Music news

• Blink-182 frontman Mark Hoppus diagnosed with cancer

  24-06-2021 11:09 via theguardian.com
  
  Singer and bassist says diagnosis ‘sucks and I’m scared’, and he is having chemotherapyMark Hoppus, the bassist and vocalist with pop-punk band Blink-182, has announced he has been diagnosed with cancer.In a statement on Twitter, he said he had been undergoing chemotherapy for three months, and has “months of treatment ahead of me ... It sucks and I’m scared, and at the same time I’m blessed with incredible doctors and family and friends to get me through this
  
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• Dionne Warwick review – fascinating look back is a little short on songs

  06-05-2024 13:42 via theguardian.com
  
  The Glasshouse, Gateshead
  Talking through a brave career dating back six decades, the 83-year-old is singing much less, but when the hits come the magic is still thereIn 1962, 21-year-old Dionne Warwick sang the Burt Bacharach and Hal David-penned Don’t Make Me Over to launch a career spanning six Grammys and 100m sales. More than six decades later, the soul legend opens with it here – although at 83 her voice understandably sounds more frail and vulnerable, giving new and moving mea
  
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• Drake denies allegations by Kendrick Lamar of underage sex and harbouring secret child

  06-05-2024 11:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Drake says ‘I feel disgusted’ by allegations, as enmity between rap superstars deepens following weekend flurry of diss tracksDrake has denied allegations of child sex offences and of him harbouring a secret child, both levelled at him by Kendrick Lamar in recent days.The enmity between the rap superstars has escalated over a series of diss tracks in the past few weeks, culminating in a flurry of activity during the weekend with three tracks by Lamar and two by Drake. Continue readin
  
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• ‘People think it’s just for emo or gothic kids’: the Kenyan metalhead leading a new wave of African rock

  06-05-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Martin Kanja, AKA Lord Spikeheart, covers everything from colonialism to his grandmother in music that mixes African culture with metal. He hopes to help more artists like him break throughAs a teenager, Martin Kanja spent countless late nights listening to heavy metal on a local radio show. The furious riffs, shrieks, growls and distorted sounds drowned out his angst. “What drew me to the music was how it was so ‘physical’ – very present, very now – there was no sp
  
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• The Pogues review – triumphant tribute to energy and poetry of band’s early days

  05-05-2024 17:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Hackney Empire, London
  An inspired cast of guests from Nadine Shah to Jim Sclavunos stand in for the late Shane MacGowan in a raucous run-through of the band’s debut album and other highlightsWith late frontman Shane MacGowan replaced by a succession of guests, this 40th anniversary show for the Pogues’ debut album, Red Roses For Me, could so easily have been a pale imitation, glorified karaoke. And yet, it’s utterly triumphant. There are no overwrought speeches during this eve
  
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• Free Madonna concert draws crowd of 1.6m to Brazil’s Copacabana beach

  05-05-2024 16:26 via theguardian.com
  
  Area around Rio de Janeiro beach filled for several blocks as singer closes her Celebration world tourWith the world-famous statue towering over it from Corcovado mountain, Rio de Janeiro is well used to Christ the Redeemer. For one night only this weekend, it also had Madonna.More than a million people thronged Copacabana beach on Saturday night, turning its vast stretch of sand into a massive dancefloor for a free concert by the pop star as she completed her world tour. Continue reading...
  
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• Keane review – note-perfect return with added emotional wallop

  05-05-2024 12:43 via theguardian.com
  
  First Direct Arena, Leeds
  TikTok phenomenon Somewhere Only We Know inspires much hugging and joy, but the band led by a revived Tom Chaplin are more than just a one-hit wonderAfter the chart-steamrollering success of their 2004 debut album Hopes and Fears, singer Tom Chaplin’s drug and alcohol addiction meant things had gone badly awry by the time Keane took an “indefinite hiatus” 10 years ago. However, here they are, packing out arenas at least partly due to the startling seco
  
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• Dua Lipa: Radical Optimism review – a banger-filled missive from dating land

