The Dance Stage @ Leeds & Reading - Full Line-up

With a host of top names across four stages already announced for this year’s Reading and Leeds Festival, promoters Festival Republic are proud to announce the full line-up for this year’s Dance Stage. Topped by the hottest name in dance music at the current time and with a wealth of talent throughout, this is yet another fantastic addition to what is without question the festival line-up of 2009.

 

The Dance Stage takes place at The Leeds Festival on Saturday 29^th August and at The Reading Festival on Sunday 30^th August.

 

The full line-up is as follows

 

His name may conjure up images of a lifeless rodent, but this Canadian born self confessed techno geek punches like a heavyweight.  DEADMAU5  is a new breed of electronic dance music star. Having had a meteoric rise in the last 18 months, he has gone from near obscurity to becoming the most in demand producer on the face of the planet, an innovative electronic live performer and the number one selling artist on Beatport (the world's leading online dance music store). With a live stage show that is pushing the envelope of dance music performances as we know it, not least his trademark tailor made giant Mau5head and a host of awards to his name DEADMAU5 is a guaranteed show stopping headline for this year’s Dance Stage.

 

Do you know VITALIC? Already many do. To those who love his music, his unique sound, he's the pleasure provider: the ultimate rush, the greatest high, the invincible metal disco warrior. With his debut four-song 'Poney EP', first released in late 2001, VITALIC tore through dancefloors across the world like the Wagner of rave. An original and fearless new talent, it was clear from the start that Pascal Arbez, the Frenchman behind VITALIC, was not just another dance producer, but a visionary artist whose extraordinary music never fails to move people. With debut album ‘OK Cowboy’ in 2005, the incredible run of dancefloor fillers was joined by an exceptional long player and, with a new album imminent and these EXCLUSIVE ONLY UK FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES VITALIC continues to go from strength to strength with hit remixes and originals to the current time.

 

With their ‘Heartbreaker’ track ripping up the airwaves across the UK and Zane Lowe talking about the tune as ‘the sound of the summer right here…a bona fide hit’, MSTRKRAFT come to the twin sites as the hottest thing in dance music. The duo’s forthcoming album, Fist Of God was purposefully crafted for live performance with a self described intent to write ‘festival weapons , so when we play them, it’s like throwing a million hatchets into the audience’ Fist Of God and Heartbreaker are sure to propel the Canadian club dudes look all set to be the talk of the summer and a massive draw at the festivals.

 

Top Ten artists and Gods of the UK Drum and bass scene, CHASE AND STATUS will be taking to the stage for a very special DJ set that is sure to include tracks from their More Than A Lot debut album alongside the hottest cuts and scene classics.

 

 

Back in the studio and back in control, LADY SOVEREIGN’s forthcoming album, Jigsaw, is everything we have come to expect from a rapper whose unique flow and gutsy sensibility has already wowed hundreds upon thousands of fans all over the world. The album tells the rollercoaster story of her last two years with honesty, genre defying beats and punchy zest fresh lyrics. Sov is back, make sure you check these sets.

The godfathers of US Dance music, THE CRYSTAL METHOD came to the attention of the UK with their 1194 single, ‘Now Is The Time’. Over the years the duo have persistently reinvented their sound and acquired a well deserved reputation for thrilling live shows. Current album ‘Divided By The Night’ is regarded by critics as their best yet so expect legendary performances when the Los Angeles duo hit the twin sites.

 

Brighton three piece THE QEMISTS raise sonic standards with their heady amalgamation of drum n bass beats spliced viciously with searing rock effects. Reaching inception originally as a rock outfit, the trio generate plaudits for their bombastic DJ sets and have championed respect from veritable primates of the D'n'B kingdom: Mampi Swift, Andy C and many more. Firing on all cylinders prepare to be disarmed by live guitars, raw drums and amplified bass from the 3 Qemists; the brute force of this being yoked together by the vocal stylings of Jenna G + live MC!

 

DAS POP were formed a decade ago, in a school playground in Ghent, Belgium, bonding over a love of listening to and playing music. With a sound built around hooks big enough to tug down the BT Tower, the band's spirited guitar-pop is hummable, danceable and utterly infectious. Imagine a more chipper Strokes being produced by Joe Meek in Motown's Studio A and you're nearly there. Their epomymous debut album, produced by none other than Soulwax, delivers in all the right places and these shows are sure to do similar.

MIXHELL is Iggor and Laima Cavalera. Iggor was, from the age of 15 a member of world renowned rock act Sepultura and he fuses the intensity of his former band with dance music to create the unique live act that is MIXHELL. Pounding on drums live, tattoos and muscles bulging, Iggor incites the crowd, who, dancing all around him, becomes part of the show, turning the dance floor into a mosh pit. This is unlike any dance set you have seen before.

 

 

Fast becoming one of the breakthrough artists of the year, Chipmunk releases his hot-like-fire new single, ‘Diamond Rings’ on 6^th July. The follow up to ‘Chip Diddy Chip’ which smashed its way into the charts at the start of the year, Chipmunk’s new single is set to see him go supernova. 18 year old CHIPMUNK, who is currently revising for his A-Levels, is putting the finishing touches to his debut album ‘I AM…’ already one of the most feverishly anticipated debuts this year. With The Guardian called him the “wunderkid of British urban music” this is an early chance to see one of the UK’s future stars.

 

 

Straight off the streets of Ballerado, 3OH!3 comes outta the gate with high-class rhymes, low-brow beats and more party than the Bolshevik revolution. You don’t get more gangsta than Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte – two natives of Boulder, Colorado, the nation’s capital of hippies, hempwear and Hummers. Ever since they first connected over a mutual man-crush on Buck 65 in a University of Colorado physics class, 3OH!3 has been packing clubs and liberating libidos with their trademark blend of dirty synths and even dirtier come-ons.

 

 

MASTER SHORTIE – rapper, entrepreneur, samplemeister, indie/rap pioneer and musical trail-blazer - is a man who always gets what he wants. A self-made 19-year-old artist who simply doesn’t play by anyone’s rules but his own, Theo Kerlin has been recording raps off his own back and without any major label backing since he was 12 and is totally in charge of all of his own promotion, record releases, styling and marketing. Tipped in the BBC Sound of 2009 poll, it is little wonder that the SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE praised his mix of rap, ‘1980s synth pop, Brit-hop, funk, grime and techno’ in emphasising that all should ‘Watch this one’.

 

 

L’AMOUR L’AMOURGE, the DJ alter ego of a very well known artist elsewhere on the bill will be at the Dance Stage to entertain with a set crammed with intelligent electronica, exclusive mash ups and the odd surprise.