We all know that times are tight, and it seems the price of gigs tickets are going sky high. However, that’s no excuse to stop going out and catching live music! We’ve teamed up with the great people at needtickets.com to offer one lucky person the chance to win two tickets to a gig of their choice.

We’ll pick one winner at random to win a pair of tickets for a gig of their choice with tickets still available on needtickets’ Still Available list once the competition closes on 29th January. As with all competitions, there are some terms and conditions (available here). Have a question? E-mail us and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

So what are you waiting for? Enter your details below and we’ll get back to you if you’re a winner.

We’ve featured a fair few music download programs here on TGTF, ranging from the charity-driven ideals of (RED)Wire to the advertising-means-its-free greatness of We7, but now Nokia have come up with yet another great idea to get people downloading music safely and legally.

Nokia’s Comes With Music offers one year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia music catalogue. Sounds good, right? The best bit is that people can keep all the music that they have downloaded at the end of the year to continue enjoying their music collection. Sounds pretty darned good to me.

Some pretty high profile record companies have joined up, from the indies in the shape of Beggars Group and others all the way through to the big boys in the shape of Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. So now you can get everything from The National through to your favourite Kylie tracks. Yay.

So, if you’re in the market for a new phone (and no, I’m not, in case you thought I was getting a free phone for this or something - I just got a shiny new Blackberry which is taking a bit of getting used to), maybe take a look at the new Nokias that come with Comes With Music - they look quite interesting to say the least.

If you’re at all confused with what I’ve been going on about, there’s a great video below that explains it all….

Kinch are probably the closest thing you can get to a modern Madness and they are causing quite a stir in the indie scene. The Leeds lads have enjoyed seeing there fresh hit “Old Fashioned Love” sail towards the top of indie charts.  Their instantly recognisable saxy sound complete with tambourines and tidy vocals is, to be honest, hard to take a dislike to.

The songs are easy on the ear and funky bass and guitar playing ensures each track with a radio friendly atmosphere.  Just about in their teens its pretty exciting to hear such a confident unique sound from four young men with a lot of career years ahead of them.

Supergrass, Pendulum and Utah Saints have all been considered worthy enough to share a stage with Kinch (Ok maybe the other way round) showing the vast genres the band are capable of sticking their metaphorical fingers into.  A man named Chris fronts the band and supplies some terrific vocals that are not to dissimilar to The Kooks and this helps to create some wonderfully chirpy tracks.

Now I am not criticising, but there is not lots of material out yet from the four-piece but the tracks that are available do not dissapoint. As mentioned earlier “Old Fashioned Love” tops the list as the hit debut single but “Everybody’s talking about it” and “A Little Story”showcase consistent talent from the band. Catchy claps, melodic sax playing and punchy guitar chords accompanied by some tidy drum playing mean that the band has a recipe for success so look out for these guys in 2009.

Ben Esser (who we first introduced to you here) has announced a headlining tour for April around the UK.

The Essex lad will be bringing his electro-pop-ska beats to the best of the UK’s dingy toilet circuit venues throughout the end half of April.

Tickets are on sale for the below dates now, priced between £4 and £9 each.

Catch him at:

Thursday 16th April 2009 - Leeds Cockpit
Friday 17th April 2009 - Glasgow King Tuts
Saturday 18th April 2009 - Middlesbrough Empire
Sunday 19th April 2009 - York Duchess
Tuesday 21st April 2009 - Manchester Deaf Institute
Thursday 23rd April 2009 - Bristol Thekla
Friday 24th April 2009 - Southampton Joiners
Saturday 25th April 2009 - Exeter Cavern
Monday 27th April 2009 - Brighton Komedia Basement
Tuesday 28th April 2009 - Colchester Arts Centre
Wednesday 29th April 2009 - Norwich Arts Centre
Thursday 30th April 2009 - London ULU

To find tickets, we suggest you try using Needtickets. Needtickets.com offers you the most comprehensive ticket service in the UK. With one click you can search every nationwide online ticket agent and as a result you can find tickets for any live music event that can be booked online. Every ticket is 100% guaranteed as Needtickets.com only offers links to official agents.

Like your music a bit artier and rockier than most? Well, rejoice as …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have announced a string of dates for April around the UK.

Their 10 day UK tour will see the Austin, TX lads bring their rather unique sounds up and down the UK.

Tickets are on sale now, priced around £10 for all dates except London which is £12.50 a ticket. Catch them at:

Tuesday 14th April 2009 - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
Wednesday 15th April 2009 - Nottingham Rescue Rooms
Thursday 16th April 2009 - Manchester Academy 3
Friday 17th April 2009 - Glasgow Oran Mor
Sunday 19th April 2009 - Newcastle Academy
Monday 20th April 2009 - Birmingham Academy
Wednesday 22nd April 2009 - Bristol Thekla
Thursday 23rd April 2009 - London Electric Ballroom
Friday 24th April 2009 - Oxford Academy

To find tickets, we suggest you try using Needtickets. Needtickets.com offers you the most comprehensive ticket service in the UK. With one click you can search every nationwide online ticket agent and as a result you can find tickets for any live music event that can be booked online. Every ticket is 100% guaranteed as Needtickets.com only offers links to official agents.

