Chemical reaction Electronic duo set for block-rockin’ new festival
AWe’re just looking forward to hopefully getting back to having the magical thing of experiencing music with other people
Tom Rowlands
FTER what feels like a drought for festivals and events, Bristol is coming back with a bang with old favourites and brand new events.
One exciting new music festival is drawing the biggest names in international music to Clifton Downs this September.
Described as “more than a music concert”, Forwards looks to challenge what metropolitan festivals can be today, and how they can do good, from the inside out.
The two-day festival will harness the power of live events to bring people together for incredible music moments and positive change; through social initiatives and a space for discussion and debate.
And helping to do this is one of the biggest names in worldwide electronic music, The Chemical Brothers, who will bring their globally renowned, gloriously psychedelic live show to Bristol for a special one-off performance.
For three decades, Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons have worked to redefine the very idea of live electronic music by creating a genuinely immersive gig experience – a show that sets hallucinogenic visuals to some of the biggest anthems in dance music and they plan to bring everything they’re best loved for to Bristol.
Forwards will be one of the final shows after a huge Europe trip for the Chemical Brothers – who told the Post they were only able to perform three shows last summer due to Covid restrictions.
Tom said: “When travel and everything stopped in March 2020 we were in rehearsals, we were going to Columbia to finish off touring for
our last album – then it was all derailed.
“So we’re just looking forward to hopefully getting back to having the magical thing of experiencing music with other people.”
Tom described Forwards as “what it says in the name, a forward looking festival”.
And as well as playing, the stars are looking forward to enjoying some of the other excellent acts: reeling off some of the star performers they can’t wait to see such as Little Simz, Overmono and Roisin Murphy.
“We’re looking forward to playing a festival in Bristol,” Tom said.
“It’s such a musical city and it’s strange that it doesn’t have a big, established, cool festival. Hopefully it turns into something that’s a regular every year.
“We haven’t played a live show in Bristol for a long time, although we have DJed there. It’s full of interesting people doing interesting things and this will be a tribute to that.”
Despite being known for their huge shows, with incredible set
design and visuals, The Chemical Brothers do still get to enjoy smaller intimate events.
They often get invited to bring the vibe to venues all over; allowing them to explore their other creative passions.
“It’s good to have the contrast. We love the opportunity to do something at huge scale events, with the lights and the sound system and the visuals.
“When we started out we would turn up to clubs with our 8mm films and our own screens, which were like white sheets and we would project films on them. Those experiences are always with us but at this point its nice to be able to play with ideas that work on a big scale.
“We like to mix things up and keep doing different things. We always have something exciting planned and we’ve been working on a new album, so we have some new music to play this summer. We can’t wait to play it live and see what emerges as we do.”
The Chemical Brothers have worked with their long-time visual collaborators Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall, who often help pull together their spectacular shows.
And Forwards festival will be no different as fans are told to expect “something different.”
Despite having not played a big Bristol show for a while, The Chemical Brothers are no strangers to the South West being Glastonbury regulars.
They last performed at the iconic festival in 2019 and described the festival as an event that “runs through the band”.
Tom said “I love that festival. I love what it is and the mix of interesting things that happen there. You go around the world playing festivals and they try and get some of that spirit into their events; it sits apart.
“When we’re in the studio working on music that’s our idealised audience. We’ll say ‘it sounds amazing in the studio but imagine how it would feel playing this on the stage at Glastonbury’ – as an artist it’s a privilege to play there.”