Music News

Prince has announced his first UK arena shows in seven years.
The 'Raspberry Beret' hitmaker, who has played a number of gigs in London and Manchester as part of his 'Hit and Run' tour this year, is heading back to the UK in May for four dates with his band 3RDEYEGIRL.
The shows in Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds are his first regional arena dates since 1995 and his first big gigs since his sold-out residency at The O2 in London in 2007.
It will be the first time Prince has ever performed in Leeds and is also the first time Prince has headlined a show in Birmingham and Glasgow in 19 years.
His Manchester gig follows two nights at the city's Academy in February.
Tickets go on sale Friday, May 2 at 12pm and are priced from £65 plus booking fees, available at gigsandtours.com, ticketmaster.co.uk and by calling 0844 811 0051 and 0844 826 2826.

Prince's arena dates..

May 15 - Birmingham LG Arena
May 16 - Manchester Phones 4u Arena
May 22 - Glasgow The SSE Hydro
May 23 - Leeds First Direct Arena

Former members of Lostprophets have started a new band together.
The remaining musicians - Lee Gaze, Mike Lewis, Stuart Richardson, Jamie Oliver and Luke Johnson - are working on a new project with former Thursday frontman Jeff Rickly following the conviction of frontman Ian Watkins on child sex charges.
Jeff told Radio Cardiff: "I think if ever there was a group of people that needed a second chance, it's those guys - and they're going to take full advantage of it.
"People don't really think of what happens to the other members. That took away their life. What happened is just devastating for them."
Although Jeff hasn't spoken about joining the musicians himself, he is working with them via his label, Collect Records.
He continued: "It's been my honour to work with them on their new band from a label perspective. People are not going to know what hit them when the new band comes out. "It's like everything I grew up on - a little bit of New Order, a little bit of Joy Division, little bit of The Cure. It's just so forward-thinking."
Meanwhile, Ian, who was given a 29-year jail sentence in December after pleading guilty to 13 sexual offences, including the attempted rape of a baby, has applied for permission to appeal against the length of his jail term.

McBusted don't think other supergroups would be able to fake the chemistry they have.
The group, made up of Mcfly's Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd and Busted members James Bourne and Matt Willis, have heard other boy bands are planning to follow suit and join forces but don't think they'll be as successful as McBusted.
Singer Tom told the Daily Star newspaper: "I heard Boyzone and Westlife are rumoured to be doing something similar to us.
"The thing is, I'm not sure if it would work as well for other bands.
"Good luck to anyone wanting to form a supergroup, but it probably won't be as easy and natural as it was for us.
"McFly and Busted go way back. I was in Busted for a while before McFly, plus Harry and Charlie [Simpson, from Busted] went to school together and I went to school with Matt.
"James has written most of McFly's hits. So the lines between the two bands have always been blurred. For us to merge seemed the natural thing to do."
McBusted have kicked off their 34-date arena tour but Tom, 28, admits it hasn't been very rock and roll behind the scenes.
He said: "I think we've all been too busy crapping our pants about the show to be honest.
"But there'll be plenty of time for backstage antics and pranking from now on.
"We're such good mates and touring together is so fun."
The band will play their biggest gig so far on July 6 when they headline Barclaycard British Summer Time at London's Hyde Park.
They will be joined by Backstreet Boys, The Vamps, Scouting For Girls and Lawson.

Mariah Carey's children will feature on her next album.
The '#Beautiful' singer - who has two-year-old twins Monroe and Morocco with husband Nick Cannon - has revealed her children sang on her track 'Supernatural', which will be included on the upcoming record.
Mariah told Wonderland magazine: "There's a song on the record called 'Supernatural' that I haven't talked to the media about before - it features Roc and Roe.
"Especially Monroe - that's her song. She opens the song, actually. It was something along the lines of 'Goo goo goooo.'"
Mariah has become famed for her eight octave vocal range, and it now looks as though her daughter Morocco is following in her footsteps, as she revealed the tot has a strong voice.
The 44-year-old pop star added: "For a two and a half year old, she was a steady vibrato."
Meanwhile, Mariah's record label have denied reports she is planning to put a surprise album online after Beyonce's released her album digitally without any marketing or advertising in December last year.
Def Jam's Executive Vice President, Darrale Jones, said: "Mariah will announce the date and title in advance of the on-sale date."
The label executive also confirmed the album is due for release next month.

Robbie Williams is not returning to Take That.
The 'Angels' hitmaker - who first quit the band in 1995, a year before they split, but returned in 2010 for their 'Progress' album and tour - won't be joining Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Jason Orange and Howard Donald when they next go out on the road because he wants to spend more time with his family.
Robbie - who announced earlier this week his wife Ayda Field is pregnant with their second child - said: "Logistically I can't do it. I have the tour and I'm going to be a dad again."
However, the 40-year-old star - whose 'Swing Both Ways' tour started in Austria on Monday (28.04.14) - insists it doesn't mean his time with the 'Flood' singers is over for good.
He added to The Sun newspaper: "It doesn't mean to say I won't join in along the way. Whatever happens, I am absolutely going to be in Take That -- I love being in Take That.
"After [my] tour wraps, I'm going to go away for a year or two."
Gary previously admitted Robbie - who also has a 20-month-old daughter, Teddy Rose, with Ayda - had been given a deadline to decide whether to return to Take That.
He said: "We need to know what we are doing by the end of May.
"The thing is with Robbie is that he is a family man, so whether he will be in the final line-up I'm not sure.
However, he also admitted the 'Candy' hitmaker would have some involvement with their new album regardless of his decision to tour or not.
He added: "If he's not back in the band, he'll write on the record and we will work with him on his next record."

