It is safe to say that this years Glasto has spirits soaring after the gap Worthy Farm decided to take in their running of the festival; the headliners are more anticipated than ever, and the sun has got thousands of people in extremely high spirits. The Killers plan to take full advantage of their return, and prove to Glasto that they are more than their previous headline set. 

Way back then, The Killers lost the battle with technology whilst performing. Brand new sound restrictions had them dazed and confused when their levels seemed exceedingly low as they lost the normally booming energy of the crowd. Frontman Brandon Flowers speaks about this in an interview with NME, “I can feel it physically and I can tell when the volume is not where it should be, because I really thrive on it”. 

Flowers is one of the few remaining artists who does not use earpieces during sets, so he can hear the crowd as anybody else would be able to. Due to the unbeknown sound issues, anybody beyond the first twenty rows from the stage was left feeling underwhelmed, after having anticipated a usual blistering and electric Killers set. 

Brandon went on to tell NME that he “always wanted to go back. I feel like we’re ready”. Despite only having being half the band they were back in 2007 (two members have retired from touring with the band), The Killers plan to put poetry back in motion, and rightfully reclaim their reputation in rock and roll headliners. 

The band have came a very long way since their first ever appearance at Worthy Farm, when they took ‘Mr Brightside’ to the Jon Peel stage with the hope of creating the career that they can now say with pride that they have paved for themselves. After years of providing fans with anthem after anthem, they finally have their well deserved chance to Glastonbury 2019. We wish them luck here at MXDWN!

The single ‘Talk’, the first song to be released from the album in March, was a perfect reflection of what to expect from the 12 track record. The upbeat, wide-eyed indie tune is following the footsteps of the bands previous popular singles ‘Undercover Martyn’ and ‘What You Know’, and will no doubt soon become an iconic anthem for the band and their indie legacy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsaz72OBT9s

The album shows a clear stepping stone in the trio’s journey as artists, and furthers the sound from the previous album ‘Gameshow’, maintaining some of the same tropes; electronic beats and fast paced lyrics. Even though this is a new image and persona for the band, fans won’t be too shocked with what awaits them on the album. 

Two Door Cinema Club have had an extremely successful career within the indie genre since the release of their debut album ‘Tourist History’ in 2010 which led to their popularity not only in the UK, but the US; with their previous album ‘Gameshow’ reaching number 8 in the US album charts. 

Tickets are now on sale for Two Door’s upcoming world tour starting in October. Despite having released many dates already, the band took to Twitter to reach out to disheartened fans who have not been fortunate enough to have a concert near their hometown. 

We are trying to get to as many places in the world as possible so if we haven’t announced a show near you right now there’s a good chance we’ll be announcing something soon. Thank you all again, we appreciate it. TDCC x

— Two Door Cinema Club (@TDCinemaClub) June 21, 2019

The current tour dates are listed below: 

12/08/19 – Venue TBA – Taiwan
13/08/19 – Thunder Dome Sports Complex – Thailand
09/09/19 – 9:30 Club – Washington DC
13/09/19 – Manhattan Centre – New York
15/09/19 – The Fillmore Philadelphia – Philadelphia 
16/09/19 – House of Blues – Boston 
18/09/19 – The Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, Canada
19/09/19 – Royal Oak Music Theatre – Royal Oak, Mississippi
21/09/19 – Riviera Theatre – Chicago, Illinois
22/09/19 – First Avenue – Minneapolis

03/10/19 – Motorpoint Arena – Cardiff
04/10/19 – O2 Academy – Glasgow 
07/10/19 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester 
10/10/19 – Bonus Arena – Hull
11/10/19 – The O2 – London 
13/10/19 – Plymouth Pavilions – Plymouth 
15/10/19 – Olympia Theatre – Dublin 
16/10/19 – The Telegraph Building – Belfast

01/11/19 – Showbox Sodo – Seattle, Washington 
02/11/19 – Lola’s Room at The Crystal Ballroom – Portland, Orlando
04/11/19 – Fox Theatre – Oakland, California 
06/11/19 – Hollywood Palladium – Hollywood, California
08/11/19 – Observatory North Park – San Diego, California
09/11/19 – The Van Buren – Phoenix, Arizona
12/11/19 – Southside Ballroom – Dallas, Texas 
13/11/19 – The Moody Theatre – Austin, Texas 

MoStack has previously been nominated for two MOBO awards in 2016 and 2017 for both best newcomer and best male. He has quickly became a front runner in the UK rap scene, gaining respect from not only her ever-growing fan base, but from many fellow artists.

