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Pukkelpop, Belgium Pictures

Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonzobiscuits

Way Out West Review

I am only going to post the F+TM bit, but if you would like to see the full review click here.



Best legs of the festival go to Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine. Walking on stage in black high-heels and gold sequined hot pants, attention was torn between her fiery locks and siren song and that bedazzling hip shake. In what was already a festival with some serious female domination, Florence commanded the stage and was a forceful presence — if only this could be said for her music, which at times reached for lofty Kate Bush-like heights like on “Rabbit Heart” and the White Stripes one-two punch of debut single “Kiss With a Fist” and its rampaging follow-up “Dog Days Are Over”, but the rest of the material taken from her album Lungs failed to address the same urgency or attraction, but then again, she could’ve been singing the phonebook and that would’ve been alright with me.

Florence Chart news (Week: 24-30/08/2009)

Lungs has dropped one place, making it now at 7 in the album charts.

Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) is 36.

Ray-Ban Rooms 2008

Kiss With A Fist

Florence and the Machine from Ray-Ban Rooms on Vimeo.

Interview about Isle of Wight Festival

Florence and the Machine - Interview from Ray-Ban Rooms on Vimeo.

Florence in ASOS Magazine

Happy Birthday Florence!

Today it is Florence's birthday, don't forget to tweet ( @flo_tweet ) her a happy birthday.


Florence at last years Reading & Leeds festival.

Tonight Florence + The Machine is playing at Reading as part of the Reading & Leeds Festival. Coverage of Florence + The Machine from Reading will be aired on BBC3 tonight (28/08/2009) at 8:05pm.

Sessions at the Lowlands Festival 2009

Click here to view Florence + The Machine's acoustic sessions at the Lowlands Festival.

Florence in Vogue

Florence Chart news (Week: 17-23/08/2009)

Florence's debut album has dropped 4 places taking it from number 2 to number 6.


Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) is at number 28.

You've Got The Love is at number 78.

Florence w/ band Ashok

A song from when Florence was in the south London band Ashok.

My Best Dress w/ Lyrics (Rare Song?)

I don't know where this from or whether it is "real" or whatever, anyway enjoy!

Florence Birthday Project 2009!

As it is Florence's birthday on the 28th of August, I have decided to make a "project" to celebrate her birthday with the help of you, her fans!

Here are some parts of the project:

1) A Online Birthday Card (PDF)
which will includen any art/pictures and messages you send in a comment to this thread, at florenceandthemachine@hotmail.co.uk or at the thread at the Official F+TM Forum.
2) A Birthday Video
which will include you wishing Florence a happy birthday or you could either sing along to one of her songs (if lots of people do sing along to a song, I may be able to put them all together to play the whole song with different people singing at different times).

PLEASE GET YOUR SUBMISSIONS IN ASAP

Freedom Festival

Florence is excited to announce her appearance at the Freedom Festival in Hull this September 13th.

The Freedom Festival is an annual live arts and music event that celebrates freedom in all its forms, and this year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of anti-slavery campaigner and son of the city - William Wilberforce.

Florence and her band perform live on the Outdoor Stage in the city center - and best of all admission is completely free.

Florence Covers Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Here is Florence covering the song Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Hop Farm Festival Photos

Florence On Jennifer's Body's Soundtrack

Above you can stream the album sampler for Jennifer's Body Movie Soundtrack which features clips of new songs from Cobra Starship, Haley Williams from Paramore, Cute What We Aim For, and Dashboard Confessional. The movie soundtrack will hit stores s on August 25th while the movie will hit theaters on September 18th. Enjoy!!!!!!!

Track Listing:

1. Florence + The Machine - Kiss With a Fist
2. Panic! At The Disco - New Perspective
3. Hayley Williams - Teenagers
4. Little Boots - New In Town
5. Dashboard Confessional - Finishing School
6. Low Shoulder - Through The Trees
7. Cute Is What We Aim For - Time
8. Screeching Weasel - I Can See Clearly Now
9. Cobra Starship - Chew Me Up & Spit Me Out
10. All Time Low - Toxic Valentine
11. Black Kids - I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You
12. White Lies - Death
13. The Sword - Celestial Crown
14. Silversun Pickups - Little Lover’s So Polite
15. Lissy Trullie - Ready For The Floor

Drumming Song Details

The tribal vibes of 'Drumming Song' are coming our way on Sept 13th.

