Music News

Prince will present the first prize at this year's Brit Awards.
The iconic pop star will be with his new all-female backing band 3RDEYEGIRL to kick off the show in style on Wednesday (19.02.14) when he makes his first appearance at the annual bash since 2006.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, an insider said: "Prince is a big-name addition to this year's show.
"We've seen the massive crowds he has drawn at his recent London gigs so it's definitely going to be a highlight."
With the 'Purple Rain' singer signed on to present the first trophy at the ceremony next week, he could replicate his 2006 appearance by also performing at the event.
He will join the likes of Kylie Minogue when he hands out a gong, and he could share the stage with some huge names if he decides to play a track live.
So far, Katy Perry, Lorde, Disclosure, Pharrell Williams, Arctic Monkeys, Rudimental, Ellie Goulding and Bastille are a confirmed as performers for the event at London's The O2 Arena.
Meanwhile, James Corden will make his fifth and final appearance a the Brits, making him the show's longest-running host.

Ellie Goulding is taking her mother to the BRIT Awards.
The 27-year-old singer - who is nominated for British Female Solo Artist and British Single of the Year for both 'Burn' and 'I Need Your Love' - wants to make her mum Tracey "proud" and has invited her to attend the prestigious music ceremony on February 19 at London's O2 Arena, where she will also be performing.
She said: "My mum's coming to the ceremony so I want to make her proud. It's the first time she's been to anything in all the years I've been doing this. And my brother's coming too."
Ellie first won the Critics Choice trophy at the Brit Awards 2010 and confessed she didn't "acknowledge" the accolade because she was preoccupied worrying about gigs she had lined up.
Talking about her pre-Brits career, she told Radio Times magazine: "Things were trundling along for me. I was doing sporadic shows. I remember finding out about the Brit Award but being so stressed about rehearsing for this little tour I was doing. I was too anxious to even acknowledge I had won it."

Giorgio Moroder wants to collaborate with Miley Cyrus.
The 'I Feel Love' hitmaker - who has worked with Donna Summer and Daft Punk in the past - is remaining tight-lipped on who he has lined up to work with this year, but he admits he thinks the 21-year-old singer has a good voice, despite her controversial music videos.
He said: "I love Lady Gaga, Rihanna - all the pop girls like Katy Perry. I think Miley Cyrus is very talented too. Apart from the visuals, which you may like or not like, but her music is quite good actually. 'Wrecking Ball' is quite a good song and she sang it really nicely."
Meanwhile, the 73-year-old producer doesn't believe advanced technology is changing electronic music in a bad way, and he insists it opens up more avenues for talented artists.
He explained to Digital Spy: "I think it's [technology] a good thing - it gives a chance of work to a lot of people. Today for two or three thousand dollars you can have a lot of equipment and you can do beautiful recordings. Obviously if you're talented. If you're not then it doesn't help at all!
"But if you're talented it's a great chance. You can work at home, you can record at home - you can do final recordings. Probably 80% of the stuff done at home doesn't work - not because of the technology but because of the talent."

Sir Cliff Richard won't stop eating meat when he supports Morrissey on his US tour.
The 73-year-old singer is "honoured" to be performing with the former Smiths frontman at New York's Barclay center on June 21, but he's adamant he won't change his eating habits for the vegetarian star.
When asked if he'll turn vegetarian for the day, he said: "Certainly not. No, of course not. I like to think he might eat some meat when I arrive, but I wouldn't expect him to.
"So I don't think he'd expect me to be vegetarian. If I found he was offended by people eating meat then I won't eat it in front of him. But I'll have a chicken curry afterwards."
The 'Living Doll' hitmaker admits he's been researching Morrissey on the internet since discovering he would be sharing the stage with him in four months time.
He explained to the BBC: "I checked on the internet and saw a couple of shots of him live, and his audiences look really - I don't know how to say this - they look really nice.
"They were swaying in the crowd and mouthing lyrics and I was thinking, 'Oh, my audiences do that'. So maybe his audience will be kind to me."
Meanwhile, Sir Tom Jones, 73, will also be supporting Morrissey on his US tour, but will take to the stage at Los Angeles Sports Arena on May 10.

Kaiser Chiefs lit up the stage at an intimate gig at Scala in London last night (13.02.14).
The rock band previewed a number of new tracks from their eagerly anticipated album 'Education, Education, Education And War', following a gig in Manchester earlier this week, their first live shows since frontman Ricky Wilson became a coach on BBC talent show 'The Voice'.
The gigs have kicked off their first tour since drummer Nick Hodgson quit the band in 2012, which will include dates across mainland Europe and Madrid.
'The Voice' host Emma Willis and husband Matt from McBusted watched Ricky and his band mates - Nick Baines, Andrew White, Simon Rix and Vijay Mistry - and sang along with a number of contestants from the new series.
Ricky, 36, looked like a new man as he bounded about the stage with youthful energy and the band proved to fans of all ages they can still put on a good show.
Six new songs were performed on the night, including 'Cannons', 'Bows And Arrows' and new single 'Coming Home', which Ricky said he gave "five stars".
He told the audience: "About this time last year, we filmed an advert for Barclaycard here," when fans began booing, he added: "Yes, but they gave us a stupid amount of money. We spent it all on the new album, and did it in style."
He dedicated 'You Can Have It All' from debut album 'Employment' to "anyone who's ever taken part in a television talent contest, including us", before climbing on top of the mixing desk.
Running around on top of the desk, he teased fans who shouted at him to "Jump!", and Ricky looked stunned, asking: "What's wrong with you all? You're like some kind of angry mob," which paved the way for their song 'Angry Mob'.
Fans were encouraged to sing along to hits including 'I Predict A Riot', 'Every Day I Love You Less And Less' and 'Ruby' and the crowd happily danced to the new songs during the 75-minute set, which was closed with the traditional 'Oh My God', evoking festival memories for many fans .
'Education, Education, Education And War' is the band's fifth studio album, released on March 31.