  04-05-2024 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  (Warner)
  Talk of a new musical direction proves unfounded as the Grammy-winning singer’s third album shares more retro-inspired dance pop and lessons from her love lifeDua Lipa’s last album, 2020’s Future Nostalgia, moved the cultural dial. Released into the pandemic, it was ubiquitous, neon-hued and life-affirming, winning two Brits and her third Grammy overall, confirming Lipa as an international superstar. It also kicked off a disco revival boom echoed through numerous other
  
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• Unknown singer stands in for Olly Murs at last-minute as Take That support in Glasgow

  04-05-2024 14:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Daniel Rooney stood in at 30 minutes’ notice on Friday night when Murs’ flight from London was cancelledA Scottish singer has said he is “still on a high” after being plucked from obscurity to replace Olly Murs as the opening act for Take That at the last minute.Murs was due to open for Take That at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow on Friday but had to pull out after getting stuck in London when his flight was cancelled. Continue reading...
  
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• Sabrina Carpenter: how the Espresso singer became a piping hot pop prospect

  04-05-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  She’s set to depose Taylor Swift from No 1 and has the most-streamed song in the world this week – the culmination of a decade of slow-burn successCapped with one of the most brilliantly nonsensical chorus lines in pop history – “That’s that me, espresso” – Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso is the most streamed song in the world this week, deposed Taylor Swift as the UK’s No 1 single yesterday and is shaping up to be the critics’ pick for th
  
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• One to watch: Fat Dog

  04-05-2024 13:30 via theguardian.com
  
  With a riotous sound part Nine Inch Nails, part Depeche Mode, the south London five-piece are shoo-ins for a mainstage festival slotSouth London-based Fat Dog are the latest band signed by Domino, the label behind acts such as Wet Leg, Arctic Monkeys and Hot Chip. Formed during lockdown, the quintet have built a word-of-mouth reputation thanks to their boisterous live performances: moshpits are commonplace, and drummer, Johnny “Doghead” Hutchinson, plays in a latex dog mask. Their mu
  
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• Keane’s Tom Chaplin and Tim Rice-Oxley look back: ‘Long friendships are like a marriage. You have to adapt to each other’s madness’

  04-05-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The founding members of the band on early gigs, a magical brush with a Beatle, and being lifelong friendsTom Chaplin and Tim Rice-Oxley are childhood friends and founding members of Keane, a group from Battle, East Sussex. The band formed in 1995 and released their debut album, Hopes and Fears, in 2004. It won them a Brit award, and became one of the bestselling albums in UK chart history. The band took a hiatus in 2013, with Chaplin releasing a solo album and Rice-Oxley forming side projec
  
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• Sharleen Spiteri: ‘I love getting old – I love the freedom it allows you’

  04-05-2024 10:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The Texas singer on her crush on Emma Stone, a faux pas in France, and why the news makes her cryBorn in Scotland, Sharleen Spiteri, 56, worked as a hairdresser before forming Texas with Johnny McElhone aged 17. They went on to have hits I Don’t Want a Lover, Say What You Want and Inner Smile. Last year they released The Very Best of 1989-2023 and played Glastonbury. This March, Texas released The Muscle Shoals Sessions with Spooner Oldham, and in September there will be a UK arena to
  
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• ‘When I became a meme it was humiliating and hurtful’: Dua Lipa on pop, psychedelics and proving her haters wrong

  04-05-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  For two years, a viral joke mocking the singer’s dancing threatened to overshadow her record-breaking success – but the laser-focused star had the last laugh. And now she has her sights set on building a media empireThe London hotel room is huge, with a grand piano in one corner. In the middle is a stash of crisps, nuts and drinks, laid out as if we were in a high-end store. And on a sofa I can just about make out Dua Lipa, lost in the vastness. She could be a top footballer –
  
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• ‘I was sad in a way I never knew possible’: Yaya Bey on grief, poverty and using music as therapy

  03-05-2024 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The end of a marriage, the chaos of Covid and the death of her father hit the R&B auteur hard. But she says that she has found beauty in despair“My life has been a whirlwind,” sighs Yaya Bey. Across a turbulent near-decade, the R&B auteur has weathered divorce and bereavement, relocated from Washington DC back home to New York and wrested control of her musical direction. Her 2022 breakthrough, Remember Your North Star, fused homespun neo-soul with hip-hop
  
