Bluedot 2023 photo gallery Thursday & Friday

Blue­dot 2023. Thurs­day evening – Max Richter and the BBC Con­cert Orches­tra open blue­dot Fes­ti­val 2023 with a spe­cial Unclas­si­fied Live, host­ed by Eliz­a­beth Alk­er.  Fri­day – Lovell, Orbit and Neb­u­la stages. Talks and work­shops plus Man­ches­ter Uni­ver­si­ty’s sci­ence stalls. Shaun Keav­e­ny on the Notes stage.  Click here for pho­tos of Sat­ur­day and Sun­day  Lead pho­to: KC…

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Llais 2023 lineup with Gwenno, Bat for Lashes, The Unthanks and more

Llais is Wales Mil­len­ni­um Centre’s annu­al inter­na­tion­al arts fes­ti­val inspired by the instru­ment that con­nects us all – the voice. The Cen­tre has just announced its first wave of artists for Llais 2023, includ­ing Bat For Lash­es, Gwen­no and a cel­e­bra­tion of Joni Mitchell. The events takes place 11–15 Octo­ber. An ode to Joni Mitchell’s…

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Synth maestro Modema releases celestial pop track

She is a famil­iar face to any­one who’s seen The Orielles live over the past cou­ple of years… and now Emi­ly Zukows­ki, aka Mode­ma, has stepped for­ward and released a track of her own.  Unsur­pris­ing­ly, Emi­ly has also been work­ing on her own mate­r­i­al, some­thing she’s been busy with for years, and Run­ning Back is her…

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Festivals through summer and beyond

Fes­ti­val sea­son has moved into high gear. Sev­er­al have sold out (Green Man, Kendal Call­ing and Beau­ti­ful Days to name just three – and Ral­ly is close to sell­ing out) but there’s still over­all plen­ty of choice. Our list includes sev­er­al met­ro­pol­i­tan (non camp­ing) shindigs too, right into Sep­tem­ber. If you’re des­per­ate to attend a…

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Hang Out with Pale Blue Eyes

The indie pop band Pale Blue Eyes have seen their star rise astro­nom­i­cal­ly over the past year – right­ly so – and Hang Out, the new sin­gle from their upcom­ing sec­ond album (Sep­tem­ber, folks) called ‘This House’ is yet again proof that they are on the right track. Hang Out – the sec­ond share from…

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Ex Blaenavon drummer Organ Morgan unveils new single

Ex-Blae­­navon drum­mer Har­ris McMil­lan, now going under the name Organ Mor­gan, is set to release his debut EP on 20th July. He’s just released a sin­gle from the upcom­ing work called The Argu­ment – out now on Every­body’s Records – to give us a taste for what’s to come. The Argu­ment draws you in slow­ly with a statuesque…

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Magnetic Skies release new single “Suffocate”

Mag­net­ic Skies came to our atten­tion with enig­mat­ic sin­gle You Shine On in Feb­ru­ary; now the band have unveiled a new sin­gle called Suf­fo­cate on ReprinT Records. Rem­i­nis­cent of Depeche Mode, Suf­fo­cate is “an intense and pow­er­ful glimpse into a world of despair as a rela­tion­ship comes crash­ing down at an unre­lent­ing pace.”  This beau­ti­­ful­­ly-craft­ed num­ber immediately…

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Bearded Theory 2023 review

Well it’s all change for Beard­ed The­o­ry fes­ti­val this year. The three ami­gos who brought it to life have final­ly hung up their beards and sold on the favourite Mid­lands fest. And this is its first prop­er year under the new ban­ner of DHP Fam­i­ly. No doubt the new team know they have a very…

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Nadine Khouri spring tour and new single

in 2015 Nadine Khouri played at a fes­ti­val local to me called The End. I wrote: “Khouri’s com­po­si­tions are beau­ti­ful­ly craft­ed, sophis­ti­cat­ed and pre­cise, over­laid with her soft, smokey vocals.”  Those vocals and her abil­i­ty to cre­ate haunt­ing com­po­si­tions can be heard on new sin­gle “Song of A Caged Bird”, out now. Nadine’s steady and…

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Bearded Theory photo gallery Sunday

Lots going on all after­noon with The Under­tones, High Vis, HENGE, Love­ly Eggs, Pre­tenders, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs and for the finale were Pub­lic Ser­vice Broad­cast­ing over at the Mead­ow Stage and Pri­mal Scream. Over on the Wood­land Stage were Rho­da Dakar & The LoTek Four. And there was lots hap­pen­ing in…

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