Zane Lowe set to close this years Live Fest

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With some of the hottest acts from the UK music scene performing, this is the festival for those who love great music but want to avoid the mud this summer!

Acts on the star-packed bill include R&B star TINCHY STRYDER, Urban Music Award-winning London based collective ROLL DEEP, grime sensation TEMPA T, and indie pop sensations THE HOOSIERS. There are also DJ sets from post hardcore rockers FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND, alternative rock quintet KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES, indie rock act GUILLEMOTS, and Gary Powell from The Libertines.

Zane LoweFestival-goers are in for a treat with Radio One presenter Zane Lowe behind the decks playing his usual eclectic brand of alternative music, including rock, punk, drum and bass and hip hop.

Other acts confirmed are PEGASUS BRIDGE, British indie five-piece MISSING ANDY, PARADISE POINT, SATURDAY NIGHT GYM CLUB and MY ELECTRIK. Tickets for the event are priced at two-for-one for a limited period and can be purchased from the Live Fest website.

Programming will be spread over five venues within the famous London O2, from the glamorous Proud2 to Union Square, Inc Club, IndigoO2 and ASBaG, Live Fest has a huge variety of music genres to suit any tastes – so whether you’re into urban beats or rock, pop and hardcore, this is the festival for you!

As if this wasn’t enough, the IndigO2 hosts the Grand National Finals of the Live and Unsigned competition. All the best unsigned acts from across the UK will take to the stage in a bid to be crowned the best Live and Unsigned Act of 2011.To find out more about Live and Unsigned visit www.liveandunsigned.uk.com.

Live Fest’s Intergalactic Alien, Bob said: “Zane Lowe is sure to give the Live Fest audience the perfect end to the perfect day. Tinchy Stryder will blow the crowd away and alongside him we’ve got a great line up of top acts. We can’t wait to bring it on and rock the O2!”

Due to X Factor commitments N-Dubz have been cancelled from this event.
For more information and tickets to this summer’s hottest indoor festival, visit the Live Fest website. 

Creamfields 2011 almost SOLD OUT

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Fans are being urged to purchase their ticket as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.  There are now only limited tickets available. 
 
A record 50,000 dance fans will flock to this year’s Creamfields festival which returns to Daresbury in Cheshire on August Bank Holiday Weekend.
 
For full line up, event and ticket info go to: www.creamfields.com
 
TICKETS ON SALE NOW 
               
Weekend Tickets:              
Friday Standard Camping Upgrade          £20+BF (Existing Standard Camping Ticket Holders Only)
Friday Hospitality Camping Upgrade       £30+BF (Existing Hospitality Camping Ticket Holders Only)
Standard 2 Day with Camping                    £125+BF
Standard 3 Day with Camping                    £145+BF
Standard 2 day ticket without Camping £125+BF
Hospitality 2 Day Camping                           £200+BF  *** SOLD OUT ***
Hospitality 3 Day Camping                           £230+BF*
Early Bird Camping Tickets                          £100+BF *** SOLD OUT ***
 
Day Tickets:     
Saturday                                                              £65+BF **                                         
Sunday                                                                 £60+BF **
Hospitality Saturday                                       £100+BF ** SOLD OUT
Hospitality Sunday                                          £100+BF **  SOLD OUT
 
** Standard Day Tickets only available from Ticketline & Ticketmaster & 3Beat (Slater Street, Liverpool)
** Hospitality Tickets only available from Ticketline

Boomtown Fair Location revealed!

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Well, the wait is over and Boomtown can now reveal it will take place in a sleepy, mysterious hollow, deep in the heart of Hampshire! The specific site location will remain a secret, to be given to ticket holders in a couple of weeks.
With under 1000 tickets remaining anyone who is still to get their ticket to the biggest fair in town should act quickly to bag one of the few remaining spots!
 
The Boomtown town planners are busy hammering, sanding and polishing their finery to prepare for the arrival of the masses. This year along with all the amazing new areas and expansion of the site, there will also be a huge Glastonbury style fence around the perimeter to ensure the towns folk are protected and the city gates do not exceed their limits, with some city guards on standby to assist anyone attempting to penetrate the city walls away from the town and back to where they came from!
 
For all those buying passes through the deposit scheme, this is a reminder that outstanding balances must be paid before midnight on Sunday 31stJuly. All tickets not purchased will go back on resale the next day. 
 
