HMV’s NEXT BIG THING festival gets even bigger this year, with over 100 artists to perform at 8 venues. The festival aims to showcase and celebrate the very best new and emerging talent drawn from all genres across the music spectrum tipped to make it big or to breakthrough in 2011.

This year, three Norwegian acts have been invited to play at the festival. These are Katzenjammer, Sivert Høyem and Harrys Gym.

- After the success of the first HMV Next Big Thing event in 2010, we wanted to make the event bigger, better and to include more international talent. It’s incredible the amount of fantastic artists Norway is producing right now. I feel lucky to have 3 wonderful and unique Norwegian acts in the line-up – Sivert Høyem, Katzenjammer and Harrys Gym - and hope that they will reach a much wider UK audience in 2011.  They certainly deserve it, says Jim Benner of MAMA Group, HMV's live music division.

The festival will run for over a week between 4th – 13th February 2011 in London, Birmingham and Edinburgh. Each venue will host up to three acts per night and, in keeping with the remit of introducing new music to as many people as possible, entry to the gigs and label nights will be for the bargain price of a flat £10 (incl. booking fee), whoever the artist and whichever the venue.

Will raise awareness

- Next Big Thing is very important to Katzenjammer in their efforts to break into the UK market. During the past 12 months, Katzenjammer's UK fan base has grown steadily and feedback from live shows is very positive. The fact that their Next Big Thing show sold out almost immediately speaks for itself.  However, even with the overwhelming response from fans, they still have a job to do bringing media and music industry 100% on board. Our hope is that playing Next Big Thing will help raise awareness within the right circles, and thereby lay ground for their next album, due in June, says Arne Svare, manager of Katzenjammer.

Alongside the gigs there will also be some very cool label nights, featuring the likes of Deconstruction, Communion, Transgressive, Moshi Moshi, Memphis Industries, Mute and Blow Up. The HMV Next Big Thing festival will additionally be recorded for broadcast as exclusive added-value content for the entertainment retailer’s hmv.com, hmvdigital.com and purehmv offers – tying-in as ‘bundle’ deals with record labels to support future album releases by the featured new artists.

Fits perfectly with release

HMV and MAMA have always supported new and breakthrough artists, recognising that they represent the future lifeblood of the Music Industry, but the HMV Next Big Thing takes this encouragement to a new level, especially as artists can also expect promotional support instore, online and digitally for their new releases as part of the initiative.

- We were really pleased to be able to ensure Harrys Gym was a part of this years Next Big Thing Festival, it was a goal for both by myself and our agent (Louise Steele/Coda) that is came through. It fits perfectly with the album release (7th February, day of show and release day), it also aligns us with a national promoter (Mean Fiddler) and the biggest music retail chain in the UK. You only have to look to last years line-up (Ellie Goulding, Band of Skulls, First Aid Kit++) to prove that this really offers a chance for the band to advance in the UK in 2011, comments Mark Vaughan, Harrys Gym’s mangager.

Sivert Høyem has been invited by HMV to headline the Jazz Cafe in London's Camden Town on February 12th. Sivert was delighted to accept this invitation, as HMV have only invited artists that they believe will break through in the UK this year. Sivert will perform 'Prisoner On The Road' for the first time in Britain, this follows the single's success in Norway and his acclaimed performance on the Nobel Peace Prize TV show.

This is the schedule for the Norwegian acts:

- Monday, 7th Feb – Monarchy + Harry’s Gym + Bright Light Bright Light at the Jazz Ca

- Wednesday, 9th Feb –  Katzenjammer + Lucinda Belle + The Chakras at the Barfly

- Saturday, 12th Feb – Sivert Hoyem + Josephine at the Jazz Cafe