Music News

Lily Allen insists she was not "mocking" Beyoncé during her performance at London's G.A.Y.
The 'Hard Out Here' singer mimicked the 'Drunk In Love' hitmaker's Grammy performance during a gig at the club on Saturday night (26.03.14), donning a blonde wig and dancing in a revealing black outfit before having a bucket of water thrown over her on stage.
Lily was slammed by followers on Twitter who claim she was taking a swipe at Beyoncé, but she defended her performance, tweeting: "Only one person can tell you what my intentions are, and that would be me.
"Each time I play GAY I do a cover in drag. 1st time I did Dorothy, last time Britney, thus tone Queen Bey. Why do people jump to conclusions. (sic)."
The 28-year-old singer, who has just released her new album 'Sheezus', which features lyrics about Lady Gaga and Beyoncé in the record's title track, also claims she never "dissed" her fellow female pop stars on the record.
She explained: "I wasn't mocking Beyoncé , like I wasn't dissing anyone on #SHEEZUS , this is so f***ing boring. (sic)"
While many critics were quick to call out Lily for dressing up as the star, others praised her performance of Destiny's Child's 'Survivor', with one tweeting: "Lily u were absolutely perfect yesterday night. Don't care about what the others say, because you are a true artist!! I love u @lilyallen (sic)"

Gary Barlow sent music industry bosses topless photos to land a record deal.
The 43-year-old singer has admitted he was so desperate to become famous as a teenager he sent out shirtless snaps to managers in a bid to get signed - and his efforts did the trick as he was snapped up by Nigel Martin-Smith to join Take That in 1990.
The 'Let Me Go' star was confronted with his embarrassing pictures by Nigel in new BBC One documentary, 'When Corden Met Barlow', with actor James Corden, and Gary explained: "I sent out a tape and lots of photos to lots of managers. This is what came to the office. Look at that!"
Nigel added: "How could I refuse? It looks like Annie Lennox but I knew he could be hot property."
Meanwhile, the pop boss also revealed the band's line-up - which also consists of Mark Owen, Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Robbie William - could have looked significantly different as he originally intended Mark, 42, to be the frontman.
However, Gary won him over by proving his singing ability and songwriting skills.
Nigel said: "It was going to be a completely different band until Gary came along."

Kanye West is planning to release a spoken word album.
The 'Bound 2' hitmaker will reportedly make the three-hour recording available on vinyl, and it will feature everything from his views on the environment to life with fiancee Kim Kardashian and their 10-month-old daughter North.
A source said: "Kanye loves the sound of his own voice and this will be the ultimate in self-indulgence.
"He has very strong views on everything from music and art to politics and the environment. He's forever recording his opinions on tape.
"He says he's doing it for posterity and thought about turning them into a book or even donating them to a museum."
Kanye is said to be excited by the "groundbreaking" record and has set his sights on it winning awards.
The source told The Sun newspaper: "Kanye likes to push the boundaries and thinks this is very groundbreaking. He's hoping it'll win him a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album."
And for fans who are particularly enamoured by the project, there will be a special extended version of the album available for download.
The source said: "What's more, he's planning on making 24 hours of his speech recording available to download so fans can listen to his views round the clock."

Alex Turner insists success in the music industry does not come from winning awards.
The Arctic Monkeys frontman, who admitted the band's BRIT Awards this year for Best Group and Best Album for 'AM' didn't mean much to him, claims he was just being honest.
He said: "I don't step up to accept a trophy for a race I didn't know I was running and act as thought it's something I've been dreaming of since I was a little boy, because it's not the truth.
"If that is the truth for you, fine, but it's not ever been about that - I think any sort of victory in this trek comes with the conception of a song or an idea, not with a trophy or a pat on the back."
Alex's improvised acceptance speech at the BRITs, in which he claimed "rock 'n' roll will never die", was frowned upon by some critics but guitarist Jamie Cook claims attitude is all part of being in the industry but it can only take an artist so far.
Drummer Matt Helders explained: "People can have a rock 'n' roll attitude and never be in a band. You can dress like that."
Alex added: "It's easier to say what it isn't. A haircut or a belt buckle. It doesn't even occur to some people that there is a rock 'n' roll - so, me saying that might give someone an idea. It's a beacon in your peripheral vision. You can't draw someone a map to it."

Boy George feels "very secure" in his sobriety.
The singer has overcome serious addictions to heroin and cocaine in his life and has now been as been clean for six years.
George is adamant nothing would tempt him to go back to drugs or alcohol because he has worked too hard to turn his life around.
He told People magazine: "I feel very secure in my sobriety. I'd never sacrifice what I have now for a drink or a drug. Sobriety has allowed me to come back to my work with a gratitude and passion that I didn't know I had before."
The 52-year-old star is very happy that his new album, 'This Is What I Do' has put the focus back on his career rather than his private life.
The 'Karma Chameleon' hitmaker said: "In some ways it feels like I'm starting over, and that's exciting - like I'm getting the change to repaint the picture of myself. People think I've just been in a coma since 1984, except popping up on occasion to get into trouble!"
The singer is also looking forward to reuniting with Culture Club.
He said: "We're recording in May, and I'm very excited about what we've written. We're not the same as we were 30 years ago, but we were always pretty eclectic, so we can kind of be what we want now."