'Drumming Song' will be available on Digipack CD, Digital EP and a limited edition numbered 7", each backed with some spellbinding acoustic versions and remixes.

Here's what you get:

Digi Pack CD
1. Drumming Song
2. Falling (Demo)
3. Dog Days (Acoustic)


7"
A. Drumming Song (acoustic version)
B. My Boy Builds Coffins (acoustic Version)


Digital EP
1. Drumming Song
2. Drumming Song (Acoustic)
3. Drumming Song (Boy 8 Bit Remix)
4. Drumming Song (Jack Beats Mix)
5. Rabbit Heart (acoustic)

The physical formats will be available from September 14th, the Digital EP will be live and online one day earlier.

Stay tuned for pre-order links.

Mercury Rising

This was my morning, when the mercury happened....x

My mum -"so when do you know if your nominated?"

Me - "in about an hour"

My mum - "well don't get your hopes up, you don’t want to be all dressed up and then just have to come straight home again."

Me- "right. yeah, cheers mum."

But amazingly I was, read out last apparently, so glad I wasn't listening, probably would have passed out from the tension.

The thing is, and I’m not just saying this, just being nominated is really like winning anyway, whatever happens from here I will be happy, seriously I mean that, and I’m really excited about all the other artists on the list,

It was funny doing the press rounds with Glasvegas behind me and the horrors in front, James and Farris were joint winners in the best jacket awards, James’s a leather jacket with Marilyn Monroe spayed on the back, and Faris in a fetching black and white snakeskin tuxedo, spider web has a tan! and looked like he was promenading down the French Riviera, they looked amazing, its all change in horrors land, (i actually really hope they win)....

What else has happened in machine world, went tocampbestival, played opposite a castle, me and Isabella in matching floaty white dresses, looking like members of a cult. We looked like something out of the wicker man, hung out with my family, at Durdle door the next day, it was so beautiful, i felt like i was in lord of the rings, saw Bon Iver and Pj Harvey, both equally beautiful, ....xx Pj Harvey was mind blowing, xxx.....all in all a beautiful time had by all.......x

IBIZA ROCK.AND ROCK AND ROCK......x so much fun, dancing in tie die and gold hotpants, had to resist the idea of jumping in the pool from the stage, sound all cut out, but audience sing along saved the day!......relaxed on the bottom of the pool pretending to be drowned looking up at the surface of the water, very peaceful.....

Back in London town, no longer drowned, ..... Preparing for tour, listening obsessively to the Xx album, it’s heartbreakingly good.

See you all in the wilderness, love and bloody feet.......peace.....x

Annie Mac's Mash-Up

Interview
Click Here To Download Audio

Mini-Mix
Click Here To Download Audio

Thanks To rabbitheartedgirl On The Official F+TM Forum!

