Music News

Arctic Monkeys have won the Best Live Act award at the O2 Silver Clef Awards.
The 'Snap Out of It' rockers won a public vote to be awarded the title - sponsored by Live Nation and Ticketmaster - beating off stiff competition from stars including Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Kate Bush and Foo Fighters.
Speaking about their win, the band said: "Thanks to everyone who voted for us and helped us win this year's Nordoff Robbins Best Live Act Award at the O2 Silver Clefs.
"It's a real honour to be chosen. Congratulations to Nordoff Robbins on their 40th birthday and for all the incredible work they do using music therapy to help people."
The full shortlist for the award included 15 acts which performed in the UK between March 2014 and March 2015, with the general public voting on the winners for the past month.
Previous winners of the award include Justin Timberlake who won in 2014, One Direction in 2013, McFly in 2012 and Sir Paul McCartney 2011.
The ceremony - which is now in its 40th year - raises money for music therapy charity Nordoff Robbins, and will take place in London today (03.07.15).
Other winners set to be presented with their awards today include Duran Duran, Rita Ora, Kasabian, Mark Ronson, Iron Maiden, Primal Scream, James Bay and Jake Bugg.

Beastie Boys will never play live again.
The 'Fight For Your Right' hitmakers have confirmed they'll never perform again, following the death of member Adam 'MCA' Yauch in 2012, aged 47 due to cancer.
The news came as the group's other two members, Mike D and Adam 'Ad-Rock' Horovitz, filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the Beastie Boys name in conjunction with "live performances by a musical group", which led some fans to speculate that the 49-year-old drummer and 48-year-old actor could be planning a live comeback.
However, when reached for comment by Pitchfork.com, a representative for the group said: "There will never be Beastie Boys live performances without Adam Yauch."
Ad-Rock previously confirmed that there would be no new Beastie Boys music since Adam's passing, but hinted he and Mike D - who collaborated with the Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band on 'Bad Dancer' in 2013 - would work together again under a different name.
He said: "Adam started the band, so we couldn't do anything without him.
"At some point we'll do something."
The 'Beastie' musician also discussed the upcoming Beastie Boys memoir at the time, which was recently pushed back to a 2017 release.
Ad-Rock said: "I try to do a little [writing] every day - it's not like I have anything else to do! There's a lot of New York, purposely, in the thing that we're writing."

Kanye West's new album is full of "joy".
The 38-year-old rapper is gearing up to release 'SWISH' - previously titled 'So Help Me God' - and has told his fans they can expect a more upbeat sound following his 2013 album 'Yeezus' which was "a protest" record.
Speaking about the LP, he told Q magazine: "There's joy in it. It's not full of protest. 'Yeezus' was a protest to music, like, 'I'm gonna take my ball and go home. If I can't do what I wanna do, y'all can't have music!'
"And now it's like I can do 10 per cent of what I want to do so let's make music again."
The 'Bound 2' hitmaker - who is married to Kim Kardashian West - has already released the first single from the album, 'All Day', which he premiered at the BRIT Awards in London in February, and although he described it as "a rap song that took 10 months", he feels it was worthwhile because it sounds like "a sonic Picasso painting".
Praising Sir Paul McCartney who he created the track with, he said: "There's magic in his fingers.
"He is him. He is the guy. 'All Day' is a sonic Picasso painting, delivered through the two best guys to deliver Picasso's work sonically."

Nick Jonas will perform at V Festival.
The 'Jealous' hitmaker joins hip hop trio De La Soul, Pendulum and MNEK in the latest list of acts confirmed for the 20th anniversary event which is sponsored by Virgin Media and takes place across the weekend of August 22 and 23 in Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire.
The 22-year-old singer confessed he felt "honoured" to have been added to the star-studded lineup, whose headliners include Calvin Harris, Kasabian, Sam Smith, Stereophonics and Ellie Goulding.
He said: "I'm honoured to join such an incredible line up at the 20th anniversary of V Festival.
"My fans have been very supportive of my new music so I'm really excited to perform for them at one of the UK's greatest festivals."
De La Soul's Kelvin Mercer is also looking forward to performing in front of one of the "craziest crowds".
He said: "Every time we perform in the UK we get the best reception, from the craziest crowds! V Festival 2015 is going to be the biggest rave of the year, so we're looking forward to being on that stage and joining the party!"
Grammy-nominated MNEK added: "This year has been a whirlwind and it's not over yet. I'm so chuffed to be part of such a brilliant line-up and can't wait to get out there."
Other acts scheduled to perform include The Script, Paloma Faith, Olly Murs, Ella Henderson, Kodaline, Nero, The Kooks, Marina & The Diamonds and George Ezra.
The music acts will play alongside a hilarious mix of comedy headliners including Russell Kane, Frankie Boyle, Shappi Khorsandi and Matt Richardson, who will all take centre stage in the Glee Club Comedy Tent across the weekend.

Mariah Carey performs all her own stunts in her music videos.
The R&B legend is famous for her elaborate promos which have seen her ride a jet ski for 1997 single 'Honey' and fight a love rival for 1999's 'Heartbreaker' among other things.
Mariah is adamant there is no camera trickery involved or stunt doubles replacing her as she likes to shoot every scene herself.
In a feature for Us Weekly magazine entitled '25 Things You Don't Know About Me', she revealed: "I do all of my own stunts in videos. The jet ski scenes, the fight scenes, all of them!"
However, one video shoot has gone wrong.
When Mariah was making the promo for the remix of '#Beautiful' - directed by her estranged husband Nick Cannon - in July 2013 when she slipped on stage while wearing a gown and heels.
The singer - who has four-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with Nick - insists the pain of the injury was worse than childbirth and two years later she has only just finished physiotherapy for it.
She said: "I dislocated my shoulder two years ago, and it was the worst pain I've ever experienced. I had to wear a glove for a while because it affected my hand as well. Thanks to physical therapy, I'm finally glove-free!"

