Archive for June, 2010
Rapper Snoop Dogg has reportedly been banned from playing at the free Parkpop festival in The Hague, after authorities decided he would be an inappropriate choice for “the open and friendly character” of the event.
Although Snoop has also recently received his UK visa, other American music stars haven’t been granted the same right. After being convicted of assaulting his former girlfriend, pop star Rihanna, R&B singer Chris Brown has been refused entry to the UK.
Whilst many will be happy that the UK Home Office is taking such a firm stand on visas for convicted criminals, Brown’s fans will be disappointed that his UK tour has been postponed indefinitely.
Lady Gaga is known for her extravagant, high-concept stage performances, but the event organisers for this summer’s Lollapalooza festival have revealed that they have spent a whopping $250,000 on the singer’s set this year.
The set itself cost around $100,000 but a further $150,000 was reportedly spent on the diva’s production costs. Desperate to keep her on the line-up, the organisers of the three day festival – held in Chicago – agreed to Gaga’s demands.
Lady Gaga, who previously spent £52,000 on her X Factor performance in 2009, will be performing at Lullapalooza in August alongside Green Day, The Strokes and Arcade Fire.
The Guardian 10:10 campaign has gathered even more pace, as it has been revealed that ten music festivals have signed up to cut their carbon emissions this summer. These festivals include:
• Latitude
• The Big Chill
• Bestival
• Lovebox
• Reading and Leeds
• Isle of Wight (last weekend)
The campaign was launched after research suggested that every year, 500 UK festivals generated a staggering 84,000 tonnes of CO2.
In response, the participating festivals are introducing measures to reduce their carbon footprints. These include everything from using more solar power and cutting down on waste water, electricity and food to increasing recycling and even using composting toilets.
Here’s to a greener summer!
Leona Lewis kicked off her first ever headline tour in Liverpool’s Echo Arena at the start of June, with a £5 million budget to spend and a lavish Labyrinth-themed stage show to blow it on.
Set designers including Kylie Minogue’s main man William Baker – using David Bowie’s 1986 fantasy adventure as ample inspiration – produced a lavish backdrop for Leona, who performed her hits ‘Bleeding Love’ and ‘Happy’ amongst others in an equally vamped-up costume. Despite wearing some pretty sexy hoods and thigh-high leather boots, Leona maintains she will never be as sexed-up on stage as Rihanna or Lady Gaga.
Speaking of the new tour – which has received mainly positive reviews so far – Leona has said:
“I’ve been so excited about this tour. I get to unleash my childhood fantasies and be a princess.”
As an alternative to the rather mainstream music festivals planned for the summer like Glastonbury or Leeds/Reading Festivals, many people are now heading for alternative events like Green Man and Latitude.
The bigger of the two, Latitude 2010 already has a number of amazing acts on the line-up for all stages including:
• Music – Florence and the Machine, Belle and Sebastian, Vampire Weekend, Corinne Bailey Rae, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Mumford & Sons, Grizzly Bear, James and The National.
• Comedy – Ardal O’Hanlon, Marcus Brigstocke, Rich Hall, Mark Watson, Phil Jupitus
• Literature and poetry – Bret Easton Ellis and John Cooper Clarke
Running on 15th – 18th July, Latitude is set to be absolutely fantastic (fingers crossed the weather holds out!)