Music News

U2 guitarist The Edge had "doubts" before they agreed for their album, 'Songs of Innocence' to be an automatic download.
The rock band caused a stir when they released their latest album, 'Songs of Innocence' as an automatic download for Apple users.
Now The Edge - real name David Howell Evans - had admitted that he was worried before they agreed to the deal with the technology firm.
Talking to The Observer's The New Review, he explained: "I absolutely had my doubts about it before we did it, and after, but it was the right thing to do. It was an opportunity that will only ever come around once for anybody. I don't think anybody would want to do it again."
U2 bass player Adam Clayton then added: "The plan wasn't to be controversial. In today's world there is so much chatter, so in order to get through the chatter I'm afraid we are destined to make a very loud noise ourselves."
When asked if the stunt had backfired on the band, U2's frontman Bono said: "No, no, no, that's the duality! Intimacies through large public address systems is what we do. That's what rock'n'roll is."
The 54-year-old musician then noted that he was used to being hated after enduring derogatory comments from the public for over 30 years. He shared: "We were already annoying people, it was already divisive, it was already, 'I can't stand them, I want to kill them'. It's the job of art to be divisive."

Ed Sheeran wants some time off.
The 'Don't' hitmaker has revealed that rather than begin work on a new album he intends to take some time off from work once he's finished his world tour next year.
He explained: "I haven't had any time off since before I signed my record deal and I want some! I'll do what I enjoy and it won't feel like work."
The 23-year-old star - who has enjoyed huge success with his debut album 'Plus' and its 2014 follow-up 'X' - has teased fans that he's been working on a Christmas song, but admitted it won't be released in time for this years' festive season.
He told The Sun newspaper: "[The Christmas song] won't be out this Christmas.
"I have 'Thinking Out Loud' as a single going into Christmas.
"If I saw an artist have a string of hits, an album that did well, a hit going into Christmas and then they did a Christmas single I'd think, 'Ooh, that's overkill'.
"If my song came out next year or the year after, when I haven't released anything for a while, it will be bigger."
Meanwhile, Ed has also confessed 'Thinking Out Loud' could be the last single he releases from 'X', as he hopes to mirror the success of other popular artists.
He added: "Three is a good number. I did six on the last album and it felt too much.
"You never go away and people get p**sed off. Bruno Mars did three. Taylor Swift did three. Adele did three.
"I'll probably end up with four singles so I have a song to go into the Brit Awards with next year."

Taylor Swift stayed sober to avoid "going off the rails" like other pop stars.
The 23-year-old singer has revealed that she didn't partake in underage drinking because she worried about the rumours that might spread if she was spotted out partying, but is adamant that she didn't miss out on anything.
She said: "[I was] completely sober until I was 21! Because I knew other people can make partying look cute and edgy but, if I did, people were going to twist it into this tragic, 'America's-sweetheart-goes-off-the-rails-and-loses-her-mind' thing. So I just made sure that could never be written about me, and I don't feel like I missed out."
The 'Shake It Off' hitmaker thinks being "firm" and not agreeing to everything is an essential trait in anyone's life.
She added to Britain's Vogue magazine: "Being firm and having the ability to say no, and not feel guilty about it afterwards, is really important in any aspect of your life. Even if it's when your 16 years old and everyone at the party is wasted and you don't really feel comfortable about it."

Union J's manager pops their spots.
The 'Beautiful Life' group - comprising Josh Cuthbert, J.J. Hamblett, Jaymi Hensley and George Shelley - don't mind who helps them when they have a blemish that needs busting from their skin.
George said: "Ben our tour manager had to squeeze a spot on my back when we had a photoshoot last week. I think he enjoyed it."
Jaymi added: "My boyfriend does pop the spots on my back sometimes."
The band shot to fame after competing on 'The X Factor' in 2012 and are so close, they regularly tell one another they love them.
George said: "At the end of every phone call, we're like, 'Love you, bye'. "
Josh added: "'Love you bro' is bandied around a lot."
However, Jaymi admits he finds it "annoying" if he feels prompting into expressing his feelings.
He told We Love Pop magazine: "I only say it when I mean it. I find it annoying if I feel I have to say it so it's fine if it just comes rolling off my tongue."
And J.J. is much more open about his emotions when he has been drinking.
George said: "J.J. loves a heart to heart when he's tipsy."
Jaymi added: "When J.J. and I lived together, he came downstairs once and was like, 'Don't ever change or lose who you are."

Bernard Sumner became a "miserable" person around Peter Hook.
The 58-year-old singer-and-guitarist admits he repeatedly clashed with his former bandmate - who left New Order acrimoniously in 2007 - because the bassist is so "competitive" and was convinced the frontman wanted to "seize power" in the band after their manager Rob Gretton died in 1999.
Bernard said: "I think when Rob died, he saw it as a chance to seize power in the band and I think he may have felt that I felt the same but I didn't.
"He wasn't particularly interested in being in the studio and loved playing live - and I preferred being in the studio.
"Perhaps he wasn't that interested in making electronic music and wanted to make music of a more throbbing nature.
"I just think he's very competitive and I'm not really - and he couldn't stand that.
"I could be a miserable **** on tour - because I didn't want to be around him."
The two musicians became friends at school but Bernard admits it wasn't due to shared interests but because they were both "scum" at the bottom of their class.
Asked why they were friends, he told Uncut magazine: "Because we were both at the bottom of the class. We sat together.
"It wasn't because there was any great musical enlightenment we shared, we were the scum at the back of the class."

