|
Irish-born London-based comedian Bea’s tight writing and warm delivery make her fish-out-of-water tales all the more funny and helped her claim last year’s So You Think You’re Funny award.
|
There are few electronic music lovers who haven’t heard Jamie Anderson. Over two decades Jamie has carved out a reputation as “one of the UK’s best” housetechno DJs. DMC Update |
A bleak childhood in a fundamentalist religious household where music was banned, secret school piano lessons and a subsequent escape from home: formative stuff for ghostly and gifted young Londoner Phildel. |
|
NME and the Guardian have been big fans of Alessi, who has just released new album The Still Life, from the outset. She has previously toured with Laura Marling, Emiliana Torrini and Cerys Matthews.
|
New York musician and comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis has taken his Rough Trade-signed antifolk sound across the world with the likes of Moldy Peaches, Mountain Goats and Jarvis Cocker.
|
Rachael Dadd [230]
Armed with clarinet, ukulele, thumb piano and layers of harmony as just some of her musical armoury, Rachael Dadd has graced the stages of Glastonbury, Green Man and Wilderness as well as extensively touring her two homelands of Japan and England. |
So You Think You’re Funny finalist Alex Kealy is an awkward, gangly comedian trapped inside the body of an awkward, gangly comedian. He hates himself and most other people, but hopefully that’s funny. Got big hair, loves to laugh and take walks in the country. |
Described as 'avant-garde campfire folk' by Alex Valentine, poet/artist/singer Jesse and her band sound like music from the hills – which they are. Pure, clear and perfect as a Black Mountain spring.
|
Plucked from her southeast London roots to sign with Mercury, Rainy Milo has been singing from the age of fourteen. She has innovated a genre-blending, atmospheric sound that has seen her recent release Limey hailed by the likes of the Guardian, and featured in i-D magazine. |
|
Alfie Brown’s provocative comedy comes not just from pushing boundaries but engaging with them too, with Chortle concluding that he “could become one of the most important, incisive comedians of his generation”.
|
Repeat Portishead collaborator Joe Volk is signed to Geoff Barrow's Invada imprint, with his latest album produced by Adrian Utley. He has played at Colston Hall and with the Bristol Ensemble chamber orchestra.
|
Championed by the Guardian, and with lots of TV airplay including Grey’s Anatomy, you might not expect an oeuvre containing tales of epilepsy, hallucinogens and violence, but Richard Walters is no ordinary artist.
|
|
Operatically trained poet, pianist and composer Ana Silvera has performed with the ENO and sold out headline shows at the Roundhouse – as well as playing some breathtaking HTLGI gigs since its inception.
|
A lunatic character act – “at least, for his sake, I hope it’s a character” (Scotsman) - who’s been making waves with a “manic and fast-paced routine…that will leave you shaking with laughter long after you've left" (Three Weeks).
|
Award-winning and inexhaustibly energetic performers The Roving Crows have taken their folk/ska/reggae/klezmer melting pot to festivals across the UK. Electronica-free dance music for the soul.
|
Andrew Weatherall has been making waves since his collaboration with Primal Scream turned the fortunes of the band right around. His latest album is Ruled by Passion, Destroyed by Lust. |
An exceptionally talented storyteller, Robins has been called ‘comedy’s best kept secret’ (Skinny) and has performed on Russell Howard’s Good News as well as writing for BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz.
|
2012 Mercury nominee Sam Lee convinced the Royal College of Music that folk was valid, and Vogue that folk was hot. Previous careers include burlesque dancing and wilderness survival; this one's looking stellar.
|
It began with an extraordinary musical adventure in the Congo, and helped pioneer Afro-Celt as a new musical form. Baka Byeond remain massively influential for their unique and extraordinary border-crossing sound. |
Their debut They May Put Land Between Us was released in November, and its layered folk harmonies have won Joyce the Librarian fans across the airwaves plus a European tour later this year.
|
His work has been heralded as a blues masterpiece throughout the music press from Q to Uncut. Sean Taylor has taken his technically brilliant and politically aware songs across the USA, Australia and UK.
|
|
With its unique physical comedy and a wild, unpredictable final twist, Ben Target’s debut hour (‘Discover Ben Target’) earned him an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination for Best Newcomer 2012.
|
A drunken encounter with Chrissie Hynde landed JP his big break. Since then he has been working solo on his album Son of Jack, and he's bringing it back home to Wales.
|
The Sunday Times call harpist/singer/songwriter Serafina Steer ‘beguiling’. Jarvis Cocker's also a fan, and produced her album The Moths Are Real, which Rough Trade then made Album of the Month.
|
|
A BBC Introducing... performance helped send Herefordshire harmonist Benji Tranter to London, bringing his delicate fingerpicking style to a wider audience. He's back, briefly, from the capital to play HTLGI.
|
Perrier-winning vocalist Julia Biel has won critical praise both for her solo work and toured internationally. She has collaborated Everything But The Girl's Ben Watt and afrobeat-reggae ensemble Soothsayer.
|
Loved by the crowds at Green Man, Glastonbury and Beautiful Days for their exhilarating high-octane performances, Sheelanagig bring musicianship and bucketloads of feelgood vibes to rock the dancefloor.
