I'm John Rostron, a Cardiff ne'er do well. I book or promote live music shows for venues in Cardiff and also promote some special gigs around Cardiff, Wales and beyond under the banner of SWN (it's pronounced 'soon' and is Welsh for 'noise'). I also co-curate and promote the annual SWN Festival in Cardiff with Huw Stephens. Occasionally I put out records on my little label My Kung Fu too. I also run Sleeveface with my friend Carl Morris. You can message me on john(at)plugtwo(dot)com.
with host JEN LONG (BBC RADIO 1 INTRODUCING IN WALES)
Lawn of City Hall Cardiff Friday 5th August 2011 7.00pm-11.00pm FREE
Welsh promoters SWN (that's us!) are proud to have been asked to curate the opening night of Cardiff's ADMIRAL BIG WEEKEND. We have chosen three awesome bands, plus an equally awesome host. The event is completely FREE! Just turn up and enjoy.
Across Saturday and Sunday evenings you can also see these bands :
The Feeling King Charles Dom Duff Edei Vintage Trouble The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Dodgy Zing Zong Nerina Pallot The Big Gig Winner
Saturday 22nd October 2011 Great Hall, Cardiff University 6.30pm-10.30pm £15 advance 18+ only / please bring ID
THE FALL will play a headline slot at Great Hall, Cardiff University as part of SWN FESTIVAL 2011. We are releasing a limited number of tickets for this show only, priced £15.00, for people who want to go to this show only and not to any of the other shows at the festival that day. If you buy a SWN Festival Wristband for either the whole festival (£49.50) or the Saturday only (£25) then you'll get access to this show in the usual way by arriving as early or as close to doors as possible and you'll be given free priority entry, subject to capacity.
Birmingham's original punk group The Prefects had been part of The Clash's 'White Riot Tour', recorded a couple of Peel sessions, released a 45 on Rough Trade and, years after splitting up, had a retrospective CD released by NY label Acute Records to all round glowing reviews - from Rolling Stone to webzines.
The Nightingales was formed by former members of The Prefects following that band's demise in 1979.
With an ever fluctuating line up, based around lyricist/singer Robert Lloyd, the Nightingales enjoyed cult status in the early '80's as darlings of the credible music scene and were championed by John Peel, who said of them - "Their performances will serve to confirm their excellence when we are far enough distanced from the 1980's to look at the period rationally and other, infinitely better known, bands stand revealed as charlatans".
The group recorded a bunch of critically acclaimed singles (Almost always 'Single Of The Week' in the music press) and three albums, plus many radio sessions for their great supporter Peel - more than any other band bar The Fall. They also regularly toured the UK and Northern Europe, as headliners and supporting acts as diverse as Bo Diddley and Nico.
In the late Eighties the Nightingales stopped working but, following the occasional gig between times, they re-grouped in 2004, with Lloyd being joined by original Prefects guitarist Alan Apperley.
After fucking about with various wastrels, precious sorts and mercenaries the group arrived at it's current line up, which features Lloyd, Apperley, Andreas Schmid (from Faust Studio) on bass, ex Violet Violet drummer Fliss Kitson and guitarist Matt Wood, plus on occasion bassoonist Katherine Young &/or guitarist Christine Edwards and Emily Manzo on keyboards (Christy & Emily).
Since restarting the group have been more productive than ever - releasing five 7" vinyl singles and three studio albums (Plus two live albums), touring England, mainland Europe and USA numerous times, recording many radio sessions along the way. They have been invited to play various festivals in Europe and the States, including Glastonbury and SXSW. Their "Let's Think About Living" 45 was 'Single Of The Week' on BBC 6 Music and they have continued to receive regular rave reviews for their records and live shows.
In 2008 the band recorded "Insult to Injury" with Hans Joachim Irmler of krautrock legends Faust. This record was released in February 2009 on the Klangbad label and is largely considered the best 'gales album yet. Another Irmler produced album - "The Lost Plot" - was recorded in August 2010.
