Here it is folks – the definitive guide to which local acts will be taking on Splendour 2013! Last year’s festival marked a turning point in Notts music history with more home-grown acts than ever before in the lineup. For 2013, Splendour has stepped it up yet again with FOUR Nottingham artists confirmed for the Main Stage and many more spread across the whole festival. Not only that, but for the first time ever in the history of Splendour a local artist will be playing the coveted headline spot, if ya can’t already tell WE ARE EXCITED!
MAIN STAGE
Since her discovery a year ago at last year’s FSoN semi-finals, INDIANA has been sending ripples of excitement throughout the music world. Sultry vocals that know no bounds of awe, her stripped back performances laden with fragility have seen this seemingly shy newcomer become one of Nottingham’s hotly tipped talents. Playing the slot that Mr Bugg nailed last year (an omen perhaps…?), INDIANA will be right at home on the Main Stage. In fact we’re already starting to wonder where she might feature next year!
Splendour favs DOG IS DEAD return for 2013 with their biggest slot yet at their favourite festival. With humble beginnings simply as a bunch of friends playing together after school (find out more about their story HERE), the quintet have evolved into Big Pop pioneers with a successful debut album and string of sell-out gigs tucked neatly under their belts. Their catchy choruses, nostalgia-tinged lyrics and impeccable five-part harmonies make for solid gold anthems that have placed the boys on the road to Indie stardom.
Playing his third consecutive Splendour, JAKE BUGG has steadily crept up the line up on each appearance. Now, having scored a number one album with his debut, a sell-out European tour and secured a series of festivals (including the Pyramid Stage at Glasto), Jake returns to headline in his hometown. His wry, witty lyrics suggest experience beyond his 19 years and are complimented by punchy choruses and a distinctive, Dylan-esque vocal that would have him at home in 1965. A proven asset to British music – Splendour welcomes back JAKE BUGG! This will be a massive moment for JAKE, his family and the whole Nottingham music scene.
AND REMEMBER! The chance is still there for a fourth Nottingham artist to bag the opening slot on the Main Stage by entering our Future Sound of Nottingham 2013 competition. Details announced so far can be found on the New Music Podcast HERE.
JAGERMEISTER STAGE
The Jagermeister Stage is back for 2013 bringing you a bit of everything, from Soul to Grunge to Indie. Here’s a rundown of the local acts to look out for on the Stage:
Sure to turn Splendour into a full blown Céilidh are FEROCIOUS DOG. Twisted Folk with touches of Ska and Reggae, their sets are always filled with fun, Folk and a fiddle. Have a listen and a dance to them on the Podcast HERE.
One of the standouts from last year’s festival SAINT RAYMOND’s Acoustic Pop is clever, catchy and completely fun. A guaranteed smile-raiser, one listen to ‘Bonfires’ on the Podcast HERE and you’ll be singing it for days.
Argubly the standout local performer of Splendour 2012, ROB GREEN had the crowd jumping, singing and dancing on the Leftlion Stage last year with his incredibly energised performance. No doubt he will be doing the same this time round! Check out his Future Session with us HERE.
Effortlessly cool and enviably talented are Grunge prodigies KAGOULE. Big sounds and intoxicating melodies, KAGOULE are festival headliners in the making. Catch them on the Podcast HERE to see what we mean.
NCN/ LEFTLION STAGE
Located in the courtyard, the NCN Stage (and still also the Leftlion one, tag team!) can always be relied on to bring you the freshest local talent in an intimate and atmospheric setting.
Smokey-sweet Soul that’s earned her praise as the next Amy Winehouse, HARLEIGHBLU is set to take the world by storm with her upcoming album release. Gorgeous vocals and brooding melodies, have a listen on the New Music Podcast HERE.
He’s built up a steady allegiance of dedicated fans through incredible covers and JOEL BAKER’s original pieces are proving even more addictive! A guy, a guitar and a whole load of talent, have a listen to Joel (along with some words of wisdom) on the latest Podcast HERE.
