New Music Unlocked 4: The Streets, heavy metal, punk rock and R.E.M.

This week would have been peak summer event antics but not in 2020.

However, the game is far from up; the punks and the metallers are making a strong show in full virtual festival force this weekend, and there's another chance to time travel to a classic Glastonbury set from 20 years ago, and a brand new show from the revitalised Mike Skinner. Dive in!

Rebellion: The Online Festival

Blackpool Rebellion Festival has been celebrating punk rock for almost quarter of a century. It has played host to many of the genre’s biggest names, from The Damned to Public Image Ltd to Toyah Willcox. This year they offer a generous - indeed, free! - wealth of musical action via their Facebook page (where timings are listed), promising a plethora of bands, new and old, every half hour between midday and midnight, from Thurs 6^th August to Sunday 9^th. There will be concert footage alongside plenty of livestreams, featuring old hands such as Ruts DC, Splodgenessabounds, Vice Squad, Cockney Rejects, UK Subs, Penny Rimbaud and Steve Ignorant, and varied 21^st century iterations of punk from the likes of Russia’s Moscow Death Brigade and femme-centric ukulele outfit The pUKEs, as well as interviews with Jah Wobble, Peter Hook (of New Order/Joy Division) and Youth (of Killing Joke).

R.E.M. Glastonbury 1999

On Friday 25^th June 1999 R.E.M. were the opening headliners of the Glastonbury Festival. The band, who split in 2011, were seen as the old guard, one of the original American indie alt-rockers who’d been somewhat usurped in the post-grunge era. Bands such as Hole and Bush played before them but when the moment came R.E.M. mustered an acclaimed set that included many of their best-loved hits and culminated in an ebullient (and currently appropriate!) “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)”. The set will now be made available for 72 hours on the band’s YouTube channel starting at 8.00 PM on Thursday 6^th August.

European Metal Alliance

This weekend a consortium of Europe’s most hardcore metal festivals, including Britain’s own Bloodstock, have joined forces to put on a virtual event that promises a mass of unseen footage from bands that, like so much metal, are hardly household names but have devoted followings and who regularly sell out global tours. Performers include outfits such as Orange Goblin, Sabaton, Napalm Death, Dee Snider, Butcher Babies and Rotting Christ. European Metal Alliance runs from Friday 7^th to Sunday 9^th August with basic entry tickets available here at the devil-ish price of €6.66, alongside other “bundles” which include tee-shirts featuring skulls and warriors.

The Streets: None of Us Are Getting Out of This LIVE Alive

Mike Skinner resurrected his well-loved moniker The Streets a couple of years back, then last month released the album None of Us Are Getting Out of This Alive (officially a “mixtape”, despite being on Island Records and coming on all formats, including vinyl!). This Thursday (6^th August) at 9.00 PM he performs a show based around it, with full band, at the Hackney venue EartH. Given the album is riddled with special guests, such as Idles, Tame Impala, Greentea Peng, and Eliza, who knows who might turn up. The promotion promises that this is “likely to be the only time you will ever be able to watch Mike Skinner and his band perform in a club setting this small”, which seems bizarre, given YOU WON’T BE THERE. Details are here and tickets range between a basic £15 and £50 for a package that includes access to a soundcheck, a signed album, a lighter, two plastic pint glasses, and some cigarette papers, the latter three all branded. This livestream business is starting to really chance its arm!

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