Supersonic Festival have shared the final line up of artists added to the special 15th year anniversary edition taking place this year, which already includes headliners Neurosis supported by Godflesh opening the festivities with a very special concert at Town Hall Birmingham. Following in the footsteps of Black Sabbath who played the historic venue themselves many years ago (further info below on Home of Metal‘s incredible Black Sabbath – 50 Years exhibition celebrating their legacy which will be open during the Festival weekend) Performing elsewhere across the weekend, and over at the main festival site in the cultural hub of Digbeth are: Anna Von Hausswolff, Mono, Yob, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, plus a special collaboration between The Bug Feat. Moor Mother to name a few.
Supersonic will be partnering with Eastside Projects art gallery incorporating Monster Chetwynd‘s large-scale installation Hell Mouth 3 as this years third stage with live acts including Apostille, Guttersnipe, Paddy Steer, Valve, Victim and Water. In addition the gallery will play host to two special Do.om yoga sessions: a workout with Henge performing the live soundtrack and a Doombath Gong Meditation. Monster Chetwynd’s installation Hell Mouth 3 at Eastside Projects is part of the wider Home Of Metal season of exhibitions and events curated and produced by Capsule – the good people behind Supersonic Festival
Monster Chetwynd’s fascination with Penelope Spheeri’s three-part film series ‘The Decline of Western Civilisation’, from 1981 to 1998, featuring many of the ‘most influential and innovative musicians and groups of all time’, has informed many of her works over the past decade and will take centre stage in this large-scale sculptural and performative spectacle set in the industrial space of Eastside Projects in the heart of Birmingham. Monster Chetwynd (aka Spartacus Chetwynd and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd) is a British artist, based in Glasgow, known for re-workings of iconic moments from cultural history in elaborate, compulsive and evocative performances. Chetwynd’s practice intertwines performance, sculpture, painting, installation and video, incorporating elements of folk plays, street spectacles, and popular culture.
Also during Supersonic Festival, patrons are encouraged to explore the Home of Metal programme which is devoted to the music that was born in Birmingham and the Black Country. Music that turned up the volume, down tuned guitars and introduced a whole new meaning to the word ‘heavy’. Black Sabbath – 50 Years at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, a blockbuster exhibition that explores the bands 50 year legacy and their relationship to their global fan base with iconic artefacts and treasured personal items on loan from all four original band members.
Alan Kane: 4 Bed Detached Home of Metal at The New Art Gallery Walsall. This replica four-bedroom house recreates the bedrooms of some of Metal’s most devoted super fans, incorporating a ‘Metal Lounge’ which features new work from Una Hamilton Helle and Mark Titchner, as well as contemporary artists Jeremy Deller, Des Hughes, Jim Lambie, Sarah Lucas, Jessica Mallock, Mike Nelson, Simon Periton, David Shrigley, Hayley Tompkins, Cathy Ward, Charlie Woolley and, of course, Alan Kane himself.
All This Mayhem at MAC (Midlands Art Centre). US artist Ben Venom uses traditional quilting and Heavy Metal aesthetics to create textile-based pieces which contrast the counterculture components of gangs, punk/metal music and the occult with the comforts of domesticity.
Hand of Doom at MAC (Midlands Art Centre), features a collection of portraits of Black Sabbath fans wearing the ubiquitous battle jacket. The jackets are embellished, handmade and embroidered by the fans themselves, and worn to tell the story of their fandom and gig-attending history.
Przemek Branas at Centrala, 22 June to 11 August. Branas, an award-winning and acclaimed Polish artist, presents an archival and research based exhibition, featuring materials, such as letters, cassette tapes and zines, collected by Polish fans at a time when Heavy Metal music was banned in Poland.
Details of the full line up of new additions below:
Apostille
Apostille is a man who’s torn through enough sound-systems to know the difference between gesture and meaning. Alongside running his own DIY record label, Glasgow native, Michael Kasparis has continued to evolve his manic expositions in electronic pop. At once minimal and courageous with intent to connect, Apostille songs race off with unchecked abandon, skittering drum machines, thick walls of sequenced synth and decidedly elastic basslines.
WWW.APOSTILLE.BANDCAMP.COM
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Guttersnipe
Drawing from an oblivion of influences from noise rock acts such as AIDS Wolf and Fat Worm of Error to the nihilistic openness of power-electronic pioneers including Philip Best, Guttersnipe’s songwriting is impossible to pin down. The popularity of the drug grew very quickly. It skitters from one irrational idea to the next like some piece of absurdist theatre. And yet through all the hideous racket they create, their stage pseudonyms suggest a greater creative purpose than just making noise for noise sake
WWW.GUTTERSNIPE.BANDCAMP.COM
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Paddy Steer
Paddy is a Zelig-like character along the timeline of Manchester’s musical activity. His live performances err more daringly and admirably on the frontier of chaotic abstraction, expression and focussed blunder, dice rolling down the hill in case of duende, as from behind his stacked array of instruments, the anarchically intrepid punk gargles through a vocoder with his xylophone, all a-clatter under disco lights and doilies.
WWW.PADDYSTEER.BANDCAMP.COM
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V Ä L V Ē
What is V Ä L V Ē? Folk lullabies re-imagined by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Found-sound collages interrupted by Welsh language orations and sudden outbursts of fuzz bass. Gleaming synthpop workouts that collapse into swirling dreamscapes of sax and harp. Tiny sounds opening out onto the epic. Hi-tech and no-tech, deployed with equal measures of discipline and abandon. Carefully sculpted disorder. Uncanny geometries of noise and melody. Dizzy and gleeful and drawn in notebooks.
That is V Ä L V Ē
WWW.VALVEMUSIC.BANDCAMP.COM
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Victim
VICTIM ARE A HEAVY METAL BAND. VICTIM FOUNDED IN LONDON ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY EIGHT AND LIVE SINCE TWO THOUSAND AND THREE. VICTIM ARE CAR CRASH (DRUMS/VOCALS) PUB FIGHT (GUITARS/VOCALS) AND IRON FIST (GUITARS/VOCALS).
WWW.ONLINEVICTIM.COM
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Water
Formed in Manchester, Water are a heady mix of artists, poets and musicians who’ve come together to create encounters which engulf the senses. Water have left audiences with a feeling of being part of something magical, intense and sometimes bewildering, but always powerful.
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Do.omyoga
Do.omyoga (Kamellia Sara) returns to Supersonic bringing together music and movement with stillness to create an immersive meditation. Offering 2 different workshops on the Saturday and Sunday of the festival this year. Suitable for all levels, especially beginners.
Saturday 21 July: Do.omyoga Live – with special live soundtrack from Henge
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DAY LINE-UPS:
Friday – Town Hall opening concert featuring Neurosis and Godflesh + the after party with live performances by Big Lad, Hey Colossus, Savage Realm and Yob
Saturday – The Bug feat Moor Mother, AJA, Apostille, Big Joanie, Blanket, CZN, Daniel Higgs, Faten Kanaan, Hen Ogledd, HHY & The Macumbas, Matters, Prison Religion and The Body, Water, Valve
Sunday – Anna Von Hausswolff, Mono, Air Loom: Sarah Angliss with Stephen Hiscock and Sarah Gabriel, Body/Vice, Dälek, Guttersnipe, Haress, Jerusalem In My Heart, Paddy Steer, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Sly and the Family Drone Big Band and World Zero with The Seer and UKAEA, Victim
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Last remaining Day tickets are on sale here: www.supersonicfestival.com
“So many great memories of Supersonic Festival….First and most obviously a festival with extraordinary good taste, and killer line ups, run by Lisa and a group of passionate women, with music and not fashion/money as their god. Highly unusual in the general scheme of festivals where it tends to be male organised commercial rinse outs, or hipster pose-athons.”
– KEVIN MARTIN, THE BUG
“I am honoured to admit that I have played or contributed to this wonderful adventure almost every year for the last 15 years… As a Supersonic “veteran” I have never lost enthusiasm for what this festival entails. A real cultural hub for healthy fun, fantastic art and a sense of community second to none. It’s safe to say that Lisa and her incredible loyal team have a knack for booking the most interesting sonic adventures from around the globe for the festival, filling the city of Birmingham with sublime music for 3 days. One of the best summer festivals in the UK” – VALENTINA MAGALETTI, TOMAGA
“Since its inception, Supersonic in Birmingham has collectively supported all my projects and countless others; it has been an inspiration in representing underground music in all of its colours. The second Godflesh reformation performance was at Supersonic, and of course was probably the best performance Godflesh ever played in their birth city! This performance also inspired us to progress with the band after a disappointing and fruitless initial reunion show. The underground music landscape, not just the Midlands but the whole of the UK, would suffer greatly without Supersonic. It has been central to the scene for many years, and I hope for many more to come….” – JUSTIN K BROADRICK