Patti Smith, Corinne Bailey Rae, The Amazons and more have been announced to play Somerset House Summer Series this year.
The Somerset House concert series will return this July, where 11 musicians will headline the iconic central London venue from the 11th to the 21st. Last year’s edition saw the likes of Interpol, Young Fathers and Beabadoobee take to the stage.
Now, several new guests have been announced to headline the series. R&B songstress Pip Millet will kick off proceedings, followed by an as of yet unannounced special guest. Corinne Bailey Rae will take to the stage with her mind-melding album ‘Black Rainbows‘, where St. Louis’ Smino will perform the next day.
Indie rockers The Amazons and The Big Moon are also set to play, along with genre-defying Hak Baker. Finally, the legendary Patti Smith Quartet will close out the shows on the 21st.
The American Express® Cardmember presale opened at 12pm on Friday (March 15); general sale tickets can be found here. Take a look at the full lineup below:
The Somerset House Summer Series 2024 lineup is:
JULY
11 – Pip Millett
12 – ‘Special Guest’
13 – DBN Gogo
14 – Corinne Bailey Rae presents ‘Black Rainbows’
15 – Smino
16 – The Amazons
17 – Hania Rani
18 – The Big Moon
19 – Cory Henry
20 – Hak Baker
21 – Patti Smith Quartet
NME spoke to Corinne Bailey Rae last year, where she spoke about her hit single ‘Put Your Records On’ being reworked into a viral TikTok hit: “It wasn’t weird at all… I liked his vibe – it was lockdown so we talked on Zoom – and I really liked [his version of] the song.
“Then there was this whole, like, backlash on the internet [where people were] sort of saying, ‘He’s this white man, and if he’s covering this song, he’s taking it away from Blackness.’ So I had to step in and say: ‘This song’s for everyone.’ When you write a song, you’re out of control of it and don’t know how people are going to react to it.
“In the US, there’s definitely a focus on the [song’s] lyric “got to love that afro hairdo”. There’s a whole natural hair movement and this song is part of their and our pride. But [at the same time], I do think that this song is for everyone. And also, it’s great when people cover your songs because it has a benefit to you as well. So I was really happy with how it turned out.”
Meanwhile, NME reviewed The Amazons’ recent album in 2022, calling their songs “stadium-ready anthems”: ” ‘How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me’ certain packs enough mainstream punch to keep the band on their perch as a British festival fixture, while also showing glimmers of what The Amazons are capable of, but it’s hard not to wonder what they’d sound like if they leant further into those more diverse sounds and influences.”