Ella Eyre is "too controlling" to be part of a group.
The 20-year-old singer admits being a solo artist suits her because all her lyrics are "really personal" and she would hate having to perform them with other people.
She said: "There's a video on YouTube of me singing 'Royals' with the three Rudimental singers but I'm too controlling to be in a girl group - all my songs are really personal to me, so I'd hate to share them."
The 'Comeback' singer thinks it is important to write from the heart and finds it helpful to channel any of her anger and "passion" into her songs.
She said: "People are just getting to know me as a solo artist and I think they want to listen to lyrics from the heart.
"I love singers like Adele, who is so true and real. When you're that angry and that passionate about a situation, when you've been f***ed over by someone that you care about, sometimes you just need to say it out loud."
Ella will release a new album next year and says it has "vulnerable moments" because she has exposed her lowest points in her songs.
She told Look magazine: "It's got vulnerable moments. Like everyone, I have down moments and points where I don't feel like I can cope, so I've written about that. But I don't like things to be too soft. Even if I'm making a sad point I like it to be quite poignant and direct."

Bono "despised" Catholics and Protestants while he was growing up in Ireland.
The U2 frontman has admitted that he hated the religious groups that dominated and divided country during the 1970s.
Talking to The Sun newspaper, Bono said: "In Ireland, whether they were Protestant or Catholic, we despised them growing up because we knew they were both the devil.
"Somebody has attempted to take your life in a brutally cold, politically planned way because you just happened to be there that day ... like July 7.
"It comes down to a deep disrespect for the sacredness of life."
The 54-year-old singer also revealed that his home life was not always stable, as he hinted about "darker elements behind closed doors".
He said: "Domestic violence is one of the most terrifying things of all. You can understand political violence in some ways but not a father beating his children with a shovel."
Despite this revelation, Bono added: "It was extraordinarily idyllic in many ways. The backdrop in Ireland was rough in the 70s but our street was something of an oasis."
The 'Songs of Innocence' hitmaker also took the time to praise the British band, Mumford & Sons.
He said: "Critically, they are not well regarded in the UK. In America they are.
"Well you know what? They're unarguably great songwriters and performers. The UK's got to stop eating its own.
"Stick to eating the Irish because we can take it!"

Pharrell Williams thanked Britain for having a "heavy" and "influential" hand in shaping his career during his concert at The O2 in London last night (09.10.14).
The 'Get Lucky' hitmaker performed a number of hits from throughout his music career during the 'Dear G I R L' tour show and, to thank fans for the role they've had in his success, played a medley of the hit singles he's written and produced including Nelly's 'Hot In Herre' and Gwen Stefani's 'Hollaback Girl'.
Speaking to the crowd, Pharrell said: "This great nation has had a very heavy and influential hand in the shaping of our formative years and what brought us over first was not this album but a lot of songs that you guys voted on and bought way back in the day and sung and told your friends about.
"And those things changed my life. So I thought, why not share the journey that you helped create."
Meanwhile, Pharrell's protégé Cris Cab - who was one of the opening acts at the gig at The O2 - has confessed his mentor wasn't supposed to feature in the music video for their track 'Liar Liar' because they're on different record labels.
Cris exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "There are a lot of challenges [in the music industry]. A good example of that would be that Pharrell's record label didn't want him to even appear in our video.
"So he had to sneak out or something to come and do it."
Pharrell's set at The O2 featured a number of crowd-pleasing hits including 'Marilyn Monroe', 'Blurred Lines', 'Get Lucky', 'Happy' and tracks from his, Chad Hugo and Shay Haley's group N.E.R.D, 'She Wants To Move' and 'Rock Star'.

Julian Casablancas wants to make "edgy" music mainstream.
The Strokes frontman has revealed his latest solo album 'Tyranny' - which was released last month - is an attempt to normalise underground music and "make it popular" in its own time.
He told The Guardian newspaper: "If anything I want to make edgier, interesting stuff mainstream. I'm not trying to be weird, I'm trying to make cool things, that are usually underground, popular.
"A lot of what I do is to try and make cool things popular in their own time. But I'm not trying to be new or different. It's just the same as ever - creative ideas come in my mind and I just execute them."
The 'Someday' singer also described the record - which features the tracks 'M.utually A.ssured D.estruction', 'Off to War' and 'Take Me in Your Army' as a "protest" and is a social comment on what he believes to be the failings on modern society.
He explained: "I guess it's kind of a protest record. It feels like one to me. It's more to do with morality than politics. We have the sense that we've moved on from the system where the centres of wealth arbitrarily decide what is law and what wars we fight, etc. But I really don't think that we are removed from that.
"I was actually tapping into the notion of profits at the expense of humanity that I see everywhere. The general human struggle. The point of the record is to try and illustrate the total illusion that we're somehow beyond that sort of thing, in this so-called era of freedom and justice."
The father-of-one confessed he was even close to tears while working on a track 'Human Sadness' and "felt swallowed up" by the emotional message behind the music.
He said: " It was very intense to work on. I've never worked on a song where the people were close to tears.
I wasn't quite crying, but it was really intense. It's like being on the operating table - you're working on making it emotional. But this was a rare time when I felt swallowed up by it."