Three days of Body&Soul; festival in June
Body&Soul has announced its fourth consecutive midsummer's festival at Ballinlough Castle, Clonmellon, taking place from 21st to 23rd June next. Since its maiden voyage in 2010, the three day arts and music festival has twisted and turned its way to a much more grown-up place for 2013 - with particular focus on the artistic areas and smaller parts of the festival that make it the most magical and unique event of the summer season. Apart from its usual left-of-centre line up, the promoters have placed equal importance on the peripheral stages and areas to include a full Friday line up in the woods and walled gardens, a carefully selected pop-up restaurant, spoken word events, performance art, theatrics, soul kids and a host of other unique and exciting elements to be announced later in the spring.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds headline the festival this year. Formed in 1984 they released their debut album ‘From Her To Eternity’. They have since released fifteen studio albums; and the band's current output remains as vital and explorative as those early pioneering sessions recorded at Hansa Studios in Berlin. This year they have released a stunning new album ‘Push the Sky Away’.
Public Image Litd (PiL) led by ex-Sex Pistol John Lydon will also bring their raucous post-rock sneer to the Westmeath countryside. Not content with creating the punk genre from scratch and changing the face of popular music along the way, Johnny ‘Rotten’ Lydon decided to single handily create a new musical vision with PIL’s seminal album, ‘Metal Box’. Their distinct and dynamic sound has had a massive influence on some of today’s musical zeitgeist with acts such as Franz Ferdinand, The Rapture and LCD Soundsystem citing them a major influence.
The alternative low-fi Americana of Kurt Vile and the Violators will ring out in Westmeath this Summer Solstice weekend. Taking inspiration from the heavyweights such as Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen, Vile is a critically acclaimed master of nostalgia.
Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires make their Irish debut. Often described as ‘The Screaming Eagle of Soul’, the seminal funk/soul/RnB fusion of Bradley and company will keep the Westmeath faithful boogying with songs from their new album, ‘Victim of Love’. Channelling the best of neo-soul, RnB and funk, Solange will perform on the main stage at Body&Soul 2013. Cutting her own path away from the limelight of her sister, Beyonce Knowles, this is set to be an unmissable performance.Funky and experimental British alternative group, Breton will feature alongside the laid back folk musings of U.S. native, Willy Mason. Special mention must go to visionary 20 year old Irish electronic artist, Jack Colleran, aka Mmoths, who will make waves with his groove infused beats and atmospheric electronica.
German producer and electronic performer, Pantha Du Prince, will perform for the first time in Ballinlough this year. He will be joined by fellow German groove merchant, Iron Curtis. British DJ and producer, Jon Hopkins will also feature. Hopkins created the restrained soundtrack for the 2010 sci-fi movie, Monsters and has worked with the likes of Brian Eno and David Holmes. He will be joined by eclectic Liverpudlian duo, Almighty Sion and UK based DJ, George FitzGerald who will be playing his brand of up-tempo House tuneage.
Irish acts will include sonic experimenter and Kildare native, Gavin Elsted, aka, ADULTROCK, young trailblazer, Monto, the always compelling and enthralling live performances of RSAG and the critically acclaimed sounds of Derry duo, Ryan Vail. This pairing is tipped for great things after their recent Other Voices performance. Irish House legends, Fish Go Deep will also be on hand to perform tracks from their extensive back catalogue.