Music news

• Songwriter, music producer 'Buddy' Buie dies in Alabama

  19-07-2015 22:55
  
  EUFAULA, Ala. (AP) — Perry "Buddy" Buie, a songwriter and producer who helped form the Atlanta Rhythm Section and then fuel its success with the lyrics he wrote for the band, has died. He was 74.
  
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• Man Drowns In Demi Moore's Swimming Pool

  19-07-2015 20:50
  
  Partygoer found dead in the early hours of Sunday morning...
  
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• Bruce Springsteen rocks the Jersey Shore with surprise bar gig

  19-07-2015 19:52
  
  The Boss runs through 15 songs at Wonder Bar in rare impromptu performance during Asbury Park show by Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers Patrons of a Jersey shore bar had a night to remember when Bruce Springsteen gave a surprise show that lasted for nearly two hours.The Boss performed 15 songs on Saturday night at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, mixing in favorites that spanned his career. He concluded the show with Light of Day, which he dedicated to the huge crowd of people watching from the s
  
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• John Taylor obituary

  19-07-2015 19:40
  
  One of the great jazz pianists and composers of his generation, he was a co-founder of the Azimuth trioLess than two weeks ago, the septuagenarians Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea were leaving the Barbican stage in London to a standing ovation for their free-spirited piano partnership, and the rich shared experiences that fuelled it. The show spurred reflections on how widespread the two Americans’ influence – and that of fellow citizens Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner and Brad Mehldau – has bee
  
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• 50 Cent and G Unit review – bouncy braggadocio from bankrupt hip-hop star

  19-07-2015 18:31
  
  London O2 Arena
  His current financial problems are making for some unpleasant headlines, but tonight 50 Cent is all smilesTo shed light on 50 Cent’s much-publicised finances, I have brought Josh, an accountant, with me to the O2 Arena. Josh speculates that 50 Cent has put one of his companies into chapter 11 bankruptcy (the restructuring kind) as a stalling tactic. A court has ordered that he must pay $5m in damages to Lastonia Leviston – who has a child with 50’s rival MC R
  
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• Terry Riley review – minimalist shaman still delivering joyous futurism at 80

  19-07-2015 18:23
  
  Barbican, London
  A mixed programme of new orchestral pieces and extended solo freakouts from one of music’s great experimenters proves hypnotic, ecstatic and somehow reassuring Terry Riley has become a totemic presence in music over the past half-century: a pioneer of minimalism, a godfather of sampling and ambient house, and a shamanic hero to generations of hipsters. As he celebrates his 80th birthday, it’s something of a shock to see him on stage – fulsome beard, pink scarf, grey tweed
  
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• Bette Midler review – a whirl through the years by a star with true charm

  19-07-2015 18:13
  
  The 02, London
  Bette Midler delivers songs, stories and irreverence by the bucketload on her first UK tour in 35 years“I’ve seen it all and done it all,” says Bette Midler, who is back touring the UK after an absence of 35 years. “And tonight I intend to repeat what I can remember.”Thankfully, Midler’s recall of a career that has seen her evolve from comedian to Grammy-scoring singer and Oscar-nominated actor is acute. And for almost two hours, she takes us on a whirlwind ride throug
  
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• Lovebox 2015 review – dance festival adds variety but dilutes its core ethos

  19-07-2015 18:10
  
  Victoria Park, London
  There’s something for everyone at the 13th edition of Groove Armada’s dance festival – but there’s also a sense that some of its original spirit is being lostLovebox has become the everyman’s party. Twelve years since its inception and a decade since it grew from a one-day do into a weekend-long event, the festival finds itself stretched across an increasingly broad range of genres. The resulting mixture of performers, punters and brand-sponsored micro-experi
  
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• Oh No! Rita Ora 'Splits From BF Ricky Hil'

  19-07-2015 16:38
  
  Pressures of work blamed for pop star's latest break-up...
  
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• Latitude festival review – surprise guests Ed Sheeran and Thom Yorke steal the spotlight

  19-07-2015 15:18
  
  Henham Park, SuffolkFestival continues to master unchallenging offering of the arts’ most excellent – with Portishead providing a stark and chilling headline set As the industrial cacophony of Portishead’s Machine Gun hammers its way across Suffolk on Saturday night, the stage flanked by two monster-sized images of David Cameron, lasers instead of eyes, you can’t help but wonder if there’s a more jovial way to celebrate a birthday than a stark reminder of austerity Britain. Latitude tu
  
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• Paul Rudd & The Cast Of Ant-Man Play 'Would You Rather?': ANT EDITION

  19-07-2015 14:37
  
  Would Paul Rudd and co. rather date a giant ant or a tiny person?
  
