We caught up with a band who take us back a fair few years now, in fact straight back to Leeds 2006… it’s Panic At The Disco! See how the ‘!’ isn’t bolded too? Well, we caught up with the exclamation mark-less two-some at Leeds 2011 – to talk about what they’ve learnt since starting the band, tourbuses, £2 rain ponchos and lots more.
We caught up with the LA hotshots Foster The People, at Leeds festival – to see if they were suitable candidates for fostering our cuddly penguin. And to answer a few Very Serious Questions too. Here it is:
We caught up with the Wales’ finest in post-hardcore, The Blackout, at Leeds festival – to talk about touring with My Chemical Romance, hiring a fan as a roadie, working with Pledge Music and more.
We caught up with the brilliant, brilliant CocknBullKid at Latitude festival, to talk about her writing for popstars and her own album, Adulthood:
Words by Natalie Shaw
We went to Leeds Festival, and wrote about seven things of note. Here they are:
1) Tom Vek is the best
Tom Vek stole Leeds Festival from under the rest of the line-up’s noses. His performance was a million miles from what I’d entirely unjustifiably imagined – a shy man in the corner hiding behind a laptop. Instead, we were presented with a supremely confident performer who continually switched up his moves as bold and bright as a gawky, obnoxious Beyonce. The monotone of his vocal was the only one-dimensional element of his performance.
While the new songs aren’t as fresh, with years of amazing music having come between them and Vek’s first mini-bout of fame, they’re in perfect context here at Leeds – whose bill has essentially been nabbed from the mid-00s. He takes us back to another micro-generation where we were twattishly precious, still learning – so much so that attendance feels like an ambition fulfilled; the sighting of a rare bird.
A voice that sounds so obscure – almost flooded by oddball beats and slides on We Have Sound – feels so rich and triumphant here that it’s almost implausible to think of where he’s been during that six-year hiatus. A venture into DnB on ‘A.P.O.L.O.G.Y.’, from the new album Leisure Seizure, sounds absolutely glorious – and opener ‘CC (You Set The Fire In Me)’ leaves a packed-to-the-brim Radio 1/NME tent beaming.
We caught up with Example at The Big Chill Festival backstage – he was nearly exactly midway through his run of festivals. Here’s what happened…
Here is a full review of The Big Chill , if you’re into that sort of thing.
We caught up with the excellent Ghostpoet at The Big Chill Festival in beautiful Eastnor Deer Park. It was momentous, and split into two momentous parts: the first comprised a Serious Interview, and the second was a quiz on Coventry (where Ghostpoet recorded his debut album). See how much he knew (and if he won the prize – yes there was a prize!) just here. Look, here:
Here is a full review of The Big Chill , if you’re into that sort of thing.
2011 has seen innumerable festivals fall off the edge of solvency, which has begged an overarching question: what makes a festival special? In a not-too-hippy way, it’s clearly more than the line-up – by virtue of it changing each year, and each festival’s audience not only fluctuating in number but differing in terms of attendees. Music changes with each year too, meaning – necessarily – that the popular mass’s tastes alter in a similar-looking chart.
So we land at The Big Chill Festival, set in amidst rolling hills and spotlit trees in Eastnor Castle Deer Park. Kanye West has been booked as the headliner, playing a rare UK set – sandwiched in between the incongruous-at-first-glance Chemical Brothers and Rodrigo y Gabriela. Doubters ought to take heed for just how representative this diversity is of the artists currently coming through the UK, and how they’ve shaped and changed their sound through the years. We’re no longer in that mid-’00s lull where fixating on one micro-genre is the only way to preserve our realness as music fans. … Continue Reading
We caught up with one of our favourite popstars of recent times, one Miss Alexis Jordan. It was momentous, it happened at Wireless Festival 2011, it involves us doing a high amount of squealing at her and you can watch it here:
We caught up with Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, on the remaster of Screamadelica – and Kevin Shields’ role in the process.
We are listening
Join the conversation...