Never Means Maybe

Monday 26th March 2012
Norwich Waterfront

Taking in different elements of the music around them, Never Means Maybe have crafted a style and sound to their music that is difficult to pin down; no mean feat in today’s copycat world of music. Emerging from the burgeoning Essex music scene, under the signature of ‘pop-post-hardcore’ Never Means Maybe encompass everything this style suggests; and many more beside. Imagine Story of the Year getting it on with Glassjaw, while Funeral for a Friend are at war with Refused, and you may get somewhere close to where this band is heading. Hard-hitting drums, syncopated riffs, epic choruses and a three pronged vocal attack helps Never Means Maybe stand out from the proverbial crowd.

Having clocked up an impressive 400 plus shows up and down the country in the last few years, Never Means Maybes live show is something to behold. 100% energy and enthusiasm every night, this is 5 guys wearing their hearts on their sleeves and loving every minute of it. Having toured with the likes of Bury Tomorrow and My Passion as well as numerous headline tours the band were a huge hit on the festival circuit in 2010 playing storming sets at Download, Sonisphere, T in the Park and Hevy as well.

2011 saw the release of their second E.P ‘Strangers’ with the singles ‘Ziva Killed Houdini’ and ‘Inhale The Chaos’ being mainstays on Scuzz TV and Kerrang, currently writing for their debut album as well as touring to promote the latest release it’s going to be a very busy year for this Essex quintet and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Tickets for this gig can be purchased from http://www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk/events/never-means-maybe—the-waterfront-studio-.aspx

Hello Bear

Hello Bear + Darwin & The Dinosaur + Dying Breeds + White Collar Crimes
Norwich Arts Centre
Saturday 31st March 2012

Fresh from their UK tour, Hello Bear will be celebrating the launch of their debut album ‘This One Girl…’ released through NR One Records, which is all very exciting. The album will be exclusively available to buy at the gig for the low price of £5.

If melodic punk mixed with indie is your bag, then you’ll no doubt enjoy Darwin & The Dinosaurs’ dulcet tones! They’ve put all their tracks up for free on their Bandcamp, so if you’re not already familiar, go have a listen/download at http://darwinandthedinosaur.bandcamp.com/

Dying Breeds have recently signed to Intruder Records, and are busy preparing for their debut album. Pop punk in the mold of NOFX.

Final support band is newcomers to the local scene, White Collar Crimes, who offer guitar-driven indie melodies with ambitious vocals to match.

Tickets are available now from http://www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk/events/hello-bear–16-03-12-.aspx for just £4 in advance.

Two Door Cinema Club

The infamous NME Awards Tour is back for 2012, heading to Norwich UEA on Friday 17th February, and ready to showcase the year’s most exciting emerging music talent. Renowned for giving the freshest new acts their first taste of national notoriety – past alumni include Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Florence & The Machine, Crystal Castles The Bluetones, Idlewild and The Vaccines – 2012’s line-up captures the spirit of 2011 and sets the agenda for an explosive forthcoming year of music.

NME editor Krissi Murison says: “As far as NME Awards Tour line-ups go, it’s difficult to imagine one more exciting than this or more representative of the cutting edge sounds that will define 2012. Every week in NME we bang on about how brilliant these bands are, and this is an amazing opportunity to see them all on the same bill. Two Door Cinema Club are one of the most exciting live bands in the world right now, Metronomy recorded arguably the album of the year, Tribes are the future of British indie music and Azealia Banks is, well, pretty much the most exciting new act on the planet. It’s going to be a good one…”

Having quietly become one of the UK’s best loved bands, Two Door Cinema Club will headline the hotly anticipated annual tour. Since releasing their debut album ‘Tourist History’ in March 2010, Two Door Cinema Club have rapidly become one of the biggest new success stories in UK music. After selling out headline tours in the UK, US, Europe, Australia, Asia, Japan and South America, playing two successive sold out nights at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and selling out the O2 Academy Brixton in under four hours, the band have deservedly earned both a devoted word-of-mouth live following and huge critical acclaim.

Two Door Cinema Club say: “It feels great to be headlining the NME Tour and be amongst what feels like a great line-up as well. We had a taste of the tour when we did the local support slots when the Tour came to Ireland with the Maccabees when we were pretty much just starting out as a band. We feel a real sense of achievement to have made it this far and be one among the incredible list of headliners on the NME Awards Tour.”

Hailing from the tiny, bohemian market town of Totnes in Devon, Metronomy join the line-up this year. One of the most expansive and visionary pop bands in the country, Metronomy will be supplying the NME Awards Tour with proof that it’s possible for electronic bands to put on a show as authentic as any rock band.

Metronomy say: ”It’s pretty exciting to be part of a travelling tour, a bit like a circus or something. It’s been a while since we did a tour this long with the same bands for the whole thing, so hopefully there will be some camaraderie between the bands. Failing that there should be some incredibly violent ‘beefs’ which will make for good reading in the magazine.”

London quartet Tribes have gone from prodigious debutant slots opening for their idols The Pixies, to relentless grassroots grafting of the UK dives, to being lauded ‘the future of rock ‘n’ roll’ by the Mystery Jets.

Tribes say: “We’re really f***ing excited to be going on the NME Tour. We’re really happy to be part of it, considering the history of the tour, and the fact the likes of The Vaccines and The Horrors have done it before. Hopefully there’ll be some good after parties too – we’re all about the partying.”

New York producer/MC Azealia Banks, who has been steadily perfecting her craft and making a name for herself, has bagged the coveted opening slot for the NME Awards Tour 2012. Since her first steps as a child in off-broadway theatre productions to her training at La Guardia High School of Performing Arts – a breeding ground for stars – Azealia Banks’ seasoned bars and angelic voice give everybody a reason to rewind that track.

