Headlines Cambridge Folk Festival The full  lineup for Cambridge Folk Festival’s Den stage for emerging talent has been revealed. Get yourself a ticket for this festival as it is one not to be missed with the likes of Jake Bugg, Liz Green and Karima Francis all playing. The festival will take place on the 26th, [...]

Given £100 by the Observer Magazine to make some money, I decided to become a promoter. What could possibly go wrong? A Facebook post by a friend recently caught my attention. He's a blues musician, playing decent-sized gigs and making a name for himself. He said he's noticed a rising trend from promoters: paying bands door-share, but only after a certain base figure (which the promoter pockets) has been reached. "Why do they think it's the artists' job to de-risk their business?" he asked, before inviting said promoters to, well, you can imagine. It sounds an absolutely ...

The South Coast's equivalent to SXSW, queues aside, last weekend's The Great Escape  down beside the seaside was as jubilant as any Jubilee hyperbole. What of those snaking lines? Well, that for Claire Boucher may most probably have been spotted somewhere off the coast of Normandy whilst that for Friends  was washed a little more literally out to sea as they played the decadently delightful Horatio's Bar atop Brighton Pier. Here's who we saw and what we thunk in fortunately concise format... Thursday I Ching Lovably gawky, the Finsbury Park pairing fall a little heftily on ...

As the sun sets on the third and final day of Brighton’s Great Escape Festival we offer up 10 more thoughts on the 2012 event and some of the bands that played. More musings both here and here from the previous days. 1. Established artists sometimes steal the show at 'new' music festivals Admiral Fallow is hardly a new band, just about to release their second album, but their Great Escape gig was everything you could ask for from a live music performance. Beautifully played, evocative and capable of bringing a tear to the eye. 2. Venues with low ...

This is our third preview post on Brighton’s Great Escape 2012 which takes place between 10th-12th May. Today we turn our attention towards Saturday’s activities and three further recommendations for bands to see. With the likes of We Are Scientists, Africa Express Sound System and Madeon occupying some of the bigger venues, there’s also plenty of interest at the smaller shows, particularly during the day.  Of particular note is the recent addition of ex X-Factor star Aiden Grimshaw  on Saturday. It will be interesting to see what the turnout for this gig is, with day tickets for ...

No, we didn't make a mistake. The Great Escape have added 141 new bands to the 2012 line-up. You can see them all below, with our top picks in bold. Bass Drum Of Death / St Lucia / Porcelain Raft / Gaz Coombes / Jethro Fox/ Films Of Colour / Treetop Flyers / Hannah Cohen / Cloud Nothings / Among Brothers / Body Language / Retro Stefson / The Black Belles/ Black Moth/ We Were Evergreen / We Were Promised Jetpacks / Drop Out Venus / Tall Ships / Fossil Collective / I Am Oak / Novika / Bueno Bros / Hans Chew / Gabriel And The Hounds/ Admirall Fallow / Tiny Ruins/ /face + Heel / Dauwd / Electric Wire Hustle/ Redinho ...

Katzenjammer   Karima Francis  faces an uphill task. She’s sat on a stool with an acoustic guitar and she’s trying to gather the attention of an audience who are stoked and excited for the headline act that follows. She’s not quite alone. Hidden in the shadows at the side of the stage is a second guitarist. His profile is so low that I was only alerted to his presence at all after her set has finished. read more

Despite opening that first window on the advent calendar today, meaning there's a seasonal shut-down of decent music coming, before that kicks in there's still plenty of great live music to be had in Manchester. And none of it festive. Well except the Cloud Sounds Xmas Bash at The Castle Hotel on Saturday 10th December. But even this is festive in name only - five bands including the peerless Welsh surf-rockers Y Niwl in a real ale pub for £8. Bargain. As ever a mixtape [54 mins / 62 MB] of bands playing Manchester this December to help inform your ...

One victim of the August riots was the independent music scene. The burning down of the PIAS distribution centre in Enfield destroyed huge amounts of physical stock from over 70 record labels. Label Love is the umbrella movement to support those labels and towards the end of the month The Ruby Lounge hosts the Manchester Label Love fundraiser night with The Narrows, Trojan Horse, Nine Tail and Tribal Fighters. A very different showcase for the independent and DIY music scene is the Carefully Planned Festival – two days of music over four venues in the Northern Quarter for the insanely cheap ...

The War on Drugs – The Harley // 15th September 2011 Thanks to the musos over at Drowned in Sound, this Thursday sees The Harley graced by Pitchfork-approved purveyors of ‘excellent road trip music’, The War on Drugs. The Philadelphia rockers with a penchant for all things Americana are touring in support of their new album and expect their driving, atmospheric songs to be played out with all the passion of their heroes. Click here to buy tickets You can visit The War on Drugs by heading to thewarondrugs.net Other Gigs 14/09/11 : Karima Francis / Low Duo – Forum // FREE 16 ...

Summer’s here and gigs thin out as festival season approaches but there’s still plenty to choose from. Tonight alone there are four gigs all worth catching on featured on this month’s mixtape: Julie Baenziger aka Sea of Bees makes her (I reckon) fourth Manchester appearance this year already, this time headlining at the Deaf Institute; at Dulcimer in Chorlton, Wooden Wand is playing (latest album "Death Seat" on Young God Records ); there’s a new band night at Night & Day including Deadwall from Leeds (subject of yesterday’s post ) and in Fuel in Withington Mcr Scenewipe are hosting their monthly FREE gig night with four bands including another welcome Yorkshire visitor Just Handshakes (We’re British) . Also this month is Manchester International Festival with its Björk residency and separate strand of gigs including some local bands getting (hopefully) a bigger stage including Plank! , Air Cav , Golden Glow and Young British Artists . Plus Wu Lyf in a tunnel; more exciting is that support for this is Dirty Beaches . As ever a mixtape [58 mins / 64 MB ...

Alexi Murdoch - All My Days The movie "Away We Go" was such a disappointment to me (how did Maya Rudolph land Jim Halpert? She's cute, but her character was a total bitch!). The soundtrack was definitely the highlight of the movie for me. I bet Nick Drake is glad this guy could carry the torch for him. The Avett Brothers - January Wedding I could have picked any song from their album but this one was the first one I latched onto. Their Halloween show at the Ryman was probably the best show I saw all year. Brooke Waggoner - Burdon ...

Artist: Various Artists Album: Later Live 2 With Jools Holland Release Date: October 12 [UK release] Label: Rhino Tracklist : CD1: 01 Muse: "Uprising" 02 Elbow: "Grounds for Divorce" 03 Little Boots: "Remedy" 04 Hot Chip: "Ready for the Floor" 05 Keane: "Spiralling" 06 MGMT : "Time to Pretend" 07 Lisa Hannigan : "I Don't Know" 08 Last Shadow Puppets: "The Age of the Understatement" 09 Nicole Atkins: "Maybe Tonight" 10 Glen Campbell: "Wichita Lineman" 11 Bon Iver: "Skinny Love" 12 Friendly Fires: "Jump in the Pool" 13 Radiohead : " Bodysnatchers " 14 Santigold : "L.E.S. Artistes" 15 Adele & Jools Holland: "To Make ...

The lineup was announced for Glastonbury Festival 2009 last night. It is with great displeasure and distress that we at Music Universe may not be able to attend. In what's known as the biggest festival in the UK, if not the whole of Europe, this year's lineup boasts some of the biggest names in todays and even yesterdays music. Let's talk about the main main headliners first. Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Blur will be the final big acts on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights respectively. Oh sorry, that's just the final acts on one ...