NME tours are always a great way to catch tonnes of great new music, and this year’s NME tour is no different, though some of the bands on the 2010 tour have taken longer to appear than in previous years, with The Maccabees now on their second album and Bombay Bicycle Club having been around for over five years.

The Drums were typically energetic to open things up, however didn’t offer much more than when we saw them support Delphic the other week. Their Beach Boys / Cure combo looks like it could well be the anthems of the summer for some.

Second on were London’s Big Pink, fresh from supporting Muse at the end of last year. Whilst I’m sure they’re perfectly competent, their My Bloody Valentine-esque stuff is really not my cup of tea. However, they seemed to suit the Bristol Academy’s setting much more than the O2 arena, this time not hidden behind such a thick wall of smoke. Coming on in just her underwear, their drummer Akiko provided the pounding to accompny Milo Cordell’s beats. Dominoes had everyone’s arms in the air, jumping and chanting along – if only all their songs were as hit-single worthy and not buried away under such thick layers.

Bombay Bicycle Club were the reason we were at the O2 Academy – having recorded been around for half a decade already, recording their album in between A Level exams and having won the prestigious V Festival opening slot, it was time to see if live they could translate the success of their 2009 debut “I had the blues but I shook them loose”. Ambling on stage decidedly unassumingly, they had the benefit of a crowd who knew every word, and were willing to forget that its Sunday night and acting like it was the party to end all parties.

Though their set was very lively, many of their songs have quite a sense of melancholy about them – the sound of 1,200 people all chanting “I’m not home / I’m not home / I’m not ho-ome” was quite something. Closing the set with “What If”, lead singer Jack Steadman dedicated it to “anyone who’s feeling lonely today”. Whilst technically speaking they were playing in a support role to The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club showed that their years of hard work has done them well, strong pretenders to the crownd, and hopefully future NME tour headliners.

With that, roadies swarmed on the stage revealing The Maccabees backdrop, and before we knew it they arrived, looking rather shocked at the number of people stood cheering for them. Opening with “William Powers”, they set a scintilating pace, having the whole buidling dancing, only pausing for the slower, more Valentines-suitable Toothpaste Kisses. Closing out with the fantastic trio of “No kind words”, “Bag of bones” and “Love you better”, they showed that whilst it’s been six years in the making, they are more than worthy headliners.

After the jump: Photos and the Maccabees setlist.
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Haven’t gotten your fill of ‘Velvet’ and ‘Dominos’ live yet? Good news. The Big Pink have just announced a May headlining tour for England. Tickets go on sale Friday at 9 AM at Gigs and Tours.

Friday 7th May 2010 – Oxford 02 Academy
Saturday 8th May 2010 – Sheffield Leadmill
Tuesday 11th May 2010 – Manchester Academy 2
Wednesday 12th May 2010 – Birmingham 02 Academy 2
Thursday 13th May 2010 – London HMV Forum

The lineup for the 2009 XFM Winter Wonderland in London has been announced.

Razorlight, The Temper Trap, The Big Pink, Bombay Bicycle Club, Local Natives (pictured right), Goldhawks and Cassidy will all play the gig, taking place at the O2 Academy in Brixton on Wednesday 16 December 2009 – just over a month away. With that many bands I doubt there will be much of the usual “standing around looking bored”, which is what we like to see.

Don’t be at all surprised if there are some top-secret “special guests” as well… we might well be wrong, but it’s always possible…

Many of the live sets will be broadcast on XFM.

Tickets are available to purchase for just £25 from the Xfm Xchange 084547 83936 or at See Tickets

Meanwhile the Manchester leg of the Christmas shows has sold out, featuring Delphic, Frank Turner, The Cribs and Echo & The Bunnymen.

The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club, the Big Pink, and the Drums have been named for the lineup of the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2010. The tour runs for a little over a fortnight in February, starting in Newcastle on 4 February 2010.