Val Doonican has died at the age of 88.
The Irish singer and entertainer passed away "peacefully" at home in Buckinghamshire, South East England, his family confirmed this morning (02.07.15).
His family said in a statement: "He was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather and will be greatly missed by family, friends and his many fans."
They added that he had not been suffering from any illness with his daughter Sarah explaining his "batteries had just run out".
She told The Guardian: "Until 87, he was as fit as a flea. It was just old age, I'm afraid - the batteries ran out."
The showbiz veteran, who retired in 2009 after 60 years in the business, is survived by his wife Lynn, daughters Sarah and Fiona and grandchildren Bethany and Scott.
The singer was born Michael Valentine Doonican in Waterford, Ireland, in 1927, the youngest of eight children.
After performing with Irish quartet The Four Ramblers, he went solo and hit it big in the UK when he was booked to appear on 'Sunday Night at the Palladium' in 1963.
This led to him being offered his own programme, 'The Val Doonican Music Show', on the BBC which ran for over 20 years.
His hits included 'Walk Tall', 'What Would I Be', 'If The Whole World Stopped Loving', and 'Morning'. He also sang the theme tune for the film 'Ring of Bright Water'.

The Libertines will release their new album 'Anthems For Doomed Youth' on September 4.
The reformed band - comprised of Pete Doherty, Carl Barât, John Hassall and Gary Powell - recorded the hotly anticipated LP with producer Jake Gosling over a six-week period at Karma Sound Studios in Thailand, in April and May and it is now ready to come out.
It is the indie rockers third studio album and their first release for 11 years and the four guys decamped to the Far East to make it so Pete could continue his rehab treatment for drug addiction and stay clean.
Bass player John admits the recording process was very different from past experiences because there was little partying and the guys all missed their kids.
John, 34, said: "The album was challenging, because we've got families and being away from our kids for six weeks was hard."
The album will be preceded by single 'Gunga Din', which comes out on July 3, and the video for the single was shot in 'Walking Street' Pattaya and was directed by Roger Sargent.
To coincide with the album announcement The Libertines - who played an acclaimed secret set at Glastonbury last weekend - have also announced several festival appearances and live dates throughout the summer.
'Anthems For Doomed Youth' is available to pre-order from iTunes, Amazon and the band's official website now.

The Libertines 'Anthems For Doomed Youth' tracklisting:

'Barbarians'
'Gunga Din'
'Fame and Fortune'
'Anthem for Doomed Youth'
'Heart of the Matter'
'Belly of the Beast'
'Iceman'
'You're My Waterloo'
'Fury of Chonburi'
'The Milkman's Horse'
'Glasgow Coma Scale Blues'
'Dead For Love'

Alexa Goddard has premiered a video for her new single 'We Broke The Sky'.
The 26-year-old star co-wrote the single with Kirby Lauryen - who worked on Rihanna's 'FourFiveSeconds', as well as hits for Beyonce and Ariana Grande - and has released an accompanying clip for the summer anthem on YouTube.
The single - which will be released on August 28 - gives a taste of what fans can expect from her debut album, on which she has worked with Stargate (Beyonce, Rihanna, Ne-Yo) and 'Loyal' hitmaker Chris Brown.
The Roc Nation-signed star - who has racked up almost 50 million views on her YouTube channel - has also been working with producers and songwriters such as DJ Mustard (Big Sean, Jeremih) and Ester Dean (Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Mary J Blige).
Meanwhile the blonde beauty - who counts four-time Grammy Award winner Sam Smith among her fans - previously praised the people she worked with on the LP because they helped the collection come together so quickly.
Speaking about making the record in New York, she said: "We ended up leaving having recorded 12 songs in eight days! It was such a nice feeling because even though I didn't write any of them on my own, that wasn't important to me, as long as the songs felt like they came from me, and that I had some sort of involvement that was really important. With videos, as an artist, you always know what sort of things you want, like how you want to look and things like that."

Sir Mick Jagger insists The Rolling Stones have no intention of retiring and are going to keep "working".
This week the band announced 'Exhibitionism' this week, an exhibition displaying memorabilia from the legendary group's 53-year career which will include iconic stage outfits, instruments, tour posters, album artwork, photos, letters and even some rare sound archives and recordings.
Although the four Rolling Stones members - also including Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts - have decided to create this retrospective attraction, Mick is adamant they will continue to play live and work on new projects going forward.
In an interview with The Sun newspaper, the 71-year-old singer said: "Just because we're doing a retrospective doesn't mean it's all over. We're still working, still doing shows and I think we will continue to do so."
Guitarist Keith echoes his bandmate's statement and has assured fans The Stones - who are currently on their North American 'Zip Code Tour' - are "not particularly" interested in retirement.
He said: "How many times have they said that about every tour (that it's our last) since 1975?
"If anybody should be interested in when we're going to quit, it should be the Stones (themselves) and, er, they're not particularly interested in that."
Ronnie added: "This is another insight into an ongoing machine, an institution that will never stop rumbling. Another input into the travelling circus. We didn't have this museum idea with the thought of retirement."
The band also revealed they spent just as much time organising and developing the exhibition as they would planning their concerts and wanted to include as much paraphernalia and as many iconic items - such as Mick's flag cape - as they could.
Mick said: "We've been thinking about it for quite a long time, collecting things, thinking, 'Ah, this would be good,' or, 'We'd better save that.'
"We wanted it to be just right and on a large scale. The process has been like planning our touring productions."
'Exhibitionism' opens at The Saatchi Gallery in London on April 6, 2016 and will run until September 2016.