mxdwn.co.uk » European Festival https://www.mxdwn.co.uk all that matters in music in the UK Sat, 02 May 2026 19:40:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1 The Prodigy, Massive Attack and Arcade Fire to Headline Bilbao BBK Live 2024 https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/the-prodigy-massive-attack-and-arcade-fire-to-headline-bilbao-bbk-live-2024/ https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/the-prodigy-massive-attack-and-arcade-fire-to-headline-bilbao-bbk-live-2024/#comments Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:47:06 +0000 http://www.mxdwn.co.uk/?p=98119 The line-up for the 2024 edition of Spanish festival Bilbao BBK Live has been announced, with The Prodigy, Massive Attack and Arcade Fire set to headline the event. Other artists that will feature in the diverse line-up include cumbia inspired all-female London band Los Bitchos, British jazz quintet Ezra Collective, Houston based psychedelic rock trio Khruangbin, Welsh electronic music duo Overmono, American rapper JPEGMafia, Canadian rock duo Death From Above 1979 and British electronic music project Jungle.

The festival, set in the mountainous Basque city of Bilbao in Northern Spain, will run from 11 July to 13 July 2024. The annual event can trace its origins back to 2006 and is held on a special complex built specifically for the festival on the slopes of Mount Cobetas. Last year’s edition featured the likes of Artic Monkeys, Florence and the Machine, Idles, Róisín Murphy and Pavement, and cemented the festival as one of the best on the European music festival circuit.

Watch the music video for the classic track “Firestarter” by The Prodigy below:

Big beat pioneers The Prodigy will make Bilbao BBK Live their fourth summer festival appearance, after it was announced that they will be playing Reading and Leeds 2024 along with Hellfest and Isle of Wight festival. Meanwhile the festival is scheduled to be cult trip hop collective Massive Attack’s only summer outing, with the group last performing at Connect festival in Edinburgh in the summer of 2022.

Watch the music video for “Unfinished Sympathy” by Massive Attack below:

Canadian indie rock outfit Arcade Fire are also set for a busy summer after attaining headline slots at not only Bilbao BBK Live 2024 but also Shaky Knees in Atlanta and both South American editions of Lollapalooza in Brazil and Chile.

Watch the music video for “The Suburbs” by Arcade Fire below:

See below for the full line-up of Bilbao BBK Live 2024:

Airu, Alvvays, Arcade Fire, Cymande, Death From Above 1979, Derby Motoreta’s Burrito Kachimba, El Columpio Asesino, Ezra Collective, Floating Points, Folamour (A/V), Jimena Amarilo, Jordan Rakei, JPEGMafia, Jungle, Khruangbin, Los Bitchos, Massive Attack, Mulatu Astatke, Nerve Agent, Noname, Overmono, Parcels, Queralt Lahoz, Ralphie Choo, Sen Senra, Shinova, The Prodigy, Underworld, Zea Mays.

Tickets for the event will be available for general sale this Friday 1 December from 9am and will be available to purchase here.

Photo credit: Sharon Alagna

]]> https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/the-prodigy-massive-attack-and-arcade-fire-to-headline-bilbao-bbk-live-2024/feed/ 0 Radiohead Side-Project The Smile Debut New Track At The Montreux Jazz Festival https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/radiohead-side-project-the-smile-debut-new-track-at-the-montreux-jazz-festival/ https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/radiohead-side-project-the-smile-debut-new-track-at-the-montreux-jazz-festival/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2022 18:44:35 +0000 http://www.mxdwn.co.uk/?p=57260 This week saw The Smile headline the Montreux Jazz Festival, the side project of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood took the stage at the Swiss festival on Tuesday 12th July 2022. The pair formed the group with Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner last year, Yorke and Greenwood have cited the initial COVD-19 lockdown as the reason for the band’s formation.

A statement on the festival’s website provides a description of the group, “Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are back in Montreux, close to 20 years after the Radiohead concert at the Festival! Completed by Tom Skinner (the brilliant drummer of Sons of Kemet), the mysterious trio has been making itself known little by little for the past year.”

