The Pogues confirm headline of Levellers’ festival Beautiful Days

The first acts announced for the seventh Beautiful Days festival are The Pogues, Levellers, Hawkwind, The Saw Doctors , Gong, Lamb, Dreadzone, Imagined Village, Dub Pistols, Pendulum DJ’s, Cara Dillon, The King Blues, Eliza Carthy, Imelda May, Lau, Edward II, Kris Drever, John McCusker & Roddy Woomble Trio, John Smith, Sonic Boom Six, Les Truttes, Chris T-T, Jay Jay Pistolet & Ruarri Joseph

Folk-punk legends The Pogues are headlining the festival on the Saturday night featuring Andrew Ranken, Spider Stacy, James Fearnley, Jem Finer, Darryl Hunt, Philip Chevron, Terry Woods and ,of course, Shane MacGowan. Headlining the festival on the Friday night are psychedelic space rockers Hawkwind who will mark their 40th anniversary in style at Beautiful Days with a one-off laser and light spectacular. Festival founders Levellers will headline and close the festival on the Sunday night with a stunning firework finale.

Also performing are Irish punk-rock band The Saw Doctors, Gong featuring Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage, Gilli Smyth, Miquette Giraudy, Chris Taylor, Theo Travis, John McKenzie and Mike Howlett, the newly reformed Lamb, festival favourites Dreadzone, Simon Emmerson’s acclaimed musical project Imagined Village, Pendulum headlining The Little Big Top with a DJ set, Dub Pistols fronted by the infamous Barry Ashworth, Irish folk singer Cara Dillon, punk-reggae band The King Blues, acclaimed folk artist Eliza Carthy, rockabilly singer Imelda May, innovative Scottish trio Lau, roots pioneers Edward II, three of Scotland’s most successful musicians – Kris Drever, John McCusker & Roddy Woomble Trio, singer-songwriter John Smith, ska-punk band Sonic Boom Six, Les Truttes from Belgium, Chris T-T, Jay Jay Pistolet and singer-songwriter Ruarri Joseph.

There will be more confirmed acts to follow soon with the festival’s 2009 theme still to be announced.

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW Adult weekend camping tickets are £100. Children’s ticket prices have been held again at £60 for 10 to under 16′s, £30 for 5 to under 10′s and £3 for under 5′s. Campervan passes are £30 and car routing passes which include parking are £10. All tickets are subject to booking fees. Tickets are on sale from www.levellers.co.uk, www.seetickets.com & www.artisttickets.com

Ticket information, FAQ’s, travel, disabled access, photo galleries and more from
www.beautifuldays.org / www.myspace.com/beautifuldaysfestival

UNSIGNED BANDS The first of two competitions is now open for bands to get a slot at the festival. We’ve teamed up with The Unsigned Band Review www.unsignedbandreview.com to give one unsigned band the opportunity to play this year. Go to the website to apply. The second competition for unsigned bands will be announced at the end of March.