TED CHIPPINGTON
As a teenager Stewart Lee went to see THE FALL in concert. They were supported by a comedian, TED CHIPPINGTON, and it was this set which inspired Stewart to become a stand up comedian. After retiring in the 1990s he has recently returned to the stage. We thought this would be the perfect line bill to bring him to Cardiff.
First ever UK shows for this incredible new band. Found them at SXSW and fell in love with them. We've worked with a load of likeminded UK promoters and their US agent to bring them to the UK for their first ever UK shows. These are the shows that make what we do so special.
Wise Blood is Chris Laufman, a young guy who lives in Pittsburgh and makes woozy, inward pop songs out of other people’s music. Laufman’s voice is usually the only original element in Wise Blood’s songs. But Laufman’s sample manipulation can turn something like the brontosaurus-stomp drums from Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” into just one element of a funky swirl of a track. To hear Laufman tell it, he’d like to take over pop music completely in the next year or so. The first step in that campaign: a self-titled five-song EP up for free download on Wise Blood’s Bandcamp page which is here http://hazemotes.bandcamp.com/
Yes. Yes. Yes. SWN Festival returns for its fifth year as Wales’ premier new music festival. We honestly never thought we'd get this far. In fact we never thought we'd make it to the second year. Yet here we are, five years strong, bigger and brighter every year with the best to come. It's our birthday. Let's celebrate.
After an incredible demand for tickets last year we're delighted to announce that we adding a WHOLE EXTRA DAY to SWN Festival 2011. I'm so excited I needed capitals for that. The festival will therefore take place across the evening of Thursday 20th October and Friday 21st October then through the days and nights of Saturday 22nd October and Sunday 23rd October. That's a full day of loads more new music, new bands and bonus SWN fun through the Sunday. Grab a Sunday lunch then off you go again. We'll wind things up a little earlier on the Sunday evening for those who have work the next morning, though there'll be a few events for night owls who are taking Monday off to rest. That'll include us.
Each year at SWN we work with our favourite local, Welsh and UK peeps who co-host stages with us. We want you to fall in love with them as we have. With an extra day to the festival we've more co-hosts than ever before. Confirmed to be in the Welsh capital hosting stages with us are Artrocker, Barely Regal Records, BBC Radio 1, Y Nyth, Bubblewrap, Crack, Everybody's Stalking, Flux=Rad, Steve Lamacq and Going Deaf For A Living. Lesson Number 1, Moshi Moshi, New Sound Wales, NYTH, NME, Pink Mist (The Big Scary Monsters / Holy Road / and Blood & Biscuits labels), Propaganda, Radarmaker, Rockfeedback, See Monkey Do Monkey, STHCC, Shape, Signature, The Line Of Best Fit, The Rusty Trombone of God, Y Selar, Gathered In Song and Zoo Pop.
And the bands. Oh the bands! There'll be 180 acts playing in total. 180. ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY! Like the darts. That's a lot of bands. Hopefully you'll know some of them, and hopefully there'll be lots you don't know. That's the idea. We want you to come and discover them. This year, thanks to the awesome Soundcloud and the skills of Radarmaker, we have a player on www.swnfest.com so you can listen to tracks from all of the bands who are playing. There's links on each band's profile so you can go off and hear more too. Start listening and writing up lists of who you like and who you want to see. Of course that might all go to pot on the weekend as you find yourself in one venue glued to a band you'd completely overlooked, but hey, getting your prep in is loads of fun.
Besides the music we've a few other treats to announce, but that'll follow in the coming weeks.. for now, here's the full confirmed line up, with who’ll be playing on each day. Final times and venues will be released around 1st October.
THURSDAY
Algiers
Hymns
Tubelord
Elephant Stone
Herman Dune
Elephant
Yaaks
Alt-J
Fixers
Greta Isaac
Creision Hud
Jen Jeniro
Yr Ods
Masters In France
Aidan Moffat & Bill Wells
CRST
Martyn (LIVE)
Dividers
Bedford Falls
Caves
The Cut Ups
Red City Radio
FRIDAY
Brandyman
The Good Wife
The Skull Defekts
Visions of Trees
Niki & The Dove
Ifan Dafydd
Stay +
Seams
Astroid Boys
Run, Walk
Kerouac
Brontide
Two Wounded Birds
Gross Magic
Clock Opera
Racehorses
Breton
Veronica Falls
Gallops!
