PRS acts as an intermediary between the companies that play the music, such as radio stations and live events, and the people who create the music. The companies sign licences and then PRS distributes royalties to the songwriters.

This group of songwriters has paired up with PACE Rights Management, who are an organisation that offers artists direct licencing of their live public performance rights. PACE was founded by artist managers who are critical of PRS’s system. The group are pushing for songwriters and publishers’ right to efficiently directly license their live public performance rights, so they don’t have to go through the PRS.

Direct licensing would mean that artists get royalty payments faster, have fewer deductions from their payments and better transparency.

In a joint statement by the group of songwriters they have said that “Regretfully, after years of PRS refusing to discuss or constructively engage with these issues – including the withdrawal of Live Performance rights, the lack of transparency around international deductions, and the operation of the Major Live Concert Service – we have been left with no option but to seek redress through the courts.

“The ball is now firmly in PRS’s court. Either they constructively engage with much needed reforms to empower and benefit writers and publishers, or they continue to resist these necessary changes, and attempt to defend the indefensible by spending yet more of the members’ money on legal costs supporting policies that make the members less money.”

In a statement to the Guardian the PRS responded saying: “Our policies and rules follow a thorough and extensive approval and review process by the Board and the Members’ Council, which is comprised of members and independent non-executive directors appointed by the membership,” it continues saying that “The rules which govern the process for live rights withdrawals were approved by members at the PRS AGM.”

The PRS has what it calls Major Live Concert Service (MLCS) which handles royalty administration for arena- and stadium-level acts which has deals with major songwriters to take an “administrative charge” of £125 per gig from their royalties. However, for other acts PRS takes a 23% cut from the royalties before paying the songwriters. This is capped at £1250.

Pace alleges that the songwriters that are not on the MLCS are being charged 115 times more than the artists who are.

This follows separate action taken by Blur’s Dave Rowntree against PRS in April, where Rowntree alleged that the PRS is in violation of UK and EU competition rules over how it deals with “black box” which is money that cannot be paid through for various reasons.

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.

This LP, announced back on November 29 with the release of the record’s lead single “Jamcod”, will be the band’s latest release since 2017 and will be followed swiftly by a UK and European tour, commencing with two dates at the Albert Hall in Manchester on March 22 and 23 respectively, and ending at Den Atelier in Luxembourg on April 25.

Listen to “Chemical Animal” below:

“People should expect a Jesus and Mary Chain record, and that’s certainly what Glasgow Eyes is,” Jim Reid said in a statement. “Our creative approach is remarkably the same as it was in 1984, just hit the studio and see what happens. We went in with a bunch of songs and let it take its course. There are no rules, you just do whatever it takes. And there’s a telepathy there—we are those weird not-quite twins that finish each other’s sentences.”

The Jesus And Mary Chain, founded in 1983 in East Kilbride by brothers Jim and William Reid, who are responsible for the majority of the songwriting, are the source of inspiration behind the band’s sound, and remain the group’s only ever-present members. The pair enlisted Douglas Hart on bass and Murray Dalglish on drums, who was soon replaced by Primal Scream’s Bobbie Gillespie, and released their debut single “Upside Down” in 1984, which was soon followed by their critically acclaimed debut album Psychocandy the following year, an LP that firmly established the group’s popularity in the up-and-coming UK shoegaze scene and brought with it the much-loved fan favourite “Just Like Honey“.

Watch the music video for “Just Like Honey” below:

Their second album, Darklands, proved to be the band’s most successful, reaching number five on the UK Albums Chart. Four more albums followed before The Jesus And Mary Chain disbanded in 1999, with both brothers starting different, yet ultimately unsuccessful, music projects. The band then reunited in 2007 and released their first material in ten years with the single “All Things Must Pass,” before releasing their seventh studio album, Damage And Joy, in 2017.

The current line-up consists of the Reid brothers, of course, along with bassist Mark Crozer, guitarist Scott Von Ryper and drummer Justin Welch.