Finger Eleven are no newcomers to the music industry having been around since 1989 but the group have struggled to break through and establish themselves as another Canadian rock titan, but now it seems they are finally getting what they deserve having recently made headlines with their “Maroon 5 meets Foo Fighters” sound.  The track “Paralyzer” has been the subject of recent success and like a lost treasure, it was written years ago but has suddenly become a top download on itunes.

The band are capable of producing a great album, although none of their tunes seem to be chart topping hits, their consistent high quality and variety of talent makes them a great addition to anyones music collection. Over the years there has been plenty of material from the band to listen to and whilst you can rock out to tracks like “Paralyzer” and “Talking to the Walls” there are more steady melodic, acoustic tracks like “I’ll keep your memory vague” and “One Thing” that, for me, highlights the bands sheer quality.

If you buy an album by Finger Eleven you may not be looking at the shelves by the entrance of your local CD shop but whilst you may have to look slightly harder for a disk, you can be assured that with that purchase you’re going to be satisfied. Catchy, fast paced tracks will explode from the start while simple and soft songs will bring all the melody and ear pleasure you need.

The amount of emails we’ve been getting this past week has been quite something - so many new opportunities, great bands getting in touch, and some quite bizarre questions too (including one genius who asked if TGTF was a “music website”…. erm, last time we checked it was!)

First up, Daniel Merriweather (pictured top) has a new single out on February 2nd. Recognise the name? Yes, it’s him from “Stop Me”, Mark Ronson’s massive hit. He’s got a great voice, and he’s embarking on a solo career at the moment, starting with “Change”, the first single to be taken from his forthcoming “Love & War” album. I have a feeling I’m gonna have this stuck in my head, much like “Stop Me”. Watch the video below, and fall in love with him…

Some of you may have spotted that iTunes have announced a new flexible pricing scheme for their music, and (perhaps the biggest news story) have ditched the irritating copy protection from their songs (Guardian news story here). It seems to have been hailed by just about everyone, with Popjustice commenting “Does this DRM-free thing mean that people have now totally given up on the idea of revenue through music sales?” (Twitter). We7’s CEO Steve Purdham (who we first mentioned last week) hailed the news by commenting that “the spectrum of choice for music lovers is now greater than ever before and the stage is set for 2009 to really open the boundaries of digital music consumption”. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Coming up on There Goes The Fear, we’re going to catch a preview screening next week of a new MTV show about Pete Doherty, and we’ll be bringing you a live review of the Kerrang! Relentless tour after the 20th when we catch the tour in Oxford. We may also be catching Keane in February, and possibly the Gaslight Anthem too. Yes, it’s all go.

As ever, if anyone wants to write for TGTF please don’t hesitate to contact us - tell us a bit about yourself, and we’ll take it from there.

The pretty darned amazing Joshua Radin has announced a string of UK and Ireland tour dates for mid-March.

He may just be a singer-songwriter, but his tunes appear on many great films and on Scrubs on TV. Yes, I have a small thing for Scrubs. So shoot me.

Tickets repprtedly go on sale on Friday (9th January) at 9am for all dates.

Catch Joshua at:

Sunday 15th March 2009 - Dublin Sugar Club
Tuesday 17th March 2009 - Liverpool O2 Academy 2
Wednesday 18th March 2009 - Birmingham O2 Academy 3
Thursday 19th March 2009 - London Bush Hall
Friday 20th March 2009 - Glasgow King Tuts

Top photo comes from Tyler Shields.

To find tickets, we suggest you try using Needtickets. Needtickets.com offers you the most comprehensive ticket service in the UK. With one click you can search every nationwide online ticket agent and as a result you can find tickets for any live music event that can be booked online. Every ticket is 100% guaranteed as Needtickets.com only offers links to official agents.

New Yorkers The Walkmen have announced a string of three UK tour shows for mid February.

The US five some are releasing a new single in the shape of the aptly named ‘In The New Year’ on seven-inch and as a download on February 23rd, and will play three dates in support of it, along with some other European shows around the time.

Tickets are on sale now, priced at £11.50 for Birmingham, £12 for Brighton and £15 for London.

Wednesday 18th February 2009 - Birmingham Barfly (See Tickets)
Thursday 19th February 2009 - Brighton Concorde 2 (See Tickets)
Friday 20th February 2009 - London Scala (Fierce Panda’s fifteenth birthday party) (See Tickets)

You may have spotted that recently here on TGTF we have quite a penchant for female singers with great voices. Well, we’ve found another one to add to our list of names we really admire.

It’s Zemmy Momoh, a 22 year old from London who’s managed to already prove just what a strong voice she has. Below are some free MP3s, but to give a picture of her sound, take one English / Nigerian lady, add in a hint of Anastacia and Gabrielle and make it a bit better, and you’ve got her sound. At times haunting and other times danceable, her songs always tell a great tale, and one that you should check out.

Below are two free MP3s from Zemmy. She’s currently unsigned, but I’m sure it’s not going to stay that way for long…

MP3: Zemmy - Secretly
MP3: Zemmy - Everything’s Okay