After collaborations with well known artists in the industry such as Dave, JHus and Notes to name a few, MoStack’s reputation has grown, resulting in a nationwide positive reaction from fans following the release of Stacko.

The album features 13 tracks with features from Stormzy, JHus, Fredo and Dave, and of course the popular single ‘What I Wanna’. The North London rapper has already stormed onto the charts with track ‘Shine Girl’ with the song reaching number 17 just days after its release.

NME have described the album as “an album filled with songs you’ll scream at the top of your lungs”, and it is safe to say that the record represents the personality of the 23 year old. In anticipation from his upcoming UK tour, this album is sure to heighten excitement for the fans.

The tour is taking place in October through to November, in many O2 Academies across the country and other venues with two shows in Brixton. The full tour dates are below:

21/10/19 – SWG3 – Glasgow

22/10/19 – The Academy – Dublin

24/10/19 – O2 Academy – Leeds

25/10/19 – O2 Academy – Newcastle

26/10/19 – O2 Academy – Manchester

27/10/19 – O2 Academy – Bristol

29/10/19 – Rock City – Nottingham

30/10/19 – O2 Academy – Liverpool

31/10/19 – O2 Academy – Birmingham

01/11/19 – O2 Academy – Brixton

11/11/19 – O2 Academy – Brixton

The solo project has been named ‘Love Fame Tragedy’ and is the start of something new for Murph, who has led The Wombats to their success for fifteen years. He has explained that his idea to explore a solo path started after a bunch of songs he wrote did not fit very well with ‘The Wombats’ specific sound – the sound that the fans are used to and love. 

The project has many credited producers and artists working on it alongside Murph; Joey Santiago, Gus Unger-Hamilton and Maddie Waterhouse to name a few. He has described ‘Cheating Heart’ as ‘a confessional song about love and relationships. It’s to do with status and how important status is in Los Angeles, San Francisco and California’. 

Murph has stated that there are absolutely no problems within the band, and that there have been no arguments, as every member of the band wanted to venture out on their solo career one day. However, he felt it was time for a complete change up, and wanted to experience something new. He describes ‘Love Fame Tragedy’ as “somewhere between Gorillaz and a solo project.” 

The video fo the Maddie Waterhouse collab ‘My Cheating Heart’ is also out today, and although it differs from the usual Wombats house-style, it maintains the quirkiness that Murph syringed into all the band’s lyrics, and paired with an abstract alternative video, it provides fans with a good idea of what to expect from the now highly anticipated EP. 

Matthew has announced an Australian tour for this year: 

06/10/19 – Yours & Owls Festival – Wollongong 

08/10/19 – Oxford Art Factory – Sydney

09/10/19 – The Zoo – Brisbane 

The fall triggered years old injury’s from his 2003 quad bike accident, and it was imperative that he had surgery to fix this. Taking to social media earlier this month, Osbourne said “I can’t believe I have to reschedule more tour dates. Words cannot express how frustrated, angry and depressed I am to not be on tour right now”.

Ozzy’s tour is celebrating two decades of ‘The Prince of Darkness’, and is the second leg of the farewell tour, named ‘No More Tours’. The setlist consists of all of Ozzy’s greatest hits along with a few Black Sabbath legendary tracks such as ‘Paranoid’ and ‘War Pigs’. Fans are looking to see Osbourne perform for the final time, and have been eager on social media following his journey back to well-being.

Tickets for the tour will go on sale on Friday 3rd May at nine am, with all previously sold tickets remaining valid for the rescheduled dates. Of course, this doesn’t apply to the cancelled shows in Barcelona and Frankfurt. The full rescheduled dates are shown below:

31/01 – Nottingham Motorpoint Arena, UK 
02/02 -Dublin 3 Arena, Ireland 
05/02 – Manchester Arena, UK 
07/02 – Newcastle Utlilta Arena, UK 
10/02 – London The O2, UK 
12/02 – Glasgow SSE Hydro, UK 
14/02 – Birmingham Resorts World Arena, UK 
17/02 – Dortmund Westfalenhalle, Germany 
20/02 – Helsinki Hartwall Arena, Finland 
22/02 – Stockholm Friends Arena, Sweden 
24/02 – Berlin Mercedes-Benz Arena, Germany 
26/02 – Vienna Stadhalle, Austria 
29/02 – Prague O2 Arena, Czech Republic 
03/03 – Hamburg Barclaycard Arena, Germany 
05/03 – Munich Olympianhalle, Germany 
07/03 – Mannheim SAP Arena, Germany 
10/03 – Bologna Unipol Arena, Italy 
13/03 – Madrid Wizink Arena, Spain 
16/03 – Zurich Hallenstadion, Switzerland

The Balance is packing classic Catfish tunes, echoing previous albums in their lyrical decisions and strong repeated chorus’. In all aspects, the band have continued the essence of their previous records; keeping up the tradition of black and white album covers, and all song titles being just one word. No one can blame Catfish for sticking to what they know – it has worked well so far, and they have once again created 11 indie anthems for fans to get stuck into. 