Fall Out Boy were inspired to launch their own 'Flappy Bird' app after spending time in Japan.
The band decided to create their version of the game - called 'Fall Out Bird' - which will be available later this week - after the original app was downloaded more than 50 million times.
Bassist and singer Pete Wentz told Rolling Stone: "We were over in Japan, playing Flappy Bird when it went crazy."
Because of jet lag, the band - also made up of Patrick Stump, Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley - would all wake up about 4.45am and then discuss Flappy Bird and wonder if the makers were just pulling a stunt.
Pete, 34, said: "It seemed genuine that this was not the kind of attention that he wanted. There's a million Flappy Bird memes where it's 'I hate this fucking game.' It took me a while to realize that's how the Internet tells you it's thinking about you. You have to think about how in Internet culture, everyone that's loved is hated."
The musician can relate to the issue because he can only now play songs from Fall Out Boy's 2005 breakthrough record 'From Under the Cork Tree' and not worry about being accused of being a sell-out.
He admits: "I had so many neuroses in my twenties."
Asked what he thinks the band's legacy is after 13 years, Pete said: "At some point, Metallica stopped being called a thrash-metal band, or the 'Black Album' band -- you just think of them as Metallica. I know our band's not there yet, but it'd be cool to get to that point, where the best descriptor is the name," adding, "Just surviving is a big part of being an artist."

Sir Cliff Richard and Sir Tom Jones are to support Morrissey on his US tour.
The 54-year-old singer has announced he will perform two dates at two huge arenas in Los Angeles and Brooklyn this year, and will be supported by the veteran performers.
The former Smiths frontman will take to the stage with Sir Tom and Missouri singer Kristeen Young on 10 May at Los Angeles Sports Arena, before performing with Sir Cliff and Kristeen on 21 June at New York's Barclays Center.
The Welsh singer, 73, took to his official Facebook page earlier today to confirm the news.
He wrote: I will be Morrissey Official's special guest at his show at the LA Sports Arena on May 10th. We hope to see you there! (sic)".
These are the first confirmed shows for Morrissey after he abandoned a series of tours last year due to lack of funding and a bout of sickness.
Meanwhile, Morrissey, who has been without a label since 2009, recently signed a deal with Universal Music's American-based Harvest Records to release his tenth studio album.
The album is due to be released in the second half of 2014.

Drake thought Macklemore's decision to share his consolation Grammys text to Kendrick Lamar was "wack as f**k".
'Thrift Shop' hitmakers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were champions in almost every rap category at the ceremony last month but thought Kendrick should have won the prize for Best Rap Album for his record 'good kid, m.A.A.d city'.
Macklemore decided to share a text he sent to the star on his Instagram account, in which he wrote, "I wanted you to win ... It's weird and it sucks that I robbed you."
Kendrick then responded to Macklemore's win, saying: "It's well deserved, he did what he did, man."
But Drake said the rapper's decision to share his text to Kendrick with the world was "cheap".
He told Rolling Stone: "I was like, 'You won. Why are you posting your text message?' Just chill ... if you feel you didn't deserve it, go get better -- make better music. It felt cheap. It didn't feel genuine. Why do that? Why feel guilt? You think those guys would pay homage to you if they won?
"To name just Kendrick? That shit made me feel funny. No, in that case, you robbed everybody. We all need text messages!" he added, after he was also nominated in a number of the same categories as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
Along with the award for Best Rap Album for their record 'The Heist', the rap duo also picked up gongs for Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song Title for their hit 'Thrift Shop'.

Jared Leto doesn't find it difficult switching from his role as a frontman to being an actor.
The Thirty Seconds to Mars singer, whose recent performance in 'Dallas Buyers Club' as transgender AIDS victim Rayon has seen him win a string of awards, insists moving between the two professions comes naturally to him.
He told Faster Louder: "You could stick me in front of a pile of rubbish, and I'll make something out of it.
"It all comes from the same place, I'm a creative person, I find creative solutions to problems, and the difference is process.
"The process of making music is very intimate, because at least for me, and Thirty Seconds to Mars, I write the songs, my brother [Shannon] plays the drums, and we have so much responsibility from the music to the production to the videos to the design to the marketing to the tours and the production of the tours ... everything."
The star feels he has less to worry about in terms of production when it comes to acting and tries to focus purely on his role and work with other cast members.
Jared, 42, said: "When you're an actor you're responsible for the vertical within that collaborative effort.
"I think in some ways that can be a really good thing, because you can hyper-focus on your one task.
"But normally as a musician if you write your own songs, it'd be more akin to a director who also stars in his own movies and also writes and produces them as well."
The singer - who is currently performing gigs with his band mates Shannon and Tomo Millicevic - said the group are always "playing with new ideas."
He added: "It's something that you can't really shut down. 'Love Lust Faith and Dreams' still feels like a brand new album to us, it came out in May [2013], so it's not too long ago, and we're on tour.
"Right now we're in Los Angeles but we'll be heading out to Europe in a matter of days again. We just played Mexico. And we'll be playing shows all over the world for the rest of this year."