Beth Jeans Houghton is the Newcastle teen who looks set to be one of this years big big things, crafting finely honed melody from the fantastic and the familiar, and Stornoway are the four piece whose quintessential pop is coloured in pastoral hues (and we introduced here). Together they’re making up this month’s Twisted Folk tour, starting next week for 10 days of an amazing tour.

Tickets are going very fast though….

Monday 8th February 2010 – Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre
Tuesday 9th February 2010 – Reading South Street
Wednesday 10th February 2010 – Brighton Komedia
Thursday 11th February 2010 – London Rich Mix
Saturday 13th February 2010 – Norwich Arts Centre
Sunday 14th February 2010 – Gateshead The Sage
Monday 15th February 2010 – Leeds Brudenell Social Club
Tuesday 16th February 2010 – Manchester Band On The Wall
Wednesday 17th February 2010 – Birmingham Glee Club

One of my favourite bands of the past decade, Idlewild have announced a string of 2010 UK tour dates for March.

Tickets are on sale now at £15 each. Catch the guys at:

Wednesday 3rd March 2010 – Bristol Thekla
Thursday 4th March 2010 – Gloucester Guildhall
Saturday 6th March 2010 – Plymouth Hippo
Monday 8th March 2010 – Reading Sub 89
Tuesday 9th March 2010 – Brighton Concorde 2
Thursday 11th March 2010 – Liverpool Masque
Friday 12th March 2010 – Preston 53 Degrees

Hot up and comers Little Comets have announced a string of tour dates starting next Thursday.

Thursday 3rd December 2009 – Kingston Slang
Saturday 5th December 2009 – Loughborough University (w/ Reverend & Makers)
Tuesday 8th December 2009 – Reading Oakford Social
Wednesday 9th December 2009 – Oxford Bullingdon Arms
Friday 11th December 2009 – Barnstaple Square
Tuesday 15th December 2009 – Hull Adelphi
Wednesday 16th December 2009 – Edinburgh Cabaret Voltaire
Thursday 17th December 2009 – Sheffield Boardwalk
Friday 18th December 2009 – Cambridge Junction

The marvellous Los Campesinos! have announced a string of 2010 UK tour dates, playing some of their biggest shows yet, and also in some new places that they’ve yet to visit.

Tickets for some of these dates are on sale now, and some go on sale soon. Tickets are priced between £9 and £12 each.

Thursday 11th February 2010 – Wrexham, Central Station
Friday 12th February 2010 – Liverpool, EVOL@O2
Saturday 13th February 2010 – York, Fibbers
Monday 15th February 2010 – Aberdeen, Tunnels
Tuesday 16th February 2010 – Dundee, Dog House
Wednesday 17th February 2010 – Edinburgh, Bongo
Thursday 18th February 2010 – Derby, The Venue
Friday 19th February 2010 – Leicester, Queen’s Hall
Sunday 21st February 2010 – Cambridge, Junction
Monday 22nd February 2010 – Norwich, Arts Centre
Tuesday 23rd February 2010 – Brighton, Audio New Slang Night
Wednesday 24th February 2010 – Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms
Thursday 25th February 2010 – London, KOKO
Friday 26th February 2010 – Falmouth, Princess Pavillion
Saturday 27th February 2010 – Bristol, Thekla
Monday 1st March 2010 – Birmingham, Rainbow Warehouse
Tuesday 2nd March 2010 – Northampton, Roadmender
Wednesday 3rd March 2010 – Reading, Plug & Play
Thursday 4th March 2010 – Kingston, Banquet New Slang

There’s nothing better than seeing a band who are at the top of their game – great songs, great crowds, and still the enthusiasm of the day they first handed their demo tape to Steve Lamacq. This is the case with Bloc Party – their month long “Bloctober” gigs show off just what they’ve achieved in the course of three albums, and just how good a live band they really are.

After finding the (rather boring) Rivermead leisure complex, we caught openers Grammatics who were, as is often the case with opening bands, “good but not great”. Unmemorable, but reasonably competent to pass the time.

Soon enough Bloc Party time rolled around, and the guys ambled on, before launching into a set of songs that some bands can only dream about – fan favourites (The Marshals are Dead and Ion Square) and chart hits (Mercury, Two More Years and The Prayer) The crowd was definitely a Friday night crowd – Kele joked that he felt like he was in JLS, such was the level of screaming from the front. Playing “The Marshals are Dead” following someone throwing a request on stage, Kele mentioned their upcoming haitus – “fuck it – we only have two more shows left, we might as well play it! Ahh, that sounded kind of terminal – there will be plenty more Bloc Party shows!”

Bringing out the extra drums for Gordon for the encore, a stunningly beautiful version of “Sunday” was a personal highlight – the line “You see giant proclamations / Are all very well / But our love is louder than words” is just sublime. However, the quick downtime was soon abandoned for a song “about fighting” – Ares, Kele going through the words spitfire style, spitting them with force, quite a sight to see.

Of course, all good things have to come to an end, and with the amazing double header of Flux and Helicopter the four guys were gone, the last we’ll see of them for quite some time. I’m just hoping that they’ll come back to continue from where they left off.

After the jump: setlist and a few photos.
Read the rest of this entry »

The sweet electro sounds of La Roux will soon reverberate across sold-out venues in the UK next month. If you missed out on getting tickets for Elly Jackson’s shows next month, we have good news. These dates for La Roux were just announced for April and May 2010, with the tour ending at London’s 02 Academy Brixton.