With previous lyrics telling tales of life on tour and rocky relationships, The Balance follows suit. ‘Longshot’ kicks the album off with a rip-roaring bang, being consistent with that of previous tracks ‘Cocoon’ and ‘Twice’. Emotional track ‘Mission’ tells fans of the relationship between leading man Van McCann and his father, which is essentially the only thing that really differs this album from the other two. 

The Bottlemen’s style can’t be described as complex, which could be down to the band working with the same producer ‘Tim Lahen’ on all three albums. All the tracks have the same structure and style as always, leaving some fans questioning whether they will ever see a change-up, or the band experiment with different styles and tones of music. 

Of course, this style has worked thus far with their previous albums topping charts and proving a massive success with a sold out tour. It is safe to say that the fans the band have accumulated already will be extremely satisfied with the record, but it will be hard for the band to change the minds of those who haven’t been fond so far. 

On the day of the album release, the band took to Twitter to announce four arena shows November, following a seven date arena tour ending in May. Tickets go on sale on Friday 3rd May, the full dates are listed below: 

04/11 – Birmingham Arena

5/11 – Newcastle Utilita Arena 

10/11 – Liverpool M&S Bank Arena 

11/11 – Leeds First Direct Arena A

Marina first appeared in the music scene in 2009, with the stage name ‘Marina and The Diamonds’, where she performed at Glastonbury and Radio 1’s big weekend, but it wasn’t until her hit single ‘Primadonna’ that her popularity began to grow. The persona she created for herself was a bubbly cartoonised representation of a strong female identity, which was the basis of her first two albums ‘Electra Heart’ and ‘Froot’. 

The Neon Nation Tour began in October 2015; this was a huge tour for Marina, who travelled across Europe and America performing tracks from all three of her albums. Whilst on tour, Marina grieved the loss of both her Aunt and Grandmother all within a short amount of time. Unable to cancel dates, Diamandis had to face performing on stage every night whilst trying to cope with her loss. 

This pressure led to significant depression and anxiety, and after the tour wrapped up in 2016, Marina announced her departure from music. Three years later, she explains “I didn’t feel the same about music anymore or why I was motivated to be an artist”. After an obviously gruelling tour, she said that she stopped growing as an artist “I don’t want my face on anything. I don’t like anyone looking at me”. 

During her three year break, Diamandis decided she needed time to find herself as an individual, away from her musical identity. She tried her hand at floristry and acting, but eventually went back to school to study Psychology at Birbeck University of London. During the extensive amount of time spent studying, Marina’s creative impulses began to come back. 

Marina has always been an introspective artist, giving hints on her album ‘FROOT’ that she wasn’t happy living within the music industry; but her comeback albums are more introspective than ever. She released two full albums in April this year titled ‘LOVE’ and ‘LOVE+FEAR’, which stemmed from her time studying Psychology, where she learnt that everything we do stems from the feeling of either love or fear. “I thought it was a beautiful, universal way of painting a picture of human experience”. 

“There are only two emotions: Love and Fear. All positive emotions come from love, all negative emotions from fear. We cannot feel these two emotions together, at exactly the same time. They’re opposites”

– Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

— MARINA (@MarinaDiamandis) April 4, 2019

The shift in name also comes with a shift of image, having stripped back both her personality and her vocals for her 2019 releases. Marina has left her colourful cover images in the past, and has switched up to a more mature black and white album cover, reflective of this new stage in her life. One of the first tracks released from the album was ‘Handmade Heaven’ which is almost a diary entry, perfect for her cult following to understand what exactly it was that Diamandis was going through.

