Billboard will host three nights of live music at this year’s City Showcase new music and arts festival in London, under its “Global Pulse” banner.
The annual festival will take place June 2-6 across numerous sites in the capital, offering Britons the chance to catch dozens of international “next generation” bands, including hotly-tipped, award-winning South African indie rockers Parlotones.
The Johannesburg-based band — winners of the best rock album category at the 2006 South Africa Music Awards — will join compatriots Camagwini, rising Canadian indie rockers Land of Talk, plus Cincinnati, U.S.-based power-pop act Walk the Moon in raising the roof of the Metro Club, when Billboard’s Global Pulse night plays out on June 2.
The same venue will host a night of music from Down Under on June 4. New Zealand and Australasian acts Ragamuffin, Over the Atlantic, Batrider and Oloverlys are all confirmed to perform.
Billboard’s corresponding Australian music showcase last year was curated by Aussie rock legend Chris Bailey, who performed a frenzied set peppered with hits from the Saints, the pioneering punk band he has fronted in various guises since the 1970s.
Meanwhile, on June 5, the cool strains of Sweden’s rock scene will own the Borderline stage, with acts Hell N Diesel, Mustasch, Babylon Bombs booked to perform.
All told, City Showcase 2008 will encompass 16 live music gigs and 13 workshops, including Billboard’s “A&Ring For Success” session June 5 at Gibson Studios, with artist manager Stephen Budd and label/publishing executive Eva Karman Reinhold among the participants.
City Showcase is a non-profit organization launched in 2003 to expose emerging creative talent.
