Ok, so it’s been a while since our last blog but this one is uber exciting so it’s all ok.

For those of you not up on Scratch festival news, a few weeks ago our very own Wil Vincent managed to get into Sonisphere Festival and got to chat to quite a few well known acts from the lineup. Well, in case you missed the Facebook update, this weekend Rich Skelding has made his way into Bloodstock festival and will be bringing you all the highlights when he gets back!

It’s not just rock and metal that we’re covering though, it was revealed the other week that our very own Ben Stones will be popping along to this year’s sold out V Festival in Weston Park. He’s going to attempt to chat to a few of the big names on the lineup.

You can keep up with news, interviews and pictures from all the festivals we’re covering on Facebook, Twitter and the blog. We’ll also be bringing you all the festival highlights throughout Freshers in September!

It’s not just our festival coverage that’s exciting at the moment, our studio move is now well underway. Whilst we will be off air for a short period of time, this means we can move all our equipment and (carefully) attempt to put together the new studio in time for September.

In other news, for those of you who have recently logged onto the website, you may have noticed that we’ve managed to fix both the webcam and our streaming! We locked Ben in the studio until he fixed everything and he managed to get our webcam going. You can now log onto the website and see live pictures from our studio (or Scratch Studio 1 as it’s lovingly known).

Radio geeks out there will also be pleased to hear that we have now moved over to Shoutcast streaming technologies, which means for those who haven’t been able to connect to our stream before should now be able to listen! All you have to do is log onto the website and click ‘Listen Live’, which will launch our all new listen live player.

So, if that’s not enough exciting news for you then I don’t know what is! Stay tuned to our Facebook page for updates on the new studio, new website and plans for Freshers, in the meantime look out for festival updates right here on the Scratch Blog.

Scratch Radio’s Wil Vincent has made his way to this year’s Sonisphere Festival where he’s caught up with legendary Swedish heavy-metal band Europe…

Q: You played Bloodstock Festival last year, and you said people were surprised to see that you’re a lot heavier than they thought, does this happen often?
A: Yeah, everyone seems to attach us to “The Final Countdown”, and we went on the Bloodstock site and everyone was like “Europe are shit”, but when they actually saw us, they realised that we are heavier, and we can kick ass.

Q: Have you got a producer for you new album? Where you going to record it?
A: Yeah we have, we’re gonna record it back home. We don’t see any point in me flying all the way over to America to record an album, when I can do my bit in two days, and beside, I get to go home to a wife and a hot dinner, rather than some s***ty hotel food.

Q: Whats the worst bit about touring?
A: What really winds me up are all these refurbished venues. They all scream about how wonderful they are, yet nothing ever seems to work. On the last tour, I slept in the bus, thinking I could go into the venue and have a shower, and none of them ever worked! And everything either seemed to be dirty, or not working etc.

Q: Do your kids get any stick for being the son of the “Final Countdown bloke”?
A: Not as much as you’d think. My eldest son, who is almost 18, is with me at the moment, and came to the Peace and Love festival a few days back, and just camped by himself with his mates. He does get a bit proud though when he sees his dad rocking out with Europe.

Q: Do you think there is a difference between festivals now, and back in the day?
A: Yeah, cause there were hardly any festivals back then! In Sweeden there are so many now, and half of them are going bust as they cant get the line ups. Our tour manager says however that we always seem to play the good Festivals. I dunno if thats a compliment to them or us…

Good Afternoon all!

Despite the ever present threat of rain, all is good here at Knebworth! The live music is due to start within the next hour or so, and there is a great evening of entertainment lined up for the 30,000 campers to enjoy.

Delain will be opening up the festivities at 5pm this evening, but not before a World Record Attempt, to get as many people as possible to do the Time Warp. For those of you who don’t know what the Time Warp (or the Rocky Horror Show) is, SHAME ON YOU! However, you can see Team Sonisphere doing a practise run the other day…

The campsites are buzzing, the beer is being drunk like it’s going out of fashion, and the queues for the toilets are as long as ever… Wish you were here?

For those of you sat at home, we have got a number of interviews lined up this evening, EUROPE will be talking to us in a bit, followed by Karma to Burn, 65 days of Static, Never means Maybe, and Throats.

All interviews will be online at some point, so long as there remains a spare plug socket in the Press area. We’re right in front of Scuzz TV, and it’s hectic stuff! Anyway, enjoy the rest of your afternoon, and remember, It’s just a jump to the left…

Wil Vincent - Head of New Music