Massive “event” gigs currently seem to be in favour at the moment, with Live8, Live Earth, Princess Diana’s concert, and last night saw one of the biggest to date, and most worthy: 46664, to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday and also to raise awareness of his AIDS charity’s work.

You’ve probably heard about it in the press - the whole Amy Winehouse will she turn up / won’t she turn up situation, the issue over whether Nelson Mandela was even going to go himself. Then there was the impressively long list of stars attending: Gordon Brown (seen chatting to Nelson Mandela through Simple Minds’ frankly tedious performance - we would have done too, if we could have without shouting at each other), Will Smith, Quincy Jones and Lewis Hamilton actually turned up, whilst others could only be bothered to send a video (including Victoria Beckham, who got one of the most savage boo-ings known to man-kind).

In amongst the notable guests was some of today’s (and yesterday’s) best (and worst) performers, culminating in a show-stopping five song set from Queen that showed they still have what it takes to wow a huge audience. We also saw amazing performances from Amy Winehouse (who still has the power to wow with her voice after all she’s been through recently), Will Smith and Zucchero. A lot of artists were ones that we weren’t familiar with, however certainly opened our eyes up and featured a lot more variety musically than the rather biased Live8 and Live Earth events.

After the jump: a blow by blow account of the evening

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The soundtrack to many a dinner party of middle-aged couples around the UK at the moment, Miss Amy MacDonald has announced a string of dates for May.

Tickets are on sale now, priced at £14 for all dates except for London which are £15 each.

Wednesday 14th May - Edinburgh, Queens Hall
Thursday 15th May - Leicester, University
Friday 16th May - Leeds, University
Sunday 18th May - Oxford, Carling Academy
Monday 19th May - Norwich, UEA
Tuesday 20th May - London, Shepherds Bush Empire
Thursday 22nd May - Manchester, Academy
Friday 23rd May - Glasgow, Academy

Photo of Amy McDonald at King Tut’s in Glasgow is taken from Potato Junkie’s flickr stream under the Creative Commons License.

Amy Winehouse has announced details of two further London dates at the Brixton Academy in mid December.

She’ll now play:

Sunday 16th December - Brixton Academy
Monday 17th December - Brixton Academy

Tickets are available from Ticketweb now, though the Sunday tickets are almost all gone.

Photo taken from Media Eater’s flickr stream.

Currently riding high at number 2 in the album charts, Amy McDonald is set to become one of the CDs of choice for middle aged couples hosting dinner parties in 2007. Listing her influences as Travis and the Libertines you know she won’t be changing the face of music as we know it, sticking to tried and tested formulae. Thats not to say she’s crap though. Check her out at the following dates, which are all on sale now.

Monday 1st October - Birmingham Glee Club
Tuesday 2nd October - Cardiff Glee Club
Wednesday 3rd October - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
Monday 8th October - Glasgow Garage
Wednesday 10th October - London Digwalls
Thursday 11th October - Reading Fez Club
Friday 12th October - Brighton Pressure Point
Sunday 14th October - Nottingham Social
Monday 15th October - Leeds Cockpit
Tuesday 16th October - Norwich Waterfront
Thursday 18th October - Bristol Fleece
Friday 19th October - Wolverhampton Little Civic
Saturday 20th October - Manchester Academy 3
Monday 22nd October - Newcastle Academy 2
Tuesday 23rd October - Liverpool Barfly

Photo of Amy McDonald at King Tut’s in Glasgow is taken from Potato Junkie’s flickr stream under the Creative Commons License.

London based boozer Amy Winehouse has announced a UK and Ireland tour in November and early December. You catch her at the below dates… if she turns up and doesn’t have “exhaustion”.

Monday 12th November - Manchester Apollo
Wednesday 14th November - Birmingham NIA
Friday 16th November - Glasgow Barrowlands
Sunday 18th November - Newcastle Academy
Tuesday 20th November - Blackpool Empress Ballroom
Thursday 22nd November - London Brixton Academy
Friday 23rd November - London Brixton Academy
Saturday 24th November - London Hammersmith Apollo
Monday 26th November - Brighton Centre
Tuesday 27th November - Bournemouth BIC
Wednesday 28th November - Cardiff Arena
Saturday 1st December - Dublin EDS
Monday 3rd December - Belfast Waterfront

Tickets are on sale now.

Photo taken from Media Eater’s flickr stream.

Those lovely people at iTunes have set up their own “festival” in the centre of London to take place at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) throughout July, with a raft of the best in current bands playing each night.

iTunes will be recording each of the shows and are planning to make songs from the shows available via their music shop. The ICA holds about 350 people, making the shows exceptionally intimate.

