Kraftwerk to headline All Points East 2020

All Points East’s announcements continue with a special celebration of one of the most innovative, influential and groundbreaking pioneers in musical history.

Kraftwerk will celebrate 50 years since their debut release at East London’s Victoria Park on May 29, a UK exclusive and another unmissable show after Tame Impala were announced as the first headliner for May 23.

The multi-media project Kraftwerk was started in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in Düsseldorf, Germany. They set up their legendary electronic Kling Klang Studio where they composed produced and recorded all their Kraftwerk concept albums.

Since the late 60s they have been closely connected with the Düsseldorf Contemporary Art Scene and after an early experimental phase, Kraftwerk achieved international recognition in 1975 with their first concept album Autobahn.

With their futuristic music and technical innovations Kraftwerk created the soundtrack for the digital age of the 21st century. Over five decades their compositions, using new studio techniques, pristine melodies and synthetic voices, computer sounds and robotic rhythms, have had a global influence across an entire range of music genres and musicians. From electro to hip hop, house to techno, synth pop to industrial and ambient to EDM, it is hard to ignore just how much impact Kraftwerk’s music has had.

The man-machine Kraftwerk will present their legendary live show from the main East Stage combining digital surround sound with breathtaking 3-D animations and robotics. And in true All Points East style, a stellar bill of acts will accompany them on the day in Iggy Pop, Johnny Marr, The Orb, Chromatics, Anna Calvi, Kim Gordon, Grandmaster Flash, Jehnny Beth and John Maus with more to be announced.

Also joining:
IGGY POP, JOHNNY MARR, THE ORB, CHROMATICS, ANNA CALVI, KIM GORDON, GRANDMASTER FLASH, JEHNNY BETH, JOHN MAUS

Isle of Wight Festival 2016 Review

Bags ready tent purchased and we were ready to hit the road for an epic weekend of random antics, filled with laughter, good friends and live music, a line-up so large, that no one could contain their excitement.

Thursday evening has arrived tents up and its time to see what the Isle of Wight Festival 2016 has to offer. The 'Big Top' stage opens up with performances from 'The dolls''Maxi Jazz and the E-Type Boys' and 'The Cast',  who were getting the audience ready for the headliners of the evening 'Status Quo'

'Status Quo' hit the stage at 9:30 to perform to the festival goers, filling out the 'Big Top', and leaving fans to listen from the sidelines, filling the area around the Big top, creating some members of the audience to suggest they should have opened up on the main stage as the sound was distorted by the carnival in the background. 'Status Quo' performed songs such as ‘Down, Down’, ‘Caroline’, 'In the army now’ and 'Rocking all over the world’ Starting the festive antics with a powerful and electric performance, the audience roared in excitement  which created a great atmosphere that thrived over the weekend at Isle of Wight Festival 2016; lining the stomach for the acts that will be hitting the stage in the days to come.

Friday was the first official opening of the main stage with performances from bands such as 'Reverend and the makers''Busted' and 'Everything Everything'. Just many of a great line up.

  

Photo courtesy of Isle of Wight Festival

Charlie Simpson and Matt Willis share a joke as Busted perform on the main stage on Friday 'Busted' took us back the noughties performing hits such as ‘what I go to school for’'Air hostess’, 'Crashed the wedding’, and ending the performance with ‘Year 3000’. This was a nostalgic performance, creating a great atmosphere through the field as people interacted with the band and danced like no one was watching.

They were followed by 'Jess Glynne' a British female artist, Who took the crowd on a powerful journey opening up with ‘don’t be so hard on yourself’, and performing hits from her latest album such as ‘Hold my hand’'Real love' and ‘Take me home’ her vocals were flawless and her performance created a stamp on how the evening would continue. 

Photo courtesy of Isle of Wight Festival

For me the performers of the night were ‘Stereophonics', the crowd were waiting in anticipation as the welsh boys were getting ready to come on and perform to thousands of fans across the isle of wight, the weather was holding out and the sky was drawing in and they arrived, the crowd went wild and the anticipation was over, 'Kelly Jones' has such stage presence that captured and got the crowd to their feet, performing songs such as ‘Handbags and Gladrags’'Have a nice day’, 'local boy in a photograph’ and ‘A thousand trees’ hit after hit just blaring from the stage, getting better and better and each song bringing the audience to life. They ended with 'Dakota' getting the crowd to join in and get crazy for one last hit of the night before introducing their co-headliners 'Faithless'. 

'Faithless' closed the night with and electric performance, performing hit such as ‘God is a DJ'‘insomnia’ and ‘Fatty Boo’ just closing the night in the right way, Lights, good music and dancing all you needed was the glow sticks and you were set, this got the crowd ready for the rest of the weekend, for the acts to follow.

Photo courtesy of Isle of Wight Festival

Saturday brought many artists to ‘The Big Top’ and ‘The Main Stage’ the festival was picking up and the bands were getting ready to perform for the many crowds surrounding them today. 

