slowthai performing live in Manchester during his March 2022 UK and Ireland tour (Gary Mather for Live4ever)
Our round-up of the main stories we featured during the past seven days includes new music from slowthai and a return to the UK for The War On Drugs.
slowthai is back with a new single entitled ‘i know nothing‘ which is leading a campaign from Beats By Dre aimed at highlighting social media pressures on today’s football stars.
“Social media can and should be used as a tool for connection and good but instead it serves to gloat and punch down,” slowthai said. “It fails to show the harsh reality we live in, which can lead to isolation and depression. Let’s lift each other up.”
Tyron Frampton aka released his second full length TYRON last year, summed up by Live4ever as, ‘messy and sweet one moment, angry or mischievous the next’.
Little Simz, Dave, Headie One and Kendrick Lamar are some of the artists nominated for this year’s MOBO Awards.
Simz will be looking to follow-up her triumph at last month’s Mercury Prize and is up against Aitch, Knucks, Kojey Radical, M Huncho and Miraa May for Album Of The Year, while Dave is up for Best Male Act and Song Of The Year.
The MOBOs are moving back to London for the ceremony’s 25th anniversary, with an eye on ‘celebrating its legacy’ according to Kanya King.
Stormzy will top All Points East at Victoria Park in London on Friday, August 18th next year on what’s being dubbed ‘This Is What We Mean Day’ when he’ll also curate the line-up for that date.
“I was thinking what’s next cos we’ve done 3 O2s shut that down,” the grime star said. “I said to the team we gotta do something bigger something better something different. We were having back to back meetings bouncing ideas.”
“Then it hit me I started jotting down ideas thinking – live band need a live band. August 2023 a summer time thing outside for the people always for my people. So August 2023 Victoria Park more info coming soon….This Is What We Mean Day. Hard.”
The War On Drugs by Shawn Brackbill
The War On Drugs will be back in the UK and Europe next June for more live shows after the 2021 release of I Don’t Live Here Anymore.
Gigs in Brighton, Cornwall, Glasgow and Halifax will follow the UK tour of earlier this year when Live4ever caught the band at Leeds’ First Direct Arena.
“This UK tour has been one of those increasingly regular ones jumping from arenas to academies, and there is a sense that The War On Drugs are currently occupying that slightly awkward position between the two, where venues like the O2 Arena in London and the O2 Academy in Birmingham can be navigated on consecutive nights,” our review reads.
Peter Gabriel will play UK shows in Birmingham, London, Glasgow and Manchester next year as part of a European tour which is due to open in Krakow, Poland on May 18th.
“It’s been a while and I am now surrounded by a whole lot of new songs and am excited to be taking them out on the road for a spin,” Gabriel said. “Look forward to seeing you out there.”
Songs from the forthcoming album ‘i/o’ are promised along with select cuts from his extensive back catalogue.
Download Festival 2023 will be headlined by Slipknot, Bring Me The Horizon and Metallica (playing no-repeat sets on the Thursday and Saturday) between June 8th-11th.
The three bands lead other confirmed performers for next year which include Evanescence, Disturbed, Pendulum, Architects, Ghost, The Distillers, Placebo, Alexisonfire, Asking Alexandria and Nova Twins.
“We are next-level honoured to once again come back and partake in the Download shenanigans on the hallowed grounds of Castle Donington, which has an unparalleled place in rock history,” Metallica responded as they prepare to make their return to the event after more than ten years.
