Forged from the musical know-how and technical whizkidery of four likeminded men, Blank Studios has created quite the buzz of interest in recent months. Producing and fine-tuning has given way to some of the most awe inspiring audio and video sessions seen in these parts for many a year.

Roping in the likes of Beth Jeans Houghton, Richard Dawson, and Natley’s Whore’s Kid Sister, the Blank Sessions have helped put Blank Studios firmly on the radar of region’s supposed musical know-it-alls. Like us!

So, with that in mind, I collared Sam Grant, one of the brains behind the operation, and quizzed him on all things Blank. Plus, for your enjoyment and understanding, we’re including the sessions in the piece. Tune in everyday for a different one. Today: Richard Dawson – Wooden Bag.

For the uninitiated, what are Blank Studios, and how do they differ from your usual recording space?

Blank Studios is a collective of four engineer-producers: John, Chris, Doug and myself [Sam]. We’ve grown up with each other in recording terms, learned from each other, and through our progression now run and work from a studio we built in the Ouseburn Valley.

There’s a strong collective vibe between the four of us, which helps in growing and learning, and supporting each other. I’d say that that’s probably a unique thing to our set up; to run and operate with a general consensus, as a collective. There’s a founding principle too that making and recording music comes before running a business. That said though, it’d be hard to try and highlight points of difference between us and other recording spaces. We only really have our own philosophies to go by and other studio owners may share these, but I’d like to think Blank shouldn’t be considered a recording space at all to be honest. It makes more sense to see us as four attuned people who work out of a particular space – in this case our studio in Ouseburn. A studio could have all the gear in the world, but it’ll only be as good as those understanding the bands’ vision.

I’d also say that we’re well into community building, and being a part of the bigger wheel of music. We try to be free or helpful where possible, and love the work of the Star and Shadow, of Leave Me Here Presents, Portions for Foxes, Mike Platt and his live sound skills, Ross Lewis… There’s a big list, and as a studio operating within all this we want to support and be supported by it, as everyone is working to make a better platform for bands and for music.

Oh, and we also film bands, I guess that stands as unusual for sound engineers and a studio.

Your website mentions a “shared ethos” between those involved, can you tell us what that ethos is?

I think we’re fortunate as the four of us have very similar outlooks with music, with what it means to us and how it makes us feel. Also fortuitous I guess is that we have very similar opinions on recording music; how to go about getting particular sounds and vibes, and where the magic of a record lives. It’s all led to us being a bit of a hydra, four heads of sonic geekdom! When one of us makes a leap forward (or mistake) the rest can move with it.

How did yourself, John, and Chris and Doug come to work together? What is it that you all bring to the equation individually?

We met at Newcastle college doing a music production course and immediately gravitated toward each other. As I say, we all have a similar outlook with music. All things Blank took off though since each of us had a handful of gear that we’d make our own recordings with, and we began to borrow bits and pieces off each other and help each other on bigger jobs. It wasn’t long before we went for a drink at the Cumberland and put a name to what we were doing. Things then steadily progressed from there.

By the nature of how we’ve come to be, we all have a part in most areas of the collective. Decisions are made by general consensus and no one person could really be said to provide something that the other couldn’t do otherwise. It’s been an important part of Blank for each of us to be able to fill in and deputise for anyone else if needs be. It helps our own development and also helps things run as smoothly as possible. That said, no one rushes to sort the books.

What inspired the Blank Sessions?

For a couple of years now we’ve produced live sessions for clients – like bands, blogs and radio. And this process has given us time to really learn about what can make a live sessions come to life. It’s fair to say that we’re definitely still learning, but about 6 months back we were reaching the end of one particular contract and thought it’d be interesting to start doing our own, to take it all on from the bottom up.

When you don’t have to answer to a client, or subscribe to some sort of branding or continuity bullshit, you find yourself with a lot more freedom for creativity. We try to reflect each band specifically within the video, as we would with sound, and we can also work with bands who we’d enjoy doing a session with. It’s also allowed us to build the website, without any extraneous crap and purely have the focus entirely on each video. It all adds up, I believe, for a more honest and enjoyable view. I hope so anyway!

