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In Pictures: Editors, Colston Hall, Bristol

With new album In Dream out, Editors are back out on the road again. We sent photographer Greg Shingler down to catch the guys in action.

Glasgow (October 18) and Newcastle (October 20) are the band's only remaining UK dates that aren't already sold out and from October 28 they'll be in France, The Netherlands & Germany.

In Dream is available from amazon & iTunes.

More pictures can be found on our Flickr here.

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In Pictures: Circa Waves - Bristol Academy

Circa Waves are currently tearing their way through a mammoth UK tour, we sent photographer Greg Shingler down to Bristol Academy to capture the band in action.

 On the road in support of debut album Young Chasers they have dates left Manchester, Birmingham and Oxford before jetting off to Jakarta.

 Young Chasers is available from amazon & iTunes.

 The rest of Greg's photographs from the Bristol show can be viewed here.

 

 

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One Hit Wonder Day Survey

 

What are the best One Hit Wonders of all time?

Music artists constantly work to produce tracks that people love. Getting a single in the Top 40 in the UK is a huge accolade to musical talent. However, some artists and bands manage to release a song that gets massive appreciation, yet their other work does not get the same reaction from the public. When this happens many people refer to this as a one hit wonder.

In celebration of One Hit Wonder Day on September 25th, Best Offers Bingo has conducted a survey of over 1400 people across the UK asking ‘what is the best one hit wonder?’ The results are as follows:

Deep Blue Something - 'Breakfast At Tiffany’s': 191 votes

'Breakfast At Tiffany's' was first recorded in 1995 by Deep Blue Something. It originally appeared on the album 11th Song. The song was later re-recorded and released on their next album Home. It was the band's biggest and only hit, peaking at number five in the US Hot 100. The single also topped the charts in the United Kingdom, as well as peaking at number three in both Australia and Ireland and number four in Canada. Unfortunately Deep Blue Something did not manage to keep their music career flying high. Follow-up singles failed to match its success, hence the reason for the band's classification as a one-hit wonder.

Cornershop - 'Brimful Of Asha': 93 votes

'Brimful of Asha' is an instantly recognizable 1997 single by Cornershop. It originally reached number 60 in the UK Singles Chart in 1997.  However, Norman Cook, aka Fat Boy Slim saw potential in the song and a remixed version became both a radio and critical success.

Kriss Kross – 'Jump': 67 votes

Kris Kross was a hip hop double act formed in the early 1990s and consisted of James Christopher "Mac Daddy" and Christopher HE "Daddy Mac" Smith. They hit worldwide status with the smash 1992 'Jump'. The single was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks and certified double platinum as a single. It occupied the number two slot in the UK. Kris Kross were also noted for their fashion style, which consisted of wearing their clothing backwards.

Crash Test Dummies - 'Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm': 65 votes

"Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" doesn't sound like much of a hit. But this song went '90s “viral” in 1993. It was released in October of that year as the first single from their second album God Shuffled His Feet. The song was successful all around the world, peaking at number one in Germany, Australia and in the US. It also became a top five hit in the UK and the US Billboard charts. Brad Roberts, the writer of the song, told The Independent, "When I wrote that song, it didn't flow through me, I wasn't inspired. I sat down and I decided I had certain themes that I wanted to make sure I handled in a way that wasn't sentimental but at the same time was powerful and poignant. I wanted to put a funny angle on it without being merely slapstick. It all boils down to careful scrutiny of what you're doing, your rational faculties being brought into play." The song is famous for being a mixture of imperfect perfection with a splash of plain weirdness.

The rest of the results from the one hit wonders survey:

White Town - 'Your Woman' 47
Rozalla - 'Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)' 47
Divinyls - 'I Touch Myself' 41
Eagle-Eye Cherry - 'Save Tonight' 40
Sir Mix A Lot - 'Baby’s Got Back' 33
Ini Kamoze - 'Hotstepper' 31
Joan Osborne - 'One Of Us' 26
OMC - 'How Bizarre' 25
Stereo MCs - 'Connected' 21 (odd seeing as 'Step It Up' achieved a higher chart placing)
Andreas Johnson - 'Glorious' 16

Are these the best one hit wonders of all time? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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There Will Be Blood, The Royal Festival Hall, London

Midway through David Byrne’s Meltdown at the Royal Festival Hall in London - a festival that has seen performances ranging from the likes of doom titans Sunn 0))) to the electronic bleeping of Matthew Herbert, via the bombast and opera of Anna Calvi - perma-dishevelled Radiohead polymath, Jonny Greenwood walks onstage with the London Contemporary Orchestra to perform a live soundtrack to a film. The film is 2007s There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson’s horrific document of one psychopath’s obsessive, terrifying journey towards the omphalos of the spewing pipe of black gold in middle America - the oil well.