The Victorian English Gentlemens Club
Creatures of Love
Friends Electric
And So I Watch You From Afar
Man Without Country
The Joy Formidable
Ian Watkins DJ Set
His Naked Torso
Ultrahumanitarian
Team Sports
Ashtray Navigations
SATURDAY
DZ Deathrays
Mowbird
Deaf Club
Cut Ribbons
Rapids!
Esben & The Witch
Y Niwl
Denuo
Joseph & David
Summer Camp
Patterns
Let’s Buy Happiness
Winter Villains
Llewis Floyd Henry
Mr Phormula
Ugly Duckling
Dots.Filmband
Ffred Jones
Joe Janiak
Daughter
Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Bleeding Heart Narrative
Christopher Rees & The Horns
LA2019
Gallops!
Three Trapped Tigers
Sissy & The Blisters
Town
Jim Jones Revue
Cymbals
Beaty Heart
Zulu Winter
Ted Chippington
The Nightingales
The Fall
Little Arrow
Barefoot Dance Of The Sea
Ivan Moult
Evening Chorus
Sen Sgeur
Violas
Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog
Houdini Dax
Colorama
Dirty Goods
The Method
The Broken Vinyl Club
The Keys
Sam Airey
Gavin Osborn
Catrin Herbert
Iwan Huws
Loved Ones
Monument Valley
Eagulls
Twbador
Mammal Club
Melodica Melody & Me
Pandas & People
SUNDAY
Famy
Torches
Ren Harvieu
Dam Mantle
Apostles
Dancers
Battlekat
Big Deal
The History of Apple Pie
Echo Lake
Copy Haho
Lucy Rose
Al Lewis
Sam Duckworth
Gideon Conn
Shoes and Socks Off
Jodie Marie
Ben Howard
Witches Drum
Kutosis
Tiger Please
Saturday’s Kids
Mechanical Bride
Born Blonde
Cuba Cuba
Spector
Chailo Sim
Zun Zun Egui
Them Quirrels
Gentle Friendly
Truckers of Husk
H Hawkline
Sweet Baboo
Zervas & Pepper
Joshua Caole
James McKay
David Dondero
Holland
Olympians
Effort
Among Brothers
Hail! The Planes
Theo
Samoans
Strange News From Another Star
And how much are tickets for this you're thinking? £100ish? That would be good value wouldn't it, for four days and 200 bands. NO! This is SWN and so tickets for the four days, which get you free priority access to all the shows (subject to capacity) are just £49.50.
For the moment they are only available from http://www.swnpresents.com - and they will roll out to more outlets over the coming weeks.
These are the advance prices. If there are tickets remaining then they will go up in price a week before the festival, so if you're planning on coming please buy in advance, and preferably as early as possible to ensure you get a ticket.
The best value, and the most fun, is if you buy our most popular ticket which covers the whole festival :
SWN Festival 4-day Wristband : £49.50
But if you can only make some of the days you can buy individual day tickets :
SWN Festival Thursday Wristband : £10
SWN Festival Friday Wristband : £16
SWN Festival Saturday Wristband : £25
SWN Festival Sunday Wristband : £20
Wristbands grant you free priority access to all of the SWN Festival shows subject to capacity. Bascially, get a wristband and get around Cardiff to see as many shows as you can. We'll publish a full timetable a month before the festival so you'll have good time to make plans as to which venue you'll need to be at and when to see the people you want to see. Just allow some time when you arrive to head to the wristband exchange to swap your ticket for your festival wristband.
Ok, cool, that'll do for now. Looking forward to seeing you at SWN Festival 2011.
