Virgin

The lineup for the Sessions Stage at the UK V Festival has been announced. Mick Jones, formerly of The Clash, and his Carbon/Silicon bandmates (including Tony James of Generation X) will now be gracing VFest. Here’s the full list of the Session Stage artists: Carbon/Silicon, Infadels, Sugarush, Beat Company, Bryn Christopher, Attic Lights, Team Waterpolo, One Eskimo, Lost Boys, The Midway State, Julian Velard, The New York Fund, Gary Go, The Dodos, Iglu And Hartley, Das Pop, Sparkadia, The Rushes, Animal Kingdom, The Troubadors, Arno Carstens, The Hazey Janes and Sons Of Albion.

They join the likes of Muse, The Verve, Kings Of Leon, Amy Winehouse, Kaiser Chiefs, Kooks, Lostprophets, Reverend And The Makers, Hot Chip, The Courteeners, Guillemots, Sam Sparro, Gabriella Cilmi and Noah And The Whale who are all gracing the various V Festival stages at Chelmsford and Stafford over the weekend of 16 & 17 August.

So there you have it - the countdown is well and truly on!

Fancy VIP tickets to the UK V Festival? Fancy blogging your festival adventures on this very website? Well then - fret no more and enter our frankly astonishing Global VPass competition and all of this and more could be yours…

For more Carbon/Silicon photos like this, check out aphrodite-in-nyc’s Flickr photostream.

When I first looked at the line up this year I was delighted to see both Muse and Prodigy were attending V Festival as both are absolute legends. But to my horror when I looked at the days the bands were performing I was given the unholy dilemma of having to choose between the two.

So I have decided to add up the pros and cons of seeing each band. The pros for the Prodigy being that they are a local Essex band, so maybe they would be adding a little bit more to their Chelmsford show to treat the loyal locals? And they’re old boys now so how many more chances will I have to see them? (Not that age has stopped the Rolling Stones - happy birthday Mick by the way.)

I then had the easy task of listing some pros for seeing Muse, them being: They are a proven live band winning shed loads of awards for their breathtaking shows; they are only appearing at one festival this year (this one of course - duh) and finally - where else are you going to air guitar to space age riffs?

The cons however… well to be honest I couldn’t think of any for either band apart from that they are on at the same time as each other, and that’s what got me here in the first place. So I guess I’m still stuck as to who I’m going to see!?

But more importantly the question is who you will decide to see - Prodigy or Muse?

See more Muse photos like this one here on fling93’s Flickr photostream

Hollywood Undead have won the coveted Book The Band competition to open up the Baltimore Virgin Mobile Festival in the US on Sunday August 10. Half a million votes were cast and the mysterious masked ones from LA are now set for even bigger things. You the mouse clicking public have given these emo, hip hop and metal fusionists a shot at the big league - out of MySpace and on to the Pimlico Race Course. They join the awesome lineup that includes the Foo Fighters, Bob Dylan, Offspring, Jack Johnson, Stone Temple Pilots, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, Iggy & The Stooges, Bloc Party, KT Tunstall, Cat Power, Duffy and Chuck Berry.

Virgin Mobile are doing their darndest to make this festival be as green as the pretty leaves on the beautiful trees this year. They’re running a brilliant carpool scheme where you can win prizes such as VIP upgrades if you partake and they have also teamed up with PickupPal to reduce the number of evil gas churning automobiles spluttering on to the site. How thoroughly lovely.

Fancy VIP tickets to Baltimore Virgin Festival? Fancy a Kyocera Wild Card phone? Some cool festival tshirts? Fancy blogging your festival adventures on this very website? Well then - fret no more and enter our frankly astonishing Global VPass competition and all of this could be yours…

Buy tickets now from virginmobilefestival.com

Lostprophets, The Hold Steady, Leon Jean Marie, Talo Cruz and Gabriella Cilmi have all been added to this year’s UK VFestival lineup. They join Muse, Kings Of Leon, The Verve, Amy Winehouse, Kaiser Chiefs, The Kooks and The Prodigy at the two day festival over the weekend of 16 & 17 August at Chelmsford and Stafford. Combined coach & weekend camping tickets are still available from National Express - check out the VFestival website for more details. But better still - nab yourself some free tickets for either Stafford or Chelmsford VFestival by entering our hysterically easy competition. You also get the chance to win a Sony Ericsson W890i Walkman phone and 100 runner up prizes - nice. Win VFestival tickets now!

