Alphabeat are special for a number of reasons. For one, they’re from the Danish version of Motown – their hometown of Silkeborg is famous for its huge number of car dealerships. For another, there’s loads of them, six in fact. Anders SG sings, as does Stine, Anders B plays guitar and some keyboards and is quite the whizz in the studio, Rasmus is the band’s resident keyboard player, Anders R plays bass and is another keyboard player while Troels is the drummer – without him, there is nothing. They went to school together and aged fifteen (they’re now all in their early 20s) they formed a band. They first moved to London in the summer of 2007 around the release of their debut top ten album This Is Alphabeat and the huge pop smashes and playlist staples Fascination, Boyfriend and 10,000 Nights. They lived in a big house together. In Hackney. Now, rather sensibly, they live in three different houses

Alphabeat have recently been confirmed as the main support act on Lady GaGa’s Monster Ball tour in the UK in February. In a recent interview with VH1 she picked them as one of her favourite new acts, saying “I really love Alphabeat, they’re great and they’re going to come out on tour with me.”

Check the dates after the break.

18-Feb-10 Manchester MEN Arena
22-Feb-10 Belfast Odyssey Arena
24-Feb-10 Liverpool Echo Arena
26-Feb-10 London O2 Arena
27-Feb-10 London O2 Arena
1-Mar-10 Glasgow SECC
3-Mar-10 Cardiff International Arena
4-Mar-10 Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
5-Mar-10 Birmingham LG Arena
7-Mar-10 Sheffield Arena
8-Mar-10 Nottingham Trent FM Arena

In October The Maccabees headlined the Lake of Stars festival in Malawi, Africa and are currently on tour with Editors in Europe. Both bands return briefly to London to play a Little Noise session at the Union Chapel in Islington in aid of Mencap on Monday 16th November.
 
It’s been a great year for The Maccabees with career-defining sets at Leeds and Reading Festival this summer which had The Observer dubbing them “festival heroes” and NME reminding us “they’re probably the best home-grown indie rock band the UK has to offer right now”. In Wall of Arms they have released one of the best-received albums of the year. The record entered the UK album charts at number 13 in May, winning praise across the board from fans and critics alike.

Recorded in Paris and England with producer Markus Dravs (Bjork, Arcade Fire, Coldplay), they blasted the myth of the “difficult second album” out of the water with songs like the epic No Kind Words and brilliant singles Love You Better and Can You Give It.
 
SHOCKWAVES NME AWARDS TOUR

FEBRUARY 2010

Thursday 4th – Newcastle O2 Academy
Friday 5th – Glasgow Barrowlands
Saturday 6th – Manchester Academy
Sunday 7th – Leeds O2 Academy
Tuesday 9th – Nottingham Rock City
Wednesday 10th – Norwich UEA
Thursday 11th – Birmingham O2 Academy
Saturday 13th – Cardiff University
Sunday 14th – Bristol O2 Academy
Monday 15th – Brighton Dome
Tuesday 16th – Bournemouth O2 Academy
Thursday 18th – Portsmouth Pyramid / Portsmouth Guildhall
Friday 19th – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Saturday 20th – Brixton O2 Academy

JAN 26: SOUTHAMPTON, Joiners – 0238 8022 5612 / www.joinerslive.co.uk
JAN 27: CARDIFF, Clwb Ifor Bach – www.ticketweb.co.uk
JAN 28: LONDON, Borderline – 08448 472 465/ www.ticketweb.co.uk
JAN 29: NOTTINGHAM, Rock City – 0871 3100 000 / www.alt-tickets.co.uk
JAN 30: BIRMINGHAM, Academy 3 – 0844 477 2000 / www.ticketweb.co.uk
FEB 01: SHEFFIELD, Academy 2 – 0844 477 2000 / www.ticketweb.co.uk
FEB 02: LEEDS, Cockpit – 0113 245 4650 / www.lunatickets.co.uk
FEB 03: MANCHESTER, Night & Day – 0161 832 111 / www.gigsandtours.com
FEB 04: NEWCASTLE, Digital – 08444 771 000 / www.yourfutureisdigital.com
FEB 06: GLASGOW, ABC – 08444 999 990 / www.gigsinscotland.com

LIVE DATES
February
12th – Glasgow O2 Academy
13th – Edinburgh Picture House
15th – Nottingham Rock City
16th – Leeds O2 Academy
18th – Newcastle O2 Academy
19th – Manchester Academy
20th – Birmingham O2 Academy
22nd – Bournemouth O2 Academy
23rd – Bristol O2 Academy
24th – Norwich UEA
26th – London O2 Brixton Academy
27th – London O2 Brixton Academy

Tickets go on sale Friday 30 October at 9am and are available from www.aeglive.co.uk or via the 24hr hotline 08444 775775.
 
