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Franz Ferdinand is a Scottish indie pop band from Glasgow. The line-up is: Alex Kapranos (vocals and guitar), Nick McCarthy, (guitar and keyboards), Bob Hardy (bass) and Paul Thomson (drums and backing vocals).

Franz Ferdinand: The Formative Years

Franz Ferdinand formed from the remnants of a number of Scottish indie bands, such as Yummy Fur, The Karelia and Embryo. Alex and Paul were both in Yummy Fur together and Alex taught Bob to play bass. When Nick returned to Scotland from Germany, he joined on guitar.

In 2003, Franz Ferdinand signed to Domino Records, the label that has released records by the likes of Pavement and Arctic Monkeys. That year, Domino released Darts of Pleasure and the band won the Phillip Hall Radar Award at the 2004 NME awards.

Ladyhawke, The Rumble Strips and Mr Hudson And The Library have been added to the line-up of the forthcoming Snowbombing 2009 festival, set to take place in Austria next year.

Eliza Doolittle will also perform at the event.

Previously-announced acts set to play at the bash include Dizzee Rascal, Reverend And The Makers, The Whip, and The Courteeners.

The Kings of Leon have won Best Album at the Shockwaves NME Awards .

The band’s fourth LP ‘Only By The Night’ triumphed at the ceremony, held at the O2 Academy Brixton in London.

The band themselves could not be there to pick up the award from ‘‘Bo Selecta’‘s Leigh Francis as they have a gig in Germany, but they sent a message of thanks exclusively toNME.COM.

“Without wanted to sound clichéd let me thank Britain,” frontman Caleb Followill declared. “If it weren’t for Britain we wouldn’t still be here. All the credit goes to our British fans who have supported us from day one. Also I want to thank Glastonbury, that’s the reason why we made the album – and let me thank my mom.”

A video acceptance speech from the band was also played in the room, which saw Kings Of Leon jokingly receive their award via hotel room service.

Omen is the first official single to be taken from The Prodigy’s highly anticipated album Invaders Must Die. A white hot shot of pure pumped-up, punk rock Prodigy adrenaline beamed straight into the moshpit from rave central, Omen is everything you have ever wanted from The Prodigy condensed into three eardrum bothering minutes.

The band put out a free download as a taster of what’s to come. This was a huge success and was hailed as the Hottest record in the world by Zane Lowe (Radio 1). On www.theprodigy.com the download and accompanying video stream received in excess of 1 million plays globally in the first 5 days and a further 350,000+ streams in the following week.

Invaders Must Die (available from 23rd February 2009) is 40 minutes of having your head battered by future nostalgia, serotonin levels twisted by feel-good horrorcore and your synapses snapped by whiplash attitude. It’s the sound of The Prodigy mixing up genres, contorting the past and rewiring the future, ram-raiding through the tranquility of music’s status quo like a blot on the landscape of England’s dreaming.