Mausi, Beth Jeans, NWKS, Richard Dawson, Knuckle Dragger, and Shields aren’t exactly 6 particularly similar artists, so how did they all get involved? Had you worked with them before or did you approach them about taking part?

We’ve worked with most of them before, but that isn’t really the decisive factor. Often we want to work with bands that are working toward a grand ideal. While it’s quite difficult to quantify – when a band is setting up tours, bringing out a record, putting merch together, basically pouring themselves into the music and getting themselves out there with every part of their focus, there’s a force and energy behind it all. When a band’s also fucking brilliant too it’s almost unfeasible that we wouldn’t ask them to add to it with a session. In terms of the bands to date not being so similar, there’s a strong argument that in the current musical landscape genre means little these days, and peoples tastes are often far more eclectic than they’d assume. This has helped us in our decision to be broad in style with the band selection, and it’s bolstered by a kind of “if you don’t like this one, you’ll like the next one” approach.

If you’ll pardon the pun, there’s rather a lot of blank space in your archive. Does this mean we can expect to see a lot more Blank Sessions over the coming weeks/months/years?

Oh yeah, this is a new branch to the Blank collective and our intentions is that herein it’ll grow slowly but steadily until Blank perishes. We also now provide recorded sessions as a service to bands through Blank anyway, so the practice will only develop and improve. That archive will soon be packed, and I’ll be looking for bands not because they’re good but because they start with a J or Z. It’s going to be like my old Merlin Premier League sticker books, and I’m going to get drunk when the alphabet is complete.

If so, who can we expect to see? Who would you like to see?

My sessions website dream team would be, Zun Zun Egui, Treefight for Sunlight, Willy Mason, and Efterklang – and then I’d work from there. I don’t think you can expect to see any of these just yet though, and I also thing the other lads would beg to differ on band choices. But i don’t think names-you’ve-heard-of is necessarily the end goal of what we’re doing. It’s not as if there’s a shortage of good music in the world, and at all levels. In fact, quite the opposite, there’s a shit load of it, and most of the good stuff you or I have never even heard of. A few weeks back we did a session with Liz Green while she was on tour – I hadn’t heard of her before the session. I watched her gig the evening before down the Cluny and she was absolutely class. If people like music, and keep an open mind about the Blank Sessions I’m sure they’ll enjoy a lot of what goes up there, regardless of it they’ve heard of it or it falls into their remit of music-I-like.

Are there any other Blank projects in the works at the moment?

We’ve been closed for the last 3 weeks and just finished a big rebuild of the studio, if that counts as a Blank project. We put in a second mixing room and editing suite, and our control room has been extended. It all looks very posh and exciting – and my bones are now aching as testament to the progress. Besides that though, it just the usual stuff and the Sessions for the time being. We’re careful not to undermine any big project by distracting focus with other things – especially in this early stage. We’ve secret plans for the future though, and it’s always been our way to never rest on our laurels.

For more information, head over to blank-studios.com - a new session to follow on KYEO.tv tomorrow…

If someone told you that Kipp Dynamite (brother of Napoleon) had been working on an opera about a transgender electronic music pioneer and would be taking his Macbook and synth down to the Star & Shadow Cinema on Friday 18th May and performing a Nintendo Gameboy soundtrack remixed with house music and live drums, we’re sure you’d be there!

And you almost can; as Ben Butler & Mousepad, the latest alias of Joe Howe, who has previously performed as Germlin, and as one half of Gay Against You, is set to bring his unique brand of electronic music to Newcastle, after having performed in venues and festivals all across Europe, and touring US tour with Deerhoof last year. The late night show will be kicked off with support from up and coming local electronic artists Betamaxx and Man With Feathers.

Ben Butler & Mousepad, Betamaxx, Man With Feathers play the Star & Shadow Cinema in Newcastle on Friday 18th May.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. – aka Sam Duckworth and his ever-changing band – are hitting Newcastle Academy on Monday 21st May to promote the new Cooking Vinyl album Maps (out on 7th May, with the Daylight Robbery single out now).

