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V Festival artist profiles

Bloom - 15 Jan 2008

Smashing Pumpkins

Having last toured Australia a decade ago and freshly reformed, THE SMASHING PUMPKINS remain the kings of elegiac, accomplished, ambitious alt-rock, with their best-selling albums "Siamese Dream" and "Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness" remaining the soundtracks for a generation. After some years pursuing other musical paths, founder members Billy Corgan and James Chamberlain burst back onto the scene with last year's Top 10 album 'Zeitgeist'. Joined on the road by Jeff Schroeder (guitar), Ginger Reyes (bass) and Lisa Harriton (keyboards) THE SMASHING PUMPKINS have performed the world over with true vigour, described by the Los Angeles Times as an "enveloping epic force" (Los Angeles Times). With a stunning light show and a set bursting with manic intensity, THE SMASHING PUMPKINS will not disappoint.

Duran Duran

Pop chameleons DURAN DURAN return to Australia to co-headline V Festival 2008. With an illustrious career spanning more than 25 years, a dozen studio albums and over 30 hit singles to their name, DURAN DURAN have remained a constant and relevant tour de force in the collective global pop consciousness. Bona fide smashes such as "Planet Earth', "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "Ordinary World" have been paired with groundbreaking music videos and the band (founding members Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Roger Taylor and John Taylor remaining at its core) became synonymous with the jet-set lifestyle. Their new album, the highly anticipated 'Red Carpet Massacre' features contributions from some of the hottest names in pop today, including Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. As a live concern DURAN DURAN are still one of the world's most in-demand and highest grossing bands. Last blowing Australian in minds with Robbie Williams in 2003, It's with great excitement that they bring their spectacular new live show to Australia.

Queens of the Stone Age

Hailing from Palm Springs, California, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE bring their pounding, riff-laden robot rock to the V Festival. Since their inception in 1996, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE have sold millions of records, developed a fanatical international following and whipped up multiple Grammy award nominations. Built on the cornerstone of founder member Josh Homme, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE'S roster has continuously and deliberately changed over the years to include the likes of rock luminaries such as Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl on drums and Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan on vocals. Across their six studio albums including the most recent 'Era Vulgaris' QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE have always reined supreme Down Under. With current killer line up including drummer Joey Castillo and guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, as well as Dean Fertita (keys) and Michael Schulman (bass) and having last slayed the country with their sell-out sonic assault in 2005, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE return to do it all over again at V Festival in 08.

The Jesus and Mary Chain

Brothers Jim and William Reid form the crux of THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, Scotland's original and finest proponents of white noise. Raised on a steady musical diet of The Velvet Underground, Beach Boys and Brille Building 60s pop welded into a cavalcade of punk attitude and screaming feedback with wall of noise guitar and caveman-esque drumming, THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN are the perfect pairing of bubblegum pop and formless guitar distortion. Through a career of over twenty years their many albums have produced iconic tracks such as "Just Like Candy", "You Trip Me Up", "Reverence" and "Sometimes Always". Flirting on the edges of mainstream success, and a profound influences on musicians as far reaching as My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr, THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN have always maintained an edge and a dangerous swagger to their live shows. Having reformed to appear at Coachella 2007 and on the back of sell out shows across the UK and Europe, THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN will set V Festival alight in a barrage of hot light and sound.

The Presets
Since emerging in 2003, Sydney's THE PRESETS (Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes) have rapidly ascended the ranks to become one of the world's most hotly tipped live acts. Their debut album, "Beams", produced a handful of bona fide club monsters, including "Are You The One?", "Down Down Down" and "I Go Hard, I Go Home", and their music became a constant on radio and TV all over Australia and beyond. In the last two years, THE PRESETS have honed their live show to perfection, the perfect mix of dance aesthetics with a wild, sweat soaked rock and roll energy, wowing the world over with over 300 performances at clubs and key festivals. With a new single, "My People" currently blitzing the airwaves, and their hotly anticipated follow up album to drop early next year, it seems that come V Festival time THE PRESETS will be truly hitting their stride Australia wide.

Air

Coming to Australia for the first time in their decade long career are AIR, masters of all things French atmospheric, and electronic. Since their breakthrough single, 'Sexy Boy', Nicolas_Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, have charmed and challenged in equal parts with a sound that points towards Moog and synthesizer of the 70s while reaching out towards the future. AIR have collaborated with more cool cats than you could shake a stick at including Beck, Jarvis Cocker (both V Festival 07 alumni), Francoise Hardy and Serge Gainsbourg. With a staggering array of synths and live set that builds and expands across their albums 'Moon Safari', 'The Virgin Suicides', '10,000 Hz Legend', 'Talkie Walkie' and 'Pocket Symphony', AIR will be sure to blow minds come March. AIR appearing only at the east coast V Festival shows.

CSS

CSS, aka Cansei de Ser Sexy (meaning "tired of being sexy" in Portuguese, a quote apparently lifted from Beyonce) seem anything but tired or un-sexy as they bring their raucous blend of fizzing, punked up electro-rock-dance to V Festival. Hailing from São Paulo, Brazil, CSS meld wild English and Portuguese lyrics to driving rhythms and a tightly-wound live show that has seen the band kick it at every major festival around the world. Now UK media darlings and world-famous for their absolute dance floor killer "Let's Make Love and Listen To Death From Above", CSS transcend borders of genre and geography. With their track "Music is My Hot, Hot Sex" picked up for the global iPod Touch commercial, expect to hear and see a helluva lot more of CSS in 2008.

Tough Alliance
Making their Australian live debut and hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden is THE TOUGH ALLLIANCE, electronic duo of dashing pop sensibilities. With three EPs and two albums already under their belt since 2003 inception, Henning Fürst and Eric Berglund have courted acclaim and scandal in their homeland for their stunning pop gems and left of centre live antics. With their most recent release, 'The New Waves' scoring an 8.00 on hipster online bible Pitchfork in the US, it seems the rest of the world is quickly catching up to THE TOUGH ALLLIANCE's unusual charms. Be the first to catch them in Australia at V Festival.

Plug In City
Melbourne 5 piece and recent Modular signings PLUG-IN CITY display a canny knack for instant timeless future pop. Urgent and rhythmic, PLUG-IN CITY match clanging guitars with bold vocal hooks, hypnotic bass lines with disco hi-hats. An icy detachment squares off with inviting warmth in the PLUG-IN CITY sound. In their short time since forming PLUG-IN CITY have held their own sharing stages with the likes of Gerling, the Juan McLean, Uffie, The Lost Valentinos, The Temper Trap, Van She, Children Collide and many, many more. On the strength of their acclaimed debut EP and their recent sell out launch tour, PLUG-IN CITY will bring their national festival debut, bringing their cut glass ice-funk to the V Festival main stage.