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Since their formation in 1998, the Sugababes have achieved remarkable success in the UK music scene, including six number-one singles and millions of global sales. Their chart-topping hits include ‘Freak Like Me‘, ‘Round Round‘, and ‘Push the Button’. The group has also received numerous awards, solidifying their status as one of the most successful and influential vocal groups of the 2000s.The trio’s recent performances have been met with overwhelming enthusiasm. At Glastonbury 2024, their set on the West Holts stage attracted such a massive crowd that the area had to be closed off due to demand. Additionally, they sold out London’s O2 Arena, further cementing their enduring appeal.

Her debut performance at Glastonbury soon gained publicity after its occurrence due to photos and videos surfacing online depicting SZA performing to a sparse crowd, due to the festival’s scheduling conflicts with having James Blake, Justice, London Grammar and The National performing at the same time but at opposing stages. This came as a shock to many as the day prior SZA headlined a show at BST Hyde Park in London to an energetic and overflowing crowd.

Glastonbury is facing criticism for choosing SZA as a headliner after her set pulled in a smaller than average number of people for the Pyramid Stage.

While SZA would be a no brainer for a headlining act in the U.S., some Brits claimed that she’s not as well-known there.… pic.twitter.com/javBMzzrvV

— Mr. Pop (@MrPopOfficial) July 1, 2024

Solána Imani Rowe, known professionally as SZA, is an American singer-songwriter with over 65 million monthly Spotify listeners to her name.  She gained acclaim through the release of her second and third albums, respectively ‘Ctrl’ and ‘SOS’, which displayed her carefully conducted experimentation with alternative and minimalist R&B which delved into themes of sexuality and nostalgia. ‘SOS’ peaked at Number 2 on the UK Official Albums Chart, featuring the iconic tracks ‘Kill Bill’, ‘Snooze’, ‘Good Days’ and ‘Nobody Gets Me’.

The ‘Supermodel’ performer provided hindsight to her appearance at Glastonbury this summer. She revealed to British Vogue: “I just felt like nothing I could do would be enough for Glastonbury, no matter what I did”.

She continued: “It scared me. I was like, well, I wish I wasn’t doing it, but I couldn’t walk away from it… I want to be the second Black woman in history, but then it’s such a fucking tall order. It’s like, no matter what you do here, you will be subject to criticism. Because of who you are. But that’s life. That’s life, you know?”

SZA’s confession about the pressures artists face at festivals is telling. There is truth about no matter what artists deliver, the spectacle will always leave fans, spectators and critics demanding more. As musicians are stretched to their limits to provide exclusive and captivating sets during festival season, it can often leave a mental strain on artists when they feel like they aren’t doing enough as performers.

The ‘Saturn’ singer expanded on external pressures at Glastonbury and her attempts at finding solace during performances with attendees in the crowd. She recalled: “I’m like, I’m freaked out right now. I’m scared. I feel like I’m drowning on stage and I feel like I’m failing”. However, SZA’s discomfort on stage was minimised when she claimed she received a sign from African Goddess, Yemayá, which acted as a reminder that “your guardians are with you. Everyone’s here. Even beyond. Keep going.”

As Glastonbury’s 2025 tickets went on sale this weekend, SZA’s remarks about the festival provide a telling reality to critics, fans and attendees who await next year’s legendary performances from an array of musicians.

]]> https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/sza-reveals-she-was-freaked-out-and-scared-during-glastonbury-headline-set/feed/ 0 https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/kasabian-announce-2024-uk-arena-tour-with-the-streets/ https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/kasabian-announce-2024-uk-arena-tour-with-the-streets/#comments Fri, 05 Jul 2024 14:38:46 +0000 http://www.mxdwn.co.uk/?p=101047 Kasabian have announced that they will be performing an arena tour later this year. The tour will be in support of their album ‘Happenings’ which they released today (July 5) via Columbia. The tour will see them take the stage with The Streets as support. This follows Kasabian playing a last-minute secret set on the Woodsies stage at Glastonbury last Saturday (June 29).

The Leicester group are set to play a string of dates throughout July which will commence tomorrow as they will play a huge homecoming show at Victoria park with support from bands that include Kaiser chiefs and Everything Everything. This will then be followed up by dates in Bournemouth and at Bristol’s O2 Academy. At the end of the month Kasabian will then be Headlining Latitude festival in Suffolk, which sees acts such as London Grammar, Keane, Duran Duran and Corinne Baily Rae taking the stage.

