New year, it sounds good to us
After a turbulent 12 months in music, we have finally rung in 2017! And there’s a lot to look forward to, says ANDY WELCH
THE past 12 months have not been the best. However you slice it, the results of several destabilising elections and referenda, a dwindling economy, terrorist atrocities, global extremism and a refugee crisis do not make for happy times.
Normally in such situations, we look to art and culture for distraction, but all our musical pioneers are dying off, along with a fair few actors and other assorted national treasures.
We’re doomed, basically. Or at least, that’s what it felt like for great swathes of 2016.
There have been moments of respite, like the Rio Olympics and Paralympics, but with the arrival of 2017, there’s a sense of a fresh start.
You might choose to focus on the forthcoming Brits to distract yourself from the news.
More of a TV event than a music show these days, the Brits are always a bit like pizza, to paraphrase Woody Allen – even when it’s terrible, it’s still pretty good. It’s unlikely anything that happens on the awards show will top the moment Madonna’s cape failed to release for sheer drama, but they can give it a go.
Maybe Perrie from Little Mix can try to hit Zayn Malik with a trophy? Less of a shout out to her ex, more a painful thump in the thorax!
The trophies this year, incidentally, were designed by Zaha Hadid, another of the many big names to pass away in 2016.
Fixating on this year’s festival line-ups might also be a way of getting through the upcoming cold months and avoiding current affairs. Brexit isn’t happening any time soon, but Glastonbury will take place in June, as it almost always does.
In an unprecedented step, organisers Emily and Michael Eavis have named a headliner already – Radiohead – perhaps to quell some of the annoying speculation.
There are plenty of other names in contention, which will provide a necessary distraction from the ‘real’ news.
Also in the summer, Tom Petty is playing a rare show as part of the annual British Summer Time in London’s Hyde Park.
Petty and his Heartbreakers will have Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks with them as support. Find a better day out than that and you’ll be going some.
Muse, Major Lazer and Bastille are among the early announcements for Reading and Leeds Festival. V has yet to announce its headliners, but they’re generally pretty starry A-list types.
Madness also headline Sunday night at the Bearded Theory festival in Derbyshire on May 28 while the weekend also features appearances by seminal British rock act Skunk Anansie, punk duo Slaves, The Alarm, New Model Army, Ska legends The Selecter, seminal hip-hop act Sugar Hill Gang who are teaming up with Furious Five, American favourites Wheatus, Vince Foy and multi-million selling Britpop survivors Cast.
If you prefer to stay in and listen to music, rather than stand in a muddy field, there are a great number of albums to look forward to this year too.
January alone sees releases from Run The Jewels, Zara Larsson, The Flaming Lips, You Me At Six, Bonobo, The xx, Foxygen, Mike Oldfield, Menace Beach, Iggy Azalea and Major Lazer.
Later on in the year, we’ll see albums from Brits Critics’ Choice runner-up Dua Lipa, Ryan Adams, a comeback from The Jesus & Mary Chain and Elbow’s seventh album Little Fictions.
Unscheduled but promised new offerings include Depeche Mode, Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, Fleetwood Mac, Gorillaz, HAIM, John Mayer, Phoenix, Justin Timberlake, Beck, Bjork, Arcade Fire, Missy Elliott, Cheryl Cole, Liam Gallagher, Katy Perry, Neutral Milk Hotel, MGMT, Ride, St Vincent, Father John Misty,
Sky Ferreira, Lorde, The War On Drugs, Clean Bandit, Taylor Swift and LCD Soundsystem.
The 59th Grammy A Awards take place o on February 12 with Beyonce dominating nominations. The Lemonade singer is up for nine awards while Britain’s very own Ade Adele is in contention for five for her best-selling album, 25.
Phil Collins, who recently brought out his autobiography, Not Dead Yet, will be playing his first live dates in 15 years when he takes to the stage for five nights at the Royal Albert Hall in London in June.
The ex-Genesis frontman will then be heading to France and Germany as part of the Not Dead Yet – Live! tour.
Brothers Luke and Matt Goss, aka Bros, have not played together since 77,000 packed into Wembley Stadium on August 19, 1989, but they are reuniting for UK dates in August. The brothers say: “We’re so exited to play these shows, we wish it was next week. Summer can’t come soon enough.”
Punk legends The Damned are marking the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Damned Damned Damned, and are embarking on a world tour, appearing at summer festivals.
Squeeze are also working on a new album and will perform across the UK later this year as part of their Join The Dots Tour.
Singer and songwriter Chris Difford says: “As I put pencil to paper to write some ideas for the next album, I have to say how confident I am about our band’s future.” As for new bands to keep an eye out for, a good place to start would be the BBC’s Sound of 2017 longlist.
Now, lists like this – which tend to be self-fulfilling, in that they almost guarantee the success of the artists that appear on them - are not without their critics. But whether they’re the chicken or metaphorical egg, you can’t deny the likes of Cabbage, Maggie Rogers, AJ Tracey, Anderson Paak, Nadia Rose and RAYE are worthy of further investigation.
So while 2016 may have taken some favourites from us and thrown the world into disarray, 2017 might just be a brilliant year. The soundtrack to it, at least, is going to be outstanding.