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Five Day Forecast – w/c 16 May 2011
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 16 May 2011
Hello. I can’t quite believe I’m back in the office. Having been in Brighton for The Great Escape since Wednesday, and only returning home late yesterday afternoon, my brain knows I’m supposed to be at my desk, but my body is asking what happened to the weekend.
It was very tiring, but ultimately worth it. I’m so pleased with how the convention – which was, of course, programmed by us here at CMU – turned out. The festival was excellent, too. But more on that later in the week I think, for now it’s time to look ahead to another week.
01: Independent Label Market. This Saturday, a stack of independent record labels will get together on Berwick Street in London – once indie record store central, and still home to a small number of music shops – and sell their wares direct to music fans with the first ever Independent Label Market. Label founders and bosses will be among those manning stalls for Domino, Rough Trade, Bella Union, Tri-Angle, Merok, R&S, Moshi Moshi and more.
02: Ivor Novello Awards. British songwriters will have their efforts acknowledged at this year’s Ivor Novello Awards on Thursday. Villagers, Everything Everything and Foals will battle it out in the Best Song Musically And Lyrically category, while The xx’s ‘Islands’, Katy B’s ‘Katy On A Mission’ and Tinie Tempah’s ‘Pass Out’ are all up for Best Contemporary Song. As usual, the ceremony takes place over lunch at Grosvenor House in London.
03: Liverpool Sound City. In this busy month for music business conferences in the UK and abroad, the focus shifts this week to the North West of England, where Liverpool Sound City will once again be taking over Merseyside. By day, the conference will look at some of the key issues facing the music industry, while by night there will be showcases from over 300 bands, including headline slots from The View, The Black Lips, Funeral Party and The Kooks.
04: New releases. It’s another good week for new albums, with Three Trapped Tigers, Austra, Friendly Fires, Tennis, The Feelies, Kate Bush, Let’s Wrestle and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry all putting out new LPs. There’s also the latest collection of re-issues from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Cappo & Styly Cee begin a four part album release, plus Boy Friend release their new single, and earthone9 release their first new EP since reforming last year.
05: Gigs. You’d think I’d been to enough gigs over the last few days, but no, I will not stop. Tomorrow night I’ll be judging the second round of this year’s Road To Standon competition, which sees bands battle it out for a spot on the main stage at Standon Calling. Playing on the same night in London are the fabulous Oh Land at XOYO and the brilliant Snoop Dogg at The Forum. On Thursday, Suede will play the first of three nights at Brixton Academy, performing their first three albums in full. Also touring this week are Explosions In The Sky, The Young Knives, earthtone9, My Dying Bride, Kurt Vile, Cults and Hurray For The Riff Raff.
Lots to occupy yourself with there. As I say, we’ll have some more formal TGE reports later this week, though for some chatter on it right now check out the latest CMU podcast, which was recorded after almost no sleep on Sunday morning.
Andy Malt
Editor, CMU
