New year, new tour: the line-up for the NME Awards Tour 2011 has been revealed, and it promises to be one of the most thrilling of recent years. With a genre-defying collection of acts, the days of the tour being exclusive to converse-wearing, skinny-jeaned and guitar-toting acts are long gone as “the holy trinity of dubstep” Magnetic Man shake things up.
Led by firm favourites Crystal Castles, whose previous antics have seen them support Klaxons and head out with Friendly Fires, White Lies and Team Waterpolo on the NME Radar Tour in 2008, next year’s tour is expected to be something quite different.
Bringing the bass will be Magnetic Man, an act that comprises Skream, Benga and Artwork, three names no one ever thought they would see adorning an NME tour bill.
“I think it’s gonna work. It’s kind of a sign of the times. You go to a club night now and you no longer have one-genre crowds, it’s better for everyone and makes it more exciting,” says Skream of the line-up.
Everything Everything will be bringing their weird and wonderful angular guitar-pop after The Vaccines give the audience a dose of their effects-laden rock’n’roll and what we can only assume will be a sneak peek at their debut album’s material.
Diverse, exciting and generally rather intriguing, the NME Awards Tour 2011 will be serving up a mixture of the best acts of the moment throughout February, stopping off at Birmingham’s O2 Academy on the 12th.
Tickets are priced at £16 and are on general sale from 12th November with 50p from each ticket sold going to Teenage Cancer Trust.
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