Alton Towers Live! Saturday 6 July 2013

Olly Murs, one of the most successful pop stars of the past decade. In just three years, he’s crafted three albums which have produced four No 1 singles, and a further three Top 20 hits.

First album Olly Murs (2010) has gone double-platinum and second album In Case You Didn’t Know (2011) is at almost triple-platinum sales. His 2012 album Right Place Right Time shot to the top of the albums chart immediately on release – giving Olly the biggest week one sales by a male artist in 2012! Olly also managed the rare feat of being top of the albums and singles chart simultaneously when Troublemaker hit the top spot for a second week.

Olly has just been announced as special guest on Robbie Williams’ European Stadium tour – add that to Olly’s already huge UK arena tour and it’s easy to see that 2013 belongs to him.

Rizzle Kicks are the most exciting British pop-rap duo since, well, ever. They are a radiant burst of bright, brilliant colour and attitude, with a something-for-everyone approach that means their music has serious cross-generational appeal.

Hardly surprising, then, that they have sold over 300,000 albums and over a million singles in under a year. Since the release of their warm up single, Prophet (Better Watch It), they have been unstoppable. Their first official single, Down With The Trumpets, hit the Top 10, swiftly followed by Heart Skips A Beat, a collaboration with X Factor star Olly Murs and a number 1 smash in August 2011, then When I Was A Youngster and finally Mama Do The Hump, which was one of the biggest selling singles of 2012.

Their live shows, including a high-energy unit of a guitarist, drummer, bass player and trumpet player, have received rave reviews including a recent 4* review from the Evening Standard who called them a "ray of sunshine for cloudy times."

Rizzle Kicks are currently working on their second studio album (due for release in summer 2013).

In just two years, multi-talented musician Labrinth has experienced an extraordinary career trajectory. The producer and writer behind some of the biggest songs of the last 18 months, has taken Tinie Tempah to the top of the charts and orchestrated the triumphant return of Ms.Dynamite. Now he can add performer to his ever expanding CV, hitting the number 2 spot with ‘Earthquake’ and then grabbing his first UK number 1 with the BRIT nominated ‘Beneath Your Beautiful’.

Labrinth signed to Syco in June 2010, becoming the first act in six years to not join the label via a TV platform. Rarely do you see such an incredible amount of creative output emanate from one person. Gifted to the point of genius, Labrinth is also stylish, smart and, importantly, incredibly likeable. With an ability to think in a way that is genuinely unique, his potential is limitless. He’s already created hits in the past and has others out presently, but for the future, it’s Labrinth the solo artist we should be most excited about.

Little Mix may have been brought together on The X Factor but you can't manufacture chemistry, that indefinable quality that so few bands possess but Jesy, Jade, Leigh-Anne and Perrie have in spades. The first girl band, nay band, ever to win The X Factor, there's is a unique bond cemented via their shared experiences on the show and one that comes across as a very modern take on girl power in their songs. As their debut single proper Wings has it: "These wings are made to fly" and that's exactly what they've been doing for the past twelve months. With a platinum debut album and their first UK tour selling out venues all across the country, Little Mix are now ready to conquer the rest of the world in 2013.

In less than a year, James Arthur’s life has been utterly transformed. At the start of 2012, James was living in a cramped bedsit near Middlesbrough. Blessed with a voice aching with longing and pure spine-tingling soul, James could see no way to share his unique talent with the world.

Fast forward to early 2013 and 24-year-old James is performing to more than 10,000 people each night in arenas around the UK as the deserving headliner of ‘The X Factor Live Tour’. James never imagined he might find himself here - with a huge No1 single under his belt, a burgeoning fan base and demonstrating every day why he is being lauded as Britain's next big star.

Having won The X Factor 2012, James went on to have the fastest selling single of the year with ‘Impossible’. In just five weeks, it reached the No1 spot and sold more than one million copies. It was also nominated as the Best British Single at the 2013 BRIT Awards. At long last, the world is ready to listen to James Arthur.

Occasionally, a talent descends upon planet pop whose arrival is utterly meteoric; Conor Maynard’s collision into the UK consciousness has been just such an incredible impact, with ripples emanating around the globe.

Making his name online with captivating cover versions of Usher, Drake and the Kings of Leon, Conor’s innate ability to make other people’s tracks his own saw his online stats spiral stratospherically. Now counting 90 million combined YouTube views, nearly 300,000 Twitter followers and 400,000 Facebook Likes, Conor was also the winner of MTV’s fan-voted Brand New for 2012 in January. He followed that award with the announcement of another prestigious gong, the TAG Newcomer Award of 2012 at the Nordoff Robbins Silver Clef Awards. All this is a result of Conor’s distinctive musical merit alongside his naturally appealing personality. So it’s no wonder that both Ne-Yo and Pharrell Williams showed interest in signing the Brighton teen and with those ambitions thwarted opted to work with him on his stunning debut album, Contrast.

With his already impressive digital statistics continuing to sky-rocket, Conor Maynard is set to become one of pop’s hottest picks. Up next is presumable global domination, award ceremonies and multi-platinum sales on an international level.

The first rule of Stooshe? There are no rules! Utterly uninterested in following the formula, this London-based three-piece have not only disregarded the girlband code of conduct, they’ve ripped it into shreds. Alex, Courtney and Karis are three brilliantly distinct personalities and their sound is as bold as it is edgy. Describing their entire philosophy as ‘GhettRo’, they combine Salt & Pepa with Odd Future, En Vogue with Jay-Z and TLC with The Supremes.

Following an early N-Dubz support and thousands of downloads of their free mixtape ‘The Stoosh Tape’, the lyric video to debut single ‘Betty Woz Gone’ became a YouTube smash, attracting over 150,000 views in two days, making it the most viewed video in the UK. Stooshe soon made that vital transition from online popularity to real world sales with the release of their first full single ‘Love Me’ which catapulted them straight in at #5 in the charts. Next single, ‘Black Heart’, peaked even higher at #3 but its longevity proves to be even more impressive.

Now Stooshe are preparing to unleash their eagerly anticipated debut album, produced in the main by pop curators Future Cut (Lily Allen, Plan B, Wretch 32, Professor Green, Kelis), which looks set to cement their reputation.

X Factor 2012 changed the lives of Union J, a four-piece boy band consisting of band members Josh, Jamie, James and George. Put together at X Factor Bootcamp from two separate acts (Triple J and soloist George Shelley), Union J's judges' houses performance of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" earned them a spot in the live shows. They immediately proved the most popular act among social media users, going on to finish fourth in the competition. Now signed to RCA, it looks like 2013 will be the year of Union J. One Direction better watch out, there’s a new boy band in town.

Exciting new British band The Vamps, who have just signed their first record deal with EMI, will be opening the show at Alton Towers Live this July! The Vamps are an acoustic-driven Indie pop band whose cover of One Direction's ''Live While We're Young'' turned them into an internet sensation with over 300k views in just one week. They now have over 100k followers on Twitter and have celebrity fans including McFly, who are currently touring with!