Music News

Bill Ward won't rejoin Black Sabbath unless Ozzy Osbourne apologises to him.
The band's original drummer has been feuding with his one-time bandmates since 2012, when he opted out of the group's reunion over what he called an "unsignable" contract.
Black Sabbath are currently working on a new album following the success of their 2013 comeback LP '13' and sell-out tour, but Bill is adamant he won't get back with the band, unless the singer admits that some of the statements he made about him "were untrue".
Bill said: "With a sad heart, I have to say I will not participate in any musical undertakings until a righting of the wrongs spoken against me has been achieved. I must admit, I have little to no expectations of this happening, but in the order of first things first, I'm looking for an honest accountability of all of Ozzy's statements that I felt were untrue."
The offensive statement that the 66-year-old musician could be talking about is when Ozzy called him "incredibly overweight" in August 2013 and said: "I don't think he could have done the gig, to be honest ... A drummer has to be in shape. He's already had two heart attacks. I don't want to be responsible for his life."
Bill insists he's not the type of person who can "sweep the offensive stuff under the carpet" and unless he gets an apology he's finished with Black Sabbath - also comprised of Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler.
Bill added in a Facebook post: "Because I was chastised publicly, I would want him to amend publicly in his words, and not through an Ozzy representative, the nature of the wrongs. I would not want to continue on with him without this seemingly [impassable] dilemma being addressed. I don't think previously strong relationships can remain strong after dispute by just sweeping the offensive stuff under the carpet, or by saying a puny sorry, or, 'Oh, that's all over now.' It doesn't work like that for me. Righting of wrong works, and that's what I want if I'm ever going to be his friend again."

Naughty Boy is "sad" the current young generation doesn't have their own Whitney Houston or Lauryn Hill.
The 'La La La' creator is inspired by both Whitney - who died aged just 48 in 2012 - and the former Fugees star and hopes a new female singer steps up to match their music.
The post on Twitter read: "It's sad that this generation won't here a Whitney Houston or a Lauryn hill us musicians need to fix up. (sic)"
Whitney was only 22 when she had her first number one and a flurry of hits followed.
The 'I Will Always Love You' singer sold approximately 200 million records worldwide during her illustrious three-decade career .
Her voice will always be an iconic powerhouse filled with elegance. Her classics include 'Saving All My Love For You,' ''I Will Always Love You,'' and 'The Greatest Love of All'.
The rapper who featured Sam Smith on his song 'La La La' gave us our first taste of the 'Lay Me Down' singer, but he still thinks young music lovers are missing new songs from Lauryn who Sam and Naughty Boy are both inspired by.
The former 'Killing Me Softly' singer suffered from the pressures of being in the public eye while she was in her band The Fugees and she hasn't released an album of new material since her 1998 solo record 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'.
Meanwhile, Naughty Boy has been supporting Zayn Malik since the pop star quit One Direction and has been giving "friend" some advice.
The producer said: "I've been his friend. He needs one. Just because we were seen at my studio - you (don't) necessarily just make music. People seem to forget that he's under so much stress. Which is why he left the tour. There's a lot going on. People get caught up - what he has done is to be normal. Sometimes being normal is to try and sort things out with your fiancée or hang around with a friend. That is normal."