Anyone who’s followed the career of Slam Dunkworth (© Emmy The Great) over the last decade will know that while keeping one foot in the indie camp, he’s always been keen on collaborations and causes (working with everyone from Africa Express to Shy FX and lending support to Love Music, Hate Racism! and Billy Bragg’s Jail Guitar Doors charity).

Maps is the first GCWGF album in a couple of years (although Duckworth released the solo set The Mannequin in 2011) and despite vocals from UK hip-hop hero Jehst, is being touted as a return to the band’s fairly straight indie-pop roots (even inviting some comparisons to early Blur).

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, RAM’s Pocket Radio and Shoes & Socks Off play O2 Academy, Newcastle on Monday 21st May.

Question and intrigue surround tonight’s event: is it a gig? Is it a film screening? Well, actually it’s a bit of both; a retro homage to the dawn of cinema, when silent films where accompanied by a live score performed by a group of proficient musicians.

As the audience enters the Elektra theatre, there is no variety performance, no juggling clowns or ragtime pianists, no wren’s livers or ocelot spleens. Yet there is still a strange sense of occasion and excitement in the air.

The band’s instruments are setup below the screen in what would have been the orchestra pit. A violin and autoharp rest in their cases, notated scores are perched on music stands. Yes there are several keyboards, an electric guitar and a multitude of flickering lights from pedals, samplers and the PA, but magic and mystery still abounds.

A speaker from Birds Eye View (seriously, it took me about a week to get that one) gives a short introduction. Their organisation promotes female filmmakers, or in this instance female film-scorers with the work also scripted by the late, great Clara Behringer.

Blue Roses are announced and as the polite applause subsides there is a brief moment when it feels as if modern technology may have failed us. Sat waiting in halogen lights, the film fails to roll and the illusion is momentarily shattered. A silent collective intake of breath and they finally fall, the titles roll and we tumble down the rabbit hole into a dramatic maelstrom of whirling organ and vaudeville piano.

As the characters emerge onscreen this subsides into the more subtle sounds of scraped cymbals and worm-like synths. The band continues in this fashion with an astonishing attention to detail and expert musicianship, following the narrative to the nth degree.

If there is any criticism of tonight, it’s that it’s often very difficult not to be entranced by the band’s performance rather than allow them to simply support and emphasise those of the actors. But that would deny them the sense of space they create, with brushed snares like rattlesnakes, minute music boxes and languid guitar chords all in harmony with the varying moods and subtexts of the piece.

Different characters have returning themes, which develop according to plot and mood. Particularly memorable is the drunken music hall and sultry tango of the Italian dancer who tempts Jekyll in to awakening his inner Hyde. The darkly romantic violin motif, seductively tempestuous at the crux of the piece, later returns as a seedy and base atonal slur following the troubled doctor’s fall at the hands of his demon. This “impossible separation of man’s two natures; good and evil” is synonymous with these intertwining musical themes.

As Jekyll concocts his fatal elixir, the tension builds with a discordant, nagging guitar groove at odds with the free-jazz skittering drums. This later wrestles with the soft pizzicato synth of Millicent’s theme, the love interest and calming influence on the doctor’s soul, before giving way to B-movie Theremins as he descends into total control by Hyde.

The score is a labour of love for the band who have obviously poured themselves into a deeply narrative and evocative suite soundtracking perfectly this classic piece of cinema. It ends as it begins with grinding organ and crashing cymbals before tonight’s musicians take a well deserved bow to a standing ovation; a promising future for revisiting the past.

There’s an art to putting on a genuinely secret gig, something the wonderfully intense and angsty Nately’s Whore’s Kid Sister don’t seem to have mastered, judging by how quickly everyone worked out that they were the band making their Sunderland debut this Friday (May 18^th).

The Whores, as nobody at all calls them, will be playing at the tiny White Room, with support from Fathoms and Watchers on the decks.

NWKS – skullcrushing riffs and genuinely anguished vocals to the fore – are fast turning into Tyneside’s brightest hope. Their debut EP Ribs gets a physical, official release on June 4^th, although it’s already available on iTunes and Amazon (and it’s great, obviously). Since this is the last chance to see them until June 1^st (when they appear at the Evolution Festival), and since – as already mentioned – there is very limited capacity at the venue, you probably don’t want to leave this one too late.