Interview

Home is... Camberwell in South London. It's where I grew up and went to art college. I still live round there with my sister. It's a very creative and eclectic place.
Have you been away recently? I went to Malibu with my boyfriend where we stayed in my uncle's Airstream trailer; and I went to Aldeburgh in Suffolk for the weekend to visit my auntie and uncle who live by the beach, but I don't have time for holidays really.
What was the last gig you saw? Beirut at The Forum. It was such a beautiful show. I have covered their songs before. I love them.
What are your secret London addresses?Rough Trade in Notting Hill for great old and new music. Beyond Retro in Bethnal Green for amazing vintage clothes. Riverside Bookshop at London Bridge because my boyfriend works there, so I just go and hang out. Scope, the charity shop near where I live, is great for the odd bargain, and I love Columbia Road Flower Market.
What's the best meal you've had in London? Sushi at Ten Ten Tei on Brewer Street. It's a tiny place in Soho and does the best Japanese food in London. Me and my best friend always go there for sashimi and green tea when we're trying to be healthy.
What is your earliest London memory?Climbing the trees in my local park, Myatt's Fields, when I was about nine years old. The willow tree was the evil tree and the mulberry tree was the good tree. It was great for climbing, and you could eat the mulberries in summer. I spent a lot of time in that tree.
What would be on your tombstone? Without hope, and without despair.
What are you most afraid of? Death, or the death of a loved one.
What are your guilty pleasures? Commercial dance music. I love old Madonna songs - 'Over and Over' is amazing - but also Calvin Harris, Eric Prydz and Dizzee Rascal. I love that track 'Bonkers', it's really good for dancing around my bedroom to.
What would you do as Mayor for the day? Throw random street parties all over town.
What is your life philosophy? Jump into things headfirst.
What animal would you most like to be? A tiger - it was my favourite animal when I was a kid - but maybe I should be a nightingale who sings in the dark and flies away. I would love to have wings, but I also like tigers because they are the only big cats that like to swim, and I love swimming.
What was the last album you bought?Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective - it's amazing.
What would you save from a fire? My notebooks. They have all my lyrics in them and all my drawings and things I have collected. They are so personal I would be devastated if they were lost.
What makes you laugh? The Mighty Boosh. It's so bizarre, but it cracks me up.
What makes you cry? A lot of things. I cry all the time.
What are you up to at the moment? Touring my album Lungs.
Which London street do you like to shop on? Brick Lane. It's always nice to wander down there on a Sunday and see all the kids selling on the clothes they bought the other day; the whole street basically turns into a gigantic swap shop.
Who's your hero? Grace Slick, who was the lead singer of Jefferson Airplane. She had such an amazing voice; her song 'White Rabbit' changed my life.
What do you like to wear? My clown suit. I wore it all last Glastonbury and it reminds me of fun times.
What's the best place for a romantic date in London? Loungelover bar in Shoreditch. It's all velvet and subtle glamour. It's next to Les Trois Garçons, which I also like to go to. Loungelover is an amazing place filled with taxidermy and loads of handbags hanging from the ceiling, very ornate but quite like a junk shop.
What's your favourite London club? Smash & Grab at Proud Camden on a Thursday. I've played there and it's a really good night out.
Have you ever stolen anything? Erm... not recently, I've lost loads of stuff, though.
Florence + the Machine's debut album Lungs is out now

Florence's Birthday

Incase you didn't know Florence's birthday is on the 28th of August.

Florence Links

Website: http://www.florenceandthemachine.net/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/florenceandthemachine
Bebo: http://www.bebo.com/Florence-machine
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=florence+and+the+machine&n=-1&k=400000000010&sf=r&init=srp#/florenceandthemachine?ref=search
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_and_the_machine
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Flo_Tweet