Monday 26th April 2010 – Reading Hexagon
Wednesday 28th April 2010 – Brighton Concert Hall
Thursday 29th April 2010 – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Friday 30th April 2010 – Bournemouth 02 Academy
Sunday 2nd May 2010 – Glasgow O2 Academy
Monday 3rd May 2010 – Sheffield 02 Academy
Tuesday 4th May 2010 – Manchester Academy
Thursday 6th May 2010 – Cardiff University
Friday 7th May 2010 – London O2 Academy Brixton

Following on from their slot supporting Friendly Fires on their upcoming UK Tour, Hockey have announced a string of four of their own headlining dates for May, where they’ll be playing their electro pop for your enjoyment.

Tickets are on sale now, priced at £7 each.

Friday 8th May 2009 – Nottingham Red Room
Monday 11th May 2009 – Reading Plug And Play
Tuesday 12th May 2009 – Cardiff Club Ifor Bach
Wednesday 13th May 2009 – Portsmouth The Cellars

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.

King Creosote has announced a sizeable UK tour of some pretty obscure venues for late May and early June.

The tour will follow the release of his next album, ‘Flick The Vs’, set for release on April 20, which features a guest appearance from former Beta Band man Steve Mason.

Wednesday 20th May 2009 – Leeds Brudenell Social Club
Thursday 21st May 2009 – Durham Gala Theatre
Saturday 23rd May 2009 – Edinburgh The Grv
Sunday 24th May 2009 – Aberdeen Lemon Tree
Friday 29th May 2009 – Barrow Canteen
Saturday 30th May 2009 – Hartlepool The Studio
Monday 1st June 2009 – London 100 Club
Tuesday 2nd June 2009 – London 100 Club
Thursday 4th June 2009 – Winchester Firestation
Friday 5th June 2009 – Cardiff Globe
Saturday 6th June 2009 – Reading South Street
Monday 8th June 2009 – Birmingham Glee Club
Tuesday 9th June 2009 – Manchester Ruby Lounge
Saturday 13th June 2009 – Glasgow Garage

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.

The Saturdays have announced a shiny new tour for June around the UK’s theatres. The rising pop fivesome, who have covered Depeche Modes’ single “Just Can’t Get Enough” for Comic Relief will be playing their biggest tour yet.

Tickets are on sale now, priced between £20 and £22.50 each.

Catch the girls at:

Friday 5th June 2009 – Oxford New Theatre
Saturday 6th June 2009 – Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
Monday 8th June 2009 – Glasgow SECC Clyde Auditorium
Tuesday 9th June 2009 – Newcastle City Hall
Wednesday 10th June 2009 – Norwich UEA
Friday 12th June 2009 – Ipswich Regent Theatre
Saturday 13th June 2009 – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Sunday 14th June 2009 – Bristol Colston Hall
Tuesday 16th June 2009 – Reading Hexagon
Wednesday 17th June 2009 – Southend Cliffs Pavilion
Friday 19th June 2009 – Manchester Apollo
Saturday 20th June 2009 – Wolverhampton Civic Hall
Sunday 21st June 2009 – Southampton Guildhall
Wednesday 24th June 2009 – London HMV Hammersmith Apollo
Thursday 25th June 2009 – Brighton Dome
Saturday 27th June 2009 – Sheffield City Hall

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.

We recently spoke to exlovers about their new single amongst other things. This month sees them tour the UK with Emmy The Great and who else but TGTF have been given exclusive access to the tour?? errr.. nobody that’s who. We follow exlovers in the form of a tour diary to see first hand the tour experience. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here, and part 4 will be along tomorrow.

Bath Chapel Arts – 06/02/09

Wake up in Cheltenham to a proper snowdrift. It covers absolutely everything and we’re kind of snowed in. Also our van has been very cleverly vandalised with graffiti, including such masterworks as ‘exlovers watch shopping channels’ and ‘exlovers play darts’. Emmy’s band are geniuses! We set off for bath and instantly come across a Narnia-esque winter wonderland. It looks amazing driving almost cross-country to Bath, with the whole countryside under deep snow and jealously watching kids sledging. Incredibly treacherous though. At points the road disappears and we can feel the van sliding around. Bit scary but we make it to lovely Bath intact, alive and looking forward to the show.

Brooke and Laurel hunt out veggie food while the rest get greasy fry ups and then arrive back at the venue to be told there is no sound proofing in the hall and so there are noise restrictions. This means we do have to cut out the louder songs, so we decide to end the set with Pete and Chris playing a couple of acoustic numbers. Fucking disaster! They’ve never played the songs together before and the guitar we borrowed from Euan is knackered! The input slips out and they have to stop and then restart the song again, which lasts about 20 seconds before it happens again. The set ends unceremoniously with the words “fuck it”, while Pete and Chris sheepishly slip away to a tremendous cheer from the coked up teens at the front! Really fucking funny for everyone involved. We get some fried chicken and head back to what must be the single nicest Travelodge in Britain.

Reading South Street – 07/02/09

Waking up with a Chicken-hangover we set off towards Reading via the busiest Morrison’s in the world… ever! It’s like some kind of panicked feeding frenzy only without the actual eating. Not pleasant. We fill our faces with Hummus and Baguette, and we are on our way. After an uneventful drive we arrive in Reading where we find a nice Ethiopian bar/café and sit down to have beer and a hot chocolate for Laurel. (Thank you Joe from Young Husband for buying us starving waifs a beer). Later David, Johnny and Pete from Pete and the Pirates come down to see the show . Its ace to catch up because we haven’t seen them since we toured with them last November. Another sit down audience greet us as we start our show, luckily the pirates stand in front of them until they stand up. We’re slightly distracted by four dancing teens at the front jumping around like they’re at a Ska gig, especially amusing when they continue through ‘the ruins’ our quietest song. Drive back to London, beer, bed.

Watch this space, we’ll have the next installment from exlovers for you tomorrow….