Utterly swoon-worthy, INJURED BIRDS will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Perfectly crafted melancholic rock that is getting them national recognition, do yourself a favour and have a listen on the Podcast HERE.
One of our leading ladies of folk, GEORGIE ROSE is gifted with a voice that will send shivers down your spine. Add to that a captivating stage presence, Americana influences and enviable song writing abilities and you have something truly special. Have a look at her Future Session HERE.
Get some whiskey, a rocking chair and plug yourself into RYAN THOMAS. Clever songwriting that transports you to the Deep South, his Old-Man Blues is a complete breath of fresh air. With the blingest guitar we’ve ever seen in the studios. check him out in Session HERE.
Relative newbies ONEGIRLONEBOY are taking Nottingham by storm with their dark Indie Rock. A quirky duo set for big things, check out their Session HERE and you’ll be hooked too.
With the strongest roster of Nottingham artists to play the festival so far, Splendour 2013 is set to be one helluva day! If you really want to get in the mood, check out the Nusic highlights video from 2012 HERE.
Full Splendour lineup & details can be found on the Official Website HERE.
Yours in Love of New Music,
Maddie Hammond. X
Ps. Did I mention it was in Batman’s back garden…?
SPREADING THE LOVE was our theme for twenty twelve and now its back for twenty thirteen with even bigger and better love vibes!
The idea of #SpreadTheLove is to encourage the spreading of good vibes about other artists for no reason other than a genuine love of what they do. In the process of all this you can win yourself an incredibly opportunity, all for being a lovely person spreading the Nottingham music love. Love, love, love.
The artist that spreads the most love will win an automatic place at the Future Sound of Nottingham semi finals, securing the amazing opportunity to compete for a chance to perform alongside JAKE BUGG, DOG IS DEAD and INDIANA on the main stage at Splendour. The Deadline is 1pm 25th April, the winner will be announced on the podcast on Monday 29th April, so get Spreading The Love.
How to Win / Rules
- Tag us @FeelTheNusic or on Facebook/FeelTheNusic so we can see and count your LOVE SPREAD.
- Call us on the Nusic Love Line 07899 872317 to do your LOVE SPREADING.
- Use at least one of the hashtags #NottsLove #SpreadTheLove.
- LOVE SPREADING means it must be about some else not you!
- We suggest you tag the other artist so they can see you being lovely about them, this often starts off a positive chain reaction of LOVE SPREADING.
- Please honour the spirit of the competition, if you LOVESPREAD ‘some one else’ who we know you actually manage, sleep with etc this will not be counted. The idea of #SpreadTheLove is to reach and spread good vibes about other artists because they inspire you and you love what they do, not cause it fulfills a self-interest.
- Repeating the same LOVESPREAD does not count.
- Only the initial LOVESPREAD counts as a LOVESPREAD, for example if on Twitter a conversation develops this is great and is good for both artists virally but it does not count as further LOVE SPREADING.
NOTES
- No limit on how many times you Spread The Love.
- LOVE SPREADING about covers will not count, we are focused on encouraging original song writing.
- LOVE SPREADING relating to competitions (other than FSN obviously!) WILL be counted but will NOT be retweeted, passive followers who aren’t registering the FSN context would perceive us as being biased.
- We’ll operate this just like a professional broadcaster would so no members of the Nusic team or their family can win, they’re obviously welcome to Spread The Love!
- Please remember the spirit here; we’re trying to help our musicians, giving them much deserved exposure for being awesome.
- At times when we’re getting overloaded by love (such a thing is possible!) we will stop retweeting (so we don’t lose followers due to tweeting too much) but we assure you we will still be keeping score.