Alex Burgess, she of Lone Wolf Promotions fame and directly responsible for this brilliant abomination, told us; First time I saw them I was lost for words, they’re one of the best bands I’ve seen live in a while and I’m absolutely chuffed to have them on in such a small, exclusive venue. It’s going to be class. If you haven’t seen them live, it’s something not to be missed. You’ll leave the gig amazed and disturbed.

Natley’s Whore’s Kid Sister play Sunderland’s White Rooms on Friday May the 18th.

Fans of whirring, whooping ethereal electronica, cast your hands skyward and rejoice at the news that California’s Blackbird Blackbird have an imminent date with both The Cluny, and your bleak sun-starved lives.

Yes, the big yellow thing in the sky might be taunting us with its tween style ‘will-they-won’t-they’ romance with the Earth, but it’s time we all accepted that there are far brighter things to be found on stages up and down the region, starting on Wednesday night.

Brought to you by booking mavericks Not Your Cuppa Tea, we were provided with the following…

“Blackbird Blackbird (formerly Bye Bye Blackbird) is the moniker/musical outlet of San Francisco, California wunderkind Mikey Maramag. His reverb-laden musical collages tend to lean towards anthemic, inspirational, and dream-driven themes. Maramag’s influences range from various ends of the musical spectrum. Blackbird Blackbird often tweaks nature-samples and mixes electronic textures with organic instrumentation (guitar, drums, synths, vocal-harmonies). Ghostly female vocals are chopped and screwed, spun around a paint-splattered collage of sound. 

Maramag’s deep, textured, and hypnotic pop songs pay homage to the psychedelic pop that the Beatles could have imagined but cannot make today. Blackbird Blackbird’s music is made with the warmth of analogue instrumentation spliced with digital bells and twinkles.

Blackbird Blackbird’s debut album “Summer Heart” was self-released by Maramag in July 2010, and is really just a collection of his past EPs: “Happy High” and “Let’s Move on Together”. His standout singles “Pure” and “Hawaii” received the most attention, and his single “Ups and Downs” helped Mikey capture the ears of Pitchfork, Transparent, Prefix Magazine, The Fader, Brooklyn Vegan, and other musical tastemakers”

Best of all, the first 10 people through the door will be presented with a free t-shirt for their troubles, and for every three people with a paying ticket you can smuggle a 4th mate in for nowt. Tremendous fun.

Blackbird Blackbird, Waskerley Way, and Betamaxx play The Cluny on Wednesday 16th of May. Tickets are £6 and avaiallbe online.

Anyone who’s stumbled drunkenly around the Jazz World stage at Glastonbury clutching a paper cup full of perry and wondering where all their friends have gone will have big love for Brothers Cider (until the next morning at least). So it seems an obvious move for the Shepton Mallet-based brewers to hook up with Strummerville, the multi-project charity formed in honour of Joe Strummer, another long-term Glastonbury fixture (and a Brothers Bar regular, it seems).

Strummerville’s spiritual home is round the campfire down in Joe’s favourite corner of the Glastonbury site, but their bus crops up at festivals and venues across the country championing young talent and a host of good causes.

Together, they’re staging a series of warm-up gigs across the country as a warm-up for the festival season. Eight gigs across the UK with a rotating line-up of new(ish) bands, and it’s absolutely free. The tour hits The Cluny on Wednesday 16th May with a bill featuring The Din (gypsy-tinged psychpop), Crowns (folk-punk shanties) and – most excitingly of all – Strummerville mainstay and all-round wrong’un Beans On Toast, whose shambolic antifolk songs deal with politics, drugs, sex, drugs and some other stuff. And sex.

The Din, Crowns and Beans On Toast play The Cluny, Newcastle on Wednesday 16th May.

Tomorrow (or Tuesday, as your mother would call it) we’re off down to the launch of the food-based counterpart to Sunderland’s famous Split Festival. Split Feastival. As clever plays-on-words go, we like them almost as much as we like orchestrated press events where we’re given free food.

But before the gluttony can begin in earnest, we were invited down to Create, Sunderland’s centre for culinary reemployment and upward social mobility, to see none other than the Futureheads whisking their lives in the name of good food.

