Star Shaped Festival: 2019 line-up announced!

For all Britpop fans, the annual Star Shaped Festival is the most exciting thing on the yearly calendar.  Previous events have seen appearances from most of the Britpop greats, including Echobelly, Space, My Life Story and The Bluetones.


At the 2018 London event, Black Grape and Ocean Colour Scene made exclusive appearances and OCS showed how flawless they could be in front of an especially demanding crowd.  Black Grape continued to be an acquired taste.  [Full review here.]

Occasionally, bands have even reformed for the event, such was Sleeper’s unexpected appearance in 2017.  [Read a review of Sleeper’s appearance at the London Star Shaped here.]

The 2019 event, held over four nights in four cities, looks to rival 2017 in terms of quality.

This year, fans will get to experience Cast, a reformed Geneva, Salad,  The Bluetones’ Mark Morriss and more.  Fans in London and Birmingham get an extra treat when Space make a return.  Tommy Scott and the lads were very much a highlight of the 2017 event and fans should expect a similarly eclectic set this year.

There’s one element of the upcoming festival shrouded in mystery, however: that coveted special guest slot.  In 2017, Sleeper filled that spot and took the roof off…  The 2019 event has billed a “secret guest playing a classic Britpop album in full’.

Whilst no real hints have been given, we’d love to see My Life Story playing ‘The Golden Mile’ or Echobelly playing ‘On’.  It would be utterly amazing to witness Sleeper playing ‘Smart’, although this seems incredibly unlikely as the band are keen to promote new material throughout 2019 following the release of ‘The Modern Age’, their first album since 1997’s ‘Pleased To Meet You’.

With regards to the “secret guest”, we think the smart money will be on Shed Seven playing the whole of ‘Change Giver’ or Paul Draper playing Mansun’s ‘Attack of The Grey Lantern’.

Tickets for the Star Shaped Festival go on general sale Friday 25th January.

Related stuff:  Read a review of Salad Undressed’s ‘Good Love Bad Love’ here.
Read a review of My Life Story live at Islington Academy 2017 here.
Read a review of The Bluetones live at Shepherd’s Bush 2018 here.