Focus Music Notes. "Out of the Blues". Popular music through the decades

Jackson Tennessee born, London based singer-songwriter Lauren Pritchard, a new artist with a remarkable voice and a rare song-writing talent to match, follows the release of her acclaimed debut “ The Jackson Sessions ” ep with the r elease on July 19th of her new Island ep “Painkillers” . Written by the 22 year old Pritchard and produced by Eg White , best known for co-writing and producing Adele’s Grammy-winning classic hit “Chasing Pavements” and Duffy’s worldwide smash “Warwick Avenue”, the track features legendary sticksman and Roots founder Questlove on drums. The full track listing is as follows: 1. Painkillers 2. Try A Little Harder 3. Painkillers (Body Language Remix) 4. Painkillers (Flotilla Remix) Since the beginning of the year Lauren has performed live across the UK building an ever growing fanbase. The young American was personally invited by Paul Weller to join him on stage during his recent In Concert Radio 2 session after he had heard her debut ep The Jackson ...

Half Rwandan and half Belgium Stromae produced European Billboard no.1 hit ‘Alors On Danse’ on his computer at home with a desktop mic. Even more remarkable, he created his buzz when filming homemade ‘lessons in how to make a hit’ for his Youtube channel, starting in January 2009 (‘Les Leçon De Stromae’ or ‘Stromae’s Lessons’). Lesson no. 8 ‘Alors On Dance’ became a viral sensation and then a real hit on Europe’s radio airwaves, getting to no.1 across the continent and running up 7 million Youtube plays. It started when the internet excitement from his music production Youtube shows caught the attention of DJ Julie on the dance specialist NRJ Mash Up Show of France’s biggest radio station in June 2009. Getting rave reactions on the specialist show it was moved to playlist rotation proper and from there it shot to no.1 in both France and Germany. French language blog Fluo Kids described ‘Alors on Danse’ as like ‘Calabria X tranxene’. ‘Calabria’ referring to Alex Gaudino’s 2007 dance hi...

For the first time since 2008, Robyn brought the party back to London with a one off show at Heaven last week. Now she is pleased to announce a series of UK dates later in the year. The first of three albums – Body Talk Pt 1 – was released on June 14 with the lead single ‘ Dancing On My Own ’ becoming her fourth UK Top 10 hit. The second album – Body Talk pt 2 along with its single ‘ Hang With Me ’ will be released on September 6.  Pre-sale tickets for October will be available from www.robyn.com Dates: 18/10 Glasgow ABC 19/10 Manchester Academy 2 21/10 Brighton Concorde 22/10 Shepherds Bush Empire WHAT THE PAPERS SAY "Is there a more inspiring pop star on the planet than Robyn?" NME “Dancing On My Own, a digital torch song worth of Confessions-era Madonna’ The Times ‘Watching Robyn is comparable to seeing a one woman rave…she’s infectious” Daily Star

Mumford & Sons are pleased to announce details of a UK tour this autumn , their biggest headline shows to date. The dates in October will follow a relentless touring schedule for the band, that has taken them across India, Australia, Europe and America over the past 12 months. Tickets are on pre-sale now from www.mumfordandsons.com for £18.50/£20 (London) and on general sale from Wednesday. In addition to the live dates, fans have the option to pre-order a limited EP called ' Volume 1 ' under the band's alter ego, The Wedding Band . 'Volume 1' was produced by Ethan Jones and Dom Monks within two days at a London studio, with some of the band's old friends. The EP comprises of songs that are regularly heard played out on the band's tour bus, but very rarely live on stage. The 10" EPs will be limited to 100 copies per show, and can only be bought via www.mumfordandsons.com in conjunction with the purchase of gig tickets. Any remaining copies of the...

Last year’s biggest selling British solo male artist is back. Grime emcee Tinchy Stryder is set to release In My System, the first single from his forthcoming album Third Strike on August 9th 2010 . 2009 saw Tinchy Stryder break out from the underground into the mainstream with the release of two number 1 singles (Number 1 and Never Leave You), and his critically acclaimed second album (Catch 22). In the same year Tinchy performed at all the major festivals of the summer, supported Akon on tour, embarked on his own 18 date sold out nationwide headline tour, developed his Star in The Hood merchandise from T-shirts sold on eBay to a fully developed clothing range, and completed a degree in Digital Arts and Moving Imagery at University of East London. 2010 to date has seen Tinchy Stryder complete a second sold out headline tour in the UK, upgrade his Glastonbury booking from the dance tent (where he played last year) to opening the Pyramid stage for the festival , expand his clothing ra...

