Liverpool Music Week 2014 announces first wave of acts

Camp and Furnace will play host to the festival's newly announced headliners Mogwai, Caribou and Wild Beasts.

It will also host the main stage for the festival's Closing Party which will be announced in July.

Seminal Glaswegian alt-rock band Mogwai have been selling out theatres and headlining festivals all over the world since their formation in 1995 culminating in their top 10, eighth studio album, Rave Tapes released earlier this year.

Caribou is the guise of dance artist Daniel Snaith who has topped electronic festivals across the globe while his 2007 album Andorra won the Polaris Music Prize; Canada's equivalent of the Mercury Prize.

Kendal alt-pop band Wild Beasts released their top 10 charting fourth album Present Tense earlier this year. Signed to Domino Records' the quartet are UK critical darlings with their second album nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2010.

Liverpool Music Week's founding-director, Mike Deane, said: "We are thrilled to announce our first wave of headliners for this our very special 10th anniversary edition.

"We've come a long way in the past decade, and that's not only reflected by the incredible headliners that we are so excited to announce in Mogwai, Caribou and Wild Beasts - but also through some of the international partnerships, collaborations and commissions that we will be announcing over the coming months, that will marry perfectly and work alongside this incredible city's buzzing current music scene." 

The first of those partnerships has been announced, with LMW teaming up with seminal UK festival organisers, All Tomorrow's Parties, on October 24, with a Release the Bats event curated by ellectronic artist and GIT Award 2014 winner Forest Swords, LMW Director Mike Deane and ATP's founder Barry Hogan.

The Kazimier has also been announced for the first time, as the main Festival Hub, which plays part to the annual programme - which will feature free shows, and discounted events over seven days period running through the middle of the festival programme.

An exciting and diverse line-up of national and international acts is already lined-up alongside the city's freshest new talent.

Attracting a record breaking 48,000 people for its last edition, this year the festival returns with a jam packed itinerary of live music, to take over the city for 10 days creating one of the biggest musical events the city has ever seen.

Full details on the official site.

Ben Howard, Lykke Li, Wild Beasts and Banks for Open'er 2014

Joining Open'er today is songstress Lykke Li with her first major performance in Poland, reinvention mavericks Wild Beasts with their new album already being deemed one of most important rock releases this year and newcomer BANKS who is sure to be a breakout artist in 2014!

Lykke Li

Polish Lykke Li fans are in luck this year. First of all, Lykke Li's third album "I Never Learn" is coming out on May 5th. Secondly, the magical songstress visits Gdynia for her first major performance on July 4 at Open’er! Together with Björn Yttling, Greg Kurstin, for the first time Lykke handled production duties on the new record. “I Never Learn" is the third album in the trilogy that began with the much loved “Youth Novels” and “Wounded Rhymes”. As the European Festival Awards winner for Festival Anthem "I Follow Rivers", Lykke Li delivers an absolutely unforgettable live experience.

Wild Beasts

Wild Beasts are more of a band than most bands. It's weird, because they've spent their career trying to escape the constraints of what is expected from four lads playing together, more than ever on the deliberately synthetic, instrument-swapping Present Tense. Longer in creation than any of its predecessors, Hayden Thorpe, Tom Fleming, Chris Talbot and Ben Little took almost a full year away from touring to conceive and construct the eleven tracks. The band worked in close collaboration with co-producers Lexxx and Brian Eno protégé Leo Abrahams to create a record of astounding intricacy, coherence and emotional resonance. With this new material, they return to Open'er.

Ben Howard

He won the two 2013 Brit Awards he was nominated for: Best British Breakthrough Act and British Solo Male Artist. He embodies the spirit of the Here and Now, so the newly conceived stage at Open’er will be a perfect spot for his performance on July 4th! A young acoustic troubadour, Howard will make you feel as though he is the first young acoustic troubadour you have ever heard, making it all seem brand new even though his songs have wisdom and a rootsy authenticity as old as the hills.

