Music News

Bob Geldof wants to release Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran's solo versions of 'Do They Know It's Christmas Time?'.
The artists taking part in Band Aid 30 - which is raising money for the Ebola crisis in West Africa - recorded vocals for the entire song, with their lines chosen at the end and the organiser was so stunned by some of the performances, he wants to release them as stand-along tracks.
He said: "There has to be individual versions of this. I was staggered by the voices.
"With Sam's version, Ed's version, you're just going to go, 'Wow'. They do it so different to what's in my head."
And Bob also praised the "passion and rage" of Sinead O'Connor's version of the track in an interview with Capital FM.
Earlier this week, Bob reacted angrily during a TV interview on Sky News when quizzed by newsreader Jayne Secker about the hypocrisy of certain musicians taking part in the single due to their history of tax avoidance, retorting, "I think you're talking b******s".
The Boomtown Rats singer and the collection of singers on the single have now been defended by showbiz commentator Rick Sky, who insists it is a great thing that they chose to give up their time to help the fight against Ebola.
During an appearance on Jeremy Vine's show on BBC Radio 2, the BANG Showbiz Managing Director said: "Yes there are loads of questions about tax, but we're straying off the point. I'm sure these people are donating themselves and the fact these people are giving their time is important. If you work out how much Bono is worth, if he spends a day in the studio that's worth a lot of money to him. I'm happy for Bono to give a million pounds to this cause and I wish he would. But we're picking on a group of people and castigating them for doing good, if you keep on castigating people they won't do good in the end. Millions and millions of people donating a pound each is maybe better than Bono donating a million pounds himself. Ultimately, Geldof has got up off his backside and has done something and hopefully we're getting somewhere."

Royal Blood have postponed more tour dates due to illness.
The rock duo - made up of Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher - have been forced to pull out of more shows in mainland Europe after Mike fell ill with "severe tonsilitus".
According to NME, the pair - who previously cancelled shows in Portsmouth, Oxford and Bristol - have now been forced to pull out of gigs in Milan, Barcelona, Lisbon and Madrid, following "medical advice".
They released a statement saying: "Customers are advised to retain their tickets and await further information with regard to rescheduled dates which will be planned and announced as quickly as possible. We wish to sincerely apologise to all ticket holders for the inconvenience and disappointment this has caused."
The band's missed UK tour dates have now been rescheduled for December and early January.
Royal Blood have also signed up to support Foo Fighters during their UK stadium tour next summer.
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl recently admitted he was "genuinely excited" by the band.
He said: "I saw some live footage of them, and I was so excited to see a band that was heavy, had riffs, had songs, and could really perform, and an audience that was genuinely excited to watch them play."

Wretch 32 wants to release an album every year.
The 29-year-old rapper's last LP, 'Black and White', came out in 2011 and has his next record 'Growing Over Life' ready to go.
Wretch insists he'd rather not wait and instead he'd be happy to have an annual release, regardless of how many copies it sold.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "Every year I have two hours worth of material which should be two albums, this is my offering to the world, and I feel like every year I don't put one out, I'm not complete as a person because I'm not doing what I'm meant to be doing.
"Everything's got to have this strategy in this day and age. I think everybody's afraid of having an album that sold 200,000 and then doing the next one which doesn't do as well and I never really got into this to be in that frame of mind about sales projections."
The pop star - whose latest single '6 Words' is out now - has even contemplated giving away his music online, but he thinks if he did "leak" his tracks the act itself would overshadow the songs.
When asked whether he'd considered leaking his tracks, he said: "Yeah, many a time but the sad thing about that is it's an injustice because the focus is always more concerned on the word 'leak' than the music.
"It's not on the music, on the album, it's just on the event that's happened because it's shocking to people to hear that. I don't really want to be known for that, that's what always stops me."

Muse will headline Download Festival 2015.
The 'Plug in Baby' hitmakers will make their debut appearance at the rock event on the second night, Saturday 13 June, and are looking forward to taking to the stage in Donnington Park.
They said in a statement: "We're really looking forward to Download. We've never played the festival before so it's going to be really special."
Joining Muse on the main stage on the Saturday will be Faith No More, while Marilyn Manson has been confirmed as second stage headliner that night.
The trio join the previously-announced Friday acts of Slipknot - who will close the main stage - Judas Priest, Five Finger Death Punch and Black Stone Cherry.
The final headliners are expected to be announced later this week.
Slipknot were unveiled as Friday headliners yesterday (17.11.14), and said they were delighted to be returning to the festival for a third time.
Frontman Corey Taylor said: "Being invited back to Download always feels like coming home. Headlining Download, for the 3rd time, feels like the culmination of a life's dream. It's an honour, a privilege and we're all looking forward to it."
The 2014 festival saw Avenged Sevenfold, Aerosmith and Linkin Park top the bill.

Charli XCX wants to create a musical "empire".
The 'Boom Clap' hitmaker loves writing her own music and also penning tracks for other artists and wants to extend her reach as far as possible.
She said: "I'm going to build an empire. I'm always writing for someone else. I want to be someone who has her fingerprints all over the pop charts."
The 22-year-old star insisted that, while she doesn't make punk music, she considers her ethos to be punk and incorporates elements of the style into her sound.
She told the new issue of Seventeen magazine: "I don't make punk music - I make pop that's inspired by elements of punk.
"For me, as a person, am I punk? In the sense that I do what I want and I enjoy going against the norm, I suppose I am."
And Charli insists she isn't worried about coming across as cool but would rather be "nice and fun".
She added: "When you're growing up I think there's this idea that the coolest people are the ones who are really rude and feverish. But I've come to realise that isn't cool.
"I think the best people are the ones who are just nice and fun. This is really cheesy, but you only have one life - why spend most of it pretending to be cool?"