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• Well Wookiee Here, It's A New Star Wars Teaser Pic

  19-07-2015 14:13
  
  John Boyega posts snap of himself in character alongside Chewbacca...
  
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• Kylie Jenner Shows Off Cleavage As She Parties With Kendall And Cara D

  19-07-2015 13:13
  
  Reality TV star clutches her chest as she films saucy video clips...
  
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• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 Gets New Teaser

  19-07-2015 11:49
  
  Fans get a sneak peek at forthcoming movie trailer...
  
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• Simon Cowell: I Told Louis To Man Up Over Baby News

  19-07-2015 11:16
  
  Pop supremo says he gave One Direction star a reality check...
  
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• Naughty Boy Hits Back At Zayn Malik Over Twitter Attack

  19-07-2015 10:21
  
  Producer feels wounded by ex-One Directioner's recent comments...
  
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• Speech Debelle: ‘Man, the music business is cold’

  19-07-2015 10:00
  
  Three years after winning the Mercury prize, the rapper suffered a major meltdown. Now, as she’s about to perform her new album, she reveals why she’s back on stageOn 8 September 2009, Speech Debelle’s career began to unravel. That evening, the British rapper’s debut beat albums by indie favourites Kasabian, the Horrors and Florence + the Machine to scoop the Mercury music prize. Speech Therapy mixed jazz-leaning beats, which were largely created on acoustic instruments, including the cl
  
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• Tame Impala: Currents review – one of the year’s great heartbreak records

  19-07-2015 10:00
  
  (Fiction)
  Tame Impala fans would be wise to regard the band’s third album not as a Tame Impala album at all, but one by a band called something like Domesticated Eland. Although Kevin Parker once again plays virtually every note on this self-produced record, as he did on his previous two outings, the heady hit album Lonerism (2012) and its predecessor, 2010’s Innerspeaker, Currents sounds little like the work of Australia’s pre-eminent psychedelic rock hero.The pedal-laden guitars are
  
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• Noel Gallagher: relationship with my brother was Oasis's achilles heel

  19-07-2015 09:27
  
  Guitarist shares bittersweet memories of brother Liam on Desert Island Discs, along with a defence of Britpop and New Labour
  Cast away on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Noel Gallagher is to reveal the secret of his relationship with his brother, Liam, and to mount a sturdy defence of the 1990s, the era of BritPop and New Labour.
  He will also comment on his use of drugs and on his status as a songwriter, explaining ruefully: “Put it this way, I am not as revered by the press as Thom Yorke
  
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• Former AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd back behind bars in New Zealand

  19-07-2015 09:20
  
  Rudd is set to appear in Tauranga district court on Monday morning, less than two weeks after being sentenced on drug and threatening to kill chargesRelated: Phil Rudd, AC/DC drummer, sentenced to home detention for threat to kill Former AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd is back behind bars just 10 days after being sentenced on drug and threatening to kill charges in New Zealand.Continue reading...
  
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• Kreutzer vs Kreutzer; Lakmé review – love affairs with strings attached

  19-07-2015 09:05
  
  Sam Wanamaker Playhouse; Opera Holland Park, London
  Beethoven, Janácek and private passions are played out to perfection in Laura Wade’s Kreutzer vs Kreutzer. And against the odds, Lakmé soarsChamber music has its risks. The murderer in Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata believes Beethoven’s work, which gives the 1889 novella its name, is too hot to handle in polite society, let alone in the privacy of one’s own home. Tolstoy spins a tale of obsession in which a husband, with fatal conseque
  
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• Raury review – a showman beyond his years

  19-07-2015 09:00
  
  Village Underground, London
  Young Atlantan Raury further blurs the lines between genresStanding in front of a stadium-size drumkit, backlit by blinding strobes, is a skinny Georgia teenager wearing a broad-brimmed hat. His chest is bare, but a diaphanous white shirt billows around his torso as he busts nimble moves with the mic stand. This is Raury, “just 19 year old,” he declares, from Atlanta, a showman beyond his years. We’re in a smallish train shed of a venue, but he’s playing it li
  
