Buzzcocks, Dodgy and *Chicago Blues Legend* Eddie C Campbell Headline Friday at Rhythm Festival 2011

Many more acts added, including Macavity's Cat, Dogan Mehmet & The Deerhunters and Rainy Boy Sleep.

Rhythm Festival 2011 has announced its Friday night headlining team. Punk legends BUZZCOCKS are joined by influential Brit-Rock three-piece DODGY, and one of the last surviving Chicago Blues legends, EDDIE C CAMPBELL, who flies in especially for this exclusive UK appearance.

Other acts added to the 6th Rhythm Festival line-up include mad-cap festival favourites, Macavities Cat (Sunday), the twisted Turkish-folk-rock of Dogan Mehmet & The Deerhunters (Sunday), highly-touted Derry singer/songwriter Rainy Boy Sleep (Sunday), and Blues diva Debbi Giles and her full Midnight Train band (Saturday).

They join the previously announced acts, incluidng Toots & The Maytals, Imelda May, Nick Lowe, Jack Bruce, Steve Cropper & The Animals, Terry Reid, The Blockheads, Oysterband, Burns Unit, Mud Morganfield, Sandi Thom, 9 Below Zero and Curved Air.

More acts are set to be announced for the four music stages, including the complete comedy line-up.

BUZZCOCKS

Buzzcocks were a huge influence on the Manchester music scene, on the Punk Rock movement and on the British music scene generally. They came together at Bolton Institute in 1975 and their first recordings, including the four-song EP Spiral Scratch (widely credited as Britain's first independent-label punk recording) combined Beatlesque romance and melodicism with a buzzsaw guitar attack and blistering tempos and were the best for a generation. Singles Going Steady (1979) is a phenomenal collection of the band's singles and was described by critic Ned Raggett as a "punk masterpiece". Songs like "Harmony In My Head," "Every Fallen in Love" and "Why Can't I Touch It" are undoubted pop-rock classics.

The name "Buzzcocks" was chosen by Pete Shelley after reading the headline "it's the buzz, cocks!" in a review of the TV series Rock Follies in Time Out magazine.

Buzzcocks at Rhythm Festival 2011 will be Pete Shelley, Steve Diggle, Chris Remmington and Danny Farrant. 

DODGY

The definitive line up of Nigel Clark, Andy Miller and Mathew Priest is back...

The first time round, Dodgy were only together for seven years but in that time they sold over a million records, released three albums and 12 Top 40 singles, including 3 Top 10s and the Top 5 hit Good Enough, still a staple of the Radio 2 playlist. They sold out the Brixton Academy for three nights in a row and were awarded an unprecedented 90-minute Saturday evening slot on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury Festival in 1997 just before Radiohead. Not bad, considering that they also partied harder than an Ewok.

Since they got back together in 2008, they played an extremely successful set of reunion shows culminating in an overwhelming finale at the Glastonbury Festival - their second home in the 1990s - where an exuberant Will Young was spotted 'dancing like he was on something' at the side of the stage. Bless.

Besides the hits, Staying Out For The Summer, So Let Me Go Far, Making The Most Of, If You're Thinkin Of Me, Melodies Haunt You, In A Room, and the epic Grassman - (I mean, I could go on) Dodgy have started introducing potential new hits into the set. As anyone who has seen Dodgy so far this year will tell you, the Mighty Dodgy Vibe is back and stronger than ever. 

EDDIE C CAMPBELL

How's this for blues pedigree? Born to sharecroppers in Duncan, Mississippi, in 1939, Eddie C Campbell was raised on Chicago's West Side, alongside the likes of Magic Sam, Willie Dixon, Little Walter and others. 

Shortly after moving to the "Windy City", his mother brought him to the 1125 Club on Madison Avenue to meet legendary bluesman Muddy Waters, who told Eddie he could sit in with the band if he learned how to play. Four years later and with guitar in hand, Eddie returned to the club, played a scorching rendition of "Still a Fool" and earned a spot on the bandstand. He was twelve years old. The rest, you could say, is blues history: his teen years on the nightclub circuit honing his chops with such top-players as Luther Allison, Magic Sam, Big Monroe, Willie Buckner and Pee Wee Madison.

Eddie soon became one of the West Side's most popular and flamboyant musicians, riding around on a purple motorcycle, sporting a red Fender Jazzmaster guitar, learning karate and - all music aside - wining sixteen knockouts as an amateur boxer. Campbell toured with Otis Rush and Mighty Joe Young before becoming band director for Jimmy Reed. He visited Europe in 1979 with the Amercian Blues Legends Tour.

Over the years, Eddie C Campbell had established a playing style all his own: jaunty, irresistibly danceable rhythms overlaid with lithe guitar lines, often placed so tightly in the pocket of the beat that his lead guitar almost double as a rhythm instrument. We welcome this Blues legend to Rhythm Festival 2011.

Rhythm Festival:The Details

Rhythm Festival 2011

Friday 26th to Sunday 28th August, 2011The Mansion House, Old Warden Park, near Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, SG18 9DX (just off the A1)

Weekend tickets: £99 (rising to £110 after July 1st) for an adult (17 years and older), with the option of a free child/ youth ticket (aged 5-16) when bought at the same time. Under 5s are free when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult - no ticket required. Camping is extra and is charged per tent, not per person.

Camping tickets start at £30 per tent and £45 per campervan/ caravan.

Day tickets are now on sale priced at £45 (Friday) and £49 (Saturday and Sundfay, each day) for an adult (17 years and older), with the option of a free child/ youth ticket (aged 5-16) when bought at the same time. Under 5s are free when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult - no ticket required.

Tickets and information from: http://www.rhythmfestival.com

(No booking fee: £1 per order handling charge.

Rhythm Festival: The BackgroundRhythm Festival was founded in 2006 by veteran music promoter and writer, Jim Driver, and was held until 2010 at Twinwood Arena, Clapham, Bedfordshire. Rhythm Festival aims to be different from other outdoor music festivals, by being smaller, friendlier and geared towards the customer. Says Jim Driver: "Rhythm is a family festival for people who like festivals but who don't like rip-off burgers, terrible food and indifferent booze."

Over the first five years Rhythm Festival headliners have included Jerry Lee Lewis, Alabama 3, Donovan, Roy Harper, Seth Lakeman, The Levellers, The Proclaimers, John Mayall's Blues Breakers, Jefferson Starship, Joe Bonamassa, Big Star and (not!) Ike Turner (who was booked twice but who never actually showed up!)