Azealia Banks says: “I’ve been reading NME since I was old enough to ride the trains, where I’d buy it on newsstands… it’s almost surreal that I’ve been selected to participate in this tour… it’s such an honour.”

Hyro Da Hero

After playing Norwich Waterfront supporting The Blackout and 3OH!3 last year, Hyro Da Hero returns to headline Norwich Waterfront on Thursday 16th February 2012. Putting on a mix of Rap and Rock that’s not to be missed.

Seasons come and go. Trends pop and deflate. Careers rise and fall. Genres of music live and die. Once in awhile, an artist steps up who doesn’t quite follow the cycle. He doesn’t pay heed to “What’s cool.” He doesn’t give a shit about “Who’s hot.” He doesn’t follow the zeitgeist but, rather, the zeitgeist follows him. Hyro Da Hero is about to flip rap upside down, inside out and all around.

Currently creating an industry buzz like a disrupted beehive – Los Angeles based purveyor of “Gangsta Rock” – Hyro Da Hero tore apart the UK as special guest on The Blackout UK tour. His debut album, “Birth, School, Work, Death” was released earlier this year to critical acclaim.

Hyro spins his own cycle of hip hop on Birth, School, Work, Death. Loading rock ‘n’ roll attitude into explosive, engaging and enthralling rap music. With the crunch of a power chord and the snap of a rhyme, the Houston-bred Los Angeles-based MC spits pure fire. Produced by Ross Robinson— the man behind Korn, Slipknot and At the Drive-in’s legendary debuts— “Birth, School, Work, Death” sounds like Tupac fronting Rage Against the Machine.

Hyro’s live band certainly have the pedigree to pummel as well. Guttural riffs feed into razor-sharp rhymes, building a sound that’s as introspective as it is infectious. Hyro Da Hero fires off one aural grenade after another whether it’s violent punk-funk vibrancy of “Sleeping Giants” or the sugary bitch-slap of “We Still Popular”. Across the album, Hyro experiments with a myriad of styles from the psyched-out pop of “Man in My City” to his call-to-arms, “Grudge”, where he proudly declares, “I ain’t Lil Wayne.”

New Found Glory

Wednesday 8th February 2012
Norwich UEA

Following the success of the 2011 tour, which featured headliners Good Charlotte and support from Four Year Strong, Framing Hanley and The Wonder Years, Kerrang! have gone the extra mile to create a double headline event giving fans even more bang for their buck. Next February, there’s the chance to see two of the pop punk scenes’ kingpins, New Found Glory and Sum 41, on the same night under one roof. Joining the co-headliners are letlive., one of the hottest rising acts on the international live circuit and rising UK stars While She Sleeps.

15 years after they first stomped out of the Florida undergrowth, New Found Glory are currently riding the wave of a pop punk creative peak with the release of their critically acclaimed seventh studio album Radiosurgery. Regarded as an inspiration by the likes of All Time Low, Set Your Goals and A Day To Remember, it’s a good job New Found Glory don’t suffer from vertigo – they’re at the top of their game.

After a four-year break from the studio, Sum 41 crashed back onto the scene with Screaming Bloody Murder last year. The more personal direction taken by frontman Deryck Whibley since his divorce from pop rock starlet Avril Lavigne has produced some of the Ontario pop punks’ most powerful material to date, which easily sits alongside classic anthems like In Too Deep, Motivation, Still Waiting and Fat Lip.

Progressive hardcore quintet letlive. are one of the bands to watch in 2012. Off the back of the critical acclaim of their album Fake History, the Los Angeles quintet are steadily earning a reputation as one of the best live bands in the world right now. Frontman Jason Aalon Butler was recently voted number one in a list of Kerrang!’s top 50 greatest rock stars in the world today – catch them live to see why.

Opening each night are Sheffield post-hardcore five-piece While She Sleeps. Fresh from a headline tour with support from Bury Tomorrow and Feed The Rhino, this Steel City quintet are ones to watch. Their mini-album, The North Stands For Nothing, boasts eight pulverising reasons why they’re an exciting addition to the bill and Kerrang! can’t wait to see them kick off the show each night.

Editor of Kerrang!, James McMahon says, “Everyone at Kerrang! prides themselves on the fact that our tours are always a heap load of fun, but this year’s tour really does offer something for all rock fans – you’ve got punk, you’ve got pop punk, you’ve got hardcore, you’ve got metal. It’s a reflection of the broad church you’ll find in the magazine’s pages week in, week out. See you in the pit!”

Four Year Strong

Following the release of new album ‘In Some Way, Shape Or Form’ back in November, Four Year Strong play Norwich Waterfront on Monday 30th January, with support from A Loss For Words + Don Broco.

The band have now slimmed down to a four piece and comprise, Dan O’Connor (Vocals/Guitar), Alan Day (Vocals/Guitar), Jake Massucco (Drums), and Joe Weiss (Bass), who formed in Massachusetts in 2001 after O’Conner, Day, and Massucco met through mutual friends – they shared influences like Lifetime, Saves the Day, Gorilla Biscuits, and New Found Glory.

Their distinct sound and incredibly energetic live shows has led to their inclusion on countless tours and also caught the attention of Fallout Boy’s Pete Wentz, who signed FYS to his label Decaydance Records in February 2008. The band’s heightened profile hasn’t stopped them from working non-stop as they continued a hectic touring schedule over the past few years as a part of the Rockstar Taste of Chaos tour, co-headlining a summer tour with Set Your Goals in the US, appearing at Slam Dunk in the UK and the Warped tour in the US. The band recently appeared at Sonisphere Festival and headlined the Hevy festival in the UK.