Interview

Fresh from a filming session at Abbey Road studios, Florence Welch is in a chirpy mood.
She has good reason to be – her album has debuted in the charts at No.2 and, alongside La Roux, she's fast becoming the face of British music in 2009.Yet it seems the 22-year-old south Londoner has herself been somewhat taken aback by the speed of her rise from indie poster girl to mainstream star."I'm just pleased to have made an album in itself," she says. "It's a strange feeling (sitting behind Michael Jackson in the charts), but it's like I never expected to be an artist. I've never had a single in the top 10. To go in at such a high chart position, it's quite amazing. It's an abstract thing. These things are not real."The most striking feature of Lungs is, of course, Florence's voice. Big and bold, with an impressive range, it's well equipped for the high drama of songs such as Kiss With a Fist and Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up).Indeed the whole album sounds very much like a statement of intent. "I think so," Florence agrees. "It was like I wanted to make something that was beautiful and dark at the same time – also I wanted to make something epic, something that had an intensity to it. I did just want to make something massive."Critics have noted the influences of Kate Bush, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the Pre-Raphaelites on Lungs. For Florence, though, the main inspiration was "not being able to play a musical instrument"."My main influence is being a completely inept musician," she says self-effacingly. "I think the whole album is about learning to make music bit by bit, going from instinct rather than from any training."The songs themselves evolved over the last couple of years through live performance. Now, at last, she feels she's finally got them nailed. "It's good. I feel like I've finally got something solid. Now we are evolving them from the album."Playing live we were finding different ways of getting them across. You can't do it exactly the same way as it is on the album. Before, we did the songs differently each time. There was no set version. Now the album is done we are having to learn them again."It's all quite shambolic, really," she laughs. "We just throw everything at it and see what sticks."But success in the music industry often brings attendant pressure to do things in a certain way, particularly when you're working for a major label. Florence hopes she can maintain her creative independence. "Hopefully I think I will just carry on being as useless a musician as possible and carry on making things based on instinct rather than training. Eventually I will be able to play something well but following your gut instinct with music is the most important thing, following what feels natural rather than any kind of stricture."Lungs's success – 100,000 copies in the UK and counting – has also thrown the spotlight on Florence's boyfriend, Stuart. Many of the songs were written in repsonse to the break-up of their relationship. Does it feel strange singing them now they're back together? "He prefers me not to talk about it. It's funny then singing about it. It's easier to hide things talking about them rather than singing about them..."It's kind of complicated," she muses. "What relationship isn't complicated?"Despite her newfound musical fame, Florence remains something of an artist at heart. Her mother, Evelyn, is a professor of art history, specialising in the Italian Renaissance, and Florence herself studied at Camberwell College of Arts. "I'm always drawing," she says. "I've got such a frantic brain. If I'm not producing something I go inward and have negative thoughts. The way out of things spiralling is to do something, whether it's drawing or a piece of music. You feel like you are saving yourself from the encroaching doom."Besides, Florence's creative sides regularly cross-pollinate. "When I was growing up, going to art college parties, performance and art was an important thing," she says. "Making shapes with my body on stage is important. I'm always thinking about what I'm doing. I'm either taking off or being dredged up."Fans can look forward to another of her famous stage dives when she appears at Leeds Festival on Sunday, August 30. "I f***ing hope so!" she says. "That would be fun. I love crowd-surfing. I was too scared to do it when I was like a little punk. Now I'm older I'm a bit more adventurous."Following in the wake of Florence's eye-catching performance at Glastonbury, it's expected to be another highlight in what is turning out to be a memorable 12 months. Did she think, back in February when she won the Critics' Choice Award at the Brits, that 2009 was going to turn out to be her year?"I don't know. It was more nerve-wracking than anything else. I felt out of my depth. You can never tell the way things are going to go. No-one can tell the shape of their fate. You have to sink or swim. Hopefully I'm swimming."With another gong possibly in the offing – Florence and the Machine are the bookies' favourites for this year's Mercury Prize – many would say she's right.Tickets for Leeds Festival and Florence and the Machine's gig at Leeds O2 Academy on September 21 have sold out.

Florence + Her Style Machine

Launched in the wee small hours last night, the new promo for Florence and the Machine’s 'Drumming Song' sees the flame-haired Amazonian singer invade a church in London’s Spitalfield with a troupe of dancers dressed for sin. Drawing inspiration from Ken Russell’s film The Devils and the 1947 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger collaboration Black Narcissus, Shadforth and Johnson have created a stylised conflict of good versus evil set to the thumping beat and angelic harmonies provided by Florence’s soaring melodies.

With a previous list of credits that includes Peaches zombie-fest Kick It, the bells and black lunar landscape of Bjork’s Who Is It? and Kylie’s futuristic street racer Can’t Get You Out of My Head, Shadforth’s justly earned her reputation as the reigning British music video Queen. Johnson first hooked up with Florence back in February to style the album cover for her debut release Lungs, and has since developed the creative relationship working on the sun drenched last supper themed vid for 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)'.

Dazed Digital communed with Shadforth and Johnson to chat disco gargoyles and devil claws.