MARINA 2019 Tour Tickets are currently available from her website, you can see the UK tour dates below: 

29/04 – O2 Academy – Newcastle 

30/04 – O2 Academy – Glasgow 

03/05 – Royal Albert Hall – London

07/05 – O2 Academy – Bournemouth

09/05 – O2 Academy – Birmingham 

10/05 – O2 Apollo – Manchester 

18-21/07 – Latitude Festival – Suffolk 

Only thirteen days after the Instagram and Twitter video went viral, Slowthai has announced six tour dates from 6th to the 11th of May this year. Tickets are currently on sale on the official website, where you have to pre-order the up-coming album ‘Nothing Great About Britain’ to be granted access to the ticket sale; effectively making this a bonus purchase alongside the record. In a tweet announcing the tour, the Northampton rapper apologised for not being able to reach everyone in his relatively short tour: 

the 99p tour thank you to everyone who submitted. if I ain’t making it to you this time I will next time: https://t.co/jdnMc3uleH – follow the instructions and act fast on tickets love you all see you soon pic.twitter.com/yzJRClnmVe

— slowthai (@slowthai) April 23, 2019

The venues Slowthai plans to visit are very small, local pubs and bars keeping true to his word. The tour kicks off in a Ramsgate music hall – this is the closest he gets to performing in an established music venue, with others including ‘Crauford Arms’ pub in Milton Keynes and ‘Sneaky Pete’s’ in Edinburgh – a buzzing music bar favourite amongst locals, situated in Edinburgh old town. 

2019 has already been a very successful year for Slowthai, having gained a surplus of attention and a reputation in the music scene as a promising artist. The official tour dates are as seen below: 

06/05 – Ramsgate Music Hall – Ramsgate 

07/05 – Crauford Arms – Milton Keynes 

08/05 – The Moon – Cardiff 

09/05 – The Temple of Boom – Leeds 

10/05 – Sneaky Pete’s Edinburgh 

11/05 – Trimmers Arms – South Shields

Blur’s Damon Albarn has spoke out about this decision, stating that the main factor in turning down these gig opportunities is in fact Brexit. After being given the chance to perform the record in full, Albarn said “I would only want to perform if it was a positive thing”. 

Of course, the main track on the album is ‘Parklife’; a tune that defined BritPop and celebrated Britishness in the most positive and upbeat way. To the band, performing this song in the midst of the disastrous Brexit talks wouldn’t represent what the song is really all about – being proud to be British. 

Albarn went on to say: “Say we got to the point of having a second referendum, then I would be happy to play that record as a celebration and a way of reminding ourselves of a time when we had an idea of Britishness that wasn’t political”. 

Despite not re-uniting for such a momentous anniversary, Blur did perform a surprise gig in London at the end of March. ‘Africa Express’ was put together by Damon Albarn and is a celebration of music artists from around the globe; the event has been running since 2006, some of the previous performers being Paul Mccartney, Paul Weller and Johnny Marr. 

Even though we may not see Blur take to the stage anytime soon, we can still celebrate the anniversary ourselves, and hope that Brexit doesn’t ruin any other momentous British music milestones! 

Since the Brighton based four piece formed in 2014, the band have quickly grown a large fanbase and actually supported Royal Blood on their tour in 2017. This sudden popularity surge for the group is well deserved, with their album being described as “a knockout debut that showcases their versatility”, but front-woman Izzy B Phillips had expressed some distaste to this idea in the past, “If I had it my way we’d still be a secret band” she told The Guardian back in 2016. 

Fast-forward three years and the band have their first headlining tour ahead of them, and a 21 track album under their belt. The album explores all elements of indie-pop, incorporating electric disco sounds whilst doing a good job at maintaining a loud and hard-hitting chorus; the staple to any decent indie song.

Phillips also worked with Royal Blood singer Mike Kerr to write the track ‘Into the Nightmare’ (alternatively known as ‘Into the Mikemare) – this is definitely the stompy, rock orientated song that the album needed, which was to be expected from Kerr’s influence. The track ‘Midnight’ flits back to the electric feel that we get listening to the rest of the album, featuring synthesised pop vocals and a video almost appearing as though taken from a pulp fiction scene. 

Black Honey 2019 European Tour Dates:

29/04/ – Esquires – Bedford
30/04 – Sugarmill – Stoke
01/05 – Caves – Edinburgh
02/05 – Grand Social – Dublin
04/05 – Live at Leeds Fest – Leeds
05/05 – Handmade Fest – Leicester 
06/05 – Joiners – Southampton 
07/05 – The Forum – Tunbridge Wells
08/05 – The Boileroom – Guildford 
30/05 – Dauwop Fest – Netherlands 
31/05 – Vestrock Fest – Netherlands
21/06 – Hurricane Fest – Germany 
22/06 – Privatclub – Berlin
23/06 – Southside Fest – Germany 
26/06 – Chelsea – Vienna 
27/06 – Cafe V Lese – Prague
28/06 – Exil – Zurich 
30/06 – Rock Werchter Fest – Belgium