FM – Remember Us? Festivals and September SMS with Eurosonic Noorderslag

Well hello there

It may have been over a month since we’ve blogged but that doesn’t mean it’s all been quiet on the western front.

Far from it.

We’re managed to get ourselves out of London and along to a pretty amazing Latitude. And Secret Garden Party.

Latitude was amazing for the line up and the late night fun in the woods. Which was phenomenal. Finally got to see I Break Horses who were every bit as good as i’d hoped they’d be. And unusually for us, we managed to cram in plenty of music including (in no particular order) Alt-J, Bat for Lashes, Bon Iver, Richard Hawley, The Horrors, SBTRKT, Ben Howard, Laura Marling, The War On Drugs, Sharon Van Etten, Wild Beasts, Tune-Yards, Shy FX, Mosca, George Fitzgerald, Clock Opera, Policia, Moshi DJ’s and those who we saw that we haven’t mentioned for whatever reason.

A pretty good weekend all round including the weather holding off. If you want to see some fantastic pictures of the weekend, head to the official Latitude website photo section where you can see a whole load of pictures by Marc Sethi who kindly comes to take pics at First Monday.

Marcs pictures are brilliant and look like this:

Our pictures are rubbish and look like this:

Secret Garden Party was, well, immense. Can’t tell you about any of the bands but if you’ve been to SGP, you’ll know that there’s not really much more to say, right.

How utterly brilliant was the opening ceremony of the Olympics? Danny Boyle’s story telling was just so spot on and the choice of music curated by Underworld was almost too good to be true. Quintessentially British epitomising everything that makes this a great country and so contemporary. Despite the ignorant opinions of MP’s like Aidan Burley, it shows what a rich, multi cultural society we have and how that has so successfully manifested itself through music and sport.

We’re totally nailing it in the games proudly sitting 3rd in the medal table. Even some of the biggest sceptics can’t resist getting behind the Olympics as London and Team GB do us proud.

There’s no FM First Monday tonight as we take our August break.

We return on Monday 3rd September and our SMS is being hosted by Eurosonic Noorderslag. If you’ve never been to this 4 day conference and showcase event in Groningen in the Netherlands, you should definitely come to FM First Monday to find out why it is such an important event. If you want an artist to get in front of all the key European festival bookers, you need to be there.

With the success of their event during the ILMC in March, the Eurosonic Noorderslag team are returning to London and will be joining forces with us to hang out with music industry friends and showcase their event to those who have not yet attended and are curious about the opportunities for their artist or business.

They’ll be free drinks, a presentation by Peter Smidt and the chance for someone to win 2 delegate passes to the event in January 2013.

The 26th edition of Eurosonic Noorderslag was a sell out success with over 3000 delegates, showcases by 293 artists and a conference with 100 panels, keynote speakers, interviews and meetings. With delegates from 41 different countries, Eurosonic Noorderslag is the key exchange and networking platform for European music, European artists, international music industry professionals and organizations.

Eurosonic Noorderslag, a two hour drive from Amsterdam, has been responsible for kick-starting the careers of European artists like The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, James Blake, Crystal Fighters, De Staat, Digitalism, Caro Emerald Ewert and The Two Dragons, Franz Ferdinand, FM Belfast, Iceage, Lykke Li, James Vincent McMorrow, Nobody Beats the Drum, Agnes Obel, Ben L’Oncle Soul, Team Me and Triggerfinger.

That’s all for now folks, excited to see our final medal tally.

Sybil and Joe