yes i’m doing a roblox concert …. what about it?!! https://t.co/Vewb62tleW
Friday 11th @ 5pm GMT
for tha brits after party.
character lookin a lil thick stilllllll pic.twitter.com/5oFifvLs0v

— pinkpantheress (@pinkpantheress2) February 8, 2022

Speaking concerning her upcoming concert, PinkPantheress expresses excitement to partner her music with the gaming world, “I’m so glad I got to do a performance for the Roblox and BRITs families, As someone that loves video games and escaping into my own virtual world, I’m hoping I took everyone on an experience.”

The 2022 Brit awards have also partnered with metaverse developer Dubit to provide further digital elements for fans to interact with. The Brits new virtual world also includes scavenger hunts, Brit Award statuettes to be collected and a browsing platform for merch. For the first time in the award’s history, a digital VIP party will be made available through their partnership with Roblox and Dubit. From yesterday until 13th February 2022 nominees and honourees will be available for virtual meet and greets with fans. Within the metaverse stage, highlights will be shown today from the ceremony held last night at London’s O2 Arena.

Luke Ferrar, Innovation Director, Polydor Records and Co-Chair of the BRITs Digital committee has provided the following statement regarding the new partnership, “When planning the BRITs 2022 digital campaign we knew we wanted to enter the metaverse with Roblox. What Dubit has built within the Roblox platform is an immersive BRITs experience. It has far surpassed our expectations with wonderful detail and flourishes in the world. It’s fantastic to have PinkPantheress, who reaches a huge Gen Z audience, perform in it. Very proud to have the BRITs enter this space in this way for the first time.”

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The first broadcast of PinkPantheress’ virtual concert comes a week after the premiere of David Guetta’s performance within the platform. The superstar DJ’s avatar played a 45-minute set which premiered on 4th February 2022, Guetta has spoken on the unique shows, “Working on this concert has allowed me to bring an amazing new creation to life with design and production to suit the virtual world, We’ve built something that will play host to one of the most unique shows I’ve ever done and I can’t wait for everyone to experience it with me.”

PinkPantheress is set to appear at this year’s Reading and Leeds Festival. On Friday 26th August 2022, the 21-year-old singer will perform alongside headlining acts Dave and Megan Thee Stallion. The singer will perform at the Leeds site on Saturday 27th August 2022, featuring the same headlining acts as seen in Reading.

Click here to watch PinkPantheress’ virtual concert.

Frontman and multi-instrumentalist Murray Matravers have spoken to BANG Showbiz regarding the group’s upcoming new album, whilst providing an insight into the group’s creative process. “We’re already working on the second record, we started working on that six months ago after we submitted the first one. We’re pretty close, actually, with that one. We’re always writing in the background.”

He went on to describe the bittersweet benefits in which lockdown provided as well as the downsides in which the group encountered in their creative process. “It was the first time that we’ve been given an extended period of time to actually make music. Usually, we’re be writing music, touring and also not taking it very seriously at all. We’d always be doing music on the side, but this is the first time where we could sit down for a year and make music. It was a bit strange. I think the luxury of having so much time was a positive but also a negative because I was in danger of overthinking every single step of the process. Whereas usually I’d be doing the writing on the side and no one really cares… I wrote a lot of bad music.”

The new album will follow up their debut album ‘Life’s a Beach’ which was released on 28th May 2021. The first studio album was released through Island Records and landed at number two within the UK Albums charts. The fivesome’s debut sired five singles, the album’s lead single ‘Daydreams’ was released on 21st October 2020. Followed by ‘A Message to Myself’, ‘Skeletons’, ‘Have a Great Day’ and finally ‘Ocean View’, released on 24th May 2021. The album’s most successful single was ‘Skeletons’ and was performed on the American chat show ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ on 13th April 2021.

Before the group’s first studio album, their first mixtape entitled ‘Creature Habits’ was released in April 2018. The mixtape sired their first single ‘Pockets’, due to this release the group signed with Island Records leaving their previous label Chess Club Records. After which, the group started to gain traction within the industry, in September 2018 Easy Life performed on the prestigious music show, ‘Later… With Jools Holland’. The group began their festival appearances in 2019, they played the US festival South by Southwest as well as other UK tours. Easy Life have also earned their stripes at the legendary event Glastonbury Festival in 2019, where they headlined the BBC Introducing stage.

