Orbital at the Royal Albert Hall, a quick review

Last night I went to the Royal Albert Hall as a very lucky guest of DWPub’s Daryl Willcox and his partner Rachel Fielding.

We were there to see recently reformed Orbital, a.k.a. the group that got me into dance music. Be still my beating heart.

I can remember the exact moment I fell in love with dance actually. It was 1995, I was watching the start of a film called ‘Hackers’, and this happened…

The rest of the movie was entertaining enough to earn a spot in my all-time top ten favourite films ever, in the world, ever (it’s still there) – but it took me a while to work out that the track was Halcyon by Orbital.

There was no Shazam, in fact, I didn’t even own a phone – nor iTunes or Amazon to look up the soundtrack.

Eventually I found it though, and listened to religiously. Over the years Orbital has remixed the track to include samples from You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi, Heaven Is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle, and most recently I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness. We were treated to the first two last night.

Purple

Warm-up The Japanese Popstars were also thoroughly enjoyable, and sounded a lot like… Orbital. Figures.

The venue was wonderful, and Orbital delivered a near-perfect set filled with classics (finishing with Chime, of course) mixed with new material from their NEW ALBUM Wonky. Released just a few weeks ago.

Last summer I saw Underworld play Sonar in Barcelona. The crowd was filled with hardcore fans, and that feeling of reclaimed belonging powered their pogoing frenzy. There was no ‘new’, but Underworld held court, their fans fuelled by nostalgia.

Orbital holds a similar place in the heart of an old school raver, but the duo has managed to do the unthinkable – retain credibility, release new material and remain one of the best dance acts in the world. I’m chuffed to bits that I got to see them in such a setting.  Thanks Daryl :)

New Hot Chip album released June 11th on Domino

To be called In Our Heads, they’ll be hitting Lovebox with it on June 15th – and Sonar.

I loved One Night Stand from 2010, and I can’t wait for this.

From Domino’s blog:

“We’re very proud to announce a stunning addition to the Domino family: Hot Chip will be releasing their highly anticipated fifth album, In Our Heads on Domino. Having put out consistently awesome records since 2004, we’re sure you’ve been waiting with bated breath to hear what they’re up to. Well, you won’t have much longer to wait at all – the album will be released on LP, CD and digitally on June 11th in the UK (and the following day in the US). And immediately after that they’ll be hitting the road, with several European dates already confirmed and more to follow.”

Liv Tyler covers INXS’ Need You Tonight for Givenchy

Need a recent example of great branded content? Look no further.

Liv Tyler has rock royalty in her blood, she’s incredibly cool, and now she’s covered INXS’ Need You Tonight for Givenchy.

Someone at Givenchy should be getting a huge raise right about now. It’s trending on Twitter too.

Pop Hive launches

I’ve been lucky enough to see behind-the-scenes as Cate has built, filmed, shot and breathed life into her new project, the Pop Hive.

It’s a weekly online TV show all about pop culture and entertainment that’s both written and presented by her.

Episode one is now live, featuring an interview with DJ duo The Broken Hearts.

I’m insanely proud; it’s funny, sharp and I forsee big things. Props to Iain for building such a great site too, and producing the show on top of that!

A new episode of Pop Hive is released every Friday morning, for more information visit PopHive.tv, follow on Twitter or subscribe in a million ways via the site.