Reading/Leeds and Glastonbury line up additions

A couple of festival line-up updates have been announced.

First up, the Reading and Leeds festivals. British Sea Power somehow have managed to nab themselves a spot on the Main Stage on the 23rd at Reading and the 24th at Leeds. Across all other stages, notable additions include Mystery Jets, The Music and Seasick Steve. The Dance Stage (hitting Leeds on Friday before heading to Reading on Sunday) is looking like one of the places to be. In addition to CSS headlining, Simian Mobile Disco, Chromeo and Lethal Bizzle (I'd like to find out how he passes off as a dance artist) are part of a pretty solid line-up.

Glastonbury has also finally revealed their full-line up. Obviously, because of its humongous size, I won't put the whole thing on this post (you can take a look for yourself if you so wish on The Guardian's website), but instead some of my thoughts on the line up. First off, it does seem to be incredibly diverse, as Emily Eavis pointed out. The main two Saturday night headliners prove this point - you have a choice of the mainstream hip-hop of Jay-Z or the rather brilliant and atmospheric trip-hop sounds of Massive Attack. Other hidden delights include My Morning Jacket headlining The Park on Sunday night and the John Peel Stage, which is 90% full of brilliant artists.

Out of the two, I'd still make the trip to Reading/Leeds but I'm surprised at how decent Glastonbury looks.

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The Music return

The Music, a band who I refered to in my album preview post last month, are playing four intimate shows in the near future. And that is all I know for the time being. The dates will go up tomorrow morning on the band's official website at 9am along with links to buy tickets (which will be priced at £10 plus booking fees). This will be the first time that audiences can expect to hear new material from the third album, and I'm tempted to go, but I think I'm gonna hold out until tomorrow morning.

The Music MySpace page

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Four albums for 2008

Better late than never, the albums that I'm looking forward to this year.

Franz Ferdinand - The sound on the album is said to be a bit more synth driven but one thing is for sure, it will definitely be by far a different record from their previous two. I can understand why people didn't like their second album (main reason being 'more of the same') but I liked the songs enough to let Franz off the hook. As long as there isn't another Eleanor, Put Your Boots On or Fade Together then I will be happy.

The Music - Much missed band in my books. Their last album, Welcome To The North (released back in the deep echelons of 2004) was an impressive rock record which should have propelled them to stardom. Yet they are still nowhere near as popular as other bands. Here's hoping that the new album, tentatively given a title of Strength In Numbers, is the one that gives them the attention they deserve.

Green Day - Very likely to release a record this year but it's unsure what kind of record they'll put on. My money is on a more maturer album with a mix of the musical styles of Warning with the biting political lyrics of American Idiot. Other rumours include that it will be a psychedelic record or a straight up punk record but I think that is increasingly unlikely.

The Verve - What I would want is very simple. A record as good as Urban Hymns but without all the solo crap that Richard Ashcroft terrorised us with. If they can come up with a very balanced record with epic, soft, and just plain groovy songs then all will be well. If it isn't, it will make me think they reunited for the money.

Franz Ferdinand
The Music
Green Day
The Verve

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