The Strokes have announced their first gig in over three years, grabbing the Saturday night headlining slot at the U.K.’s Isle of Wight Festival on June 11-13, 2010. New York City acts will have a big presence at the fest across the Atlantic as both Jay-Z and Blondie are also on the bill. Pink, Orbital and Squeeze will also perform at the fest. Jigga is no stranger to playing the British music festivals having already headlined Glastonbury in 2008, and the U.K. has already proven their love of the Strokes, with the NME naming the band’s debut Is This It the best album of the decade. Rolling Stone’s own decades poll will come out December 8th — and voting in our Readers Poll wraps today, so hurry and get those votes in!
Pending the announcement of any more dates, it’ll be the NYC quintet’s first gig since October 2006. Following their tour behind First Impressions of Earth, the bandmembers splintered into offshoots like Nickel Eye, Little Joy and Albert Hammond Jr. and Julian Casablancas’ namesake solo projects, but now there’s finally confirmed evidence that the Strokes’ long hibernation may be coming to an end. According to bassist Nikolai Fraiture’s Twitter, the band will reportedly reenter the studio in Los Angeles in January to continue work on their fourth album. The news comes after Casablancas admitted the band had a “disagreement” over the direction of the songs they had written.
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• Casablancas Says Strokes Are Divided Over Progress of Fourth LP
• Strokes Top NME’s Decade List: Vote in Rolling Stone’s Poll Now
• Julian Casablancas Gifts Fans “SNL” Christmas Song on MySpace
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily