Back in August, Australian radio station 4ZZZ FM started a campaign to “bring The Flaming Lips to 4ZZZ” via this petition. According to the updated version of the petition now online, Brisbane’s 102.1 FM planned a broadcast of “The Flaming Lips album Zaireeka in full live over radio using iPhones playing in sync. This will be conducted in studio by our master of ceremonies the one and the only Wayne Coyne.”
On November 19th at midnight, Wayne Coyne attempted to lead 160 fans in broadcasting Zaireeka – The Flaming Lips’ 1997 album designed to be played by synching four seperate CD players – over the Austrailian radio airwaves (…a web stream too). Film and camera crews reportedly captured the whole event and a radio/web rebroadcast is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, November 23rd. Check back here and at twitter/FutureHeartDay for updates over the next few days….
On November 20th, 4ZZZ FM’s Brad summed up the event – and the problems the “experiment” faced – in this post on Facebook:
“Thank you tremendously to everyone involved last night for The iphone experiment!!! From participants to our insanely hard working volunteers I thank you with the bottom of my heart for showing up and putting the effort in.
To those listening or at the event we had a large number of problems which were unavoidable largely due to bad communication and making sure everyone got the correct msg.
The iphones yes were quiet but for the most part people were in synch. I did encourage that people bring ipod docks/external speakers to boost the sound but unfortunately few took up the offer.
Allowing alcohol and scheduling this detailed thing following a festival was probably a bad idea as well haha.
We did miss out on a large scope of the album with the experiment due to Wayne having to leave for his hotel room before the scheduled finishing time. A number of things were planned for the event that just did not happen due to time constraints.
So the experiment definitely turned into a party and we handed out party poppers and could literally not stop Wayne from popping them. To all the people that were there it was definitely something to be seen having 200 odd people crammed into the little zed carpark drinking and having Wayne hand out party poppers. The party long continued into the early hours of the morning with some colourful chats with the super cool guys from John Steel Singers and The AU Review.
While it is understandable expectations were not met with the experiment I hope that people took an experience from it one way or another. It was an experiment and experiments don’t always work but even failing miserably can see beautiful things happen in the process.
The offer always stands for Wayne and everyone to return another day and another time for The iphone Experiment #2 and learning from our mistakes the potential is there for us all to create something beautiful and unique while having an amazing experience.
If you took something from the night that requires an apology I am sorry. But if you took something from the night that was enjoyable and fun than that is what we set out to do and made the whole thing worth it.
We will trim down sections to be replayed on the radio during the week.
Once again thanks to everyone involved with the experiment!!!”
http://twitter.com/#!/waynecoyne/status/137907090273480704
The 160 fans were selected as iPhone participants from those who “like”-ed facebook/bringthelipstozed and won a variety of social media promotional competitions (i.e. subscribing to 4zzzfm.org.au, commenting at this facebook post on “7 Skies H3”, aka the 24 hour song, etc). On Wednesday, November 2nd the first participant was announced on the air – along with news that experimental musicians PVT will be an additional guest “conductor” organizing the 160 iPhone users. Other winners were also posted at facebook/bringthelipstozed. The station gifted “Wayne a copy of our petition with the names and comments of all our loyal signers!”
The Future Heart 