The group took the stage again this year within an unusual setting, the performance was held inside the popular video game Fortnite. The band played the virtual concert held on 24th June 2021 and their venue was an electronically recreated O2 Arena in London. The concert was held in partnership with O2, Epic Games, Globe and Island Records UK and can be viewed via the new digital space created by the developers, entitled Fortnite Creative.

The group made history with their set as they are the first UK band to perform via the new platform. Matravers has provided the following statement concerning the group’s latest revolutionary gig and also described how such technological advances have created more opportunities creatively. “In the game, you can just do anything. We’re performing underwater, inside a fish, we get flushed down to the toilet. The possibilities were literally never-ending, we could do anything.”

Easy Life UK Tour Dates

11/07/2021 – Rough Trade Bristol – Bristol
14/07 – Rough Trade East – London
19/07 – The Y Theatre – Leicester
21/07 – Metronome – Nottingham
22/07 – Rough Trade Nottingham – Nottingham
24/07 – Arts Club – Liverpool
03/09 – Victoria Park – Warrington
04/09 – Neighbourhood Weekender – Warrington
04/09 – Victoria Park – Warrington
25/09 – Northamptonshire The County Ground – Northampton
01/11 – O2 Academy – Bristol
02/11 – O2 Institute – Birmingham
05/11 – Morningside Arena – Leicester
06/11 – Albert Hall – Manchester
07/11 – O2 Academy – Leeds
09/11 – Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow
11/11 – O2 Academy – Newcastle
12/11 – The Foundry – Sheffield
14/11 – The Wedgewood Rooms – Portsmouth
15/11 – Dome – Brighton
15/11 – Brighton Dome and Festival LTD – Brighton
16/11 – O2 Academy Brixton – London
17/11 – O2 Academy Brixton – London
21/11 – Limelight – Belfast
22/11 – Olympia Theatre – Dublin

As a result of the cancellations, it has left the company operating at a loss of 504 million, compared with the 260 million profit they benefitted from in 2019. Although the profit has increased slightly  thanks to the help of live streams, virtual shows and drive-ins, the firm have told IQ Magazine that they are, “Working on a roadmap to get back to live safely,” in order for them improve the financial picture for the company next year.

To check the status of your event, visit https://t.co/Z2tDfiI4ju pic.twitter.com/4epk26clhg

— Live Nation (@LiveNation) March 18, 2020

In speaking to IQ Magazine, CEO Michael Rapino has said that fans can, “expect shows at scale next summer,” after putting in the relevant safety measures in place due to Covid-19. He confirmed that, “From venue sanitation procedures to fan-friendly policies and on ticket purchases and the latest testing options, we are setting standards that will give the fans, crews and artists peace of mind before, during and after the show.”

Due to the uncertainty of when things will return to normal due to the current crisis, Rapino told IQ Magazine that they can, ““expect shows at scale next summer,” but he added that the, “exact timeline of this return will vary by region, and so we continue to focus on remaining flexible.” Last month ticketmaster also laid out their plans for the future and explained how fans can be assured that they will remain safe during live shows. Their new ‘Smartevent Technology’ enables organisers to easily distribute tickets for Covid-19 protected shows.

In talking to Kerrang in June, Live Nation promoter Andy Copping talked about the impact that the Corona virus has had on the ‘live music scene’ saying, “The concern is that we might not see gigs as we know it this year, certainly in the bigger rooms. I’m hoping that some of the smaller venues will be up and operating towards the end of this year, and that will hopefully energise the live business and we can get back to some kind of normality in early 2021.”

He spoke about the affects this has had on artists, bands and their fans by saying “We’re frustrated about not going to shows, but the bands themselves are super-frustrated about not being able to play – that’s what they do for a living! Yeah, they’re writing songs and just spent the past three-and-a-half months sat in their houses, but most bands make their money being on the road so they wanna get out there. I’m hoping we see some kind of light at the end of this hideous tunnel and we get back to live music sooner rather than later.”

There is no doubt there is a lot of angst when it comes to the future of live music but Rapino remains optimistic by saying to IQ Magazine that Live Nation, “will maintain flexibility and focus on innovating,” and looking forward to the future of live music.