Inspired by the purchase of a Lebanese synthesizer playing microtonal scales and lo-fi Eastern drum patterns, Rainbow Arabia began a escapist diversion from Danny and Tiffany Preston's day jobs. The demos they recorded, which were written and put to tape in a matter of a days, became their debut, The Basta. Barely existing for only a few months, the married couple were picked out of the ether by NYC sonic alchemists/kindred spirits Gang Gang Dance to support them on a cross-continental tour in 2008. Once they got back (and to their surprise) they quickly found themselves a legitimate act with acclaim from PITCHFORK, THE FADER, XLR8R, NME, in addition to a word-of-mouth groundswell for their fresh, contemporary East meets West take on the Sublime Frequencies catalog that inspired them so much in the first place. With a penchant for global pop and psychedelic tribal beats, Rainbow Arabia caught ears across the pond releasing the "Omar K" seven-inch on UK's Merok Records (Crystal Castles, Teengirl Fantasy) leading to their first European tour in 2009. Shortly after they released their follow-up digging deeper for inspiration from worldly found sounds, the Los Angeles-based duo's follow-up EP, Kabukimono, expanded the color palette of their Middle Eastern-tinged "fourth world" pop with darker industrial dancehall and comfortably sitting alongside brighter Caribbean and African flavors. Not interested in merely musical/cultural tourism, the Prestons shifted their focus outward in writing their first full-length album Boys And Diamonds. The inspiration that they found landed squarely in between future-thinking contemporary club music (techno, hip-hop, dubstep) and the organic globe-trekking dance music of the last century (reggae, ragas, gamelan) they've been known to draw from. Add in an affection for the 80s synth-pop they grew up on and the gothic influences informing Tiffany's teenage years specifically (Love and Rockets, OMD, Christian Death), and you have an interesting recipe that is utterly unclassifiable as it is repeatedly listenable. "Kaleidoscopic, intoxicated dance music made out of dervish rhythms, snakish melodica, and percussion procured from the labyrinthine corridors of some smoky souk." - Guardian UK "Creating the kind of noise you could imagine the DFA might make had they ever decided to throw a party in the underground ruins of Egypt, the ghosts of the Pyramids shaken into action by the sinuous rhythms and earth quaking basslines." - 20JazzFunkGreats
CATE LE BON
What can we say? You know her. We love her. By her standards this is a small Cardiff show - last time we put Cate on she sold out Clwb Ifor Bach. A new album is forthcoming, so expect plenty of new material as well as some of the wonderful songs she's already given us.
THIS FRONTIER NEEDS HEROES
For fans of PHOSPHORESCENT and the darker, sublime moments of NOAH AND THE WHALE, let us introduce you to the phenomenal THIS FRONTIER NEEDS HEROES. You can also hear why CATE LE BON is a fan...
This Frontier Needs Heroes is the Alternative Folk duo of brother-sister Brad and Jessica Lauretti from Brooklyn, NY.
Listening to This Frontier Needs Heroes is like having Brad and Jessica play in your backyard while the sun comes up. With their powerful delivery and delicate harmonies; their songs are full of honest, personal stories of love, loss and longing for a better world. Since their 2009 debut release, they have received much acclaim from Itunes, NPR, Time Out New York, Time Out London, and Decider as well as indie blogs from around the globe. They have played hundreds of shows across the US and UK with Kath Bloom, She Keeps Bees, Arbouretum, Tallest Man on Earth, and The Handsome Family including several UK festival appearances. (Solfest, Shambala, End of the Road)
In 2010, they used Kickstarter donations from their growing fan base to fund their follow up album. They decided to leave the studio for a more intimate approach and recorded in an old school house in Wassaic, NY, with engineer Justin Pizzoferrato (MV & EE, Dinosaur Jr., Thurston Moore). THE FUTURE, out May 10, 2011 on their newly formed label HEROIC ENDEAVOURS RECORDS, has wild new songs about all of their rambling experiences including new visions about space, family, heroes, history, and dogs.
