We all hear about the major summer festivals taking place across Blighty this ‘09 – but here at There Goes The Fear, we like to bring you previews of those smaller, little known music events too! This week, we’d like to tell you about Evolution 2009. The festival, which started back in 2005, has grown rapidly in both size and popularity over the past few years and Evolution ‘09 looks set to be the biggest and best yet!

The Newcastle-based festival is certainly ahead of the big name summer events in the calender stakes, taking place across the May bank holiday (Sunday 24th – Sunday 25th May). Still, the outdoor shows, which will take place along Gateshead’s quayside, are fully expected to attract a crowd of around 60,000. Judging by the line-up, we can see why!

Headliners confirmed so far include Dizzee Rascal, The Wombats (pictured right), Mystery Jets, The View and The Maccabees. Other impressive TGTF-favourites playing the Evolution Weekender include White Lies, Ladyhawke, Esser, Friendly Fires, Little Boots, Twisted Wheel, Marina and the Diamonds, Chapman Family, VV Brown and The Big Pink.

(And breathhhh….!) Impressive, don’t you agree? You can even catch headline electronica acts such as Boys Noize, Chase & Status Live and Kissy Sell Out over at the dance stage too, should something a little less guitar-based take your fancy.

If it couldn’t get any better, a weekend ticket for Evolution 2009 is priced at just £15! You can also grab a day ticket for £9.50 (note : only weekend tickets are on sale at the moment – day tickets go on sale Thursday!). Furthermore, a contribution of the ticket price will be donated to WaterAid. If you’d like to learn more about the festival and general ticket info, check out Evolution 2009’s website.

The sensational Shockwaves NME Awards shows have been announced for next January and February to start off a 2009 in great style. The likes of Franz Ferdinand, The Wombats and Simian Mobile Disco are among this year’s great gigs, with more to be announced shortly.

Franz Ferdinand’s frontman Alex Kapranos said of their opening night honour: “We’re going to play the gig to celebrate ‘Ulysess’ coming out and Heaven is the best place to go and celebrate. The new songs are the type that should be heard in clubs so we liked the idea of playing a show in one. We want people close to us who are dancing and sweating, that’s the vibe that we want. We definitely don’t want polite theatre shows for this record- we want some excitement!”

Tickets are available exclusively at NME from 9am on Wednesday, 26th November and then go on general sale on Monday 1st December.

UPDATE: More gigs added today (2nd December 2008) – full details below.

Catch the full details of the gigs below:

Tuesday 20th January 2009 – Franz Ferdinand @ London Heaven
Sunday 8th February 2009 – The Gaslight Anthems, Frank Turner and The Polar Bear Club @ London Shepherds Bush Empire
Monday 9th February 2009 – Howling Bells @ London Islington Academy
Tuesday 10th February 2009 – The View @ London Koko
Wednesday 11th February 2009 – Ida Maria @ London Koko
Thursday 12th February 2009 – Ida Maria @ Manchester Club Academy
Thursday 12th February 2009 – Simian Mobile Disco and Chrome Hoof @ London Koko
Friday 13th February 2009 – Ida Maria @ Glasgow Garage
Friday 13th February 2009 – Mystery Jets and Little Boots @ London Shepherds Bush Empire
Sunday 15th February 2009 – Black Lips and Vivian Girls @ London Islington Academy
Monday 16th February 2009 – Secret Machines @ London Islington Academy
Tuesday 17th February 2009 – Iglu and Hartley @ London Islington Academy
Wednesday 18th February 2009 – Black Kids, Boy Crisis, Passion Pit @ London Koko
Wednesday 18th February 2009 – Tricky @ Manchester Club Academy
Wednesday 18th February 2009 – Iglu and Hartley @ Manchester Academy 3
Thursday 19th February 2009 – Tricky @ Glasgow Arches
Thursday 19th February 2009 – Iglu and Hartley @ Glasgow QMU
Thursday 19th February 2009 – Roots Manuva @ London Koko
Friday 20th February 2009 – Tricky @ London Shepherds Bush Empire
Monday 23rd February 2009 – Wombats @ London Shepherds Bush Empire
Tuesday 24th February 2009 – Metronomy @ London Koko
Tuesday 24th February 2009 – Wombats @ Manchester Academy
Thursday 26th February 2009 – Wombats @ Glasgow Barrowlands

MTV’s Gonzo has announced it’s annual round of birthday shows for October as they stop off at a series of Barfly venues over two weekends.

