Previews
by Jamil Ahmad
You should just about have recovered from four days of hedonism to take things down a notch for Cambridge Folk (26-29 July).Joan Baez, Steve Earle and Alabama 3 will be rubbing shoulders with Toots &…
by Jamil Ahmad
If time, money and a job were not a worry, you could spend six months on the festival circuit. Given the opportunity would you do it? Could you do it? We think so. In a...
by Nick Pickles
When it comes to dance music the party gets well and truly underway this weekend with Gatecrashers Summer Soundsystem.After a four year absence, Gatecrasher returns to the leafy grounds of Lotherton Hall near Leeds to...
by Jenni Cole
Listen. Glastonbudget. Tribute bands. Ace. In fact, completely and totally ace, all round. No argument.Where else this year could you possibly hear the greatest hits of Nirvana,The Prodigy, Take That, The Who,The Police, Feeder (okay,...
by Jamil Ahmad
Stamina is the key to survival. The idiom isn’t just applied to the Camden Crawl. You’re going to need it as we slip into festival season. What distinguishes 2007 from recent years is the surge...
by Barnaby Smith
The Spitz Festival of Blues 2007 was declared open on April 4 in an orgy of marinated chicken wings and pork ribs, to the dubious Brit-blues of Jooks Of Kent and one Scott H Biram.The...
by Darren Lee
Aside from the burnt turkey, this year’s Christmas began on a downer with the death of James Brown. Whilst his loyal core of fans mourned instantly, it took a while for others to realise how massive...
by Neil Jones
Conceived by organisers suitably impressed by Wales’ Green Man festival, Salisbury’s End Of The Road bash sets out with a noble manifesto. By ignoring over-hyped bands, they give those chosen more time to play. They have...
by Barnaby Smith
Now in its second year since its reincarnation, Cropredy is firmly back in its rightful place as one of the most amiable festivals on the calendar. In 2004, Fairport Convention bass player Dave Pegg split...
by Jenni Cole
If you’re one of those music lovers who thinks that this summer’s lack ofmud, smelly hippies, ill-advised facial hair and wizard hats made out ofhedges is no great loss to the festival circuit, get ready...
by Richard Hensman
It’s back – and it’s now in Cardiff as well as London! Metro Weekender is a two-day event over the festival-packed August Bank Holiday weekend, comprising southwestfour and Get Loaded In The Park. The line-ups...
by Richard Hensman
Since its inauguration in 2004, the Secret Garden has been offering an escape from reality for everyone with an inner child who remembers what it’s like to have fun. The festival’s capacity has more than...
by Jamil Ahmad
If you haven’t been left out of pocket by this stage of the festival season, you certainly will be by the close of the August Bank Holiday Weekend.The Carling Weekend, Metro Weekender, Creamfields – and...
by Ian Roullier
The Big Chill started life 12 years ago as a monthly Sunday club in the mattress-strewn confines of Islington’s Union Chapel. Back then there were eclectic line-ups, brain machines and open access to a new-fangled...
by Jamil Ahmad
Welcome to the Latin Quarter.Eight days, 100 bands, a sleepy town on the Med. The Benicassim organisers were on to a plan when they hatched this one 11 years ago.One of Europe’s most hedonistic festival...
by Tom Woods
Some would say that the perfect way to end the summer holidays is to discover that quiet corner of this much-trodden planet and wilfully pass away the days enjoying pristine nothingness.To many more, it is...
by Michael Hubbard
SXSW has become gargantuan. The music industry event and festival, held annually in Austin, Texas, attracted everyone from latest sensations Tapes’n’Tapes to that old timer Morrissey in 2006. But what if you don’t live in...
by Steve Hands
The inspiration of gig promoters Barry Hogan and Helen Cottage, the All Tomorrow’s Parties festivals at Camber Sands in Kent have been notable for avoiding the line-ups typical to ‘corporate festivals’. Choosing as curators artists...
by Barnaby Smith
Bert Jansch and his Pentangle as fore-fathers, the exotic, erratic, outrageously brilliant Incredible String Band occupying the lunatic fringe, resident larrikin John Martyn struggling to stand up, and then there is the epoch’s very own...
