New Music Festivals
Vintage Festival

From soul legends, 60s icons and electronic pioneers to re-creations of the decadent discotheques of the 70s and the northern soul mecca of Wigan Casino (complete with authentically sticky carpet) via 1940s jive and incendiary 50s rock ‘n’ roll…

Vintage at Southbank Centre offers an un-missable three-day trip through seven decades of music and style

Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway bring their award-winning Vintage, UK’s Best New Festival as voted for in the 2010 Festival Awards, to Southbank Centre from 29 – 31 July 2011 as part of the Festival of Britain 60th anniversary celebrations with MasterCard.

Over three days and nights, Vintage at Southbank Centre sees the Royal Festival Hall dressed up as never before. The iconic riverside building will be transformed into a multi-venue playground where, over 13 hours each day (from 12pm to 1am and midnight on Sunday), pass holders can learn the dances of the decades, take in over seventy live performances (including three themed multi-artist ‘revues’ in the Royal Festival Hall) boogie along to the tunes of an incredible 150 DJs, enjoy exclusive catwalk shows and decade specific make-overs and sample Vintage food and cocktails.

While the Royal Festival Hall Cafe is transformed into a North/South divide pub; The Clore Ballroom will re-create the sights, sounds and smells of Wigan Casino in the late 1970s and the basement provides a suitably industrial location for an 80s-style rave. Elsewhere though the building will be rooms dedicated to 1940s swing; 1950s rock ‘n’ roll; 1960s pop; the disco era of Studio 54 and iconic London clubs Le Beat Route, Blitz and Wag Club. Beyond offering what is arguably the world’s best-ever excuse for dressing up, Vintage at Southbank Centre boasts a cracking line up of music from across seven decades.

Vintage Music Highlights include:

• ‘Soul Revue’ – featuring Percy Sledge, Booker T, Gwen Dickie of Rose Royce and more artists tbc
• ‘Electronic Phuture’ – featuring Thomas Dolby, Alan Wilder from Depeche Mode and the hotly-tipped 80s-inspired Mirrors
• ‘Hit Parade’ – 60 years of Great British hits performed by Sandie Shaw, David McAlmont and more guests to be confirmed
• ‘Let It Rock’ – a jumping joint dedicated to 50s rock ‘n’ roll culture with DJ sets from Jay Strongman and live music from The Jim Jones Review and Big Joe Louis
• 150 DJs incl. Norman Jay, Greg Wilson, Craig Charles, A Guy Called Gerald, Andrew Weatherall and Charity Shop DJ
• ‘Soundtrack of Their Lives’ – catwalk shows with Jo Wood, Pearl & Daisy Lowe and Sue Tilley

Wayne Hemingway, said: “Vintage at Southbank Centre will be a glamorous and cool antidote to festivals in a field, the emphasis being on head-turning style. Whether your thing is swing, rockabilly, mod, soul, funk, disco, ska, film, art or design, or if you just want to dress up and get an authentic make-over for a day, Vintage at Southbank Centre is a sensual delight, a big dressing-up box, a collector’s dream and joyous creative feast.”

Each evening during the three-day Vintage festival the Royal Festival Hall’s main auditorium will host a differently themed Vintage Revue – with some of the world’s iconic performers coming together with contemporary talent to create a one-off genre-specific revue. Friday’s Electronic Phuture (29 July) sees performances by electronic pioneers Thomas Dolby, Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode and Heaven 17, alongside hotly tipped new act Mirrors; on Saturday the Soul Revue (30 July) will present an array of soul legends, including the only UK appearance of legendary Atlantic Records icon Percy Sledge, plus Gwen Dickie of Rose Royce and Booker T performing soul classics with an orchestral backing. Sunday’s Hit Parade (31 July) will celebrate British hits from the past seven decades, re-imagined and performed by an array of guest vocalists, including Sandie Shaw and David McAlmont.

Throughout each day and evening, the Royal Festival Hall will play host several Vintage nightclubs, immersing visitors in the dance and club scenes of seven decades of British cool. Each club venue will offer free dance lessons led by professional instructors so visitors can learn the Foxtrot, Jive, a Northern Soul backdrop or whatever gets them grooving, before trying out the moves in the Vintage clubs. With stylists and barbers on hand, ticket holders will also be able to get free decade-specific hair and beauty makeovers. The venues will not only transport visitors to the music and style of the decades, but also – via their taste buds –  to the eating and drinking habits of days gone by with authentically conceived Vintage food and cocktails served throughout the day and evening.

