Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

News reaches us that a Facebook group has been created following news of the mixup surrounding heat two of the Live Wired competition.

The CP had reported (article not available online now) that Golden Strands, who had competed in the live heats on Friday, would be joining Damien Paul at the final, giving them a chance to win a slot at the 2010 Isle of Wight Festival.

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Well, the story broke last night about Lord Paul headlining via a leak, but we’ve just heard the official confirmation from Isle of Wight Festival HQ.

He’ll be closing the festival on the Sunday evening.

We’re wondering if it’s the fact that he’s now 67, passing his sixty-fourth birthday, that he’s now chosen to play on the Isle of Wight.

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As we Tweeted earlier today, Isle of Wight Festival got in touch with us today to let us know that there’d be a “Big Announcement” early Tuesday morning.

More than that, they would not say. Not even a peep. Fear not, we tried, but their didn’t crack.

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Update: Just heard from organisers that the event has been moved to the 22nd March.

Keeping on the music theme just a tad longer, there’s another music battle taking place on Monday night 22nd March.

The Battle of the Bands competition also boasts the prize of a slot playing at the Isle of Wight Festival.

Doors open to Medina Theatre at 6.30-pm with the first band plugging in and ‘kicking ass’ at 6.40pm.

Winners of the heat will go through to the final on which takes place on 20th April (more on that nearer the time).

Check the full list of who’s playing over at Events On The Wight.

Heat Two of the Live Wired competition takes place tonight.

The Scores, Damien Paul, James Hunt and The Golden Strands have been chosen by the public to battle it out tonight.

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Walk the Wight for the Earl Mountbatten Hospice is drawing ever closer.

Last year organisers decided to auction off the first two registration numbers and as it was so successful they are doing it all over again this year.

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The temperature is rising at Isle of Wight Festival HQ as more acts are revealed.

This time we get hot and sweaty with the boys.

Six new acts have been confirmed, but it’s Devendra Banhart who we’re most excited about.

We’ve not had the pleasure of seeing him perform in the flesh, although his slot on Later With Jools Holland last year was mighty impressive.

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We’ve all be waiting with baited breath to find out who will be the Sunday headliner at this year’s Isle of Wight Festival.

Eager young festival fan, Josh Peverley got in touch with VB this morning to tell us that during his research to try and get to the bottom of the Sunday headliner rumours, The Daily Star has announced that it will be none other than Paul McCartney.

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It seems that this year really is the war of the Isle of Wight music festivals.

In previous years IW Festival and Bestival have always made their lineup announcements on different dates, sometimes weeks apart, but this year sees Bestival following IW Festival within hours of making their announcements.

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News reaches us that Friday night in the Big Top at the Isle of Wight Festival is once again, Ladies night.

The leather and rock legend that is Suzi Quatro will be headlining the Big Top with the likes of Juliette Lewis, Marina and the Diamonds, Mini Viva, Wom4n and I Blame Coco joining her gang for the evening.

Her musical career spans four decades and starting out in glam rock in the 1970s and she’s still recording 30 odd years later.

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Yes folks, more bands join the lineup for this year’s Isle of Wight Festival taking place in Seaclose Park, Newport on 10th-13th June.

Florence + The Machine
Strutting her stuff on the main stage on Friday before Jay-Z makes his entrance is the gorgeous Florence + the Machine.

Their first album Lungs was met with huge praise by critics. We expect for their outing to the Isle of Wight in June, Florence + the Machine will be packing some tracks from 2nd (yet unreleased) album which has been likened to ‘Siouxsie and the Banshees’ by producer Paul Epworth.

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Another act has been confirmed this morning to play at the Isle of Wight Festival in June.

Warming up the crowd before the legendary Blondie take to the main stage on Saturday night will be Scottish alternative trio Biffy Clyro.

With five albums under their belts, this band of merry scots are sure to please the crowds with their triple vocals and alternative power pop rock!

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More acts have been announced this morning.

Joining the lineup for next year’s festival are
Vampire Weekend on the main stage on Saturday and Spandau Ballet on the main stage on Sunday.

Calvin Harris and Friendly Fires were also added to the bill in the last few week or so.

Image: [charlie cravero] under CC BY-ND 2.0

So with James and Doves confirmed, you’re probably wondering who else is on the lineup for the 2010 Isle of Wight Festival.

One lady we’re looking forward to seeing perform is the lovely Paloma Faith, if not only to gaze adoringly at her unpredictable and eclectic costume choices. She’ll be shimmying up to the main stage on Saturday afternoon.

