Scottish alternative rock band Biffy Clyro and American pop punk band Fall Out Boy have been announced as the final co-headliners for the twin festivals. They will be joining the ranks of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foals and Disclosure. While one can appreciate the organisers trying to pack in as much content as possible, it is unclear quite how they will work out the logistics of having two lots of co-headline acts.
Rock power trio Muse have been announced as the Friday headliners for this year’s Glastonbury festival. They have now become the first band to headline each night of the festival, having played the Saturday and Sunday top slots in 2010 and 2004 respectively. They are sure to put on a show as their latest world tour has featured drones and impressive light displays in what the band has described as a “360-degree audio/visual sensory experience”. Although they are considered one of the best live acts around, the festival has been criticized for not selecting someone either new or exclusive to Glastonbury.
Scotland’s biggest music festival has announced this year’s headliners. The newly reformed Stone Roses, DJ Calvin Harris and the Red Hot Chili Peppers will top the bill at this year’s festival. Also appearing will be LCD Soundsystem who got back together to perform at Coachella and The Last Shadow Puppets; a collaboration between Miles Kane and Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner. This will be the festivals second year in the new location of Strathallan Castle, a venue that previously caused controversy due to the heavy festival traffic and the disruption of a breeding pair of rare ospreys.
Britain’s foremost music awards have drawn to a close once again. Adele was far and away the big winner, picking up Best British Female, Best Album, Global Success and Best Single for ‘Hello’. There were some well deserved wins from James Bay and Tame Impala who won Best British Male and Best International Group respectively. Sadly Coldplay won Best British Group and Justin Bieber won Best International Male, continuing his meteoric rise from sinfully awful to plain mediocre. There were some pleasant surprises as Bjork won Best International Female and Catfish & the Bottlemen beat James Bay and Jess Glynne to win British Breakthrough Act (even though technically speaking they shouldn’t have been nominated as they didn’t release any new music in 2015). Top actor Gary Oldman gave a stirring speech in memory of his close friend David Bowie and Lorde gave a rendition of ‘Life On Mars?’ with Bowie’s backing band. Although not an obvious choice for a tribute, it was arguably the finest performance of her career and one of the highlights of the night.
Britain’s premier music magazine has held the most riotous awards ceremony of the year thus far. Foals kicked off proceedings with an electrifying performance of ‘What Went Down’, the title track of what turned out to be album of the year. Belwood favourites Wolf Alice won best live band and best track for ‘Giant Peach’. Coldplay somehow won the Godlike Genius award but had little time to celebrate as Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes trashed their table during his live performance. There were surprises to be found as The Maccabees won best British band and Run The Jewels won best international band, each having faced some stiff competition. The girls reigned supreme in the solo categories with Charlie XCX and Taylor Swift winning best British and international solo artists respectively.
Following on from their performance at America’s superbowl, Coldplay have been announced as the first Glastonbury headliner. The band, who will close the festival on the Sunday night, will now become the first act to headline 4 times having also topped the bill in 2002, 2005 and 2011. Coldplay have received a rather cold reception with the band being described as too boring and as a lazy choice by the festival organisers. The other headliners are said to also be British bands although they, along with the rest of the line-up, have yet to be announced.
The Grammy awards have been and gone for another year and what an utter shambles they were. Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars won Record of the year for ‘Uptown Funk’, Ed Sheeran won Song of the year with ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and Taylor Swift won Album of the year with ‘1989’. Between them they also won all the pop categories. Swift and Sheeran should not have even been among the nominations as their albums both came out in 2014, which is downright disrespectful to the people who actually released new music this year and are more deserving of recognition. Especially considering they had already been nominated last year. Appalling pop monstrosity Meghan Trainor picked up best new artist and Muse picked up best rock album despite Drones being hands-down the band’s worst album.
There were a couple of silver linings amongst the multitude of dark clouds: Alabama Shakes had a successful night picking up best rock song, best rock album and best alternative album. (Although strictly speaking they shouldn’t have been in both rock and alternative categories!) There were a number of fitting tributes to musicians that we have lost including Lady Gaga’s frantic Bowie medley with Nile Rodgers and Alice Cooper’s supergroup The Hollywood Vampires performing ‘Ace of Spades’ in tribute to Lemmy. As a whole though it has been one of the worst awards in recent years ever since the nominations were announced. The Grammys need to buck their ideas up for next year.
All four members of the upcoming indie band Viola Beach and their manager have died in a car crash in Sweden. The band was travelling after performing at the Where Is The Music? festival in Stockholm when their vehicle fell 80ft through the gap in a drawbridge. Eyewitnesses state that the car seemed to ignore or fail to notice all warnings and barriers. The band had released their debut single last year and had performed at Reading and Leeds. Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the band and their manager.
Jeff Lynne and the latest incarnation of the Electric Light Orchestra have been announced as the performers for the traditional Sunday teatime “Legends” slot for this year’s Glastonbury Festival. They follow in the footsteps of Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie who both performed to packed crowds. Jeff Lynne’s ELO has already been a surge in popularity after reforming and releasing their latest album Alone in the Universe which has since gone platinum in the UK.
This bleak January has taken yet another beloved figure from us in the form of broadcasting legend Sir Terry Wogan. After nearly 50 years as BBC Radio 2’s most popular presenter, he passed away aged 77 after a short battle with cancer. He was well known for his warm and witty broadcast style and his steadfast dedication to his loyal fans. He was the UK’s voice of Eurovision for many years and has been involved with Children In Need since the appeal’s inception in 1980. He was one of the greatest radio presenter ever to grace a microphone and Britain mourns the loss of such a national treasure.
Belwood Music 