|
|
The Blaenavon Male Voice Choir is made up of what the BBC calls 'amazing voices' . The stars of hit TV series Coal House, the choir now has over sixty members and has toured from Norway to California.
|
Kieron Johnson’s work is a blending of the bizarre and the beautiful. He has worked with the BBC and Harry Hill, and his skill has received recognition from both Derren Brown and Uri Geller.
|
After graduating from the Cambridge Footlights, Sheeps took their dark and erudite comedy to Edinburgh, garnering rave reviews from Chortle and the Guardian.
|
|
Character comic Catriona Knox “has a nice line in psychopaths and a delicious commitment to outrageous physicality” (Fringe Guru), has appeared in Lee Mack’s Not Going Out and is part of BBC Radio 4 sketch troupe The Boom Jennies.
|
London-born folk rockstar King Charles won the 2010 Nashville International Songwriting Competition by unanimous vote, with his career going stratospheric in 2012, when he released debut album Loveblood.
|
This north London songwriting duo recently caught the attentions of BBC Introducing, who called them “absolutely fantastic.” Their summery and melodic single Reena recently set Radio 2's airwaves alight.
|
|
DJ Cedric Maison cut his teeth on the London club scene with legendary night Playground. As half the team behind influential record label Hypercolour, he is responsible for much of house music's hottest output.
|
Kizzy Crawford won the Arts Connect Original Singer-Songwriter prize with her reinventions of Welsh music despite being just sixteen, flaunting her Welsh/Bajan/English heritage in bi-lingual self-penned lyrics.
|
This trio of talented songwriters released debut album Into The Diamond Sun last year, and critics from the Guardian and BBC to the blogosphere went crazy for their intricately crafted psychedelic folktronica.
|
|
With performances at numerous festivals and comparisons drawn to Joni Mitchell, Johnny Flynn and Bon Iver, nineteen-year-old Mancunian Foyplays HTLGI ahead of releasing her debut album later this year.
|
Away from his duties as one-third of Sheeps, Williams has a burgeoning stand-up career of his own and was runner-up in So You Think You’re Funny.
|
In the outermost reaches of folk, and not averse to playing the saw as accompaniment to his delicate psychedelic charms, Sweet Baboo has been described by the BBC as 'one of Wales' finest' .
|
|
Alan McGee's a big fan of singer/songwriter Pattemore, who toured Europe with Ultravox’s Midge Ure before he’d even released his first album. His recent storming Globe gig saw the bar drunk dry.
|
With packed-out performances at Womad, Larmertree and Glastonbury, Lori Campbell's softly tropical folk sounds have led to work with Seasick Steve and touring alongside Ben Howard.
|
Death blues, vice and melodrama feature heavily in The Beau Bow Belles' output. Classically trained, their multi-instrumentalism takes in glockenspiel, keytar and stylophone, and they have huge fan in Russell Kane.
|
Six-piece Cocos Lovers were selected as a Green Man highlight by The Mirror for their 'Kent Coast folk with an African twist (Independent). Crammed with more musical influences than you can shake a mandolin at. |
They've played with Hop Chip, Zero 7 and Madness, and their euphoric past sets at HowTheLightGetsIn have become the stuff of legend. Man Like Me are back, with a new album in tow.
|
This voice-only female four-piece formed at Guildhall School of Music and Drama; Isabel Ehresmann, aka Bellatrix, is a world champion beatboxer. Their astonishing vocal range creates unique a capella R&B.
|
|
Norwegian by birth and neurotic outsider comedian by trade, Simonsen is the winner of the 2012 Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer, has supported Simon Amstell on tour and has performed on Russell Howard’s Good News.
|
A runner-up in both the Leicester Square and Laughing Horse New Act competitions, Stephenson focuses his unique perspective and observational powers on the darker sides of life, ‘making misery beautiful’ (Chortle).
|
Getting crowds afrenzy with their unique and visually bonkers mashup of swing and all things dance, delivered via MC and lots of crazy dancing, The Correspondents have rocked Glastonbury and HTLGI.
|
|
David Trent is a madcap video comic who uses tools like powerpoint and fast-cutting clips to make his audience heave with laughter; it’s adventurous, insane and brilliant with Chortle likening him to "TV Burp if Harry Hill was on PCP".
|
Boasting a moustached admiringly described as ‘luxuriant’ (Chortle), former doctor Wozniak has won the Time Out new act award since transitioning to a career in comedy.
|
Between them, the Hut People have played alongside Nina Simone, the Beautiful South's Paul Heaton, and studied musical traditions alongside Kenyan tribesmen, resulting in music fused with disparate influences.
|
A cluster of recordings for Cocoon, Rekids and Klang have seen Deepgroove establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with. “The Deepgroove boys have made the noughties their own.” iDJ |
Cellist and flautist Eloise Nancie Gynn just composed a piece for London Symphony Orchestra. Sion Trefôr is a concert pianist. With singer Angie Kirby and the gang, Miss Maud's Folly make serious music.
