Category: Gigs & Reviews

BT London Live

BT London Live takes place in Hyde Park, Victoria Park (open throughout the Olympic Games) and Trafalgar Square (open throughout the Paralympic Games) this summer and will offer hundreds of thousands of visitors from around Britain and the rest of the world as well as Londoners the chance to join in the excitement of the London 2012 festivities, for free.

In addition there are also two paid for Celebration Concerts taking place in Hyde Park. Blur, The Specials and New Order have already been confirmed for the Closing Ceremony Celebration Concert inHydePark on 12 August. The other concert will also take place in Hyde Park to mark the opening of London 2012 on Friday 27 July with artists to be announced shortly.

Hard Rock Calling

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band and Paul Simon will headline Hard Rock Calling 2012, which takes place between 13-15 July 2012 in London’s Hyde Park. Saturday 14 July sees Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band take to the stage while Paul Simon headlines the Sunday performing ‘Graceland’ in its entirety with Jimmy Cliff and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, a UK first since 1987. Friday night’s headliner, as well as further additions across all three dates to be announced soon.

The Download Festival is 10 this year!

The Download Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2012 with one of it’s biggest ever line ups. Taking place at Donington Park between 8-10 June, the weekend will see The Prodigy, Metallica and Black Sabbath headline, as well as performances from Soundgarden, Chase & Status, Biffy Clyro, Slash, you Me At Six, Rise Against plus more.

Live: Man Like Me for The Beats Relaunch at Electricity Showrooms

I was lucky enough to catch a few tracks (including upcoming single ‘Squeeze’) by Man Like Me at Mike Skinner’s relaunch of The Beats label- the same label that first discovered and signed up Professor Green and Example. The man’s obviously got an eye for talent!

Live: Juan Zelada at Bush Hall

I had some tickets organised for me on Friday to see Juan Zelada at the amazingly beautiful (and super warm) Bush Hall in London. I wasn’t expecting this gig to be as good as it turned out to be, which was a really good surprise.

This guy’s full of mad energy, and his tracks really kick to life when they’re played live. See him if you can, it’s fun!

Live: Oh Land at Heaven London

Sometimes friends let you down in a massive way. Yesterday evening was one such. I got blown out by a buddy minutes before heading to see Oh Land in Heaven London. I was gutted and annoyed. But I still went. Alone. And I sort of forgot all my frustration for a couple of hours because this lady is out of control. She drove everyone wild with her tribal beats and cute Danish voice. Catch her if you can.

Brand New Heavies celebrate their 20th anniversary with two shows in London next week

As we’re on a jazzy vibe today, I have some fun news. Brand New Heavies– one of the most successful and enduring acts of the acid jazz scene, will celebrate their 20th Anniversary with two December shows at Under The Bridge in London on December 13th and 14th. The shows will coincide with the release of new compilation album, ‘The Best Of 20 Years’, two CDs containing the best of the band’s career to date.

Early hits ‘Never Stop’ and ‘Dream Come True’ earned the band a reputation as a formidable live act and their reinterpretations of popular standards, such as ‘Midnight At The Oasis’, Carole King’s ‘You’ve Got A Friend’ and the Stevie Wonder classic ‘I Don’t Know Why (I Love You)’, brought major global chart success. Check out here.

Ghostpoet + The D.O.T. = Rizlab

 

I’ve just come back from this Rizlab event I’ve been writing about, where they got Ghostpoet and The D.O.T. (formerly known as Mike Skinner from The Streets) to create a song called ‘Trouble’, then shoot the video in real time by giving fans online a choice of what kinds of trouble the three of them should go through while filming.

It ended up with some cheerleaders, a bad disco scene and a boyband miming to the words. Yet somehow the whole thing didn’t feel camp…

I had the chance to check it out while it was being filmed in Shoreditch and it was so good. I mean, the whole thing didn’t last more than four minutes but the DJ sets inbetween were immense. These Rizlab kids know how to throw a midweek party.

Ghostpoet and The D.O.T. – Damu remix and final preparations

We’re less than a week away now from the live-streamed, one-take video shoot for Ghostpoet & The D.O.T.’s collaborative track for RizLab, ‘Trouble’. Fans have been voting for ways to make trouble for the artists during the performance, and on the night online viewers will be able to vote and effect what happens on stage in real time. The footage will then be used to create the music video for the single.

Meanwhile, the incredible Damu – who recently released a debut album ‘Unity’ on Keysound – has put his stamp on ‘Trouble’ with a euphoric reworking.  The track can be streamed here.

Live: Man Like Me at Relentless Garage

Firstly, sorry for the shit pics again. I think I’m just going to start getting press passes and risk it with my Sony NEX from now on…

I’ve just realised that I haven’t been to a proper gig in months. This scares me a bit as I usually go at least once a week to something. I guess I’ve just been either super busy or super skint. But anyway, Man Like Me are an amazing band and I was excited to catch them live tonight (to launch their new single, Peculiar’) because I just knew that they would blow the roof off. And they did. I don’t really know how to sum it all up other than there was lots of sweat, brass, face make-up and mad dancing.

Think Madness mixed with The Streets and you get Man Like Me. Biggest moment was ‘London Town‘ playing at the end, and the start and finish when the whole brass band raved it through crowds to get to the stage. I caught a bit of Caan who was playing support- amazing as always.