Tickets for the below dates go on sale on Friday (12th September) at 9am.

Friday 10th October – The Automatic and Iglu And Hartly at Liverpool Barfly
Saturday 11th October – Mystery Jets, Noah And The Whale at Birmingham Barfly
Sunday 12th October – Kaiser Chiefs and Late Of The Pier at London ULU
Friday 17th October – Foals, Esser at York Fibbers
Saturday 18th October – Glasvegas, Friendly Fires at Aberdeen Moshulu
Sunday 19th October – Bloc Party, Magistrates at Glasgow Barfly

Mystery Jets have announced a string of UK dates for October around the UK.

Tickets are £11 for all dates except for London’s Astoria date which is £13.50 a ticket.

Monday 20th October – Leeds Cockpit
Tuesday 21st October – Sheffield Leadmill
Wednesday 22nd October – Norwich Waterfront
Thursday 23rd October – London Astoria
Saturday 25th October – Glasgow QMU
Sunday 26th October – Manchester Academy
Monday 27th October – Birmingham Glee Club
Tuesday 28th October – Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

Mystery Jets have announced a massive 6 week UK tour, stopping seemingly everywhere and then some more.

Tickets are on sale now for all dates, priced at £10 for all dates except for London which is £11.

Sunday 13th April – Manchester, Night & Day
Monday 14th April – Carlisle, Brickyard
Tuesday 15th April – Middlesbrough, Cornerhouse
Thursday 17th April – Glasgow, ABC
Friday 18th April – Edinburgh, Hive
Saturday 19th April – Newcastle, Cluny
Monday 21st April – Sunderland, Independent
Tuesday 22nd April – Sheffield, Plug
Wednesday 23rd April – Norwich, Arts Centre
Thursday 24th April – London, Scala
Saturday 26th April – Exeter, Cavern
Sunday 27th April – Winchester, Railway Inn
Monday 28th April – Oxford, Academy
Wednesday 30th April – Southampton, Joiners
Thursday 1st May – Bournemouth, Fire Station
Friday 2nd May – Cambridge, Barfly
Saturday 3rd May – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
Monday 5th May – Bath, Moles
Tuesday 6th May – Wrexham, Central Station
Wednesday 7th May – Stoke, Sugarmill
Thursday 8th May – Northampton, Soundhaus
Saturday 10th May – Derby, The Royal
Sunday 11th May – Hull, The Welly
Monday 12th May – Leeds, Brudenell
Wednesday 14th May – Swindon, 1-2 Bar
Thursday 15th May – Birmingham, Barfly
Friday 16th May – Leicester, The Charlotte
Saturday 17th May – Brighton, Digital
Saturday 24th May – Bristol, Dot To Dot Festival
Sunday 25th May – Nottingham, Dot To Dot Festival
Monday 26th May – York, Fibbers
Tuesday 27th May – Liverpool, Eat Your Own Ears
Wednesday 28th May – London, Forum

iTunes have announced 10 days of gigs starting next Thursday as part of their iTunes Live series. All the gigs will be available to download from iTunes after the 10 day festival is over. Last year’s festival was a bit later in the year, but were a significant success – dare I say it, but this years gigs aren’t anywhere near as impressive – I mean, come on, Nizlopi headlining? Tony Christie? Really?

The gigs will take place from February 21 to March 2 at AIR Studios, Lyndhurst Hall, London. The artists will play acousticcally for what is sure to be some very special evenings. Tickets cannot be bought, and are only available from the iTunes Live website as part of a ballot..

Thursday 21st February – Jose Gonzalez, Charlene Soraia, Julian Velard and Stephanie Dosen
Friday 22nd February – Nizlopi, Soweto Kinch
Saturday 23rd February – Alphabeat, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong
Sunday 24th February – Billy Bragg, KT Tunstall, Foy Vance, Leo Abrahams
Monday 25th February – Daniel Merriweather, Estelle, Tawiah
Tuesday 26th February – Charlie Winston, Natalie Clein, Tom Baxter
Wednesday 27th February – Laura Marling, Mystery Jets
Thursday 28th February – Jason Mraz, Ron Sexsmith
Friday 29th February – TBC
Saturday 1st March – Roisin Murphy, Tony Christie
Sunday 2nd March – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Spiritualized

Photo of Roisin Murphy is taken from her myspace.