The Fame Monster is a two-disc re-package of Lady Gaga’s 4 million-selling debut The Fame. It will feature the entire breakthrough album – including the hit singles Just Dance, Poker Face, Paparazzi and LoveGame – alongside eight entirely new songs, including the new single Bad Romance, which is available to download now.

After the original band broke up 2 years ago, famously citing “musical similarities”, a number of the band decided to reunite and resurrect the songs and the sounds of this Great British Pop institution by dipping into the Beautiful South songbook as well as writing new material. Find out the November dates from their official website.

Carrying on where they left off Dave Hemingway & Alison Wheeler (Vocals), Dave Stead (Drums), Damon Butcher (Keys), Tony Robinson and Gaz Birtles (Brass) are now joined by Phil Barton (guitar), Karl Brown (Percussion) and Steve Nutter (Bass).

The driving force behind the original band Paul Heaton continues to pursue his solo career.

The Proclaimers have carved out a niche for themselves in the netherworld where pop, folk, new wave and punk collide. In the process they have enjoyed Gold and Platinum singles and albums in UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The boys are currently in the middle of the UK leg of their tour, MusicRiot will be at their Cardiff gig and a review will be available soon after.

Get all the dates of their tour from: http://www.theproclaimersofficial.co.uk

Now the celebrated gang of musical romantics are back. They have finished work on their new album and, as a taster, are giving away a track hot from the studio. “No Kind Words” is available to download from www.themaccabees.co.uk. The download is being given away as a present for patient fans eagerly anticipating the follow-up to their debut.

The celebrated five-piece play their first live dates of 2009 with two club shows in London in February and an Xfm Presents at the Barfly on 5th March prior to their headline tour. They will play London’s Electric Ballroom, their first London headline since the triumphant sold-out Roundhouse show at the end of the “Colour It In” tour in 2007.

The Maccabees old-fashioned work ethic dictated an anti-rock ‘n’ roll approach to song-writing for the new record – throughout 2008, the band enforced a five day working week – cutting loose at the weekends just like the rest of us. In April, they set out on a low-key tour of intimate venues to road test the new songs. Sessions continued in the summer with a handful of special sets at boutique festivals like Underage and Beachdown. This dedication and focus has propelled them from the beginning and as a result, The Maccabees just get better and better.

A new sound started to evolve as the band focused on writing to each other’s strengths and late last year they teamed up with producer Marcus Dravs (Bjork, Coldplay, Arcade Fire) for recording sessions in the UK and Paris.

This as-yet-untitled new album will be released in May.

For full tour details go here.

It has to be the most enviable support slot a new artist or band could ever dream of…  To play live in front of over a million people in the space of a month, at venues like Wembley Stadium and Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. This is about to become a reality for 24-year-old Wembley raised singer-songwriter Gary Go who has been confirmed to do just that when he joins Take That on their entire record breaking UK summer stadium tour.

It’s even crazier for Gary Go seeing that he grew up in Wembley on the road that leads to the Stadium and spent many a day with the window open hearing the huge roars from various concerts or football matches. Now he’ll be watched and heard by 72,000 people a night for four nights at the very same place.

Take That who are well known for putting on incredible live shows are still yet to play a full show at Wembley Stadium so it will be an exciting first for both. The band have been big fans of Gary Go now since the middle of last year and the choice to bring him with them in June was a very personal one. They had this to say about the bespectacled west-Londoner: “Gary Go is a rare and talented artist with an amazing voice and inspirational songs. We all just love his passion and enthusiasm”.

Mark Owen also added “I’m absolutely made up that Gary Go is touring with us and delighted to hear that things seem to be going so well for him. Go Gary, Gary Go he really is quite… wonderful”. Mark makes reference to Gary Go’s new single ‘Wonderful’ which will be released on Feb 16th.

Gary Go Tour Dates:
With The Script
11 February 09 Wolverhampton Civic Hall
12 February 09 London Roundhouse
13 February 09 London Roundhouse

‘Wonderful’ Single Launch Party
17 February 09 London Luminaire

With Take That
5/6 June 09 Sunderland Stadium of Light
8/9/10 June 09 Coventry Ricoh Arena
16/17 June 09 Cardiff Millenium Stadium
19/20/21 June 09 Glasgow Hampden Park
23/24/26/27/28 June 09 Manchester Old Trafford Cricket Ground
1/3/4/5 July 09 London Wembley Stadium

www.myspace.com/garygo

The group, who have featured on two MusicRiot Presents.. podcasts, kick off their tour on hometurf of Hitchin before moving around the country.