Latest news with #FranzFerdinand
Scottish Sun
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Massive Noughties band announce surprise gig in Scots city in 2026
A MASSIVE Noughties band has announced a Scots show in 2026. Franz Ferdinand, famous for huge hit Take Me Out, are set to rock the LiveHouse in Dundee. 2 The Dundee gig will be popular with fans 2 Franz Ferdinand formed in Glasgow in 2002 The band, formed in Glasgow in 2002, are also playing a gig in their hometown in August at SWG3 Galvanisers Yard. A post on the GigsinScotland website revealed the details for the gigs - August 13 in Glasgow and February 24 next year in Dundee. The advert read: 'Ever since their beginnings, throwing illegal parties in condemned Glasgow buildings, Franz Ferdinand have been defined by a fresh, unfading, forward-facing outlook. 'A transgressive art-school perspective, but with a love of a big song. 'A big riff. A big idea. Somewhat contrary. Unafraid to dance. 'Unafraid to think. Unafraid to fear. 'Their sixth studio album, The Human Fear, courses with an energy that makes you feel very much alive. 'Fear makes you feel alive. Awake. A life without fear is a life asleep. 'Fear is what shows us our humanity. It's why we search for it in horror films or extreme physical activities. 'The most life-defining moments are shaped by fear: acknowledging, accepting, or overcoming it.' Inside notoriously wild nightlife of Tenerife where Jay Slater died - and drugs STILL flow one year on More information on buying tickets can be found at the GigsinScotland website.
The Herald Scotland
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
The Edinburgh concert venue rock bands cannot play in summer
The Ross Bandstand has been a permanent feature of Princes Street Gardens since 1877, yet its stage is almost always empty and the gates to its concrete spectator bowl rarely unlocked. Tightened restrictions on staging events in the gardens, a dramatic increase in the cost of putting on open-air concerts and the current condition of the bandstand are all said to have led to a dramatic decline in its use in recent years. Recently approved new curbs introduced by the city council for the summer festival period state that they will only allow free,' low-impact' events to be staged at the bandstand. Experts say this amounts to a ban on the all-ticket pop and rock concerts that have packed out the gardens on summer nights as far back as the early 1990s. Previous acts to appear during the summer include Franz Ferdinand, Belle and Sebastian, Orbital, Nick Cave, BB King, Tony Bennett, Bryan Ferry, Steve Earle, Joan Baez, The Waterboys, James and The Flaming Lips. The only major pop and rock concert to survive this year is the Hogmanay concert in the gardens, which has fallen victim to bad weather three times during the history of the new year festival, most recently last December. However, organisations of the new year celebrations have raised concerns over the increasing cost of staging shows at the bandstand, suggesting the lack of suitable facilities and access problems around the arena were making it increasing difficult to put on major events every year. The possibility of replacing the existing bandstand was explored after the first Hogmanay cancellation in 2003-4, but the idea was shelved due to the lack of available funding. The Ross Bandstand in West Princes Street Gardens is closed to the public for most of the year. (Image: Colin Mearns) A more ambitious vision emerged 10 years ago when a former owner of the Edinburgh Playhouse offered to help bankroll a new outdoor arena. Norman Springford's vision won the backing of the city council, which agreed to support an international design competition which was eventually won by a team led by an American architectural practice. Roddy Smith is chief executive of the city centre business group Essential Edinburgh. (Image: Colin Mearns) However, concerns began to emerge over the level of development that would be needed in the gardens to deliver the £25 million project, which attracted opposition from heritage organisations, including Historic Environment Scotland and the Cockburn Association, before it was quietly shelved by the council during the Covid pandemic. Although some basic infrastructure improvements have been carried out within the bandstand over the last decade, the venue has largely remained the same since it was built in 1935. Large-scale concerts have been staged in West Princes Street Gardens since the early industry insiders draw a contrast between what the Ross Bandstand is used for now and Kelvingrove Bandstand in Glasgow. The latter is playing host to 20 shows this summer from acts as varied as Elbow, Billy Ocean, Camera Obscura, Beluga Lagoon, Midge Ure, Hue & Cry, Anastacia, Teenage Fanclub and Karine Polwart. Ambitious plans to create a new open-air concert arena in Princes Street Gardens were shelved by the city council during the Covid pandemic. Del Amitri, King Creosote, Echo & The Bunnymen, Ocean Colour Scene, the Hothouse Flowers and Glasvegas will be among the acts playing in Queen's Park, in Glasgow's south side. However high-profile performers are conspicuous by their absence from the forthcoming calendar of forthcoming events at Edinburgh's historic outdoor gardens venue. Crowds have flocked to open-air events in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh since 1877. The line-up includes a Polish National Day celebration, a Nepalese Cultural Festival, visits from two American choirs and a performance by a Norwegian folk band. The Ross Bandstand arena was used in summers by promoters DF Concerts for shows by Scottish favourites Lewis Capaldi, Primal Scream, Simple Minds, Chvrches and Travis. The Ross Bandstand was opened to the public for a screening of the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla in Princes Street Gardens in 2023. Other acts who have appeared under the Summer Sessions banner in recent years have included Tom Jones, Paloma Faith, The 1975, Simply Red, James, Florence & The Machine and Madness. DF Concerts chief executive Geoff Ellis said: 'The Ross Bandstand is one of the most iconic venues in the world. It is our equivalent of the Hollywood Bowl. Artists love it and audiences love it. We had people of all ages at our shows. 