The ‘Big Top’ seen many artists such as the ‘Simon Townsend’, ‘The Damned’ and ‘Pendulum’ perform throughout the day, Two artists stood out for me the most ‘Bang Bang Romeo’ and ‘Adam Ant’.  'Bang Bang Romeo’ performed at the Isle of wight 2015 on the 'Jack Rocks Stage', they were invited back and given a space on the 'Big Top'stage for 2016, they gave a dynamic and creative performance, the Vocals were powerful and edgy, which created the atmosphere of their music and got the audience supporting the Yorkshire based band, performing songs such as ‘Chemical’, ‘Johannesburg’ and their new release ‘Invitation’.

The legendary ‘Adam Ant’ gave an eccentric performance, performing songs such as ‘Kings or the wild frontier’‘Dog eat Dog’, ‘Stand and Deliver’  and ‘Goody two shoes’. He bought the eighties to the festival, giving the crowd quirky and stand alone performance.  To Help bring awareness Spandau Ballets 'Gary Kemp' and The Corrs 'Andrea Corr',  performed 'Starman’ in a touching tribute to the late 'David Bowie’ for Stand up for cancer who are raising awareness and supporting those who have been affected by cancer. At 3:45 there was a short video celebrating 'David Bowie's’ Life and capturing hundreds of fans, bringing awareness for the course, by wearing 'David Bowie’ masks and posing for a picture on the MainStage.

Photo courtesy of Isle of Wight Festival

The MainStage gave the crowd artists from ‘The Kills’,‘Turin Brakes’‘Alabama 3’ and ‘Polly Money’ warming up the audience for the headliners of the evening ‘The Who”.  Before 'The Who’ we had some amazing acts perform ‘Iggy Pop’ hit the stage his character larger than life and his movements creating an interesting view as he performed hits such as 'Wild Thing’, ‘Sweet 16’ and ‘Passenger’ the audience joined through the performance creating an atmosphere that leads on to the next performer to grace us with his presenc 'Richard Ashcroft’ performed songs from his album ‘Urban Hymns’ performing songs such as ‘Out of my body’‘Breaking the night with colour’ and two new ones ‘Hold on’ and ‘This is how it feels’ whilst performing classic such as ‘The drugs don’t work' and ending with the classic ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ the audience went crazy for this and it was an amazing way to introduce ‘The Who’.

'The Who’ headlined the isle of wight on Saturday night performing to a verity of individuals, people who have been following them since the sixties and the younger generation who has been influenced by their music from their parents of even their grandparents. ‘Peter Townsend’ and 'Roger Daltery’ performed for over 2 hours, performing hits such as ‘My generation’‘Behind blue eyes’, ‘The Kids are alright’ and ‘Pinball Wizard’. They opened up the show with “who are you’ getting the crowd worked up and ready for the night ahead.  After 5 decades of being together they still can put together a great live performance, even though at times there were moments of strain In ‘Roger Daltery’s’ voice but this overcame by the commitment to the performance, by showing that he still could hit those high notes in the song 'love reign O'er me’, put those moments of strain behind the crowd the ended a night with a high. 

Photo courtesy of Isle of Wight Festival

Sunday was the Day to celebrate the Queens 90th Birthday but not only celebrate one 'Queen', but to celebrate legend we know as ‘Queen’ the one and only 'Freddie Mercury’. With 'Queen with Adam Lambert' Headlining the final show of the weekend. The show everyone has been waiting for. 

Photo courtesy of Isle of Wight Festival

On the Sunday 'The big Top’ welcomed artists such as ‘The Novatones’, ‘The Carnaby's’, ‘Reef' and ‘The Second Sons’.  The Big Top was closed by the Welsh band known as  ‘Feeder' after 'Queen' had closed the MainStage, ‘Feeder' performed songs such as ‘Buck Rogers’‘Just the way I am feeling’ and ‘Just a day’ bringing the audience that was  already buzzing to their feet, dancing and bouncing around the tent intertwining and celebrating the end of an amazing festival. Their performance was electrifying, loud and on point. A fab close to a fantastic day.  The Main Stage was warming up and bring the sunshine out, acts such as ‘Twin Atlantic’‘Half Moon Run’  and ‘The Cribs’ performed alongside Former ‘Genesis' 'Mike Rutherford’ 

With the band ‘Mike and the Mechanics’ performing some of the classics from ‘Genesis’ ‘I can’t dance’ and 'Land of confusion’ bringing the sun out with every song, the crowd building up and joining the band on a sunny but yet cloudy day. This was a great way to start the Sunday line up for me. 'Ocean Colour Scene’ set of the evening with ‘Hundred Mile  High City’ bringing the audience to their feet, one hit after another ‘The RiverboatSong’‘The day we caught the train’ and ‘You’ve got it bad’ this got people pumping and ready, even with the rain this did not stop the crowd  from jumping up and down and enjoying themselves at the Isle of wight festival. 

