Music News

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds will headline Calling Festival.
The one-day event will take place on Clapham Common in London on Saturday July 4 with Ryan Adams, The Hives and Echo and the Bunnymen also confirmed to perform.
Speaking about the booking, Live Nation's Vice President of Promotions Toby Leighton-Pope said: "We're so pleased with the Calling Festival 2015 bill. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds will be incredible and we're so happy to welcome the fantastic Ryan Adams, The Hives and Echo and the Bunnymen. This year is going to be huge and we look forward to seeing the crowds back in Clapham this summer."
The band will perform their first outdoor headline set at the multi-stage festival four months after the release of their eagerly anticipated second album, 'Chasing Yesterday', which will be available from March 2.
In October, the 47-year-old performer sold out his six-date spring tour - which will see him visit Belfast, Dublin, Nottingham, Glasgow, and Manchester before end in London on March 10 - in just 10 minutes.
Previous headliners of the annual event include The Who, Eric Clapton, Bon Jovi and The Killers, with more than 80,000 music-lovers flocking to the festival in south west London last year to witness performances from Stevie Wonder and Aerosmith.
Tickets for Calling Festival go on sale at 9am on Friday 6 February and are priced at £57.50 plus booking fee.

Texas took a tree named Robert Plant on tour.
The Scottish rockers' frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri has admitted the band have had some wild touring experiences during their 25-year career, and once received a huge bill after trashing a hotel lobby and stealing a tree.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, she recalled: "One night in Switzerland we played a gig and we came back to the hotel and it ended up with Rick [Richard Hynd] - who was our original drummer - he was in the fountain pond in the foyer of the hotel, swimming in about 10 inches of water, just like lying in it.
"He was so p***ed that he dragged a potted plant onto the lift and it fell over, and all the stones in the pot went into the lift door so it wouldn't shut. It wouldn't work and it caused chaos. We got a bill which frightened us so much."
The 'I Don't Want A Lover' hitmaker said the evening's antics escalated further when her bandmates decided to steal the tree for their tour bus - which they were travelling around Europe in - and agreed to name it after the 66-year-old Led Zeppelin frontman.
She continued: "They stole the plant and they had it on the bus, and it was then called Robert Plant and they called it that for the rest of the tour. It was like a big tree, like a proper fake tree that they'd stolen it. I don't know how they got it out of the hell in the tour bus."
The band will release their new album 'Texas 25' on February 16, featuring new and classic songs recorded in collaboration with Truth & Soul.

Rita Ora doesn't care about her ex-boyfriends enough to write a song about them.
The 24-year-old singer - who has dated DJ Calvin Harris, reality TV star Rob Kardashian and rapper Ricky Hil in the past, says, unlike fellow popstar Taylor Swift, she isn't bothered enough by her failed romances to feature them in her tracks.
She explained: "I don't think I care enough about them to write a song about them.
"I will be unleashed but I know my limits."
The blonde beauty famously split from 'Under Control' hitmaker Calvin, 31, last year and was subsequently banned from singing any of the tracks he had produced for her upcoming album.
During a recent acoustic performance of the former couple's hit 'I Will Never Let You Down', Rita noticeably changed the lyrics to 'I Might Have Let You Down', which she claims was to show people she isn't "ashamed" of her failed relationship.
She told The Sunday Times newspaper's Style magazine: "I interpreted it like that because I wanted people to see I wasn't ashamed. It's normal for a 23-year-old to have a failed relationship, but the difference is, there are a lot of people watching. You know, it's life."

Kylie Minogue and Kaiser Chiefs will perform at English racecourses.
The global superstar and the indie rockers have been announced as the headliners for a series of 'An Evening at the Races' events, presented by music promoter Jockey Club Live.
Speaking about her excitement for the shows, the 'All the Lovers' hitmaker said: "I'm so excited to be performing at 'An Evening At The Races'. I have an amazing band and fabulous dancers and we can't wait to share my hits with you in a beautiful Summer outdoor show. Being from a horse racing city like Melbourne, I'll be sure to have a flutter on the horses myself!"
The 46-year-old singer - who has racked up 44 UK Top 40 hits during her career - will perform at 'Newmarket Nights' at Newmarket Racecourse in Suffolk on June 19, and at 'Haydock Nights' at Haydock Park Racecourse in Merseyside the following evening.
Joining the multi-million selling star will be the Kaiser Chiefs - fronted by 'The Voice UK' coach Ricky Wilson - who promise to perform their hit singles including 'I Predict a Riot', 'Oh My God' and 'Ruby' during the events.
The five-piece band - which also features Andrew White, Simon Rix, Nick Baines and Vijay Mistry - will headline the same racecourses later in the summer, playing at Newmarket Racecourse on July 31 and Haydock Park Racecourse on August 7, as well as Sandown Park Racecourse in Surrey on August 6.
Tickets for the events - which start at £25 - will be on sale at 9am on February 6 on www.thejockeyclublive.co.uk, with further events also being held at Market Rasen, Carlisle and Epsom Downs racecourses.