Kasabian are "stepping things up" after being inspired by Kanye West.
The band - who are set to release their new album '48:13' on June 9 - were encouraged to experiment more with sound after listening to the 'Bound 2' rapper's music.
Singer Tom Meighan told NME: "I suppose you go out there to make ear-bleeding music, but done in a good way, not done like some sh**y metal rock bands from America, we do it in our way, like a Kanye West way, really f**k it up, fusion it."
The band - also featuring guitarist Serge Pizzorno, who wrote and produced the album, Christopher Karloff and Chris Edwards - had the confidence to be more "direct" with their new record.
Tom continued: "The new album, we just feel excited, it's like anything that's new, you build it up and work on it for so long, Serge has in the summer and we went and recorded it in Richmond just before Christmas and we're massively excited.
"We took some time out, it's our fifth baby, we're more excited because we've stepped up a bit, stepped a lot up, actually."
Meanwhile, the band will make their debut appearance at the top of the Pyramid stage bill at Glastonbury Festival on Saturday, June 29.

Sir Paul McCartney played his first ever show in Ecuador last night (28.04.14).
The former Beatles star took to the stage at the Estadio De Liga in Quito, 2,800 metres above sea level, making it the highest concert Paul has ever played.
To celebrate his visit, local authorities organised for a meet and greet between the musician and the Ecuadorian Beatles Fan Club, who created an impressive giant logo for his latest album 'New' on the Pichincha Mountain, an Ecuadorian landmark, which could be seen across the entire city.
The 71-year-old star performed for almost three hours and also gave a special rendition of the Beatle's hit 'All You Need Is Love' on the piano, which is being used in a global tourism advert for Ecuador.
He later took to Twitter and posted a photograph of himself carrying the flag of Ecuador on stage, along with the message: "Ecuador - what a night! Thank you. (sic)"
Paul, who released his record 'New' last year, is currently on the South American leg of his 'Out There' tour and has also performed in Uruguay, Chile and Peru, while later this week he will also take to the stage in Costa Rica for the first time.

Lily Allen performed her first headline gig in four years at Shepherd's Bush Empire last night (28.04.14).
The 'Hard Out Here' singer took to the stage at the London venue after a hiatus to celebrate the release of her new album 'Sheezus' and treated the audience to a number of songs from the record.
The 28-year-old star opened the show with the album's title track, which namechecks a number of her fellow female pop stars, including Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Beyonce, and she was joined on stage by a group of twerking back-up dancers wearing tiny shorts.
The star then launched into 'As Long As I Got You' and praised her husband Sam Cooper, singing: "Staying at home is better than sticking things up my nose," making reference to drugs, and she later pointed at him in the audience for not paying enough attention and shouted: "Oi! It's my first big gig for ages!"
Lily went on to perform 'URL Badman' featuring lyrics about internet trolls and new single 'Our Time' about girls making the most of their weekends.
The singer then treated fans to her recent hit 'Air Balloon' and closed the show with her hit track 'Not Fair'.
She then made her way to an after-party with Red Bull Zero at Loft Studio in London and partied with actress Jamie Winstone, Jasmine Guinness, Mary Charteris, Miquita Oliver, Gawain Rainey and her dad Keith Allen.
Although it was a "family affair", the star spent most of the night dancing and grinding and even jumped on top of the decks wearing a pair of LED Buffalo trainers.
She later posted a photograph of herself on the decks on Twitter and wrote: "thanks @redbulluk #zero for throwing me a great party, I don't remember this but I was, indeed dancing on tables (sic)"

Glastonbury boss Michael Eavis insists he never considered asking Oasis to headline this year's festival.
The band - who split in 2009 after brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher fell out - were rumoured to be playing the event at Worthy Farm in June after Liam teased fans on Twitter, individually spelling out the letters of the band's name, followed by the post: "OASIS LG".
Michael told the Bristol Post newspaper: "The Oasis thing had nothing to do with us, we hadn't even considered asking them. They've played at the festival three or four times and they're a great band.
"They were not that well known the first time they played here but they were a great band even then. I'm not sure that Noel is ready to go back on the road with Oasis because he has his own band [High Flying Birds] at the moment.
"I think if it were to happen and they did come back to Glastonbury it would probably be in four or five years time - I can't see it happening before then."
Meanwhile, the festival organiser claims the Saturday headliner, who will join Arcade Fire and Kasabian, will be "one of the biggest-selling bands in the world", ruling out Prince playing the event in Surrey.
He added: "We are expecting to announce the full line-up at the beginning of May and everything is now in place. We are more than happy with the calibre of the acts and the headliner on Saturday will be one of the biggest-selling bands in the world at the moment."