The band’s appearance at the festival was part of their ongoing European tour in support of their debut album A Light For Attracting Attention. The supergroup’s album was released on 13th May 2022 via XL Recordings and was produced by Nigel Godirch, Radiohead’s long-term producer and collaborator. The album sired six singles, “You Will Never Work In Television Again”, “The Smoke”, “Skirting On The Surface”, “Pana-vision”, “Free In The Knowledge” and “Thin Thing”.

Whilst on their current tour the band have premiered three new songs, “Funeral Of A Friend”, “Colours Fly” and “Bodies Laughing” which was debuted during a show in Berlin last month. A fourth unreleased track was premiered at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the band debuted the grunge rock-inspired track “Bending Hectic” during the set’s encore. The track was so freshly written that Yorke still had the notes by his side, the singer said to the crowd, “I can see the words – that’s good, Cause I just wrote them about half an hour ago. So follow us down the train crash.”

This year marked the Montreux Jazz Festival’s 56th year in action, starting on 1st July 2022 the event consists of over 500 concerts held across 13 stages. The festival concludes on 16th July 2022 with a star-studded line-up, scheduled to play the Auditorium Stravinski are Herbie Hancock and Jamie Cullum. Also set to close the festival are Arlo Parks, Patrick Watson and Phoebe Bridges, all three acts will play Montreux Jazz Lab.

The Smile are next scheduled to appear at the Italian city Macerata with a set at Arena Sferisterio on 17th July 2022. After two more stops on their European tour, the band will return to the UK to perform at this year’s All Points East Festival on 28th August 2022. The band have also announced their first North American tour, the tour is set to take place this Winter and will be in support of their recently released album.

]]> https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/radiohead-side-project-the-smile-debut-new-track-at-the-montreux-jazz-festival/feed/ 0 Yard Act Are The Most Booked Band In Europe According To New ESNS Exchange Data On Festivals https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/yard-act-are-the-most-booked-band-in-europe-according-to-new-esns-exchange-data-on-festivals/ https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/yard-act-are-the-most-booked-band-in-europe-according-to-new-esns-exchange-data-on-festivals/#comments Wed, 15 Jun 2022 13:58:07 +0000 http://www.mxdwn.co.uk/?p=56710 The rising British rock band Yard Act have been named “most booked emerging act across European Festivals” by the ESNS Exchange in their rundown of the most promising European acts of the moment. With no less than 11 ESNS approved festival bookings to their name, it seems the 4 piece band from Leeds are favourites amongst European festival bookers this year, with acts like Wet Leg, Ukrainian rapper Alyona Alyona, CMAT, and Holly Humberstone following close behind.

The non-profit organisation ESNS was founded in 2003 as a means of stimulating the circulation of European music across the continent and beyond, gathering data on artists gaining momentum and organising the annual Eurosonic Noorderslag festival in Groningen (Netherlands) to feature only European bands and artists.

Yard Act have been on a fearsome tear since they emerged in January 2021 with their debut EP Dark Days. They immediately struck a chord with me when I first tuned in, an exciting blend of Arctic Monkeys and The Streets, lead singer and lyricist James Smith has a knack for instantly driving an engaging and thought provoking narrative with his erudite northern charisma and flow. Lamenting the woes of social injustice, capitalism, and gentrification with dark humour and cynical storytelling, they manage to remain challenging without ever sounding preachy. A very difficult feat to summit, and likely why so many live agents and promoters are gagging at the bit to book them at the moment.

Their debut album The Overload came out on Island Records on the 21st of January this year and debuted at No.2 on the UK Albums Chart, eventually going to No.1 in Scotland and helping the band to get shortlisted for a much desired place on the BBC’s Sound Of 2022 poll. It’s no surprise really with all the aforementioned originality and flair, they seem to be having an underground cultural impact, alongside the likes of Wet Leg, that not many UK bands have managed in a while. With a headline performance on the Left Field stage at Glastonbury booked for next weekend, it seems there’s no end in sight to their momentum at the moment and we here at Mxdwn UK wish them well. It’s nice to see an indie band making a proper splash again. You can check out their lead single “The Overload” here:

 

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