Ian Brown, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Madness. The Kooks, DMA’s, Dizzee Rascal, Pale Waves, The Hives, The Fratellis, La Roux, Easy Life, The Snuts, The Pigeon Detectives, The Sherlocks, Twisted Wheel, Sister Sledge, The Big Moon, Lucy Spraggan, Sundara Karma, The Magic Gang and many more.

Taking place at Hillsborough Park, Sheffield from Friday 31st July to Sunday 2nd August.

Tramlines, Sheffield’s biggest city-based music festival has announced the lineup for its 2020 event, taking place at the 30,000 capacity Hillsborough Park from Friday 31st July to Sunday 2nd August. Headliners have been revealed as Ian Brown, Catfish and the Bottlemen, and Madness, plus over 25 more acts have been unveiled including The Kooks, DMA’s, Pale Waves, Dizzee Rascal, The Hives, The Fratellis, La Roux, The Pigeon Detectives, Easy Life, The Snuts, The Sherlocks, Twisted Wheel, Sister Sledge, The Big Moon, Lucy Spraggan, Sundara Karma, The Magic Gang and more. While a limited number of weekend tickets are now available priced at £99.50 (+bf), Tramlines has for the first time released day tickets, five months ahead of the three-day event. They’re priced from £45 and can be purchased alongside other ticket options from www.tramlines.org.uk.

Following its first ever sell out in 2019 and subsequently receiving the UK Festival Award for Best Metropolitan, Tramlines is one of the UK’s fastest growing festivals. It grew from humble beginnings in 2009 as a free, multi-venue, inner-city festival, to a single greenfield site that stages the biggest names in pop, rock and indie across four stages of music, alongside the best in art, comedy, performance, handpicked food and craft ales. Watch the 2019 aftermovie here https://youtu.be/m-eWBk16Js4.

Headliners for the 12th instalment of Tramlines on ‘Sarah Nulty’s Main Stage’ are Stone Roses frontman, Ian Brown (Friday), indie-rockers Catfish and the Bottlemen (Saturday) – a band who first appeared at Tramlines many moons ago as an upcoming band on one of its smallest stages, and the UK’s favourite ska outfit, Madness (Sunday).

Tramlines Festival Operations Director, Timm Cleasby commented, “I’m proper excited for us to bring this line up to Sheffield. Big names for Sheffield’s biggest party. Gettin the F.E.A.R. with Ian Brown on Friday Night, right through to Sunday Madness, It Must Be Love. With some of Yorkshire’s finest bands too, I Hate To Say I Told You So, but it’s going to be Bonkers. See you in the park.”

The 2020 lineup for Tramlines is packed with some of the UK’s all-time rock and indie favourites. Appearing are poster boys of the noughties indie wave scene, The Kooks, ‘Chelsea Dagger’ indie swingers The Fratellis, the platinum selling The Pigeon Detectives, Twisted Wheel who formed at the heart of Manchester’s indie rock scene and were regularly seen supporting the likes of Oasis and Tramlines headliner himself, Ian Brown. Adding an international injection to the rock offering are, from Sydney down under, the DMA’s who’ll bring rock ballads aplenty.

Tramlines 2020 is also thrilled to announce that rebel pop star La Roux will appear as she gears up to release her third album ‘Supervision’ later this year. Swedish garage-punk kingpins, The Hives will also star amongst a melting pot of sounds including a return set to Tramlines from Grime MC, Dizzee Rascal, disco anthems from Sister Sledge, goth-pop from former BBC Introducing duo, Pale Waves, the Mercury Prize nominated all-girl outfit, The Big Moon, and the eclectic sounds of Easy Life who return with their mash up of hip hop, r’n’b and jazz that wowed crowds on the Leadmill Stage at Tramlines last year.

As ever, Tramlines welcomes a slew of talent from across its home city and the Yorkshire regions. The ever popular four-piece, The Sherlocks join the bill whose impressive credits include being the first unsigned band after the Arctic Monkeys to sell out the legendary independent venue, the Leadmill. The ever-cherished singer and songwriter Lucy Spraggan who’ll deliver her folk pop signature style as seen on album number five released in 2019, and on her recent quirky cover of The Proclaimers ‘500 Miles’, plus the heavy, fast-paced indie sounds of The Reytons, the loud punk sounds of The Blinders, and Sheffield favourites the Everly Pregnant Brothers renowned for their amusing spoof numbers.

Over the years Tramlines has been known for offering a platform to some of the best new and emerging talent around. 2020 is no different and ‘ones to watch’ include rising Scottish five-piece, The Snuts who’ll bring a catalogue of indie stompers, Reading quartet Sundara Karma, and hailing from Brighton, The Magic Gang and Fickle Friends who’ll deliver big melodies and progressive indie pop.

As well as weekend tickets costing £99.50 and day tickets costing £45 (Friday) and £50 (Saturday and Sunday), children’s ticket are also on sale. With a pass for 5 – 12-year olds costing just £10 and £3 for those aged 4 and under, Tramlines continues to offer some of the best value festival tickets around.