Dazed Digital: The style of this latest video is a big departure from the sundrenched hippies-in-a-field vibe the band have gone with on their previous releases. What was the thinking behind giving Florence a more refined and glamorous look?
Dawn Shadforth: It wasn’t really a conscious decision to go for a more polished style. I suppose there was more backing from the label this time so the production value could be higher than before which meant we could shoot on film. I really wanted the budget to go on screen so we decided to find an awe inspiring location and spend money on that and the dancing and styling. Low budget videos tend not to have grandeur and scale, its not something you see much of these days. The track is so massive sounding I wanted to shoot in an epic, grand, place to match the scale of the track.

DD: What were your main creative and artistic considerations on this project?
Dawn Shadforth: I’d seen YouTube clips of Florence performing live and noticed she has this amazing energy while at the same time being very elegant and expressive with those amazing long arms and legs. She can really move and dance and seems very unselfconscious as a performer. First and foremost I just wanted to show that in a video.
I spoke to Florence and she said that she wanted to dance and love dance routines in videos so we went for it on that front. We also talked about playing on the lyrics which have a kind of gospel feel and I mentioned the video for Like a Prayer as a reference. We wanted to play with the sort of evangelical feel and mess around with the idea of demonic possession or people speaking in tongues in church. We also looked a Baroque paintings for movement ideas, dramatic posturing.
In the treatment I wrote two characters who corresponded roughly with the two personalities in the song. The music seems to express a tension between fear and lust so I wanted to explore that through performance and dance rather than any narrative or drama.
Aldene & Hannah Marshall, the designer, had the challenge of finding a look for these two characters while keeping a sort of pop-meets-fashion edge to it. I didn’t want it to feel like Florence was in costume. I loved it when we came up with the idea of the short habit with the gold spangly knickers underneath.
In my treatment for the video I had this idea for a beautiful disco gargoyle, a description that Florence loved. She was supposed to look a bit like a demon or a gargoyle from a medieval church, but a very disco glam version who dances! She's kind of the brave fearsome wanton side, ferocious and animalistic. At the same time she’s also a kind of Lucifer figure, a fallen angel. It’s all supposed to be a very tongue in cheek of course. I really think Aldene & Hannah took that idea and made it into an amazing costume. I couldn't have been happier with what they came up with.

DD: How did you get involved in the project Aldene?
Aldene Johnson: A mutual friend hooked Florence and I up back in February to work on her album cover and this is the second video we've worked on together. I just really get her style it's not like work at all. This was the first time I've worked with Dawn though. Everyone in this business knows who she is - working with her just seems to take everyone's work to another level.

DD: What was your route into styling?
Aldene Johnson: I was working in advertising as a junior and my art director at the time said I had a good eye and recommended I start styling, back then I didn't even know that was a job! I've been styling videos for the last two years and I've shot for Mexican mags Baby Baby Baby, Celeste and I'm VICE's UK Fashion Editor.

DD: What was your brief on this one?
Aldene Johnson: The brief was good versus evil, which is always a lot fun. The words disco gargoyle were bandied around a lot too! My job has always been developing Florence's style so I took what she had already and showed her how much further she could take it with some killer Raphael Young and Charlotte Olympia heels, a great Hannah Marshall dress or seven and some Dominic Jones claws.

DD: What attracted you to Hannah's designs?
Aldene Johnson: There's a lot of black which is always good for evil for a start. Hannah's designs combine strong sexy geometrical shapes and masses of fabric giving that movement that looks so dramatic on film.

DD: What were the main challenges for you on this project?
Aldene Johnson: I was on my way back from Cape Town when I found out about the shoot and I knew I'd only have a week to turn it around. On top of that I knew I wanted all the outfits for Florence and the good and evil backing dancers to be designed by Hannah and myself and made to spec. Oh, and there was a face mask that that had to make it to London from Manish Arora's archive in Delhi on time. There was a lot of working right through the night involved.

Dawn Shadforth is represented in the UK and USA by Black Dog Films

My T4 On The Beach Pictures