Wristband Exchange
Set Times For Dot to Dot 2013 Announced!
Manchester - Friday 24th May
Bristol - Saturday 25th May
Nottingham - Sunday 26th May
Don’t forget to tweet, message and tag us and all of your favourite acts on the day #D2DFEST
Tickets available from: www.alt-tickets.co.uk
Alice Jemina // Bear’s Den // Catfish & Bottleman // Ellie Rose // Feathers // Hector // Kagoule // Kappa Gamma // In The Valley Below // Likely Lads // Misty Miller // Pylo // Rivals // Saint Raymond // Six 60 // Thumpers // We Three And The Death Rattle
As well as the additional bands and increased venues, further music-related events will be hosted across Nottingham city centre:
- Kicking off at 3pm till 10pm in the Rescue Rooms courtyard, Dot to Dot sponsors Fred Perry will be treating festival-goers to a chronological DJ selection celebrating British subcultures. Ranging from Rock n’ Roll, Northern Soul, Punk and Ska to Indie, Britpop, Acid and Electroclash, the DJ, musician and film maker Don Letts will be headlining at 5pm showcasing a record collection second to none.
- Situated in the heart of the Creative Quarter, Broadway will be hosting four free screenings of Reincarnated in their stylish lounge. Reincarnated sees Vice Magazine follow hip hop legend Snoop Dogg in an intimate documentary as he undergoes a spiritual odyssey/career reinvention in Jamaica, emerging as the rechristened “Snoop Lion”. Limited free tickets are available in advance and on a first come first served basis on the day. They will also be hosting a terrace party with DJs, a barbeque and local face painting company ‘Airbrushed Angels’.
- The Music Exchange will be organising a mixtape swap. Get together all of your favourite Dot to Dot bands and swap your favourites. Whether it’s The xx or Gallows or Mumford & Sons; you decide! They’ll also be running a mini record fair with Gringo Records, Feast of Tentacles, JT Soar, Viral Age and more all getting involved.
- Over at The Corner, The Denizen / Leftlion / I’m Not From London collaboration will be showcasing some of the best acts from Denizen Records and beyond.
Plus, the first Sounddhism and Farmyard collaboration since 2010 is going to be happening at Jam Café. Expect an eclectic line-up featuring Defkon1, We Are Avengers, Shelter Point and more!
- Local promoters Ascent, who have been pushing new regional, national and international acts at their free showcase events, will be hosting a stage of new talent in the Stag & Hounds, Old Market.
- Bristol’s alternative music-centric forum Audiophiles will be programming The Louisiana Bar stage. Expect some great breaking acts and local stalwarts from the current taste-makers of the local scene.
- The Lanes is a bowling, beats and booze emporium which is being hosted by Department S for Dot To Dot. Expect some great indie rock ‘n’ roll from a selection of acts, plus bowling, pizzas and even karaoke if you want to give your pipes a workout.
SECOND WAVE OF ACTS ANNOUNCED FOR DOT TO DOT 2013!!
Kicking off the second announcement is Tom Odell. 2013 is already looking to be a fantastic year for the British singer-songwriter who was awarded the prestigious Critics’ Choice at the Brits Awards and will be releasing his debut album “Long Way Down” worldwide in June. Also added to the line-up, the Californian heartbreakers Deap Vally will be making a welcome return to the UK, showcasing their rock-hard grit and all-girl soul.
Having wowed crowds in their recent UK tour, Swim Deep will be bringing their 90s-drenched indie guitar sounds to both Nottingham and Bristol. Also performing at #d2dfest will be the gruff troubadour Beans On Toast. Expect a raspy, enthralling voice telling comic tales and wry social commentary over little guitar ditties. London Grammar recently released their stunning ‘Metal & Dust’ EP with a swirling soundscape of ultrasound drumbeats, powerful vocals and fragile guitars blended together.
THE FULL LINEUP SO FAR:
Dry The River // Tom Odell // Benjamin Francis Leftwich // Lucy Rose // The 1975* // Beans on Toast // Bo Ningen // Chapel Club // Deap Vally // Little Green Cars // London Grammar // MØ // Ruen Brothers // Swim Deep** // Wave Machines // A Plastic Rose // Ady Suleiman // Best Friends // Billy Lockett // Blackeye // Black Books // Blue Hawaii // Candy Says // Chlöe Howl // Dan Croll // Findlay // Golden Fable // Heart-Ships // Houndmouth // Matthew & Me // Mausi // Middle Class Rut // Night Engine // Only Real // PINS // Random Impulse // Satellite Stories // SKATERS // Snakadaktal // Story Books // Syron // Teleman // The Bots // The Family Rain **// Wildflowers // Wolf Alice
*Nottingham/Manchester only
**Nottingham/Bristol only
FIRST WAVE OF ACTS ANNOUNCED FOR DOT TO DOT 2013!
