It's a monster line up for next year's Shockwaves NME Awards Tour. Their words, not mine, but I'm sure they're right. Actually, there are two line ups, because there are two tours, which I'm pretty sure is a new thing. The first is going under the name 'Indie Rock Tour', while the second will be called the 'Indie Rave Tour', in recognition of the growing number of people using the irritating 'indie rave' tag (I suspect I used it a bit earlier in the year, but I've just decided I don't like it).
The former will be headlined by The Automatic with The View, The Horrors and Mumm-Ra in support (someone I know really likes Mumm-Ra, though I can't quite remember who). The latter is headlined by the almost-as-good-as-the-hype-suggests Klaxons, with support from CSS, Underground and New Young Pony Club.
Launching the 2007 tour, NME Editor Conor McNicholas said these words: "The ShockWaves NME Awards Tour has become the stuff of legend over the last few years and even won an award itself in 2006! In previous years the Tour has always sold out incredibly quickly leaving some fans disappointed so this year we wanted to do something really special - give fans double the bands and double the tour. In fact, there are so many great bands on the scene at the moment we'd never have been able to get it down to four anyway."
Here are the dates...
Indie Rock Galore...
29 Jan: Belfast Ulster Hall
30 Jan: Dublin Ambassadors
1 Feb: Glasgow Carling Academy
3 Feb: Manchester Academy
6 Feb: Newcastle Carling Academy
7 Feb: Birmingham Carling Academy
8 Feb: Norwich UEA
10 Feb: Cardiff University
11 Feb: Sheffield Octagon
12 Feb: Reading Hexagon
14 Feb: Nottingham Rock City
15 Feb: Liverpool University
16 Feb: Southampton Guildhall
18 Feb: Cambridge Corn Exchange
19 Feb: Exeter University
20 Feb: Bristol Carling Academy
23 Feb: London Brixton Carling Academy
All that indie rave nonsense...
3 Feb: Dublin Ambassadors
4 Feb: Belfast Mandela Hall
6 Feb: Glasgow Barrowlands
7 Feb: Leeds Metropolitan University
8 Feb: Newcastle University
11 Feb: Cardiff University Solus
12 Feb: Wolves Wulfrun Hall
13 Feb: Oxford Brookes University
14 Feb: Bristol Carling Academy
16 Feb: Liverpool Carling Academy
17 Feb: Manchester Academy 1
18 Feb: Sheffield Plug
20 Feb: Portsmouth Pyramids
21 Feb: Cambridge Junction
22 Feb: London Hammersmith Palais
Tickets go on sale today on http://www.nme.com and elsewhere tomorrow. Press info from Amazing Media - [email protected].