New Music Lockdown 7: Soundgarden, Carl Cox, Tim Burgess, Island Records Auction and more

Onto our seventh Lockdown selection and things are only getting busier out there, with more to see, hear and get involved in. Below are five of the best for this week. Dive in!

BBC Radio One Big Weekend 2020

BBC Radio One’s annual Big Weekend shindig, a free primary-coloured pop festival-cum-party-cum-promo event, has taken place in a different region of the UK every year since 2012. The COVID-19 crisis will not be stopping it going ahead, and this time artists will be performing from multiple locations. On BBC iPlayer throughout the coming weekend, the virtual show runs from Friday 22^nd to Sunday 24^th. There will be plenty of footage from festivals gone by but the main draw will be fresh lockdown sets by over 50 artists including Sam Smith, Biffy Clyro, Ellie Goulding and Rita Ora. There will be four stages: the Main Stage, the Dance Stage for DJ sets, the1Xtra stage for grime, hip hop and R&B, and a BBC Music Introducing stage featuring the likes of Jack Garratt, Georgia, Sink Ya Teeth and The Snuts, all adding up to a genre jamboree with something in there for most music lovers.

Island Records One Love Auction

The NHS is not a charity. It is a tax-funded entity that is also our British birthright. However, it would be churlish to turn our back on well-intended fund-raisers during these crazy times. One such is Island Records music-related auction tomorrow (Thursday 21^{st May}) from 6.00 PM here, which is also raising money for the US hunger relief organization, Feeding America. Hosted by Tony and Emmy-winning Broadway/TV actor Billy Porter (for Kinky Boots and Pose, respectively), the auction contains multitudes, from the grand to the more affordable: a pair of Amy Winehouse’s stilettos, a three night stay in Island boss Chris Blackwell’s Jamaican cottage, a signed Mumford and Sons banjo, hand-written U2 lyrics, a tour of Abbey Road studios, a guitar signed by Shawn Mendes and a whole lot more. Those interested can register here and the full catalogue is here.

Carl Cox: Cabin Fever – The Vinyl Sessions

There are many, many DJs, amateur and pro’, out there, passing the time and entertaining friends and fans with sets, copyright legal and otherwise. There’s a limit, however, to most people’s appetites for fixed camera, up-nose shots of dudes in their living rooms pressing buttons. An exception can be made for one of the world’s consistently great DJs, Carl Cox. Locked down in his Australian home, these last nine weeks, he’s been posting hour long sets every Sunday at 4.00 PM, UK-time, each of which remains available afterwards (here). Initially, he guided us round his 150,000 strong record collection, gathered over the decades (here), and in more recent weeks the sets have had themes such as Eighties soul-funk and Nineties rave. Cox is clearly enjoying himself and chats to camera too, making the whole thing a friendly and inclusive experience. Oh, and the camera is not looking up his nose.

Below: Listen to Carl Cox's Cabin Fever Nineties Rave set from last Sunday (NB. on the Facebook feed and live, the event is filmed)

Tim’s Twitter Listening Parties

Tim Burgess, lead singer of The Charlatans, has been spending his lockdown evenings leading the appreciation of a wide variety of albums on Twitter, with input and interviews from many of the artists, intermingled with the Tweeted thoughts of those listening. Members of Oasis and Sleaford Mods have made appearances and there are plenty more guests lined up. As well as Burgess’s own work, forthcoming new albums covered include Sparks (10.00 PM tonight, Weds 20^th May) and Rufus Wainwright (10.00 PM, Tues 26^th May) but check here for the full schedule which ranges from George Clinton to Joy Division to Duran Duran via newer fare such as Aoife Nessa Francis and Let’s Eat Grandma. Tim's Twitter Listening Parties take place every night for the foreseeable future for three hours, between 8.00 and 11.00 PM.

Matt Cameron & Taylor Momsen Soundgarden cover

Three years ago this week (18^th May), sending shockwaves through the music world, Chris Cornell, singer for alt-rock titans Soundgarden, took his own life in a Detroit hotel room. In a well-calibrated and impressively performed lockdown tribute, Taylor Momsen, frontwoman of US rockers The Pretty Reckless, has joined forces with Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron on a persuasive version of his band’s 2012 song “Halfway There”. Stripped of any bells and whistles, with Cameron laying down simple guitar chords, Momsen, clad plainly, eyes closed in a studio, injects the song with understated emotion that’s both poignant and effective

Below: Watch Matt Cameron and Taylor Momsen perform Soundgarden’s “Halfway There”