Meltdown Festival 2012
August 1 – 12, Southbank Centre, London
Tonight sees the opening of one of the most anticipated London events in the arts calendar for music fans.
Since 1993 some of the world most distinguished musicians have been invited to act as the guest directors of Meltdown. from John Peel through to Massive Attack, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Morrissey and more.
The event aims to give seminal artists the chance to pick their favourite artists to play and exhibit their work at the Southbank Centre in London.
The lead singer of Antony and the Johnsons is hailed as one of the world's most idiosyncratic performers
This year the task was given to Antony Hegarty, lead singer with Mercury Award-winning Antony and the Johnsons who is heralded as one of the world’s most idiosyncratic performers.
Antony’s Meltdown will see an incredibly rare live performance by the much-loved singer Elizabeth Fraser.
While the Scottish singer has lent her ethereal voice to projects with Massive Attack, Craig Armstrong and Peter Gabriel in recent years, her two performances at the event will be the first full shows since she left the seminal 1980s band Cocteau Twins in 1998.
Elizabeth Fraser's appearance will be the first full set of shows she has performed since she left the Cocteau Twins
Marc Almond, another artist who shot to fame in the 1980s, performs a rare live performance of Marc and The Mambas' groundbreaking 1983 release Torment and Toreros.
Antony has said of Almond: ‘Marc laid out a trail of subcultural breadcrumbs and aesthetic tenets that more than any other single influence formed the artist that I would become.
'Ten years before I would hear Nina Simone make a similar affirmation, I read Marc saying that he didn't care if he hit the notes, for it was only the feeling that mattered’.
Sibling duo CocoRosie are expected to deliver an enchanting set
Returning to London for the first time since two sell-out shows at London’s Union Chapel in 2010, sibling duo and enchanted dreamworld dwellers, CocoRosie have collaborated with Antony many times onstage and in the studio, and will also perform at the event.
Another highlight is sure to be iconic New York artist Lou Reed.
The singer Reed has been associated with the city’s avant-garde scene since he first collaborated with Andy Warhol in the 1960s.
Sex and the City actress Kim Cattrall will also be appearing at the festival as part of a series of talks scheduled, where she will discuss the role of Shakespeare’s Cleopatra with Janet Suzman and Southbank Centre Artistic Director Jude Kelly.
Lou Reed has been associated with New York's avant-garde scene
Sex and the City actress Kim Cattrall will also be appearing at the festival as part of a series of talks
Ms Kelly said: ‘The hope is always that the events and assembled artists that constitute Meltdown provide a composite picture of the director.
'We are privileged that Antony has shared so much with us through these choices.
'Even now, with events and artists still to be confirmed, Antony’s Meltdown line-up feels intelligent, hard-edged and darkly beautiful.
'Words that could easily be employed to describe this year’s wonderful director’
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