Festival Watch: Slowdive reform for Primavera, Outlook welcomes Busta Rhymes

Article by News Team | 29 Jan 2014

This year's Primavera Sound (29-31 May) has announced its mammoth bill, setting the music world ablaze with the news that shoegaze pioneers Slowdive will be reforming to play the festival. Rumours about Slowdive's potential reunion had been circling for a while, but their announcement for the Primavera bill is the first official confirmation of their intent to reform.

Speaking to The Quietus, the band's Neil Halstead also revealed that they'd be working on new material: "The initial impetus was the idea of doing some new music," he comments. "It seemed easier to do that because it’s not so public. But then we thought it would be good if we could raise a bit of money to make the record, and doing a couple of gigs would enable us to do that. And that’s the way it shaped up – while we’re rehearsing we can see if we’ve got another record in us." 

Halstead also remarked that Slowdive are not concerned with showboating over past glories. "I’m not interested in any critical reappraisal," he comments. "It’s more about the people who are into it and like the records rather than proving anything to anyone. We’re not getting paid enough for there to be any real financial incentive for doing it. But there are loads of artistic reasons, especially if we can get a new record together."

Also confirmed for Primavera are a huge raft of international bands, including Arcade Fire, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), Pixies, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails, St. Vincent, Julia Holter, Deafheaven, Shellac, Andy Stott, The Haxan Cloak, Daniel Avery, Jamie XXConnan Mockasin, Julian Cope, Slint and Warpaint, among many (many) others. Check out the full lineup here, and watch the festival trailer below.

The Outlook Festival (4-7 Sep), taking place in Croatia, focuses on electronic music, with a strong representation of UK bass music acts. This year's initial lineup announcement features Digital Mystikz, Moodymann, Floating Points, MJ Cole, The Bug, plus big hip-hop guests in the form of DJ Premier and Busta Rhymes. Details and tickets can be found here

Closer to home, Liverpool one-day festival X&Y (11 Jul) have announced their first headliner - they will be joined by Canadian band Half Moon Run - just the first of the bands expected to fill the Liverpool University campus across four stages during the event. Keep up to date with the lineup as it grows here.