Now that we were warmed up, rained on and waiting in anticipation…. 'Queen' was about to come on, the music starts and the crowd roars, the field was packed to the edges, from everyone finding their perfect spot, so they could enjoy the celebrate the life and legend of 'Freddie Mercury'captured through the Vocals of 'Adam Lambert'. This is the closest we will ever get to seeing Queen as a whole, 'Brian May''Roger Taylor' and the flamboyant singer 'Mr Lambert''Lambert' from the start made it known that he was not there to replace 'Freddie Mercury' as no-one could, but to bring the songs that were once created and performed by a legend to life, and to honour and celebrate his life. With Rock Legends 'May' and 'Taylor'.  'Lambert' captivated the audience with his outgoing and eccentric performance, starting the night off with ‘One Vision’ and from their belting out hit after hit such as, ‘Fat Bottom Girls’‘Another One bites the dust’, ‘I want to break free’ ‘Don’t stop me now’ and ‘Somebody to Love’.  Whilst Performing ‘Lambert’ dedicated a song to the Victims of the Orlando shooting and anyone affected by acts of terrorism, he performed a beautiful and heart warming version of ‘Who wants to live forever’'Brian May’ Performs ‘Love of my life’ asking the audience to join in, dedicating this song to the late 'Freddie Mercury', at the end of the performance a video Clip of ‘Freddie Mercury’ finishing the song to the audience is introduced. This is closest that we would come to witnessing the Legend Perform. This was used in one more song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ using ‘Lambert’ and Clips of ‘Mercury’ to perform parts of the song to the crowd. This was done just right, not overdone but capturing the man that helped to build such great Anthems.  The crowd joined in for every song and captured every moment together ‘Radio Ga Ga’ was a highlight of my evening everyone in the audience clapping and creating that moment When they sing “Radio Ga Ga ( Two Claps) Radio Go Go" and the audience clap in the middle , that for me was epic and immense, it is something I have always wanted to be involved in and now I can tick this moment of my bucket list.   They Finished the show with such power and energy that we were still buzzing even when they were no longer on, They performed ‘We Will Rock you’ and ‘We are the Champions’ Everyone joined in sang their hearts out and enjoyed the show-stopping, breathtaking band of the weekend, they truly finished with a Bang. 

A Show turning event for the Isle of Wight festival 2016!

Punk comes to Isle of Wight Festival with Iggy Pop, Adam Ant and more

Punk turns 40 next year, and in celebration of four decades of this exciting and at times controversial music scene, The Isle of Wight Festival, the first major festival of the summer, today adds Iggy Pop, Adam Ant, The Damned, Buzzcocks, The Godfathers and The Sex Pissed Dolls to what is an already incredible line up for 2016. The six new acts will all joinQueen + Adam LambertStereophonics and Faithless to perform over the weekend of 9th-12th June in Seaclose Park, Newport.

1976 is widely seen as the year that punk was born. The Sex Pistols signed to EMI Records, and started to generate significant press coverage – not least for their infamous interview in December of that year with Bill Grundy. The Ramones released their debut album in 1976, and the year saw the formation of not only The Damned and The Buzzcocks, but also other punk legends and luminaries such as The Clash, The Slits, X-Ray Spex, Black Flag and The Adverts.

Commonly acknowledged as one of the most dynamic stage performers of all time, Iggy Pop will appear on the Main Stage after successfully touring the globe with The Stooges for the last decade. His iconic solo albums such as ‘Lust For Life’, ‘The Idiot’ and ‘New Values’ have produced anthemic sounds such as ‘The Passenger’ whilst cementing his place in punk rock history.

Adam Ant will perform the seismic Adam and the Ants album ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’, the No. 1 best selling album of 1980, which was also awarded ‘Best British Album’ at the 1982 BRIT Awards. The singles, ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’ and ‘Antmusic’ both hit number 2 in the UK chart and ‘Dog Eat Dog’ reached number 4. Considered to be the record that broke the band into the mainstream, ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’ forged a new look for Adam, creating one of the most iconic pop images of all time, which he will bring to life once again at The Isle of Wight Festival.

Gothic rockers The Damned, celebrating their own 40th anniversary as punk rock pioneers, will entertain fans with their showmanship and humour, performing tracks from their extensive back catalogue including ‘Eloise’ which reached the top five in the UK Charts in 1986. 

Buzzcocks will also celebrate 40 years as a band, bringing their razor sharp riffs to the Isle of Wight. The band are heralded as one of the most important influences on the Manchester music scene, as well as the independent record label movement. Founding members Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle will perform timeless tracks such as ‘What Do I Get’ and ‘Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)’ with a rhythm section consisting of Chris Remmington and Danny Farrant.

Legendary rock and roll band The Godfathers consisting of brothers Peter Coyne and Chris Coyne earned a reputation for their electrifying brand of primal rock and roll and incidenary live shows around the world. In 2013 the band returned with the much-anticipated release of their brand new album ‘Jukebox Fury’ after reforming in 2008 for the re-issue of their seminal debut album ‘Hit by Hit’.

Five-piece all girl band The Sex Pissed Dolls burst onto the scene in 2014 and have quickly amassed a committed following playing Punk, Ska and Dirty Rock music. Having completed a tour this year playing songs by The Jam, The Clash, Nirvana and The Specials they will pay tribute to the anniversary of the Sex Pistols signing to EMI records 40 years ago at The Isle of Wight Festival.