Music News

Sir Paul McCartney still uses John Lennon as a "judge" of his songwriting.
The Beatles legend admits he will scrap lyrics if he doesn't think his late bandmate - who was assassinated in 1980 - would have approved of them.
He said: "I imagine myself back into a room with John, and I'll think [about a lyric], 'Ugh, that's no good.' And I'll imagine him saying, 'No, can't do that.' So I'm using him as a sort of judge of what I'm doing."
The 72-year-old musician found himself feeling emotional at his wife Nancy's 55th birthday party in Tokyo last month because the guests were entertained by Queen and Beatles tribute bands and he was overwhelmed by the uniting power of music.
He explained to Billboard: "I had a kind of very emotional moment when we were sitting there - it could have been the alcohol.
"And I'm thinking, 'My God.' The power of British music finally came home to me. All the way across the world, in Japan, these guys were breaking down Queen songs, and the others Beatles songs. They were replicating them amazingly. They got all the orchestra parts on 'I Am the Walrus.' They may not even speak the language that well, but they speak these songs beautifully.
"I should know that we've had that effect, because it's historically true. But it doesn't always come home to you in quite the way it did that night. I was welling up and I was [thinking] 'I can't well up to a Queen tribute band.'"

Blink-182 won't record their next album in a studio.
The 'All the Small Things' hitmakers are hoping to work on their seventh record in an unconventional setting where they can spend a lot of time together and isolate themselves, similar to when they rented a San Diego house to work on their untitled 2003 LP.
Singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge said: "I'm not totally sure how it's going to work but the goal is to find an area or an environment that's different and not just a normal studio to be together as were architect the songs and inspire each other in ways that we did back in that timeframe.
"I think if we can pull off those few things we'll be in really really good shape.
"We've always done what we liked, and on the Untitled record there was a lot of debate where we thought our fans wouldn't even like it, but I think we succeeded by sticking to what we wanted to do, and it turned out to be the one that the fans like the most."
As well as working on a new record, Tom is also excited for fans to finally be able to see their behind-the-scenes documentary.
Asked if it will ever come out, he told Gigwise: "Yeah. I'm excited about getting that footage out. I just think it's just incomplete, but it's great footage and we will definitely see it come to fruition somehow."

Michael Stipe has been in therapy "for years" to combat his shyness.
The former R.E.M. frontman has always felt insecure alongside his well-read bandmates Peter Buck and Mike Mills and struggled in the early days of his career to cope with doing interviews alongside performing.
He said: "Along with Courtney Love, Peter is one of the most well-spoken and best read people I know.
"Mike comes in as second best read. Even in their early twenties, they were very, very smart. I, on the other hand, had immense, crushing shyness and immense insecurity about my education.
"I've been in therapy for years over my insecurities about lack of articulation. Early on, for me to even finish a sentence was a near impossible task.
"I had hair in front of my face. I was really, really, really shy and did not anticipate that I would actually have to talk about my work and look people in the eye."
The 54-year-old singer had a "big nervous breakdown" in the 1980s and after a torrid 18 months, was able to come out of the experience a "different person".
He said: "By the mid-Eighties, I had my big nervous breakdown which lasted 18 months. But I emerged out of that a different person and I've learned how to articulate my thoughts.
"I've learned how to sit there without sweating and shaking. I grew out of my shyness."
At the height of his crisis of confidence, the group recorded third album 'Fables of Reconstruction' and even now the 'Losing My Religion' singer finds the record hard to listen to because of the memories it evokes.
He told The Sun newspaper: "It's one of my favourites but it's hard for me to revisit because I was in a very dark mental place."

George Harrison and The Bee Gees are to be honoured with The Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Awards.
The late Beatles legend - who died in 2001 aged 58 - and the 'Saturday Night Fever' hitmakers, of whom Barry Gibb is the sole surviving member, join French composer Pierre Boulez, blues guitarist Buddy Guy, Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jiménez, country duo the Louvin Brothers, and jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter in receiving Special Merit Awards next year.
Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow said: "This year we pay tribute to exceptional creators who have made prolific contributions to our culture and history.
"It is an honour and a privilege to recognise such a diverse group of talented trailblazers, whose incomparable bodies of work and timeless legacies will continue to be celebrated for generations to come."
The recipients will be honoured at a special event on February 7 2015 in Los Angeles.
The following day, the Grammy Awards - which are also organised by the Recording Academy - take place and the ceremony will also include a segment to make a formal acknowledgement of the Special Merit prizes.

Ed Sheeran wants to record his next album with a band.
The 'Thinking Out Loud' hitmaker has achieved worldwide success as a genuine solo artist, recording and performing with just an acoustic guitar and a range of effects.
Ed - who has sold over a million copies of his second album 'x' in the UK -wants to experiment with his sound on his third LP and is ready to hire backing musicians to give his songs a new sound.
The 23-year-old musician - who is playing three massive sell-out concerts at Wembley Stadium in London next July - said: "In my head I've always seen the third record as where I get a band. The first gig we did on this tour was the Barfly in London, so I've gone from the Barfly to Wembley with a loop pedal. After that there's not much you can do with a loop pedal."
Ed insists he won't just be putting together a standard rock group set-up - guitar, bass and drums - but plans on having several backing musicians just like his idol Justin Timberlake.
He told The Sun newspaper: "I watched Justin at the V Festival this year. You either don't have a band or you have a band like that, you go for it or you don't."
The singer surprised fans this month when he used a small backing group and back-up singers when he performed on 'The X Factor' final.