Check out more Lostphrophets photos like this at Eric Luyten Photography’s Flickr photostream

The awesome Fratellis have been added to the lineup to Calgary Virgin Festival on June 21-22. The Fratellis will play Saturday 21 while Ladyhawk and Cadence Weapon have been added to Sunday’s bill. Glaswegian Fratellis are about to release their first single from their forthcoming album ‘Here We Stand’ which is due out on June 9. ‘Mistress Mabel’ is currently doing the rounds on the radio and indicates that those chirpy Scottish types have got a cracking second album lined up for us to bop along to all summer - just like last year when they were one of the highlights of the UK VFestival. Vancouver’s Ladyhawk are now all set to bring their particular taste of indie rock to the party while Edmonton’s Cadence Weapon promise to throw in a bit of hip-hop to the mix - which can’t be bad. Keep checking back for more lineup anouncements soon :)

Bob Dylan (legend!), Iggy & The Stooges (legends!), Chuck Berry (legend!), The Offspring, Bloc Party, Wilco, Paramore, Lil Wayne and The Swell Season join the bursting-at-the-seams lineup for the US Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore on August 9 & 10. Not only them - but also: KT Tunstall, Duffy, Cat Power, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, The Go! Team, Lupe Fiasco and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club join headliners The Foo Fighters, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, Stone Temple Pilots and Jack Johnson while Moby, Soulwax and Underworld take to the dance tent. I think those canny Americans have done a darn fine job this year if you ask me. Check out virginmobilefestival.com for the full lineup and get your tickets from Tickemaster from 3 May. But I can let you lucky virgin.com/music surfers in to a little secret… head on over to Ticketmaster from 10am on 1 May, enter VMOF and get your hands on some pre-sale tickets - bargain! Don’t ever say I don’t give you the scoop when you need it. So what do you reckon to the lineup?

More acts have been confirmed for the UK VFestival lineup: Calvin Harris, Estelle, Air Traffic, The Stranglers, The Delays, The Presets, Sam Sparro, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Royworld, The Script, Alphabeat and Captain now join August’s two-day fest in both Chelmsford and Stafford. So with yet more acts still rumoured to join these alongside Muse, The Verve and Kings Of Leon - who else do you want to see play VFestival!? I’ve still got my fingers crossed for Goldfrapp and Roisin Murphy…

see more lovely Calvin Harris photos on Neil Dorgan’s Flickr photostream

Yeee-hah. Still fuzzy-headed and in need of a pint of Bloody Mary to help us recover from all four Australian VFestivals… the ultimate hangover cure comes along. Yes - Virgin Festival Calgary raises it’s curtains to the lucky Canadians for the very first time revealing the awesome lineup of Stone Temple Pilots, The Tragically Hip, The Flaming Lips (big yay!), Three Days Grace, Matthew Good, City And Colour and Stars. Check out virginfestival.ca/calgary for the full lineup. Get those button-clicking fingers ready coz early bird tickets go on sale today, YES TODAY at 10am MST until Friday 11 April 5pm MST. Grab your early birdies now! Otherwise you have to join the virtual queue with all the normal smelly punters for the general release date of Saturday 12 April at 10am MST from Futureshop or Ticketmaster. Or you can even pick up the old blower and dial 403-777-0000. Heck, you could even get off your skinny arses and go along to an actual real-life Future Shop or Ticketmaster outlet. Revolutionary. There’s just no excuse.  Stay logged on to virgin.com/music for more gossip as soon as I can invent some… See ya later pardner (now I will stop with the crap cowboy-isms)