You might have picked up over the years we were rather keen to see a Nottingham artist get to Number One. Since then a few of you having been asking what we will Nusic do next. Pursue a second number one? Start our own band? Retire and move to Vegas? Well we’ve been having a think, talking to some of you and we’ve decided we’re going to start a band in Vegas, and you can all come visit. Until the bands ready though we thought we’d share some ideas on what we see coming next here in Notts…
Still being somewhat obsessed with the number ‘One’, we have a working title in our heads; ‘Make Nottingham Number One’. We know that sounds a bit naff but bear with us here, this breaks down into these three very non-naff aspirations:
AS MANY NOTTINGHAM MUSICIANS AS POSSIBLE MAKING A LIVING FROM MUSIC. Fundamentally this is what Nusic has always been about, trying to help as many musicians as possible START on the path to making a living doing what they love. We can’t get ya a main stage slot at Glastonbury, but we can help create the belief in yourself that that dream is achieveable.
THE CONTINUED GROWTH OF THE NOTTINGHAM ‘MUSIC INDUSTRY’. From labels to sound engineers, from venues to artist management, we aspire to see all aspects of the Nottingham music industry flourish. JAKE and DOG IS DEAD have shown how much can be achieved from right here in Nottingham.
NOTTINGHAM RECOGNISED NATIONALLY AS BEING HOME TO A BUZZING MUSIC SCENE. Masses of media coverage talking positively about Nottingham, setting off countless ripples of encouragement amongst both current and next generation musicians. We’re already close, we all feel it but does the rest of the UK? They possibly see JAKE as a one-off.
WHICH ALL RESULTS IN
NOTTINGHAM BEING A MOTHER FLIPPING AMAZING PLACE FOR AN ARTIST TO PURSUE THEIR MUSICAL DREAM
Nottingham’s success over the last year means that how Nusic (and indeed all of us) can make a difference has changed. There is less to lobby for when the Council is draping it’s HQ in New-Music-Ness, the tourist board is shouting about Notts on the London Underground and your biggest promoter is committed to creating as many opportunities as possible for local artists.
We see the way forward panning out a little bit like this:
1) At a ‘street level’ we will continue our broad strategy of making a ‘small impactful difference’ (SID) to as many musicians as possible. ‘Musical Communism’, as we call it , has proved pretty effective. We can proudly point to making our SID (shame it sounds like STD) to the majority of Nottingham’s success stories from JAKE and DOG IS DEAD to the latest wave such as INDIANA, HARLEIGHBLU and ADY SULEIMAN. Helping as many musicians as possible get started out increases the chances of finding those with the talent (and drive) to make it.
2) We plan to ramp up the educational and inspirational parts of what we do, primarily for musicians, but also for those dreaming of working elsewhere in the music industry . We really hope we can get the School Tours back up and running (they’ve struggled since the Trent FM days), make our Nusic Academy Workshops more regular (the last one had 150 people turn up) plus build our database of inspiring interviews with successful creative industries professionals; whether they are from Glasgow or London we want to enable Nottingham musicians to tap into their wisdom (check out the most recent HERE). We’re also going to start regular Nusic Surgeries where musicians can pop by and seek one-on-one advice on specific issues they are facing be they media, legal or financial.
This all takes a lot of time and resource so we’re grateful to Craig at Confetti, George at DHP, Jared at Leftlion and of course YOU for all your continued support. We’d also like to welcome two new supporters who are going to enable us to spend more time on Nusic and also to create an amazing opportunity in the form of the Nusic Apprenticeship. Which will allow us to support musicians more AND create a great opportunity for a young Notts music industry dreamer. Thank you to Tom at New College Nottingham and Nigel at Nottingham City Council for making this stepping up possible. We launched the Nusic Apprenticeship a fortnight ago to the biggest turnout ever at an NCN Apprentice event. If you’ve applied yourself keep an eye on your email inbox!
3) Building on our now world famous (ish) Spread The Love campaigns is a big goal for 2013. We have some big ideas lined up. For more on our Spread The Love philosophy read HERE. We will be launching our first Spread The Love comp of 2013 on Monday’s podcast. You could secure your place in The Future Sound of Nottingham 2013 simply by being a karmic member of the Notts music community.