“Their music ranges from simply arranged, heartbreaking ballads to raucous foot-tappers, complete with rambling electric guitar solos and handclaps... both call to mind vast and often desolate American landscapes.” NPR
“Arresting local neofolk duo This Frontier Needs Heroes combines spare, literate songs in a Neil Young vein with hints of homegrown psychedelia.” Time Out New York
ZACHARY CALE
Zachary Cale has been called a songwriter of visionary scope. Originally hailing from rural Louisiana he now calls Brooklyn his home. Over the past five years he has released three albums of lyrical folk songs, up-tempo country rock, open tuned guitar instrumentals and vintage rock' n roll. Performing solo acoustic and with a full backing band Cale's unique sound exhibits a genuine craft of American tradition; with every note and lyrical phrase informed by a quiet beauty, both familiar and timeless.
"Noise of Welcome", his third solo album, was released on May 17, 2011 on Brooklyn's ALL HANDS ELECTRIC label.
NOISE OF WELCOME is a collection of songs that is distinctly modern in tone and substance. Moving from acoustic ballads and oddly tuned instrumentals, to electrified country and Kinksian pop, the album projects a kind of psych/folk/rock hybrid, recalling the genre shifts of Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" or Big Star's "Sisters Lovers". Featuring performances by members of Cale's former ensemble, Illuminations, and guest spots by Chris Brokaw, D. Charles Speer, Anni Rossi, and others, Cale's signature finger-picking technique is reinforced with grander orchestral movements and a full backing band which helps to illuminate the brilliance of his craft.
"Zachary Cale is a songwriter's songwriter, as prolific as he is original. His voice can be delicate for love or wry for satire. The ability to hear what is in a song has guided him well in the making of his own." -John Allen (WFMU)
“New York transplant, Zachary Cale’s folk sound is as beautifully raw as they come." -Bea Broderick (CBS New York)
“Spare, chilly, indie soundtrack-worthy folk that nods to its influences without attempting to revive them.” - (WNYC)
What can we say. He's a f-king legend. A brand new live set that has to be seen to be believed as DJ SHADOW plays live in his very own custome made SHADOWSPHERE. It's frickin' awesome.
Enjoy a notoriously fun and exciting trip into both the past and the future, as Prohibition Era Swing meets floor shaking Electronic Dance beats at our monthly ‘In Full Swing’ night, a full remixed vintage experience for funked up flapper girls and dapper dons, where everybody gets involved and is a part of the show. Joining our residents The Big Swing Soundsystem, who serve up the best in Electro Swing and Chap hop tunes, have been a number of esteemed guests such as The Correspondents, Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer, The Rinky Dinks and Zen Hussies, as well as our resident Lindy Hip-hop dancers. This'll be the setting for the official DJ SHADOW AFTERPARTY with very special guests to be announced in due course. First come, first served. Tickets £4 adv exclusively from http://www.swnpresents.com - here's the exact link http://www.tickettailor.com/checkout/view-event/id/1018/chk/1bee
This album wasn't meant to be about Emmy The Great.
But this album is all about Emmy The Great. It began as a series of stories just after her engagement to an atheist; after he left for the church, she realised who the stories were about.
Euan Hinshelwood, the other man in Emmy’s life, and Emmy had started work again. First Love, their debut album, felt like a long time ago. Emmy was due to be married, writing songs about characters being trapped in strange situations, and the need for the characters to make their way through it. Together, they were thinking of ways to develop the sounds of the songs, to create heightened shapes and textures. Emmy started using symbols borrowed from fairy tales and mythology in her lyrics – people trapped in houses and towers, overgrowing hair and flowers. Then she added the icons that have replaced them in our modern consciousness – industrial buildings, mushroom clouds, West London’s Trellick Tower. This was Emmy’s personal collection of myths that she fitted to her music – a genre she refers to, to herself, as digital medieval. She knew that we all have archetypal stories working away in our subconscious; that we sometimes we don’t know the difference between being awake and being asleep; how our dreams are meant to teach us things, give us messages; how songs, those tricky creatures, also live in that space. She was experiencing vivid dreams that spoke to her about the strange isolation of engagement, and of the possibility of dark times to come.