Blimey, you wait six months in the long bleak winter with fluff-all festival-going joyness then, like the proverbial London bus, loads all come along at once. I’m quite dizzy with Virgin Festival excitedness. So here I am in Sydney, Australia (why is everyone so darn healthy here? My Antipodean workmates are up at 6.30 am doing yoga in the Botanical Gardens while I’m dragging myself in to conciousness with coffee and banana bread) and my trainers are still caked in mud from the Gold Coast VFestival and I have to think about how to get to Melbourne and Perth this weekend to take in the next leg of the Australian VFest tour. Just about got my fuzzy brain around that one when, still raw from the Toronto Virgin Festival announcement (Foo Fighters! Oasis! Bloc Party! Stereophonics!) I find that those sneaky guys from Virgin Mobile in the US have unleashed yet another awesome lineup upon the world. Stone Temple Pilots! Kanye West! Nine Inch Nails! Jack Johnson! Yay - more Foo Fighters! Hardcore yet chilled - the perfect diverse VFest lineup that keeps us all hooked. So the Baltimore date is now in my ever-growing festival diary - August 9 & 10 at the Pimlico Race Course it is. Check out virginmobilefestival.com for more details. I may need to take a power nap now in order to get me through the next few days…

Oasis and Foo Fighters will headline the third annual Virgin Festival Toronto this year on 6 &  7 September. Bloc Party, Paul Weller, Stereophonics, Wintersleep, Spiritualized, The Weakerthans, Constantines and The Pigeon Detectives are also part of the brilliant line-up announced today. Tickets will be on sale Saturday 29 March 12 pm EST at select Future Shop locations, futureshop.ca, all Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.ca, or by calling 416-870-8000. Lucky lucky Virgin Mobile members can get their hands on Early Bird tickets before anyone else - so keep your ears plugged in to your mobile. Good news or what!? As soon as I hear more gossip from the very nice Canadian types I’ll be sure to pass it on, in the meantime check out virginfestival.ca for more details…

Little Red have won Australia VFestival’s very own Garage To V contest. The five man outfit from Melbourne were crowned as the undisputed kings of unsigned bands and they will now open all four VFestivals across Australia. Hurrah! Take a listen to their track ‘Waiting’ over on the official Garage To V website and while you’re there take a butchers at the videos from the heats in Perth and Melbourne. Looks like Aussie audiences will be in for a treat with these guys getting things going. Fitting spikily somewhere between a popular 60’s pop combo, Talking Heads and Franz Ferdinand these young whippersnappers have nicked the best hooks, riffs and trousers from the past few decades and, with a bit of an arch twist involving not one, not two - but three boy vocalists, bring something fresh, perky and harmonious to proceedings. Easy to see why these lads, in all their matching suit glory, swung the judges’ votes. I’m sure those Australian record company bigwigs will be swooping in on them over the next few weeks so, while the boys grease themselves up in readiness, make the most of the raw and unplucked Little Red while you can still get within frisking distance. I’ll hopefully catch up with them when I’m over in Australia for the VFestivals so keep your eyes and ears peeled (can you peel your ears? Well you can try I guess) for more here very very soon…

Want to keep up to date with the latest UK VFestival news, ticket info and lineup announcements on your mobile? By the miraculous wonder of mobile telecommunication wizadry, Virgin Mobile can now feed your very own phone with all the gumpf you can possibly stomach to fulfil your voracious appetite for all things VFestival. So now there’s no excuse not to be that smug git who seems to know all the latest gossip from those mysterious inside ’sources’. Even on the actual weekend those Virgin Mobile genii will text you backstage gossip as it happens. All you have to do is text NORTH (if you want to know all things Stafford) or SOUTH (if you want to know all things Chelmsford) to 80310. Go on, text till your fingers bleed. Rock’n'roll.

Cue trumpets, Wurlitzer, scantily-clad dancing girls, synchronized swimmers, ticker tape, fireworks and that bloke who does all those deep-voiced movie trailers - the UK VFestival lineup has been announced! Hurrah and huzzah! Who? Who? Who? Okay, okay, okay. I can see you’re scrolling down already to avoid all this bloody annoying time-wasting preamble so here you are - it’s official:

• Muse (but you knew that already - actually you would have heard this entire list before now if you’d been tuned in to Virgin Radio earlier, anyway I’ll shut up now and get on with my nice bulleted list)
• The Verve
• Kings Of Leon
• Stereophonics
• Kaiser Chiefs
• The Prodigy
• Amy Winehouse
• The Kooks
• The Zutons
• The Pigeon Detectives
• Lenny Kravitz
• Maximo Park
• Ian Brown
• The Chemical Brothers
• The View
• Newton Faulkner
• The Pogues
• The Charlatans
• The Hoosiers
• Reverend And The Makers
• The Feeling
• Alanis Morissette
• Scouting For Girls
• Duffy
• Jamie T
• Hot Chip
• Girls Aloud
• The Futureheads
• Squeeze
• The Twang
• Sugababes
• Travis
• Amy MacDonald
• The Courteeners
• Shed Seven
• The Rifles
• Robyn
• David Jordan
• One Republic

Oooo, ahhh, eee, yay. How utterly utterly brilliant is that list?