Mike Skinner’s The Streets will then join Kasabian for a UK arena tour in November with them beginning this run of huge shows in Skinner’s hometown, Birmingham before playing at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro then at the O2 Arena before finishing in Manchester at the Co-op Live. Tickets for the November tour will go on general sale on the 10th of July at 9:30am and you can buy tickets here. Pre-sale for the tour will begin at the same time on the 8th of July and fans can access the pre-sale by purchasing a copy of ‘Happening’ in any format before 3pm on Sunday (July 7) here.

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The full list of Kasabian’s 2024 dates are as follows:

6 July– Leicester, Victoria Park
22 July – Bristol, O2 Academy
23 July – Bournemouth, O2 Academy
26 July– Latitude Festival

8 November– Birmingham, bp pulse LIVE
9 November– Glasgow, OVO Hydro
15 November– London, The O2
16 November– Manchester, Co-op Live

Speaking via Instagram on the release of their new album ‘Happenings’ the band said “We loved making this record it’s a relentless joy ride through dance floors, mosh pits and psychedelic function rooms. It was made with pure joy to be played live for the fans to lose their minds to. Thank you for the support so far we hope you enjoy the trip  ONWARDS x”.

This announcement follows both the Streets and Kasabian playing at Glastonbury festival last weekend. The Leicester indie band played a secret set on the Woodsies stage at Worthy farm early on Saturday evening. The 6pm slot was initially listed as TBA, but the group confirmed via their Instagram that they would be playing to the Glastonbury crowd with the Woddsies stage inevitably packing out to see them take the stage.

The Streets also played at Worthy farm on Saturday (June 29) night playing a smashing set on The Other stage. The Streets’ set saw Mike Skinner play an array of the Projects hits such as ‘Fit But You Know It’, ‘Has It Come To This’, ‘Don’t Mug Yourself’ and ‘Blinded By The Lights’. Skinner was full of energy throughout the performance, walking through the crowd and crowd surfing at points.

Three dates have been confirmed by London Grammar with them saying via their Instagram “You asked, and we listened…  UK arena tour incoming!! “. The run of dates will see them perform at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro and Manchester’s AO Arena before finishing playing a huge show at the O2 arena in London on the 14th of November. As well as this the trio recently announced that they will be embarking on a European tour, playing dates in Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin in October and November this year.

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Tickets for their upcoming arena concerts will be available on general sale at 10am BST on the 12th of July and you can buy tickets here. Fans can also gain access to the pre-sale for the tour if they pre-order ‘The Greatest Love’ here before 3pm BST on the 9th of July. Access for the pre-sale for tickets will begin at 10am on the 10th of July.

The full list of London Grammar’s 2024 EU and UK dates are below:

Thu October 31 – PARIS Zenith
Fri November 01 – BRUSSELS Forest National
Sun November 03 – AMSTERDAM Ziggo Dome
Tue November 05 – FRANKFURT Jahrhunderthalle
Thu November 07 – BERLIN UFO Velodrom
Mon November 11 – GLASGOW OVO Hydro
Tue November 12 – MANCHESTER AO Arena
Thu November 14 – LONDON O2 Arena

This announcement follows the band  the release of their fourth album ‘The Greatest Love’. The three members of the group have all had their own individual projects going on alongside being in the band with lead singer Hannah being a painter and writing her own solo songs, Dot being a DJ and releasing his own electronic music and Dan being a producer for other artists.

Speaking on their upcoming fourth album, singer Hannah Reid said “This album is probably the last time that we’ll appear in our music videos. I love the fact that I can walk down the street and nobody knows who I am – and yet we can fill huge spaces with people who love our music. We’ve worked really, really hard, and it has paid off.”

She also added that she hoped the group will “keep making music together until we’re old, wrinkly, and completely irrelevant. As long as we prioritise the art, there is no reason why we can’t go on for decades.” 

The Indie pop trio have previewed the album with three singles so far titled ‘House’, ‘Kind Of Man’ and most recently ‘Into Gold’ which was released last month. ‘House’ was released with an accompanying video which you can watch below.

The band are just coming off the back of of an amazing headline performance of the Park stage at Glastonbury last weekend. They are also set to play at Latitude later this month.

Speaking on the announcement of this mammoth per and her Glastonbury performance the British singer said that “There couldn’t be a better time to share this with you all! I am still flying high from the magic of headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury this weekend, and I am absolutely thrilled to announce I’ll be playing Wembley Stadium this time next year.”