This is just the first wave of talent set to perform at Tramlines 2020. Festival-goers should keep an eye out for further lineup announcements, plus further announcements from across the festival site including lineups for the comedy tent, programming for the eclectic family-friendly area ‘Into The Trees’, and the return of Speaker’s Corner.

TRAMLINES FESTIVAL 2020 LINEUP – PHASE 1

Friday

Ian Brown
The Kooks
Pale Waves
The Pigeon Detectives
La Roux
The Big Moon
The Blinders
The Lathums
Kawala
The Hara
Full Colour
Patawawa
Children Of The State

Saturday

Catfish and the Bottlemen
DMA’s
Dizzee Rascal
The Sherlocks
The Magic Gang
Lucy Spraggan
Fickle Friends
Twisted Wheel
Vistas
Lauran Hibberd
Aaron Smith
Lucia and the Best Boys
Abbie Ozzard
Sheafs
Everly Pregnant Brothers

Sunday

Madness
The Hives
The Fratellis
Sister Sledge
Sundara Karma
Easy Life
The Snuts
The Reytons
The Orielles
Bedroom High Club
Clear Vinyl

Event Info
Tramlines Festival 2020
Friday 31st July – Sunday 2nd August
Hillsborough Park, Sheffield
Weekend tickets from £99.50 + booking fee / VIP upgrade – £50
Day tickets: Friday £45 / Saturday & Sunday £50 + booking fee
Available from www.tramlines.org.uk

‘FYI’ begins with the tapping of piano keys before evolving into a hip-swaggering rock banger, showing that THE HARA have songs capable of taking on arenas. The inspiration behind the track came from Josh (lead vocals), Zack (lead guitar) and Jack’s (drums) mutual love of Peaky Blinders.

“We are building our monster, it has no boundaries or rules, it’s brain has our musical souls and real-life feelings, it’s a body of work made up mostly of hardcore dirty riffs, fat filthy drum beats and anthemic sing along choruses. Anyone can be part of this movement as long you can completely lose yourself in our madness ‘cos we don’t care what anyone thinks. We (you) are the movement, rock n roll forever manx” – Josh

THE HARA are a band that have ground and finessed their live sound through their use of pads, triggers and stems to quench their thirst for rock stardom. They launched with a YouTube music video ‘Only Young’ in September 2017 which quickly amassed over 220K views and increased their ever-growing number of passionate fans. They then spent the subsequent six months writing their very first EP ‘No Regrets’ followed by a ten-date UK and Ireland tour as well as a headline slot with BBC Introducing in their home county. Their most successful track to date ‘Be Somebody’ has amassed over 500k views and became the track to define the band along with their ‘Unconscious Minds Innocently Blind’ EP (released early this year), this held at #1 for three days ahead of Lewis Capaldi in the iTunes album pre-order charts, and later led to selling out 5 of their 8 headline tour dates for UMIB. Most recently came their third ‘Tramp Brain’ EP released in September which hit #3 in the iTunes Rock Charts. This is just the start of a long and successful journey for THE HARA.

‘WE ARE THE MOVEMENT’ 2020 UK tour

2nd April – The Parish – Huddersfield
3rd April – The Sugarmill – Stone-on-Trent
5th April – The Leadmill 2 – Sheffield
9th April – The Bodega – Nottingham
10th April – Old Fire Station – Carlisle
11th April – The Mash House – Edinburgh
12th April – King Tuts – Glasgow
16th April – The Thekla – Bristol
17th April – The Joiners – Southampton
18th April – The Waterfront Studio – Norwich
19th April – O2 Academy – Leicester
23rd April – O2 Academy 2 – Oxford
24th April – The Venue – Derby
25th April – O2 Academy 3 – Birmingham
26th April – The Garage – London
30th April – The Fulford Arms – York
1st May – Academy 3 – Manchester
7th May – Moles – Bath
8th May – The Junction – Plymouth
9th May – The Anvil – Bournemouth
10th May – The Globe – Cardiff

Presenting their shift into more experimental territory, satirising the conservatism and inadequacies of popular satirical music, Bristol’s LICE return with new single ‘Conveyor’ via their own label Settled Law.

LICE have spent their early years flirting with mainstream acclaim, while remaining contemporary British punk’s constant outliers. Emerging from Bristol’s vital avant-garde scene with supports for The Fall, Fat White Family and Girl Band, LICE first gained national attention with debut single ‘The Human Parasite’, establishing a literate, eccentric brand of satirical art-punk. In 2018 their arch-advocates IDLES, who took them on the Brutalism and Unity tours, used their own label Balley Records to release LICE’s ‘early years’ material as the Double EP It All Worked Out Great Vol.1+2. This gained critical acclaim from the likes of The Guardian, The Quietus and Loud and Quiet, who declared LICE, “the most exciting, inspiring and genuinely deranged new guitar band in the country”.