The bands include, in date order:

Mika supported by Leon Jean-Marie (1)
Crowded House supported by Justin Nozuka (2)
Travis supported by The Hoosiers (3)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club supported by Nine Black Alps (4)
Groove Armada supported by Mutya Buena and Beardyman (7)
Ash supported by Ben’s Brother (8)
The View (9)
Imogen Heap supported by James Wolff (10)
Editors supported by GoodBooks (11)
Scott Matthews (12)
Athlete supported by Tiny Dancers (13)
Paolo Nutini (14)
Gianna Nannini (15)
Ludovico Einaudi supported by Dhafer Youssef (16)
The Bad Plus supported by Rebekka Bakken (17)
The Pigeon Detectives supported by The Rakes (18)
Beverley Knight supported by Raul Midón (19)
Stereophonics supported by Little Man Tate (20)
Jamie Scott & The Town (21)
Wir Sind Helden (23)
Amy Winehouse supported by The Rumble Strips and Remi Nicole (25)
Just Jack supported by Mr Hudson & The Library (26)
Jack Penate (27)
The Maccabees supported by Goldspot (28)
Duke Special supported by Tom McRae (29)
The Coral supported by Candie Payne (30)

Tickets will be given away free via radio, TV stations and band and fan websites. The specific details of which will be announced soon. Some tickets are already available from the itunes festival website.

Photo taken from Mteson’s flickr stream.

Tuesday night saw the first of three London shows at the Islington Academy for the ‘Road To V’ competition. The 14 shortlisted bands are all unsigned and are fighting it out to be one of two bands to open V Festival in August.

First out was the judges reserve choice, Amy Bullman, who came out and did about 6 songs, all of which were very well executed. She coped very well when the backing track failed (she only had a guitartist on stage with her), and whilst nervous had a very strong voice, combining the cockney of Lily Allen and the abilities of KT Tunstall.

However, she really was nothing different. She’s perfectly competent, but doesn’t have a unique selling point that sets her apart from everyone else. The popular singer / songwriter genre is already full, and there really is no reason that Amy should be let in.

Next up were The Jubilees, who had bought the largest crowd of the night down with them from Lincolnshire, and were very entertaining. Clearly nervous, they managed to get a good sweat going and were the most likely to do something in the future I think.

Their frontman was quite remiscent of Paul Weller, with their sound being very Jam-esque, lively, and great fun. Much better than I originally thought they would be, and whilst they’re not going to set the world on fire with innovation, they are a quality band that could go far with a bit of marketing and their fans.

Finally, Bo Pepper arrived. I thought they’d be the highlight of the night, going by their MySpace. I had visions of a Girls Aloud style band / Mika in band format, and whilst they undoubtably have the people to be successful (each person on stage had their own “persona” and air around them), their music live leaves a lot to be desired.

Lead female “Singer” has a great voice, and is very easy on the eye, however seemed to spend more time running her fingers through her hair than actually singing. Then she got picky about the sound levels, which we didn’t notice any difference in…. oh well. You win some, you lose some!

So a great evening, and free, which is always good. Tonight they have three bands who I think are slightly better going by their MySpaces: The Outside Royalty (who are my favourites, and I’ve covered before), Maxfield (think Groove Armarda style) and Dylan James (so-so). Give it a go - take a look at the official Road To V website here.

The ever brilliant Eden Sessions have been announced, featuring many of this years biggest acts. The sessions have been moved forward from throughout August to now throughout July, which probably won’t make much difference to most people.

Monday July 2nd - James Morrison
Tuesday July 10th - Rufus Wainwright
Tuesday July 17th - Amy Winehouse
Wednesday July 18th - Lily Allen
Saturday July 21st - Bright Eyes
Sunday July 22nd - Pet Shop Boys

None of the bands are particuarly shite, but there aren’t any that I’d make the effort to drive for four hours for.

Tickets are on sale for all dates now, with the exception of Pet Shop Boys who go on sale at 6pm on next Tuesday, April 24th.

As I mentioned yesterday, the rest of the Somerset house gigs have been announced, with an impressive lineup. I’d quite like to see most of these bands… but obviously I probably won’t get a chance.

Thursday 12 July Mogwai in surround sound
Friday 13 July Kasabian
Saturday 14 July Bert Jansch featuring Beth Orton and Bernard Butler
Sunday 15 July Guillemots
Monday 16 July Lily Allen
Tuesday 17 July Mika
Wednesday 18 July Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Thursday 19 July The Roots
Friday 20 July Amy Winehouse
Saturday 21 July Hot Chip

Presale is now available here