There’s something magical about that last week in May. The sun comes out (in full force, sometimes, as tonight is the hottest one of the year so far) and for a few glorious days, our shores are teeming with some of the best bands in the world. Thanks, Slam Dunk, you’re the best. Read more…
New gallery of photos from Slam Dunk Scotland featuring Set Your Goals, Goldfinger, Anti-Flag and Less Than Jake here
For pop-punk fans across the country, the summer festival season is usually kicked off by the ever-growing Slam Dunk travelling circus. Taking lead from the tradition established in 2010, this year’s North and South festivals were accompanied by gigs further afield whose line-ups gave a taste of what was on offer at the main event. We headed along to Slam Dunk Scotland to get a piece of the action…read more
Friday 27th May – Slam Dunk Scotland – Glasgow ABC
Saturday 28th May – Slam Dunk Festival North – Leeds, University
Sunday 29th May – Slam Dunk Festival South – Hatfield, University Of Hertfordshire
Monday 30th May – Slam Dunk Birmingham – Birmingham, HMV Institute
Tuesday 31st May – Slam Dunk By The Sea – Southampton, Guildhall
In addition to these exciting additional dates a few new bands have been added to the main events at Leeds and Hatfield in the shape of Set Your Goals, pop-punk legends Hit The Lights, fast-rising British rockers Francesqa and dub-step act, Tek One.
Be sure to snap up your tickets asap!
So it’s the end of the year and what a year it was! We thought we’d share our highlights, where America trips feature heavily, as do reunions (every one loves a reunion!) and festivals. Bella also shares her favourite albums of the year. We hope you all enjoyed your 2010 musical adventures as much as we did, 2011 has a lot to live up to!
The reunions: From Something Corporate’s US comeback tour to the long awaited return of blink-182 to British shores, there has certainly more than a little nostalgia value to this year’s music memories for me. No complaints here and I am very much looking forward to seeing the reunions continue in to 2011 with Further Seems Forever confirmed for Groezrock and Rufio joining forces with Allister for their intimate UK tour in April.
The album shows: It may be true that nothing gold can stay but New Found Glory celebrating the anniversary of their self titled release with a full album tour reminded us all that pop punk’s not dead.
The best of British: With You Me At Six flying the flag on Warped Tour and albums by the likes of Straight Lines, Futures and The Xcerts cracking best of the year lists everywhere it’s definitely been a good year to be a British pop-punk fan. Look out for more of the same in 2011 with Francesqa, Deaf Havana, Cuba Cuba, Tiger Please and countless more holding it down this side of the Atlantic.
–Francesca
Bamboozle Roadshow: 2010, for me also, has been all about nostalgia. The bands I grew up listening to have made a glorious return to the scene, and I’ve been able to re-live that feeling that only came while listening to a walkman and three quarter length shorts. It started with Bamboozle Roadshow in Boston- my best friend and I made a pilgrimage of sorts to the festival, and it was easily one of my highlights. Something about (FINALLY!) seeing Simple Plan and Good Charlotte and singing my heart out as if no time had passed made me feel more closely connected to the music I love than I ever have.
Reading Festival: Of course, the pinnacle of my pre-teen pop-punk obsessed years (you know, those ones that preceded my adolescent pop-punk obsessed years) was blink-182. Being as young as I am, I never saw them before the hiatus. Reading Festival, for me, was the best music event of 2010 for that reason alone. Dubbed ‘pop-punk Sunday’ amongst friends, a bill that included Weezer, Limp Bizkit, my favourites All Time Low and blink-182 all on one day will be hard to ever top. I don’t think I’ll forget standing in a field, one thousand people back, singing and dancing to Dammit so much I could barely move or talk afterwards. 2011 will surely be fantastic, but I’ll always remember these moments in 2010.
— Beth
Slam Dunk Festival, Leeds: Slam Dunk is always a highlight, but this year’s line up was particularly brilliant. The queue for The Wonder Years had to be seen to be believed and with Alkaline Trio, New Found Glory AND My Passion all headlining separate stages there was definitely something here for everyone. Slam Dunk is a gem in the UK festival calendar – after all, where else could you witness members of Set Your Goals and NFG crowd surfing to The Millionaires? Exactly.
Twin Atlantic, ABC Glasgow: 2010 was an amazing year for Twin Atlantic. Not only did they support mighty acts such as blink-182 and My Chemical Romance, they also completed their biggest UK headline tour to date – which saw them sell out Glasgow’s ABC. I can’t think of a band who deserve this success more than Twin and I can’t wait to hear what’s in store from them in 2011.
— Lucy
America, fuck yeah!: I took a trip to California in March with fellow CtrlAltRock blogger Fran and it was a music fuelled two weeks. We caught New Found Glory the day we arrived, made an appearance in The Audition’s video for ‘You Ruined This’, saw Something Corporate headline Bamboozle Left and also got to go to the AP tour, where I got to see The Summer Set at last (who really need to come to the UK soon!), saw some of my other American favourites Every Avenue and we even got a bonus acoustic set from All Time Low.
The Return of My Chemical Romance: So after what felt like forever, some of New Jersey’s finest were back on our radios after a rocky few months, which saw the departure of their drummer, Bob Bryar. Whilst I was sad to see Bob go, I was highly excited for their comeback. I loved that they had kicked the monochrome to the curb and excited to hear Danger Days, more so than I had been for it’s predecessor, The Black Parade. They whet our appetites with a mini tour in smaller venues in October, which warmed us up nicely for the arena tour they are going to bestow upon us early next year. My Chemical Romance polarise opinions, you either love them or hate them, it’s safe to say what camp I reside in.
— Beccy
Bella’s Top Five Albums of the Year;
This Addiction – Alkaline Trio: Trio have been in my most adored band list since I bought my first pot of black nail polish and no matter how my musical taste matures or changes, I always love everything they release. This Addiction is no exception to the rule, especially the acoustic versions of songs added in, they slay me. Though, Mister Skiba could probably record himself throwing potatoes at a wall and it’d make me giddy.
My Beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy – Kanye West: Say what you will about mister West. He’s the top of his game and pretty untouchable. Every time he gets out of bed he sets a trend be it musical or fashion or otherwise. He’s a little crazy, but also crazy good.
The ArchAndroid (suites || and |||) – Janelle Monae: Mind blowing voice. This album honestly needs to be heard to be understood.
I Believe You Liar – Washington: I had to get an Aussie on this list and what better way than with Meg Washington? No one else manages to be adorable and hot all at the same time. This is a collection of unashamedly dancey tracks. For fans that like real music and clever lyrics with their pop.
American Slang – Gaslight Anthem: These guys just make my heart happy. I can’t say enough good things.
Bonus album! – All Day – Girl Talk: Okay, so it’s technically 373 overlapping samples of other artists’ songs, but Gregg Gillis is a genius and the album is truly a danceable piece of art.
CtrlAltRock 