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I’m sitting writing at home with a beer after a great opening weekend that featured an amazing sell-out opening show with The Specials. We’ve also seen Liverpool’s outdoor ‘Big Screen’ play silent short films accompanied by new live soundtracks from the city’s finest forward-thinking musicians and an exhibition of Dudley Edwards’ psychedelic works with Echo and the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant hosting the evening. The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess and Crazy P were amongst some of the fabulous Friday acts on offer, while Saturday’s pick had to be Soft Toy Emergency playing to a sell-out 02 Academy.



This week, I mainly wanted to try and give you a run of 5 suggestions to try and catch that I haven’t already mentioned in Blog #1, whilst highlighting some of great local acts that are also the bill..

1- Wild Beasts will headline the incredible setting of converted church Alma de Cuba tonight (Tuesday 3 Nov), but also the new material of locals Seal Cub Clubbing Club in those surroundings at around 10pm will be a pick of the week for me...but also definitely check out the haunting new folk stroked four piece Bagheera. Again, worth seeing at this amazing venue.
www.myspace.com/wildbeasts
www.myspace.com/wearebagheera
www.myspace.com/thesealcubclubbingclub


2- Clash Magazine’s “best band” of Glastonbury 2009 – Liverpool’s unique ‘gypsy-techno’ act Dogshow - support a debut festival performance from 12-piece electronic-metal-powerdance orchestra Chrome Hoof, alongside a selection of the city’s best alt bands: Indica Ritual, Mugstar and The Laze. Set up camp this night. All of these bands should be seen.
www.myspace.com/chromehoof
www.myspace.com/dogshowdisco
www.myspace.com/indicaritual
www.myspace.com/mugstar
www.myspace.com/thelaze



3- While Invasion - who’ve been tipped as the ‘rebirth of metal’ by Vice Magazine -appear at independent artspace ‘Arena House’, but also I implore you to check out Liverpool’s very own hardcore punk boys Cold Ones -who are on the verge of national recognition – who will rattle the windows and loosen the bricks on the 3rd floor of this intriguing performance space.
www.myspace.com/coldonesinyergut
www.myspace.com/invasion

4- Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs is definitely on my check list. This addictively weird and wacky producer also features on the same bill as Radio One darling Jaguar Skills (+MCs), Egyptian Hip Hop and Django Django on a very lively closing Saturday at Bumper.
www.myspace.com/totallyenormousextinctdinosaurs
www.myspace.com/jagskills
www.myspace.com/egyptianhiphop
www.myspace.com/djangotime


5- 2009 Mercury nominees The Invisible close Bumper on 15 November with a support set from new band KillerFernandez which includes Liverpool’s Sense of Sound director Jennifer John’s collaboration project with Stuart McCallum of Cinematic Orchestra fame, alongside unmistakeable live show of jazzrock Liverpool legends Wizards of Twiddly.
www.myspace.com/theinvisiblethree  
www.myspace.com/wizardsoftwiddly
www.myspace.com/killerfernandez

6- if you manage to get into our free-entry Bombay Bicycle Club show on Weds 4 Nov, Liverpool acts BeakerFolk of the Bronze Age and The Sand Band should definitely be checked out.
www.myspace.com/beakerfolkofthebronzeage
http://www.myspace.com/bombaybicycleclub
www.myspace.com/thesandband

7- Domino and Liverpool’s Eugene McGuinness playing a fitting and rare solo set at The Zanzibar. One of the best LMW shows was an acoustic headline gig here in 06, and is one show I’m particularly looking forward to.

8- Another fabulous free show in Studio 2 on Parr Street - not only a UK top 50 venue in the Guardian, but the Bunnymen, Barry Manilow and Diana Ross have all recorded in this new award winning studio–come-venue - which features one of the region’s most stunning jazz artists Doreen Edwards.

9- While up the road one-man blues band Son of Dave is foot stomping his way through 16 harmonicas at Masque Theatre with strangely fitting support from ‘Liverpool’s answer to the Magic Band’ - The Cubical, and the insatiable blues Ernie’s Rhythm Section.
www.myspace.com/onlyforthepleasure
www.myspace.com/thecubicalthecubical
www.myspace.com/thesonofdave

10- Final tip for this week - visit INK - We’ve booked in a great line-up of free events each night into the new intimate festival venue ‘Ink’ including Marina and the Diamonds, Ou Est le Swimming Pool, Detroit Social Club, Broken Records and XL’s Blue Roses, kicking off proceedings with “The Punky Reggae Ink Opening Party” hosted by local ‘Free Rock and Roll’ heads Pete Bentham and the Dinner Ladies, which was one of The Fly’s favourite shows of LMW 2008

Well sorry it’s ended up as 10 picks. I can’t help but get carried away. I still feel like I’m missing so much out, but from venue to venue there is so much variation:

Sound of Guns and Screaming Lights will both headline their own homecoming shows at free-entry events in the stunning converted church venue Alma de Cuba, while round the corner you will find a programme of the city’s finest darkest noisecore, with acts such as NoiseClub, Noizy az F*ck and DJ BastardC*nt in a derelict building opposite Cream nightclub.

