The Carling Stage - Full Lineup Announced - Day 2

Mean Fiddler and Carling are proud to announce the line up for this year’s Carling Stage, proving that once again the Carling Weekend: Reading and Leeds Festivals is the best place to see the hottest new bands.  

For the seventh year running Carling continue to show their commitment to live music by supporting new and emerging talent performing on The Carling Stage. Traditionally the Carling Stage hosts the best collection of breaking talent the world has to offer and is often the first step for many bands on their way to the Main Stage.

Over the past few years the stage has seen Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs, The Departure, Franz Ferdinand, Keane, Interpol and Muse make their first appearances and has continued to prove that The Carling Stage is the starting place for the talent of the future. This year is no exception as the three days and two sites welcome some of the most talked about new bands of 2005.

Saturday 27th August at The Carling Weekend; Reading Festival
Sunday 28th August at The Carling Weekend; Leeds Festival

For those of you who have been watching the media for the next big thing of late, THE GO! TEAM will be a familiar name. The half boy/half girl six piece offer a downhill breaks-off ride through every one of your favourite pop touchstones of the last 30 years or so, led by main man Ian Parton to a fantastic demolition derby between their amazing stable of samples. They’ve even been known to use a Speak and Spell – and why not? With a slew of critical praise and an exemplary debut album in the form of “Thunder Lightning Strike”, THE GO! TEAM are a cert for the end of year polls and should be a cert on your list of bands to see.

Stylish, confident, and, frankly, slightly menacing, the RAVEONETTES - Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo--made their mark on the emerging new garage-rock scene in 2002 with a flair for the dramatic. Their image was pure '50s retro-cool: lanky, dark-haired Sune and six-foot blonde glamazon Sharin wore black leather and sat astride motorbikes. The Danish duo doused their stripped-down songs about sex, suicide, and prostitution with noisy, fuzzed-out guitar, sweet boy-girl harmonies, and sleazy surf-punk twang over two albums. It sounded like a clash between Mods and Rockers if the brawl had taken place on the set of California beach movie. With new album, “Pretty In Black”, the duo have moved away from their strict ‘three chords, one key’ rules to develop a sound that is more expansive and, particularly on current single, “Ode To LA”, much more accessible. As lead singer Sune puts it: "Maybe I tried to modernize it a bit more than with the last two records, but it really is the same inspiration," he says. "I've been known to buy a computer magazine, but I still cherish the '50s-style dinner table in my apartment. I think you can mix those two things up in a gentle way."

They may have just released their seventh album in the shape of “The Woods” but SLEATER KINNEY are as relevant as they have ever been. One of the key bands in the alternative rock firmament. With “The Woods”, SLEATER KINNEY fans will find the usual strange, delirious interlocking guitars and the way vocalists Carrie and Corin seem to finish each other’s lines but also a further progression in their sound as the band focused on making the most use of the studio at their disposal. Recent single, “Entertain”, saw the band on national radio and in the charts, a further sign, were it needed, that SLEATER KINNEY are a band for, and of, the future.

With the amazing success of their “Jerk It Out” single, you could be forgiven for thinking that THE CAESARS had landed, fully formed a the start of 2005. The truth is that the Swedes have been honing their psychedelic garage sound since 1995 with three albums in their catalogue prior to current release “Paper Tigers”. With the new album, THE CAESARS have developed their early garage inspired template and these shows are another grand step on a seemingly pre-ordained journey into the mainstream.

It is to his great credit that John Hassall is increasingly better known as the frontman of YETI rather than as the former bass player for The Libertines. With their debut single, “Never Lose Your Sense Of Wonder” / “Working For The Industry” in March, Yeti surprised and delighted the skeptics and forthcoming single, “Keep Pushing On” (July), is sure to confirm John’s new found frontman position. Having supported Razorlight on tour and played with Oasis at the Astoria earlier this month, YETI deal in tunes and melodies, drawing comparisons to the La’s and The Beatles whilst Time Out praised their “Johnny Marr-infused jangle rock”.

When three lads from Cambridge found two lads from the North of England in London, DOGS was born. Lyrically dazzling, like Morrissey in a Weller headlock, and musically muscular it makes DOGS a fearsome beast both onstage and on record. And like the best packs they're voracious fighters, always with a snarl on hand for the foolish strutters and empty posers, each member brings their own special strengths to the band. Debut single, “London Bridge” / “End Of An Era” was a perfect introduction to the band with The Times branding it “the debut single of the year” whilst follow up “She’s Got A Reason” continued the upward trend. With debut album “Turn Against The Land” due for a summer release it looks like a good year for DOGS.

Those outside of Yorkshire may be forgiven for thinking that ARCTIC MONKEYS arrived a month ago fully formed. The subject of much excitement amongst the A & R fraternity, the band, now freshly signed to Domino (home to Franz Ferdinand and The Kills amongst others), are already picking up radio and press attention for debut Ep “Five Minutes With The Arctic Monkeys” which is a perfect introduction to their twisted tales of life in the North of England. Definitely one of the bands to see this year.

From Eel Pie Island, a place with a rock ‘n’ roll heritage dating back to Henry VIII’s use of the London islet as a bolt hole the MYSTERY JETS have been wowing fans and critics alike with their early single releases. Now signed to 679 Recordings, the band the NME recently described as a wonderful mix of The Coral, Can and Dexy’s Midnight Runners are sure to be a band whose name is heard more and more through the year. Catch them early.

Formed on the streets of Paris where the multi national members were all busking, 747’shave seen their ska-punk influenced pop turn the right ears leading to a recent deal with Island Records. Currently in the studio working on tracks for their debut album, these shows will be an early chance for all to hear a band that seem destined to rise to prominence as the year progresses.

CLOR weld the relentless rhythmic pulse of a group like Can or Neu to the angularity of early Talking Heads and Eno.  When thrown into a mix that feeds on deviant pop sensibility from the likes of early Roxy Music, Devo and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, what emerges is a sound as idiosyncratic as it is exploratory. With current single, “Love and Pain” a constant on Radio 6 and the likes of Zane Lowe and Lamac and a debut album to arrive shortly, this is another Carling Stage band sure to be on bigger stages in years to come.

“I was brought up in New South Wales, Australia in this  place called Broken Hill” explains NEON’s  singer-guitarist Josh Bitmead. “It’s called ‘the capital of the outback’. Nearby is this ghost town called Silverton where they filmed Mad Max 2. It’s pretty much how it looks in the movie, so as you can imagine, you have to make your own fun.”  That he did by forming Neon following a move to Melbourne and, in 2003 a single deal with Graham Coxon’s Transcopic label led to the chance to record a debut album in LA with Red Kross mainman Steve McDonald. A deal with V2 Records followed shortly afterwards and, with that eponymous debut album and a burgeoning live reputation, NEON stand ready to take their name overground.