17 August 2015

UK Plus Size Fashion Week have announced that Jess & The Bandits will be supporting the three day event with special performances including a world exclusive of their song Beautiful (recorded for the British Plus Size Awards). The five piece band fronted by the ultra glamourous Jess add’s “I am so excited to be involved in this year’s UK Plus Size Fashion Week. I can’t wait to see all of the amazing new designs for women with curves. We had so much fun filming our video for Nitty Gritty, which shows how much fun fashion should be. It’s an exciting time for the plus size industry and I’m thrilled to have been asked to be involved.” Jess & The Bandits will be promoting their current single Nitty Gritty which in association with UK Plus Size Fashion Sponsor Evans and is the official single to their #StyleHasNoSize campaign.

Glasgow-based country duo Raintown return with their second album WRITING ON THE WALL. Set for release on October 9, the album comprises 12 new tracks from Paul and Claire McArthur- Bain, an award winning husband-and-wife duo who are fast gaining the reputation as one of the hottest country acts in Europe. In their three year history Raintown have won eight awards including Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Yearat the 2014 British Country Music Awards, plus Duo of the Year in 2013 and Record of the Year at the 2012 Scottish New Music Awards. Fan-funded on PledgeMusic, WRITING ON THE WALL continues to cement their place as one of the UK’s leading new breed of country acts. The album is an eclectic mix of lyrical stories, from country to guitar-driven pop. The recently married couple fuse their passion for country music with their broad musical influences to continue the tradition of exciting new music. Their catchy hooks and dynamic male/female harmonies are delivered with a passion and style that demands attention, while their carefully crafted lyrics articulate human emotions in a sincere, ‘heart on the sleeve’ kind of way. Raintown are the only band to have performed at all 3 successful Country 2 Country festivals at London’s O2 – in 2015 they played to a full capacity crowd at the Brooklyn Bowl, the largest of the ‘pop-up’ venues. This summer also saw Raintown play the main stage at the Cornbury Music Festival alongside the likes of Tom Jones and Lulu and perform at The Country Collective at Canary Wharf with Ward Thomas and Callaghan. Raintown will play a headline tour this October: Sunday Oct 11: Wolverhampton, The Slade Rooms Mon 12: Bristol, The Tunnels Tue 13: Glasgow, The Art School Wed 14: Manchester, Academy3 Thu 15: London, The Borderline

When the tickets were counted following Kenny Chesney’s Arrowhead Stadium performance on August 1 it was revealed that Chesney has broken Pink Floyd’s 1994 record of 56,134 with 57,368 in attendance. This year’s show marked Chesney fourth headlining stand at Arrowhead Stadium. “I had no idea about the number when we took the stage,” Chesney commented when he was told. “Pink Floyd are rock icons. Every kid’s high school experience… I never ever would’ve thought something like that could happen. We’ve been coming to Kansas City for years, and they’ve always been really loud audiences. But when we hit the stage, it felt like all those years, all those shows were added up into one – and that was what we were being hit with.” “Kansas City took American Kids to a whole other place,” Chesney explained. “They made it their own. But they took over a bunch of the songs – and it was awesome. When you’ve played somewhere for several years, and the passion grows, that’s what you’re trying to create. It’s the best part of what we do up here. And man, Kansas City just leveled me. Every show we’ve ever played, all the way back, they hit us.” There are plenty more stadiums to come: Denver’s Sports Authority Stadium at Mile High Aug. 8, E. Rutherford, NJ’s Met Life Stadium Aug. 15, Detroit’s Ford Field Aug. 22 and a double at Foxboro’s Gillette Stadium Aug. 28-29. Those shows will take the only country act on Billboard’s Top 10 Touring Acts of the Last 25 Years to 135 stadium plays since 2005. Having taken a year to get ready for The Big Revival 2015 Tour, Chesney hit the road with a real passion – and the fans have reciprocated.

Following a massive touring schedule last year which saw them playing 170 shows across three different continents in support of their Platinum-selling album HARLEQUIN DREAM, indie folk band, Boy & Bear took the energy they had gathered on the road directly into the studio. The band teamed up with renowned producer Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon, Kaiser Chiefs) with the intention of cutting a record the old fashion way, live in the studio, straight to tape, with virtually no overdubs. “I was shitting myself,” laughs frontman Dave Hosking, who took on the almost-unheard-of challenge of recording his vocals live with the band. “But it’s funny you know, what made it less intimidating was having someone like Ethan there, who is such an advocate for it. He put it on the table at our first meeting, that he’d be very keen to at least try going for it as a first approach. When we left the meeting we felt pretty good about it. We were up for the challenge.” Given the demands of the previous year’s touring, Hosking, usually the band’s main songwriter, hadn’t had time to create a new set of songs – so for the first time Boy & Bear composed as a collective on a number of tunes, building them from the ground up as a band. The first taste listeners will have of this new approach is single Walk the Wire, which was is driven by gritty guitar and the honest, organic production style employed by Johns, the song is a bold new statement of intent and is released on October 30. The song can be listened to now, here: https://soundcloud.com/nettwerkmusicgroup/boy-bear-walk-the-wire/s-1dmeb Boy & Bear will be playing a handful of intimate warm up shows in the UK in November, ahead of a full headline tour in spring 2016. Tickets go on sale on Monday August 17. Live Dates: Thu Nov 5: London, Dingwalls Sat 7: Glasgow, King Tuts Sun 8: Manchester, Deaf Institute