Emmy noticed that women only make it through the woods in big myths – knotty, gnarled and foreboding – if they keep their virtue. As a forthright, young woman, as scalpel-sharp as she is sweet, coldly clinical in her writing but still oddly comforting, she felt lost in the woods twice while writing the album, she says - first when she got engaged, and became the bride-to-be, when a culture’s worth of female roles came and swallowed her up. The maidens, the sirens, the witches, the sybils. The second time came when the stitches came apart.
He left their flat one-day, and never came back. He had undergone a rapid conversion to Christianity, and left the country. Emmy stayed behind with the pieces, the cancellations, the confusions. She hid in the country at her parents’ house, got lost in books about saints, archetypes, and folk tales, trying to make the world work. She went weird, she says. But she didn’t want the album to be about her. It had to save her from what had happened, but be about everything.
Virtue was made in London and Sussex. This time round, Euan and Emmy took the reins, rather than develop the songs with their full band in the studio. Euan came up with the guitar palette, strange, ambient, twisted and atmospheric, while Emmy wrote backing vocals for different voices – hysterical women, nuns and sirens, who she voiced herself. The ghosts of the Cocteau Twins and Suzanne Vega are here, as well as the stories of Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter, and the writing of cultural theorists like Marina Warner. Emmy wanted a cast for this album, to lift up the world she was trying to conjure, and kept albums in mind that have similar ambitions – Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea; Janelle Monae’s The Archandroid. While making it, she listened to girly pop like The Bangles, tempered with religious choirs, folk from the South Pacific, while Euan became obsessed with post-punk and Bulgarian choirs. They even spent a night Googling Enya.
Gareth Jones – known for his work with These New Puritans, Depeche Mode and Grizzly Bear – was their producer. He indulged their romanticism, but understood their wish to make the music sound precise, rather than precious. Emmy also knew she had to let go, and this was the time to do it – to confront things without fear, to throw her head high, say what she thought, things she couldn’t say to herself without music. It’s this record, she says, that’s made her feel like a person.
Dinosaur Sex introduces us to a world where power stations shiver weep and leak, where trees shed their leaves, and the future is told in them. Century Of Sleep reveals a woman alone in her house as rosemary grows, and she “shifts into greenery”, and the pipes are “running bone”. Iris appears, and wonders if sights could take her eyes; Cassandra daily sees something coming, gives warnings, but can’t run. Creation imagines phantom limbs, characters wanting to be inked, Exit Night an accident coming, and the sound of sirens. North tells of missionaries who feel they have the map of humanity, without understanding some hearts beat to other rhythms. And Trellick Tower tells us Emmy’s story from its seeds to its blossom, praying for the pain to clear, as he waits on ascension.
This is a record, Emmy says, waiting for one person to get in touch - a person who will say, that happened to me too. Another person who doesn’t want to curl up, lost forever in the roots and the undergrowth, vanishing into mythic memory, into the mulch. Another person who wants to howl, endure, survive.
Virtue gives us songs for our battle sleeves. Emmy The Great wears theirs for all of us.
- Spencer McGarry Season - Stray Borders - Ratatosk - - Toe-e-oke - original members of The Toe play all the hits alongside guest 'vocalists'. If you would like to participate, please let us know.
All money raised will be split between Nat's favoured charities Whizz Kidz and Rookwood Spur Charitable Trust
Tickets on sale now from http://www.swnpresents.com/ and soon in person from SPILLERS RECORDS. (Booking fees from both outlets are all being donated to the charities)
ABOUT NAT...
Nathaniel Rowson was a great contributor to the Cardiff music scene. You may know him as Nathaniel Hate, lead singer of cabaret-punk trailblazers The Toe. But that's not all...
Nat also co-edited the original (and best) Clique magazine, which became worryingly influential and was later requested for inclusion in the National Library of Wales as a journal of interest.
He was also an avid gig-goer, regularly spotted at gigs around Cardiff supporting local bands. One of his favourite venues was Clwb Ifor Bach, which is why we're proud to be be working with them as the host venue, and they are also donating their venue to help us raise as much money as possible.
Please join us for a great evening of fun, nonsense and awesome tuneage.
Local unsigned bands and acts are being given the once in a lifetime opportunity to perform at this year’s Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend.
The Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend is one of the firm favourites in the Cardiff Festival programme, bringing together three days of free live music, mixing new acts with established chart toppers. This year, the Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend takes place on Friday 5 August until Sunday 7 August.
The Big Gig 2011 is a brand new competition, which will give performers the chance to be the opening act at the Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend on Sunday 7 August.
Bands will compete against each other for the ultimate prize of performing in front of thousands in the heart of the Civic Centre in Cardiff.
The competition opens on Friday 27 May and future Manic Street Preachers and Marina and the Diamonds can apply via www.cardiff-festival.com the closing date for applications is 4pm on Friday June 14.
The Big Gig competition is being run by Cardiff Council in partnership with Nation Radio and Under Construction Festival.
The competition opens on 27 May 2011 and those wishing to apply need to fill out an online form at www.cardiff-festival.com and send in two tracks of them performing at least one original track.
The entrance will be whittled down and split into two groups, under 18’s and over 18s. On July 12, the under 18’s will compete against each other and on July 13 the over 18 acts will perform against each other at the Globe Music Venue in Cardiff.
The six best acts over the two night will then go through to the Big Gig final and compete against each other on the 14 July to be crowed the Big Gig Winner 201, with the winning act performing at the Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend.
All finals take place at the Globe Music Venue with tickets prices at £5 per night and £3.50 for concessions. The competition will be judged by representatives from Swn Festival, Nation Radio and Cardiff Council.
The winners of the youth and over 18’s finals on July 12 & 13 will also record a track at Nation radio’s studio, with their recorded song being played on Nation radio.
Executive Member for Sport, Culture and Leisure, Cllr Nigel Howells, said: “Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend has always been a champion of new music and local artists so I am delighted that this year we have introduced the Big Gig to the Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend. I hope this year will be the first of many Big Gig’s.
“The competition provides a fantastic opportunity for one lucky unsigned act to perform in front of thousands and develop a new fan base. I am looking forward to hearing the new music from a variety of acts from South Wales.”
Notes
Those wishing to enter the Big Gig 2011 should visit www.cardiff-festival.com and fill out an online form. Entrance should also send an Mp3 of them performing two tracks to BigGig@cardiff.gov.uk. Or entrance can be accepted via post, by downloading and filling out the application form and sending a two track CD demo to the following address.Big Gig Competition, Events Team, Room 422, County hall, Cardiff CF10 4UW
Rules for entries are as follows, further details can also be found on TBC
The competition is open to Artists based in South Wales only.
The competition is not open to artists who have appeared at the Admiral Big Weekend before.
Each entrant must submit at least one original song. Cover versions should seek to reinterpret the original both vocally and musically rather than being based on entirely pre recorded backing tracks. Innovative use of sampling however is welcome.
The criteria for short listing will be -
Tightness-does the act sound professional and together?
Musical ability-are they proficient musically and vocally?
Song writing ability-assessment of lyrics, melody and use of hooks, middle 8s etc
Originality- does the act have something unique and interesting?
Presentation of information- is the form filled out correctly; the demo submitted on the right format, does the picture enhance the bands image?
Evidence that artist can attract a following-Does the artist list any important gigs or short review quotes in the application?
Suitability for Big weekend
Short listing for the over 18s competition will be undertaken by Cardiff Council Events team with the best six proceeding to the semi final on July 13th. The decision of the events team will be final and no correspondence will be entered into with any artist in the case of an unsuccessful application.
Bands including artists younger than the age of 18 will be eligible for the Youth competition in partnership with Under Construction. This will culminate in the Globe finals but artists entering this section will also need to be available for heats and semi finals between 2-9th of July
Artists from both competitions must be available to perform at both their relevant semi finals and finals of the competition from 12-14 July at the Globe Music Venue in Roath Cardiff and at The Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend on Sunday 7th August 2011.
Whilst the organisers will take a broad view on what constitutes artistic licence, all material submitted should be suitable for performance at Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend. The Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend is a free festival taking place during the daytime to a mixed audience of all ages. Swearing and the expression of opinions likely to cause offence will disqualify artists from further consideration.
