Music News

Kerry Katona wants to collaborate with her ex-husband Brian McFadden's band Westlife.
The Atomic Kitten singer is keen to team up with the 'You Raise Me Up' hitmakers - who are said to be planning a comeback in 2016 after splitting three years ago - for a song which would see her sing alongside Brian, who she divorced in December 2006 after four years of marriage.
She said: "We could do a collaboration. That would be a sight to see, wouldn't it?"
But Kerry's fellow Kittens Liz McClarnon and Natasha Hamilton are not quite as keen for the girl group - who reunited in 2012 - to duet with the Irish band.
Natasha said: "That would be weird."
But she seems a lot keener for the trio to team up with her boyfriend Ritchie Neville's group Five for a collaboration but joked the two bands wouldn't be taking it too seriously if something did materialise.
The 32-year-old singer - who gave birth to her and Ritchie's daughter Ella in September - added to The Sun newspaper: "It would have to be tongue-in-cheek."
An Atomic Kitten and Westlife duet also looks unlikely as Brian has been less than complimentary about the girl group in the past, poking fun at the "middle-aged" trio for talking about their kids rather than going out partying nowadays.
He previously said: "They used to be wild and now they are three middle-aged ladies who talk about their families."
Kerry quit Atomic Kitten in 2001 after falling pregnant with her and Brian's first child, Molly, who is now 13.
The 34-year-old blonde also has 11-year-old daughter Lilly-Sue with Brian - who married Irish DJ Vogue Williams in September 2012 - as well as Heidi, seven, and six-year-old Maxwell with ex-husband Mark Croft and eight-month-old daughter Dylan Jorge with current husband George Kay, who she married in September.

Kasabian like to be "mellow" before their gigs.
The 'Eez-Eh' rockers - made up of Tom Meighan, Serge Pizzorno, Christopher Karloff and Chris Edwards - find their shows are "crazy" and have more energy if they take a low-key approach to preparing for a performance.
Asked how their preparations have changed, frontman Tom said: "I think it's more chaos on stage so in some ways you have to be more mellow before you get on, the calmer you are before, when you get on, it goes crazy."
Despite having a string of sell-out tours behind them, Kasabian insist they are never approached to advise any new acts on the music scene.
Asked what advice they give to up-and-coming bands, Tom laughed: "They don't choose [to speak to] us."
The 'Empire' group are big fans of 'Pass Out' hitmaker Tinie Tempah and think his success is well deserved.
Tom said: "We've met him a few times, he's a top guy, he's rocking it."
While the band have tasted success since releasing their eponymous debut album in 2004, Serge recently admitted he is glad they didn't triumph immediately in their career because it would have "f**ked" them up.
He said: "If the ambition was just to sell millions of records, then we'd have made it a lot easier for ourselves. We wouldn't have pulled so many moves along the way. We'd have played the game but we never wanted to do that.
"It's happened this way for a reason. It could have easily ended up in a graveyard. And if it had been a whirlwind, it would've been a disaster. We wouldn't have known what to do with it."

Lorde loves her fans' honesty.
The 'Royals' hitmaker is eager to receive honest feedback on her music and so she subscribes to all social media channels, including Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook, to allow her loyal followers to gauge their reactions.
She said: "I have the 'ask' feature on my Tumblr enabled so people with an account can send me a message. To me, that's a really useful tool because I get to hear what people are thinking about what I'm doing.
"I like Twitter because it's a good direct link to people. You just reach out to someone you like and say, 'Follow me, please, and then we can talk.' I really like Instagram as well - it's a good one, very simple. I'm also on Facebook."
The 18-year-old star even saves her favourite tweets from fans to help her feel better when she's having a bad day.
She added: "I have this folder on my computer of lovely things people have said to me and whenever I'm in a super-low, terrible mood, I'm like, 'Remember these wonderful souls who said incredible things about you!' "

Ringo Starr will release a new album in 2015.
The 74-year-old rocker revealed the news during a video update on his YouTube channel, admitting he has finished work on his 18th studio LP which will be released through Universal.
He said: "So this is why it's called an update. I've finished my record, mixed the record, and next year it will be out on Universal Records, so that's the good news."
The former The Beatles drummer has been performing solo material since his first album on his own, 'Sentimental Journey', which was released in 1970, but this will be his first release in almost three years, since 'Ringo 2012'.
The 'It Don't Come Easy' hitmaker - who has been touring on and off since 1989 - failed to mention when fans can expect the album or what it will be called, but did express his excitement for his forthcoming string of shows which will see him perform in USA, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Chile, Colombia and Mexico in February and March alongside his All-Starr Band.
He added: "And while I'm here, I'd like to thank all of you who supported us when we were touring, and we may be coming your way in February and March, so look out for that."

