Music News

Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White has died.
The 74-year-old star died in his sleep in Los Angeles last night (03.02.16) following a long battle with Parkinson's disease and his family have appealed for privacy as they come to terms with his loss.
His brother, Verdine White, who was also a member of the band, said: "My brother, hero and best friend Maurice White passed away peacefully last night in his sleep.
"While the world has lost another great musician and legend, our family asks that our privacy is respected as we start what will be a very difficult and life changing transition in our lives. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes."
The 'Boogie Wonderland' hitmaker was diagnosed with the neurological condition in 1992 and had to stop touring in 1994 because of his battle with the disease, though he remained active in the music business and retained executive control of the group.
In addition to his work with Earth, Wind & Fire - whose most successful period began in 1975 with the release of their LP 'That's The Way of The World' and continued throughout the decade - Maurice also worked as a producer for the likes of Cher and Barbra Streisand, and he also co-wrote and co-produced the Emotions' number one single 'Best of My Love'.
In 2000, the nine-piece band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Maurice was individually inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010.

Kanye West's new album still doesn't have a name.
The 'Bound 2' hitmaker is expected to release his highly-anticipated new LP later this month and though he initially revealed the record was called 'Swish', he then announced he was changing it to 'Waves' - and now he's admitted he doesn't actually know what it will be called.
Speaking to Los Angeles' Real 92.3 radio station earlier today (04.02.16), he said: "We don't have a name yet. I wanted to get people's opinions on how they felt."
The 38-year-old star also shared some details on the tone of the album, admitting it has a "gospel" sound but with his own twist.
He said: "This is a gospel album with a lot of cursing on it."
Kanye's admission about the title came after his wife Kim Kardashian West ran a Twitter poll on the title.
Tagging Kanye in a post, she wrote: "Which album title do you like best? Swish, Waves or So Help Me God? (sic)"
Whatever the album is called, Kanye has already declared it "the best album of all time".
Taking to the micro blogging site, he wrote: "This is not album of the year. This is album of the life ...
"So happy to be finished with the best album of all time (sic)"

Black Sabbath have postponed a third show due to Ozzy Osbourne's illness.
The 'Paranoid' hitmakers were due to perform in Vancouver on Wednesday night (03.02.16) but they pulled the gig due to the severity of Ozzy's sinusitis.
The veteran rockers have released a statement on their Facebook page and promised to inform fans when the show will be rescheduled.
They wrote: "Due to continued severe sinusitis, Ozzy Osbourne will be unable to perform with Black Sabbath as scheduled. The Vancouver performance has been postponed. Details regarding the rescheduled date will be announced as soon as it is available. Please hold on to your tickets until further details are available."
The Canadian show is the third gig the heavy metal group have had to cancel, after pulling their Edmonton and Calgary dates at the end of January.
The band are on their final tour, entitled 'The End Tour', which is set to end in Phoenix, USA, on September 21.
The band are also set to headline Download festival in June.
The 'Crazy Train' rockers have put together a final record to be sold as a limited-edition at the concerts.
The LP includes four unheard studio tracks, 'Season Of The Dead', 'Cry All Night', 'Take Me Home' and 'Isolated Man', leftover from their 2013 reunion album '13'.

Rebecca Ferguson, Blake and DJ Judge Jules will perform at the British Heart Foundation's Roll Out the Red fundraising ball .
The trio will line-up at star-studded bash at London's Savoy Hotel on February 11 to raise money for the charity's life-saving heart research.
Former 'X Factor' finalist Rebecca will headline the evening's entertainment, followed by the classical, all-male singing quartet Blake and a performance from DUO, featuring British Opera star Emily Estelle and award-winning pianist Marina Lieberman.
International DJ Judge Jules will close the event.
Rebecca said of her headline slot: "I'm thrilled to be performing at the Roll Out the Red ball this year and supporting the BHF's life saving work.
"It's fantastic to be a part of this unforgettable night as every pound raised will bring us one step closer to beating heart disease."
Stephen Bowman, lead singer of Blake, added: "We are absolutely delighted to be supporting Roll Out the Red and performing on the night.
"The British Heart Foundation is such a fantastic charity and we are so pleased to be helping their fight against coronary heart disease, the UK's single biggest killer."
The glitzy do will be hosted by newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky and will include a welcome speech by BHF Ambassador Pippa Middleton.
Last year's event featured VIP guests including Pippa, Michelle Keegan and Oliver Proudlock.
Find out more info at: www.bhf.org.uk/rollout

Rihanna's 'ANTI' tour rider is full of calorific treats and alcohol.
The 27-year-old R&B superstar will have an endless supply of Cheetos, processed noodles, vodka, Oreo biscuits and both red and white wine for her forthcoming world tour, which kicks off in San Diego on February 26.
During the 'FourFiveSeconds' hitmaker's interview on the 'Ellen DeGeneres Show' on Thursday (04.02.16), Ellen read out the calorific rider.
She listed: "Regular Cheetos, hot Cheetos, Golden Grahams cereal, Oreo's, Cuppa Noodles, red and white wine, vodka, soda and garlic olives."
The US chat show host then asked the singer: "How much do you consume?"
Rihanna replied: "I will definitely take it with me. I just like to be prepared you never know where you are going to be."
The Bajan beauty admitted she has a particular pencahnt for both hot and original variations of cheesy snack Cheetos.
She added: "I don't eat the Oreos that much. I haven't eaten Golden Grahams in about two years. Hot Cheetos definitely happening. Regular Cheetos when I am tired of hot Cheetos. Crunchy ones always."
The star also admitted she would "love" to go on tour with her 'Work' collaborator Drake.
She said: "He's not touring with me. Maybe next time. I'd love to go on tour with Drake that has to happen."

