Following on from the amazing lineups of the past two years, the Mencap Little Noise sessions are back again this November to raise more money for the mental disability charity.

The lineup is almost complete, with a string of pretty amazing performances scheduled. Personally, I’m most excited about Editors day, along with the pop-tastic Alexandra Burke, Mika and Newton Faulkner days – all of the shows have great talent and with the promise of special guests, I say you should hop on down to Union Chapel to check out some great music. Head on over to the Little Noise Sessions website for more answers to your questions.

The artists so far announced include:

Monday 16th November
Editors
The Maccabees
Bombay Bicycle Club
Everything Everything

Tuesday 17th November
Alexandra Burke
Alphabeat
Marina and the Diamonds
VV Brown

Wednesday 18th November
Mika
Paloma Faith
Alex Gardner
Daisy Dares You

Thursday 19th November
Richard Hawley
I Blame Coco

Friday 20th November
Lostprophets
The Blackout
Egyptian Hip Hop

Saturday 21st November
Taio Cruz
Tinchy Stryder
Chipmunk

Sunday 22nd November
Florence and the Machine
Golden Silvers
Erik Hassle
Ellie Goulding

Monday 23rd November
David Gray
The Low Anthem
Lisa Mitchell

Tuesday 24th November
Newton Faulkner
Scouting for Girls
Little Comets
Stornoway

Looking for a review of the Saturday of the Big Weekend? Click Here.

BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend is an annual musical festival with bit of a twist. Every year, the 2 day event takes place in a different town, with past locations including Dundee, Preston and Maidstone. This 2009, Radio 1 will be bringing their Big Weekend to Lydiard Park, Swindon, on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th of May. Tickets to the event are free, and are obtained through a random lottery on Radio 1’s website (registration has now closed). Lucky winners will blag a pair of tickets to their selected day (Saturday or Sunday), with Swindon residents receiving allocation priority in order to make the event more accessible to locals.

Every year the event has boasted an impressive line-up (past artists include Madonna, Muse and Foo Fighters), and this 2009 is absolutely no exception. Snow Patrol (pictured top), Kasabian (pictured right)and Dizzee Rascal will be headlining the ‘Main Stage’ on Saturday, while Lily Allen, Akon and Franz Ferdinand will be taking over the top slots on Sunday. Other artists who will be featuring within the main arena over the weekend include The Script, Calvin Harris, The Wombats, The Saturdays, Scouting for Girls, Ne-Yo, Alesha Dixon and N-Dubz.

Meanwhile, headline acts hitting the smaller ‘In New Music We Trust Stage’ on Saturday include Basement Jaxx, Doves and Jack Penate, while Sunday will be tastily offering up The Enemy, Maximo Park and Gossip. Further impressive artists appearing on this stage across the May weekend include Friendly Fires, Florence and the Machine, Fightstar, Enter Shikari, Ladyhawke and White Lies.

Should you fancy checking out some new music while at the event, why not head over to the ‘Introducing Stage’, where you can get up and close with a range of upcoming talent including Stornoway, The Temper Trap, Bombay Bicycle Club, Thee Vicars, Gallop and Marina and the Diamonds. And if that’s still not enough, you can catch a wide-range of top DJs spinning the decks over at the ‘Outdoor Stage’, with Radio 1 favourites including Chris Moyles, Annie Mac, Tim Westwood, Zane Lowe and Rob da Bank all making an appearance.

Registration for tickets to the event has now closed, but never fear, as the BBC will be broadcasting highlights of the festival on Radio 1 and BBC Three across the weekend. You’ll also be able to catch footage online, as well as on your trusty red button. If you’d like more information on the event, along with a full line-up, head over to the Big Weekend’s website now.

Top photo comes from Radio 1’s Flickr Stream.

Ahh…The Brits. Perhaps more famous for Jarvis Cocker’s stage invasion, or Arctic Monkey’s drunken speeches rather than for it’s showcasing of the best of British music. Either way, every year it certainly proves an interesting watch and this 2009, the controversial show will be presented by disco diva, Kylie Minogue and Gavin and Stacey stars, Mathew Horne and James Corden. There will be performances from Kings of Leon, U2 and Take That to name but a few. You can catch all the action live on ITV1 on February 18th, but if you can’t wait till then, There Goes The Fear is here to tell you about the successful nominees that were announced earlier this week.

The artists leading the way with the highest amount of nominations this year are Welsh songstress, Duffy and Coldplay – both tallying up a total of four nods. Both artists had number 1 albums last year – Duffy with ‘Rockferry‘ and Coldplay with ‘Viva la Vida‘ (pictured right) – so are unsurprisingly up for Mastercard’s Best British Album alongside Elbow, Radiohead and The Ting Tings. Duffy’s ‘Mercy’ and Coldplay’s ‘Viva la Vida’ will also be going head to head in Best British Single category alongside the likes of Estelle’s ‘American Boy’, Adele with ‘Chasing Pavements’ and the X Factor Finalists’ ‘Hero’.

Duffy also features in the Best British Female Solo Artist category alongside Adele, Beth Rowley, Estelle and MIA, while the nominees in male counterpart include Ian Brown, James Morrison, Paul Weller, Streets and Will Young. Best British Group has seen the nomination of the ever-popular Coldplay, Elbow, Radiohead, Take That and Girls Aloud.

New music recieving nods in this year’s Best British Breakthrough Act include Last Shadow Puppets and Scouting For Girls, while 2009’s Best British Live Act showcases everyone from Iron Maiden and The Verve, to Elbow.

Singer-songwriter, Florence and the Machine (who we featured here), is tracing the footsteps of 2008 winner Adele through gaining the coveted Critics Choice Award which recognises upcoming music talent. Meanwhile, Pet Shop Boys have been intriguingly awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award, following on from Beatle Sir Paul McCartney’s win last year.

