Music News

Pharrell Williams thinks he'll never be as successful as Jay Z.
The 'Happy' hitmaker thought he could compete with the 'Holy Grail' rapper when he started releasing solo material but admits he was wrong and was trying to be someone he wasn't when he recorded his debut 'In My Mind' in 2006.
He told the Guardian Weekend magazine: "It was in my mind, but not in my heart. It was this caricature that I'd built in my mind, that fitted in with what Snoop and Jay were doing.
"Some of the things I said on that record, all the bragging, it's not necessary. It doesn't say anything about you, apart from how shallow you are."
He went on : "[I thought I was] this competitive guy in the music industry, who admired my peers and felt he needed to compete with the races that they designed. But in life you're meant to race against yourself."
Pharrell, whose second solo record 'G I R L' has hit the number one spot on the UK Album Chart, admits "Jay was never going to race with any of us."
He explained: "That was just my delusion. Because his career runs laps around people. And he runs laps around people, lyrically. He's a philosopher and a poet."
The 40-year-old star feels more comfortable with who he is these days and insists he isn't interested in living a party lifestyle.
When asked if he has ever taken drugs, he replied: "Very rarely - I've had my share of pot brownies - but it's not my thing. I spend most of my time working. Yes [I am a workaholic], lucidity is important to me."

Pet Shop Boys have sampled a gay rights speech for their new single.
The dance duo's new track 'The Best Gay Possible' features all ten minutes of a speech made by drag queen, Panti Bliss, a leading Irish gay rights activist, who rose to fame after his speech condemning homophobia at Dublin's Abbey Theatre in February went viral on Youtube.
In the speech, Panti says: "To grow up in a society that is overwhelmingly homophobic and to escape unscathed would be miraculous. So I don't hate you because you are homophobic. I actually admire you. I admire you because most of you are only a bit homophobic. Which all things considered is pretty good going."
He adds: "But I do sometimes hate myself. I hate myself because I f*****g check myself while standing at pedestrian crossings. And sometimes I hate you for doing that to me."
Panti - real name Rory O'Neil - took to Twitter to give his nod of approval on the track, as he wrote: "Pet Shop Boys made an amazing track out of my Noble Call speech. Seriously, they did."
Meanwhile, Pet Shop Boys - featuring Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe - will embark on a US tour on April 8 and will also take the stage at Coachella Festival in California.

Lily Allen is to release her new album 'Sheezus' on May 5.
The 28-year-old singer's hotly anticipated third studio LP will contain the hit 'Hard Out Here' and is available to pre-order from today (10.03.14) with a download of her next single 'Our Time' from iTunes.
Lily is clearly excited that fans are going to be able to get their hands on her album as she posted this message her Twitter account this morning, "ZOMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lily Allen - Sheezus (sic)," along with a pre-order link to the LP on iTunes.
The tracklisting for 'Sheezus' - which is inspired by the title of Kanye West's last album 'Yeezus' - includes a title track of the same name, second single 'Air Balloon' and 'L8CMMR', which is about her husband Sam Cooper's bedroom prowess.
All the tracks on Lily's new album were produced by Greg Kurstin, except for the title track which was produced by DJ Dahi and 'Air Balloon' which was produced by Shellback.
'Our Time' will receive a full release on April 27 and the video for the track has been directed by Christopher Sweeney and documents a fictional drunken night out for Lily.

The track-listing for Sheezus is;
'Sheezus'
'L8CMMR'
'Air Balloon'
'Our Time'
'Insincerely Yours'
'Take My Place'
'As Long As I Got You'
'URL Badman'
'Silver Spoon'
'The Life For Me'
'Hard Out Here'

Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne have been working on new music with Good Charlotte.
The 'Midnight Memories' hitmakers joined Good Charlotte's Joel and Benji Madden at a studio in the United States on Saturday (08.03.14) to work on new tracks, which are expected to feature on One Direction's upcoming fourth album.
The collaborators took to social media sites to unveil the new partnership and speak about their excitement over the project.
Louis Tomlinson wrote: "Great working with the Good Charlotte boys today!"
Good Charlotte's Joel Madden then posted a picture of himself, Benji, Liam and Louis on his Tumblr page with the caption: "Noice! The London boyz putting in tha werk in the studio. (sic)"
Joel's twin brother Benji even teased that the new material could be a surprise to One Direction's fans - who are affectionately nicknamed "Directioners".
He wrote on Twitter: "Good day today w/ @Louis_Tomlinson and @Real_Liam_Payne lotta laughs #1D #Directioners their new album is crazy. homies #Noice (sic)"
Although Liam and Louis' bandmates - Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik - weren't involved in the collaboration, Harry has also been working on some new music as he teamed up with Irish rock band Kodaline last week.
The band posted a drawing on their Twitter page with the caption: "In the studio with @Harry_Styles in LA writing a tune, sounds massive. He's gone and done a drawing of us.. x (sic)."
One Direction began working on new material for their fourth studio album earlier this year and it's expected to be released later this year.