Full weekend camping ticket is only 93 and includes; 4 days and nights of unadulterated fun spread out over 22 inventive stages and areas in a perfect setting! http://www.boomtownfair.co.uk/page/buy-tickets
 
MAIN STAGE LINE UP:
GOGOL BORDELLO / BAD MANNERS / THE SELECTER WITH PAULINE BLACK / [DUNKELBUNT] / THE TOASTERS / GOLDIE LOOKIN CHAIN / THE APPLES / THE KING BLUES / BABYHEAD / SMERINS ANTI SOCIAL CLUB
 
DANCE STAGE LINE UP: 
DJ ZINC / BLACK SUN EMPIRE / FOREIGN BEGGARS / TODDLA T & SEROCEE / MS DYNAMITE / THE BUG & FLOWDAN / REDLIGHT & MC DREAD / EMALKAY / RATPACK / ED SOLO b2b JFB / HIGH RANKIN / FEED ME / PYRAMID / WARRIOR ONE / RACK N RUIN / TAYO / SQUIRE OF GOTHOS / KOAN SOUND / THE MCMASH CLAN
 
LIONS DEN (REGGAE STAGE) LINE UP:
CAPLETON / BARRINGTON LEVY / CUTTY RANKS / TIPPA IRIE AND FAR EAST BAND / GENTLEMANS DUB CLUB /  SOOM T AND JAHTARI / CONGO NATTY / TOPCAT / ABA SHANTI / IRATION STEPPAS / BONGO CHILLI / SOLO BANTON / BENNY PAGE / JINX IN DUB / DADDY FREDDY / FRIENDLY FIRE BAND / JACKY MURDA / KENNY KEN / LION DUB AND DAVID BOOMAH / PRINCE FATTY / THE RAGGA TWINS / THE HEATWAVE / YT / LAID BLAK / MILLION DAN / MR BENN / DUBKASM / ONLY JOE / CAPLETON / THE DROP / SERIAL KILLAZ
 
TICKET DETAILS:
 
Date: Thursday11th Sunday 14th August 2011
 
Location: Secret location TBA, less than 1hr from London
 
Ticket Price:                            Full Weekend: £93 
Adult Full Price Deposit: £47
 
Deposits are NON-REFUNDABLE. The balance to be paid in full by 31st July
 
Teen ticket (ages 13 – 17 inc) SOLD OUT
ALL CARAVAN PASSES SOLD OUT
 

T in the Park 2012 Earlybird Tickets on sale 9am Thursday

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 T in the Park 2011 went off in spectacular style in Balado to the tune of storming sets from Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, The Strokes, Beyoncé, Pulp and Tom Jones to name just a few, and rapturous applause from 85,000 of the most passionate music fans each day – another roaring success for everyone involved. 

 
2012 will see T in the Park bring the finest acts on the planet, world class musical performances, the biggest beats around and the most passionate music fans in the world together again for the best weekend of the summer and fans can secure their place now by taking advantage of the early bird sale.
 
Next year’s event will take place on 6th – 8th July 2012, and fans can secure their place at Balado early.  Early bird tickets go on sale for T in the Park 2012 at 9am on Thursday 14th July from Ticketmaster.
 
A limited number of T in the Park 2012 tickets will be available at 2011 prices with all ticket types available. To buy log onto www.tinthepark.com or www.ticketmaster.co.uk or call 08444 999 990.

