Glasvegas head bill for NME gaunlet
White Lies Friendly Fires Florence And The Machine
IF an awards tour lives or dies by its alumni, then the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour steals the gong for Best Pop Picker.
The tours began in 1995, but it’s since 2000 that the bar has been set.
Coldplay, The Coral, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Lostprophets, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons, CSS, The View, The Cribs, The Ting Tings… *inhale*… the calibre leaves us breathless.
The concept of the tours was to give emerging indie artists their big moment: shift tickets with a well-known headliner (from the list above, only The Killers and The Cribs were headliners), line-up a load of potential high-fliers and stick them on a stage to become the tour’s true star.
Many underdogs have usurped the headliners. Coldplay, The Coral, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and The Ting Tings all played bottom of the bill. Arctic Monkeys blew Maxïmo Park out of the water; Lostprophets moved on to stadiums while Andrew WK’s career crawled into a cardboard box; and The View got labelled ‘the next Oasis’ while headliners The Automatic had to settle for being one-hit wonders.
Spectorettes
And so, it’ll be with one eye on their backs that everyone’s favourite Spectorettes Glasvegas lead the latest parade of the next big things.
Because, with so much to live up to, the tour has chucked out three of its best reserves: next year’s stadium fillers White Lies, school friends turned electro-funk darlings Friendly Fires, and the theatrical blues(wo)man Florence “And The Machine” Welch.
So popular a pick ’n’ mix is it that the tour has had to extend its say in Manchester to two nights. And that’s hardly surprisingly, because it’s exactly the sort of line-up guaranteed to leave you smiling but sober.
Sober, you ask? Well, when on earth are you going to fit in those bar runs?
*YOU can read an interview with each of the acts to the right.
ShockWaves NME Tour is at Academy 1 again tonight (Feb 7). £15.26, includes a charitable donation to Shelter and War Child. Please note: this show has an age restriction of 14-years-old and above.
Published: Wed, 06 February, 2008
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