Thursday, 17 September 2009

Glastonbury 2010 Tickets to go on Sale This October

Organisers have confirmed that tickets for next years Glastonbury festival will go on sale on at 9am (BST) October 4.

As with previous years, those hoping to buy tickets to the 2010 festival must register on glastonburyregistration.co.uk at least 48 hours before tickets go on sale. Glastonbury's £50 deposit scheme will also be in place this year, giving fans the option of reserving a ticket ahead of paying the full price next February.

Weekend tickets for Glastonbury 2010 cost £185 – £10 up on last year's price – plus £5 booking fee (and £4.95 postage).

Eavis has defended the rise in ticket price, saying: "I do try and hold it down, but the girls doing the budgeting are so thorough and so clever, and they said, 'Look, the minimum rise we can get away with is 10 quid more'. It is a shame, because I really wanted to hold the price."

Next year will be the 40th anniversary of the festival and founder Michael Eavis has already hinted that the line-up is set to include a band from each year the event has been running. But, as always, details of who will perform at the festival remain firmly under wraps.

The 74-year-old farmer said: "Now I'm fully confident the anniversary line-up will be just that little bit special when it is revealed next year. We want as many people as possible to be part of the celebrations and to enjoy what we do here."

See Glastonburyfestivals.co.uk for more information.

Wednesday, 16 September 2009

Music Line-up Announced for Scotcampus Freshers' Festival

The Scotcampus Freshers’ Festival music line-up has just been revealed and it’s sure to be bigger and better than before, with an exciting and diverse range of acts signed up to take part.

Acts performing at this year’s event include electro-pop disco deviants Pooch, as well as Exile Parade, Nevada Base, Nixa, The Meat Men, Suspire and Little Eskimos, to name a few.

The bands will help get the event, now in its third year, off to a brilliant start, with music-loving students able to hear the hottest music around in the Relentless Energy Drink Music Tent each day.

In addition to the fantastic music line-up, over eighty big names have been signed up to exhibit in the festival's Main Arena including a whole host of cool lifestyle brands such as Urban Outfitters, Dominos, YO! Sushi, The Model Team, Blackberry and Matalan.

For the second year in a row the event will be held in Glasgow’s George Square. The free festival is the perfect event to introduce new college and university starters to student life, and give them a wealth of information and advice about what being a student is all about.

The Scotcampus Freshers' Festival runs from Thursday 1st October to Friday 2nd October from 10am-6pm each day, and this year it looks set to attract around 12,000 students.

To find out more, visit www.scotcampus.com

Friday, 11 September 2009

PRS New Music Award returns for 2010

The PRS Foundation’s biennial New Music Award, which rewards “creative and exceptional new musical projects”, returns for 2010.

Offering a £50,000 prize to a musical idea that has not yet been realised, the New Music award is open to anyone based in the UK who is interested in “pushing the boundaries of the musical genre they work in”.

The award has been running since 2005 with the first winner being Jem Finer (of The Pogues) for Score for a Hole in the Ground, a work inspired by the water chimes of Kyoto, using bowls and pivots to manipulate water to create sound.

Sally Taylor, Chairman of the PRS Foundation’s Board of Trustees, said: “We are thrilled to launch the third New Music Award, which is set to be bigger and better than ever. It is an exceptional award that celebrates new music innovation in the UK.”

Adding “It takes risks by encouraging creators to push the boundaries of their artistic practice and extend the possibilities of music regardless of which genre they work in. We really do encourage anyone with an inspired musical idea to apply.”

PRS Foundation co-director Vanessa Reed explains, “With the New Music Award we are actively encouraging the creation of ground-breaking music and sound and celebrating the exceptional imagination of the UK’s creative community.”

“We’re delighted that, from the two previous New Music Awards, six of the shortlisted creators and others who featured in the long lists have gone on to realise their musical creations even though they weren’t selected as the winner.” she said.

The general idea is for the £50,000 award to be used to create even more ambitious music projects.

Submissions for the award will be accepted until January 8 2010. To find out how to apply, visit www.prsfoundation.co.uk

DF Plans Scottish Homecoming Live - The Final Fling 2009

Promoter DF Concerts is working on plans to finally add a touch of live music to Scotland’s Homecoming year celebrations by organising a series of gigs over the November 26-30 St Andrew’s weekend.