'But the only way we could make them work was to do a run of shows because of all the infrastructure that we put in. We effectively put a stage over the bandstand, which costs a lot of money to do. 'The council used to count the run of concerts we did as one event, which was great as it allowed us to put on multiple nights.' Roddy Smith, chief executive of city centre business group Essential Edinburgh, admitted the future use of the bandstand is a divisive issue in the city, but insisted it was not acceptable for the facility to sit locked up for all but a handful of events. He told The Herald: 'There is a lot of conjecture and argument in the city about what the Ross Bandstand needs to be going forward. 'It is an old, pretty ugly-looking structure which has seen better days, there is no doubt about that. The issue is what we do about it. 'There needs to be a real conversation about what we can do to improve things and turn it into a real community amenity that everybody can enjoy and which can be upscaled for the odd event. 'It should become a far more open space, with a lot more greenery, that visitors and residents of the city can use all the time, not just for five or six events a year.' Al Thomson, director of Unique Events, said a revamp of the Ross Bandstand arena was around 20 years overdue. He pointed to the success of a revamp of Kelvingrove Bandstand, which was relaunched in 2014, five years after the west end venue was closed down due to its poor condition. He said: 'We would not be having this discussion now if that work had been done. We would have a performance space that is fit for purpose. 'Most cosmopolitan European cities have functional outdoor spaces for performance and art. You only have to look at the Kelvingrove. There wasn't a radical change and it's a smaller space, but you only have to look at how it is used now. 'Thankfully there was some work carried out at the Ross Bandstand to upgrade things a few years ago, but it is still really lacking in terms of how it could be and what it could be used for. 'The big issue with the gardens now is access. For an event like Hogmanay, when we are building infrastructure of scale we are really limited in terms of what vehicles we can actually bring into the gardens, which impacts on costs, as it takes longer to build anything. You also have the rail network right next to the bandstand. 'The most recent bandstand redevelopment project was looking at how to make it easier to bring in that kind of infrastructure, which would have saved time, impact and money had it gone ahead.' The Cockburn Association, the city's most influential heritage watchdog, insists it recognises the 'historical significance' of the bandstand and would fully support a refurbishment, as long as the venue is only used for 'low impact activities". It has stepped up its opposition to the gardens being used as 'a major performance hub,' citing concerns over the impact of large-scale events on public access to the gardens and its landscape". Mr Ellis said: 'The council has come under a lot of pressure to change things from some of the residents who live in the area. They don't like the park being used for events and want it to be their back garden. 'The fact is these are Victorian pleasure gardens which were created for public enjoyment and entertainment. They were not built for the pleasure of rich people.' Edinburgh-based broadcaster Vic Galloway said: 'I really like the Ross Bandstand and wish there were more concerts and events in there during the year. 'Aside from Hogmanay and occasional summer events, it's a shame it lies empty most of the time. 'The location of the venue is perfect, as it's in the dead centre of Edinburgh and near transport links, plus it has the greatest backdrop in the city. Having more events there may even bring more footfall to businesses on Princes Street too. 'As a cultural city and a capital city, Edinburgh should be hosting more outdoor events, as most other European capital cities do.' Mr Thomson said: 'It would be great for the city if we could get large-scale concerts back in the gardens in the summer. 'We have seen how Edinburgh has established itself as a go-to venue for stadium concerts in recent years. The shows at Murrayfield are delivering a huge boost for the city. People are travelling from all over the country and beyond for those shows. 'There are no other cities which have a concert venue with the backdrop like the Ross Bandstand has. 'We take a lot of what we do as a city for granted in terms of the scale of events that we are lucky enough to have on our doorstep and the variety of culture we have that is accessible to it all. But it is getting harder and harder every year to deliver that in the city centre. 