Ian Anderson plans to make "one or two" more albums before he stops recording.
The Jethro Tull frontman, whose new record 'Homo Erraticus' reached number 14 in the UK Album Charts, his highest charting solo record to date, still has plans to tour but might not want to record too many records in the future.
He said: "I'm heading off to various parts of the world on tour during the rest of this year and into 2015 again before I take a break to record something.
"There's maybe one or two more recordings in me before I decide I've done enough."
But as a performer, Ian, 66, claims he is lucky to still be able to tour and health is on his side, therefore he wants to make the most of it.
He explained: "I might find myself even going back to New Zealand and Australia. I can get on doing what I do for as long as I can, without fear of getting the sack or stopping on age related grounds," adding, "If you had my job, you wouldn't really think about retiring unless it's thrust upon you."
The singer's next record will be a "string quartet album" featuring music ideal for "funerals and weddings."
Ian told BANG Showbiz: "A lot of people do like those big moments in their lives to have a big piece of music mark the passage into life or death. I think it'd be quite nice to make a record that would consist of music which someone could say, 'We could play this at our daughter's wedding.' "
Ian is set to go out on tour from next week with dates across the UK, kicking off at the Brighton Dome on Monday April 28. He play tracks from his new album and a number of Jethro Tull classic. Tickets and information is available at Gigantic.com/artist/ian-anderson.

Ian Anderson tour dates:

April:
28 Brighton, Dome
29 Southampton, O2 Guildhall

May:
01 Salisbury, City Hall
02 Liverpool, Philharmonic
03 Birmingham, Symphony Hall
04 Oxford, New Theatre
06 Bristol, Colston Hall
07 High Wycombe, Swan Theatre
08 Guildford, G Live
09 Cambridge, Corn Exchange
10 Ipswich, Regent Theatre
11 Leicester, De Montfort Hall
14 Manchester, Palace Theatre
15 York, Royal Opera House
16 Gateshead, Sage Theatre
18 Edinburgh , Festival Theatre
19 Perth, Concert Hall
20 Aberdeen, Music Hall
21 Inverness, Eden Court
24 London, 02 Shepherds Bush Empire
25 London, 02 Shepherds Bush

The Klaxons spent over two years working on one song.
The 'Golden Skans' hitmakers first wrote 'Invisible Forces' - which appears on their forthcoming third album 'Love Frequency' - while on the road some time ago, but after the track was criticised when they played it live, they decided to make some changes, only to stick with the original version when they committed it to record.
Bassist Jamie Reynolds said: "We've never worked for two and a half years on a song before. We wrote it on tour, then recorded it and it was a banger when we played it but people kept criticising it. It's about the idea of a love you can't see."
Singer James Righton added: "We ended up sticking with the original."
The group also produced a number of tracks on the album themselves, and admit they found it "tough".
Jamie said: "We wanted to make computer music, but we didn't know how. This track 'Show Me A Miracle' is us saying, 'We're having a tough time working this out' behind a feelgood pop song."
James added to NME magazine: "Our first record was us in a small room out of our minds. But you can't be f***ed when you're using computers - someone's got to control the mouse."

Aloe Blacc has criticised 'Blurred Lines' - branding the track "immoral".
The 'Wake Me Up' hitmaker has spoken out about Robin Thicke's controversial number one single and says he's glad his collaboration with dance artist Avicii was competing with it in the charts because it provided a "balance" to the "immoral" messages.
He said: "There's really no problem with the song ['Blurred Lines'] aside from the subtle innuendos that are made glaringly apparent in the music video.
"It's an important thing what we do with music. Music is a spiritual experience whether you want to admit it or not, music opens your senses and has been used historically as a conduit to your inner psyche.
"So when we do this as musicians ... to open people up and then to dump trash into them, is to me, no matter what your religion is it's sacrilege, it's immoral."
The 35-year-old star, who has seven-month-old daughter Mandela with his wife Maya Jupiter, thinks the lyrics in 'Blurred Lines' provides a confusing message to young boys and girls about what is and isn't acceptable.
He explained to BANG Showbiz: "The machismo, the misogyny, the violence, the disrespect ... I just don't think it's necessary and I actually think it's damaging to the psyche of young girls and it's damaging to the psyche of young guys who sort of fantasise in this world of being macho and sexist."

Eliza Doolittle wants to work with Pharrell Williams and Calvin Harris.
The 'Big When I Was Little' singer, who is working on the follow-up to her 2013 album 'In Your Hands', dreams of teaming up with the 'Get Lucky' hitmaker and superstar DJ.
Speaking at the Beats by Dr. Dre Drenched in Colour nail event in London last night (24.04.14), she told BANG Showbiz: "I'd love to work with Pharrell but it's annoying because everyone is working with him now and you don't want to be like, 'Oh, I want to work with you too'. But he is the dream.
"There are loads of people I'm looking to collaborate with that are on my list. Calvin Harris would be cool. I'm in the process of planning my next album but it's early stages at the moment."
The 26-year-old star went along to the Beats by Dre party, which celebrated the colourful range of Beats Solo headphones, to support friend and model Zara Martin, who was Djing at the event and has been spending time with Calvin's girlfriend Rita Ora in Los Angeles.
Zara said: "I know Rita, we've hung out in LA and London, it's crazy in America when she's there, when I was there last time she was pretty big, the paparazzi are so prevalent in LA, it's quite scary.
"I do have really good friends who are in the industry but I'm not going to exploit it by feeling like I have to get a picture or a selfie to post on my Instragram."