|
A member of sketch group The Penny Dreadfuls, Tuck has achieved critical acclaim as a stand-up and his straight-to-DVD Disney themed debut hour was nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer.
|
|
A Best Live Act award set the stage for the Sisters of Swing & Co to take residency at Hot Club De Swing as house band/curators. Combining swing with contemporary electronic beats, the circus is coming to town.
|
From the Green Fields of Glastonbury to the Rainforest Music Festival in Borneo, Monster Ceilidh Band's raved-up reinvention of ceilidh music has got people dancing across the world. |
At a time when most producers and DJs take refuge in darkness, Thrilogy is a welcome and refreshing dose of the sublime. Fans include Catz N Dogz to Eats Everything. |
|
Since winning the Glastonbury/Q Emerging Talent Competition, Ellen and the Escapades' 'warm, literate songs' (Guardian) have been played across the radio – and to the world via the 2012 Olympics.
|
Orchestral progressive folk superband Moulettes have toured with Seasick Steve, Paloma Faith and Bonobo. They have two critically acclaimed albums under their belt, and a third is on its way this year.
|
Stand-up comedian Tom Rosenthal is a star of Channel 4’s Friday Night Dinner and ITV sitcom Plebs, set in ancient Rome.
|
Her song Nostalgia may have won a BAFTA, but Australian-born Emily Barker comes into her own live. She has played for Cerys Matthews, opened for Frank Turner, and sold out every date on her 2011 tour. |
Andy Robinson has been digging in dusty crates, putting on parties and DJing as Mums Old Vinyl for over a decade. He has played at Bestival and Secret Garden Party, and his mixtapes are legendary.
|
Tomos Lewis got stranded in Snowdonia for a while. Amid mountains and boredom, someone gave him a broken guitar. He fixed it, and the results have won him fans including Jonathan Powell and 6 Music.
|
|
Flamboyantly attired gypsy-jazz-folk queen Gabby Young was classically trained and 'switched sides' under the influence of Jeff Buckley. A brilliant stage performer, she has played festivals from Shambala to Glastonbury.
|
BRIT and Ivor Novello-nominated songwriter Nerina Pallot is the brains behind many huge chart hits from the likes of Kylie. When performing herself, she brings a soulful warmth to her killer pop tunes.
|
Their original name – MDMA – offers a sense of Utah Saints' 90s rave scene origins. Stadium-sized stardom and Top Ten hits followed, and they have remixed Blondie, The Human League and Annie Lennox.
|
|
Sam Duckworth survived the Southend hardcore scene to become nominated for an NME award. Four albums on, his musical eclecticism shows no sign of waning, fired up with activist passion.
|
He emerged to massive success as part of Portico Quartet. Newly solo, Nick Mulvey has already played venues from Leeds Royal College of Music to KOKO, and counts Gilles Peterson among his fans.
|
Steve Lamacq liked their recent single so much he made them Band of the Week and they've already been remixed by Euan Pearson, even though East London trio Waylayers have yet to release their first EP.
|
|
Festival of the Spoken Nerd star Helen Arney and this year teams up with partner Rob Wells for a science and comedy amalgam, appropriately given they met when performing at a Robin Ince science comedy event.
|
Half of sketch duo The Gentlemen of Leisure, critically acclaimed comic Nish Kumar is described by Time Out as a “massively charming and very witty stand-up”.
|
Franken employs his incredible talent for mimicry for both silliness and satire and has earned comparisons to Monty Python while mocking the sensibilities of left and right wings alike.
|
|
A gifted raconteur and ‘star of the future’ (Time Out) with a fantastic talent for deconstruction, Smith has won English Comedian of the Year and starred in BBC 2 sitcom Popatron.
|
Orlando Seale has an impressive acting CV, from the RSC to Hollywood. Nonetheless, he recently poached much of Southbank Sinfonia, and the result is a mesmerising nine-piece wall of sound.
|
Her voracious instrumental appetite means that Gemma “Woodpecker” Williams plays absolutely everything, from harp to harmonium, and her eccentric bird-themed debut album won fans at the Guardian and BBC. |
|
With topics ranging from her bisexuality, the kitchen scissors and atheism, offbeat stand-up and artist Iszi Lawrence has garnered comparisons to Stewart Lee and Josie Long.
|
A beguiling mixture of comedy raps and more traditional stand-up, Cahill’s swift success has seen him perform on BBC Three and have his self-starring sketches produced for BBC Comedy Online.
|
Fronted by ex-Emmy The Greater Euan Hinshelwood, Younghusband's introspective post-shoegaze soundscapes have accrued a host of glowing reviews and fans including Zane Lowe and Jarvis Cocker.
|
|
Winning the So You Think You’re Funny title at the tender age of 18, Graham is a precociously talented stand-up with a knack for improvisation and a wonderful command of language.
|
A deliciously dry wit, Wang is a former President of the Cambridge Footlights and his deadpan delivery saw him win a clutch of comedy competitions even while still at university.
|
Rewiring musical traditions for the twenty-first century for over a decade with over a thousand gigs across the festival world, The Zen Hussies have won critical acclaim and lots of dancing.
|