WEMBLEY STADIUM !!! I’m still not over Glastonbury… sooo UK let’s go again !! next summer on June 20th we’re playing Wembley  pre-sale starts July 10th through O2 priority and general sale July 12th at 10am, can’t wait to see so many of your faces there … pic.twitter.com/0QoYJx1bGi

— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) July 1, 2024

Dua Lipa is also set to perform dates across Asia later this year as well as another huge show in the UK as she is playing a one time concert at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall in October 2024. The English-Albanian singer is also performing at various festivals during the rest of the summer including Open’er festival Poland, Rock Werchter in Belgium, Mad Cool Festival in Madrid, Portugal’s NOS Alive Festival and Austin City Limits.

This announcement follows her headline set of Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage on the 28th of June which has been widely praised for being an incredible performance. During the set she brought out Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker onto the stage at Worthy farm to perform a rendition of the Australian artist’s hit song ‘The Less I Know The Better’. The two collaborated on Lipa’s last album ‘Radical Optimism’ and they also performed the song ‘Houdini’ together.

As part of the announcement Dua has partnered up with O2 to bring back O2’s “Walk Ad” campaign to promote O2’s exclusive presale for Lipa’s massive upcoming performance at Wembley next year. O2 customers can get early access to tickets for the show via the O2 priority app from 10am BST on Wednesday the 10th of July, which is 2 days before general sale begins. The video for the campaign was filmed by British director Daniel Wolfe and was shot in the seaside towns of Broadstairs and Margate on the Kent coast and the video sees Dua and her dancers on the beach ready for her performance at Wembley.

See Dua Lipa’s full list of tour dates for 2024 and 2025 below:

July 4th, 2024 – Gdynia – Open’er Festival
July 6th, 2024 – Werchter – Rock Werchter
July 10th, 2024 – Madrid – Mad Cool Festival
July 12th, 2024 – Lisbon – Nos Alive Festival
October 17th, 2024 – London – Royal Albert Hall
November 5th, 2024 – Singapore – Singapore Indoor Stadium
November 6th, 2024 – Singapore – Singapore Indoor Stadium
November 9th, 2024 – Jakarta – Indonesia Arena-Senayan
November 13th, 2024 – Manila – Philippine Arena
November 16th, 2024 – Tokyo – Saitama Super Arena
November 17th, 2024 – Tokyo – Saitama Super Arena
November 20th, 2024 – Taipei – Rakuten Taoyuan Baseball Stadium
November 23rd, 2024 – Kuala Lumpur – Axiata Arena
November 24th, 2024 – Kuala Lumpur – Axiata Arena
November 27th, 2024 – Bangkok – Impact Arena
December 4th, 2024 – Seoul – Gocheok Sky Dome
December 5th, 2024 – Seoul – Gocheok Sky Dome
June 20th, 2025 – London – Wembley Stadium

The Woodsies stage was previously know as the ‘John Peel’ stage up until 2023 when it was changed to reflect the field in which it is found like many of the other venues that make up Glastonbury. The stage gained its previous name in 2004 after the passing of influential radio DJ ‘John peel’ in that same year. When the change was made Co-organiser Emily Eavis told the Guardian it would take on its current name ‘Woodsies’ ‘as part of a push to name stages after the fields they are located in, such as West Holts and Silver Hayes.’

The iconic stage hosted an exciting array of artists this year with headline sets from Gossip and Jamie xx and James Blake who closed the stage on Sunday night. The stage also sported peformances from Sampha, Arlo Parks, Declan Mckenna, Remi Wolf, Soccer Mommy, The Vaccines

The set was confirmed by the band via an Instagram post on the morning of the performance. This has been the group’s first appearance at the festival since 2014 and according to a review by the Guardian the Woodsies tent was ‘the busiest it has been since the Killers played their own secret set here in 2017. Not just the tent but the whole field is full, with most attendees only able to follow the gig by craning their necks to look at a screen.’

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Notorious for being ahead of the curve, the @secretglasto twitter account had the news first, confirming the bands attendance after releasing a series of cryptic tweets teasing the bands attendance.  

For the avoidance of doubt and the benefit of the hard of thinking/heavily intoxicated, the Woodsies TBA at 1800 is KASABIAN. Have fun x — Secretglasto (@secretglasto) June 29, 2024

Despite the opinion that, as written by the Guardian, the group are supposedly ‘firmly on the slide in 2024′ after the withdrawal of previous member Tom Meighan due to his conviction for assaulting his partner in 2020 which you can read about in an article by the BBC, it seems that the secret show was a massive hit amongst attendees with fans flocking to the venue. The team behind the @secretglasto account, which is no way affiliated with the festival, released a post letting fans and those hopeful to catch the group know that the access to the stage was closed half an hour before Kasabian were due to perform at 6:00 pm.