Okay - no more waffle. Here’s the deal - if you’re a Virgin Media customer, and that includes all you Virgin Mobile customers, you can bag yourself tickets from 10am Tuesday 4 March until midnight Wednesday 5. That’s 3 days before everyone else - who has to wait until this Friday 7 March. All you have to do is pop over to www.seetickets.com/vmobile or call 0871 230 5579. Bargain, it’s like getting to the first day of the John Lewis sale and waltzing straight in past the poor unfortunates who have been queueing outside for a week. Sort of. Sorry - that was waffle.

Anyway - yes. From this Friday, the rest of the world can nab tickets from any of these:

• Gigsandtours
• Seetickets
• Stargreen
• Ticketline
• Ticketmaster

Tickets are £145 for weekend pass with camping, £125 weekend pass without camping or £70 for a day ticket (plus £8 booking fees).

Even more news from the camp of Virgin - those groovy Virgin Radio types will be broadcasting VFestival live to the world. Take a butchers at their website for details, from where of course you will be able to listen live. Nice.

Check back in very soon for more random gossip and excitable idle waffle about all of this and more…

In the meantime don’t forget to keep an eye on vfestival.com

VFestival Australia can now boast one of its highlights as Johnny Marr joining Modest Mouse on stage at all four venues across the country. That bloke’s got more guitar string plucking fingers in musical pies than Mark Ronson. And that’s saying something. Like a dirty, two-timing, duplicitous moonlighter Marr is currently doing the rounds in the UK with the quite marvellous Cribs. Just when it looks like they’re really getting on okay, been on a few dates, they’ve met each others mates - off flits naughty Johnny to the other side of the world like a man-coward commitment phobe. But he’s a bloke and a god-like genuis and blokes, unlike girls and harbourers of sexual diseases, he can get away with slag-like behaviour. Because we love him and all he sails with. And this way we get more of him. So before you go reporting me to the blog police for libel - I am actually quite in love with Johnny Marr and when I go over to Australia I will actually be actively stalking him for the chance to kiss his hands. And if he offers me any other body part to bestow physical affection upon - then I may just take him up on that as well. So I’m not really calling him a slag at all. But if he wanted to be slaggy with me then fair enough. He was in The Smiths and he’s aged better than Morrissey for Gordon Bennett’s sake - wouldn’t you!? I’m quite looking forward to seeing Modest Mouse as well. Not sure if I’d sleep with them mind.

Those canny Aussies have only gone and unleashed another genius mash up of a festival podcast - free to download from Feedburner. Expertly spliced tunes from the diverse lineup lie together like the strange and beguiling bedfellows they are. Such skillful DJ dexterity manages to slip in the Daft Punk-style disco beats of Cut Copy against The Jesus And Mary Chain’s Just Like Honey, while The Rakes‘ We Danced Together brashly smooches up to CSS and the Smashing Pumpkins remixes. Any free-to-download offering that contains the immortal Queens Of The Stone Age chant ‘nicotine, valium, vicodan, marijuana, ecstacy and alcohol, c-c-c-c-cocaine’ - altogether now… gets my click. Go on - get it now. And then see if you can name all the tracks smart arses - coz I’ll be buffalo’d if I can.

Charlatans lead singer Tim Burgess let one slip out while being interviewed on the radio today. Ooops. Trashing any carefully planned PR strategy - he blabbed about playing the VFestival in the UK this year. Hurrah! Don’t you just love it when that happens? It just goes to prove that you can’t keep a good bit of juicy news down. Those good ole Charlatans have managed to stay the course since… oh, probably years before half of you were born. ‘The Only One I Know’ had the indie kids swooshing their overgrown fringes around student unions in the burgeoning days of baggy - at around the same time of Blur’s first outings. And much like the yo-yo-ing Mr Albarn, despite time out on solo(ish) projects, the lure of the old gang proves too much to resist. They last played VFestival back in 2006 and now, once again, they’ll be able to show those young upstarts how its done - and making all those greying thirtysomethings out in the fields feel all warm and fuzzy inside with nostalgia (although that might also have something to do with kebabs and warm cider, mmm). Check out more Charlatans photos from VFestival 06 on zoonabar’s Flickr photostream.

