I’m not the biggest Beyonce fan but I have to say that she gave the performance of her life yesterday when the R&B singer closed down the 2011 Glastonbury Festival in England. She pretty much silenced critics who said she wasn’t suitable for the main headliner spot by delivering a high-energy, brilliant and emotional concert. Beyonce also became the first woman in over 20 years to headline the music festival and the first African-American female ever. She delivered an extensive set list that included hits from her back catalogue, a Destiny’s Child medley, some covers and new tracks from her latest album “4”. Check out some of her performances below.
Beyonce – Crazy in Love – Performance Video
Beyonce – Best Thing I Never Had/End of Time – Performance Video
Beyonce – Run the World (Girls) Performance Video
Beyonce – Halo – Performance Video
BBC 1 Big Weekend Day 1 Performances Video:
Black Eyed Peas – Just Can’t Get Enough – Performance Video
Jessie J – Nobody’s Perfects – Performance Video
Tinie Tempah – Simply Unstoppable – Performance Video
Ellie Goulding – Lights – Performance Video
Foo Fighters – Rope – Performance Video
Nicole Scherzinger – Don’t Hold Your Breath – Performance Video
BBC 1 Big Weekend Day 2 Performances Video:
My Chemical Romance – Sing – Performance Video
Taio Cruz – Dynamite – Performance Video
Bruno Mars – The Lazy Song – Performance Video
The Script – We Cry – Performance Video
Olly Murs – Busy – Performance Video
Princess of Pop Lady Gaga performed her latest single “Judas” on French TV show “Le Grand Journal” on the night of May 11th (at least where the singer currently is). The “Canal Plus” hit show is being shot this week at a special stage right on the Croisette (boulevard) near the beach in the city of Cannes where the famous film festival happens to be celebrating its opening night on the same day as well. Lady Gaga’s performance was nothing short of epic. The whole landscape and stage just added another layer to it that made it all the more beautiful.
Lady Gaga – Judas – Le Grand Journal Performance Video
Lollapalooza, just released the line up for their shows and it is amazing! First day performers include Soundgarden, Green Day, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, Strokes, Phoenix, Social Distortion, MGMT, Jimmy Cliff, Hot Chip, the Black Keys, National, Spoon, Devo, Cypress Hill, Cut Copy, New Pornographers, Erykah Badu, Slightly Stoopid, Grizzly Bear, Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, Wolfmother, Yeasayer, X Japan, MUTEMATH, Metric, Dirty Projectors, AFI, Mavis Staples, Matt & Kim, xx, Drive-By Truckers, Blues Traveler. Second day features Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Temper Trap, Jamie Lidell, Frightened Rabbit, F Buttons, Deer Tick, Blitzen Trapper, Stars, Raphael Saadiq, the Cribs, Minus the Bear, Switchfoot, Walkmen, Mumford & Sons, Wild Beasts, Rogue Wave, Los Amigos Invisibles, Big Pink, Dodos, Hockey, Cymbals Eat Guitars, B.o.B, Dawes, Warpaint, Antlers, the Soft Pack, Rebelution, Balkan Beat Box. And finally, the third day sees Wavves, American Bang, Ike Reilly Assassination, Company of Thieves, Nneka, Harlem, Constellations, Miniature Tigers, Mimicking Birds, Kissaway Trail, HEALTH, Javelin, the Morning Benders, Foxy Shazam, Violent Soho, Royal Bangs, NEON TREES, Freelance Whales, Semi Precious Weapons, Dan Black, The Band of Heathens, Dragonette, My Dear Disco, Shawn Fisher, Neon Hitch, Skybox, The Ettes, Jukebox the Ghost, These United States, MyNameIsJohnMichael.
Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke is going on tour with his side project and it sounds great. The band is called Atoms for Peace and is comprised of Flea, Nigel Godrich, Mauro Refosco and Joey Waronker, all of whom contributed on Thom?s solo album ?The Eraser?. Thom said ?ok so in April the other band.. that i got together to do the eraser and other stuff u know .. Mauro, Flea, Me, Joey and Nigel is going back out to do some shows in the US.. ending with playing with Coachella. we had too much fun to just leave it there?it has been decided that we call ourselves Atoms For Peace. hope you like the name.. it seemed bleedin’ obvious.? The band will play eight shows before they hit the Coachella Music Festival in April.
SINGER Johnny Borrell says his band Razorlight nearly missed their set at Chelmsford’s V Festival due to one of their sound technicians falling out of the tour bus on the motorway.
Johnny, 29, said: “I didn’t personally have a drama but in Razorlight, well we did have a big drama, because one of our roadies, you know, he got dead p***ed, and he was on the bus, and he sort of fell out the door of the bus when it was moving along at sort of 70 miles an hour.”
He added to Absolute radio: “I think maybe when he got on the bus, it wasn’t moving and he was already p***ed, and sort of thought, all right I’ll get up and go and take a p*** around the corner or something.”
The sound technician, who goes by the name of Frank, was rushed to hospital where he is now doing well.
The band rocked the V stage at the festival and Borrell said that he was not on the bus at the time.
Those who witnessed Frank’s accident were left distraught, Johnny said, as injured Frank was rolled off the motorway to avoid the traffic.
The co-organiser of the Glastonbury Festival believes artists at the festival will pay tribute to the late Michael Jackson.
Emily Eavis said: “I am shocked. This is such a tragic moment. We haven’t got anything official to say yet but what I can say is there are tributes all over the site.
“Everywhere you go you can hear Michael Jackson’s music. I am sure the artists will pay tribute in their own ways. In the coming days everyone wants to pay their respects.”
Jackson died in LA aged 50 of suspected heart attack.
The rapper has recently confirmed that he will be performing at the famous British musical event along with his prot?g? Mr. Hudson. Kanye West said: We’ve toured together a lot so it’s a real possibility. I do agree with the idea you have to play guitar or some other kind of instrument at a festival. Hudson is a truly talented singer and performer who plays guitar and piano. You can take his record all the way to the festivals.” It?s just utterly amazing! The great genius has finally mellowed down and it seems he is willing to accept those around him as equally great talents. Maybe this is all the result of that South Park episode a while back? Who would?ve thought Kanye West could change so much in so little a time.
Amy Winehouse was taken to the hospital in St. Lucia this past weekend. The singer?s spokesperson said that the reason behind the hospitalization was dehydration. Wino?s publicist said ?She fainted at home (in St Lucia) and they took her in for observation, mainly to do with her medication to check everything was OK. They told her that she was dehydrated and needed to drink more water.? Her publicist further claims that Wino was running around with a group of children before she passed out. She?s expected to perform at a jazz festival in St. Lucia later this week so I hope she feels better.
The complete list of artists participating in the Lollapalooza Music Festival has just been revealed. The headliners include Depeche Mode, Tool, the Killers, Jane?s Addiction, Beastie Boys and Kings of Leon. Other notable performers include Lou Reed, Ben Harper, Thievery Corporation, Snoop Dogg, Rise Against, Andrew Bird, TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, the Decembrists, Neko Case, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Animal Collective, Band of Horses, Of Montreal, Arctic Monkeys, Coheed and Cambria, Ben Folds and Fleet Foxes. There are 59 other artists included in the list and that?s not even counting the DJ sets yet which come up to 21. That?s a total of 104 music acts!
The musician from Fall Out Boy who will be playing a couple of festivals this summer in the UK is considering taking his 4-month old son Mowgli with him on tour. Pete Wentz said: “Would I take my baby to a festival? We’ll see. I wouldn’t mind him seeing the headliners Radiohead at all.” A four month old baby is getting to go to a music festival? Is Pete Wentz out of his freaking mind? What?s that little guy going to understand from all the noise and bustle around him? This is not what people should be doing to expose their children to music. Hopefully Pete Wentz will realize this before he starts touring or little Mowgli might have a very rotten summer.
