Weekends Matter Newsletter - 30th -31st January

Image: Albert Hall

Celebration time! Not only is the first payday of the year pretty much here, it's birthday season at Skiddle HQ. And the grimmest month is nearly consigned to the bin - come at me 2015.

Festivals

Festivals are going off! We're now on sale for both Brighton's The Great Escape (check out our Spotify playlist for that below) and Hertfordshire shindig Standon Calling, whilst Belladrum have line up news coming later on at midnight; we like the look of that so far.

Sound City also added their third headliner in the shape of The Vaccines, Knockengorroch have Mercury Music prize winners Young Fathers playing, and there's an abundance of others we've got to keep tight-lipped about forthcoming. Keep your eye on our news section to stay ahead of the game on that count. 

Clubs

Liverpool's Freeze turn ten this year, and boy have they got some greatness lined up. Also on the Birthday tip Digital Society are eight in March (we spoke with Aly & Fila ahead of that), while if you're in Leeds and fancy something sooner, this weekend Detroit Swindle are at Mint Club.

Tickets are now available for Cocoon London, and also darn sarf we took a look at Audio Brighton's month ahead, rapidly becoming one of the country's best compact rave spaces. We decided to tell you why we love DJ EZ, and also got busy at two big openings in Manchester, Matador the star of the show at Sankeys and David Rodigan wowing Albert Hall for Transmission (main pic).

Live Music

We're very excited about Nils Frahm heading to the Albert Hall in Manchester come May, whilst Nineties rap cartel Arrested Development are on the road soon, with soul crooner Alexander O'Neal heading to Sheffield next month.

Birmingham rave mecca The Rainbow also has a very good live music programme lined up (including Kate Tempest), and we spoke to Gordon Raphael, the man behind The Strokes' seminal LP 'This Is It', in an engaging interview.

That's yer lot for now, I'll catch you all on the February flipside.

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