Local musician Neil Campbell debut’s his new rock-opera at one of the city’s most historic and iconic buildings - St George’s Hall; while Craig Charles of The Funk & Soul show 6music is at Alma de Cuba with his favourite Liverpool funk outfit 6ix Toys.

The all-new Korova’s bargain basement run of £5 shows include great nights out including Tubelord, Das Pop and Burn the Negative, while The Magnet brings back Ugly Duckling and the pick of the shows here has to be Dubstep pioneer Mala founder of ground-breaking production collective Digital Mystikz. Our annual Magnet dubstep night that broke Benga in Liverpool is free-entry for the first 100 LMW fans…

There really is so much to see. I’ve got to get off to Son of Dave’s soundcheck now, get some artists paid and make sure riders are all in place for tonight.

See you next week when we’ll be almost halfway through…   Get up here if you haven’t already!

Mike Deane
Director and founder, Liverpool Music Week

DOWNLOAD THE 2009 FESTIVAL BROCHURE NOW: http://www.liverpoolmusicweek.com/downloads/booklet09.pdf

For regular updates go to: http://www.facebook.com/OfficialLiverpoolMusicWeek
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Possibly one of the key factors of festival coordination is good time management, and I suppose the fact I’m only getting around to writing the first LMW blog less than 2 weeks out from our opening show with The Specials, I suppose doesn’t say much for my festival coordination skills.

That said, instead of worrying about spilling the beans on secrets or jinxing deals that are in the balance, it means we’re at the point now where I’m able to chat openly about the exciting festival programme that lies ahead.. which really is our biggest and most interesting line-up of our 7 year history..

This 2009 event is across 2 weeks and 3 weekends of jam-packed venue-hopping action. With our most high profile & diverse agenda of free-entry shows, alongside a burgeoning selection some of the most exciting touring artists around, Liverpool Music Week 09 really is the place to be this November.

After a terrific 2008 festival which saw us team up with MTV Europe and host performances from the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Vampire Weekend, The Fall, Florence & the Machine alongside a dazzling programme of the city & UK’s best new talent, we were going to find it hard to top it this year.

But we’ve ended clocking up this year approx 400 acts from the UK and beyond that we either just couldn’t say no to, have sweated over confirming, or took several weeks of myspace messages to even get hold of a contact number..

Kasabian, Super Furry Animals & Seasick Steve are my picks of a huge ticketed agenda line-up that headline the festival year. With exciting inaugural shows in the city’s super-venues The Echo Arena, and in particular Liverpool Olympia Theatre, a 70 year old ballroom, located just north of the city centre; the festival’s profile has never been more prominent, and boasts a grass roots city-centre based agenda of new artists that has never been of such a high standard.

Anybody who’s been to Liverpool on a night out will know just how easy it is to get around our buzzing city centre, and just how many surprises will lie behind the rows of club doors that are the gateway to Liverpool’s present, Liverpool’s class of 2009.

The Liverpool Music Week inner-city free-show experience, described by the editor of this very website as a ‘live version of MySpace’, is what makes the festival so unique. Make of that what you will, but I’d hope does paint a basic picture of what we do here. 20 venues within a puddle-soaked  1 mile radius may run at any one time, the majority of which will be hosting free live music. Of course, quantity does not always mean quality, but we’re backed up by the following sentence of Ross Purdie’s live LMW blog that states that ‘90% of which he saw he and his team would go and see again’. I’ll take that, out of a programme that last year hosted 326 acts.

There is quality right throughout Liverpool Music Week, and it’s hardly surprising considering that the region currently appears to have 500+ active bands/artists we have been in touch with this year. That fact, coupled with the insatiable appetite for new & quality music from the festival’s loyal fanbase and the city’s thriving muso community, allows us to continue programming such interesting line-ups year after year ..

Daniel Johnston headlines this year’s free festival with a midnight performance at the new Masque Theatre on Tuesday 3rd November. A hero to Beck & Kurt Cobain and an inspiration to so many artists in the city, he makes an unprecedented Liverpool appearance in a very intimate manner, collaborating on stage with local artists Wave Machines & Hot Club de Paris.

The festival’s free shows really have it this year, breaking new acts in Liverpool such as Django Django, Chrome Hoof, Jay Reatard, Laurel Collective, Field Music & Grammatics in amongst so many other established recession-busting free-entry shows with Bombay Bicycle Club, Wild Beasts, Maps, The Bays, Dananananakroyd, and Israeli funk band The Apples amongst the picks.

There is so much to chose from - We really do implore you to come and indulge !

No excuses on time as there are 3 weekends to chose from, and not much to defend pleading poverty, as I’ve probably got the message across now that the majority of our events are free entry.. plus there’s always a cheap pint/shot kicking around the festival ‘host venues’.. !

Explore what our fine city has to offer, and the surprise nuggets you’ve never heard of, whilst checking out the hottest touring acts around.

I’ll be back next week with a little run down of the some local gems & festival treats that you should ensure are on your checklist for this year’s event…

See you next week! (maybe..) 

Mike Deane
Director and founder, Liverpool Music Week

DOWNLOAD THE 2009 FESTIVAL BROCHURE NOW: http://www.liverpoolmusicweek.com/downloads/booklet09.pdf

For regular updates go to: http://www.facebook.com/OfficialLiverpoolMusicWeek

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