What followed was a complete about-turn. Disillusioned with the sonic conservatism, twee platitudes and toothless commentary of the ‘satirical guitar music boom’ they were now aligned with, LICE began a period of sonic and lyrical experimentation – subverting the prevailing aesthetics and ideas of contemporary punk. Drawing from EBM, industrial and minimalism, they forged a new line in driving, experimental art-rock. Taking cues from science fiction and early 20th century polemicists, their new lyrics use vivid prose-based vignettes (replete with sharp character arcs, black humour and absurdist storylines) to set out bold stances on satire, humanity, and the content and direction of art.

‘Conveyor’, the first of these new songs, brings us to The Wasteland – the nationless space inhabited by the new music’s stories and cast of characters. We are introduced to its raging, Shakespearian protagonist The Conveyor, and their mission to expose the mysterious R.D.C.’s plots to engineer the human race’s self-destruction; a journey that will take us through sci-fi odysseys and Burroughsian grotesques. LICE thereby declare a new period, presenting a satirical music commensurate to these militant years. This is paired with the band’s first UK headline tour, and is the debut release on their label Settled Law.

TOUR DATES:

29th Feb – Glastonbury, Glastonbury Calling

BRITISH SERATAS TOUR

10th March – Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club
11th March – Glasgow, Hug and Pint
12th March – Manchester, Castle Hotel
13th March – Newcastle, Cluny 2
14th March – Birmingham, Dead Wax
16th March – Southampton, Heartbreakers
17th March – Brighton, Green Door Store
18th March – London, Shacklewell Arms
19th March – Bristol, The Island

Montreal-based indie art rock band Braids announced today their new album Shadow Offering will release on April 24th via Secret City Records. Produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie, the new album finds the band at their most personal, unabashedly flexing a new sense of confidence through songs that reach a higher level of artistry and collaboration. Today they shared their lead single and video “Young Buck,” an effervescent ode to impossible love that exudes an undeniable magnetism.

The band have also announced a UK and European tour this Spring culminating with a performance at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton. North American dates will be announced shortly. See below for all tour dates, tickets are on sale now.

“Shadow Offering” is available for pre-order / pre-save HERE.

“We wrote this song to capture the nervous anticipation of desire, the delicate chase of seduction, the highs and lows of obsession, and the humour in between,” stated singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston. “To want to possess someone, make them desire you, fall for you, only to learn that to lust is not to love.”

Braids began teasing their new album last fall with the release of “Eclipse (Ashley),” a song dedicated to Standell-Preston’s best friend that sinks deep into a feeling of reverie for nature, the love found in friendship, and the vital essence of personal reflection. It was praised by Pitchfork, Stereogum, Paste, and The New York Times who stated “Raphaelle Standell-Preston sings with openhearted earnestness.”

A luscious and expansive release, Shadow Offering leads us through a sonic tapestry of narrative. With heartbreaking honesty and precision, listeners traverse a nuanced and complicated world: one full of beautiful contradiction. Although the album directs itself at the failures of people to love and be loved, it also seeks to restore justice and attain blissful union. Its arc crests through the dark towards the light and learns how to dance with the dizzying rhythms of the heart. The songs bubble, sustain, dissolve, expand, and retract.

The album recounts pain, heartbreak, anger, but also lifts the heart towards hope. “There’s more hopefulness in this record than anything else I’ve written,” said Standell-Preston. “I think the songs are more human, more tangible, more honest.”

Braids is comprised of Raphaelle Standell-Preston, Austin Tufts, and Taylor Smith. Formed in 2007 in Alberta, they have solidified a decade-long reputation for their musical ingenuity and established themselves as one of Canada’s most acclaimed art rock bands, garnering two Polaris Prize shortlists and winning the 2016 Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year. With Standell-Preston’s vocals as the pillar of their sound, Braids weave organic and electronic elements together amidst a lyrical landscape that is intimate, explosive, and emotionally-immersive. Their albums have earned praise from Pitchfork, NPR, New York Times, T Magazine, NME, and The Guardian among many others. They have supported or toured with artists such as Toro Y Moi, The Antlers, Wye Oak, Purity Ring, and Friendly Fires along with festival appearances around the world including Glastonbury, Primavera, Osheaga, Hopscotch, and SXSW.

Tour dates

April 22, 2020 – Leicester, UK – The Cookie
April 23, 2020 – Guildford, UK – Boileroom
April 24, 2020 – London, UK – Moth Club
April 25, 2020 – Ramsgate, UK – Music Hall
April 27, 2020 – Manchester, UK – YES Pink Room
April 28, 2020 – Liverpool, UK – Phase One
April 29, 2020 – Glasgow, UK – CAA
May 1, 2020 – Leeds, UK – Headrow House
May 2, 2020 – Cardiff, UK – Clwb for Bach
May 3, 2020 – Bristol, UK – The Exchange
May 4, 2020 – Cambridge, UK – Portland Arms
May 14-16, 2020 – Brighton, UK – The Great Escape