T in the Park 2011 Review

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With past performances from artists as diverse as Rage Against the Machine, Blur, The Prodigy, Daft Punk, Placebo, James Brown, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Eminem and New Order, T in the Park 2011 was bound to be one of the best festivals in the UK this year, taking place in beautiful Kinross-shire, Scotland, with a capacity of 85,000 per day including 70,000 happy campers. As I arrive on Friday morning with a sea of euphoric festival goers of all ages and styles, the atmosphere is brilliant, the sun is shining, we’re all showered and clean and most importantly we have an amazing line up to look forward to. I say all ages because I managed to hitch a lift up to Scotland with my lovely mum and her friends.
FRIDAY
Tom JonesIt’s early in the evening and I head over to the main stage to watch Tom Jones. He tells the crowd about when he used to sing gospel songs with Elvis in Las Vegas. Tom comes on and belts out a gospel inspired repertoire of his greatest hits, no one can quite believe he can still sing like that. Then I head over to the Radio 1/NME stage to get a good spot for White Lies and Pendulum, where to my delight I discover Twin Atlantic, a Glaswegian alt rock band that I’m sure will be headlining T in the Park in the near future, ‘Crash Land’ –an absolutely brilliant song. Now time for White Lies and I’ve secured a comfortable place near the stage, the London three-piece play with precision and force, influenced by the likes of Talking Heads and Joy Division their music has a melancholic feel and dark undertone but is nevertheless very danceable, putting synthesizers to good use. They even get a bit of a mosh pit going from the third song ‘To Lose My Life’ whose lyrics: ‘that our dead love is buried beneath the mud’ are quite fitting for the occasion. Now its time for tonight’s Radio 1/NME stage headliners: Pendulum. I get as up front as possible, the mighty Aussies start off with ‘Salt In Wounds’ making the crowd go into a dancing frenzy but I end up paying the price for being in the front row when half an hour into Pendulum I feel a warm trickle down my leg, I turn around and see a lovely young man whose aim was terrible, peeing right behind me. Oh well, that wasn’t going to dampen my spirits or make me stop dancing. Pendulum kept the crowd dancing and moshing through the whole set. They were unquestionably one of the highlights at T in the Park, well-known for their electric live performances. The crowd was blown away with the sheer power of their flavourful fusion of heavy rock, drum and bass and electronica. One on the most unique, inventive and interesting bands to surface in recent years. If you were there and didn’t see them, you missed out big time.
SATURDAY
BeyonceThe Scottish weather is holding up and people are beginning to swap their wellies for sunglasses. The first bands are just coming on around 12 and I wonder around the festival grounds to see what I find, surprisingly I come across fish pedicures and the Road Ink bus. A mobile top class tattoo studio. I had a chat with owner and tattoo artist Gary, who gives me the low-down on tattooing at festivals. The Road Ink bus was spotless and jam-packed with festival goers wanting to get something to remember this special occasion. Soon it was time to go over to the main stage to catch guitar-god Slash at work. He plays a few Guns n Roses classics with some Velvet Revolver songs thrown in but only the die-hard fans know the guy that’s singing, all in all not exactly what the festival goers were expecting from such a rock n roll legend. With the sun still shining I head to go and see The Strokes, one of the most influential indie-rock bands of the decade, the New Yorkers effortlessly play to musical perfection, the crowd is full of energy, mosh pits are going strong and we all thoroughly enjoy every single song they play. Over to the Slam tent for some good old electronica, two of my favourite DJs/producers the Parisian Vitalic and Canadian Tiga keep the people sweaty and dancing. Afterwards I manage to catch a bit of Primal Scream, who had some awesome visuals with ‘Screamadelica’ and manage to completely pack the King Tut tent, they even had my mum dancing. Coldplay bring Saturday night to an epic close, making even those that weren’t fans sing along to their catalogue of hits.
Dave Grohl
SUNDAY
Mud bath Sunday started with a pretty special performance from legendary Blondie at the main stage, festival goers were well and truly preparing themselves for the last night, smiles and cider all around. Another one of the highlights at this year’s T in the Park were Weezer, who completely rocked the main stage right after Blondie, despite the rain. Their happy alt rock tunes got everyone singing and swaying, there was definitely an agreement between the festival goers that their performance was one of the best at this year’s T. Pure class. I had my doubts about the next band, the infamous My Chemical Romance, but they proved all the critics wrong and were completely awesome, frontman Gerard Way sung like there was no tomorrow, I can now say I’m a fan. Sunday made our lives quite complicated, it was too muddy and the line-up was just too good. I headed to the Slam tent for a bit of dancing, where American DJ and producer, Diplo had everyone partying hard. Then suddenly it was time for the Foo Fighters, fronted by the notoriously talented multi-instrumentalist musician Dave Grohl, former drummer of Nirvana. This was a performance that none of us will forget. ‘We’ve got a lot of fucking songs, we’re going to play as many as we can until they make us stop!’ exclaimed Grohl early on, and they did exactly that, ploughing through a total of twenty-three songs, including some new instant crowd pleasers from their brand new album, ‘Wasting Light’. Known for being one of the best live bands around, the Foo Fighters sure as hell lived up to their reputation as alt rock royalty. For the last part of the show, bassist Nate Mendel wore a kilt to the crowd’s delight and they brought the festival to an explosive end, covering the skies with fireworks and an epic performance of ‘Everlong’. No other band could have closed T in the Park 2011 better.
T in the Park

Sonisphere 2011 Review

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Sonisphere Festival is probably the most important Metal/Rock Festival in Europe despite only being in its third year.

When I was asked to review the event I thought it was going to be a piece of cake, I love almost all the bands on the bill so my work was easy. I have to say though, that as I am writing right now, I find it more difficult than expected. I will just make it simple and direct, but I think it is extremely important to thank all the people at the Noise Cartel for being always there and helpful to all of us, reviewers and photographers.
Friday 8th July 2011

When arriving at the Festival’s site you soon understand the shear enormity of the place. In front of you stands the entrance and on both sides are what seems to be an endless sea of tents. To reach the top of the hill, where the stages are located, you have to walk through them along a path. In every corner you see band flags, t-shirts, people singing and drinking. Everyone is in the right mode despite the threatening weather.

Once inside the main area, you can’t help wondering ‘how it will be this evening when Metallica will perform?’. The main stage, called Apollo, is majestically facing the whole area. On the opposite side there is the second stage, called Saturn. There are other 3 stages, on site, Bohemia, Jagermeister and RedBull.