Last year he booked 80s pop queens, Banarama, this year John Giddings has nabbed one of the original Banarama’s, Siobhan Fahey and only gone and booked Shakespears Sister.

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Roll up, roll up as more acts are named for next year’s Isle of Wight Festival.

Happy go lucky Mancunians, James, won’t be needing to dust down their instruments when the arrive in Newport.

Still as busy as ever, the band made a massive contribution to the Madchester sound and will be bringing it to the Isle of Wight next summer.

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Shhhh …. following the headliner announcements back at the end of last month, we’ve got an sneaky Isle of Wight Festival announcement coming up on VB tomorrow morning.

Already confirmed to the lineup are Pink, Orbital, Blondie, The Strokes and Jay-Z. To find out more keep your eyes peeled on VB, Facebook or Twitter tomorrow.

We had a chat to John Giddings this morning about the announcement of the headliners for the Isle of Wight Festival 2010.

After hearing the headline acts for the other festivals this summer, he said that he’s “decided to go young.”

Jay-Z impressed Giddings when he played at Wembley Stadium with Coldplay.

We wondered why the Festival had decided to make its announcements so early this year, “it’s dictated by when I can book the artists and lots of people were emailing, asking if they could buy tickets for Christmas.”

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So with Jay-Z, Orbital, Blondie and The Stokes already announced, we bet you’re wondering who else is on the lineup for the 2010 Isle of Wight Festival.

Kicking off the fun for happy campers on the Thursday night will be a band who have been a massive influence on many of the indie bands around today.

Squeeze might not have Jools Holland playing with them anymore, but they are still Cool for Cats.

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They are known as one of the biggest influences in British electronica and their recent comeback has been a joy to all Orbital fans.

Next summer, the Hartnoll brothers from Sevenoaks will be crossing the Solent and promising to blow our minds with the return of their infamous music and light shows, as they headline the Big Top on the Saturday night.

We predict an increase in the sales of head torches as die-hard fans gather in their droves to pay homage to the kings of techno mastery.

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Jay-Z is one of the most successful music artists that the US has every seen. Heck he’s even beaten Elvis Presley’s record of number 1 albums in the Billboard 200. When you’re beating Elvis’ records, you know you’re darn successful.

Following the release of this 11th album, The Blueprint 3, he’s doing a big tour across the US to promote it.

He’s adding the Isle of Wight Festival to his destination list where he’ll be rocking the main stage on Friday 11th June.

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NME voted them Best New Act and Best International Band back in 2002 along with Best Album for This Is It which eight years later, has been awarded Album of the Decade.

Yes folks, indie-rocking guitar heroes, The Strokes, will be larging it up at the 2010 Isle of Wight Festival.

We understand that the five piece from New York have been slogging it out in the studio all summer, working on a new album which fans have been awaiting with baited breath for quite some time.

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If you’re an Island band who would like the chance of playing on the main stage of the 2010 Isle of Wight Festival then you have just two more days to enter the Live Wired Competition.

Yes folks, it’s that time of year again when Platform One and the County Press run their LiveWired music competition. This year they’ve teamed up with Isle of Wight Radio too.

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It’s that time of year when as kids we used to start thinking about which Annual we were going to add to our Christmas lists. Would it be Blue Peter, Tiswas or Beano?

A few years have passed since then and we haven’t given much thought to the wonderful Annuals for a while, that is, until we heard about a new book called Festival Annual.

If you’re a festival goer, young or old, you’re going to love this new glossy book which features twenty-one festivals from 2009.

Vibrant photography
This collection of vibrant photography and words will guide you through the sun, the rain, the mud and more.

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We’d heard that there were rumours circulating in the music world that John Giddings has landed himself and his company Solo a very big fish indeed.

The whispers are that the man that currently runs the IW Festival has been discussing with Bernie Ecclestone – King of F1 – the possibilities of putting Music and F1 together in a big way.

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Lucky Elephant fans will very pleased to hear that the long awaited debut album from the fabulous four has been released today.

It’s been a long time coming, but rest assured, it was worth the wait.

Star Sign Trampoline contains some of the more well known tracks that the band has been playing to adoring fans over the last couple of years, such as the excellent Rev. Tilsley, The Pier and Lucky Elephant.

But perhaps in a change to their usual style, the new album sees the arrival of some more pensive or introspective numbers such as The Red Ties vs The Bees and Burn Down The Acres.

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