London, UK (Virgin Mobile) - This summer the 11th annual V Festival, sponsored by Virgin Mobile, will be taking the music scene by storm. The Dandy Warhols, Imogen Heap, Kano, Richard Hawley, Matt Willis, Biffy Clyro, The Boy Least Likely To,
Morning Runner and Bleeker St are all fresh signings, soon to be giving music lovers a taste of the best sounds the industry has to offer, over the weekend of 19-20th August.
The acts, seven of whom will be making their debut performances at V this year - join headliners Radiohead, co-headliners Morrissey and Faithless as well as The Charlatans, Orson, The Magic Numbers, We Are Scientists and Hard-Fi among others. They also bring us ever closer to the final 80 plus acts to play across four stages, to over 135,000 fans when V returns to Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire.
A Festival spokesperson says:
'The V Festival is all about offering a wide variety of music genres to its fans and this announcement alone does just that. With many more acts yet to be announced we are in no doubt that lovers of a wide cross section of music will be catered for at V every year.'
Hailing from Portland, Oregan, The Dandy Warhols make super-seductive music for the head and hips. The band has covered so much new musical ground with their trademark mix of seamless rock and country blues and with an impressive five albums under their belt to date, V lovers sure have something to look forward to this summer.
Having recorded the theme to the box office blockbuster 'The Chronicles of Narnia' and 'The OC', Imogen Heap has been in demand on both big and small screens - not to mention the stereos and iPods of a host of fans hooked to her dulcet tones. She is touted as one of the biggest UK exports stateside this year having hit 100,000 over the counter sales while on UK shores she has been named 'the first download diva'. This is thanks to her increasing popularity on myspace.com where she is proving more successful than Madonna and the Arctic Monkeys.
Kano has travelled far from the East London grime scene to winning the Best Newcomer award at the Urban Music Awards in 2004. He is currently working with Mike Skinner and the Mitchell Brothers and came third in the BBC's increasingly influential industry poll 'Sound of 2005'. With new material on the way he is leaving competition looking decidedly one-dimensional.
From R'n'B to earthy rock n' roll, Richard Hawley's career has been varied to say the least. Add to this the fact that he has recently produced songs for Nancy Sinatra and you cant help but agree with him when he says he's been around. His journey continues with a debut V Festival performance sure to go down a storm with fans at this years event.
Having already achieved multi-platinum album sales, sold out Wembley 11 times in 2004 and scored four number ones as part of Busted, Matt Willis has smashed the received wisdom about what members of pop groups do when they grow up and go solo. The as yet untitled debut album, is a full on, balls out monster of a record, with a sound that Matt accurately describes as 'stadium pop' – think Robbie, Green Day and Van Halen jamming underneath a firework display.
Hailing from Scotland, Biffy Clyro have built up an impressive and loyal fanbase through a gruelling and seemingly non-stop tour schedule that has taken the band from the tiniest, most gig-starved outposts of the British Isles to huge dates with the likes of the Deftones. The band, who still rehearse in the same windowless YMCA room in Glasgow they've always used, are set to release their fourth album this year.
The Boy Least Likely To are a band playing disco music with a country heart and sublime pop moments tinged with English folk eccentricity. Jof and Peter met whilst at school in Buckinghamshire and having toured with James Blunt, are soon to embark on their own tour before descending on V this summer.
Formed in Reading shortly after the turn of the century, Morning Runner who consist of Matthew, Tom, Ali and Fields had an aim to write and perform great songs far beyond their ability and to have a laugh in the process. The end product has influences from their love of Radiohead, the Strokes, Elbow and Grandaddy.
The line up so far… RADIOHEAD - MORRISSEY - FAITHLESS - BECK - RAZORLIGHT - KASABIAN - PAUL WELLER - HARD-FI - KEANE - BLOC PARTY - FATBOY SLIM - GROOVE ARMADA- THE CHARLATANS - THE MAGIC NUMBERS - EDITORS - THE ORDINARY BOYS - STARSAILOR - WE ARE SCIENTISTS - THE DANDY WARHOLS - THE GO! TEAM - RUFUS WAINWRIGHT - THE CARDIGANS - SUGABABES -JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD - KUBB - ORSON - BIFFY CLYRO - THE FEELING- GAVIN DEGRAW - DELAYS - GIRLS ALOUD - IMOGEN HEAP - KANO - RICHARD HAWLEY - DANIEL POWTER - MATT WILLIS - PHOENIX- THE RIFLES - THE SAW DOCTORS - BIC RUNGA - THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO - MORNING RUNNER - BLEEKER ST
Tickets for this year's festival have completely sold out! Check out www.vfestival.com for further artist updates and information. To register for FREE text alerts about the festival text 'yes' to 80310.