Sam Smith has become the only artist to sell a million albums in the UK and US in 2014.
The 22-year-old singer released his debut record 'In the Lonely Hour' earlier this year and it has now passed the huge milestone in both countries to become the biggest selling album of the year; an achievement which makes him "completely speechless".
Confirming the news on Twitter, he wrote: "1 million albums sold in UK and 1 million sold in America - completely speechless (sic)"
The album passed the figure on both sides of the Atlantic within 24 hours of each other, and by midnight on December 17 had sold 1.007 million copies in the UK, according to data from the Official Charts Company.
The 'Stay With Me' singer's LP is one of just three albums to have sold over the one million mark in the US - according to Nielsen Music - alongside Taylor Swift's fifth record '1989' and the soundtrack to animated Disney film 'Frozen' which features the hit track 'Let It Go' performed by Idina Menzel.
In the UK, Ed Sheeran is the only other act to have hit the million sales mark this year with his second album 'x', meaning 2014 is the first year since 2011 to see more than one album surpass a million sales.

Taylor Swift claims to have been inundated with "thank you" messages after pulling her music from Spotify.
The 'Shake it Off' hitmaker stopped her work being shared on the streaming service earlier this year and admits she wasn't expecting such a strong response to her decision.
She said: "I didn't think that it would be shocking to anyone.
"With as many ways as artists are personalising their musical distribution, it didn't occur to me that this would be anything that anyone would talk about.
"But I could never have expected so many text messages, emails and phone calls from other artists, writers and producers saying thank you."
Taylor made a break from country music to release her first pop album, '1989', this year and admits it was a "challenge" to convince her record label and management that it was a good idea - and they are now glad they agreed with her.
She added to The Hollywood Reporter: "The biggest challenge this year actually was convincing members of my own team that this was a good call.
"I'd get called in front of a group of people who have known me and worked with me for years who'd say, 'Are you sure that you want call the album '1989'? We think it's a weird title. Are you sure you want to put an album cover out that has less than half of your face on it? Are you positive that you want to take a genre that you've cemented yourself in and completely switch to a new one that you are a newcomer to?'
"The biggest struggle kind of turned into the biggest triumph when it worked out."

Brandon Flowers wants to "change" with his second solo album.
The Killers frontman - who released his debut solo record, 'Flamingo', in 2010 - is working with Ariel Rechtshaid on the LP and is excited with the way the producer is pushing him to do new things.
He said: "Even though I'm still young, you can start to get set in your ways. Change is good and there's always growth, I'm always looking for that.
"It's nice to steer the ship and that's what you'd think I'd do on my own album, but I'm letting Ariel take over every now and then. That's led to some really exciting things and sounds I would never have used.
"As I've gotten older I'm much more open to that - I'm much more open to peoples' strengths and really trying to utilise them - and that's where Ariel comes into the picture. He's really knowledgeable about every genre; it's pretty incredible what he's able to reference and pull out. It's definitely going to be different, but I'm still in the thick of it, hammering away."
This year, The Killers have teamed up with Jimmy Kimmel on their annual Christmas single, 'Joel the Lump of Coal', but they originally planned to record with 'Power of Love' singer Huey Lewis.
Brandon explained to NME magazine: "We watched 'Back To The Future' in Soho in London one night. And of course [the soundtrack is] doused in Huey Lewis. It made me think how much we loved his voice growing up.
"Somehow, along the way, Huey lost his involvement. Jimmy had this idea of a lump of coal who goes to a bad kid and gives up his life and becomes a diamond. It's kind of genius that it hasn't been used."

Duran Duran and Bastille will play at tiny music venues to support War Child in February.
The 'Girls On Film' hitmakers are just one of the acts announced for the Passport Back To The Bars week of one-off events - being held in collaboration with O2 - to raise funds for the charity which brings hope and safety to children in war zones.
Duran Duran bassist John Taylor said: "Thousands of children are innocent victims in the war zones of adult conflict around the world. They are often being denied education and other basic human rights. We are looking forward to performing an exclusive event in London this coming February, in support of War Child and the important work they do in the regions where these children are suffering."
Four-piece rock band Bastille, who released their debut album 'Bad Blood' in 2013, and Mark Gardener and Andy Bell's acoustic act Ride will also perform exclusive shows, which will be held in intimate venues in London and Manchester with a capacity of 300 or less.
The announcement marks 10 years since the charity's original set of Passport Back To The Bars shows in aid of victims of the Iraq war, with acts including The Cure, Elbow, Pet Shop Boys and Amy Winehouse.
The series of performances will take place as part of the BRITs Week 2015 from February 16 to 24, 2015. It is hoped the gigs will raise huge amounts of money for the charity, with fans pledging money to be in with the chance of winning tickets.
Further acts are expected to be added to the line-up in the coming weeks. To register for information visit www.warchild.org.uk/passport.