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).