In between getting his tartlets in the oven and doing that pinch thing with the salt, I managed to speak to Ross Millard about what precisely was going on, and what it meant for the festival and the city as a whole.

“Well, Martin McFadden and Rob Deverson, heard about this organisation through Sunderland City Council, who we all work quite closely with now for Split Festival and Split Feastival, and they brought this amazing place to our attention.

I don’t think there’s many places like it in the country. Where people can come from all sorts of different backgrounds – homeless, unemployed, struggling domestically – and get completely retrained in three months and end up in the world of work pretty soon afterwords.

They’ve got a Michelin Star chef here who’s running the whole thing, so it seemed like a perfect match up with what we’re trying to do. The food was such a big part of Split Festival last year, and obviously it’s the main part of Split Feastival this year, so it all tied together really nicely.

Having a community link like this is massive to us, that was the main motivation for doing Split in the first place. The fact is we just thought Sunderland needed some more, something going on that everyone could take pride in. Since we started doing it we’ve met all these amazing people in the city or on the outskirts, they’re all doing good things but it’s not quite getting sang about from the rooftops.

But if we all pull together for those few days then it becomes a great advert for the city and for Sunderland and gives an opportunity for people like this to publicise what they’re doing a little more.”

With the countdown to Split now well and truly on, discussion turned to the the evolution of last year’s food tent, and how it had become it’s own day long mammoth of lip-smacking pleasures in Split Feastival.

“Feastival’s going to be incredible because there’s going to be so many different traders there and so many different types of ale and beer and whatnot. It’s basically taking the food tent from last years festival, quadrupling the size of it, and bringing in all sorts of local traders. You’ll be able to buy food to take home – relishes, jars of stuff, butchered meat, cheeses.

Everything’s in full swing now and the more the word gets about it, the more people we’re meeting who are doing interesting things with food. We’ve got a great relationship with Juniper’s Pantry now and they’re going to some exciting stuff for us. But it’s really about trying to bring a spotlight to people like Create.”

Split’s Feastival and Festival kick off on September 21st. You can find out more about what Create do by visiting their website.

Leeds has always been a hub of musical creativity, but right now it’s positively bursting at the seams with emerging talent: Hookworms, Heart-Ships, Post War Glamour Girls and the whole Brew records roster to name but a few. (If you haven’t heard any of the aforementioned, you’re missing out – Google them.)

Which leads me nicely to the wonderful sounds of Stalking Horse, the new project from Neil ‘Wu’ Widdop, former front man of now-defunct Leeds heroes This Et Al. With Stalking Horse, Wu is now going it alone, a decision he explains came “out of necessity and simplicity”. “After being in a band for six to seven years, I couldn’t have done it any other way. I certainly did not plan to start a band straight away. I think if I had done, it would’ve imploded already.”

Stalking Horse is an entirely different beast to This Et Al; with debut album Specters, Wu has created an almost other-worldly sound filled with dreamy rock-scapes and richly textured songs that have an intoxicatingly soporific quality, akin to the feeling one would get from chugging a bottle of Night Nurse. Even Wu’s falsetto vocal which dominates each track has a fuzzed-out, far-away feel. Teamed with a multitude of instrumentation including hypnotic percussion, you’ve got an album that you can truly get lost in. After the break-up of This Et Al, Wu had a clear idea of the type of sound he wanted to create. “Understated, eclectic and I didn’t want it to sound ‘live’. I felt being in a band and the cycle we were in had put me in a box creatively that I didn’t stray very far from, but there was always a ton of stuff I wanted to do.” This ‘ton of stuff’ included applying the principles of hip-hop to Stalking Horses’ sound, which is evident from the sequences of rhythms and percussion on Specters. “I think my tastes widened and I relaxed, which meant I wasn’t so prescriptive with writing and recording – I didn’t have to do anything a certain way. I’ve always been a huge fan of hip-hop”.