First up for line-up announcements is Dry The River. With their critically acclaimed record ‘Shallow Bed’ the Stratford-based five-piece produced one of 2012’s greatest bodies of work and played countless sold-out gigs throughout the UK. They are set to work on their new record and will surely be one of the highlights of this year’s festival. One of the events finest acts in 2011 makes a welcome return in the shape of Benjamin Francis Leftwich. The singer-songwriter delivered one of the most intense performances in Dot to Dot history. Darling of the NME and Radio 1 Lucy Rose also joins the bill. The indie-folk starlet has wowed crowds all over with her finely crafted, emotive songs that reveal a unique talent for storytelling.
With a sold-out UK tour under their belt recently a band on everyone’s lips are The 1975. Radio 1 A-listers are riding a wave of success spear-headed by the massive single ‘Chocolate’. They are joined by the return of pop noir five-piece Chapel Club. Little Green Cars are one of the most exciting acts from the BBC Sound of 2013 poll and their live performances have drawn heavy-praise from The Guardian, NME and more. Critically acclaimed electronic, pop-funk act Wave Machines have created one of the albums of the year in debut ‘Pollen’ and are an exciting addition to the festival. London-based acid punk band Bo Ningen will also be bringing their incredible live show to the proceedings. Danish sensation MØ is certainly not to be missed. Her layered, gloomy output has had music journalists falling over themselves to sing her praises. Another hyped band on the first wave of acts is Wolf Alice, whose shoegaze inspired songs have received avid support from Huw Stephens amongst others.
Some of the other rising-stars on the bill are New York City’s best new indie band SKATERS, Irish folk-popster Gavin James, hotly-tipped post-punk act Night Engine, Finnish upstarts Satellite Stories, Marc Riley-championed indie band Teleman, brooding Bella Union-signed four-piece PINS, Californian punks The Bots alternative-indie band Story Books and folk duo Golden Fable.
Dot to Dot 2012
So we’ve just about finally recovered from the awesomely insane weekend that was Dot To Dot! Thank you to everyone who came along, and to all of the artists that played – it really was the best one yet, and we have you all to thank.
We have definite highlights, whether they be Frank Carter of Pure Love’s anti-stage antics, or Jake Bugg and Dog is Dead playing to a packed Rock City for very special homecoming gigs. Wavves were wonderfully loud and along with Pulled Apart By Horses in Manchester’s Sound Control, they provided a night that no one in attendance will forget anytime soon.
But it wasn’t just the higher billed artists that wowed and made Dot To Dot the highlight of the Jubilee weekend, there were newer artists performing who put in stunning performances and we highly recommend you check out ASAP if you didn’t catch them. A Night Underwater played their first ever (!!!) gig in Nottingham’s Rock City Basement and went down a storm, The Night conjured impressive Fleetwood Mac comparisons across all dates and Shinies and Last Dinosaurs garnered a lot of chat around their performances.
However, the beauty of Dot To Dot is that everyone has different routes, different experiences and makes different discoveries, so although we saw as much as we possibly could (and loved every minute), here are a selection of our favourite reviews of the weekend spanning the diverse line-up on offer.
“Dot to Dot, we love you.” Clash
“If some of these bands aren’t huge in a couple of years then there is something seriously wrong with the public! For a great atmosphere and excellent music there was no better place to be than in Manchester this jubilee weekend, sorry Queen.” Music News
“Brimming each year with buzz artists, established acts, and unheard new talent, it’s a brilliant spectacle for any music fan. Long live Dot to Dot.” Rhythm Circus
“A superb day of exploring new music – highly recommended. Bring on D2D 2013!!!” Festivals For All
“an absolute must in the gig calendar” Skiddle
“As ever Dot to Dot always manages to put together a wonderful line-up, full of current favourites and new discoveries to be found, and all for a very cheap price.” 7bit Arcade
Check out some more photos below, and we hope to see you for another weekend of our favourite new and old bands again next year!