'To do these concerts now and make them financially viable when you have to bring in all the additional infrastructure is really difficult for anyone to make work. 'The only way to make it add up would be through an extended programme. Unfortunately, I don't think it is going to happen again anytime soon. 'There are a lot of parties and organisations that are very vocal about large-scale events taking place in the city.' A recent consultation carried out by the city council found majority support for using the gardens for a 'major event' in August, however, there was far more support for smaller-scale 'low impact' events being staged there in the summer. The council's new rules will allow both the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival to stage large-scale events in the summer in future, but only as long as they are free of charge and do not restrict access to the gardens. One of the few all-ticket events given the green light to be staged in the gardens over the next few months is the electronic music festival Fly, which is due to be held in September. Festival founder Tom Ketley has been encouraging the council to allow smaller-scale events to be staged at the bandstand throughout the year, an idea that has been taken forward by councillors and could be introduced for 2026. Mr Ketley said: 'We recognise that the council needs to strike a balance, particularly where events may impact on residents and businesses, but an opportunity definitely exists to enhance the bandstand's future as a vibrant, well-managed cultural venue within the city. 'We would like to see some smaller low impact community led events taking place at the bandstand throughout the summer months, especially when the weather is nice as this would see the bandstand used rather than the gates chained shut.' Mr Smith suggested the council needed to rethink its policies to ensure the gardens were able to be used more in future for events of all sizes. He added: 'I'd like to see events being staged throughout the year as well as an agreed number of larger events. We have to get away from the idea that Edinburgh is all about August and Christmas. 'We need to keep the city centre moving all the time. Edinburgh has undergone a huge change over the last 10 years. The city is transforming and I see the Ross Bandstand as being an important part of that in future. 'I think it has huge potential. Very rarely do you get somewhere as potentially good as this right in the heart of a city centre.' Margaret Graham, who was recently appointed as the council's convener of culture, told The Herald: "All events which take place in West Princes Street Gardens must adhere to our standard conditions and working parameters. "Event organisers can book the Ross Bandstand for a range of events including ticketed music concerts. "All bookings are assessed to ensure the activity proposed is suitable for the site and the plans are further scrutinised by the council and our partners to ensure that those attending and the park itself are well looked after. 'The Ross Bandstand is both a key piece of Edinburgh's cultural history and an important element of our future plans for the city centre. We want all of our parks and facilities, including West Princes Street Gardens and the Ross Bandstand, to be fully enjoyed by our residents and visitors.'
Irish Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Putting on an outdoor music festival in Ireland: ‘The bands saw they weren't going to be up on the back of a truck in Portlaoise'
When Philip Meagher, a solicitor and indie-rock fan, set out to create a music festival from scratch, he knew he had a lot to prove. He had no experience organising a big event featuring dozens of acts over multiple days – on a brand new festival site. But he was passionate about music and believed there was space in an already crowded calendar for something different. And so was born Forest Fest , a three-day event at Emo village, in Co Laois, that's laser-focused on concertgoers of a particular vintage. 'We were trying to fill a niche. We thought there was a market for a festival primarily focused on a more mature audience. And while we didn't want to go completely retro, we certainly wanted a nod towards artists on the road for a long time. READ MORE 'But we were very specific that we were only talking about bands that were still match fit – basically that they were bands that were still gigging actively, were producing new music, that were touring.' [ Forest Fest 2024 review: Golden oldies shine, Shane MacGowan's spirit inspires Opens in new window ] Meagher launched Forest Fest in 2022 with a largely Irish line-up. It has since expanded to include international acts such as Suede and James. This year's headliners, over the weekend of July 25th to 27th, include Franz Ferdinand and Manic Street Preachers . The challenge, says Meagher, was to put together a bill that reflected his vision of the festival as an event that appealed to over-30s yet did not wallow in nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. He didn't want to lean into the hellscape of glorified 1980s karaoke: the idea was to celebrate artists who were still forging ahead creatively rather than dining out on faded glories. 'The first year we were concentrating mostly on Irish acts. The good, big names, like The Stunning, Something Happens, the likes of those,' he says. 'In fairness to them, they were very open to taking a risk on a new festival. Obviously, they were taking a leap into the dark. We had to give certain assurances about the level of production and staging we were going to provide. 