When Wu began recording as Stalking Horse back in 2009, the plan was never to create a full album, something which explains the three year gap between beginning recording and releasing a debut album. “Originally, I just did some sessions for fun and it just kind of formulated into an album over time. There was never any need to rush a release, or to finish the record, or to play live – at times, I wasn’t even sure I would.” When it came to producing the album, James Kenosha was the obvious port of call. Kenosha has become something of a legend in his own right through his production work for many Leeds bands including Pulled Apart By Horses, Grammatics, Dinosaur Pile Up and Wu’s former band This Et Al. “I’ve known and recorded with James for years, he produced the majority of This Et Al recordings. We have an understanding of each other and what’s going to work. We tended to begin by me playing him a home demo, working up a rhythm, then just adding more and more parts from that starting point. None of the songs or lyrics were finished before starting them in the studio, but it’s the way I prefer to work and James is great at dissecting what’s good.”

After the uncertainty of whether recording sessions would even lead to a completed album, even Wu himself was surprised at just how cohesively the tracks formed an album. “I was happy with all the tracks in their own right as a collection of songs but it’s only when I got a master back from Tim Turan [a technical whizz who has mastered material from everyone from You Me At Six to Marilyn Manson] that I really thought, ‘fucking hell, we made an album and its good!’”. Good is something of an understatement. Specters has drawn comparisons to the likes of Thom Yorke, Clinic and Wild Beasts, though Wu shrugs off the Thom Yorke comparisons; “There’s not many people who sing falsetto and don’t get compared to Thom Yorke…but it could be worse.”

To play live, Wu has gathered a talented bunch of Leeds musicians, including members of This Et Al, Grammatics, Duels and These Monsters. Having already played alongside the likes of Wild Beasts, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, The Twilight Sad and I Like Trains, there will be plenty more gigs happening from May onwards, and the band will headline The Great Northern stage at The Cluny for this year’s NARC. Fest on Saturday 21st July. With a debut album as accomplished as Specters, make sure Stalking Horse are on your list of bands to catch live this year.

Stalking Horse release Spectors via Role Model Corporate on 14th May. The band play The Cluny, Newcastle as part of NARC. Fest on Saturday 21st July.

This summer will see bands from the north east invade festivals across the length and breadth of our dear country and we thought it was only right that you knew who was on where and when. After much internet trawling we have the definitive list of bands from our region who have been announced to play UK festivals up to now. So if you’re in their area you can pop down, give them a wave and support your local scene. Here it is, in chronological order:

Thursday 10th – Saturday 12th May: Great Escape Festival, Brighton

Generator North East Invasion stage @ The Haunt: Vinyl Jacket, The Lake Poets, Lulu James, Hyde & Beast. Also featuring: Mammal Club, Beth Jeans Houghton and Maximo Park.

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Thursday 17th – Saturday 19th May: Liverpool Sound City

Generator North East Invasion stage @ The Shipping Forecast: Mammal Club, The Lake Poets, Lilliput, Shields. Also featuring: Lulu James.

Monday 4th June: Festifeel, Queen of Hoxton, London

The Castells

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Thursday 21st – Sunday 24th June: Willowman Festival, Northallerton

Featuring: B>E>A>K, Chased by Wolves; Hyde & Beast; Mike Gatto; Natasha Haws; The Lake Poets; The Woven Project and This Little Bird.

Friday 29th June – Saturday 30th June: LeeFest, South London

Let’s Buy Happiness

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Friday 29th June – Sunday 1st July: Hop Farm Festival, Kent

Maximo Park, The Futureheads and Field Music

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Thursday 19th – Sunday 22nd July: Secret Garden Party, Cambridgeshire

Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves of Destiny and Hyde & Beast

Friday 20th – Saturday 21st July: Truck Festival, Oxford

Little Comets

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Friday 20th- Sunday 22nd July: Tramlines, Sheffield

Field Music, Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves of Destiny, Frankie & The Heartstrings and Lulu James

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Friday 27th – Sunday 29th July: Magic Loungeabout, Broughton Hall, Yorkshire

Let’s Buy Happiness

Friday 27 – Sunday 29th July: Kendal Calling, Cumbria

Hyde & Beast, B>E>A>K

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Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th August: Standon Calling, Hertfordshire

Field Music

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Friday 3rd- Sunday 5th August: Stockton Weekender

Young Rebel Set, Cattle and Cane and Hyde & Beast

Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th August: Y-Not Festival, The Peak District

