Hard Rock Calling

Stevie Wonder has become the second headliner to be announced for this year's London's Calling Festival, which will take place on London's Clapham Common in June. Wonder, who has hinted that he'll be releasing two new albums this year, will join previously announced headliners Aerosmith at the British park bash.

Stevie Wonder Is To Headline London's Calling Festival In Clapham This Summer.

The festival, a new version of Hard Rock Calling, will take place over Saturday 28th June and Sunday 29th June. Aerosmith will headline the first evening whilst Wonder will close the festival on the Sunday night.

Continue reading: Stevie Wonder, Aerosmith To Top London's Calling Festival Bill This June

Albums of the week... Following 2011's massively successful collaborative album with Jay-Z 'Watch The Throne', Kanye West makes a return with a new solo effort entitled 'Yeezus'. He proves yet again that he is one serious hip-hop artist as he introduces a brand new edge to his sound that has not failed to engage his devoted fans with a number one spot on six charts including the US, the UK and Canada. As Joe Wilde summarises, 'This may be his best album to date and is probably his most discussed one too, but one thing it definitely is, is a Kanye West album and no-one can do anything quite like what he can do.' Read the Yeezus album review here. 

Another album that's gaining some serious attention is everyone's favourite Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros, whose seventh album 'Kveikur' has not left any disappointment in the wake of its highly anticipated release. Their sound remains familiarly ambient as on 2012 offering 'Valtari', though has definitely become noisier and a little darker. Our reviewer Jim Pusey had only good things to say, revealing, 'Despite all the darkness to be found here, Sigur Ros have managed to create one of their most compelling albums to date by embracing that darkness and quite literally shining a light on it.' Read the review of Kveikur here. 

Continue reading: A Week In Music, Kanye Has A New Edge, Robyn And Snoop Switch Genders And Glastonbury 2013 Sees Landmark Performance From The Stones

In a Streisand-style family affair, US rocker Bruce Springsteen has introduced crowds of fans to family members whilst on stage. During his Sunday headline slot at last weekend's Hard Rock Calling festival, Springsteen invited his mother Adele, 87, on to the stage for a performance of 'Dancing in the Dark.' The pair slow-waltzed together before his younger sister Pam also joined them on stage with a guitar ready to strum out the song's crescendo.

"All Together Now: 'It's fun to stay at the..."

The Hard Rock Calling crowds, who had already rocked out to shows from The Jam, Kasabian, The Black Crowes and Alabama Shakes, were treated by the rock icon to 1984's Born In The USA played in its entirety. According to Digital Spy, 63 year-old Springsteen incorporated request banners from the crowd into his setlist, adding in 'Johnny 99' and 'Jungleland' to the 3 hour set that was received rapturously in a performance described as "joyful," "celebratory," "funky" and a "stunning filibuster of a show" by The Telegraph.

Continue reading: Bruce Serenades His Mother At Hard Rock Calling Festival: What A Mummy's Boy!

In Somerset, Glastonbury was in full swing but further East a different festival drew its own thousands. Rock fans flocked to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London's Stratford to attend Hard Rock Calling: a two day festival hosting massive names in rock 'n' roll. Held in a pop-up venue at the site of the London 2012 Olympic Games Basketball venue, the festival welcomed Leicester's Kasabian, USA performer Bruce Springsteen and special guests; mod rock band, The Jam.

Bruce Springsteen Brought Down The House.

Kasabian enjoyed a successful Saturday night headlining slot, helping to christen the venue for a festival that began in 2006, with trumpet and violin-playing women and a cover of The Beatles' 'She Loves You' performed by lead singer Tom Meighan without any instrumental accompaniment. Busy bees Alabama Shakes managed to fit both festivals into the same weekend, playing Glasto on Friday then Hard Rock Calling on Sunday. Springsteen AKA The Boss certainly didn't let anyone down, according to the East London Advertiser, with the 65 year-old playing his 80s album Born In The USA in its entirety, accompanied by his E Street Band and even serenading his mother with 'Dancing in the Dark' onstage in front of 40,000 fans. 

Continue reading: Hard Rock Calling: Fans Answer In Their Thousands To See Springsteen & Kasabian

Albums of Note... David Bowie’s return to the shelves of our local record shops (well, the few that still exist) has been met with a grateful and adulatory fanfare, across the board and it’s been no different here at Contactmusic. Having run out of contemporary influences upon which to draw, Bowie took the old adage that pop will eat itself and made an album to fit. On The Next Day, Bowie largely references himself and his own body of work, recalling his Berlin days, as well as providing an extension of the tracks he released in the nineties.“Assessing how The Next Day sits alongside anything else he's done is irrelevant; an artist who has gone through as many character changes, taken on as many styles and moved through as many eras as he has defies such lazy list making. What can be said is that it is, at this point in time, at this point in his life and career, probably as good a record that David Bowie could've possibly come up with.”

Some of the mystery of Rhye’s cloaked existence has been unveiled and the band’s two components have been revealed as Toronto born producer Mike Milosh and Robin Hannibal of Quadron. They draw comparisons to The XX, partly thanks for Milosh’s falsetto, which led many to believe that it was a woman on vocals. Possibly part of the reason they choose to entitle the album Woman...? “'Woman' is a chilled, tranquil listen but not a boring album by any means. The duo creates songs that fill with distant, mysterious moods. But, it still feels like an intimate album piled high with textured layers.”

Continue reading: A Week In Music - Bowie's 'The Next Day' Album Was Worth The Wait, Sigur Ros Back At Their Spectacular Best, Everything Everything Take Another Step Into The Mainstream With 'Duet'

Remember last summer, when hordes of Boss fans booed and jeered as the almighty Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band were cut short during one of their typically marathon sets at London’s Hyde Park? That concert was actually part of the death knell for the area as an outdoor gig venue, but for Springsteen fans they’ve been more concerned about whether he’ll get to finish what he’d started last year.

Well the good news is that Hard Rock Calling, who put him on during last year’s ill-fated set, have moved to get the Boss back as a headliner for this year’s event! With added good news that they’ve moved from Hyde Park to the Olympic Stadium, meaning there shouldn’t be any curfew issues should Bruce decide to do what he’d planned on last year, and bring Beatle Paul McCartney on for an elongated finale. "This summer, we are giving Bruce and the band the opportunity to finish what they started and make history again," said Hard Rock International CEO Hamish Dodds in a media release, reports USA Today.

Continue reading: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street BandTo Return To Hard Rock Calling To Avenge Hyde Park Debacle