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• Goblin Band: Come Slack Your Horse! review – rowdy, flamboyant folk

  03-05-2024 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  (Broadside Hacks)
  Born out of a London musical instruments shop where members worked, the Paul McCartney-approved band’s first EP is eager and theatrical, sometimes to a faultFolk’s latest fresh-faced, vintage garb-wearing sensations formed around central London musical instrument shop Hobgoblin where several members worked (hence the band name), ran sessions in Matchstick Piehouse (the recently closed radical south London arts space known for jazz and cabaret nights) and are a spraw
  
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• Universal signs TikTok deal allowing artists back on platform

  02-05-2024 16:43 via theguardian.com
  
  Music group pulled content amid row over issues such as deepfake AI-generated music and artists’ compensationTikTok and Universal Music Group have reached a deal that will allow songs and artists from its labels including Olivia Rodrigo and Drake to return to the video-sharing app.The world’s largest music company began pulling content from TikTok in February after falling out with it over issues including artist compensation and the use of artificial intelligence-generated music on
  
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• ‘Who wants to stare at a computer?’ Pop duo the Lemon Twigs on the joys of analogue life

  02-05-2024 16:11 via theguardian.com
  
  As teenagers, the New York brothers swiftly rose to become retro pop darlings – until they weren’t. Now older, wiser and taking inspiration from the travails of their family, they’re making their best music yetThe Lemon Twigs are deep in one of the great songwriting grooves of the 21st century. Or is it the previous century? Their new album, A Dream is All We Know, is a fabulous pop confection that magically transports the listener to the idyll of Abbey Road studios in 1966, if
  
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• ‘Thekla runs a tight ship’: Bristol’s floating venue marks 40 years at dock

  02-05-2024 14:27 via theguardian.com
  
  Vessel which has hosted acts from Pulp to Stormzy to celebrate anniversary with series of shows, exhibition and bookIt started life as a cargo ship transporting timber around the Baltic Sea, but for the last four decades it has been moored in the Mud Dock area of Bristol’s floating harbour, hosting music acts from Pulp to Stormzy, helping launch the city’s drum‘n’bass and trip-hop scenes and providing a bobbing canvas for the street artist Banksy.Thekla, one of south-west
  
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• ‘Musical soulmates’: the extraordinary story of The Piano sensation Lucy and her doting teacher

  02-05-2024 13:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Lucy Illingworth wowed audiences on the TV talent show, but her journey started as a toddler with dedicated tutor Daniel Bath. Now, a documentary shows how they did it – and the shocking moment a royal disaster almost stopped themLucy Illingworth is the breakout star of the ivory-tinkling TV talent show The Piano. When the teenager, who is blind and neurodivergent, sat down at Leeds railway station, then 13, her rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne in B-flat minor brought rush-hour crowds
  
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• Duane Eddy’s twang remains one of rock’n’roll’s greatest sounds

  02-05-2024 11:42 via theguardian.com
  
  The late guitarist was rightly ubiquitous in the late 1950s thanks to his otherworldly sound, earning admirers from Bruce Springsteen to John PeelYou could get the measure of Duane Eddy – who has died aged 86 – from a selection of his album titles: Have “Twangy” Guitar Will Travel (1958, his debut), The “Twangs” the “Thang” (1959), $1,000,000.00 Worth of Twang (1960, with Volume 2 in 1962), Twistin’ ’n’ Twangin (1962), “Twan
  
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• Richard Tandy, ELO keyboardist who shaped band’s futuristic sound, dies aged 76

  02-05-2024 02:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Electric Light Orchestra leader Jeff Lynne announces death of ‘remarkable musician and friend’ who played everything from the Minimoog to the ClavinetRichard Tandy, the keyboardist in Electric Light Orchestra who shaped much of the British rock band’s sound, has died aged 76.His death was announced by the ELO leader Jeff Lynne, who wrote on social media: “He was a remarkable musician and friend and I’ll cherish the lifetime of memories we had together.” A caus
  
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• Olivia Rodrigo gigs called off as chaos continues at Manchester’s Co-op Live

