It’s the first rainy day after our sunny spell and looking out, I can’t help but be reminded of the wonderful festivals awaiting us!

Batching photos from last year’s Castle Palooza, I got thinking about the sheer variety of events planned each summer. Mega-fests like Oxegen and Electric Picnic dominate the music calendar but there really is so much more going on and often at a much cheaper rate. If, after a day and night of bright music and new friends, you’ve found yourself longing for mashed potato or dry loo roll at 4am, you’re better off going indie. It’s the small stuff that counts!

So here’s my festival wishlist 2008…chip in and rate your own favourites or recommend a band!

Read the rest of this entry »

 ”Brighton here we come…we shall be donning coat and top hat…slinging guitar over back…and hopping in our van with fresh underpants and we expect to see thee dutifully in attendance….lighters in the air and bottle necks in mouths.”

Devilish rapscallions of the dirty MySpace status brigade Class of 1984 play the Brighton Great Escape festival tomorrow night! Our ex-pat lads in London have enjoyed the high-life of loafin’ musicians with great flair, rising in the afternoon, jamming a tad, sandwich here and there, big fuck-off hairsweatnoise gigs by night, an existence highly agreeable to the trio when resulting such plaudits as the fest: other guests over the billing include…

WE ARE SCIENTISTS, IDA MARIA, VAMPIRE WEEKEND, IRON AND WINE, THE FUTUREHEADS, THE YOUNG KNIVES, ALPHABEAT, THE TING TINGS, THE WOMBATS, ANE BRUN, CASIOKIDS, THE HOLD STEADY, LATE OF THE PIER, THE BLACK LIPS, LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION, THE SUBWAYS, BLACK MOUNTAIN, THESE NEW PURITANS, THE AUTOMATIC, GLASVEGAS, SANTOGOLD, SAM SPARRO…

Let’s hope their delicate complexions are well protected this weekend…

Just in from The Flaws camp is the news that they play not one but two major festivals this summer, home and abroad. Along with Distractors, The Flaws are poised to release a new single on 16 May, namely Out Tonight, a catchy, upbeat number taken from debut album Achieveing Vagueness, destined to be a fixture on the summer airwaves.
You just can’t can’t fault The Flaws’ progress. Perhaps Glastonbury’s Michael Eavis was so impressed at the Monaghan men’s bio-efficiency record of a staggering five performances at last year’s Electric Picnic or finds himself misty-eyed and nostalgic to the refrains of 1981 (the year he took control of the Glastonbury Festival and fashioned it to fame) or perhaps The Flaws are just so damn good it was inevitable.

The Flaws play Glastonbury Friday 27 June and Electric Picnic, which runs from 28-31 August.
Check out the HotPress audiovisual site for acoustic performances from last year’s Picnic chatroom!

The Coronas - Dublin Castle - 05/04/2008

Read the rest of this entry »

Ham Sandwich have been confirmed to play Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Co. Laois at the end of August.
Brilliant news for the bready heads as they’ve yet to play such a large-scale event. With a Meteor award, a debut album, countless tv appearances and constant radio airplay along with a string of packed-out live performances, this is the year the Hammbos cap the process of ‘making it’ from unsigned obscurity to a force to be reckoned with.
They’ll make good acolytes in the shadow of My Bloody Valentine, The Sex Pistols and Use. Let’s keep our eyes peeled for more shock announcements from POD….

A right stink was kicked up by one lone dissenter on the official Road To V messageboard regarding the inclusion of Galway band Blasterbra in the final 14 of the festival competition.

Apparently as the band are Irish and non-resident in the UK, they were not eligible to participate, despite the previous inclusion of the new-defunct The Immediate. V representatives contacted Blasterbra in search of a loophole to ensure they retained their place in the final but efforts proved fruitless and Blasterbra were dropped.

Read the band’s MySpace blog for more…commiserations guys

To be honest, it’s a fecking farce that V allowed willingly allowed the band to enter despite their Irish status. Or is it another example of British people forgetting Ireland’s a republic?