4) At a ‘bigger picture’ level we continue to believe in the importance of evangelising beyond the River Trent. Some of JAKE’s lyrics may not paint parts of Notts in the best light but that is countered by the numerous positive messages his success stimulates in national and now international media. The German BBC (ZDF) were at JAKE’s Citeh gig asking punters what makes Nottingham so vibrant right now (vibrant = ‘beschwingt’ in German if you’re interested). Here are a few other recent quotes in and around Nottingham artists (I feel another lamp post campaign coming on Mr and Mrs Council):
XFM - “Nottingham is on fire at the moment”
Radio 1 - “There must be something in the water”
Radio 2 – “Nottingham is the Capital of Music”
In fact the council tell us that in October well over £100,000 worth of positive PR was generated for Nottingham off the success of JAKE , DOG IS DEAD and NATALIE DUNCAN. Incredibly this figure only includes commercial media, add in the BBC and you’re probably looking at over a quarter of million pounds. Supporting individual success to catalyse societal positivity works.
5) More direct support for musicians. At risk of contradicting ourselves here there is still a bit of room for lobbying. We’ll continue to encourage public bodies and big companies to spend resources in this area, one idea is to offer scholarships that help ‘on the brink’ musicians secure the vital PR to tip them over, both helping them and creating more positivity about Nottingham. JAKE has proven our theory that a successful musician can catalyse huge amounts of positive PR for a city, with all the wondrous benefits that brings. Ranging from boosting the internal self esteem of young local musicians through to boosting the appeal of our universities, attracting talented musicians from all over to come and study in Notts. If you know a Nottingham company that would like to sponsor a Nusic Scholarship please let us know.
An exciting year lies ahead Comrade, thanks for letting us pop along for the ride. If we can help you please do get it touch (all the ways we can help are laid out in our FAQ Page at the top) and if you think you can help the cause please do get in touch too.
Twenty Thirteen – it’s your year.
Yours in Love of New Music
Mark Del and the Nusic Team
x
#SpreadTheLove
It is a very rare and special occasion when an album comes out these days that has a very strong chance of being a timeless classic. JAKE BUGG’S debut record isn’t just a very good album from start to finish…it has the potential to spark a revolution of old school Rock n Roll returning to the charts for good.
The chain-smoking local boy is like hundreds of other lads growing up around Nottingham except for one thing – Jake has an incredible song writing ability. The sort of ability that oozes so much talent that it may only crop up once every decade or so. It may be too early to start mentioning the name Bugg in the same sentences as Lennon, Dylan, Gallagher and Turner…but you get the idea.
The first half to the album is non-stop gems, the sort of hits that usually would take a band or artist several albums to churn out. It all kicks off with the boppin Lightning Bolt that starts with a frantic tempo and just builds and builds from there with Jake’s slick street poet lyrics: “Fortune. People talking all about fortune. Do you make it or does it just call you? In the blinkin of an eye, just another passer-by, in the path of lightning bolt.” Finally it all melts together into a screeching guitar thrashing climax.
Two Fingers (The one with the video with the This Is England and Misfits people), is perhaps the best example that boasts just how good a story-teller Bugg is with his song-writing. The tale of him climbing out of the society sink-hole council estate in Clifton were he was brought up. Hearing Clifton referenced in a song that is being played nationally is slightly uncanny and spooky – casting the mind back to Turner referencing Hillsborough, Morrissey referencing Whalley Range or McCartney referencing Penny Lane. The chorus of Two Fingers is possibly one of the high points of the whole 14 track album. A galvanizing peak of raw euphoria that brings every element of Bugg’s charisma and maverick ways together in one fantastic singalong.
The beautiful trouble with this album is that there are about 5 or 6 tracks that keep becoming the personal favourite. Taste It is one of those favourites with its jaunty, rock n roll beat that just takes over and makes you want to bopp n twist like its 1969. Think CHUCK BERRY meets a GALLAGHER backdrop and you are somewhere near.
