Tipping Point Live, the North East's newest music festival, reveals its full line-up

New North East festival music Tipping Point Live has revealed its full line-up, including an up and coming South Shields singer.
Bill Ryder-Jones, former guitarist with The Coral, is headlining the first Tipping Point Live festival.Bill Ryder-Jones, former guitarist with The Coral, is headlining the first Tipping Point Live festival.
Bill Ryder-Jones, former guitarist with The Coral, is headlining the first Tipping Point Live festival.

Taking place across two days – Friday and Saturday June 21-22 – the multi-genre, family friendly festival championing the music stars of tomorrow will take over the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle this summer.

It will welcome more than 40 artists across nine venues, including The Cluny, Tyne Bar, and The Cumberland Arms.

South Shields singer-songwriter Brooke Bentham is second headliner at the first Tipping Point Live festival, which has replaced Evolution Emerging.South Shields singer-songwriter Brooke Bentham is second headliner at the first Tipping Point Live festival, which has replaced Evolution Emerging.
South Shields singer-songwriter Brooke Bentham is second headliner at the first Tipping Point Live festival, which has replaced Evolution Emerging.
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The festival - co-curated by Generator, international record producer Bernard Butler, Maximo Park's Paul Smith and The Futureheads' Barry Hyde - will begin with an opening party featuring a programme of live and interactive delights.

Tipping Point Live organiser Charlie Dancer said: “We are all hugely excited to bring you the first Tipping Point Live Festival artist line-up, with two of my personal favourites in songwriting genius Bill Ryder Jones and South Shields legend-in-waiting Brooke Bentham!

“After running Evolution Emerging Festival for 10 years, we at Generator felt it was time to refresh our approach and bring something a little different to Newcastle’s cultural hotspot, the Ouseburn Valley.

“Tipping Point Live will play host to a right eclectic mix; we’ve got ambient, we’ve got experimental jazz, we’ve got art-rock, garage indie, folk, neo-soul, hip-hop, bass music, grime, disco – it’s going to be the most expansive display of what the North East has under our sleeves the region has ever seen!”

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The Saturday will have a full day of industry events and live music - similar to the old Evolution Emerging Festival.

Saturday's headliner is BBC 6 Music favourite and Domino Records' Bill Ryder Jones, who will headline the event in The Cluny's main room on the Saturday.

The former lead guitarist and co-founder of Liverpool band The Coral, his latest solo album, Yawn, was a big hit with critics and fans alike.

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Second on the bill is South Shields singer-songwriter Brooke Bentham, who has crafted kitchen-sink dramas of exquisite detail, honesty, and quiet assurance across two EPS, This Rapture, and The Room Swayed.

Over at The Cluny 2 on the same evening, Geordie indie garage rockers FEVA will headline, demonstrating the festival's commitment to providing diversity and variety.

Sunderland's disco indie outfit Vanderbilt top the bill at the Tyne Bar, which will also see performances from fellow Wearsiders Picnic, Mike-Skinner esque rapper Philth Like and Hackney-born, North East-based hip-hop artists Reali-T.

The Cumberland Arms will see new age folk singer Grace Gillespie headline, with Teesside's Nel Unlit and Newcastle indie-folk band Many Moons also joining the party, with blissful singer-songwriter Amy Hopkinson opening the stage.

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The recently-launched Kaleidoscope venue on Stepney Bank will host the new wave bass producer Xaatu and his eclectic range of dirty dub sounds, as well as hotly-tipped grime duo NE Dons, and hip-hop artist and lyricist John Dole.

One of Newcastle's leading recording studios, Blast, will be taken over by the BBC's Nick Roberts for a series of curator interviews, alongside live sessions with some of this year's performers.

On the Friday, Martha Hill, one of the region's most promising young singer-songwriters, will kick things off in style, backed by folk high risers Dansi, and neo-soul, R&B-infused band Portraits.

For the very first time, Generator will introduce jazz to one of its events, with Taupe and Archipelago taking to the Cluny 2 stage, joined by Leeds-based instrumental and experimental electronic jazz act J Frisco.

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The recently relocated and reopened Star and Shadow Cinema will play host to two Tipping Point Live-commissioned collaboration projects, mixing music with audio-visual experiences.