It’s turned out that V Fest lineup-spotting has been less engaging than I’d hoped. The first two waves of lineup announcements came in March and May, and the acts for the B-Live dance tent in July, but since then the expected final batch of names to fill out the lineup hasn’t appeared, and there’s just over a week to go.

So while there’ve been a few names quietly added to the lineup – Paper Lions, Matt Costa, Mark Robertson, Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains, Songs From A Room – it now seems that what we’ve got is what we’ve got, and that’s a leaner lineup in terms of both star power and simple numbers. In 2007, there were eight bands per day on the main stages and nine on the third stage, whereas if things stay as is for this year, there’ll be just seven acts on the two big stages and six on the small one. They could simply give each band a longer set time, which makes sense as far as satisfying the fans who have bought tickets because presumably there’s someone there they want to see, but as someone who was hoping for a moderately big, 11th hour addition to the bill if just to make things interesting, I’m a bit disappointed.

And oh yes, that third stage. It’s dubbed the “Oh Henry!” Stage and is tasked with showcasing up-and-coming Canadian acts, including the winner of a competition sponsored by the titular candy bar. But as dubious a setup as that might sound, there’s actually some decent talent appearing including London hip-hop artist Shad, whom I’d have thought as a Polaris Music Prize nominee might get invited to one of the big stages. Now as part of my duties as a grand jurist for the aforementioned prize, I’ve been listening rather closely to all ten of the nominated records including Shad’s The Old Prince, and while I don’t feel qualified to objectively discern good hip-hop from bad, I quite like this record – it’s got a nice flow and a lot of really clever wordplay – and like most everyone of a certain age, I like the just-released video for the almost sorta title track. Does that mean I’m going to be lobbying for it to win? Wouldn’t you like to know?

Back to V Fest – the lineup for the Oh Henry stage is as follows – Saturday will feature We Are The Take, Saint Alvia Cartel, Flash Lightnin’, Lights, Bad Flirt and The Waking Eyes while Sunday will have Winter Gloves, OPOPO, The Arkells, Rock Plaza Central, Shad and Secret Broadcast. On top of those I’ve collected names of a few more acts who, at least according to their websites or MySpaces, seem to think they’re playing V Fest – Jesse Krakow and Electric Touch… maybe you can busk? I dunno.

The schedule is promised soon, and that should answer pretty much everything though last year it didn’t show up until the Wednesday before, so things could remain ambiguous a little bit longer. But come on, you’re going just to hear “Wonderwall” and “Big Me” anyways, right? Right. And don’t forget I’m still giving away peripherally associated mobile phone accessories and CDs.

MP3: Shad – “I Don’t Like To”
MP3: Shad – “The Old Prince Still Lives At Home”
Video: Shad – “The Old Prince Still Lives At Home”
MySpace: Shad

JAM talks to Liam Gallagher of Oasis about his band, his brother, y’know – stuff. They kicked off their North American tour last night on the road to V. Dig Out Your Soul is out October 7.

Pitchfork reports that That Night A Forest Grew – the new EP from The Clientele previously mentioned here, is now available digitally at eMusic and will be out in physical form at a to-be-determined date. The Clientele played V Fest last year. They were great.

NME has news about Editors returning to the studio this Fall. They played V Fest last year. They were great.

PopMatters talks to Guy Garvey of Elbow. They should play V Fest this year. They’d be great.

Tiny Mix Tapes has a chat with Neil Halstead, manages to go five questions before broaching the subject of Slowdive. They also get updates on the state of Rachel Goswell’s health and Mojave 3 in general. He should play V Fest this year. He’d be great. Okay, I’ll stop.

The Irish Independent talks to Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine about the band’s Irish roots. The band are at the Ricoh Coliseum on September 25 (still giving away tickets!) and for a taste of what to expect, check out this video of the band’s recent performance in Japan. I daresay it sounds glorious.

Video: My Bloody Valentine – “To Here Knows When” (live at Fuji Rock Festival)

And for more reunited band live video footage, check out The Verve playing at the BBC Studios at Maida Vale. Forth came out this week and reviews are lukewarm.

Video: The Verve – “Love Is Noise” (live at Maida Vale)

Angry Ape reports that The Long Blondes will release a compilation of their early singles in a collection entitled Singles, set for release on October 20.