Bono's face "nearly melted" when Noel Gallagher told him he'd produced his own album.
The 47-year-old singer left the U2 frontman shocked when he revealed he had taken matters into his own hands on his second Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds studio album, 'Chasing Yesterday', and he doesn't think the 54-year-old star's group would ever dream of doing something similar.
He said: "I told Bono this one afternoon, and his face nearly melted. Cos U2 take five years and six producers before they work out what their album even means."
Noel took the reins of his album when producer Dave Sardy was unavailable and the former Oasis star - who regularly clashed with his brother Liam Gallagher during his times in the indie group - enjoyed having creative control of the record.
He added to Q magazine: "I refused to over-think it. I understand making records by committee when there's five lads in a band.
"But I'm a solo artist on my own record label.
"So I said, 'I won't take any discussion about this. We will go in and record the album and then let the people decide whether it's good enough.' "

The Libertines are trying to make "surprisingly upbeat" music.
The band - featuring Carl Barat, Pete Doherty, John Hassall and Gary Powell - have started working on new material which will be their first since their second eponymous album in 2004, with Carl admitting although they are hoping to create a positive sound.
He explained: "The Libertines have always been about anthems to doomed youth.
"I'm not entirely sure how happy the new songs will be lyrically, but the message is strong in the new songs. It's doomed youth overcoming hardships with optimism."
However, the 36-year-old co-frontman confessed he is always unsure about the band's plans because they tend to go wrong, with the band's fate partly depending on whether Pete is able to stay off drugs following his month-long stint at a rehabilitation facility in Thailand.
He said: "You can't make plans with The Libertines, because they usually go wrong.
"I'm seeing Pete in Thailand again soon, but everything in the band has to be taken step-by-step. The new album has to be the right record, and we don't want to rush it."
The 'Can't Stand Me Now' rocker is also feeling slightly stressed about the thought of a third album because they have signed a deal with record label Virgin EMI which he is scared they might not deliver on.
Speaking about the record deal, he told February's issue of Loaded magazine: "I'm not thinking about all that pressure.
"That's bonus depression, and I don't need that. It's there in the background and I get the occasional moment of terror, but I try to play it down."
The 250th celebratory issue of Loaded - which features Kasabian on the cover - is available to buy in both print and digital formats now.

Madonna "can't remember" making all her records.
The 56-year-old singer is preparing to release her 13th studio album, 'Rebel Heart', and admits she has released so many LPs throughout her illustrious career she cannot recall the creative process she went through to make all her albums.
She said: "I cannot remember every record-making experience. It feels like there's been too many of them.
"But this ['Rebel Heart'] has been really, really intense ... complicated. Just because there are so many people involved.
"It's like a train that keeps picking up people. And every time someone gets on the train, they add another flavour.
"Then I have to step back and see, OK, how does this all fit into the big picture? So it does seem endless."
But the 'Papa Don't Preach' hitmaker has no problem recalling her fourth studio album 'Like A Prayer', which came with a cover scented with patchouli oils to simulate church incense, because she now "cannot stand" the aroma of the plant species.
She added in an interview with Mojo magazine: "Terrible, terrible perfume. I can't stand it. I don't [like it] any more. It's a tree hugger's smell."

Charli XCX wants to set up a record label like Simon Cowell's -but without the "s**t" music.
The 22-year-old singer has revealed plans to follow in the mogul's footsteps and become the queen of her own music empire but is confident her acts will be better than those signed to the 55 year old's SyCo label.
The brunette beauty said: "I think Simon Cowell's cool.
"I'd love to be in that position. But from the point of view of making music that's not s**t."
The 'Boom Clap' hitmaker - who wrote Icona Pop's double platinum track 'I Love It' in 2012 - admitted she didn't like the idea of penning pop hits she "hated", so travelled to Sweden to record a quick punk album at the beginning of 2014 to get it "out of [her] system".
She told Q magazine: "I couldn't make any pop music because I hated pop music. I just didn't want to think about it I wanted to be free.
"It was a case of getting it out of my system. I felt stuck."
Charli also co-wrote Iggy Azalea's hit 'Fancy' and is currently working on projects for Rita Ora, Gwen Stefani and Rihanna.

Jessie J says Whitney Houston has been the biggest influence on her career. The 26-year-old singer will never forget the emotional impact the late diva's voice had on her and she always returns to Whitney's songs when she is in need of inspiration. ...