  02-05-2024 00:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Postponements come hours after queueing fans were turned away from A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie gig on Wednesday eveningThe troubled Co-op Live arena has postponed Olivia Rodrigo’s concerts as part of her Guts world tour because of a “technical issue”, hours after the last-minute cancellation of its opening concert for the third time.Two hours after announcing that A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie would no longer be performing, the venue confirmed that Rodrigo’s concerts on 3 and 4 May h
  
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• ‘We handed out raw fish to clubbers’: the mind-bending acid house tour of London

  30-04-2024 17:10 via theguardian.com
  
  George Georgiou gave British rave culture its smiley face. Now he’s placing plaques where hardcore clubbers sweated till dawn. Our writer joins the designer – and DJs Danny Rampling and Nicky Holloway – on a face-melting trip‘I remember this street being covered with hundreds of these all over the floor,” says George Georgiou, handing me an original smiley-face flyer he designed for the acid house club night Shoom. “I wish I’d picked them up because now
  
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• ‘I wasn’t worried about what gringos wanted!’ Ludmilla, Brazil’s next pop superstar

  30-04-2024 16:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Already the most listened-to Black artist in Brazil and a favourite of Beyoncé, Ludmilla has a whole new audience after her viral Coachella show. She discusses the racism and homophobia she’s had to face getting this farIn between her two-weekend debut at Coachella earlier this month, while the first concert was going viral, the Brazilian singer Ludmilla did business meetings, spent a day in Miami and kicked off new music projects. This interview took place on her way back from a sh
  
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• MC Conrad, acclaimed drum’n’bass vocalist, dies aged 52

  30-04-2024 16:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Rapper and singer was acclaimed for partnership with producer LTJ Bukem, and went on to become a producer and label head in his own rightMC Conrad, the vocalist who helped broaden and deepen the scope for jungle and drum’n’bass during the 1990s and beyond, has died aged 52. The news was confirmed by his agency Clinic Talent, who paid tribute saying: “One of the most recognisable and best-loved voices in D&B, he leaves behind him an unmatched legacy.”No cause of death
  
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• ‘Bowie told me it’s OK to be messy’: the starry life and strife of singer-songwriter Lawrence Rothman

  30-04-2024 12:55 via theguardian.com
  
  They’ve played with everyone from Lucinda Williams to a pre-fame Billie Eilish. Now, on their intensely personal new album, they confront the trauma of being pistol-whipped and dealing with an eating disorderLawrence Rothman has lived a lot of lives: in the early aughts, they performed under the name Lillian Berlin in the ultra-political hard rock band Living Things. They’ve been a model, posing with Kate Moss in a 2008 Roberto Cavalli ad; and with their wife, Floria Sigismondi, dire
  
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• Tell us your experiences of making a living from music

  30-04-2024 12:22 via theguardian.com
  
  We would like to hear from professional musicians about how they make a living from their work and the obstacles they faceMusicians playing smaller venues are facing low fees, high costs, and frequent losses. We would like to hear from professional musicians of all levels about how they make a living from their work and the obstacles they face.Have you experienced issues with the costs of playing live or recording? Have you found a way to get around it? Tell us all about it below. Continue readi
  
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• Everyone Knows That: internet music mystery solved via 1986 adult movie

  29-04-2024 12:55 via theguardian.com
  
  The search for song that has consumed thousands of Reddit users is over, with discovery that it was written for pornographic filmIt’s a musical mystery that has been confounding the internet for years. But an ultra-catchy 80s-sounding song that seemingly no one could identify has finally been tracked down – in a 1986 adult movie.A snippet of the song, known as Everyone Knows That – a low-quality, warped recording that nevertheless showed off the song’s huge pop appeal &nd
  
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• ‘Scalding emotional intensity’: Geoff Dyer on the spiritual power of saxophonist Zoh Amba

  29-04-2024 11:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Still only 23, the US saxophonist is channelling the free jazz pioneered by Albert Ayler in the 60s – and making hugely profound, wildly uplifting music Interviewed many years after the experience, Don Cherry said he would “never forget” the first time he heard the tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler. That was in Copenhagen in 1963.I’ll never forget the time I first heard Zoh Amba, last March, at the Big Ears festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. A wealth of competing options at t
  
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