Vintage Club highlights include:

• Style Studio pays homage to some of the greatest 70s Disco clubs and club DJs there ever were with guest sets by Greg Wilson, Horse Meat Disco, Disco Bloodbath, The Revenge and Joey Negro.
• The Torch offers an unrivalled weekend of 1930s and 1940s entertainment, including The Jive Aces who will be launching their new album at Vintage at Southbank Centre; the UK debut of the Czechoslovakian swing sensation Ondrej Havelka & His Melody Makers; and Glenn Miller’s nephew directing the 18-piece The John Miller Swing Band.
• The Warehouse celebrates the origins of 80s rave culture in a previously unused space deep in the bowels of Southbank Centre with DJ sets by Norman Jay, Terry Farley, Andrew Weatherall and A Guy Called Gerald.
• Let It Rock explores the unpredictable journey of 50s Rock ‘n Roll culture with live music from The Jim Jones Revue and Jools Holland favourite Big Joe Louis, as well as DJ sets from Jay Strongman and award-winning Lady Luck Club.
• Soul Casino recreates the sounds, style and smells of the classic club scenes from Wigan Casino and the Blackpool Mecca Ballrooms with DJ sets by Craig Charles, Colin Curtis and Andy Smith.

Other highlights of the Vintage wonderland experience in the Royal Festival Hall include Soundtrack of Their Lives catwalk shows with Jo Wood, Pearl & Daisy Lowe and Leigh Bowery and Lucien Freud muse Sue Tilley, presenting their personal take on the fashion and music that has inspired their lives and careers; the North / South Divide Pub featuring pub-themed happenings encouraging friendly rivalry between Northern and Southern festival goers, with music and entertainment from The Voguettes, Bip Ling and Jonny Woo’s Gay Bingo Crew; creative Vintage workshops ranging from ‘make do and mend’ and screen printing, to 20s style hat trimming and pom-pom making; a journey Down the Back of the Sofa with Charity Shop DJ and Derby Museum, featuring a specially built set from our inglorious domestic pasts with record players and radios, gramophones and ghetto blasters, Smash Hits and broken Action Men, and music courtesy of our charity shops; and two Vintage restaurants, Skylon, which is getting a 20s Cabaret-style makeover, and a new dining experience in the Royal Festival Hall overlooking the The Clore Ballroom.

Outside, between the Hungerford Bridge and Jubilee Gardens, ticket holders will be able to get exclusive access to the Vintage Marketplace from 10am, an hour before it opens to the general public. The Vintage Marketplace assembles over 250 of the finest purveyors of vintage clothes and accessories, as well as mid-century modern homewares, records and music memorabilia and up-cycled ephemera. Other Vintage attractions across the Southbank Centre site include pop-up hair & make-up parlours and catwalk shows, including the Best in Show Parade, where the most fashion-savvy festival goers, as spotted by the Vintage style hunters, will gather for a one-off parade; The Chap Olympiad, Britain’s most eccentric sporting event, where you can enjoy umbrella jousting and sandwich tossing; the Peter Blake CCA Art Bus, a mobile art work and art gallery by legendary Sir Peter Blake; the worst art ever made in the Bad Art Salon; sound systems and live music across the site, including the final stage of the Mayor’s Rhythm of London Busking competition; and a 3-day extravaganza of 20th century film classics, iconic TV with free screenings of The Avengers and a Vintage Bus, which will present a complementary programme with the BFI Southbank, curated by director Stephen Woolley. The BFI weekender will focus on the loveable British rogue, with films starring Terry Thomas, Alec Guinness and Oliver Reed; and from behind the camera Ken Russell will present screening of The Devils and Tommy.

The award-winning Vintage concept, developed by the Hemingway family and the Hemingway Design team, was launched in August 2010 at the highly acclaimed Vintage at Goodwood event. It is one of a number of differently-themed weekends as part of Southbank Centre’s Festival of Britain 60th anniversary celebrations with MasterCard (22 April to 4 September 2011), a four-month long festival paying homage to the landmark 1951 Festival and the South Bank Exhibition, situated on what is now Southbank Centre.

Vintage at Southbank Centre, Friday 29 – Sunday 31 July 2011
www.vintageatsouthbankcentre.co.uk

Listen to the Vintage Timeline Mix 
http://soundcloud.com/vintagefestival/a-vintage-timeline-mix-by-six