Band’s receiving nods in the international categories including Best International Group and Best International Album are Kings of Leon, The Killers, AC/DC, MGMT and Fleet Foxes. Solo artists featuring in the categories honouring oversea talent include Katy Perry, Gabriella Cilmi, Seasick Steve, Beck and Kanye West.

To see the nominations in full, check out the official Brits website.

Since Scouting For Girls exploded out of radio speakers with the likes of ‘Elvis Ain’t dead’ and ‘She’s So Lovely’ the piano has experienced a new found fame in the pop world. The way Roy Stride uses the piano as though it was an extension of his very person is what makes each track so very infectious. There is no way one can remain seated in the presence of such energetic reliance on the keys to accentuate his happy, slightly rasping lyrical delivery; add that to the sumptuous strumming of Greg Churchouse on the bass and the oh so hungry domination of the drums by Peter Ellard and you have a recipe for musical addiction.

Once it is understood that the band’s aim is to get you addicted you realise that variety is not necessarily essential rather; repetitive, recitable rhyming sets are vital, once you have that all you need is for the instrumental delivery to be fuelled by an unparalleled hunger and the masses will bow down, and bow down they did. Each and every single is an infectious blend of key-fingering, capable bass handling and dominating drum delivery, unfortunately they all sound very similar. Not necessarily the same but the formulaic set of ingredients does not allow for deviation and so the pop trio don’t even try to test the waters, but hey if it isn’t broken, what’s there to fix?

Ultimately if you are seeking out the next best driving album, this one should definitely be part of the selection, your muscles itch to jump and run around as though you’ve scored the winning England goal. With the sour state of affairs at the minute, such an album is not only a breath of fresh air but a canister of the stuff, ready to deliver each and every time on each and every track. You can slap this CD and spin around the front room with your Nan and know it won’t offend, similarly you can leave the album on while your 3 year old does their colouring and know they won’t be reciting any questionable lyrics.

It’s not an album that is all about the diction, nor is it all about the music, it appears to be all about the delivery and they get it right every time, perhaps this is why some have slated the group, their overload on happiness even when the words being sung should be tugging at your heart strings, the guitar strings just won’t let you lose that smile. The ‘ooh whee ‘ backing vocals on started on ‘She’s So Lovely’ forcing your mind back to the days of Cliff Richard and the Beach Boys and summers ‘On the Busses’, continues through onto ‘It’s Not About You’ and you know what it doesn’t get tiring, unless of course you are trying to sit in staunch seriousness.

All in all this album like a few other pop sensations at the minute, not taking itself too seriously and by doing so they have been able to approach the creative process with a carefree nature which reverberates throughout the songs and continues to do so throughout ones senses whether they want them to or not. There should be a warning on the CD’s case about the addictive nature of the contents within, that it should be played with caution as once you have succumbed you will not be able to get the tunes out of your head and lord forgive you if you don’t know the lyrics as humming and ‘dum dum dee-ing’ will no doubt get you some funny and no doubt annoyed looks!

Apologies for the lack of updates here on There Goes The Fear. Things are kind of hectic as I deal with the end of term and a new job.

However, for now you might be interested to know that Scouting for Girls have just announced a shiny new tour for November.

Tickets go on general sale on Friday (30th May), but are on presale from here now.

Catch them at:

Saturday 1st November – Bournemouth BIC
Sunday 2nd November – Plymouth Pavilions
Monday 3rd November – Brighton Centre
Tuesday 4th November – Southend Cliffs Pavilion
Thursday 6th November – Newcastle Academy
Friday 7th November – Grimsby Auditorium
Saturday 8th November – Wolverhampton Civic
Monday 10th November – Manchester Apollo
Wednesday 12th November – Swindon Oasis
Friday 14th November – Cardiff Arena
Saturday 15th November – Liverpool University
Sunday 16th November – Nottingham Arena
Tuesday 18th November – Leeds Academy
Thursday 20th November – Glasgow Academy
Saturday 22nd November – Doncaster Dome
Sunday 23rd November – Portsmouth Guildhall
Thursday 27th November – Brixton Academy

Scouting For Girls have announced a one off London date at Kings College.

They’ll play there of Friday 14th September, and tickets are now on presale if you have a livenation account. Else I assume they go on sale properly on Friday 3rd August (this Friday) at 9am.

Tickets are £9.50 each.

Picture was taken from Scouting For Girls’ MySpace.

Having won the Innocent Unsigned bands talent search last year and the chance to play at their Fruitstock Festival, Londoners Scouting For Girls have had an amazing year. Signing to Epic Records on Valentine’s Day this year, they’re about to release their first EP, the incredibly anthemic “It’s Not About You” which will just grab you by the heart strings and make you think “YES!” and become addicted to them. Or you can just write them off as another bunch of Keane wannabes. You choose, but you know what I think.

Scouting For Girls are the sort of band that are perfect to open the festivals – people lounging around, feeling rough after the previous night, and just wanting some music to take them to “that happy place”. As they say themselves in their biography, they’re “unashamedly nostalgic, mottled with loss, disillusion and a poignant lamentation for innocent past times”.

Many bloggers have been very excited about their current material, with favourable reports emerging about their live shows. Needless to say, for those of you fortunate enough to be going to Glastonbury this weekend (and if so, why aren’t you there already?), they’ll be playing on Friday night at 8pm at the Late N Live Stage.

Reminiscent of both Keane (for their Piano-led pop-rock) and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (for Sam Duckworth’s brilliant knack of conveying feelings and images of a time and place), Scouting For Girls are sure to gain a devoted following soon.

After the jump, catch their video for “It’s Not About You”. Picture was taken from Scouting For Girls’ MySpace.
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