Never ones to let the death of legendary frontman Jerry Garcia get in the way of a good tour, the surviving members of The Grateful Dead are to reunite for a 19 city tour. The tour will kick off on 12 April 2009 in Greensboro.

The group is now going by the slightly shorter name, the Dead, presumably out of respect for their deceased bandmate.

The tour has come about in the wake of the band playing at a benefit for Barrack Obama in Pennsylvania last October. Apparently the remaining members of the band managed to resolve their differences for that performance and discuss reforming for another tour.

Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann – the surviving original members – will be joined for the tour by Warren Haynes on lead guitar and Jeff Chimenti will play keyboards.

Tickets go on sale on 23rd January.

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.

Chief organiser, beatboxer Schlomo, explains his goal, “I really believe that beatboxing and music in general gives us the potential to inspire a change, to move away from the despondent attitudes that have led to problems with postcode wars, drugs, knives and gun crime. Working creatively with young people gives them an opportunity to take an interest in their own development. Suddenly it can be considered cool to apply yourself to something. Beatboxing is an ideal tool – it is uniquely inclusive because everybody has a voice. You don’t need to pay a penny for any equipment, and a group of people can start to make music together in no time at all. Plus it’s cool, kids want to do it”.

Blur have confirmed that they have reunited for a huge gig next summer in London’s Hyde Park.

“It just felt it was right again,” Albarn told music weekly NME.

“It somehow feels like there’s something for us to do again, we’re not completely useless or pointless, we’ve got a reason to exist.”

Coxon told the magazine the band were “making public what’s been going on a little bit privately”.

Many speculations have been made about the band headlining next years Glastonbury festival but a spokesperson told BBC News:

“We are talking to headliners at the moment.”

“There is lots of speculation about who might or might not be playing next year. We’re confident it will be as good as Jay-Z. No headliners have been confirmed.”

Coldplay front man, Chris Martin has revealed that the band would love to play a big stadium show next summer and would be happy to open one of Take That’s shows on their Circus tour.

Posting on the band’s website, Chris wrote: “I would open for Take That. We were in the dressing room the other day and, for whatever reason, we started singing ‘Back For Good’.

“We sang the whole thing, word for word, with all the right chords on our piano, without having to learn it or anything. It was great.

“So I’d like to use the Coldplay website to announce that if Take That want us to open for them, we’ll do it.

“The only problem is that we’ll have to get down the gym for a bit!”

Hallelujah!! Take That are hitting the road again next year and have today announced the dates for their new UK tour in 2009.

The band are set to play eight dates in June 2009 including venues in Sunderland, Cardiff, Manchester and London. Unfortunately for me, no Irish dates have been released as yet.

Tickets for The Circus
tour go on sale at 9am on 31 October.

In a statement the band said: “All of us are really looking forward to getting back on the road next summer.

“We can think of no better way to thank everyone for their support and loyalty over the past three years.

“This will be the biggest tour we have ever done so we’ll be working especially hard over the next few months to make it the best and most exciting Take That tour yet.”

Sunderland Stadium Of Light (6 June)
Cardiff Millennium Stadium (16)
Glasgow Hampden Park (20)
Manchester Old Trafford Cricket Ground (26, 27, 28)
Wembley Stadium (3, 4 July)

Oh dear. It seems that The Zutons had an ice cold reception from fans at their recent T4 On The Beach gig.

We’ve always had a soft spot for The Zutons here at Unreality Music, and were looking forward to the release of their third album. However, with the release of Always Right Behind You, we got that sinking feeling that the band had made some bad musical decisions.

Frontman Dave McCabe has acknowledged the lacklustre reception the album has received, but seems to be putting it down to fate…

I wanted it to go to No.1 and sell millions. I’m gutted. Maybe it’s just our time to fall out of favour. But we’ll just keep gigging. That’s what we love doing the most.

“Time to fall out of favour”? How about “We ballsed up and wrote some bad songs. We got complacent. We misjudged our fanbase.” Three much more valid explanations for the performance of You Can Do Anything – ironically named because apparently they can’t please their fans. Oops.

We’ll keep hoping for an improvement in their fortunes, but as our earlier single review said, if the first track from an album is a flop, the rest is likely to be a disappointment as well.

Channel 4 has today announced the final amazing acts who will join the T4 On The Beach line-up next week in Weston-super-Mare. Chart-topping pop sensations Sugababes and Reverend And The Makers, Swedish DJ Basshunter, Kentucky rockers Cage The Elephant and Irish three-piece The Script are all set to perform at T4’s one day beach party which rocks up to Weston-super-Mare on Sunday 20th July. Plus last year’s mobileAct unsigned winners Envy & Other Sins will be making their T4 On The Beach debut, alongside rising stars, One Eskimo.

Tickets to the sixth T4 On The Beach, sponsored by Aygo by Toyota, sold out in record time this year with 28 acts now confirmed, including the following artists (amongst others) set to perform: Adele, The Zutons, Pigeon Detectives, The Feeling, Duffy, Sam Sparro, McFly, The Hoosiers, Black Kids, Scouting For Girls, Lightspeed Champion and Robyn.

For those that can’t make it down to the party, the whole event will be televised and broadcast in a special four-hour programme on Channel 4 from 1.50pm to 6pm on the day, so there is no need for anyone to miss out on the fabulous performances or any of the hot backstage gossip! The programme will be perfect for those who want to enjoy the beach party without feeling the sand between their toes!

T4 will also be broadcasting backstage all weekend from 8:55am on Saturday July 19th and Sunday July 20th, plus their will be surprise guest hosts joining the T4 team.

T4 presenters Steve Jones, Miquita Oliver, Alexa Chung and Rick Edwards will be presenting the beach party this year and bringing some of the hottest pop, rock and indie acts of the moment to the stage.

Today’s announcements complete the line up on the Main Stage and 4Music Stage. Music fans will also be able to party at the Aygo Disco where special guests including Sam Sparro, The Hoosiers, the cast of Hollyoaks, Skins, Shameless together with Britain’s Got Talent’s George Sampson will all be DJing to keep the dancefloor jumping.

Further proof (if you need it) of Natasha Bedingfield’s conquering of America comes in the news that she’s been chosen as the opening act for the New Kids On The Block reunion tour this autumn.

The tour will run for just over two months, beginning on 18 September and ending on 26 November.

It’s nice to see homespun talent like Natasha Bedingfield making such a splash in the States, something which is considered the Holy Grail for most British acts. With her clean-cut image and a two generations of NKOTB fans catching her act, we believe the best is yet to come for Natasha,

Billboard reports that even now, she’s enjoying a top 10 single with Pocketful Of Sunshine while her album is currently at number 45.

We rarely expect an artist from these shores to rise to prominence in the USA, but a wave of predominantly female British singers is turning that around. And while we think of Leona Lewis as the premier pop act turning heads in America, it looks like Miss Bedingfield might just be catching her up.

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