Adam Lambert had to re-evaluate why he wanted to be in the music industry before recording his new album.
The rock singer - who finished as runner-up on the eighth season of 'American Idol' - decided he needed to take a critical view of his career after releasing his 'Trespassing' album in 2012.
Adam believes this approach helped make his new LP 'the Original High' the record he wanted it to be.
In an interview in the new issue of Notion magazine - for which he was shot by photographer Darren Black - he said: "The music industry is so crazy, competitive and focused, and after the 'Trespassing' album I kind of had to stop and ask myself, 'Why am I doing this? What do I want? Who am I? What am I about?' And just re-examine at everything. I finally became more grounded about all of the fame stuff; it's not freaking me out any more."
The 'Your Entertainment' singer added: "There were certain ways in which I triumphed and certain ways in which I stumbled a little bit. Unfortunately, people were watching while I was learning."
Adam - who has received critical acclaim for his live performances with legendary band Queen - says his new perspective on his music resulted in the lyrics on his latest songs being "darker" than previous recordings.
He said: "(This album is) dance-y but bitter-sweet, and the lyrics are a little darker (than they have been, previously). I've done the more bubblegum stuff, I've done the camp stuff, and now I want to encourage people to face their s**t. I want to show them the part of me that's not all polished or (still part of) the 'pageant on TV' thing - I want it to be real, you know?"
Adam will premiere his new single 'Ghost Town' on April 21 and his album 'The Original High' will be released in the spring.

Jack White is to take a break from performing for "a long period of time" after his newly announced acoustic shows.
The White Stripes frontman has announced he is to embark on a short acoustic tour of only the five US states he's yet to play after bringing his 'Lazaretto' world tour to a close with his headline performances at Coachella before going on a hiatus.
A statement on his website reads: "After many years of performing in a multitude of configurations, Jack is announcing that he will be taking a break from performing live for a long period of time.
"To cap off the 'Lazaretto' world tour, and following his pair of headlining performances at Coachella, Jack will embark on a short acoustic tour of the only fives states in the U.S. that he has yet to play."
It is not yet known which states the 39-year-old rocker plans to take to the stage in but it's been suggested Alaska, Idaho, North and South Dakota and Wyoming are the locations he will visit.
The statement continues: "The states these shows are occurring in will be unannounced until the day of each performance. Joining Jack on his jaunt across these locations will be musicians making up an acoustic quartet, including Fats Kaplin, Lille Mae Rische and Dominic Davis.
"These shows will be totally acoustic and amplified only with ribbon microphones to the audience as well. These shows will be the very first totally acoustic full concerts Jack has ever done."
Each performance is to be announced at 8am local time on the day of the show with tickets available on the venue door at 12pm at a price of three dollars each, with tickets limited to one per person.

The Vamps have completed "three quarters" of their new album.
The boyband - featuring Connor Ball, Tristan Evans, James McVey and Brad Simpson - released their debut album 'Meet the Vamps' last year and are already well on the way to finishing the record's follow-up, which they have promised will be released this year.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, they said: "The album is going OK, we are three quarters of the way through. It'll be out towards the end of the year and we have done a lot of writing for it already but we've still got a good three months left so you never know really."
The 'Can We Dance' and 'Last Night' hitmakers also revealed the inspirations behind their music, name-checking 28-year-old model Megan Fox and 'New Girl' actress Zooey Deschanel as they key women who motivate them to make music, adding the latter star's pregnancy with film producer Jacob Pechenik has been "emotionally traumatic" for the band.
Talking about their inspirations, they said: "Girls. Megan Fox. Zooey Deschanel. It seems like she's been pregnant for ages. I think that's because it's just so emotionally traumatic for us all. We're all devastated, everyone involved is upset."
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Mumford & Sons "always" wanted to be a rock band.
The 'I Will Wait' hitmakers have moved away from the folk sound of their first two albums on new record 'Wilder Mind' and say they are much more comfortable with their new material.
Bassist Ted Dwayne said: "We've always imagined ourselves as a rock band. We've always been a rock band playing the wrong instruments. Now we have the right instruments."
And Winston Marshall - who has switched from banjo to electric guitar - added: "We always saw ourselves this way. We didn't really think we were a folk band."
And the group admit they couldn't bear the thought of continuing to "churn out" any more folk albums.
Ted said: "We've been working within quite narrow parameters. As a band, we feel that over two records we've pretty thoroughly explored that sound.
"Nobody was that excited about playing a drum with a foot anymore. And there was no way we were just going to churn out another album for the sake of it pleasing fans."
Keyboard player Ben Lovett added: "We started doing this in 2007 and the worst thing we could have done would be to get trapped making the sort of music we'd been making.
"That would have put our lives on pause until the band ended."
In August, the band will headline the Reading and Leeds festivals and can't wait to top the bill.
Ben told NME magazine: "Reading and Leeds are rock festivals and that's exactly why we wanted to play them."

