Editors, Basement Jaxx: Fatboy Slim to launch Oxjam gigs

Editors, Basement Jaxx, Just Jack and Fatboy Slim are among the acts announced to launch this year's Oxjam month of music, arranger have announced.The acts will play gigs in a secret Oxfam shop in London with a 150-person capacity in aid of the charity this September and October.VV Brown and Tony Allen are also set to play gigs to start the Oxjam month of music. The gigs will help kick off thousands of other fundraising music events to take place across the country in aid of Oxfam.The 2009 Oxjam month of music will climax on October 25, with the Oxjam Takeover, which will see more than 2000 musicians fill over 150 venues in more than 20 cities to raise funds for Oxfam. As well as raising money for Oxfam, this year's campaign will be focusing on climate change, with gig goers being encouraged to sign up to Oxfam's blue faces campaign. By encouraging people to paint their faces blue, the campaign aims to get the government to take action on mood change before it's too late.The following acts are confirmed to play Oxjam gigs so far:

VV Brown, Just Jack (September 28)

Tony Allen, Nitin Sawhney, Shlomo (29)

Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx (DJ set), Stereo MCs (DJ set) (30)

Editors, Good Shoes (October 1)

Tickets for the shows go on sale this Friday (September 4) from 9am.To look what Oxjam events are happening near you, head to Oxfam.org.uk/oxjam.To check the availability of Oxjam tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/TICKETS now, or call 0871 230 1094.
Editors tickets:
Sep 06, 2009 12:00 at Myrtle Park, Bingley - Buy from Seetickets
Oct 19, 2009 19:00 at Colston Hall, Bristol - Buy from Seetickets
Oct 21, 2009 19:30 at Hammersmith Apollo, London - Buy from Seetickets
More Editors tickets
See Editors play at an O2 Venue. Remember if you're on O2 you can get antecedence Tickets to The O2 and O2 Academy venues up to 48 hours before they go on general release. Register at o2.co.uk/priority. Terms apply.

Basement Jaxx Set to Reveal Their 'Scars'

There's a reason why Basement Jaxx has toured all summer without releasing its new album. It simply wasn't finished in time for the advised March release date last winter, and a UK tour and worldwide summer festival dates were already booked. "We've done nearly a year's worth of touring and now we've got to do it all again," Simon Ratcliffe jokingly tells Spinner. Indeed, the English accelerating house band's fifth record, 'Scars,' has a new release date of Oct. 6 and the duo begins another UK trek in December with its 12 piece touring band. For now, however, the pair -- Felix Buxton is the other member -- will mark Basement Jaxx's first American show since 2006 with a handful of DJ only dates running Oct. 30 Nov. 7.Despite the release hiccup, the tour was particularly successful, with Basement Jaxx playing main stages as far flung as Japan and, for the first time, South Korea. Ratcliffe and Buxton did a DJ gig there a group of years ago, but this was their first full on live performances. "It's surprising which songs are the most popular in change parts of the world," Ratcliffe says. "In Korea, we were warned that we had to play 'Hot 'n Cold' from our third album 'Kish Kash.' We don't play it commonly, it's not so well known, but over there everyone knows it." Apart from having a fun summer, Ratcliffe says the brilliant side to this pre-album release jaunt was finding audiences were still eager for the dynamic duo's funked up house music. Even new songs like just delivered leadoff single 'Raindrops' were lapped up. "The four songs we play from the album have been going down really well. That's the way it goes," he adds of this tour timing gaff, "you can't always plan these things."

THE BIG CHILL FESTIVAL 2009

We went down to Eastnor castle to catch Basement Jaxx and more...

The sun was shining over Eastnor castle this weekend for another great year at The Big Chill festival.
The position had grown for 2009 with The Funky Bison bar, Sailor Jims Rum bar and Mr Scruff’s very own tent adding to the list of places churning out non stop good music.

The ‘derelict drive in’ and film 4 canvas showing back to back movies, comedy sets from the likes of Noel Fielding and the Rankin live canvas all proved popular by the festival goers. While the beautiful weather added to a relaxed atmosphere in the days and performers and DJ’s upped the ante to create a great party atmosphere in the evening.

The main stage appeared bigger and better this year with Basement Jaxx, Orbital, David Bryne, Norman Jay and Hexstatic all treading it’s boards.

Basement Jaxx gave an energetic performance on Friday night kicking off the festival in true style with hits including Romeo, Where’s Your Head At? and new single Raindrops. David Bryne went down well, though his backing dancers nearly stole the show with their unique 80’s moves!

As usual Norman Jay’s annual Sunday set drew in the crowds and nicely bridged the gap between lazy afternoon chill out and a party warm up to set you up for the last evening’s proceedings.

One of the festivals highlights came on Sunday evening from king of audio visual sets Hexstatic who provided their usual ingenious mash up of sounds and sights! The London duo took their set to another level with live breakdancers, capeiro performers and a steel bridle on stage to accompany their classic Salvador mix.

Beat boxer Schlomo also made an electrifying performance battling the DJ’s with renditions of Dizzee Rascal’s Bonkers and Michael Jackson hits. And as if that wasn’t enough they also had a clip of Bert and Ernie singing M.O.P’s Ante up what more could you ask for!

The 2009 Big Chill was a huge success having provided great music, good food, beautiful surroundings and blazing sunshine….you can’t get much better than that!