Free tickets to see The xx perform with a philharmonic orchestra!

Does anybody remember that amazing show last year when Nero performed with a philharmonic orchestra?? Well this year Radio 1 have given free tickets away for this once in a lifetime opportunity to see The xx perform with a philharmonic orchestra, and I've got 2 tickets to give away! email me on katiebentham8@hotmail.co.uk if you have an interest and you may well get them! Performance starts at 7pm in Bridlington, East Yorkshire (strange, I know). Doors open at 6pm, make sure your there early as they give away more tickets than there is spaces, as some people don't turn up, and you aren't guaranteed entry.

Watch this space for The xx's album review, Coexist.

All Aboard the Rockness Express!

Holding a festival in Inverness, you could imagine it would not be the most pleasant of weather, but it was actually (almost) dry all weekend, in comparison to Download festival, which I heard from friend it was a massive washout. I never actually realised how far away Inverness was, until I saw that the Rockness Express takes 14 hours from London! This was the first year they have held anything like the Express, so surely some things had to go wrong.

It was a specific train the festival organised to haul people from London to the festival via Birmingham, Stoke, York and Newcastle, and costing £250 including a VIP weekend ticket, you couldn't really go wrong! But oh, so much did. Firstly, a week before the train, they announced it would be departing from Birmingham International instead of New Street, and Stoke-On-Trent instead of Derby, which would have been a massive pain if one had already booked train tickets to said station. Then we were all told that if we wanted to sit next with each other, we would have to board at the same station, which was a pain as our group were planning on boarding in London, Stoke and York. But once on the train, you soon forgot their hiccups, as the 12 carriage train was full of excited festival goers, setting themselves up by drinking for 14 hours before the festival even beginning, made such an electric atmosphere (unlike any other train ride I’ve ever been on). However, we should have thought this one through, as after hours of alcohol consumption and frolics, we arrived at 10pm in the middle of nowhere to erect a tent (I kid you not, it took 4 of us 2 whole hours to put our 5 man tent up). I also forgot to mention the smoking policy on the Rockness Express...you can't. So after a few hours of drinking, my friend decided to have a fag out the window (this train was so old-school, you could pull the widows down on the doors in between carriages), after he got away with the first one, he was smoking every 20 minutes. However, during smoking one of his many fags, the train jerked, he put his arm out to stop himself from falling, the window was open, and he managed to fall onto a metal bar,  breaking a couple of ribs. What a great start to the weekend!

They stated on the description for the train that there would be bands and DJ's playing on it, so we set ourselves up for a proper gig on a train...we were handed headphones and could choose to listen to a couple of idiots play average music and play boring games the whole journey. Upon arrival, and getting our bags checked, one friend had 17 cans of Strongbow confiscated for no apparent reason. But all was forgotten the next day when we woke up with a beautiful view of  Loch Ness, and managed to hear a few local legend tales from a taxi driver taking us to the local Tescos.

Without a doubt, the best band of the weekend were Momford and Sons. As soon as I saw them on the line up, I knew I was going to attend the festival, and they did not let me down. Another favourite were the Errors, I’ve seen them a couple of times before, and as they are not that well known, the crowd was minimal, so we could stand right at the front. There were a couple camped next to us, who insisted we watch Knife Party with them, they described them as 'dirty, grimy dubstep'. They weren't wrong. Some of the best dubstep I’ve heard in a long time, definitlely going to keep my eye out for any London gigs.

All in all a top weekend. Fantastic line-up and incredible location. Would I recommend it? Definitely, but I would take a normal train up to Inverness, it does cost more, but takes only 8 hours, as the 14 hour journey home was brutal!

(a special thanks to William House for the fantastic photographs @that_guywill )

Django Django

One of my favourite things about writing a blog is people recommending new bands to me. My uncle told me about this band called Django Django (I want to claim that I discovered this band myself as they're so cool, but don't think I could get away with it as Uncle Jem reads my blog).

They are a four piece band from Scotland, which is evident in the vocals in their songs, as they harmonise beautifully with a hint of the Scottish accent.

I recently read an article describing something called the 'Gossip Effect'. This is referring to the fact that if your song is played on an episode of Skins, then it is A. probably an awesome song, and B. going to be a big success. This comes from the fact that The Gossips 'Standing in the way of control' went on to be a massive hit after being played on the first series of the show. A recent example of this is Azealia Banks' '212', which was played at the beginning of the first episode of this series, and can now be heard all over the place. Django Django's 'Default' was also played in this series, and I'm now beginning to hear it more and more, for example on last weeks Made in Chelsea.

As well as 'Default', check out 'Love's dart' and 'WOR'. Some of their songs do vary in style, but it's what makes them so unique.

Django Django are starting their UK tour the end of this month, kicking off in Southampton. They are also playing at The Great Excape Festival; Brighton, Field Day Festival; London and Parklife Festival in Manchester. So don't miss out, as they are probably worth seeing whilst still playing small gigs, before they go onto the arena tours!

Playlist of the Week vol.2

I have been a tad lazy as of lately. Apologies. Although in that time I have discovered some artists that I can't wait to blog about!