All images by Victor Frankowski
DOT TO DOT AFTER DARK
Dot To Dot is almost upon us, beginning tomorrow in Bristol.
We’ve put together a guide of what’s going on later on in the evening for those of you who intend on burning the midnight oil.
From the coolest new bands playing intimate gigs to some of the most exciting DJ’s in the UK right now as well as after parties that will be the perfect end to what should be excellent days in Bristol, Nottingham and Manchester.
Click HERE for Bristol After Dark Programme
Click HERE for Nottingham After Dark Programme
Click HERE for Manchester After Dark Programme
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PURE LOVE
When Frank Carter left hardcore punk band Gallows, few expected him to resurface as the frontman of a more accessible rock act - and to be singing the songs rather than screaming them. But an encounter in New York with fellow hardcore musician Jimmy Carroll (The Hope Conspiracy, The Suicide File) led to a whole new outlook on life and music. The result is Pure Love, and the first fruit of their union is Bury My Bones, a riffy, hook-laden and, most importantly, hugely enjoyable slice of classic rock available to download for free from their website. The follow-up single, ‘Handsome Devils Club’ will be released on July 23rd. They play the Dot To Dot rolling festival this month and their debut album follows in the autumn.
You’ve both come from a background in hardcore punk, but this music seems a lot more accessible. Was that always the intention for Pure Love?
JC: I’ve been writing songs like, say, Bury My Bones, for years. In fact, probably since I first started playing guitar. The sound just came very naturally to us when we starting putting Pure Love together. Yes, it is hooky, but it’s not contrived in any way to be so.
FC: The album is naturally rock orientated, absolutely. It’s certainly got more hooks in it than people will have been used to hearing from me in the past. But that’s no bad thing.
Is it true, Jim, that you had this archive of songs and snippets of material, and you were waiting for the right person to sing them?
JC: Yeah, I was just waiting for David Bowie to get in touch! Seriously, though, I had loads of demos and voice memos of ideas. I forget things very easily and it was a way of collating everything so that when the time was right, I could dive into this archive and there would be plenty of stuff to work on. When we started doing Pure Love I had to go back through it all - a lot of it was complete garbage but some was really good. Although, a lot of it didn’t actually end up on the record…
FC: His archive was more a good starting point for us: Jimmy would send me rough ideas, I would work on lyrics that might change the tone of the song and from there we started putting songs together. It actually worked out that very few of the songs from that early period made the cut for the album.
JC: He’s right - most of the songs are proper collaborations that were written after we had started the band. But those early songs are important because they excited us and made us realise that we could do something really good.
So how did hardcore punks from Watford and New York hook up in the first place?
FC: We played a show together when Jimmy was in The Suicide File and I was in Gallows. This was 2006, so a long time ago. And then after that when I moved to New York I was looking to start a new band and I met up with Jimmy at a show. We both immediately realised that we didn’t want to play hardcore music right now, that we wanted to try something different. He sent over a couple of songs that night, I put lyrics and a melody to one of them straight away and the rest is history.
How did it feel when you realised the music was really clicking?
FC: It was great because I hadn’t written music for a long time. The Gallows stuff towards the end wasn’t coming out very easily, and to be honest the songs had ground to a halt. But this was a lot of fun, it was fresh and new and Jimmy I just got on really well from the get go. Even the decision making process was different from what I had experienced previously; it was fast and instant. I knew very early on that Pure Love was what I wanted to do, and a couple of months later it was time to make a conscious decision. So I quit Gallows to work on putting this album together in the studio.
Bury My Bones has the line “so sick of singing about hate”. Is that something of a manifesto for Pure Love?
FC: Well, I’d been in quite a negative place for a long time. I was punishing myself for the entertainment of other people and I wanted to change things if I could. Like Jimmy has an archive of songs, I have the same with lyrics and I’d written those lines a long time ago; Pure Love was just the right music for them. I’ve got a whole new lease of life, and all these old lyrics now have a place.
With Gallows, you were known for your lyrical content, which often had a social and political edge. Has that continued into Pure Love?
FC: This record’s definitely more personal, but then, that’s how I actually started writing lyrics. It was only when Gallows went into making Grey Britain that the social commentary came in. But this one is about me and my life in the last couple of years; there’s a lot of conviction in the words because it’s all stuff I’ve experienced or seen in the people around me who I love and care about. I’m really comfortable with that, and I think Jimmy feels the same - we play off each other so well. What he found in my lyrics I found in his music, if you see what I mean. It’s a perfect partnership.
