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

'Love Cards' is the brand new single by Devlin, featuring rising newcomer Etta Bond. It is released on the 20th May through Island Records. This single is taken from Devlin's acclaimed second album ‘ A Moving Picture ’. Produced by Raf Riley, it follows Devlin's previous two top 10 hits off the album - (All Along The) Watchtower feat Ed Sheeran and ‘Rewind’. Love Cards is arguably the most sonically compelling track on the record, finding the 23 year old at his most acerbic and incisive, and looks set to become another huge anthem for this gifted and widely respected young artist. Devlin preceded the release of ‘Love Cards’ with a headline show at London's Koko on the 30th April and this is followed by Summer festival appearances at Reading and Leeds (headlining the 1Xtra Stage), Isle of Wight, Wireless (supporting Jay Z), and Beachbreak.  Devlin Live:   15th June - Isle of Wight Festival  21st June - Beachbreak Festival, Cornwall  13th July – Wirele...

Devlin is pleased to announce details of a UK tour for later this year. The Dagenham born rapper will play four shows in November in support of his forthcoming second album, A Moving Picture, released on the 29th October. The dates kick off in Birmingham on the 9th November, and conclude at London’s Scala on the 13th November. Tickets are £11.50 (London £13.50) on pre-sale from 17th July, and on general sale from 20th July through www.livenation.co.uk and www.gigsinscotland.com . As previously announced, Devlin’s forthcoming single (All Along The) Watch Tower Ft. Ed Sheeran is out on the 20th August through Island Records. Watch the video here: Devlin Live: 19th August – V Festival, Stafford 24th August – Ibiza Rocks, Ibiza 1st September – Jersey Live, Jersey 9th November – Institute Library, Birmingham 10th November – Classic Grand, Glasgow 11th November – Academy 3, Manchester 13th November – Scala, London www.officialdevlin.com

Dagenham’s finest Devlin announces his second nationwide tour of 2011. His Feb/March tour of 6 UK venues from Glasgow to London sold out in a flash. His debut album ‘Bud, Sweat & Beers’ has surpassed Silver sales in 2 months. To meet the surplus demand Devlin will be back out on the road with his full live band in May 2011, bringing his visceral mix of consciousness lyrics and grime energy to the Great British public. The Official Bud, Sweat and Beers Tour is the most powerful UK rap show of the spring. Tuesday 10th May 2011 Oxford O2 Academy Wednesday 11th May 2011 Cardiff Coal Exchange Thursday 12th May 2011 Cambridge The Junction Monday 16th May 2011 Manchester Academy 2 Tuesday 17th May 2011 Preston 53 Degrees Thursday 19th May 2011 Edinburgh Liquid Rooms Friday 20th May 2011 Sheffield The Plug Sunday 22nd May 2011 Leeds Stylus Monday 23rd May 2011 Birmingham HMV Institute Tuesday 24th May 2011 Nottingham Rescue Rooms Thursday 26th May 2011 Newcastle O2 Academy Fri...

Devlin, Dagenham’s 21-year-old lyrical prodigy, whose universally feted debut album “bud, sweat & beers” has established him as one of the breakthrough artists of 2010, has announced 5 UK dates for the new year. The dates follow the release of Devlin’s new Island single “Let It Go” produced by and featuring Labrinth, on January 31st. As these dates are announced, Devlin’s debut album has been classified silver in the UK for sales in excess of 60,000. The full list of dates is as follows : Thursday Feb 24th Manchester Club Academy Friday February 25th Glasgow 02 ABC2 Sunday February 27th Birmingham HMV Institute (The Library) Monday February 28th Norwich Waterfront Tuesday March 1st London 02 Academy Islington Tickets will be available to pre-order exclusively from Devlin’s website http://www.officialdevlin.com from 9.30am on Friday December 17th and will go on general sale from Monday December 20th and will be available from http://www.livenation.co.uk/ & http://w...

‘Let It Go’ brings together two of the most potent forces in UK urban music to create an explosive future music single. Devlin is Dagenham’s 21-year-old lyrical prodigy. A lightening quick flow peppered with one-liners, cathartic street stories and fevered imagery. His fêted debut ‘bud, sweat & beers’ peaked at #5 in the iTunes Chart on its release in November 2010. ‘Let It Go’ is his follow up single to the Top 20 hit ‘Runaway’. With a UK headline tour planned for February and over 18 million Devlin related views on Youtube, the country is discovering the grime scene’s most thoughtful spitter one line, one video view at a time. Producer and vocalist on this single is 21-year-old Labrinth. In the brave new world where UK hip hop talent is receiving the attention it deserves, Labrinth has emerged as a star producer. He is the man behind Tinie Tempah’s #1 single ‘Pass Out’. ‘Let It Go’ documents a relationship in turbulence. Labrinth weaves together hyperactive guitar parts, interna...

At long last it feels like UK rap music is well and truly erupting. Every way you look - from the summit of the charts to the breaking waves of the underground - the UK rap fraternity is seizing control. In between the ricocheting lyrical crossfire one face is emerging as one of 2010's most notorious breaking artists, and that's the angular bone-structure of Dagenham, Essex's very own Devlin. ‘bud, sweat & beers’ is a step change for grime. Socially aware. Spiritually conflicted with a sacred heart and profane mouth. Dark, accurate and artful lyrical sketches of life at social margins. Capacious enough to make reference to Hollywood’s Wesley Snipes, super-bug C-Difficile, Pengi, Nostradamus, Picasso, Tectonic plates and Elvis. It’s an imaginative feast. Lyrical meaning unfolds on meaning. Metaphors come as quickly as the mind can process. The album opens with the thunderous cavalcade of ‘1989’ where heavy-metal guitar stabs provide an urgent, heart-in-mouth backdrop for...

One of the most eagerly anticipated artists of 2010 is 21-year-old James Devlin. Having released an uncompromisingly gritty opening salvo with Giggs in April (‘Shot Music) the Dagenham MC of Irish extraction returns with a statement of intent for the rest of the year. ‘ Brainwashed ’ is a rain-swept gothic backdrop for Devlin’s wordplay and imagery, like a darkly inked page out of V for Vendetta. A lyrical prodigy that started on pirate radio at age 13, he is unrivalled in the grime scene for the cinematic power of his bars. ‘ My names lodged up in your brain like a blade in an operation’ goes one typically grimey metaphor. Famed for having ‘the biggest vocabulary in grime’, Devlin’s forthcoming album, will bring to mind the richest, most imaginatively detailed storyteller’s albums. Nas is one seminal influence. Bruce Springsteen is another. But that’s to come. This single has the modest intent of brainwashing a nation like a dystopian despot; ‘neurological science will leave your bra...