Seaside Destinations: UK and Isreal
Hi, this is Gemma Dempsey and welcome to another edition of The Global Gig Guide. This week we head to two seaside destinations in the UK for Barfly’s Great Escape and ATP versus The Fans, and to Israel for the Felicja Blumental Classical Festival.
By Gemma Dempsey • • 5m ListenThe UK’s Barfly organization is dedicated to exposing new musical talent and has hosted early shows by the likes of Coldplay, Blur and Oasis . There are Barfly venues around the British Isles, but there is only one Great Escape held in Brighton in May. Brighton is famed for its Victorian piers, hard rock candy, nudist beach, and Royal pavilion but most of all for its vibrant hip social scene that has drawn many a raver from the big smoke of London 50 miles away – which may be why this festival is called The Great Escape!
Great Escape website for latest additions to the line up and for ticket and travel info.
All Tomorrow’s Parties events are usually curated by music luminaries - but for this May festival they allowed concert goers to vote for half of the artists on the bill –… ATP then contacted the bands and gave them 24 hours to respond before crossing them off and shouting ‘Next!’ Artists who made it onto the Fans list include Wilco, Modest Mouse, Clinic, while the rest of the line up were selected by the ATP organization - Patti Smith, Mogwai , and Sparklehorse amongst many more. As before, they will be taking over the Butlins holiday camp for the weekend so expect ice cream and swimming to go along with a great weekend of music by the beach.
Blumental International Classical Festival.
Named after the virtuoso pianist, this event takes place at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art . Built in 1932 with a later addition of the Helena Rubenstein Pavilion, its famed for its collection of Isreali art and great examples of modern and contemporary works .This year the Blumental festival celebrates 250 years of music by Italian maestro Domenico Scarlatti, as well as an Israeli premiere of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4, an opening concert of Vivaldi’s Gloria complete with audience participation , and Nordic Voices presents Scandinavian work spanning 8 centuries.
Joan Armatrading - If you want to hear some great archived interviews and performances
Check out the KCRW archives – you can hear a 1995 interview and live performance by Joan Armatrading with host Chris Douridas, and Nic Harcourt has had Keane in four times over the years – from pre release to their current work ‘Under the Iron Sea’. All of these shows can be found on KCRW.com.
Otherwise check back with us next week for more information on Global Gigging.
The Brighton Festival May 5 – 27 – The Great Escape is part of a month
Long program of events featuring music, theatre, dance, books & debate and more!
This looks particularly cool – a screening of ‘Run Lola Run’ with a live soundtrack by The Bays
High Line Festival New York May 9 – 19 ,
Curated by David Bowie,
Featuring music, performance, visual art, comedy and film.
Detroits Electronic festival May 26,27,28
Pinkpop festival, Laandgraaf, Netherlands May 26-28
Europe’s oldest pop festival! Bill includes Smashing Pumpkins, Artic Monkeys, Snow Patrol, Amy Winehouse
Ojai Music Festival, California June 8-10
Program includes - The Los Angeles Master Chorale, Nexus, Peter Eotovos, Bugallo-Williams
Fusion Festival Germany June 28 – July 1st
Line up TBD.
Iceland Airwaves music festival October 17-21– featuring Bloc Party, Gus Gus and many