FIRST ACTS ANNOUNCED FOR
SUPERSONIC FESTIVAL 2010

SWANS
JAILBREAK FEAT. CHRIS CORSANO + HEATHER LEIGH MELT BANANA
JAMES BLACKSHAW
LICHENS
BONG
GNOD
VOICE OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS
NECRO DEATH MORT
GNAW
EAGLE TWIN
BLUE SABBATH BLACK FIJI

NEW FESTIVAL DATES!
22 – 24 OCTOBER 2010
Birmingham, UK
www.supersonicfestival.com

Tickets on sale now from:
www.theticketsellers.co.uk
www.seetickets.com

Following the news that the 2010 edition of Birmingham’s acclaimed annual Supersonic Festival will be headlined by Michael Gira’s massively influential NYC band SWANS, Capsule are excited to announce a first round of live acts who will also perform at this year’s festival, including a rocking free jazz fire in the form of JAILBREAK FEAT. CHRIS CORSANO + HEATHER LEIGH, the screeching hyper frantic sounds of Japan’s MELT BANANA, the understated beauty of 12 string guitar virtuoso JAMES BLACKSHAW, plus the mesmeric psych jams of Explosions in the Sky touring sidekicks LICHENS.

Add Eastern-inspired space rock doom from BONG, “tribal drumming, grunge and utter filth all pushed along with a Krautrock like pulse” from GNOD, Rick Tomlinson’s latest incarnation, the bewitching VOICE OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS and psychedelic guitar drone from BLUE SABBATH BLACK FIJI, and many more special live guests plus art, film and panel discussions to be revealed. READ MORE

Capsule have donated a pair of weekend Supersonic Festival tickets to an art auction taking place this week in aid of Cure Leukemia. The auction takes place this Thursday at Wragg & Co on Colmore Row in Birmingham, if you are interested in going you can RSVP here.

It’s all in a very good cause and there’s some really fantastic work on offer by a selection of artists including a piece by our good friend Lucy McLauchlan ( who designed our Einstellung double vinyl LP)

Sent to us by our friend Chris Herbert aka @cjherbert
We promise our interview technique is slightly less daunting.

SUPERSONIC FESTIVAL 2010
OPERATIONS MANAGER
Period: July – November 2010 approx 52 days
Fee: £6000
Deadline for applications: 28th May 2010
Interviews: 8th& 9th June 2010

“Festival Of the Year” Plan B Magazine
An experimental music festival for adventurous audiences, Supersonic aims to showcase the most exciting and interesting music out there. A consistently ambitious programme of music Supersonic now has a reputation for staging unique collaborations and reunions as well as providing a stage for emerging talent and challenging music boundaries with its constant eclectic mix.

Capsule are looking to recruit an Operations Manager to produce Supersonic 2010

Summary of role
The Operations Manager will work closely with the Festival Directors to plan and execute Supersonic 3 day festival 22nd-24th October 2010.  This role comes under the direction of the Festival Directors with responsibility for the Festival Team (includes: Artist Liaison, Marketing Assistant, Event Co-ordinator, Volunteer Co-ordinator and Festival Interns) and will be based predominantly at the company’s office in Birmingham.

For full details check HERE

Folks it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for…
SUPERSONIC FESTIVAL 2010

First up – NEW FESTIVAL DATES!
22 – 24 OCTOBER 2010
Birmingham, UK

SWANS HEADLINE SUPERSONIC FESTIVAL 2010

Tickets on sale now from:
www.theticketsellers.co.uk
www.seetickets.com

To launch the 2010 edition of Birmingham’s acclaimed annual Supersonic Festival,  Capsule are over the moon to announce that Michael Gira’s massively influential NYC band SWANS will headline this year’s festival, which takes place from 22 – 24 October 2010. Tickets are now on sale! Their appearance at Supersonic Festival 2010 will be their first British show since they disbanded in 1997.

The recent reactivation of the band – with the line up of: Michael Gira; guitar, voice, mendicant friar act  (original Swans), Norman Westberg: guitar  (original Swans),  Christoph Hahn: guitar  (mid-period Swans and most Angels of Light ), Phil Puleo; drums, percussion, dulcimer etc etc  (final Swans tour and most of Angels of Light), Chris Pravdica: bass and gadgets  (Flux Information Sciences / Services/ Gunga Din) and Thor Harris: drums, percussion, vibes, dulcimer, curios, keys,  etc… (Angels of Light, now also with Shearwater) – promises to be as formidable as the early, brutal and growling noise albums they made their mark with.

This rare and exceptional performance by SWANS mark the start of a series of line up announcements for Supersonic 2010, with many more exciting acts and artists to be revealed in the coming weeks and months.

Moving from its previous July weekend date to October from 2010 onwards, Supersonic will once again take place in and around the Custard Factory in the heart of Eastside of Birmingham, utilising converted factory warehouses and art galleries and offering up-close, intimate settings to showcase some of the most exciting music out there. Capsule’s passion for genre bending sound and performances is at the heart of all their events – there are not many places where you can listen to funeral doom, prog, folk, avant jazz and grindcore in one weekend.

For further info on hotel deals/travel/volunteers check :
www.supersonicfestival.com

This is what Supersonic 09 was all about – we’re pretty sure you’ll enjoy 2010 even more.

For your viewing pleasure and to warm you up for forthcoming announcements for Supersonic 2010 – IRON LUNG live at Supersonic 09 – absolute comic genius! Look out for a live release coming soon…

still a handful of Harvey Milk live vinyl from Supersonic 08 BUY NOW

Jenny Moore and Lisa Meyer are Capsule – Birmingham promoters of great alternative music and arguably the sole reason why great alternative artists visit the home of heavy rock music. In 2003 they launched Supersonic festival, which has carved out a reputation as the best and loudest noise festival in the UK – if not the world –seeing headliners including Mogwai and Sunn O))) – and has an undeniable knack for getting the world’s best alt. bands onto a UK stage for the very first time. Last year saw the first ever UK show for Italian soundtrack legends Goblin (whose credits include George A Romero’s Dawn of the Dead and Dario Argento’s Suspiria) – it was truly a magical moment.

Supersonic takes the best parts of city and field festivals and infuses them into one. The festival site – Birmingham’s Custard Factory – is closed off from the rest of the world, yet you still get to sleep in a comfy bed and have a shower every morning. The pool that provides the centrepiece to the Custard Factory is drained and made into the main stage, whilst readymade venues become other stages and a cavernous warehouse provides a second large stage, tailormade for the incessantly loud noise Supersonic has become known for. It’s a one of a kind, and the people who attend are described by Lisa as “people who want to experience something new and aren’t afraid to go see something a bit different, it’s definitely not for fans of playlists.”

READ FULL ARTICLE

Audience from Supersonic 2009 by Mark E Rhodes

We’ve just come back from a Birmingham City Council consultation meeting about the cities ‘Music Industry’. Over the 10 years we’ve been doing Capsule related activity we’ve been invited to a fair few of these things and still very little seems to have moved on.

It occured to us that based on our breakdown of tickets sales from Supersonic (see above) we have a relatively small West Midlands audience and having spoken to other independent folks within this area this seems to be the case across the creative industries. Birmingham dates regardless of genre always seem less well attended to those in other cities in the UK. There is no doubt there is a wealth of talent and tonnes of great people working really hard to promote stuff, run venues, labels etc. However it seems across the creative industries there is quite a limited regional audience that engages with independent  activity. So my question to you wonderful folks is why do you think this is?  What are the barriers and how do we work towards resolving it?
We’d be really happy to open this debate so – answers on a postcard.