Zayn Malik reportedly refused to play BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend on the same day as Little Mix.
The 'Pillowtalk' hitmaker was engaged to singer Perrie Edwards before breaking up with her last August just weeks before they were set to move into their dream home.
Zayn - who is now dating supermodel Gigi Hadid - has been in negotiations to play at the radio station music extravaganza in Exeter, South West England, in May but talks hit a stumbling block when he insisted he wouldn't take to the stage the same day as Perrie and her bandmates as he didn't want an awkward backstage encounter - even though the girl group are yet to be added to the line-up of the event.
A source told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "Zayn's team don't want it to become 'a thing' if the two of them are backstage at the same time. It will take the shine off his performance, because many people would then just talk about his past relationship. Zayn and his team really want his solo career to be all about the music. Obviously there are ways to ensure they are kept apart at the site. But once they are both at the same location on the same day, tongues will wag. And if they were to bump into each other, it would make the whole day awkward."
Little Mix are on tour the same weekend of the mini-festival which takes place on May 28 and May 29, so if they cannot commit then Zayn will be free to play any day he chooses.
Coldplay, Ellie Goulding, Bring Me The Horizon and Chase & Status have all been confirmed for BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend so far.
Zayn's debut solo single 'Pillowtalk' has been a hit all over the world since he released it last week and his album 'Mind of Mine' will be released on March 25, exactly one year since he quit One Direction.

Craig David's most famous song 'Re-Rewind' was saved from being lost by a cassette tape copy.
The 34-year-old singer and producer Mark Hill were left stunned after finishing the iconic garage tune only to see the computer file it was saved as had become corrupted but luckily they had made a copy on an old school cassette to play in the car and that became "gold dust" as they recreate the track from that recording.
He recalled: "We finished the song and dubbed it onto a little TDK D90 cassette to go and play it in the car. It sounded good but there was a couple of little tweaks we wanted to do - and literally as [producer Mark Hill] turned the computer on, all we saw was this error, file number' message. The only way to get rid of it was to press OK. So we pressed OK, and it kept coming up with new error numbers. So we'd press OK, press OK, press OK. But when we looked at the session, all that we saw was the hi-hats. I was like, 'Are you actually for real? So that plastic TDK tape became gold dust. We had the whole song on there, and we had to use the recording as our reference, playing it very carefully so it didn't get chewed up, and trying to remember all the things we did. And that was 'Rewind'."
Without 'Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta)' - which reached number two on the UK single chart in 1999 - Craig doesn't think he would have secured his first album deal with Sony Records.
And Craig thinks it was that song that paved the way for garage music to become a phenomenon.
The pop star - who is returning with a new album this year - told the BBC: "It got to the point where every artist, and every new pop group that were put together, were doing garage and it started to become a fad thing."

Zayn Malik insists his album release date is a coincidence.
The 23-year-old singer will release 'Mind of Mine' on March 25, exactly one year after he quit One Direction, but Zayn claims it wasn't planned.
He said: "I don't know, is that how it works out? It's March 25, it wasn't planned that way. It works that way. It just seems to coincide with the iTunes launch and everything. Maybe it's a sign."
Meanwhile, the 'Pillowtalk' hitmaker revealed he was happy to be included in One Direction's 'History' music video, which shows old footage of the band from when they were first formed on 'X Factor'.
Speaking in an interview with Zach Sang & The Gang, he said: "I have the seen the music video. That was cool. I liked that fact that they were nostalgic, shall we say, about the memories we shared together. It was a positive thing to watch. I enjoyed it. It was nice to look back at those memories that we shared together. It was cool."
And Zayn also revealed he was heavily involved with the concept behind the music video for 'Pillowtalk' but he wanted people to come to their own conclusions about what it means.
He said: "Mostly my idea. I wanted it to be representational of the art that I'm looking at right now, even just a perspective level. On the surface of it, I wanted it be arty, and different and out-there. That was the whole feel for the video. We wanted a dream-feel to it and represent that. There are deeper meanings to things as well. I don't want to put labels on things. I want people to figure it out themselves."

Tom Parker wants to make another album with The Wanted.
The 27-year-old singer reckons the group - which also included Nathan Sykes, Jay McGuiness Max George and Siva Kaneswaran - will get back into the studio when "the time is right" because they had "something special".
He told BANG Showbiz: "When we came out of the band there was always talk of who is going to do well, who is going to be a solo star and Nathan's doing amazing.
When you are in a band for five years with people, we got put together, naturally you don't fall away from each other, but you find your own feet, so we don't speak to each other as much as we did in the band.
"It has been nice for us to have time apart. I think when the time is right perhaps three, four, five or 10 years, it will be nice for us to get back together and get in the studio because we had something really special."
And 'Over And Over Again' hitmaker Nathan would also be up for reuniting with his pals in the next 10 years.
He previously told BANG Showbiz: "I don't know. Never say never. You never know what is going to happen tomorrow or in 10 years time."