Iggy Azalea is "so excited" about her collaboration with Britney Spears, she has broken her self-imposed social media ban.
The 'Fancy' hitmaker - who has recorded a track named 'Pretty Girls' with the 33-year-old singer - has now decided she wants to have monthly catch-ups with fans so she can keep them up-to-date on her life and work plans, but won't be returning to Twitter for good.
Iggy - who quit Twitter in February because she found it "too negative and draining" - posted on the micro-blogging site last night: "Hi just wanted to come online and tell you all how extremely excited I am for Pretty Girls to be released & that we are going to perform it 2.
"I'm still off social media but I have decided that Im going to do a monthly chat with you guys so we can stay connected, mayb a video stream.
"I'm still working on my album and things are going good. "work" type vibes, earlier fans will be happy 2 hear. love you all. bye. xo.(sic)"
The 24-year-old rapper recently spoke about how well she and Britney got along when they worked on the track.
She said recently: "She's super nice. She came to my house and had lunch and I didn't know what to expect, and we actually really get along.
"I've been texting her, annoying her with all my ideas for the video and she's been a really good sport about it, so I'm really excited."

Bette Midler has paid tribute to the late Percy Sledge insisting the singer will "live forever" through his music.
The 69-year-old singer-and-actress is among a host of stars to publicly pay their respects to the soul legend - who passed away at his Louisiana home aged 74 on Tuesday (14.04.15).
Taking to Twitter to express her sadness, Bette wrote: "The great Percy Sledge died today. I am bereft. His song "When A Man Loves A Woman" ... will live forever. (sic)"
'Young Hearts Run Free' hitmaker Candi Staton also took to the social networking site to express her grief, tweeting: "So sad to learn of the passing of #percysledge. His voice and his songs will resonate with generations to come. (sic)"
Taking to his Twitter account, blues legend Taj Mahal ‏wrote: "Sad news today ... go in peace my friend. Sending our love to family and friends."
Funk singer Bootsy Collins logged into his Facebook account to pay tribute to Percy, posting: "Just lost another legend funkateers, Mr Percy Sledge (sic)"
Percy rose to fame when his song 'When A Man Loves A Woman' hit the top of the US Billboard charts in 1966.
The track became a hit twice in the UK, reaching number four in 1966 and, on reissue, peaked at number two in 1987 when it was featured in a Levi's Jeans commercial.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his career achievements in 2005.

Florence Welch broke her foot after "leaping off the stage" at Coachella.
The Florence + the Machine frontwoman suffered the injury when she jumped off the stage and into the crowd during her performance at the music festival in California on Sunday (12.04.15).
Despite suffering the break, Florence has vowed to continue with her tour - in support of the band's new album 'How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful' - but the shows will have to be "somewhat stripped back".
In a post on her Facebook page, accompanied by an X-ray of a foot, she revealed: "I'm so sorry to say, that after what was one of my favourite shows ever at Coachella, I have discovered I have broken my foot from leaping off the stage. Unfortunately while this heals, my performances will have to be somewhat stripped back.
"I'm so sorry, I'm pretty devastated, but I still want to do the shows.
I understand this is not what you were expecting, but I hope it's just as enjoyable. I'm going to try and make it super special for you."
Florence hopes her foot will be completely healed by the time she is due to play the Glastonbury Festival which takes place over the weekend of June 24 to June 28.
Although she is frustrated with the injury, the 28-year-old singer is determined to make the best of the situation.
In her post, she continued: "By the time Glastonbury rolls around I should be back on my feet. This album was so much about making something from what was broken, so let's see what we can do with this. All my love, Florence."