Little Comets and Frankie & The Heartstrings

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Wednesday 8th – Sunday 12th August: Relentless Boardmasters Festival, Newquay, Cornwall

Maximo Park

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Friday 17th – Sunday 19th August: Green Man Festival, Glanusk Park, Wales

Field Music and Beth Jeans Houghton

Friday 24- Sunday 26th August: Solfest, Cumbria

Bridie Jackson and the Arbour, Matt Stalker and Fables and Rob Heron and the Teapad Orchestra

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Friday 31st August – Sunday 2nd September: End of the Road Festival, North Dorset

Lanterns on the Lake

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Thursday 6th – Sunday 9th September: Bestival, Isle of Wight

Field Music

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The invasion is happening. Hopefully out of that lot you can get your fix of our wonderful music scene in unfamiliar surroundings. It seems the rest of the UK is in for a treat this summer. If you think we’ve missed off some bands or festivals that deserve to be featured in our definitive (but perhaps not completely definitive) rundown then get in touch.

Lilliput, the 5 piece alt-folk troubadour from the banks of the Wear, have a new video to show you all. Gorge your musical glands silly on this delightful waltz through the day in the life of a subtle metaphor.

Lilliput’s Jamie told us thusly; “The video follows a mime through an average day. I suppose it’s a metaphor for the mundanity of life in general, get up, go to work, come home and repeat. Dan (Waterston, drummer) literally set up in the middle of Sunderland and started miming; which turned plenty of heads and earned him 9p in the process! He was scarily good at it, considering he’s ex-Byker Grove we thought he’d be a lot worse! Getting the message and feel for the video just right was massive for us, and Gavin, the director, has done a cracking job. We’re very proud of it!”

Lilliput play The Cumberland Arms for Evolution Emerging on June 1st. The new song ‘Until’ is available as a free download from www.lilliputband.com

Local promoters SSD Concerts chalked up two great Ouseburn Unplugged events at the Cluny in 2010 and 2011, the latter adding acts like Ben Howard and Get Cape! Wear Cape! Fly! to the usual strong bill of local acoustic acts. For 2012, SSD have teamed up with Communion Music – the community of artists founded by, amongst others, Ben Lovett from Mumford & Sons – to stage Communion Unplugged – and have also moved along the Tyne to Warehouse 34 at Hoults Yard.

Steve from SSD says he was given free rein to put the bill together with Communion Music’s support, using the strong Communion identity to attract an impressive collection of likeminded acts and giving a push to local talent at the same time.

Split across Friday (11^th) and Saturday (12^th), the line-up sees some of the best acts Tyneside has to offer, headed up by some pretty serious national and international talent. Headlining Friday is emo-folkie Willy Mason, hitting the North East as part of a short run of gigs which mark the opening salvo of almost constant UK touring throughout the summer. He’s supported by hotly-tipped songwriter Lucy Rose (“one of indie music’s breakout stars for 2012”, according to.. erm.. Vogue Magazine), and a local showing from the increasingly acclaimed Lake Poets (Martin, to his mum), Natasha Haws and NARC faves Ajimal.

Saturday brings two of the Charlatans – Mark Collins and Tim Burgess (no doubt sporting the latest in a series of increasingly bizarre hairstyle decisions) – performing a special acoustic slot ahead of the imminent Telling Stories tour. Burgess is also pushing his new autobiography (also called, obviously, Telling Stories) and will be reading extracts from the book at Hoults Yard (5pm) and the Newcastle Ermerson branch of Waterstones (1pm) earlier in the day.

Joining them on the bill is Ren Harvieu (who by a strange twist of fate grew up literally doors down from Burgess on his Salford estate when she was growing up). Recovering from a crippling injury that took up much of 2011, Harvieu is definitely in the “most likely to” gang for 2012 and her appearance on this week’s Later With Igor on BBC2 won’t do her – or Communion Unplugged – any harm at all. Saturday’s bill is completed by Josh Kimru, The Jar Family, Motion Tourist and Amy Holford.

Communion Unplugged is on Friday and Saturday. Tickets are £15 per day or £25 for the weekend (the Tim Burgess reading is £5). More information available online.