Union J's second album will be more acoustic than their debut.
The 'X Factor' formed boy band released their self-titled first album in 2013 after they came in fourth place on the talent show, but the youngest member of the group, George Shelley, claims they're going to have a lot more input in the second album.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz prior to their live set at M&M's World in London's Leicester Square on Thursday (06.02.14), he said: "We've been working on some new stuff and we're really enjoying it, it's very different. It's a lot more acoustic. It's more like folk and country music than before.
"We're happy we're getting to choose what we want to put out there as before we were kind of told what we were meant to be doing."
George and his bandmates - Josh Cuthbert, Jaymi Hensley and Jamie 'JJ' Hamblett - performed tracks including 'Loving You Is Easy' and 'Carry You' at the store to celebrate the launch of the new personalised M&M printer, and Jaymi said he hopes their new music will show how much they've grown once it's released.
He said: "We're a bit older now, you know? And it's been a year since 'X Factor' so we want to show that we've matured and I think that will come across in our new stuff."
The 24-year-old 'Carry You' hitmaker also revealed that he thinks their new single could be a contender for a Number One in Britain.
He added: "We've worked really hard on it and we're really happy with it so hopefully people will like it too."

Debbie Harry doesn't think the Internet will remain popular.
The 68-year-old Blondie frontwoman is predicting a "backlash" against modern technology and she finds the world wide web a huge "waste of time".
She said: "I think that there will be some kind of Luddite backlash. People in general will just all of a sudden unhook themselves. It's such a waste of time."
Debbie admits she dislikes the internet because she tries so hard to maintain her privacy and thinks the online world is full of fame-seekers.
She said to NME magazine: "I'm really only concerned with letting people have a certain amount of me - not all of me. I've always fought very hard for a certain amount of anonymity and privacy. I'm very selective and it's very minimal for me.
"People are looking for public notice without actually being in showbiz. Everyone thinks they're in showbiz online.
"If I choose to send something out, or write something to a friend, that's one thing, but I'm not looking for that kind of attention, I have another kind."

Pharrell Williams believes he's been in "training" for his new album for five years.
The 'Happy' singer - whose new album 'G I R L' goes on sale next week - tried to emulate rappers like P. Diddy and Jay Z on his first album 'In My Mind' in 2006, and feels it has taken him time and growth to discover the kind of music he should be making.
Pharrell pinpoints one particular song on his first offering, 'How Does It Feel?', which brags about "cuties" wanting to sleep with him.
He said: "What was I talking about? That wasn't joy. That was just bragging. I wanted to be like Jay. I wanted to be like Puff. Those are their paths. I got my own path. But I didn't know what my path was.
"I knew that I was meant to do something different. I knew that I needed to inject purpose in my music. And I thought that was my path. I didn't realise that like, from '08 up until now was like, training. Like, keep putting purpose in everything you do. Don't worry about it, just put purpose in there."
Following lacklustre sales of his first album, the 40-year-old star was reluctant to release another solo record, but was convinced to get into the studio by Columbia Records following his success working with Daft Punk last year.
He said to GQ magazine: "They're like, 'Look, we know that you're not interested in doing another solo album. But we know that you're going to change your mind. Even if you're not ready now, we know you're going to change your mind. And since we know that, we'd like to get ahead of it and change your mind and tell you, 'Look, here's a deal. Go make whatever album you want to make'."

Motley Crüe can still make music together despite signing a "no more tours" contract.
The 'Kickstart My Heart' heavy metal rockers - Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil and Mick Mars - announced a farewell tour earlier this year and admitted they'd singed a legally-binding document which means they'll never be able to go on the road together again, but Nikki insists it doesn't mean the end of the band.
He explained: "It [the contract] is legally binding. Motley Crüe cannot tour. We could tour as the Flaming Buttholes, but that's kinda pointless, right? We could do a disco record and tour as the Disco Boys. But Motley Crüe can never tour again.
"It's no more touring. That's it. We can make music; we can do a lot of other stuff."
The 55-year-old bassist also admitted that while the band have been working on some new songs together, he's not sure whether he would want them to release a new album at this stage in their career.
He told Classic Rock magazine: "We've written some songs ... If you're this kind of band at this stage of your career you can't be played on Active Rock [radio station]; if you've been around for more than fifteen years you're classic rock, but classic rock radio doesn't play new music. You think, 'F**k, man, this sucks."

Paloma Faith feels like a "competition winner" because of her high-profile collaborators.
The 'Can't Rely On You' singer has worked with a string of famous faces on her new album 'The Perfect Contradiction' and can't believe stars like Pharrell Williams and Raphael Saadiq wanted to write with her.
She said: "On this album I didn't approach hardly any of the people, I met Pharrell at the Met Ball [last year] and came up and asked to work with me, which I was gobsmacked about. He came up to me and was like, 'I think you're so cool' and was singing my songs to me. I was just like, 'How do you even know who I am?'
"Raphael I met because I was opening for Prince and he was as well, he was like 'Let's write together.'
" I feel like a competition winner."
Paloma admits she found it hard to concentrate when she entered the studio with Pharrell because she was so in awe of his youthful good looks.
Asked what it was like entering the studio with him, she said: " Difficult to concentrate because he's so beautiful and I can't believe he's 43, he looks about 15. And his wife is devastatingly beautiful. He's nice and humble."
Though they got on well, the 32-year-old singer admits she hasn't heard much from the 'Happy' hitmaker recently.
She joked in a radio interview: " I've got his phone number and email. He's quite busy now, he doesn't reply as much as he used to. I think I'm left out on the doorstep."