Track 4 is the track that has been on repeat the most since the album dropped through the letterbox. Seen It All has an almost intimidating power to it. The sort of anthemic vibe that you can imagine a festival crowd roaring back every lyric. Like most of the tracks it has a strong plot-line running through the song like a backbone. Painting a picture of a standard teenager’s weekend in Clifton, “One Friday night I took a pill or maybe two, down at the car park I saw everyone I knew.” The misty-eyed memory of crashing a house party has a euphoric feet-stamping singalong feel to it despite the lyrics being tangibly dark: “But I made my way inside, pass a thousand crazy eyes, then a friend took me aside, said everyone here has a knife.” From the opening chords of Seen It All there is that vibe to it that indicates this song has potential to be a timeless classic, one of the songs that in the future may commonly crop up when people are asked their favourite songs of all time – the sort of OASIS-like massiveness to the tune is crying out to be sung by thousands in arenas and festivals around the country, scratch that, around the world. 
Other stand out highlights on the record include Country Song and Trouble Town. The former showcasing Bugg’s overwhelming maturity beyond his years with his tender voice triggering responses in the brain that few songs do. The latter a barn-storming, cigarette-sparking, beer-spilling hoe-down. The chorus is catchy as hell as and even though the song paints parts of Nottingham as a benefit-scrounging, crime-ridden shithole, we couldn’t care less: “Stuck in speed bump city, Where the only thing that’s pretty, Is the thought of getting out.”
JAKE BUGG’S debut record not only has potential to smash the coveted number one position. It has the potential to sit there for weeks and become a defining album of a generation. The start of a genre shift over the next few years with real guitar music returning to the charts and annihilating the auto tuned nonsense and sugar coated pre-packaged pop. Bring it on.
Yours In Love of New Music,
Tom Hadfield x
STOP PRESS 22:45 17/10 – Jake is currently leading Leona Lewis in the battle for this week’s Numer One album but she is catching, please show your support and buy the album HERE
#Spread The Love
@feelthenusic
@hadfieldreckons
SPREADING THE LOVE has been our theme for twenty twelve and October especially.
We explained in our earlier Editorial how important it is for us all to get behind DOG IS DEAD, JAKE BUGG and NATALIE DUNCAN. How it is in everyone’s interests for those artists to succeed.
THE PRIZES – One lucky winner will win a PERSONALISED SIGNED album from each of JAKE BUGG, DOG IS DEAD and NATALIE DUNCAN. This means the artists will write a brief message of your choice on the album e.g. “Dear Auntie Mabel, Keep it real, JB.” Pretty cool right?
HOW TO WIN -
- Take a photo of yourself (and friends, family, pets ) with one of the below:
+ Our October Banners*
+ Any advert/ banner/ billboard for DOG IS DEAD, JAKE BUGG or NATALIE DUNCAN .
+ Proof of order or pre-order for DOG IS DEAD, JAKE BUGG or NATALIE DUNCAN
- Post that photo online.
- Tag us so we can see it (either on facebook where our page is called ‘Nusic.org.uk – 100% New, Notts Music‘ or twitter where our tag is @FeelTheNusic). We have found twitter to be more reliable.
- All names will be put in a hat and a winner picked at random.
WINNER WILL BE – Notified within 24 hours of the Sunday 21st Oct 11.59pm deadline. We will DM you via the social media platform you posted your photo on. STOP PRESS – deadline extended to Thursday 25th Oct 6pm to include pictures with any Nottingham artist.
*The banners and car park posters around town proclaiming how amazing Nottingham’s music scene is, like THESE.
RULES/ NOTES
- Anyone who entered the first Spread The Love Comp is welcome to enter again BUT it must be with a new image.
- No limit on how many times you enter but each photo must be different.
- We’ll operate this just like a professional broadcaster would so no members of the Nusic team or their family can win, they’re obviously welcome to Spread The Love! In addition no member of any of our supporters can win (but again they can spread the love) – Leftlion, DHP, Confetti, NCC’s Comms Team & One Nottingham.
- Please remember the spirit here, we’re trying to help our musicians, if we’ve missed something we apologise in advance!
