It is supposed to be summer... Virtual Festival 1

It's the 4th July - which is just another day here in the UK, but it is supposed to be a summer day. Is that so? - fat chance!
Worse still, the radio stations have gone to pot as well. It is, and this is clearly an import from the US, the 'High School Prom' season and while that is a fairly recent import in the UK calendar, and with which I do not have a problem, I really wonder if what the radio stations have decided to play "in honor" bears a resemblance to any contemporary trend!
It seems to consist mostly of pop and disco ballads from 1975 -1988, which were all released far before the current protagonists were born. I'm not against the revival of old music, far from it in fact, but I think that this programming is actually aimed at an older audience - probably the parents of those school-leavers.

The radio was turned off early this evening and the advantage of having a sizable music collection of my own, whether currently in vogue or not, became very apparent and I'm old enough to make my own bad choices in music! I did think about the possibility of doing a mid-year 'favourites' list but have decided to do something different over the next few days and that is to try and decide which acts would appear, if I were arranging a festival line-up this so-called summer, and I will exclude any act that I have already seen performing live.

Every festival needs at least one infectious feel-good band and this would be my first choice:

This is a live DVD, recorded at Pure Groove in London in 2008.

In the last couple of years the seemingly impossible has happened and the UK has taken at least some notice of 'country music' if only in the cross-over formats. That said, this has to be one of the most improbable artists to play a part in that change...

This is a promo copy (PROP 05309) of Cock A Hoop (2003).

Since then she has returned to Wales and, as she is bilingual, may well reappear later in this list.

Reality Check - Part 3: Get What You Want.

There are more Australians currently on tour in the UK and they might just treat you as though you were still at primary school - if, of course, you are one of the lucky ones.

The teenage bolshiness is quite understandable but surely few younger than Simon Nichol, Peter Knight and Dave Swarbrick ( b. April 1941), variously of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span and all almost certainly much older than her parents, would even dream of being credible while wielding a rather non-threatening electric fiddle?

"Just shut up - you have paid to hear us play!"
Taylor Henderson of Operator Please.

Telling the audience how to behave is another matter entirely and getting away with it is quite an achievement; she seems to have another weapon at the ready so it is probably not the best time to ask any awkward questions anyway.

See them live and they're happy to scribble on your latest purchase, just like a child might, but the performance is very good. In fact child-like they certainly are not and the vocals of, and lyrics by, Amandah Wilkinson are fair proof of that.

Get What You Want - 7" vinyl (BRILS285).

The album 'Yes, Yes Vindictive' sees a full UK release (Vinyl, CD and download) on 17th March 2008 and it would be most welcome, since it is so made for summer, if they could include some weather from Queensland with it. They probably can't but if you pre-order the album from them, and according to their blog, London's Puregroove Records might just treat you with a bonus DVD of the band's recent in-store appearance! In any case, if you want the 12" version, it is much cheaper from Puregroove than from amazon.co.uk who, I can promise, will not give you a bonus DVD!

More new artists for 2008...

Real talent will out and with talent like this who needs reality TV music contests?

The first is, after perhaps Adele, the singer-songwriter that has recently occupied more column inches in the newspapers as the release of her début album Rockferry moves closer.

If the single 'Rockferry', released in December 2007 and of which this is the artwork of the 7" version, is anything to go by the hype is justified. Duffy comes from NW Wales but Rockferry is a mythical location in it - well not that mythical, this is actually Porthmadog Harbour station in disguise! The deliberately retro-look of the black and white picture is quite understandable and so, I believe, is much of the hype surrounding this release. Last week she played her first live gig in London, at a small venue, and the reactions that have filtered out from those who were there is one of bewilderment: they expected it to be good but not even half as good as it was.

This should be the album artwork and it is due for release on 3rd March . It is currently #12 in amazon.co.uk music pre-orders fully five weeks before release, which suggests a very high entry on the week of release.

Cob Records is indeed a proper old-fashioned music store and it is also to be found in Porthmadog High Street, virtually opposite the aforementioned station.

Now some bands:
Foals are widely tipped to explode across the face of the UK in 2008, in perhaps the kind of way that The Klaxons achieved last year. Again they have worked up a huge live following before the release of their first album Antidotes, due 24th March. Expect them to be at many of this summer's festivals.

Ubiquitous at last summer's festivals were the outrageously entertaining Brazilians CSS who will return with their second album in the early summer of 2008. This summer they might even have some southern hemisphere competition and if they do I suspect it will come from a five-piece whose combined age is only about 20% more than Mick Jagger's!

They hail from Queensland, Australia and they are Operator Please! Their first album has not yet had a full UK release but it is neither too hard or too costly to find an Australian import copy.

Yes Yes Vindictive - Operator Please!