Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2010

Last week, 10th Nov 07:00

The Maccabees

The infamous Shockwaves NME Awards Tour is ready to rock as The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink and The Drums all hit the road to greatness. Mould breaking indie band, The Maccabees will headline the hotly anticipated annual tour with Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink and The Drums completing the stellar line-up which kicks off in Newcastle on 4 February 2010.

Joining the line-up for The Shockwaves NME Awards Tour is a sure sign that big things are about to happen and it’s set to be one hell of a show.  Bringing together the cream of the rock music crop, with hotly tipped art-rockers The Maccabees; Bombay Bicycle Club’s folky-punk, but still rocky sound; electric rock duo The Big Pink and finally, The Drums with their updated take on 50’s surf-rock. In short, anyone who likes their rock, in whatever form, will not be disappointed.

The tour has always been a fizzingly fertile breeding ground for breaking the best new talent with the likes of Ting Tings, Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys, The Cribs, Bloc Party and The Killers having graced previous rosters. As a new decade dawns, NME is once again proud to present four of the most hotly tipped bands for the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2010.

Highly acclaimed south London based five piece The Maccabees are already a firm favourite on the festival circuit and are currently enjoying the success of their second album, Wall Of Arms. After building a huge following over the past three years they are one of the best home-grown indie rock bands to emerge in the UK. The band are ready to wow their most devoted crowd to date with this headline slot on the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour.  

Felix White, Lead singer of The Maccabees said: "We understand the legacy of this tour....The old NME tours years ago, if I missed one I'd think shit, I'm never going to see that again. So that's a nice thing to be a part of. It looks like a good tour to me... we're as lucky as anyone to be on it. As far as upping our game, we understand the kind of bands who have headlined before. The kind of calibre those groups are, we've got to reach that".

Next on the bill are industry darlings Bombay Bicycle Club who released their first album I had the Blues but I Shook them Loose earlier this year to rave reviews.  After a spellbinding set at Glastonbury and supporting The Pixies, the band are now set to bring their unique sound to audiences across the UK as part of the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour putting them on the road to even bigger success.

Following them are The Big Pink, the band who sing about love “love for everything” they proclaim.  The duo, Milo Cordell and Robbie Furze, have already won the prestigious NME Philip Hall Radar Award for best new act and have just released their debut album, A Brief History Of Love.

Grabbing the opening slot, once filled by Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand, and often seen as the most coveted are The Drums.  The New York based band recently played their first ever UK show to a packed and highly excitable crowd in London and so cemented their arrival as major new talents and one to watch in 2010.  Set to release their new single, I Felt Stupid, in December the band are an exciting addition to the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2010 line-up.

The Shockwaves NME Awards Tour has become a legendary starting block for bands on the road to greatness, having booked (at the time) mere unknowns such as Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers and Kaiser Chiefs, who all went on to become the biggest and most critically acclaimed bands of the year.
 
SHOCKWAVES NME AWARDS TOURS 2010

Thursday 4th – Newcastle O2 Academy
Friday 5th – Glasgow Barrowland
Saturday 6th – Manchester Academy
Sunday 7th – Leeds O2 Academy
Tuesday 9th – Nottingham Rock City
Wednesday 10th – Norwich UEA
Thursday 11th – Birmingham O2 Academy
Saturday 13th – Cardiff University
Sunday 14th – Bristol O2  Academy
Monday 15th – Brighton Dome
Tuesday 16th – Bournemouth O2 Academy
Thursday 18th – Portsmouth Pyramid
Friday 19th – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Saturday 20th – Brixton O2  Academy