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With Just Jack and The Charlatans having meticulously cut down hundreds and thousands of entries from prospering British musical hopefuls, the voting has begun for the final six battling it out for an opening slot on the V Festival Stage both in Chelmsford and Staffordshire come August alongside the likes of Oasis, The Killers and Snow Patrol…

Having engrained themselves into the binary coding of Scottish nationalism and pieced together more than their fair share of greatest hits compiled of ridiculously memorable singles, you’d be forgiven for thinking that brothers Charles and Craig Reid would be old hands at the promo rounds that pre-empt every record. Yet their ‘appetite to get out […]

What better way to expand the empire founded on this week’s number one album Sunny Side Up than heading out on a UK tour counting the heads of each and every loyal record purchaser? Whilst fans of Paolo Nutini may have to wait until the supposedly ’sunny’ Summer months have passed, the Scot’s 15-night stint’s […]

And then there were six… Following the hoards of entries into this year’s Road to V campaign, mentors Just Jack and The Charlatans have whittled down the masses into a streamlined six. Up first, Birmingham’s 51 Breaks…

Remember the nicotine-stained troubadour musings of South London’s Jamie T? With this month’s show at the capital’s Electric Ballroom selling out in under two hours it’d seem so…

16 (count ‘em) more acts have just been confirmed for this year’s V Festival on 22 & 23 August at Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire. The last remaining tickets for Weston Park, Staffordshire are expected to be snapped up today via www.vfestival.com so don’t miss out and be fast to grab yours now. Calvin Harris and 2 Many DJs join the bill currently headed by Oasis and The Killers. Also added are Jet, Athlete, Human League, Starsailor, Lemar, Will Young, Noisettes, The Proclaimers, Natalie Imbruglia, Red Light Company, Mr Hudson, The King Blues, Tinchy Stryder, Daniel Merriweather and Matt Tracker - who won last year’s Road To V contest.

UK viewers can now see Road to V on Virgin 1. They’re kicking off with a best-of show, featuring some of the highlights of the last few years of Road to V. They’ve also got exclusive interviews with last year’s winners Matt Tracker and The Rebs. They’ll be giving you a real feel of what it’s like to perform at V Festival, in front of thousands of fans. They’ll also be introducing you to Just Jack and The Charlatans – who’ll be acting as mentors for ten lucky finalists, and will let you know what they’re looking for in this years winners, so don’t miss it…

“We as mentors will offer the truth to any band that asks us to talk with them about our experiences.”

Just Jack and The Charlatans will mentor the finalists of Road to V - the UK’s biggest and longest running search for unsigned musical talent, the winners of which will opne this year’s V Festivals in Chelmsford and Stafford.

Elbow are set for a summer of love in 2009, music.virgin.com’s Eleanor Conway will be hot on their heels in true stalker fashion as they prepare for V Festival Sydney sunshine, ahead of their UK dates (including V Festival of course!). On the eve of the hotly commended Wembley Arena gig last week, Eleanor Conway gets down and dirty with the boys from Elbow in this exclusive video interview…

music.virgin.com has finally gone pop! Self confessed indie boy Bob ’skinny jeans’ Fear and urban wannabee Eleanor ‘OG’ Conway hit up pop starlets and general hotties The Saturdays upon the release of their Comic Relief inspired cover of Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough (they even treated us to an exclusive impromptu a cappella performance of the new single). The Saturdays have now been confirmed as playing this year’s UK V Festivals in Chelmsford and Stafford in August - following in the dainty high-heeled footsteps of Girls Aloud last year. We asked them who they would most like to camp with at V Festival so watch the video interview to find out who picked who out of these chosen plus-ones: Michael Jackson, any of Kings Of Leon, fat Elvis, thin Elvis…

V Festival has once again almost completely sold out across both sites only hours after tickets went on sale. Tickets to Hylands Park, Chelmsford sold out in under two hours and only coach packages now remain. The last remaining tickets to Weston Park, Staffordshire are going fast from www.vfestival.com. Tickets went on sale at 10am last Friday…

Oasis and The Killers are set to headline Virgin Media’s V Festival in Chelmsford and Staffordshire on 22 & 23 August. Fatboy Slim, Keane, The Specials, Elbow, Pendulum, The Tings Tings, MGMT and Lady Ga Ga will also be playing at what will be the V Festival’s fourteenth year. The Virgin Mobile Union stage sees lyrical genius Peter Doherty take to the stage and will be joined by a load of other acts to be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets go on sale at 10am on Friday. Read on for details the full lineup so far…

The summer is officially over, so this episode of Eleanor Conway Presents comes ‘atcha from the UK Festival Awards at the O2 indigo, London. Catch up with Eleanor as she chats to Rob Da Bank winner of Best New Festival (Camp Bestival), goes camping with Best Rock Act winners Biffy Clyro and Pete and the Pirates and chats to hat trick winner Michael Eavis (Glastonbury) as he dishes the dirt on Jay Z and next year’s line up.

Liam Fray from The Courteeners says they’ll headline the UK V Festival next year, probably. Okay - so, while backstage at this year’s Chelmsford V Festival, I kind of pushed him in to making that statement and I immediately felt soiled and dirty like some gutter-dwelling tabloid hack but hey, all’s fair in love, rock’n'roll and trying to get that exclusive backstage scoop.

Eleanor Conway presents her video interview with Gotye. Hot off the back of his ARIA award winning successes down under, Gotye embarks on the first leg of his European tour at London indie joint Scala.

Here’s a wee film to show how you can party like there’s no tomorrow at your local friendly V Festival as well save the planet (for all those tomorrows when you’ll be too hungover to notice). These socially responsible punters at this year’s Chelmsford V Festival aptly demonstrate how the circle of life can weave it’s beautiful magic and conjure up beer money from nothing more than other punters’ discarded paper cups. Yes it’s true - empty beer cups = beer money.

I was mightily pleased at having shared a hammock with Bryn Christopher in the Virgin Mobile Louder Lounge at the recent V Festival in Chelmsford. His song Smilin’ is the latest single from his debut album My World and is the perfect end of summer song to get you swinging your thing along to. Check out this video interview with Bryn - and get a sneeky peek inside the Louder Lounge…

So what was the essential fashion item of this year’s V Festival? Well according to these Chelmsford fashionistas (oh and a few celebrity types - but what do they know?) it was either your common or garden welly or your practical hat. Rain or shine it seemed you were no-one if you didn’t have a festival welly or a festival hat this summer. Check out this latest video to see which side of the fashion fence bands such as The Futureheads, The Young Knives, Tokyo Police Club and The Guillemots fall on when pressed for a response on the hard subject of ‘wellies or Converse?’

We have Virgin Festivals in the UK, US, Canada and Australia… and more to come. So where next should we set up camp and hire some of the world’s most amazing bands to play? To get some inspiration I went and asked some famous types backstage at the Chelmsford V Festival this year. Here is my video presentation to Sir Richard Branson with suggestions for the best locations of future VFests. Contributions from The Futureheads, Tokyo Police Club, Noah & The Whale, The Guillemots, The Young Knives and Road To V winners Matt Trakker. Where would your fantasy V Festival be?

What’s the best thing about V Festival in the UK? As these gorgeous Chelmsford types proclaim: the atmosphere! Or is it the beer!? Especially for those poor, sad and sorry misfortunates out there who are hiding in shame at having missed this year’s V Festival - here’s a really annoying teaser video to rub salt in to the gaping wound and show you what you missed. Take a little sneaky peak in to the Virgin Mobile Louder Lounge, as well as taste of the Virgin Mobile Union Stage where it was all kicking off…