Coldplay's 'A Sky Full of Stars' was inspired by Katy Perry.
The group's singer, Chris Martin, was fascinated by the way the 'Roar' hitmaker maintains a similar chord sequence with a "groove" on top and used a similar approach when writing the single.
He explained: "I'll tell you the truth: I was listening to a lot of Katy Perry.
"A lot of her songs have the same chord sequence the whole time. Your body feels comfortable with them and then the melody's changing on top so there's a groove you really get in to and then also you're kept interested... So I was like, 'That's an amazing way of doing songs.'"
And as well as the pop singer, Chris' love of electronic dance music (EDM) also played a key part in putting together the song.
Speaking on a new Beat x Beat webcast produced by Beats by Dre, he added: "That song really ended up being inspired by EDM, which some people turn their nose up and then you go to see an EDM thing and people are together and having the best time.
"So I was like f**k it! I love that stuff. So I wanted to have a song that comes from that world."
However, the 37-year-old musician had to enlist the help of Avicii to help get the song to sound the way he wanted it to.
He added: "But in terms of, 'I'd really like to jump up and down to this,' we don't really know what we're doing...
"He did a full Avicii version, we did a full Coldplay version, and we spent weeks weaving it all together."

Olly Murs was starstruck by some of the other acts on the Band Aid 30 single.
The 'Troublemaker' hitmaker admits it was a surreal experience to be in a studio with the likes of U2's Bono and Coldplay's Chris Martin while recording an updated version of 'Do They Know It's Christmas Time?' at the weekend but quickly got over his nerves and set about the task at hand.
Asked if he couldn't help but be amazed by his fellow singers, he said: "I think that was what it was like for the first half an hour.
"And then you need to get to the job. And the job we had was to sing, and sell this song.
"So yeah, first, initially, it was like, 'Wow, I'm in a room with Bono and Chris Martin from Coldplay,' but in the end you get over that and, you're like, 'It's time to get focused and get this song out there and do a good job on that.' And that was the aim."
Olly had an "amazing" experience recording the track - which will raise money for the Ebola crisis in West Africa - with the likes of Ed Sheeran, One Direction, Ellie Goulding and Paloma Faith and is honoured to be a part of history.
He told Billboard magazine: "You know what, it was great to come together with loads of other English acts and artists. It was amazing. We really had a good time doing it. The video, everything: It's incredible.
"Just to be featured on the song is great. I'm just really, really pleased. It was a really special moment for me and my family. I just really hope people around the world get behind the song."
And the 30-year-old star confirmed no one knew which line they had been given on the song until they saw the completed video.
He said: "No one knew. Even when they left [the studio]. We all just sung the song once or twice around. We just waited to see the video and saw our parts then."

The Band Aid 30 single raised £1 million in just five minutes.
Organiser and co-writer Bob Geldof admits the pre-release demand for the reworked version of 'Do They Know It's Christmas Time?' - which was debuted during 'The X Factor' results show on Sunday (16.11.14) has been "bonkers" and he is overwhelmed by the response so far.
He told BBC Radio 4: "It's gone manic. That's the digital age. We promoted the single on 'X Factor', Simon Cowell gave us five minutes of the show last night.
"Within four or five minutes of leaving the show we had a million quid. That's extraordinary.
"From what we're seeing now from iTunes it's gone bonkers. The pre-orders of the thing were ridiculous."
Within an hour of being made available for download yesterday (17.11.14), the track - which features stars including One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Bono, Elbow, Rita Ora and Ellie Goulding - was number one on the iTunes chart.
A physical release will be available from December 8, costing £4. All proceeds will go towards helping the Ebola crisis in West Africa.
Meanwhile, the Boomtown Rats frontman laughed off claims he had been "snubbed" by Adele, who refused to take his calls asking her to appear on the track, insisting he respected her current wish to stay out of the spotlight.
He said: "Adele is just parked off.
"She's not writing, she's not recording, she's not doing interviews, she's not doing gigs - she is somewhere else in her life.
"I didn't ring her because I didn't have her number. I would have if I'd had her number, but then she'd have had to explain to me and you don't have to explain to me!
"If that's what you want to do, it's completely correct that you do that, and her manager - who's a very funny guy and a very nice guy says 'she doesn't even pick up the phone to me, you know?'
"And that's right - that is where she's at and there's lots of artists like that so, you know, absolutely fair play."

Mary J. Blige claims the music industry hates "strong and independent women".
The 'Family Affair" hitmaker slammed the treatment of female artists and claims she "fought hard" against attempts from industry bosses who tried to encourage her to sleep around to get to the top.
She said: "They hate strong and independent women.
"I never slept with anyone to get where I am, but they were after me to do that. I fought hard over that."
Despite breaking into the industry back in 1992, Mary insists the problem is worse than ever.
She said: "It's definitely got worse."
The 43-year-old singer - who released her debut album 'What's The 411?' aged 21 - confessed she didn't feel "comfortable" as an artist starting out and has finally learnt to be more "accepting" of herself.
Speaking to Stella magazine, she added: "This is the best time in my life. I'm becoming freer, i'm accepting the things I can't change and I'm not going to apologise for who I am. In my twenties, I wasn't comfortable in my own skin. I didn't like the way I looked, I didn't like me, and I always played myself short to make everybody else happy."