'When they saw the production team we had put together, and they saw the specification of the sound system, staging, the lighting, etc, that we were going to put in place … that was of huge comfort to them. They weren't going to turn up and be up on the back of a truck in the square in Portlaoise. That's with the greatest of respect to bands that play on the back of a truck.' These are challenging times for music festivals. In the UK last year more than 60 festivals were cancelled or postponed, up from 36 in the previous 12 months. In Ireland, where the circuit is obviously a lot smaller, nine such events were nevertheless cancelled last year amid rising overheads in music and ongoing cost-of-living pressures. Those tensions are felt across the industry. In the case of bigger festivals there is an ever more desperate scramble to secure one of the elite acts seen as having the star power to headline a major outdoor concert – think Lana Del Rey, who played Glastonbury in 2023, or Olivia Rodrigo, a headliner in 2025. It's a short list – and everyone wants them. Elite act: Lana Del Rey at Glastonbury in 2023. Photograph: Joseph Okpako/WireImage 'We're seeing a trend of festivals booking acts earlier. Primavera Sound , in Barcelona, announced its line-up in October, and it takes place in June this year, which means negotiations would have started before their last festival even happened,' Finlay Johnson of the Association for Electronic Music , a New York-based organisation with member companies in more than 40 countries, said in January. 'Others have followed suit. Partly, they want tickets to be on sale for as long as possible, but they also want to secure headliners, as there are fewer acts available.' Those headaches do not apply to smaller festivals – at least not in the same way. Still, regardless of scale, an attractive line-up is more important than ever. It can be the difference between a good year and an underwhelming one. If anything, such decisions are even more crucial when it comes to more intimate festivals. 'We need the headliner name on the board to excite people, get a bit of hype going,' says Katie Twohig, who, with her husband, Eoin Hally, programmes the three-stage, 800-capacity When Next We Meet festival , at Raheen House in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, which this year takes place on June 7th and 8th. Headliners: Pillow Queens are at this year's When Next We Meet. Photograph: Debbie Hickey/Getty The main acts include Villagers , Conor O'Brien's thoughtful indie songwriter project, and the postpunks Pillow Queens, alongside the cult alternative artists Paddy Hanna, Skinner and Morgana. Having a big name is important, and not only in terms of shifting tickets or drawing an audience from outside the locality. They also set the tone for the rest of the bill, Twohig says. The idea is to attract acts that have a complementary sound. If When Next We Meet booked the noisy Dublin postpunks The Scratch, for example, they'd have to ensure the rest of the day's line-up had a similar sensibility. The goal is to mould the feel of the weekend around those headliners. It all starts with them. 'We're absolutely thrilled where things landed this year. Villagers are the main band closing on Sunday. But also Pillow Queens, on the Saturday night, they'll be headlining. We feel like they're strongest line-up to date, and a lovely balance in terms of genres as well. And Pillow Queens probably have a younger audience, so it's a lovely scope there,' Twohig says. 'Sometimes it's hard to get that balance right. There's no end to the amount of great artists that are out there. When you're curating something, it takes time to get that balance right. Once you book one artist it narrows down your choices, I suppose, in the lower tiers on the programming. We're very happy with how it turned out this year. But some years we've been stressing over about getting the right fit.' As with so much else in the music industry, putting together a good festival bill is helped by having a solid network of contacts, says Emmet Condon, who promotes live music under the Homebeat banner and programmes Another Love Story , an intimate festival at the 18th-century Killyon Manor, in Co Meath, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. (This year's festival is on August 23rd and 24th.) In the music business there are people who get involved because of the romance, and then there are people who are hard-nosed businesspeople. We tend to try and work with or find acts and people who have the same heart that we have about doing it — Emmet Condon Having started in 2014, Another Love Story remains the best-kept secret of the Irish festival year, though it has attracted many high-profile artists. This year the headliners are the Barcelona producer and DJ John Talabot and the Co Wicklow songwriter Fionn Regan . 'I have been running shows as Homebeat for 15 or 16 years now. I've been active as a booker and a promoter for a long time. I've worked as a booker for things like Body & Soul,' says Condon, referring to the Westmeath festival last held in 2023. 'Over a span of time you build up contacts, and people trust what you do.' The bigger acts Another Love Story has attracted, according to Condon, include Talabot and, last year, the German electro supergroup Modeselektor. It has also hosted people like Alabaster DePlume, the acclaimed jazz and spoken-word artist, and the famed fiddler Martin Hayes, 'who would be luminaries in their own right'. It takes work to reel in these international artists, who may have festival offers from around the world. 