NME.com reports that general tickets go on sale at 9 AM GMT on Friday 13 November, but it appears that presale tickets are already available through Seetickets. The tour will call at:

Thursday 4th February 2010 – Newcastle O2 Academy
Friday 5th February 2010 – Glasgow Barrowland
Saturday 6th February 2010 – Manchester Academy
Sunday 7th February 2010 – Leeds O2 Academy
Tuesday 9th February 2010 – Nottingham Rock City
Wednesday 10th February 2010 - Norwich UEA
Thursday 11th February 2010 – Birmingham O2 Academy
Saturday 13th February 2010 – Cardiff University
Sunday 14th February 2010 – Bristol O2 Academy
Monday 15th February 2010 – Brighton Dome
Tuesday 16th February 2010 – Bournemouth O2 Academy
Thursday 18th February 2010 – Portsmouth Pyramids Centre
Friday 19th February 2010 – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Saturday 20th February 2010 – Brixton O2 Academy

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I haven’t written much about The Big Pink recently, but their debut self-titled album is immense, and this video to current single, “Dominos” fits it perfectly. Watch, listen and enjoy.

Muse have announced a huge 30 date European tour for later this year. Called the Resistance tour, it will follow on from the release of their forthcoming album, “The Resistance” which is expected out over the summer.

Support comes from The Big Pink.

Tickets go on sale from the usual outlets this Friday (5th June 2009) at 9am.

Tickets for all UK dates will cost a maximum of £41.25 including box office charges (subject to P+P).

Catch the lads at:

Wednesday 4th November 2009 – Sheffield Arena
Thursday 5th November 2009 – Liverpool Echo Arena
Friday 6th November 2009 – Dublin O2 Depot
Monday 9th November 2009 – Glasgow SECC
Tuesday 10th November 2009 – Birmingham NIA
Thursday 12th November 2009 – London O2 Arena
Friday 13th November 2009 – London O2 Arena

All information is taken from the official Muse website.

The Big Pink are kind of a big deal these days. Already one of the BBC’s top 15 bands to watch in 2009, and featured by The Guardian as one of their “Bands of the Day”..

This is the video for their forthcoming single, Too Young To Love. Lots of layers of sound, lots of greatness. There’s a teeny bit of nudity (in an arty way), so if you’re at work it’s probably not best to watch it.

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.

I know, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts.

First up, following on from Mike’s posts about his tips for BBC’s Sound of 2009 competition (part 1 here, part 2 here), they’ve announced the longlist, which features no less than FIVEartists we have already featured on TGTF. The longlist sees Dan Black (who we featured here and here, and is pictured, right), Florence and the Machine (who we introduced here), La Roux (who we introduced here), White Lies (who we gave details of their tour here).  VV Brown has also been tipped in comments around the site too. On the longlist, they’re joined by:The Big Pink, Empire of the Sun, Frankmusik, Kid Cudi, Lady GaGa, Little Boots, Master Shortie, Mumford & Sons, Passion Pit and The Temper Trap.

Phew, there’s a lot of new music there! To conteract the newness of those, we bring you an oldie but a goldie: Tom Jones, but as you’ve never seen him before….

If that’s not some clever CGI, I don’t know what is…

Our friends over at Gig Junkie have pointed out that they have a lot of pretty amazing competitions going at the moment – if times are tight for you, pop on over and enter a competition or two – they have the chance to win tickets to see Kings of Leon, VIP style.

It seems rather a lot of you love Nickelback (pictured, right, and who incidentally are on tour next year… see my seamless link there?), so you might want to check out some exclusive tracks they played in the USA recently. I’ve had “Gotta Be Somebody” stuck in my head recently, and got to admit that slowly they’re getting under my skin!

Our friends over at Winston’s Zen have just posted their new monthy Zen list of all things great and free in MP3 land – check it out and have a listen.

Right, I think that’s it for tonight… I’m off to have a listen to those of the BBC Sound of 2009 longlist nominees that I don’t know much about, and Winston’s Zen’s new MP3s….