Published: May 24, 2023| 10:46 AM

This year the opening concert of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, traditionally held for the public on a stage in front of the Hotel Thermal, will feature a very special guest. Besides the previously announced performance by Russell Crowe with his band Indoor Garden Party, the concert will also feature legendary British band Morcheeba.

London’s Morcheeba was founded in 1995 by brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey and vocalist Skye Edwards. The band debuted with the EP Trigger Hippie, thanks to which they got a contract with a record company. In 1996, they released their debut album Who Can You Trust? and began to perform live. Over the following years, the band went on to achieve international renown. Critics generally consider their 1998 album Big Calm to be their breakthrough moment. This was followed by Fragments of Freedom (2000) and Charango (2002). To date, the band has released ten studio albums, which have yielded numerous hits such as “The Sea” and “Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day.”

Since the mid-1990s, Morcheeba has been a defining force on the international music scene. Its lineup has undergone some changes over its three decades of existence. Skye Edwards left the band in 2003, only to rejoin in 2009 and subsequently record Blood Like Lemonade (2010) and Head up High (2013). Paul Godfrey left in 2015. Today, the band consists mainly of the writing and performing duo of Skye Edwards and Ross Godfrey. Their most recent album, Blackest Blue, was released in 2021 and has been called one of their best ever.

Morcheeba has performed in the Czech Republic on numerous occasions, most recently at the Metronome Prague Warm Up festival in September 2021, and before that it supported the online “pandemic” concert Národ sobě – kultura tobě with the world premiere of a song from Blackest Blue.

In Karlovy Vary, Morcheeba will perform at the opening concert of the Karlovy Vary film festival in front of the Hotel Thermal at 7pm on 30 June. Admission is free!

The concert by Indoor Garden Party with Russell Crowe begins in front of the Hotel Thermal at 10:45pm. It, too, is free.