Access to Woodsies now CLOSED.

— Secretglasto (@secretglasto) June 29, 2024

Though some festival goers felt disappointed, as many speculated that American rock icons Kings of Leon would be taking the stage at some point this weekend, spirits were still at their zenith with critics and fans alike all agreeing that Kasabian were ‘outstanding’ and it seems the band felt it too with guitarist Segio Pizzorno telling the crowd that “This is one of the greatest days in this band’s history” as they played the festival a whole 20 years after their Glastonbury debut.

The London band had previously promised via Radio X that they would bring out a special guest for their performance at Worthy Farm who had appeared on their album ‘My Big Day’. Then X account @secretglasto hinted at who the mystery guest was going to be saying that the guest “could make Bombay Bicycle Club’s set go by in a Blur.”

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Albarn thanked Jack Steadman of Bombay Bicycle Club’s Jack Steadman and then and then took to the stage and addressed the crowd on “three things” that “You have to show me how you feel about it,” which he said during the performance of ‘Tender’. He then attempted to encourage the Glastonbury crowd to vote in the coming UK general election which looks like it is going to be an overwhelming victory for Labour over the conservatives.

He addressed the crowd on how they felt about Palestine. “Are you pro-Palestine? Do you feel that’s an unfair war?”

He then continued, telling fans they need to vote. “The importance of voting next week. Now I don’t blame you for being ambivalent about that, but it’s still really important.”

Before saying “And thirdly, maybe it’s time we stop putting octogenarians in control of the whole world” probably in reference to the USA election which will see voters choosing between 81-year-old Joe Biden and 78-year-old Donald Trump. The two engaged in a debate on the 27th of June.

Speaking to Sky News Bombay Bicycle Club said that they “were never expecting to have him on the record or to be playing a show with him, but… we just kind of asked, and he was really up for it. You don’t ask, you don’t get.”

The first day of Glastonbury also saw a secret DJ set played by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker in the early hours of Saturday Morning. This came after Kevin Parker appeared alongside Dua Lipa on her headline set of the Pyramid stage on Friday (June 28). The two had previously collaborated on Dua Lipa’s last album ‘Radical Optimism’ and they paired up for a performance on Tame Impala’s huge psychedelic hit ‘The Less I Know The Better’.

As well as this, elsewhere in Worthy farm on the first day of the festival Paul Heaton and Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) paired up for a Housemartins reunion where they performed their 1986 hit ‘Happy Hour’ on the Pyramid stage. IDLES also brought out Danny Brown as a special guest during their closing set on the Other stage where the rapper joined the Bristol band for a performance of the band’s song ‘Pop Pop Pop’.

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Parker announced this via his Instagram: “GLASTONBURY come see me tonight at the Firmly Rooted sound system in Silver Hayes at 1am. DJ set. Should be pretty funnnnn.” This 1AM to 2AM slot is still listed as TBA on the line-up for Firmly Rooted sound system however, according to the festival’s official programme this slot reads as “Kevin Parker (Tame Impala)” and if there was somehow any doubt on who this is it continues “The Antipodean psychedelic rock icon takes to the deck.”

Kevin Parker’s involvement in the festival has caused speculation that the Tame Impala frontman might feature as a guest during Dua Lipa’s headline set tonight as the pair have worked on her latest album, ‘Radical Optimism’. Parker’s DJ set is going to take place just a few hours after Dua Lipa’s headline performance so we will have to wait and see what unfolds with that one.

Parker has played the English festival multiple times throughout the years with Tame Impala, including headlining The Other Stage in 2019 as well as previously performing at Worthy farm in 2016 and 2013. Fans may well be hoping that the Australian psychedelic outfit may headline the festival one day but for now they will just have to settle for a rare 1-hour DJ set from Parker.

Glastonbury 2024: Looks like Kevin Parker of Tame Impala fame is playing a surprise DJ set this year 

We’ll see you down at Firmly Rooted Soundsystem #Glastonbury #Glastonbury2024 pic.twitter.com/ko0RMWzCGb

— Far Out Magazine #Glastonbury2024 (@FarOutMag) June 26, 2024

The festival began today and will see headliners Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA take to the Pyramid stage later on this weekend. the festival will run through to the 30th of June (this Sunday), and we will see a huge variety of acts across the huge number of stages including Fatboy Slim, Squeeze, Hedex, Little Simz, Nia Archives, King Krule, Fonatines D.C. plus many many more.