As Glastonbury Festival celebrates its 40 th Anniversary we thought we would highlight a few of the new up and coming artists appearing at the 2010 event, some of whom, like Jack Johnson and Tinchy Stryder, will also be appearing on that iconic Pyramid Stage some day soon. If you are lucky enough to be there or watching on TV check out our favourites. Florence and the Machine Mumford and Sons Bombay Bicycle Club Ellie Goulding I Blame Coco The Drums Two Door Cinema Club Glastonbury Festival site Line up and Stages BBC Glastonbury 2010  Click here to shop Play.com for Festival Music and more Click on the tags on the Focus Music Blog for artist biogs, news, other live gigs and new releases.

The final single to be taken from the million selling album ‘Lungs’ is Florence’s personal favourite - Cosmic Love. A wildly impassioned hymn to the overwhelming supernatural power of love, the epic Cosmic Love has been a show stopping favourite at Florence’s gigs ever since it was first written. Florence was on tour in America and played to an ecstatic crowd at the Coachella Festival. She headed back to the UK in May for her sold out Cosmic Love tour as well as a Somerset House show (July 15th) and a headline slot at this years Latitude Festival (July 16th).

2010 has seen NYC based quartet The Drums go from being one of the most talked about new bands of the year to being the band most likely to make 2010 their own, with the release of their self-titled debut LP out on June 7th. Off the back of their critically acclaimed Summertime! EP - released in October 2009 on Moshi Moshi Records - The Drums took the coveted opening slot of the NME tour throughout February before being crowned winners of the "Philip Hall Radar Award" at the NME awards. Having played an intimate sold out three-date UK tour during the last week of March (where they were watched by Morrissey, Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke of The Smiths), the band has just put the finishing touches on their debut album, produced by lead singer Jonny Pierce. Joining the dots between the melodic glitter of sixties girl groups and some of Factory Records' finest, The Drums contains 10 brand new tracks with only summer hit-in-waiting Let's Go Surfing and torch-burning, heartb...

Fans of English Soul are in for a treat tonight. If you can bear to tear yourself away from the football BBC4 schedule tonight (Friday June 18) includes: 9pm- Steve Winwood English Soul 10pm - Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton This is followed by 50 Years of Island Records Island Records who celebrated their 50th Anniversary in 2009, released the definitive career retrospective of this all-time great of the UK music scene on 7th June 2010. Entitled “ Revolutions – The Very Best Of Steve Winwood ” it is a portrait of one of the most influential British musicians in rock history, a singer-songwriter, peerless vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player. Click here to read all about Steve Winwood "Revolutions" Enjoy!

Welcome to the world of Kid Adrift. The Oxytocin EP is a personal manifesto from Iain Campbell, the brains behind the Kid Adrift project. It’s passionate, intense, and is set to establish him as a rare talent in 2010. With a demo of ‘ Red, Green and Blue ’ being picked up on radio last year, so far it has seen plays all over Radio 1, with Zane Lowe, Huw Stephens, Fearne Cotton and Rob da Bank, as well as featuring on BBC Introducing . Ambitious and creative in equal measure, live the band is a four-piece, and sure to become an essential live band in the coming months. ‘ Oxytocin ’ is a guitar led, with more brutal beats and waves of dense electronic waves whilst synthesized strings and mechanical beats bring the song to a thrilling crescendo.‘ Crash Therapy ’ hits with a wall of electronica, heavy and propulsive. With clear nods to Warp Records, its testament to Kid Adrift that this is very much his own work, a new unique voice for music fans to discover. ‘ Static ’ illustrates the ...

From Florence to Dappy, from Jay-Z to Alici a, they’re all agreed Drake is amazing and about to explode…The marquee signing to Lil Wayne’s Young Money Records , and without question the hottest, most exciting artist to explode onto the US music scene in recent memory, Drake will be playing his first ever UK headlining dates at London’s 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Monday July 12th and Tuesday July 13th . The sense of anticipation for this 23 year old Canadian’s arrival in the UK is such that a second date had to be added after the original show sold out within hours of going on sale. Tickets are £25.50 in advance (plus booking fee) and are available at www.livenation.co.uk . The shows, ( featuring special guests ) will be the US superstar’s first headlining dates in this country and follow his recent special guest performances on Jay-Z’s June Manchester and Birmingham dates . Drake is also confirmed as special guest of Jay-Z for the Wireless festival on July 4th . The June dates prec...

