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Timbre Rock & Roots 2011: Shaking up Asia's festival scene
John Legend, Bob Dylan, Imogen Heap: Singapore's homegrown music fest gets hot
Timbre Rock & Roots 2011: Two full days of rockin' music.Surprise, surprise -- the past few years have seen Singapore’s live music scene undergo a resurgence.
More local bands are emerging.
Slash, Taylor Swift, Eric Clapton, Janet Jackson, Santana and Stone Temple Pilots have already played Singapore this year.
The festival calendar's looking decidedly healthy, turning the Little Red Dot into one of Asia’s best live gig venues. And the country’s very own Timbre Group has been a major contributing factor.
- Last chance to enter!: Win tickets to Singapore’s Timbre Rock & Roots Festival
Starting off six years ago with one bar renowned for quality live music, Timbre now has three music venues, three restaurants and its own music academy. It also runs two annual festivals -- Beerfest Asia and Timbre Rock & Roots.
Debuting in 2010, Rock & Roots is arguably the crown jewel in the group’s arsenal, and this year it returns with a line-up that has Singapore’s music lovers salivating.
Dylan will be performing in Singapore for the first time since 1994, alongside John Legend, Imogen Heap, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Toots and the Maytals, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, and Raw Earth.
A gimpse of the 9,000 strong crowd at Timbre Rock & Roots 2010.
“Ublues Band was the first band from Asia to perform at the festival,” says co-festival director Edward Chia. “We were placed on the main Mojo stage alongside performances by soul icon, James Brown, among other amazing bands.
“The organizers hoisted the Singapore flag while the band was playing and that moment brought tremendous pride to Danny.
“After that, Danny and Peter [Noble, Bluesfest's director] kept in touch and the idea of organizing a festival in Singapore was mooted. This eventually became a possibility in 2008 and we spent the next two years creating Rock & Roots.”
Buddy Guy pressing palms inbetween riffs at Timbre Rock & Roots 2010.
“The blues and roots music market in Singapore is slowly but surely emerging,” says Chia. “Singaporeans are a very well traveled and music-savvy lot, you’d be surprised at the extent of music genres they listen to.
“We introduce blues and roots as part of our programming at our permanent live music bars hoping that they will appreciate the fact that when a bonafide, first-class blues and roots musician comes to town, they are well armed and prepared to enjoy the show.”
Rock & Roots is on track to attract more music-goers this year, as it has already outsold last year’s ticket figures.
Blues isn't just about the old man, his dog and a bottle of whisky.
“The number of artists remain the same, however we have to say that this year's artists bill is truly in a league of its own,” says Chia. “We will be having more on-ground interactive activities for audience to create that nice festival buzz which we hope that will be as memorable as the performances on stage.”
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The undoubted star will be Bob Dylan, the legendary American singer-songwriter who has been without peer in the music industry for the past 50 years.
One of the main aims of Rock & Roots is to not just to showcase the best international bands in Singapore, but to give the best local bands a chance to shine.
This year Singapore act 53A will be lead the line-up at the festival for local bands, while a stage will also be opened up to one local act in the Levi’s Musical Challenge to play a 30-minute set.
And while Singapore remains the festival’s only pit-stop, expanding Timbre Rock & Roots to neighbouring countries like Malaysia and Indonesia is “not completely out of the picture.”
“The festival here needs to stabilize and stand on its own first even before we make concrete plans about taking it elsewhere,” says Chia.