Earlier this year, plans for a Homecoming Festival were shelved after another set of promoters and local authorities failed to reach an agreement regarding the licensing for the 25,000-capacity event, which was to be held in Ayrshire.

DF Concerts has announced they are to organise Homecoming Live – The Final Fling, a unique extravaganza that will celebrate Scotland's contribution to the worldwide music scene over the St Andrew's Day Weekend.

The Scottish promoters are putting together “a bill that will bring together Scots from across the globe for a one-off reunion.”

The centrepiece of the programme will take place at the SECC on November 28 featuring internationally renowned, home-grown artists. Glasgow's recent UNESCO City of Music appointment makes it the ideal location for this exciting, one-off Scottish musical feast featuring the cream of the country's music legends, past, present and future!

In addition to using the SECC, Homecoming Live gigs will also take place at DF’s own venue King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut.

Among the acts confirmed for the event are Deacon Blue, Lloyd Cole, Hue and Cry, Midge Ure, The View, The Law, The Bluebells, King Creosote, James Grant, The Vaseline’s, Idlewild, Kevin McDermott and Tommy Reilly, which promoter Geoff Ellis says demonstrates the influence Scotland has had on the international music scene over the past three decades.

Tickets for Homecoming Live are on sale today, Friday 11th September. Tickets will be available from www.gigsinscotland.com/homecominglive, by calling Ticketmaster on 08444 999 990 or alternatively can be bought in person from official Ticketmaster Centres across the UK.

For more information, go to www.homecominglive.com

Wednesday, 9 September 2009

Speech Debelle Wins Mercury Prize 2009

Speech Debelle won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize last night for her album 'Speech Therapy'. She was presented with her award by Jools Holland at the award ceremony in the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

The 26 year old South London rapper whose real name is Corynne Elliot’s debut album sold fewer than 3,000 copies since it was released in June.

"Thank you to the panellists, to my band, thank you so much to my mum, to my fans," she said, accepting her award.

"Thank you to whoever's name's on the cheque. I'll be here all night – thank you very much, good night."

The nominated acts for the award, each of which performed earlier at the ceremony aside from Glasvegas, were:

Bat For Lashes – 'Two Suns'
Florence And The Machine – 'Lungs'
Friendly Fires – 'Friendly Fires'
Glasvegas – 'Glasvegas'
The Horrors – 'Primary Colours'
La Roux – 'La Roux'
Led Bib – 'Sensible Shoes'
The Invisible - 'The Invisible'
Lisa Hannigan – 'Sea Sew'
Kasabian – 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum'
Speech Debelle – 'Speech Therapy'
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – 'Twice Born Men'

Friday, 4 September 2009

Orbital and Friendly Fires to Headline London Freeze 2009

Orbital and Friendly Fires have been confirmed as headliners for the UK’s biggest music and winter sports festival, as London Freeze marks its return next month.

Held in Battersea Power Station, London Freeze is part of a new breed of winter events. Mixing live music with winter sports the debut Freeze in 2008 proved a huge success.

The gathering is expanding its capacity to 15,000 and the live music will accompany three days of world class winter sports competition, with the area around the former power station transformed into an international competition standard snowboarding and free ski venue featuring a 32m high ski jump and over 500 tonnes of snow.

Orbital will headline at the event the October 30 night, while Friendly Fires close the event on November 1. More acts are set to be announced soon.

London Freeze takes place October 30th - November 1st.

Tickets are available to buy now, either for the whole weekend or individual days. For more information, see Londonfreeze.com.

Thursday, 3 September 2009

YouTube end PRS dispute - Music Videos Return to UK YouTube

Music videos will return to the British version of YouTube.com after the streaming site reached an agreement with songwriters' group PRS for Music.

The site's owners Google and PRS for Music resolved a long-running dispute over revenues, which saw music videos pulled off YouTube in the UK in March.

A new multi-million pound deal has now been reached, which will last until June 2012, and sees YouTube pay the PRS, which is responsible for paying out royalties to composers, publishers and songwriters, a lump sum of money – as opposed to the usual pay-per-view model.

Tens of thousands of music videos will return to the site from today onwards, taking approximately a week to restore all the lost material, plus all the latest music videos to have been released from the major music labels with which YouTube has commercial deals.

PRS for Music said it was pleased an agreement had been reached but neither side would reveal details of the deal.