Rizlab announce Bestival line-up

RizLab have announced their full Bestival line-up which includes Frankie Knuckles, SBTRKT, Mylo, Erol Alkan, Greg Wilson and Black Devil Disco Club amongst many others across the three days.

Additionally, further details of Friendly Fires’ RizLab project have been revealed including full details of the collaborations between Friendly Fires and SBTRKT, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and LONE, plus the release of a video of the artists at work in the studio and in discussion about the project. Find out more here.

Friendly Fires headline Rizlab 2 at Bestival!

Friendly Fires will be the next artists to work with RizLab – curating a one-off exploration of “The Past, Present and Future of Dance Music” in the RizLab arena on the opening day of Bestival.

Moshi Moshi founder Stephen Bass is one of the creative curators for RizLab. He’s a renowned talent spotter and was one of the first people in the industry to spot Friendly Fires’ unique ability to anthemic songwriting with dance floor fillers.

Stephen commented: “I’ve known Friendly Fires for a while so, when we first started doing RizLab, they were the first band that I went to speak to. As soon as we started talking about what we could do they were immediately attracted to the idea of exploring their love of dance music in a live environment.”

Friendly Fires commented: “Our goal was to have a line-up that acted as a timeline to show where electronic music started and where it is now. The idea was to create a bill of legendary yet varied names from the genre to create something perfect for Bestival. As a band we’re always been keen to show off our genuine love and passion for dance music. It’s great to have this opportunity to select our own line-up as it’s not something we’d normally have the opportunity to do.”

The line-up will include:

PAST: Frankie Knuckles and A Guy Called Gerald

PRESENT: Friendly Fires sets and collaborations

FUTURE: SBTRKT, LONE and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs 

Jamie xx to collaborate with Quayola for the first ever Rizlab event

RizLab gives visionary artists a platform to freely experiment and embrace their creative passions. Launched to develop unique and innovative music experiences, RizLab has partnered with pioneering DJ and producer Jamie xx for it’s first project on August 11th in London.

Jamie xx has chosen to work with world-renowned visual artist Quayola. On the night, Jamie xx will be playing an extended four-hour set that will premiere new material from his forthcoming EP. At the same time, Quayola will be performing live in real-time alongside him to create a visual feast on two 17 metre wide screens in full HD.

Quayola, who, amongst others, has exhibited at the V & A, Venice Bienalle and the Royal Albert Hall, is famed for using photography, geometry, time-based digital sculptures and AV installations in his immersive multi-media performances. For this performance, Quayola will be using the custom-built software Partitura alongside long-time friends and collaborators Abstract Birds. Apply for tickets on Rizlab’s website here and enter our own competition to win a pair of tickets right here!

The second RizLab project will be curated by Friendly Fires at Bestival on Friday 9th Sept and will explore a defining musical genre with special guest appearances.

Live: Waylayers at Macbeth

I mentioned Waylayers  last month on here, although I had seen them once before in a line-up supporting Yelle at Electrowerkz back in March. I like their indie/electro/pop fusion thing they’ve got going on- and it works well live too. Considering they haven’t been around for long they look to be very promising.

And apologies about the pictures. I brought a new camera but it’s turned out worse than the older one. But on the bright side it looks a lot sexier. I think I’m doomed with cameras…

Live: The Kill Van Kulls at Social

First featured on here back in May, I saw Kill Van Kulls tonight in London’s tiny Social, off Oxford Street. They had such a big sound for a venue so small which was fun to see. Their sound is sort of epic, anthemic British indie, but in my view it really kicks off when they experiment with their beats and percussions. Sort of ‘The Hurts‘ but with balls. Highlights were their new single, ‘Lost and Found’, as well as ‘Wooden Heart’ and ‘Impossible Man’. Try to see them if you can- they’re good.

Live: Professor Green at Somerset House

Just back from seeing Professor Green (with support from Ed Drewett) at Somerset House in London. It’s a bit of an unusual place to have a gig like this, but that made it all the more fun. Was very good. Previews of Green’s new material were really very good- I have a feeling his next album (out in October) will be tons better than the first one (although that was pretty good too). He played my favourite track on the album, the hugely ‘Goodnight‘, which was awesome. Another highlight was an appearance of Emeli Sandé. Can’t wait to see more of this girl!

Live: Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs at London Scala

I was in two minds about seeing Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs last night. If you don’t live in London I’ll tell you that the weather has been disgusting- it’s just been raining like mad. But I went anyway. It was probably the best gig of the year.

Totally blown away! I mean, it was just him fiddling about on some machines while some crazy girl dancers went a bit wild to the beats but I shuffled like mad. You have to check him out live- he will blow your mind! I think it’s those big hats he wears or something, but it’s pure genius.

Live: Tim & Jean at Gold Dust

There’s been a lot of buzz for this Aussie electropop duo. They’re in London to play some gigs and I caught them last night in Hoxton to see what all the fuss was about. They’re good live, I guess I’d call the whole thing ‘cute.’ The tracks are fun, but they also diversified and played Tom Petty‘s ‘Freefalling’ without one electro pulse in sight, which was refreshing.

Most of the crowd seemed to be Aussie too, so I can totally see these guys making a bit of an impact here. One of the other acts playing just before them, Caan, was exceptional. Will feature him!