Alongside Anderson’s meticulous mise-en-scene - a camera scanning across men leaning over maps, steam trains framed in still, symmetrical long-shots out in the desert - the music in There Will Be Blood is integral to the film. Greenwood’s soundtrack is all staccato strings, looming Hitchcockian cello, and the otherworldly whistling of Jonny Greenwood’s ondes Martenot. Without the soundtrack There Will Be Blood would be a bombastic historical drama. With it, it’s a horror film.

It opens with a dialogue-free fifteen minutes as ‘oil man’ Daniel Plainview digs for silver down a mine, hell bent on finding his fortune. He discovers silver ore, but breaks his leg falling down the ladder of the mine as he tries to climb out. Like all horror films villains though, Daniel is relentless, he will never stop. He pulls himself up the ladder, snapped bones scraping against each other to the terrifying swell of violin strings and string plucks, and drags himself to the nearest town. Onstage the strings of the LCO’s fourteen violins heave while Daniel lies on the floor, wincing and scratching a fountain pen over paper, registering his claim. He uses the silver money to set up his first oil well, and as the pipe begins gushing from his first drilling attempt, the orchestra launches into Brahms’ violin concerto in D major. Thus begins the rise of Daniel Plainview.

Two hours into the film and several years later, that gushing oil turns to blood. Plainview is a millionaire recluse, having made his money but lost his mind, drinking whiskey in the private bowling alley in his house. A young acquaintance comes to see him to ask for money. Daniel humiliates him, beats him, then begins smashing his skull with a bowling skittle again and again - the oil that spewed from the earth becoming blood spewing from a human head. The music stops. “I’m finished,” he says to the camera. The film ends and the Brahms concerto begins to play again. The credits roll, and out onstage in the Festival Hall we are treated to virtuoso violinist, Galya Bisengalieva coming front of stage to play lead violin, her bow moving across the instrument like the crackle of lightning on a rod. The first time tonight she played the concerto was when Daniel Plainview founded his first mine. The second time was when he brained a young man with a bowling skittle. Therein lies the title of the film - there will be oil, then there will be blood.

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Together The People Festival - Pre-Launch Party

 
What do people want from a festival these days?  The trend seems to be a move away from the big corporate festival with many in search of small community based bespoke events.

Enter a new Brighton-based festival stuffed full of diverse acts. Together The People is set in the wide open spaces of Preston Park and features some heavyweight artists along with some more quirky, diverse acts.

We attended the pre-launch party at one of Brighton's newest bars, Dead Wax Social. A vinyl-only bar it serves up pizzas in either the 7 inch or 12 inch format. We also had the chance to mooch around and chat to a few of the organisers and a couple of the local acts who were all very excited and thrilled to be involved in this new venture.

For a relatively small festival it’s somewhat surprising to find that it has 5 stages. Jacko Hooper is a Brighton lad whose reputation is growing with his carefully crafted soulful acoustic sounds. He has also been placed in charge of the Folklore Stage which aims to bring the acoustic sounds to the waiting public.

The festival is also keen to ensure the younger audience are catered for, thus allowing parents to appease their little darlings whilst hoping to then be in a position to enjoy some of the acts themselves. Therefore whilst the little ones are being entertained by acts like The Cat in the Hat or the wonderful production that is Horrible Histories the parents and everyone else will have their eyes on the wonderful live phenomenon that is Public Service Broadcasting or such legends as Billy Bragg, Jose Gonzalez, Roots Manuva and the Brighton's own Levellers.

That's not to say that this is a festival full of aging acts, far from it. The five stages allow all taste to be accounted for and there are plenty of new upcoming acts to keep all interested. Lucy Rose is an obviously talented songwriter whose reputation is growing at an alarming rate. Add to this the wonderful talents of Ghostpoet, Brakes and Lucy Spraggan and you start to feel that this festival has covered all the bases.