BANKS

Some things don’t need to be defined, some aren’t meant to be in a box, held in proverbial captivity. They inherently defy a need for classification. BANKS makes music. Great music. Why not just stop there? Allow her to be a siren for a generation, beckoning for self discovery. She begs for it. Conveying her sound seems almost unfair, it’s built on a simple notion of emotion. Perhaps that explains the near explosion of eager fans frantic to share their own discovery, ultimately propelling this songstress’ art to the top of the Hype Machine charts. The EP "London" offers a peek into her world, with a full debut album out this June.

Tickets to Open'er Festival on sale in  ALTERSHOP and Ticketpro outlets.

Wild Beasts, Fionn Reagan and Field Music Added To Dot to Dot Line Up

Now in its landmark fifth year and touring three of the UK's most music-savvy cities (including Manchester for the first time in 2010), Dot To Dot is thrilled to announce some great additions to their fabulously eclectic line-up, harmonizing the best up-and-coming talent from across the globe.

These newly-announced acts cross numerous musical genres, from Canadian electro-pop to home-grown folk and all are already attracting rave reviews and tip-for-the-top nods from the savviest UK music writers. They join previously announced sensations such as 2010 Critics' Choice Brit Award winner Ellie Goulding, acclaimed Cardiff-based indie collective Los Campesinos!, returning psych-pop heroes Mystery Jets and BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe on what is shaping up as Dot To Dot's finest bill so far.

Festival organiser Anton Lockwood (of DHP Group) said today:

"We're very excited with the latest additions to the Dot To Dot line up! Wild Beasts had one of the most critically acclaimed albums of last year, which has just continued to grow in stature. Field Music might yet top the polls for this year too. Fionn Regan's rousing folk is going from strength to strength, whilst rockers are going to love Eighties Matchbox, Dan Sartain and Dead Confederate. Lights is the hugely popular new-synth sound of young Canada and is sure to be a hit. And if you love to hear a truly stunning singer, don't miss Rox! With these new additions we've brought a great deal more strength and diversity to the bill, we can't wait!"

First out of the traps are Wild Beasts, Domino Records signed teens who originally hail from previously uncharted rock'n'roll mecca The Lake District. Purveyors of ethereal and beautiful pop propelled by frontman Hayden Thorpe's majestic falsetto vocal (reminiscent of the late, great Billy MacKenzie), this is sure to prove one heck of a show.Acoustic folk troubadour (and former Mercury Music Prize nominee) Fionn Regan has been dubbed "A Bob Dylan for the 21st Century", but even that surefire compliment does not accurately describe the sheer breadth of emotion on offer on his new album 'The Shadow Of An Empire' - judge for yourself at Dot To Dot 2010.

Field Music (aka songwriting brothers Peter & David Brewis, accompanied by keyboard manipulator Andrew Moore) will thrill Dot To Dot's Bristol and Manchester legs with their artfully poised pop rock which draws upon a seemingly encyclopaedic range of classic pop influences. Canadian teen synth-pop sensation Lights describes her sound as "intergalactic electro music" and looks unstoppable in her quest to conquer this and many other planets with her genius electronic earworms - you will be powerless to resist! Already a star in her native Canada, she was recently awarded a prestigious Juno Award for 2009 New Artist of the Year and is set to release her debut album 'The Listening' on this side of the pond in May 2010.

Offering love songs tinged with reggae and wrapped in a ribbon of soul, Rox is blessed with both beauty and an incredible voice and looks set to go stratospheric this year and she is another great addition to Dot To Dot's ever eclectic bill. Birmingham three-piece Johnny Foreigner are also newly-confirmed and plan to inject some of their self-proclaimed "noisy pop" into proceedings.Meanwhile, rockers can look forward to the return of Brighton faves The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, the Alabaman blues-rock growl of Dan Sartain, and US alt-rockers Dead Confederate.

Also added to the fantastic Dot To Dot bill today are Kirsty Almeida, The Cheek, De Staat, Dog Is Dead, Fol-Chen, Fun, Gentleman's Dub Club, Growing, Lawson, Lunar Youth, Morning Parade, The Red Suns, Ruby Suns,Small Black, White Hinterland, Wolf Gang and Jamie Woon.