Bombay Bicycle Club release double A-sided single Ivy and Gold / Flaws on July 5th – the first release from their stunningly beautiful, new acoustic album also titled Flaws. Having finished recording their debut LP I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose in February 2009, the band went straight back into the studio (The Church, Crouch End) days after they submitted the master for I Had The Blues, and started the initial recordings for this album. Recorded in between touring over the past year and a half, a few early tracks were laid down at The Church and produced by Neill MacColl (guitarist Jamie's Dad), but the rest was recorded in singer, Jack Steadman's bedroom and produced by Jack himself. The album is characterised by a delicate, heart-swelling beauty and lightness of touch throughout. Those that had BBC pegged merely as an indie band may need to re-think. The A-side to the single Ivy & Gold (already made “ Hottest Record In the World ” by Zane Lowe on Radio 1) wrap...

ROBBIE WILLIAMS releases a brand new single “ Shame ” on Virgin Records on October 4 . The single was co-written with Gary Barlow and is a duet between the two superstars. This is the first time the two of them have ever recorded and performed a duet together and the first time they have written and recorded a song together since Robbie's departure from Take That in 1995. The single is a brand new track which will feature on the forthcoming Robbie Williams 39-song greatest hits set “ In And Out Of Consciousness – The Greatest Hits 1990 - 2010 ”, to be released on CD and DVD on Virgin Records on October 11. The album is spread over 2 CDs and is the definitive hits collection of one of the biggest superstars to have emerged from the UK in the last 20 years. With a staggering 57 million album sales and 11 million singles sold, Robbie Williams has been breaking records over the course of his whole career.  7 No 1 UK albums meant he is easily the biggest selling solo artist in UK...

Jack Johnson makes a hot return this summer with the follow-up to his previous two UK No.1 albums and his fifth studio LP ‘ To The Sea ’, released May 31st on Island Records. He released the album’s beautiful lead single ‘ You and Your Heart' and heads out on a mammoth world tour, which features four eagerly anticipated UK dates in June. The 18 million album-selling artist’s new record was recorded at the Mango Tree Studio in his native Hawaii and the Solar Powered Plastic Plant using 100% solar power. The 12-track record was written by Jack Johnson and produced by Jack with three-time Grammy winning producer Robert Carranza .“ I can’t tell you anything but the truth. ” sings Jack Johnson in his beautiful new studio album, To The Sea, defining the ethos of a man born and raised in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. You could say it was his late father’s solo sail from California to Hawaii that opened his son’s future fate and underpinned it with a personal mythology, but it was J...

Brixton’s original folksteppers Melodica, Melody and Me Release their debut single, ‘Piece Me Back Together’ on Monday 12th July 2010 through Everybody’s Stalking   To check out the beautiful new video: click here . They have done a great little cover of Paul Simon – Diamonds on the Soles of Her shoes, which you can get at www.myspace.com/mmmelodic as a free download. The new single will be available on limited edition seven-inch vinyl and download. Huw (Vocal/Guitar), Rudi (Guitar, Charango, Kora, Melodica), Emilio (Kora, Melodica, Charango), Anna (Vocals, Melodica), John (Bass) and Greta (Drums) uniquely combine their folk influences of Bert Jansch and Victor Jara with their Dub and Reggae heroes Augustus Pablo and Lee Scratch Perry and have become Britain’s go-to band for all-night skanking and festival stomping. From their first proper gig supporting Whitest Boy Alive at Hoxton Bar Grill MMM's infectious live set has been creating waves across the UK touring with the li...

Nas and Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley whose hugely anticipated collaborative studio album, Distant Relatives is released on Monday May 24, 2010, have confirmed a third major UK date Gabriella Kilmi ‘Hearts Don’t Lie’ released by Island Records on 31st May 2010 Steve Winwood . Island Records will release the definitive career retrospective of one of the all-time greats of the UK music scene on 7th June 2010. Entitled “ Revolutions – The Very Best Of Steve Winwood ” it is a portrait of one of the most influential British musicians in rock history, a singer-songwriter, peerless vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player. Mumford & Sons release their new single, ‘ Roll Away Your Stone ’ through Gentlemen Of The Road / Island Records on the 7th June 2010. It is taken from the band’s critically acclaimed, platinum selling Top 5 debut album, ‘ Sigh No More ’ The Drums . 2010 has seen NYC based quartet The Drums go from being one of the most talked about new bands of the year to being the...