Slash has given up BMX biking.
The 48-year-old musician hasn't given away any of his bikes, but no longer rides them as he worried he might fall and suffer such a serious injury, he would have to postpone performances.
He said: "BMX is the kind of thing, it's not just riding around the block, it's jumping and stuff, so as soon as I get on a bike you're invariably going to fall.
"I have a couple of bikes at home and I still love it, but it's one of those things, you're going to fall, and if I break something before I tour the worst thing I can possibly think of is having to call these guys and be like, 'Hey, the tour we've been looking forward to is going to be postponed because I've broken my wrist'."
As well as giving up biking, Slash has also given up his beloved pet snake Sam as he couldn't care for him on the road, but he is pleased his reptile is happy in his new home.
He said: "Sam is at the zoo in Nashville now, we were touring so much and as he got bigger nobody in my family would take care of him. He's between 10 and 15 feet. I gotta give them credit, the zoo put him in a way better enclosure than I was going to build, so he's happy."

Ed Sheeran insists Taylor Swift won't perform at Glastonbury.
Rumours the 'Shake It Off' hitmaker could be set to headline the annual event began to circulate last month when she announced a string of UK tour dates which included a gap over the weekend when the festival takes place - June 24 - 28 2015 - but her pal Ed Sheeran has revealed the star won't be performing because she is not a fan of festivals.
He said: "Taylor doesn't like festivals.
"So for any bookies reading... I think Taylor likes doing her own show because she's in control and it's how she wants it to be."
The 23-year-old 'Thinking Out Loud' singer explained the star - who released her fifth studio album, '1989', earlier this year - prefers to play her own concerts because it means she is "in control" of her performance and not relying on organisers who are not familiar with her stage show.
He continued: "With Glastonbury or any festival, you're at the mercy of the people who run the festival.
"She wants it all to be perfect."
The comments come just two months after the organiser of the festival - which takes place at Worthy Farm, Somerset in south west England - Michael Eavis, 79, said he would love for the 25-year-old singer to perform after country icon Dolly Parton sang there in 2014.
He said: "Taylor Swift would be great to follow the Dolly Parton slot - especially being a country singer."
However, Ed claims he is certain the 'Blank Space' performer won't be appearing alongside headliner Lionel Richie, going as far to say he would bet his own cash.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, he added: "I'd bet you a large amount of money she doesn't - a large amount of money."

Miley Cyrus' 'Party In The USA' paid Jessie J's rent for "three years".
The 26-year-old Brit wrote the track for Miley's 2009 record 'The Time of Our Lives' and has revealed its success was a huge boost to her finances.
Jessie explained: "You've got to write songs, that's where the money is, being an artist. 'Party In The USA' paid my rent for, like, three years.
"Actually it was way longer than that. That's where I get most of my money. I write songs. I'm a singer. I love endorsements and stuff, but that's all added on."
The 'Bang Bang' hitmaker also bemoaned the content of songs released by female artists, who she accused of "speaking about the same thing" in their hits.
She told Glamour magazine: "All women are saying, singing and speaking about the same thing, but in their own way - love, heartbreak, reassurance, sexiness, belief, how we look, how we feel. We're all singing about it and doing it."
This comes shortly after Jessie revealed her ambition to write a Christmas album.
She told BANG Showbiz: "I would love to do a Christmas album, it's one of the things on my wish list. But I want to write some new classic Christmas songs, I don't want to just sing 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer'."

Deacon Blue felt "propelled" into making 'A New House'.
The group released the album earlier this year and frontman Ricky Ross says they headed quickly back into the recording studio after the release of 2012's 'The Hipsters' because it had such a good reaction from fans.
He told BANG Showbiz: "I think, for us, the album harnesses some of the energy we got from the our last record, two years ago, and also going out on the road and that feeling of, 'We can do this.'
"We just got a real buzz from the fact that people were accepting it, enjoying it and listening to it. So, for us, I think we felt propelled into it in the sense that we just wanted to keep going."
And Ricky explained that although he has been in the music industry since the 1980s, much of the material on the new album sees the band enter unchartered waters, especially with title track 'A New House'.
He said: "I think it's one of these songs... it's funny, it's so simple [but] it's hard to get. Always, you want to write a song in two or three chords, but it hung on this riff and I was pleased with the melody. I was telling a story that I hadn't told before."

Meghan Trainor wants to make a reggae album.
The 'All About That Bass' hitmaker will release her debut LP 'Title' in the UK in January, but has already started mapping out what she wants to achieve on subsequent releases, on which she hopes to explore other genres.
She said: "I want it to be crazy. I want it to be awesome. I want it to be different."
The 20-year-old singer - who will also release her second single 'Lips Are Movin' in the UK next month - explained she doesn't want to be pigeon-holed into the shoo-wop sound from her singles, and has other styles which she will be expressing.
She continued: "Because as a songwriter, I'm not just shoo-woppy. It's just clicked."
Expanding on the type of music which she might explore next, she quipped: "I wanna be like, yo - I wanna get my reggae out there!"
However, the blonde beauty admitted she is still a huge fan of the sound of her current music, and thinks it has been received so positively because it is "timeless".
She said: "My favourite part of the doo-wop style is that it's timeless. You can sing 'Build Me Up Buttercup' and everyone's, like, 'This is my jam!'"