The Bingley Music Live festival returned for another year to Bradford.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1ST
Space 3.20pm – Main Stage
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“The Ballad of Tom Jones”, “Female of the Species”, “Me and You Versus the World”; Space have a relentless back catalog of hits. A twenty-year career spanning six albums was recently resurrected at a triumphant hometown gig in Liverpool, and with a new album – Attack of the Mutant 50ft Kebab – out this year, it’s clear that there’s plenty of life still in Space.
Delilah 4.20pm – Main Stage
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Delilah entered the stage wearing denim shorts, fish net ankle socks, and red boots. Her hair was curled for this show. Looking good!
Guest vocalist for dubstep kings Chase & Status, Magnetic Man and Skream, Delilah is doubtless an artist in her own right, exhibiting this clearly on the spellbinding and critically-adored “Go”. Latest single “Love You So” goes even further – it is another trademark hypnotic offering, locking the listener in a trance from the word go.
Jake Bugg 4.25pm – Raise the Roof Stage
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Jake Bugg may only just have turned 18, but the teenage singer-songwriter has a man-sized talent.
Down the Machine 5.05pm – Musicians Centre Stage
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Down the Machine is a four-piece alternative rock band from Leeds. Calling on inspiration from the Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, and Tool, DTM created a sound pushing the boundaries of the modern music rock genre.
Great vocals. It was certainly worth the walk from the main stage to check this band out. Interesting sounds; a band to look out for.
The Pigeon Detectives 5.20pm – Main Stage
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The Pigeon Detectives brought their roaring festival anthems to Bingley Music Live 2012, armed with a back catalog of bona-fide hits – note three consecutive top 40 albums, five top ten singles and over half a million records sold.
We Were Evergreen 5.25pm – Raise the Roof Stage
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We Were Evergreen are a very exciting French trio. They had a very fitting visual display on stage, with ‘80s retro sunshade lamps, old clocks and bare branches. The quirky stage set up matched the quirky interesting collection of melodies.
King Charles 6.25pm – Raise the Roof Stage
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King Charles, born Charles Costa, is an independent singer-songwriter from West London. He plays the guitar, piano, and cello, and is also a classically trained singer, having been writing music from the age of seventeen.
Psychedelic vibrant sounds and bold appearance of wild hair, pirate shirts and waxed moustache ensured that before a single note was played, our dandy of the underworld was a striking presence. A fun show that really got the crowd involved, crowd-pleasers included “Blood of a Polar Bear” and “LoveBlood”.
King Charles playing “LoveBlood” live at 2012 Bingley Music Live in Bradford, U.K.:
For the last song, Charles covered “Start the Fire”, and the prior We Were Ever Green entered the stage as well! A captivating show.
In fact, lead singer Charles Costa was so involved that his precise infamous hair arrangement totally fell to pieces, leaving his long locks flowing. Rocking back and forth, his hair stirred through the air.
Razorlight 7.55pm – Main Stage
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Brit-pop band Razorlight are famous for their number one “America” and more hits – “In the Morning” and “Fall to Pieces” led to sold out U.K. arena tour’s and headline slots at the Reading and Leeds festivals, as well as being ever present on the pages of NME and radio.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2ND
Katzenjammer 5.55pm – Main Stage
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Katzenjammer are your new band from Oslo, Norway, currently causing quite a stir across the continent, spreading their very own brand of Balkan cow-punk.
The lead singer came on to the stage wearing a striking silver star placed in the middle of her forehead. She looked like looked like a cartoon character, resembling Pocahontas, wearing a beige style dress with long blonde plated hair. The whole band had an interesting style.
The crowd seemed to chant “Yorkshire” over and over to the Oslo band, who seemed to think they were saying, “Your lordship”… which caused a slight bit of confusion.
The band was a crowd-pleaser and is certainly one to keep an eye on.
Hard-Fi 4.00pm – Main Stage
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Staines’ most famous export is Hard-Fi, with their soul and dance infused blend of indie. With new album Killer Sounds still fresh in the ears, they were a big crowd-pleaser and had a huge stage presence.
Maverick Sabre 5.05pm – Main Stage
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Maverick Sabre packed reggae, from-the-heart soul and bright hip-hop into his repertoire. Lonely Are the Brave, the sleekly produced debut album, reached number two in the charts in February.
White Lies 6.10pm – Main Stage
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Harry McVeigh of White Lies went down well with ladies. A distinctive ‘80s influenced post-punk hybrid that has filled stadiums and supported such heavyweights as Muse (QRO live review), they’ve since embarked on numerous full-world tours, hitting all the major festivals and picked up numerous Best New Band Awards on the way.
Dark yet uplifting and with a huge epic sound. White Lies were one of the stand out acts at this year’s Bingley Music Live, especially crowd favourite “To Lose My Life”.
Nero 7.25pm – Main Stage
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Kings of dubstep Nero have had an unbelievable rise to stardom. Starting as friends, setting up a studio together, Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray shared one of those special eureka moments on fabric’s dance floor, where their vision and shared ideas crystallized to set them on path to great things. They can now tick off achievements such as No. 1 singles, No. 1 album, nominated for the BBC Sound of 2011, numerous hottest records in the world and then composing their own classical “Dubstep Symphony”, performed by the duo in collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.