Snow Patrol have announced their “Snow Patrol reworked” tour for November and December. The tour will feature sets with songs taken from throughout their career and songs by frontman Gary Lightbody’s side-project The Reindeer Section, as well as being joined by guests onstage.

Tickets reportedly go on sale on Thursday (20th August) at 9am. Catch the guys at:

Wednesday 18th November 2009 – Brighton Centre
Friday 20th November 2009 – Bristol Colston Hall
Saturday 21st November 2009 – Newcastle City Hall
Monday 23rd November 2009 – London Royal Albert Hall
Tuesday 24th November 2009 – London Royal Albert Hall
Friday 27th November 2009 – Manchester Palace Theatre
Monday 30th November 2009 – Clyde Auditorium
Tuesday 1st December 2009 – Dublin Olympia
Friday 4th December 2009 – Killarney Inec
Sunday 6th December 2009 – Castlebar Theatre Royal
Monday 7th December 2009 – Belfast Waterfront
Tuesday 8th December 2009 – Belfast Waterfront

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.

It’s undeniable that V Festival is a lot more commerical than other music festival’s across the country, and while the bash has certainly recieved the odd bit of criticism for it’s uber radio-friendly line up, the fest is no less fun in our eyes. Certainly – going by the awesome line-up, it’s unsurprising that the event managed to sell out in just two hours this year.

The summer bash – which is happening on Saturday 22nd to Sunday 23rd August – will be taking place across it’s two usual sites this ‘09: Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire.

Oasis (pictured right) and The Killers are the two big name headliners confirmed to be playing the festival’s top spot this year. Other major acts gracing the fest’s main stage (aptly titled ‘V Stage’) across the weekend include Razorlight, Snow Patrol, The Specials, Elbow, Biffy Clyro, Lily Allen, James, Seasick Steve and, intriguingly, Taylor Swift.

The smaller sized ‘4Music’ stage will also be featuring further super cool artists including Fatboy Slim, Pendulum, The Ting Tings, The Wombats, Keane, The Enemy, Katy Perry and Dizzee Rascal.

If nothing has still managed to catch your eye (or ear!), why not head over to ‘The Arena’ where you can check out a varied selection including MGMT, Lady GaGa, Happy Mondays, The Streets, Pete Doherty, and latest girl band sensation, British Sea PowerThe Saturdays.

If that’s still not enough, the festival has another 50 acts up its sleeve to announce in the coming few weeks. Exciting!

As I told you earlier, tickets for the Chelmsford leg have sadly sold out. There are still some available for the Staffordshire event, however. For more information regarding ticket outlets, check out V Festival’s website.

Top photo comes from stevec77’s flickr stream, and side photo from John Griffiths’ flickr stream under the Creative Commons License.

With it looking pretty certain that their album will be number one this week, Snow Patrol have announced a sizeable UK and Ireland arena tour which kicks off next February.

Tickets go on presale tomorrow (Friday 31st October) at 9am from here, and then on general sale.

Sunday 22nd February 2009 – Bournemouth BIC
Tuesday 24th February 2009 – Glasgow SECC
Thursday 26th February 2009 – Aberdeen AECC
Saturday 28th February 2009 – Dublin Point Depot
Wednesday 4th March 2009 – Sheffield Hallam Arena
Friday 6th March 2009 – Liverpool Arena
Saturday 7th March 2009 – Manchester MEN
Sunday 8th March 2009 – Cardiff Arena
Tuesday 10th March 2009 – Newcastle Arena
Wednesday 11th March 2009 – Birmingham NEC
Thursday 12th March 2009 – Nottingham Arena
Saturday 14th March 2009 – London O2
Thursday 19th March 2009 – Belfast Odyssey

The only band to have a frontman who can give Johnny Borrell a run for his money in the irritating self-important front man league, Snow Patrol, have announced a unique 48 hour tour around the UK and Ireland around release day of their new album, A Hundred Million Suns which is out on Monday 27th October.

The ‘Take Back The Cities Tour’ will see the band play four capital cities across the UK and Ireland in a 48 hour period stopping off in Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh and London.

Tickets for these shows are priced £22.50, and due to the intimate nature of the events are available exclusively to members of their fan club via a lottery draw. Each lucky ticket holder will also get an exclusive free Live CD of the show they attend, picking up an artworked CD on the night, which will contain details of how to download highlights of the show the next day.

Sunday 26th October – Dublin Gate Theatre (Lunchtime show)
Sunday 26th October – Belfast Empire (Evening show)
Monday 27th October – Edinburgh Assembly Rooms (Midday show)
Monday 27th October – London Bloomsbury Theatre (Evening show)

Two final announcements for this weeks on sales at Friday, 9am.

Enter Shikari have announced that they’ll play Brixton Academy, which they’ll surely sell out and have to add more dates for. They were only the second unsigned band to sell out the Astoria, so surely they’ll sell out Brixton now that they’ll have an album out too?

Secondly, those Irish bedwetters Snow Patrol have announced their own, one off festival in Ward Park Playing Fields, Bangor, County Down in Northern Ireland, which was where Gary Lightbody and Jonny Quinn grew up. They’ll be supported by Ash, The Dead 60’s, Simply Kid, Kowalski and finally We Are Scientists. Sounds like a fab festival. Oh, except Snow Patrol are headlining. Oh well, can’t have it all.

Photo taken from Vern’s flickr stream.