See below for upcoming The Jesus And Mary Chain tour dates:

22/03/2024 – Albert Hall – Manchester
23/03- Albert Hall – Manchester
25/03 – 3Olympia – Dublin
26/03 – Limelight 1 – Belfast
27/03 – Usher Hall – Edinburgh
29/03 – Roundhouse – London
30/03 – Roundhouse – London
02/04 – Amager Bio – Copenhagen
03/04 – Pustervik – Gothenburg
05/04 – Rockefeller – Oslo
06/04 – Munich Brewery – Stockholm
07/04 – Plan B. – Malmo
09/04 – Markthalle – Hamburg
11/04 – Huxleys – Berlin
12/04 – Live Music Hall – Cologne
13/04 – Elysée Montmartre – Paris
15/04 – L’Usine – Geneva
16/04 – Salzhaus – Winterthur
17/04 – Alcatraz – Milan
19/04 – Donaufestival – Krems
20/04 – Halle O2 – Heidelberg
21/04 – Roadburn Festival – Tilburg
23/04 – AB – Brussels
24/04 – Paard – Den Haag
25/04 – Den Atelier – Luxembourg

Tickets for these shows are available to purchase here.

Music acts announced for the Sinner’s Day are: Dead Kennedy’s, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Charlatans, Peter Hook & The Light, Vomito Negro, Die Krupps, Janez Detd., The Alarm, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Cocaine Piss and Department S.

Dear Sinners

Thank you all for waving with us and making this a marvellous edition!

We hope to see you next year at Sinner’s Day (special)!

Tickets & info: https://t.co/TykTYImFAz
#sinnersday #SD22 #SDS22 #tickets #newwave #gothic #festival pic.twitter.com/oaPCKUoHHL

— Sinner’s Day (@sinners_day) November 2, 2021

June edition of the iconic festival will see music acts like Skinny Puppy, Front 242, The Mission, The Stranglers, Public Image Ltd (PiL), Merciful Nuns, Nitzer Ebb, Nosferatu and more, with a special headliner Aroma Di Amore for the one-time stage reunion.
This year edition of Autumn Sinner’s festival just happened last weekend and saw amazing acts like Praga Khan, Minuit Machine, Gary Numanandmany more. The festival has been organised “according to the Covid Safe Ticket -principle”. To gain access to the site music fans had to show a valid Covid certificate (negative PCR test, antigen test or vaccine passport) along with an entry ticket. You can listen to the tracks from this year edition below.

Sinner’s Day Special festival took place last June and saw the crowd “screaming, shouting, trying to reach out to the stage. They dance, jump, sing, smile at each other and enjoy themselves. A dream? No!”. This year edition saw acclaimed acts like The Obscure, Ramkot, Suicide Commando, Whispering Sons, The Young Gods, VNV Nation, Front 242, The Neon Judgement. “If tested, recovered or vaccinated you were able to be part of this amazing crowd that made every band feel so welcome at Klein Strand in Oostende. No restriction, no face-masks – a real festival like in good old times. For many of the 6,000 participants a very much needed getaway from these weird Corona-times” praise the festival review.

Sinner’s Day Festival has been initiated in 2009 and still going strong. Is best known for all kinds of wave music, gothic, EBM and more. Tickets to both Sinner’s Day shows are available here. The full festival ticket for Sinner’s Day costs €180.00, Sinner’sDay Special vary in price and can be purchased as a full ticket for €145.00 or separately at the cost of €80.00 for a day.

Damage and Joy is due for release on March 23, and when discussing the album’s origins, frontman Jim Reid has said “We started to – can you believe? – listen to each other a bit more. In the last couple of years, we’ve buried the hatchet to some degree, and thankfully not into each other.

“Most people who know us would say that we haven’t mellowed that much. I think it was to do with the fact, dare I say it, that wisdom comes with age. Let’s live and let live, and let’s take each other’s opinions into account.”

Coupled with the confirmation of a new album comes the announcement that the five piece band from East Kilbride will be hitting the road in support of their new album. You can see the dates in detail below, and you can buy tickets for the tour here.

23/03– Northumbria University- Newcastle upon Tyne
25/o3– Academy- Manchester
27/03– Church- Leeds
28/03– O2 Academy- Leicester
29/03– O2 Academy- Bristol
31/03– O2 Institute- Birmingham
01/04– O2 Academy- Bournemouth
02/04– O2 Academy- Oxford
03/04– Junction 1- Cambridge
05/04– O2 Shepherds Bush Empire- London
06/04– De La Warr Pavilion- Bexhill On Sea
07/04 – Academy- Dublin