The famous British festival was one step away from being canceled. Michael Eavis, its founder, had this to say about the dire situation the music event had reached: “Last year I thought that maybe we’d got to the end and we’d have to bite the bullet and fold it all up. A lot of the bands were saying Glastonbury had become too big, too muddy and too horrible. At one time the bands used to come on board.” However, it seems that the festival was saved by none other than Bruce Springsteen who is confirmed for the 2009 edition, as Michael Eavis relates: “I was prepared to walk away. But to come back from the dead of last year to sell out this year is amazing. Getting Springsteen as a headliner is so exciting. I saw him play two-and-a-half hours in Cardiff and that’s what turned me on to the idea of having him.” Bruce Springsteen? That?s what it takes to get a big, muddy and horrible festival out of the grave? Well, whatever gets Michael Eavis? boat rowing? as he himself admits. Apparently it does so for a lot of other people since the festival already sold-out.
The band recently related a funny, albeit absurd, incident that occurred when they were on their way to a performance in Glastonbury in 2005. The band?s drummer, Ronnie Vanucci, relates: “The most ridiculous incident we’ve had was probably when we played Glastonbury in 2005 – which, up to that point, was the biggest show of our careers. On the way to the site, we stopped off to get some food at a service station. About 45 minutes after getting back on the road, we realized that we’d left Dave behind. His wallet and his phone were still in his bunk, so he had nothing.” And that wasn?t the end of it, Ronnie Vanucci apparently got afflicted with some sort of food poisoning. The Killers eventually made the show possible, but Ronnie Vanucci kept throwing up between songs. That must have been the curse Dave Keuning spattered when he realized he had been left behind and it most likely materialized and haunted only Ronnie Vanucci.
Amy Winehouse is being advertised as one of the headliners at the annual Coachella music festival which will be held near Palm Springs, California this April. The official line up was just recently announced and Wino?s involvement was definitely nothing short of surprising. Is she even going to show up? If someone can convince herself to start working again instead of spreading her legs for every guy vacationing in St. Lucia, sure. If you?re not up to seeing Wino, the highlights of the festival include performances by Paul McCartney, The Killers, The Ting Tings, The Cure, Morrisey, Franz Ferdinand and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
The lineup of participating acts for the 2009 SXSW Music Festival was recently revealed. There are hundreds of artists that will take part in the festival with hundreds more that aren?t even official participants but will be performing at one of the countless unsanctioned showcases during the mid-March festival in Austin. Katy Perry, Robyn, NERD, Eric Hutchinson, Chester French, Ultraviolet Sound and DJ Larry Tee were just some of the acts featured last year. I?m sure some of the biggest and most recognizable artists will be there this year. Check out the official website for a full list of all the participants and keep a look out for those advertising some unofficial participants.
Rage Against The Machine are considering crashing the U.S. political parties this year when the Republicans and Democrats hold their nominating conventions later this summer reports antiMusic.
While the band only have one U.S. appearance set for this year (Lollapalooza,) Tom Morello said in an interview “There is the possibility that we will be playing at the demonstrations surrounding the Presidential conventions. The Democrats are in Denver, the Republicans are in Minneapolis. But we’re still looking into that.”
RATM staged a protest concert outside the Staples Center in 2000 as the Democrats danced the Macarena while giving their nod to Al Gore. That protest event ended in a near riot as fans and protesters turned violent.
Lily Allen is not having any luck lately. Organizers of the UK?s Isle of Wight Festival are pissed off at the 22-year old British singer for backing out on them. Lily was supposed to play the June event but has cancelled due to her new album being behind schedule as said by promoter John Giddings in an interview with the BBC. Giddings said that the album delay was not an acceptable excuse and is wondering whether that is the real reason for her absence. He said, ?I read in the tabloids a load of different reasons. Unfortunately this country has developed some great new girl singer songwriters, but they seem to be having a few problems don’t they?? Ooh! He made a stab at Wino too!
