATATAT at BIG DAY OUT 2011.

Barely a year ago, Kiwis-in-exile Shelton Woolright (drummer from Blindspott) and Paul Matthews (Tadpole and Stylus bassist) hooked up in London to form the rock solid basis for a power trio to take on the world. Adding Englishman Ed Martin, who has lent his considerable vocal chops to bands and as singer for Artful Dodger and Craig David, they headed downunder to test the waters with their hard-hitting rock sound with a soulful edge. I AM GIANT quickly connected with a Kiwi audience and within weeks, tracks from their debut EP were heading up the rock charts. Meanwhile back in Europe, a serious hook-up with Quiksilver had I Am Giant soundtracking Kelly Slater films and headlining skate and surf events around the Continent. Raging riffery, anthemic songs with intricate hooks and Ed’s phenomenal soaring vocals on top have already the appropriately titled I Am Giant a name on many rock tastemakers’ lips this year.

John Butler is undeniably the most successful truly independent artist in Australia. The recent rebirth of his band the John Butler Trio saw two new members join John Butler; Nicky Bomba on drums and Byron Luiters on bass. The title for the trio’s latest album April Uprising is all about a period of change, of evolution and a constantly renewing beginning. April Uprising is John's most focused, diverse and accessible album to date. Between the epic opening track Revolution and a whispered acoustic coda A Star is Born, dedicated to John's son, April Uprising is an album that combines the personal, the political and the musically memorable with skill and passion. BIG DAY OUT is very excited to welcome back JOHN BUTLER TRIO.

AIRBOURNE have been waving the rock and roll flag around the world since 2003. AIRBOURNE crank out with all cylinders firing potent, solid and good ol’ fashioned rock and roll. “Basically, we’ve never been about having a specific message; we don’t talk about politics or social injustices in our songs. There are other bands out there to take care of that,” says rowdy lead guitarist and vocalist Joel O‘Keefe. The band latest album No Guts, No Glory is a true testament to AIRBOURNE’s way of life…the album is a virtual rock and roll buffet served up this summer at BIG DAY OUT 2011.

Is it noise pop? Post punk? Shoe gaze? Noise/ post/ gaze/pop? Whatever you call it, it’s relentless, reckless and sometimes menacing. DIE! DIE!DIE! have just hooked up with the soaring again iconic New Zealand indie label Flying Nun Records to unleash their third album, Form. The record has all the ferocious energy and lung-bursting melodies of the trio’s previous releases, and while it can tear through you one moment, it also shows a band trying on something different. It is a collision of sounds. It feels like an (R)evolution. Remember the first time you saw a band that blew your mind right open? Die! Die! Die! is all about doing that. “A sense of danger, hunger and heat - qualities that so many current groups guilelessly miss” said The Guardian of this band. Die! Die! Die! are as intense as ever and currently touring the best record of their career – all in their own inimitable careering way.

For over a decade, the name of New Zealand drum’n’bass producer BULLETPROOF has stood for forward thinking futuristic Neurofunk in the wold of dancefloor d’n’b. One of the first Australasian producers in the genre to sign an international deal back in the 90s and now the owner of his own label, the heavy duty Cyanide Recordings, Jay Bulletproof is 16 years into the game, still smashing it on dancefloors worldwide and branching into dubstep territory with his productions on new album Soundtrack To Forever. Caressing the dancefloor massive with his blend of bottom shuddering d’n’bionics, Bulletproof will be firing the heavy duty shots at the Auckland BDO.

BIRDS OF TOKYO certainly aren’t the kind of band to do things in halves. Their latest self –titled album was recorded between Sydney, London, Gothenburg and New York; BIRDS OF TOKYO gave themselves the most surreal and inspiring experience possible, knowing that the results of doing so would speak for themselves. The result is a journey into such deeply personal territory that makes BIRDS OF TOKYO’s most meaningful and powerful album yet. Stand up and be counted at BIG DAY OUT 2011 with BIRDS OF TOKYO.

STREET CHANT were born under a bar called Eden’s on Auckland’s notorious K Road strip and christened Mean Street by their mums. After winning over blogworld with one of the first songs they wrote, a pop-grunge nugget called “Scream Walk”, guitarist Emily and bassist Billie traded out their drummer at a street kid swapmeet in Grey Lynn and changed their band name to Street Chant when they picked up sticksman Alex from Pt Chev’s DHDFDs. Y’follow yet? Since then the band has toured New Zealand with their spiritual antecedents The 3Ds, and were hand-picked to play around Australia with The Dead Weather, all the while seeing their songs top the NZ alternative charts to increasing clamour. The attendant din is even louder now they’ve just released their awesome new album Means on Arch Hill and are off to the States for CMJ. And through it all they remain exactly as they came in: fierce, irreverent, passionate and obsessed in equal measures.

Get ready to get messy with CRYSTAL CASTLES at BIG DAY OUT 2011. Toronto’s electronic experimentalists Ethan Kath and Alice Glass are purveyors of the most frenetic live show on the planet. “It's a thrillingly anarchic, messy show … all over the place, and all the better for it” (MusicOMH, June 2010). The whispers about CRYSTAL CASTLES began in 2006, a series of limited, lo-fi vinyl singles selling as quickly as they were pressed. Two self-titled albums later, the whisper is a roar. Or maybe that’s just Glass’s “hellish shriek backed by warzone beats and liquid synths”. Shield your ears – CRYSTAL CASTLES will bring the noise at BIG DAY OUT this summer.

TOOL, RAMMSTEIN, M.I.A., IGGY AND THE STOOGES, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, SHIHAD THE GENERAL ELECTRIC, LUPE FIASCO, GRINDERMAN, DEFTONES, THE BLACK KEYS, THE NAKED & FAMOUS, ANDREW W.K., WOLFMOTHER, THE JIM JONES REVUE, EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS, PRIMAL SCREAM SCREAMADELICA LIVE, BLOODY BEETROOTS DEATH CREW 77, BOOKA SHADE, SIX60, DIE ANTWOORD, VITALIC, KIDS OF 88, CSS, PLAN B, RATATAT, I AM GIANT, JOHN BUTLER TRIO, AIRBOURNE, DIE!DIE!DIE!, BULLETPROOF, BIRDS OF TOKYO, STREET CHANT, CRYSTAL CASTLES and more to be announced

FRIDAY JANUARY 21st AUCKLAND MT SMART STADIUM
Maurice Rd Penrose. Gates open 11am
Tickets $150 (inc GST) +bf*. Strict limit of 4 tickets per customer. Available from Real Groovy, Marbecks, all Ticketmaster Outlets, phone and credit card bookings 0800 111 999 or www.ticketmaster.co.nz, and from our website www.bigdayout.com

TICKETS ON SALE: FRIDAY 8th OCTOBER
You will be asked to read and agree to our Conditions of Sale and Admission before you can purchase tickets. Conditions of Sale and Admission can be viewed at www.bigdayout.com
For full show information and internet ticket bookings check out the website
www.bigdayout.com
*booking fees may vary pending on outlet & mode of purchase

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