'For us to attract them to the smaller stage, we have to work pretty hard to deliver what we do each year. And then to sell the dream of the thing to those people. 'In the music business there are people who almost inevitably get involved because of the romance, and then there are people who are hard-nosed businesspeople,' who want to make money. 'We tend to try and work with or find those acts and those people who have the same heart that we have about doing it.' With smaller festivals, there are no blockbusting stars to draw the audience. It has to be about something more than that. 'It started as a relatively small thing and has grown into a relatively substantial adventure each year,' Condon says about Another Love Story. 'As it's grown, as a booker, the opportunity has been to increasingly fill the space and create a narrative of sorts through music. 'We're not a massive festival that has massive headline acts, obviously. My favourite thing about the whole thing is the spreadsheet that I get to keep and hone – like my baby – from one September, when one festival ends, and straight over to the next part of the year. 'It's a joy to create a mood piece, using music throughout the whole weekend, and to kind of create an arc of experience and the soundtrack that fits around it.' In the case of Forest Fest, which has a 12,000-person capacity across three stages, Philip Meagher had a clear vision: a festival that would appeal to those whose wayward youth is well behind them and are perhaps starting to weary of megafestivals. He had worked as a solicitor for the late John Reynolds, the much-respected Irish promoter who established Electric Picnic in 2004. It was being at that festival, which has drifted towards a younger audience over the past 15 years, that made Meagher decide there was a niche for music lovers who had aged out of Stradbally weekend. 'The main acts that we have are obviously of a very, very high standard. They have a huge international standing. The curated bands that would support them would be of a similar quality but wouldn't quite have, perhaps, the international standing that the main acts would have. 'And that would filter down into the other supporting stages, where we would have acts slightly smaller in standing and then supported by the best of up-and-coming Irish and international acts,' he says. 'We have very, very strong new acts coming from the UK, coming from Ireland, coming from the US – giving them a chance. And they're appreciative of the fact that a lot of them are getting their first big festival experience – and playing on the same bill as the likes of the Manics and Travis and Dandy Warhols. 'They're going to meet them all and learn from them and see what it's like to be a rock god for the weekend.'
Telegraph
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Sparks, Mad!, review: eccentric brilliance with pearls of wisdom
Since they first properly struck gold with 1974's piano-pounding art-glam romp, This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us, Ron and Russell Mael's 'band', Sparks (its personnel has long since consisted of just the two of them), has been an ever-present gold standard for left-field pop – perhaps the world's most successful cult act. High points along the way have included 1979's Giorgio Moroder -produced New Wave/disco hit machine No.1 In Heaven and 1994's synth-pop primer Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins, but perhaps the most extraordinary twist in the tale of this fraternal odd couple from Los Angeles, ever beloved in the UK, is that, now well into their late 70s, their last three non-conceptual studio albums – Hippopotamus (2017), A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip (2020) and 0223's The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte (2023) – all by some remarkable coincidence hit Number Seven on the British charts. They've remained furiously productive since the millennium, managing to squeeze in 2015's collaborative record with superfans Franz Ferdinand ('FFS'), a radio opera (2009's The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman), a film musical (2021's Annette, which won them a César from Best Original Score), but this 28th studio album in their labyrinthine career surely delivers what most Sparks fans want from them most – a barrage of the kind of eccentric yet immediately connective synth-pop bangers, which only Chaplin-moustached keyboard maestro Ron Mael, now 79, seems capable of writing, and which Russell, 76, his sky-scraping high notes miraculously uneroded by passing time, delivers with characteristic theatrical gusto. If Mael Sr majors in operatic pop ditties with laugh-out-loud librettos of interpersonal observation and pop-cultural referencing, Mad! is veritably bulging at the seams with them. It opens with the pulsing electro assertion of Do Things My Own Way, a new anthem, perhaps, for Sparks's pathological idiosyncrasy. Further on, the glacially product-placing JanSport Backpack hilariously satirises our contemporary fixation with brand identity, often in preference over what's actually going on around us, or to us. More laughs beckon on Running Up A Tab At The Hotel For The Fab (oh, that craving to spend indiscriminately at a pricey boutique establishment!). Best of all, maybe, My Devotion