You can’t keep a good gas-bagging gossiper down and t’internet is still bubbling away over who will play alongside Muse at this year’s UK VFestival. Will Coldplay return triumphant and glorious following their self-imposed hiatus from the scene? Will The Verve re-united take the other hotly-debated headline slot? We’re still a couple of weeks away from the official announcement but that doesn’t stop any self-respecting rumour-monger. So - who would you rather see headline the UK VFestival? I know who my money’s on, but I’m keeping my hand close to my ha’penny for now - unless of course anyone wants to offer a substantial bribe?

The undisputed disco queen of 2007, Roisin Murphy, is to take to the VFestival stage in Australia next month. Quirky cool personified (could you look so good multi-tasking walking the dog while licking your ice-cream?) Roisin has made it acceptable again to dance round your handbag on a Friday night with her brilliant Overpowered album. While lots of indie boys may keep their Kylie tracks on a secret playlist - they will proudly slot the lovely Roisin in between CSS and Hot Chip. Not only is the former Moloko singer beefing up the Aussie bill, but the brilliant Rakes, Hot Hot Heat and Modest Mouse are also now playing. Even more bleeding edge disco delights will be had courtesy of Glass Candy and Australian festival faves Cut Copy. Shaping up to be one shindig not be missed, this London boy is packing his rucksack in readiness to bring you, my faithful blogees, all the best bits of sauce from the frontline… not from just one, two even - but all FOUR Australian VFestivals. So it had better be one good party coz I’ll have do it four times over. What a martyr. So if you can’t join the fun person - fear not, for you will be able to feel part of the party by following it all here. In the meantime, check out the VFestival Australia website or join their Facebook group and MySpace page. Rippa.

While we bask in the glorious news that Muse’s only European festival appearance this year will be at the UK VFestival, worldwide interweb speculation as to who else is playing is so rife that it’s chafing me red raw as I surf my sources. While Virgin lips remain tightly shut (but not for long!) this doesn’t stop all sorts of unauthorised promiscuous scamps having their wicked way atop the rumour mill. And who am I not pass on the gossip? So far ‘they’ are suggesting that The Prodigy, The Kaiser Chiefs, The Pigeon Detectives, The Twang, Maximo Park, Goldfrapp, Duffy and Adele are all heading down to join us at Chelmsford and Staffordshire. All of whom would make me moist with pleasure (nicely counteracting the pain of my raw bits). Not only that but The Verve are also being gossiped about. Now I remember seeing the very solo Richard Ashcroft play VFestival in 2000 supported by Paul Weller - now there was a line-up. But I do remember thinking ‘darnit - wish I’d seen The Verve’. Maybe if I cross my fingers, close my eyes, tap the heels of my Converse together three times and repeat ad nauseum ‘there’s no place like VFestival, there’s no place like VFestival…’ Puff! They will appear. Maybe if we all chant a mantra in unison? C’mon people… Anyway, yes - who else are you crossing everything for to appear? You can also join the chat as a fan of the Virgin Festivals Facebook page - where the mysterious yet captivating Uncle Chud is rooting for Dave, Dave And The Daves…

ps: see more Muse photies like this one here on Ryan Policky’s Flickr photostream

Recently voted best live band in the world ever ever ever in the Q Awards last year, the absolutely brilliant Muse will be playing at this year’s UK VFestival. Is that news of the most fantastic kind or what!? Also voted best live band in 2006 by Kerrang! and best British band by NME in 2007 - Muse are at the top of their game at the moment so how brilliant it is that they will be gracing the stage at VFestival!? They are preparing to unleash a whole bunch of new, self-produced tracks upon the very grateful ears of us humble public types later this year or early next so maybe we’ll get to hear some of their new stuff… only question is: can they top last year’s award-winning headliners The Killers? What do you reckon? See more Muse photies like this one here on fling93’s Flickr photostream.