This year we will also see a tribute to the cult classic film ‘Human Traffic’ for the film’s 25-year anniversary. The film will be honoured on two separate occasions at eh festival, first at the Cornish Arms at The Park, which will take place in the early hours of Saturday morning and will see Loop Dee Loop play a DJ set. Then, on Saturday evening Arcadia’s The Bug stage will host Save Our Scene’s collaboration with the iconic film. This will see DJ Boring as well as Loop Dee Loop again and will be aiming to raise awareness for the campaign aiming to help the UK’s nightlife and live music scene with Grassroots music venues closing down at an alarming rate up and down the country.

The Band initially teased their upcoming single with a video of singer, Chris Martin, on Instagram on the 7th June before officially announcing the release of ‘feelslikeimfallinginlove’ six days later. Coldplay played the new single live for the first time in Budapest, Hungary last night on their European tour.

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The band announced its release on their Instagram and have said that the vinyl copies of the album will be made of 100% recycled plastic bottles. According to Coldplay it will be the first album in the world to be released as a 140g EcoRecord LP and each copy will be made from nine recycled PET-plastic bottles recovered from post-consumer waste. This will apparently provide an 85% reduction in the CO2 production of the manufacturing process compared to standard 140g vinyl.

They have also collaborated with The Ocean Cleanup to produce an additional format for the album called the Notebook Edition EcoRecord LP. The rPET for this is made up of 70% river plastic which has been intercepted by The Ocean Cleanup from the Rio Las Vacas, Guatemala, and prevented from reaching the Gulf of Honduras and the Atlantic Ocean.

The CD edition of ‘Moon Music’ will also be the world’s first to be released on EcoCD which is made up of 90% recycled polycarbonate. This is set to provide at least a 78% reduction in CO2 emissions per KG and enable the manufacturer to avoid using more than five metric tonnes of Virgin plastic.

The first edition of Moon Music is only going to be limited in order to reduce waste and will be produced at a higher specification than any other future editions. Fans can pre-order the upcoming album now from the band’s website.

This coincides with Coldplay’s commitment to being sustainable with the band taking measures on their current European arena tour where they have so far produced 59% less CO2e emissions than their previous stadium tour.

This could potentially be the last time we see the four piece release an album with Chris Martin stating in an interview with Jo Wiley in 2021 that the band will stop releasing records in 2025.

“Well I know I can tell you: our last proper record will come out in 2025 and after that I think we will only tour, maybe we’ll do some collaborative things but the Coldplay catalogue, as it were, finishes then.”

The band are currently on an arena tour throughout Europe currently playing dates in Budapest before 3 shows in Lyon and then they are set to headline Glastonbury at the end of the month for the fifth time, being the first act to ever do so.

Melvin Benn who is the managing director of festival republic said that “Reading and Leeds are among the country’s biggest gatherings of young people and sit at the very heart of youth culture.” When talking about this younger generation of adults he added that “it is vital that their voices be heard at the general election. He also highlighted the importance of the music industry for positive change saying that ” Just Vote is a great way to empower our audiences to channel their energy into exercising their democratic right at this historic moment.”

Dale Vince who is the founder of the Just Vote campaign, said that “This is the most important general election of our lifetime, and the UK music scene has immense cultural influence which can mobilise young people to make their voice heard on 4 July.”

He also encouraged festival headliners and performers to endorse the movement “We’re also calling on the UK’s musicians to use your platforms to rally young people to register and then get out and vote. Artists playing these festivals – if you see this please get involved and help spread the word about the Just Vote campaign: the future of our country depends on young people having a say!”

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Reading and Leeds will take place on the August bank holiday weekend from the 23rd to the 25th and will see headliners Liam Gallagher, Blink 182, Fred again, Lana Del Rey, Catfish and the Bottlemen and Gerry Cinnamon as well as many more huge names.

As well as Reading and Leeds, Glastonbury have also joined the initiative and are running a competition to win tickets to the festival later this month where young people will have the chance to win 2 tickets if they are registered to vote and sign up for reminders about key election moments. Glastonbury will also have a ‘Crash the Party’ installation that will be interactive, reminding people at the festival to vote in the week following.

Glastonbury will be headlined by Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Sza with the organisers revealing the full lineup earlier this week including the full set times for the festival.

Other ‘Crash the Party’ participants include Boomtown Festival, Love Saves The Day Festival, Music Venues Trust, Night Time Industries Association, The O2, OVO Arena Wembley, Rough Trade, Save Our Scene, Secret Garden Party plus many more.