offers a wonderfully goofy snapshot of unrequited love bordering on obsession: 'my devotion to you is all that I do,' gamely chirps Russell, over infectiously tootling synth lines, 'Got your name written on my shoe, and I'm thinkin' of getting' a tattoo!' He goes on, a tad creepily if he didn't sound so genuinely smitten: 'Through all the years/Rent in arrears/You never cared/Can't help but stare'! More relationship insecurity surfaces on In Daylight, which serves up the wisdom, doubtless accrued beneath unforgiving LA sunshine, 'Everybody looks great at night/Ain't no trick to look great at night', before our narrator approaches a radiant apparition to deliver the ultimate LA compliment, 'You were impressive in day light, I saw you/Sunlight oppressive, but it's working for you', then succumbs to a dose of 'we are not worthy': 'I can't approach you since daylight reveals me/So I'll just wait for the night to conceal me'. Like many of pop's greatest songsmiths, Ron Mael has a rare talent for writing lyrics which you instantly imagine applying or indeed singing in real-life conversations with fellow Mad! enthusiasts. Over circling psychodrama strings-synth, A Long Red Light, for example, brilliantly captures the stress of awaiting a change from those traffic signals which seem to be on a far more patient time-loop than all the others around town. I can just imagine singing this one to myself, the next time I'm stopped at a particular junction on my route back from Central London. For all their lifelong weirdness, Sparks are always real enough to invade your daily reality, as all great pop does, in singalongs of collectively amusing phraseology, set to memorable melodies. As such, another Number Seven, or higher, surely awaits. Best New Songs By Poppie Platt Cerrone x Christine and the Queens, Catching Feelings Following their performance at last summer's Paris Olympics, French drummer Cerrone and polymath Christine and the Queens reunite for a funky disco banger with emotional depth at its heart, as Christine (real name Rahim Redcar) sings: 'Let me be your man / Don't be afraid / Of catching feelings for me'. I-dle, Good Thing The superstar K-pop quintet return with a new name (they've dropped the precursory G) but more of the same sharply tailored, irresistibly catchy bubblegum pop. Robbie Williams featuring Tony Iommi, Rocket Perhaps the strangest duet of the year so far – in a good way. Pop's favourite bad boy teams up with the Black Sabbath axe-shredder for an energetic pop-punk anthem as far removed as his saccharine hits of yesteryear (Candy, here's looking at you) as you can imagine. Maybe Robbie will even show up as a surprise guest at July's mega-star Sabbath gig at Villa Park. Suede, Disintegrate The Britpop staples will take over the Southbank Centre with four special gigs in the autumn, showcasing tracks from their forthcoming tenth album, Antidepressants. Disintegrate offers a tantalising first taste of what to expect: Brett Anderson on typically sardonic form, howling about modern anxieties and disillusionment ('You hold your love like a weapon in your hand / You used to be alone but you're not alone / Watching from the outside') against a backdrop of moody riffs. Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor's Version) The biggest teaser yet for the album that will soon break the internet – the rerecording of Swift's 2017 revenge-epic Reputation – appeared in the most recent episode of Channel 4's The Handmaids Tale. Elisabeth Moss's quest to bring down Gilead makes Swift's battle with Kanye Swift (the original inspiration for Reputation) look tame, so it's a fitting union. White Lies, Nothing on Me
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Franz Ferdinand and Adele Sandé open Sunderland Year of Music
Chart-topping indie rockers Franz Ferdinand and acclaimed singer-songwriter Adele Sandé are to kick off a year-long major celebration of two acts, both BRIT Award winners, will launch the Sunderland Year of Music 2025-2026 in June. It will mark Franz Ferdinand's return to Wearside for the first time in more than a decade, while Sunderland-born Sandé - formerly known as Emeli - will be making her stage debut under her real name. The gigs will kickstart a week of special live events across the city. Like Sandé, Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos spent his early years in Sunderland before moving to the last time his band played in the city was in March self-titled debut album won the 2004 Mercury Prize and their sixth, entitled The Human Fear, was released in January this are due to play the Glastonbury Festival a few days after their Sunderland show. Sandé's musical breakthrough came in 2011 with the release of her debut album Our Version of topped the UK Albums Chart and become the best-selling album of 2012 in this country with more than a million success led to her performing at both the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics in London, as well as earning her the Critics' Choice Award at the 2012 BRIT Awards and Best British Female Solo Artist in 2013. In 2017 she received an MBE for services to music. Both gigs mark what is set to be a busy year of live music as Sunderland celebrates its new status as an official Music than 500 events are planned from June 2025 to June 2026, spotlighting the city's vibrant music Sandé will play play The Fire Station on 21 June, followed by Franz Ferdinand on 25 June. Follow BBC Sunderland on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
