OxfordBands.com

The clutch of new festivals around the county continues next week with Hanneyfest, three days of local music kicking off on Friday with tuneful punk pop from The Follys and sardonic prog-rock from Drunkenstein. Highlights on Saturday on the outside stage include sweet bluegrass from The Roundheels, electronica-flavoured pop-rock from The Halcyons, and emotional indie rock from Lost Transmission. Performing inside are punky festival favourites Smilex and Gothic rockers Mary’s Garden. The festival closes  on Sunday with merry chav-jazzers The Original Rabbits-Foot Spasm Band. The festival is free but donations are encouraged, all proceeds towards Cancer Research. For further information click here.

Oxford filmmaker extraordinaire and Videosyncratic supremo Jon Spira has whipped together an excellent ten-minute highlights package of the best Oxford bands playing at this year’s Truck Festival. It features The Candyskins, Dive Dive, Stornoway, Alphabet Backwards, From Light To Sound, Supergrass and loads more.

Stay tuned for more news on Jon’s feature-length documentary about Oxford music, Anyone Can Play Guitar, which is due for release at the end of 2009.

Wristbands are now on sale priced four pounds for Charliestock, a new music festival taking place on the weekend of 31 July at The Black Horse pub in Kidlington, north of Oxford. The wristband, obtainable from the pub,  allows entry to the entire event, but tickets are available on the door for each day at the same price. Friday’s highlights includes melodic punk from Secret Rivals and The Scarletts, Saturday sees alt-folk trio Ute take centre stage alongside post-punks Vixens and excellent garage rockers The Elrics. On Sunday there is delicate country from The Roundheels and shambolic rocktronica from Thin Green Candles. Proceeds go towards ‘Children in Touch’, a charity which supports local children with autism.

Saturday July 11 sees the village of Middleton Cheney play host to the annual Middleton Music Festival, a ten hour festival of back-to-back live music. Apart from the music stage, there will be a funfair, bar, real ale tent and a travelling recording studio, The RockHopper. Most familiar act to Oxfordbands.com viewers will be rock/indie/ska act The Keyz. In addition, the show will feature the likes of local indie heroes The Sirens Call and ceilidh band The Quiet Men. Tickets are now on sale from various outlets in Banbury, (see website) and will also be selling in the Castle Quay shopping centre in Banbury on Saturday 4th July from 9am to 5.30pm (look out for the crew in the fluorescent orange polo shirts).

Earlier in the month, David Saw will be performing at Chalky’s on Banbury High Street at 5 p.m on Tuesday 2 July. Saw is a respected singer-songwriter who has worked with Ben Taylor and Carly Simon in the past. The gig, which is free,  is to promote his new album ‘Broken Down Figure’.

Oxfordbands.com and Junkie Brush are teaming up once again to organise an inter-band 5-a-side football tournament to raise money for Audioscope.

Bands wishing to enter should contact stuart AT oxfordbands.com with their 6-man squad, which must include at least 3 members of Oxfordshire-based bands. Deadline for entry is the 31st July, with the tournament to be held on the weekend of the 22nd/23rd August. More news as it comes about the competition.

This year’s Charlbury Riverside Festival takes place over the 20^th and 21^st of June. Saturday’s lineup includes Smilex, Little Fish, Tristan and the Troubadours on the Main Stage, with  Sextodecimo and Winnebago Deal on the Second Stage. On Sunday there are a host of Oxfordbands.com favourites on display, including The Epstein, A Silent Film and Les Clochards (album review coming soonish). For full lineup, transport and accommodation details etc. please click here.