Winter and Spring music festivals 2023

Dream­ing about sum­mer fes­ti­vals? No need – there are plen­ty of win­ter and ear­ly spring events hap­pen­ing around the coun­try, help­ing liv­en up these dark and drea­ry months. No tents involved. Most­ly at cities and towns around the UK with sev­er­al mul­ti-venue events, one-day or week­enders, there’s plen­ty to choose from, and more sur­fac­ing as…

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IST IST ‘Mary In the Black and White Room’ launch

This new sin­gle by IST IST was launched in Decem­ber but we’re flag­ging it up as we’re excit­ed about the band’s upcom­ing album. Mary In the Black and White Room is tak­en from the Man­ches­ter band’s upcom­ing third album called Pro­tag­o­nists, out 31st March, via Kind Vio­lence records.  IST IST pro­duce a dense and uncompromising…

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Firestations new single: Swim Under the Winter

Firesta­tions have just released their new sin­gle called Swim Under the Win­ter (out Decem­ber 5th). We always love a new Firesta­tions num­ber and this is a dreamy, slight­ly hazy offer­ing from the Lon­­don-based band. Out on Lost Map records, the song is about mak­ing a deci­sion to approach a prob­lem from a dif­fer­ent angle. Says vocalist…

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Victorious festival 2023 first announcement

Mul­ti-award-win­n­ing Vic­to­ri­ous Fes­ti­val (25/26/27 August 2023) – the UK’s biggest met­ro­pol­i­tan fes­ti­val – has today announced its first wave of artists for next sum­mer. Jamiro­quai is set to head­line on Fri­day night. Sigrid, The Divine Com­e­dy and Beabadoobee also join the line-up – oth­er head­lin­ers and more names are still to be released. Front­ed by…

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Albums of the year 2022

Look­ing over our choic­es for albums of the year, sev­er­al fea­ture dreams, frac­tured mem­o­ries in an ambi­ent set­ting… artists search­ing for clues from the past to help them make sense of the present. Per­haps it’s a post Covid thing, as we escaped our con­fines and moved war­i­ly, or rushed glad­ly, out into open spaces again,…

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Lumer release new single “English Dream”

Hull born four-piece band Lumer unveil their new sin­gle today. Titled Eng­lish Dream, the track takes a bit­ter look at the par­lous state of the coun­try – and it’s not as if there isn’t plen­ty of mate­r­i­al on the sub­ject. Lumer have pre­vi­ous form of focus­ing on the social and polit­i­cal cli­mate; their EP Disappearing…

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Camp Bestival announces Dorset and Shropshire lineups

Some­thing for fam­i­lies to look for­ward to! Both Camp Besti­val line­ups have just been revealed, with tick­ets on sale from Thurs­day 17th Novem­ber. Head­lin­ing Camp Besti­val Dorset is Grace Jones, The Kooks and Craig David Presents TS5. Mean­while, Camp Besti­val Shropshire’s head­line acts include Pri­mal Scream, Rudi­men­tal and Human League. Also announced today for both sites are Sophie Ellis-Bex­­tor and Melanie C as well as Con­fi­dence Man plus Sam Ryder.…

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Trevor Beales – newly found folk artist of Hebden Bridge

Heb­den Bridge is known for its cre­ative and inde­pen­dent spir­it, and music is a vibrant and impor­tant part of that. There’s the annu­al Folk Roots Fes­ti­val; thriv­ing grass­roots venue The Trades Club, and any num­ber of pubs across the area that host live music. More recent­ly the town has become known for pro­duc­ing a wave…

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Journey into a new realm: The Orielles album Tableau – review

The Orielles have nev­er rest­ed on their lau­rels. From their ear­li­est days, the prodi­gious­ly tal­ent­ed trio from West York­shire have beamed out their sun­ny garagey indie sound and built up a sol­id fan base in the process. But it did­n’t take long before the seeds of their inquis­i­tive and exper­i­men­tal minds began to flower, and…

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Lounge style Cosmic Crooner releases Bond style track Tema di Filippo

Bring­ing more than just a touch of vin­tage James Bond, singer-song­writer Cos­mic Croon­er unveils his lat­est sin­gle called Tema di Fil­ip­po. For the full 60s retro Euro-glam expe­ri­ence, slip into lounge mode and watch the accom­pa­ny­ing black and white video, inspired by Ital­ian film mak­er Michelan­ge­lo Anto­nioni.  Lop­ing along in an ultra styl­ish suit – with a touch of…

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