Does that make sense to you Jimmy?
JC: Yeah, Pure Love is going great. I couldn’t be happier. I quit a band, moved to a new city and I was really trying to find something new. I knew what I wanted to do, and I tried my best on my own but I needed the right people around me to make all these songs come to fruition. When I met Frank and he played me a demo of him singing, I immediately asked him why he was wasting his time screaming in a band. He has the best, most natural sounding voice for rock when he sings. And as soon as we sat down to talk about Pure Love I knew it was going to work. It’s been the easiest writing process I’ve ever gone through - when things worked, we simply recorded them and moved on to the next song. The music is very simple in some respects, but it’s also the biggest sounding thing I’ve ever done. I love it.
It’s interesting you should say the sound is “big”. Which bands inspired you when you were writing?
FC: It’ll be a shock for Gallows fans to hear maybe, but Oasis, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd. The classic British bands actually. We want to have fun, play music that we love and if it’s huge-sounding… then great.
Which puts the album on a different level to an underground punk record doesn’t it. What would you hope people feel about it when it’s released later this year?
FC: That they’ve had a religious experience!
JC: A sexual experience.
FC: A sexual religious experience… that all sounds wrong, doesn’t it? In all seriousness, there’s no pretense or arrogance to these songs. All we’ve wanted to do is be really honest and have fun, and play the music that we want. Whatever people get out it, fine. As long as people listen to it with open ears and not write it off immediately. There’s a lot of critics out there these days - I don’t know why people can’t just relax and enjoy the music.
JC: These are songs that people should sing along to. They’re definitely celebratory. And looking into the crowd at our second show, where people were singing along to songs that haven’t even come out yet… I think that proves we’re on the right track. It blew my mind actually, to see these people with such joy on their faces.
Jimmy mentions singing along to the songs. Of course, you’re singing too now, Frank…
FC: The music that Jimmy wrote lent itself naturally to my voice, and singing these songs every night gave me a huge amount of confidence. I went to a handful of lessons with a singing instructor to make sure I wasn’t damaging it, and I felt immediately that I had control over it. I’m actually a little gutted because right now I can hit a stronger register than I could when we recorded the album. I’ve seen a few bits and pieces from people online doubting that I could pull off a singing voice live, so those people are going to be silenced very quickly.
So it’s all moved quickly from being a project between friends to a proper band. Was making the name up a big moment?
FC: We had a lot of songs and song titles before we had a name for the band. We’d been firing stuff back and forth for ages - there was a text conversation one week which was pretty much limited to band names.
JC: There was never a yes or no. But one day I was listening to 1970s prog/jazz band Mahavishnu Orchestra and looked at the song titles and saw Pure Love. It just stood out - I texted Frank and he agreed. That night we had the stickers!
FC: Yeah, I went straight home and made 500 stickers. We covered Brooklyn with them. We were committed to it by then because I’d spent so much money on printer cartridges!
Have a look at the brand new and exclusive Pure Love video ‘Handsome Devil’s Club’ below.
SWISS LIPS INTERVIEW
Mancunions Swiss Lips’ blend of pop hooks and electro is perfection, and we can’t wait to see them play at Dot To Dot! Read below to find out more about them in the newest edition of our Artist Q&As!
Join the dots between two other bands to sum up your sound.
Bowie - Gaga
Tell us the story behind your name.
Picking band names is hard. Swiss Lips popped in my head when I was driving, then we found out it was a slang term for a vagina. Decision made.
If you had to choose any musician in the world ever to replace you, who would it be?
Nobody likes to be replaced…My ex girlfriend’s new boyfriend!
What is your favourite thing about playing city based festivals?
It’s just like playing a gig in a normal venue, but its lunchtime, and everybody’s already drunk.
Are there any other bands from the line-up flyer who you really want to see at Dot to Dot?
Rae Morris, awesome voice.
What is your fave item to take on tour and why?
This mad guy called Lawson, who sorts us out for sweets and stories.
If you could play any instrument that you can’t already, what would it be?
Cello, Like Arthur Russell. My mum bought me a how to play cello book for my birthday , just need a cello now.
Watch Swiss Lips’ video for ‘Danz’ here, and we’ll see you down the front for their show at Dot To Dot!