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• Awakenings review – guitarist Declan Zapala mixes it up

  19-07-2015 09:00
  
  Declan Zapala (guitar)
  (STR:UK)My colleague Ed Vulliamy wrote a persuasive opinion piece in the Observer last week on the need to break down barriers in music; to end the pointless divisions between “pop” and “classical” (note the labels on this page… ). Young British guitarist Declan Zapala is doing just that, in appearances around the country and on this debut disc, mixing short new compositions of his own and others with Bach preludes and a suite by the Italian guitarist Carlo Domen
  
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• Steve Tilston: Truth to Tell review – Danny Collins’s inspiration in reflective mood

  19-07-2015 09:00
  
  (Proper)The veteran English folkie has taken an unexpected twirl in the spotlight recently as the inspiration for Hollywood’s Danny Collins, the story of a musician who receives a letter from John Lennon 34 years after it was posted. Al Pacino takes Tilston’s role. Here, the songwriter casts a lingering look over his career since that 1971 postcard, paying tribute to the influential Soho folk scene on Grass Days, mourning a friend on The Way It Was, and nodding to Nick Drake on The Riverman
  
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• Samantha Crain: Under Branch and Thorn and Tree review – sad but strangely uplifting

  19-07-2015 09:00
  
  (Full Time Hobby)Samantha Crain has been championed and invited on tour by folk sisters First Aid Kit, though where their music supplies ringing harmonies and dappled sunlight, something more solemn broods within hers. Crain’s songs are often peopled by outsiders struggling against bitter circumstances; Elk City imagines a woman eking out a life in a crumbling town, You or the Mystery addresses a reclusive neighbour found dead in his kitchen. But though many of these songs are racked with sadn
  
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• Ms Mr: How Does It Feel review – diminishing returns

  19-07-2015 09:00
  
  (RCA)Secondhand Rapture, the 2013 debut by New York alt.pop duo Lizzy Plapinger and Max Hershenow, suffered from the distraction of the album’s accompanying visuals, Secondhand Captures. Sensibly, the songs are left this time to sink or swim on their own merits. At first, this seems to work: Painted is an arresting opener, Plapinger’s multitracked vocals repeatedly asking: “What did you think would happen?”, offset by Hershenow’s house-influenced euphoric backing; the more introspectiv
  
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• Bach: Cello Suites CD review – a definitive account from David Watkin

  19-07-2015 09:00
  
  David Watkin (cello)
  (Resonus)Using two historic instruments and playing on gut strings, David Watkin gives a definitive period instrument account of Bach’s six solo Cello Suites. It should be in any Bach lover’s collection. One can only marvel at Watkin’s range of colour, his elegance, his verve, variety and spontaneity – above all his understanding of line and pulse. He has long been one of the top cellists around, as soloist, quartet player and principal cellist of the Scottish Chambe
  
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• Magnifique: Ratatat review – after five albums, the charm is running thin

  19-07-2015 09:00
  
  (XL)If you haven’t checked in with Ratatat since their debut in 2004, you’ll be reassured – or nonplussed – to hear that not much has changed in the interim. After a slight detour on their last two records, which attempted to diversify their sound by introducing new instruments and global influences, this fifth album pares it back to the basics: solid instrumental tracks layered with spacey effects and squealing guitars. The urge to sound up to date on tracks such as Cream on Chrome is o
  
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• Alex Hutton Trio: Magna Carta Suite review – happy hybrid

  19-07-2015 09:00
  
  (F-ire)To combine jazz and classical music was the aim of American composer and musicologist Gunther Schuller, who died last month, aged 89. He called his hybrid form “Third Stream” but, despite the collaboration of Bill Evans, Ornette Coleman and others, it never really took off. That was in the early 60s. Now, half a century later, the mixture seems quite natural. Alex Hutton’s suite is a distinguished example. To his own jazz trio (piano, bass, drums) are added cor anglais and baroque f
  
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• Badly Drawn Boy star Damon Gough: I needed a break from music after marriage split

  19-07-2015 01:02
  
  The songwriter is revisiting his debut album to mark its 15th anniversary, but says new track are on the way.
  
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