The first band to play, what it is going to be three days of Rock, is ‘The Japanese Voyeurs’ on the Bohemia Stage. 15Mins later on the opposite side ‘Diamond Head’ are officially opening the main stage. Finally there is a break in the rain which is a welcome relief and everyone is gearing up for the Big Four; Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica. These bands are all legends and is a 60,000 strong crowd who have come here for that exact reason. People are singing along, head banging and moshing not caring about anything except having a rocking good time. James Hetfiled and co. made it through a long setlist, finishing with Enter Sandman and a spectacular fireworks display lighting the skies above Knebworth.

Metallica
During the encore Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax and Diamond Head join Metallica on stage to perform Am I Evil (Diamond Head’s song).  These bands are the living proof of what heavy metal is all about, they are the godfathers of the genre but know how to keep it fresh and new.
Saturday 9th July 2011
Saturday is a slightly different story. The bands playing are more mainstream and less Metal but still much appreciated by the crowd.
Sylosis are the first band on the Apollo at around 11a.m., despite being very early in the morning their performance is the right wake up call. On the Saturn stage, Richard Cheese is entertaining everyone with his swing. On the notes of his remake of “People=S**t!” from Slipknot, he shows everyone how a classic Metal song can be transform in a lounge/swing piece.
The sun is still shining, ‘Architects’ are delivering an amazing set while on the opposite stage ‘Gallows’ perform for what is said to be their last time together. Frank Carter, singer of the band has confirmed his intention to leave the band earlier in the morning.
Half way through the set of Kids in Glass Houses, a powerful downpour hammers the arena. Ponchos and umbrellas are out again during what it was meant to be a partially sunny Saturday.
All afternoon the weather changes as regularly as the weather. The highlight of the afternoon is provided by ‘The Mars Volta’. Their music is well received by the audience and despite the “weird” antics of the singer, who threw a metal barrier off stage, their music has definitely hit the right spot.
Biffy Clyro
The headliner for today is the Scottish trio, ‘Biffy Clyro’. It is definitely not easy for them, being in the middle of this 3 days Festival: following Metallica and the Big Four on Friday night and preluding Slipknot on Sunday. It’s a tough competition, if you look at it this way. I have to admit that I doubted their presence at the Festival at first; however after the amazing 2 hour show they put together I have to stand corrected. They start with “The Captain” and an explosion of confetti covering the first 4 rows of the audience. The whole show is exceptional and it is evident now that Biffy Clyro really know how to rock any kind of crowd.
Sunday 10th July 2011
Sunday will be remembered as Slipknot day. After the loss of Paul Gray, the future of the band was uncertain for everyone. Fans were prepared to accept the end of the band, however, surprisingly, they decided to join the Sonisphere bill and to make it a tribute to Paul.
Fans for all over the world gathered today to pay their tribute to the band and to Paul. The day starts with a very shy sun, definitely better than the rain of last night.
You can feel the tension and anticipation for the show tonight and possibly even more so for the 2 minutes silence that the entire Festival will share at 2p.m.
Without a doubt, one of the best bands to grace the Saturn Stage it is ‘Black Tide’.  This 4 piece band is quiet young but the heavy metal coming out from their instruments is truly powerful.
2p.m. creeps into a very sunny Knebworth afternoon and the entire arena falls into a deep silence. The deafening silence of 60,000 people only disturbed by the gentle hum of the generators. The respect and the love from all the participants feels thick and tangible. At the end of the 2 minutes a roar slowly rises coming from the crowd and stirs you into uncontrollable excitement. It confirms that today is a celebration of Paul’s life and achievements.  This is probably the highlight of the day.
Fred Durst
Limp Bizkit also victims of the rain, nonetheless their show brings everyone in the arena to jump up and to move frantically to their rhymes.  When Fred Durst asks the crowd, what kind of “stuff” they want them to play, it is clear that the old tunes wins over the new ones.
We are now approaching the end of these 3 days Festival at Knebworth and the excitement from the crowd is stronger than the rain.  Slipknot take to the stage at around 9:00p.m.
On Corey Taylor’s words “This is not a night for negativity, it’s a night for positivity. It’s a celebration”, the band delivers an amazing performance. The raw energy and that maniac powerful anger that is the basis of their music ripples through the crowd and all that’s left to do is jump, scream and mosh.
A very touching moment is when Gray’s suit and bass took centre stage for some band photos.
For now Sonisphere is officially over, or better yet, it is only over till next year!

David Guetta Interview with Carly Wilford

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With only a few minutes before David Guetta hits the main stage to join the Black Eyed Pea’s at Wireless Festival, Carly Wilford pulls him aside for a couple minutes to talk about his new track with Nicki Minaj and something that David is quite passionate about, love!

Lovebox weather forecast

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See the weather forecast below provided by the Met Office

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