Cro Cro Land Forever (please)
The sold out Cro Cro Land Festival of 2024 is so much more than a MOMENT of the year.
Read MoreThis is my #FeralTruth - tell me yours
This is my #FeralTruth tell me yours. Feral Five invite inclusion for Saturday 20th May’s live AV event in Hackney.
Read MoreThe Future Fest ethos punches up!
“There are SO many amazing and exciting bands within the UK alone, if anything the hard task is narrowing it down!” says Ghost Road Fest, an exciting new addition to the independent rock music festival circuit that debuts this November. More on that to follow.
Ah, but mainstream festivals…
Generic fame reflects society at mainstream level - and sells tickets. The pandora's box of pandemica exposed so much socially and politically, music industry included, that without change from the top, an eternal circle of conversations about rebuilding better, go nowhere. With fear and loathing in las plagus, we’re a nation that needs to party, sing and dance together. Tickets will still sell if some credible curve balls thrown in, enhance reputation.
Corporate sponsors of the biggest events may see otherwise to the statements of good intent or presume that us DIY girlies ain't as good at entertaining or scouting. The fact is, smaller festivals activate the cultural shift guidelines. “Cro Cro Land felt like a platform for tomorrow’s headliners to play a festival crowd. You know; the ones who haven’t necessarily come to see you but who fall in love with your band regardless.” (London In Stereo, whose reviewer fell for Nova Twins April 2019 - they play the main stage at Reading/Leeds Festivals this autumn)
There is often dismay at post lockdown bill announcements at a time when even next level talent is struggling. With up to three decades of the same names, old guard thinking looks dated without emerging star-turns injected as lifeblood. “Ironic there is a band on there called Scouting For Girls, which is how I feel every time I look at a festival poster.” noted Tiger Mimic of one event. This band (on the forthcoming Brits & Pieces II CD) are a face-the-stage commanding, alt-rock proposition who mix a little Queen into their tempo tangent punk. They play Jam On The Farm festival in July (tickets)
By 2021, when artists deserve acclaim for just surviving, the friction of mixing in a little risk invites extra thrill. Cosmic new discoveries please, or it's not a festival - it's just an outdoor concert in cosplay.
Impassioned independent media can decry, but still enjoy, major events. Mainstream journalists don't write/(know?) about art punky party love via a spectrum of scenes. True festival spirit is here:
Organic pioneers, the previously mentioned CroCroLand (2019, pix above), DecoloniseFest, Kick Out The Jams, This Feeling Club, Loud Women Fest etc. gift a (proven succesful) wealth of possibilities.
Eventually the “prickstock” mentality will go tits up as audiences change. “We are the future, stop fucking ignoring us”, Ms Mohammed told The Guardian newspaper (a clip from her set at the awesome and inclusively welcoming DecoloniseFest) - or, ignore and bore.
Bigger bookers, select your 2022 entry level artists with guitars from ground level curators. There’s wide acclaim to select. Hard work, talent (and (r)evolution) has EARNED it. #SaveOurVenues alumni contain (disproportionately fab) future heritage acts. Thank you John Kennedy (Radio X), a swathe of BBC Introducing/6 Music and a wealth of independent music media who are getting this noticed.
Also take note of how the fresh scenes fizz femme power. Never mind the bollocks, here's all the genitals. At the skint bottom of some imaginary heap, largely being talked over. But… being talked about in crossbreeding spaces.
Our voices are 4REAL. Agreeing to disagree, keeps it interesting, an all happening flourish of diversity in adversity amidst an array of achievements, often for good causes. Interdependence is where the true thrills-and-results-per-week exist. Says a DIY documentary of the action fraction.
Flavouring this surreal decade are affordable festivals with cracking guitars inclusion. Jam On The Farm (July 30th-31st) looks like a wow-some pick n mixed mix.
Autumn includes Wide Awake, (3rd September) Modern Age Music’s Soma Fest (4th) and before then, rad female fronted new ventures: ReclaimTheseStreetsFest in Sheffield on 7th August and No Man’s Land in Manchester on 14h August.
At #TheZineUK doc we are stoked to be involved in this Leeds and London weekender debuting in November…
“Ghost Road Fest was born out of an excitement to change how things are done post lockdown. I feel like with this much time off there's a real scope for change in how the industry is run. It's really disappointing there is still in 2021 an outcry for (god forbid) inclusivity within line-ups.