All we need now is a favourable window of weather, but don’t worry if not. Speaking to one of the organisers they have already ordered in 1000s of emergency ponchos; let’s just hope we don’t need them. The festival takes place over Saturday and Sunday the 5th and 6th of September and further details of the events ethos and how/where to get tickets etc. can be found here.

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Festival Previews: Latitude 2015

Latitude Festival celebrates its tenth birthday this year. Muso’s Guide will be covering the festival on Twitter throughout the weekend of 16th-19th July, alongside our usual review coverage once we return home. If you want to join us, tickets are still available. In the meantime, here’s our pick of the top ten things to look out for (in no particular order):

Portishead: Portishead are a rare beast to spot. They’re like a bear in hibernation, except not even as regular as bears (they don’t appear once the snow has gone away). This is the band’s only UK festival appearance this year, so we’re very excited about the potential of seeing them whirring up the classics from Dummy (1994), Portishead (1997), and Third (2008). If we’re lucky, they’ll play some new material, but we wouldn’t bet the house on it. 

Public Service Broadcasting: This year’s The Race for Space (2015) proved a fantastic follow-up to the London duo’s Inform-Educate-Entertain (2013). Public Service Broadcasting bring in their wake an amazing visuals team – with old archive footage being reworked and played behind them to spectacular effect. Catch them on the BBC Six Music Stage on the Friday night.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra: If you haven’t listened to it yet, give Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Multi-Love (2015) a spin, because it will surely be remembered as one of the year’s highlights. The various layers of synth, guitar, and Ruban Nielson’s vocals will amount to quite the live performance. 

Tim Key: Tim Key amounts to being the poet laureate of Latitude. He’s there every year so, unlike Portishead, there’s not quite the same degree of pressure involved in catching him while you can. All the same, Key is a class act. On the back of his sell-out performance in Daniel Kitson’s play ‘Tree’, he is deservedly at the top of the alternative British comedy scene and Latitude-goers would be wise to see him grace the birthday party.

Andrew Marr and Kate Fox: You read that correctly: Andrew Marr and Kate Fox. Latitude is the type of place where you can go and see all the acts listed above, have a party, and then drop in and see one of the arch interrogators of the political class and the author of Watching the English (2004) chat about class, identity, and politics in the 21st Century. We intend on doing just that.

Leon Bridges: Delivering classic soul with no gimmicks, smooth Texan Leon Bridges has been slowly melting the hearts of the British radio listenership. If a soul revival were going to happen soon, this would be the man heading it. His Glasto set was almost too flawless and seemed a little overshadowed by the sheer scale of Glastonbury’s line-up. However, Latitude is much more likely to provide the platform and audience for him to shine.

Django Django: After a 3-year recording hiatus in which they only played a few shows, Django Django are hitting the festival scene hard this year. With a genuinely different sound and an impressive stage show, these synthed-up Beach Boys make the BBC Radio 6 Music stage the place to be on the opening night.

Toro Y Moi: Chaz Bundick’s alter-ego has been making ‘chillwaves’ (as the genre is apparently known) in the UK with his recent album What For? and will have no problem settling into his mid-afternoon set. His music sounds as funky incense might smell if it were a thing. One of the few Latitude artists not to be playing Glasto this year, this is his only UK date this summer - be sure not to miss it.

SBTRKT: The name might not immediately ring a bell, but it’s very unlikely you haven’t heard and enjoyed SBTRKT (pronounced ‘subtract’ by the way) already. Famous for his hits ‘Pharoahs’, ‘Hold On’, and ‘Wildfire’ (alongside his characteristic tribal mask, of course) but not quite a household name, he’s a surprising headline booking. However, trust in the Latitude organisers and we think you’ll be rewarded with a dark horse dance party.

Young Fathers: The Edinburgh trio have been going from strength to strength since they picked up the Mercury Award in October 2014 and released their second album White Men Are Black Men Too this April. In contrast to SBTRKT, they’re probably a band you’ve heard a lot about but you might be less familiar with their discography. Nonetheless, you’ve heard a lot about them for a reason and Latitude is your chance to see what the fuss is about! 

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