British rockers Keane have landed the number one spot in Q Magazine’s annual poll.
The trio’s LP, their first since 2005’s Under The Iron Sea, topped Britain’s Q Magazine and Q Radio’s best releases of the year (08) list.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds came second, with U.K. electro-folk group Goldfrapp taking the third spot on the coveted poll.
As you all know by now, the massive entertainment retail chain, Zavvi have gone into administration (here’s why).
I read a very good post over on PopJustice the other day, and wanted to share it with you, because it raises some interesting questions about the future of music, certainly in the UK:
You can complain about Zavvi as much as you like – and we have done – but its disappearance from high streets is terrible for music. With Woolworths also going, it means that supermarkets will overnight become even more powerful not just at dictating what music people buy but also – this is the important bit – which artists record labels sign and what music they produce.
Record industry chiefs in the U.S. have pledged to quit taking legal action against music fans who illegally download songs.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will cease launching lawsuits against the members of the public in favour of developing new technology to prevent music piracy on the internet.
The Darkness are said to be on the verge of a reunion after a U.S. entrepreneur reportedly offered the group “a small fortune” to tour.
The group found fame with their hit single I Believe In A Thing Called Love in 2003 – but were forced to split three years later when frontman Justin Hawkins was admitted into rehab to battle a drug addiction.
This week it has been reported that Dubai Desert Rocks festival has offered the group a massive amount of money in a bid to tempt the rockers into making a new LP and touring again.
Robert Plant has denied falling out with his former Led Zeppelin bandmates – insisting there is no rift over his decision not to join them for a reunion world tour.
The singer reunited with his bandmates for a one-off gig in London in December 2007, but has opted out of a planned comeback, leaving the other rockers to search for a replacement vocalist.
Plant admits that he couldn’t bring himself to go back to Led Zeppelin because he is working on such different music in his solo collaborations with Alison Krauss.
Music video fans will be disappointed today, as Warner Music withdraws all their videos from YouTube.
Although Warner was one of the first media companies to reach a deal with YouTube and their owners, Google, allowing the company to display their content for free apparently hasn’t been particularly profitable for Warner. According to Billboard:
"We are working actively to find a resolution with YouTube that would enable the return of our artists’ content to the site," Warner said in a statement. "Until then, we simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide."
Wow. After a phenomenal year in the American charts for rapper T.I., he’s due to go to prison in March after being convicted on federal weapons charges.
But before he takes a one-year break from da industry, T.I. is going to wrap up with a private concert at Chloe Sveigny’s New Years Eve party in Miami. I’d imagine the private gig will result in a decent payday for the 28 year old.
Take That singer, Gary Barlow, has admitted that he would love his band to team up with British girl group Girls Aloud.
The singer met Girls Aloud pop star Cheryl Cole when he acted as a mentor to contestants on reality TV show The X Factor, on which Cole is a judge.
After meeting Cole Gary admitted that he would love to work with the girls in the future.
Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and former Sugababe Mutya Buene are headlining a London concert to raise awareness of the city’s knife crime culture.
Dozens of teenagers have died in gang-related stabbings in 2008 alone. Organisers of the South Bank Centre event want to persuade young people to stop carrying blades, and hope music will help get the message across.
Glam rockers KISS have shot down rumours the band is retiring, by confirming they will be recording a new album.
Earlier this year it was reported the group was planning a reality TV show to audition replacement bandmembers, because founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were getting too old to rock.
Frontman Stanley has now admitted that rumours about a new album are true, and they are currently back in the studio working on new tunes – and he’s promising a treat for fans of the band’s original 1970s sound.