I've seen a few festival line ups released and it's still very male heavy - and it's not like there is only a handful of bands with female and trans representation that are 'good enough' to be playing these events! There are SO many amazing and exciting bands within the UK alone, if anything the hard task is narrowing it down!
Our festival has an 82% balance of acts with female or trans representation in - and I'd love to say I'm proud of that - but that should simply be the norm and not something to be highlighted. Alongside the festival we are also running a mentoring programme to encourage young adults to pursue their career within the music industry - something I think is very important - as they are the future of this industry and I strongly believe if you're educated within the correct surroundings then that is how you'll carry on that ethos.”
Lori of #GhostRoadFest
Written by a vintage West Indian rock chick who has promoted/booked artists and events at all levels, and is excited by the Fertile Environment.
Post PMF Pre (r)Evolution
Our post-post modern fairytale, post-"Post-Punk" (and long post fascist coup) documentary is an artist powered blueprint of a courteous and compassionate recovery - for the many.
This includes the imperfect but mostly kind humanity of planet and peace, as well as the alien-hearted, ingreeding hate-mongers of war. There’s no Planet B. There is no Britain B, either. Even though it cost less to start littering Mars, than to steal from a nation while ensuring enough of them died to save even more on pensions etc. Black Lives Matter gifted an instant major history lesson for us to rebuild a #GR8BRTN with equity for equality. (Tyler Challenger's front cover image for the Autumn 2019 upload of this doc is reprised later in that issue as Post Modern Scary Tale. We are now in a groundhog day Stockholm Syndrome situation of All Fools Day x Halloween).
This is actually how we already operate and inspired TheZineUK from ArtBeat gatherings at the end of 2013. Uploading mid-March 2014 we could have NO idea. The last page of Chapter 1 is from a scene in TryLifeTV at the grassroots venue which spawned us, Amersham Arms. Half of Nova Twins represented in Floodliners photographed by Rupert Hitchcox.
How the wonderful Zeenagers (generation tremorists of creativity and performance) have come through this, is a heroic story of it's own making. DIY power is real.
It’s Spring 2021
The Dystopian Future is a reality beyond the twisted sick imaginings of fiction to screaming divided friction. Cast and crew from our pages have stepped up with kindness, courage, exceptional albums, digital adaption, charitable hearts and collaborative goodwill. (Oops, guys, we were supposed to have been divided and conquered!!! - Fuck that, our voices are 4REAL)
The Newer Wave of music industrious who rock the #SaveOurVenues circuit have organically laid the foundations of the next public service announcements - with guitars.
Between us we love - and are influenced by - every genre of music. As humans shag new beauty into the world, Nature style, our sixth sense fused heritages bloom like the living globe who gives birth to us.
Mother Earth, Father Time, Sister Moon and Brother Sun interact with the one race: Living Water Based Meat Machines. We can't live in water, live without it. We sing and dance before we can talk and walk. Laughter, romance and poetry can stay in the hearts of lifelong children, despite the 21st century being misruled by the few; Blue Meanies.
I Now Live In A (virtual) Yellow Submarine
Rock n Roll is tribal, queer and fun. Anybody can be magnetised. When TheZineUK started, sofa-critics stated that guitar bands "are over". Bollocks. What STARS from our tale are achieving over our collective seven year (w)itch, is genuinely unreal.
There is no huge wealth investment financing this. Everything is a fucking struggle. I won't lie, I was in such a bad head space this weekend that I've cancelled an online appearance. I can't face people yet, but I can type and my family friend circle is inspirational, so HALLO! - I'm gonna allow myself to breathe good vibrations in, to share the joy again. Everybody we know is in a bad place. It's called Capitalist Earth. 2020 Vision turned out to mean seeing things clearly so Evil's Empire appropriated "woke" to fashion a weapon against being aware.
Sixth sense human instinct cares for planet and people. The force is weak in alien hearts who worship money, statues, flags and position. They are sad fucks, wasting their time on Eden.
Every day humans ROCK, quite literally, in our case.
Uniqulture: The day after Lockdown 2020 began, the aptly named Joyzine had assembled Balcony Online Fest to broadcast and raise charity funds.
It's the first quarter of 2021
Let SEVEN #SaveOurVenues rocking promoters speak for themselves
Then we SO want Reading and Leeds Festivals to happen so that Nova Twins can rightly take their place on the main stage.