Uncover your GM24 line-up!

A mighty welcome to your four headliners – the luminous @bigthiefmusic, Mercury-winning @sampha, the transcendental @Jon_Hopkins_, post-punk heroes @sleafordmods & plenty more besides!

Big love, GM pic.twitter.com/eEVIsofCSS

— Green Man (@GreenManFest) March 1, 2024

Other notable acts performing at Green Man this year include prolific cult-heroes Osees, art-rock collective Black Country, New Road, alternative rock group Bar Italia, Scottish shoegaze heavyweights The Jesus and Mary Chain and singer-songwriter Arlo Parks. Also coming to the Brecon Beacons in August are New York alternative rock outfit Blonde Redhead, experimental rock favourites Fat White Family, Kate Stables’ Indie rock band This Is the Kit, jazz quintet Ezra Collective and exciting folk-punk newcomers The New Eves.

Set to return to Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, Wales, the festival is scheduled to run from 15-18 August 2024, and will, for these four days, be home to not only a fantastic variety of live music but also an array of other entertainment, including literature, film, science, theatre and comedy. The grounds are divided into ten areas to accommodate this, ensuring that festival-goers will never experience a dull moment.

Sleaford Mods, the highly influential post-punk/punk-rap duo comprised of vocalist Jason Williamson and DJ Andrew Fearn, will return to Green Man festival for the first time since 2017, and arrive now as a headline act following their incredible success in recent years.

Listen to “Jobseeker” by Sleaford Mods below:

Also headlining this year’s event, and also returning to Green Man as a headliner following a performance in a past year, is New York-based indie folk group Big Thief. Since playing the festival in 2019, Big Thief have added two critically acclaimed albums to their total of five, combining profound, masterful lyrics with incisive and blissful folk instrumentation in the process.

Listen to “Spud Infinity” by Big Thief below:

The third headliner is English musician and producer Jon Hopkins, who’s combining of electronic music with contemporary classical music, resulting in transcendent musical beauty, will sure to have a spellbinding effect come August. The last, but certainly not least, headliner comes in the form of  neo soul and alternative R&B star Sampha, who will bring his unique musical prowess to the Brecon Beacons for all to witness.

Tickets are, unfortunately, now sold out, but you can sign up for resale tickets here.

The 2019 Grammy nominations have seen a strong showing for female and hip-hop artists, which suggest a renewed focus on diversity – but it’s a mediocre year for British acts. The 2019 Grammy nominations sees Jorja Smith and Dua Lipa, among a handful of others, flying the flag for Britain, with both women being nominated for best new artist.

Speaking to Billboard about her nominations, Lipa said: “It’s the biggest nomination you could get. So many artists I’ve looked up to my whole life have been nominated, it’s such a thrill to me. And being from Kosovo and seeing how much it means to people back home is crazy. It means a lot to me as well. I feel like I’m representing myself but also the U.K. and Kosovo too. It’s a very proud moment for me.

“I feel like the industry has been dominated by men for such a long time. To wake up and be nominated in the best new artist category, where every artist except for two [Luke Combs and Greta Van Fleet] is a woman, that’s a good feeling. I’m so proud of all the girls, because I do feel like we need to work a bit harder, and that’s not taking the merits away from any male artist — I know how demanding this job can be. I just feel really grateful to be nominated alongside so many talented women I admire, and some I even call my friends. All I want to do is do my job to the best of my ability. I’m so grateful for this opportunity, and I want to make sure people feel like they made the right choice for nominating me for these categories.”

Along with Jorja Smith and Dua Lipa, there is R&B newcomer Ella Mai, who has found greater success in the US than the UK. Rising star, Mai – who is also a nominee for the BBC Sound of 2019, received two nominations, song of the year and best R&B song, for her breakthrough single ‘Boo’d Up’.

Speaking to ABC Radio about the nominations, Mai said: “I’m just super, super grateful. The Grammys is something that, as any musician or artist, we look up to it from when we’re little and we dream of being nominated. So I’m just so grateful and I’ve had an amazing year, so this is like the cherry on top. I don’t think it’s actually hit me yet. It will. I know it will sometime soon. Probably before the day. But yeah, it’s crazy.”

Among the other nominees are Seal, who is nominated for best traditional pop vocal album with Standards (Deluxe); Artic Monkeys, for best rock performance with ‘Four Out of Five’ and best alternative music album with ‘Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino'; Bring Me The Horizon for best rock song with ‘Mantra’.

Jon Hopkins and SOPHIE were both nominated for best dance and electronic album, with ‘Singularity’ and ‘Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides’ respectively. Meanwhile Dua Lipa is also nominated for best dance record, for ‘Electricity’, along with Diplo and Mark Ronson’s Silk City side project.

Guardian music critic, Alexis Petridis said: “The most vibrant music that’s currently happening in the mainstream in Britain – the post-grime wave of UK rap – is obviously going to struggle to cross over to America. There’s a big linguistic and cultural barrier facing those artists, as well as a longstanding American aversion to hip-hop that isn’t homegrown.”

The 61st Grammy awards will take place at the Staples Centre, in Los Angeles, on the 10th of February 2019. Recordings released between 1 October 2018 and 30 September 2018 were eligible for consideration. You can watch the show on CBS, which starts at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

The club released a statement which has as its headline, ‘You saved Fabric’ before going on to say in full, ‘We owe everything to our supporters. We really would not be here today without your unparalleled support and generosity. So many different people stepped up to put their voices to our cause, artists from all corners of the music community, fellow promoters who have put on huge events from us and clubbers from around the world who all united behind us. We’ve even seen people sporting their #savefabric T-Shirts on the other side of this planet showing just how big this thing is. So, thank you to all of you. Without the strength of your backing this would not have happened. You saved Fabric. We’ll be back with some news about #saveourculture and our next steps when we can.’

New conditions on the club’s license as part of the agreement include a ban on under-19s at weekends, as well as a ‘zero tolerance’ drug policy – all of which is intended to help fulfil their promise that the club will operate to a ‘gold standard.’

Just as the reaction from the music community to the news that fabric would close was immediate and vociferous, so too has been the reaction to this latest development. Friction, Novelist, Katy B, Scuba, Daniel Avery and Loadstar all took to Twitter to voice their happiness following the decision. DJ Goldie, who had previously threatened to melt down his MBE in protest at the closure, also expressed his delight on the social network. Jon Hopkins went further, writing, ‘I want to DJ at @fabriclondon.’ Even Police Superintendent Nick Davies, of Islington police, referred to the significance of the venue for London’s music scene, stating, as The Independent reported, ‘I know Fabric is a venue that holds a great deal of affection in people’s hearts.’

Sadiq Khan, who along with Amy Lane, London’s ‘night czar’ – a position created by Khan – have supported Fabric throughout the process. Reacting to the decision, per The Guardian, he said, ‘I’m delighted that agreement has been reached and that Fabric will now reopen. The issues faced by Fabric point to a wider problem of how we protect London’s night-time economy, while ensuring it is safe and enjoyable for everyone. Over the past eight years, London has lost 50% of its nightclubs and 40% of its live music venues. This decline must stop if London is to retain its status as a 24-hour city with a world-class nightlife.’

Although, today’s news means that Fabric can re-open there is, as yet, no scheduled date for that to happen. Indeed, Time Out reports that the authorities stress that it is unlikely to be within the next few weeks. In a statement, they clarified that, ‘Fabric will not re-open until they [authorities] believe that they comply with their new conditions.’ Again, mxdwnUK will report on any further developments.