I'm going to blow the cobwebs away by discussing my new 'Playlist of the Week' (although it has been several weeks since my last one). On Facebook I see a lot of status' about people wanting to know names of 'chillout' artists to listen to, and thats exactly who this playlist caters for. It started with a mixture of genres on there, but i decided to go the whole hog and only add mellow songs to the playlist. So here it is:

Groove Armada - My Friend

Zero 7 - Destiny

FC Kahuna - Hayling

David Holmes - 69 Police

Rjd2 - Ghostwriter

Alex Clare - Too Close

Chris Isaac - Wicked Game

Django Django - Loves Dart

LMNTL ft. Angela McClusky - I'm Not the Girl

Morcheeba - World Looking In

Norah Jones - Come Away With Me

Rjd2 - Smoke and Mirrors

A lot of these songs I discovered on films or adverts (I am now like lightening when using the Shazam app, before the advert finishes), so you may recognise a few. And I sincerely apologise that you have to look these songs up yourself on YouTube, but I'm not good at using computers, and have not yet discovered how to get the songs to play on the blog, any help would be much appreciated. Heres a few of my favourites, incase you don't have time to look them up. 

Fc Kahuna - Hayling

Morcheeba - World Looking In

As you can see Rjd2 are there twice, this is because they are me NFD (new favourite discovery). Their song 'Ghostwriter' is played at the beginning of the film Wimbledon. Its what got me hooked, and I don't think I'll ever get bored of it. You also my be questioning why Alex Clare is up there, but he fits into the 'advert' category, and I also find the dub in this song more relaxing than something I want to dance to.

Rjd2 - Smoke and Mirrors

I'm not going to let you know my opinion of Django Django just yet, as I have half written another blog about them, so keep your eyes peeled. 

Coachella 2012 - 3D Tupac

Personally, Coachella looks like the coolest festival of all time, therefore Im making sure i will be attending in 2013!

I haven't checked out all the highlights yet, but the most amazing thing I've seen is the 3D image of the late Tupac they projected onto the stage to perform with Snoop Dogg. Im not a huge fan of hip hop, but still have my moments, as I'm a massive fan of Jurassic 5. But this seems, if you were at Coachella, to be unmissable. Check it out below, and look at how realistic it really is, as he even moves in sync with Snoop.  

The idea is incredible, and I think Coachella have introduced us to the future of festivals. So, will we be seeing Elvis, Michael or Amy at Glastonbury next year?

Playlist of the Week

Ok, so I've decided to sort out my iTunes. Because unorganised iTunes = unorganised life. Iv'e deleted a shit load of unnecessary playlists, and kept about 4. One playlist Iv'e decided to create is 'Playlist of the Week'. It's concept is to have my favourite songs that I'm listening to at the moment (but will probably get bored by next week as a result of overplaying). It consists of old and new songs, some of which i have recently rediscovered, and also some that i may have already blogged about. So here's this weeks:

The Wombats - Jump into the Fog

The Black Keys - Psychotic Girl

Florence & the Machine - No Light, No Light

The xx - Intro

The Black Keys - Gold on the Ceiling

M.I.A. ft. Timbaland - Come Around

The xx - Come Around

The Black Keys - Lonely Boy

The xx - Infinity

Drapht - Jimmy Recard

Azealia Banks - 212

The Horrors - Still Life

The Wombats

The Horrors

Florence

Fine, I might have blogged about 90% of the tracks on it. Yesterday I rediscovered The Wombats 'Jump into the Fog', its such an awesome song, but a one off i think, apart from their good stuff at the beginning of their career, which was pretty good. I had it on repeat when it was released about a year ago, and it will be for the rest of the week! I have also discovered The Horrors 'Still Life' recently, it's such a beautiful song, and although it makes one feel a bit down, it will also be on repeat all week. 

I think everyone should have a Playlist of the Week, but if you have trouble making your own, just use mine!

Azealia Banks

My friend introduced me to Azealia banks, after she discovered them after re-watching the first episode of this series of Skins.

The song 212 is absolutely incredible. However, when I listened to her other stuff, it's all actually quite wank. 212 is an exception, along with Bambi, which is ok. It's probably because it's not my kind of music, perhaps 212 is so good because she worked with Lazy Jay. The lyrics are a bit explicit, so when my friend showed me the song, she thought it best to say the lyrics 'I guess this cunt gettin' eatin'' out loud rather than play the song in front of her mother.

Iv'e also started getting a lot more into M.I.A., who reminds me of Azealia. She again has some good songs (Paper Planes, as everyone knows). But when listening to more of her stuff, she again has produced some crap, but things like Come Around, featuring Timbaland are amazing, along with my fave Bucky Done Gun. I just wish these female rappers would produce constant good shit!

Azealia has just released a new track, Fuck Up the Fun, produced by Diplo. Again, not a huge fan of this. She's playing quite a few festivals this summer, including Wakestock, Leeds/Reading and Parklife in Manchester, so i'm sure ill see her at some point, but after looking at some of her live videos on YouTube, I'm not sure if its worth it.

I hope Azealia brings out more tracks as good as 212 in the future, as she clearly has potential, i just hope it wasn't a one off. Or maybe I should just change my taste in music...

Azealia Banks

M.I.A.

Nicki Minaj

Eve