Music News

Alana Haim was thrilled to win the NME Award for Best Band Blog or Twitter because it was the prize she most wanted to take home.
Alana's band Haim - which also features sisters Danielle and Este and drummer Dash Hutton - were up for five gongs at the ceremony at London's O2 Academy in Brixton last night (26.02.14) and walked away Best International Band, while Alana won the award for her Twitter account.
Before picking up the trophy, Alana, who has 84,000 followers on the site, told BANG Showbiz: "I want to win the trophy for Best Twitter, I need to defend my crown for one more year. I won it last year, no one can touch me.
"I'm totally gonna change my bio if I win, I need to win! James Blunt is hilarious on Twitter, Albert Hammond Jr, he's like a bro. I need to start a nice Twitter war with him."
'The Wire' hitmaker also praised Canadian producer and singer Grimes, real name Claire Boucher, who runs a successful fashion blog and was also nominated.
She said: "And then Grimes is like the best, I kind of want to give her my award but I really want to win that!"
Asked what the NME Awards mean to her, Alana replied: "I just love that all our fans can vote, for the BRITs it's not voted by the public.
"The NME Awards are chosen by the fans, everyone who is nominated are amazing and had amazing years, all the awards we are up for all the bands in our categories are fucking mind blowing. We're honoured to be here."

Drenge were nervous about performing in front of Sir Paul McCartney at the NME Awards last night (26.02.14).
The two-piece grunge band - made up of brothers Eoin and Rory Loveless - took to the stage at the O2 Academy Brixton in London and Eoin admitted he was worried about playing as The Beatles legend looked on.
Speaking before their performance, Eoin told BANG Showbiz: "Well, everyone is a musician [in the audience] aren't they? Everyone's got their music taste we just have to do what we do and if Paul McCartney doesn't like it we'll just have to live with that. This is the highest concentration of musicians we've ever played in front of."
The 'Bloodsports' singers were up for Best Live Band, but lost out to the Arctic Monkeys, and Eoin insists they couldn't have put bets on who would win, saying: "I don't think you can even bet on our category."
Although the duo weren't bothered about walking away from the ceremony with a prize, one of their competitive friends was desperate for them to be victorious.
Eoin said: "We've got a competitive mate with us in the band and he's been just so annoying about the ward. Any chance to wind us up or get us agitated he went for it."
Other performances on the night came from Blondie - who won the Godlike Genius Award - The Horrors and Metronomy, who opened the show along with MKS with 'Love Letters', which is from their forthcoming new album of the same name.

Charlotte Church was left red-faced when only one fan turned up to star in her new music video.
The 28-year-old put out an open call to her thousands of fans on Facebook and Twitter to join her in Cardiff, Wales, on the set of her 'Little Movements' video recently, however, she had to resort to asking nearby shoppers to assist her after only one person - a professional TV extra - showed up.
'Casualty' extra Julian Gillard, 42, was the sole person to answer Charlotte's call, travelling 40 miles to star in the music video in a bid to boost his career.
The 'Crazy Chick' singer had to rope in reluctant shoppers and stallholders to join her in the video in Cardiff's city centre, telling them to "dance like no one's watching".
Market stall holder Stuart Talbot told WalesOnline: "I got to dance with Charlotte Church. There's not many men who can say that."
Charlotte had previously put a call out to her 70,000 Twitter followers to star in her music video.
She wrote: "Yo! People of Caaaaaaardiff! I'm filming a music video this Saturday for my new single 'Little Movements'. I want as many of you beauts in it as possible! (sic)"

Rihanna is working on a concept album for new animated film 'Home'. The superstar's next record will be entirely inspired by the new 3D DreamWorks Animation movie, in which she voices a teenager called Gratuity 'Tip' Tucci. Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of...

Blondie have confirmed they will perform at Glastonbury festival.
The 'Hanging on the Telephone' group were named Godlike Geniuses at the NME Awards tonight (26.02.14) and also took the opportunity to confirm they will be playing the huge summer showcase in June.
Frontwoman Debbie Harry said: "We just heard today - we're going to be doing Glastonbury!"
Blondie join Arcade Fire, Warpaint, Lily Allen and Suzanne Vega in being confirmed for the three day event, which takes place in Somerset, Southern England between June 25 and 29.
Other artists who are rumoured to be appearing at Glastonbury include Outkast, Pixies, Dolly Parton, Prince and Manic Street Preachers.
Blondie - which also includes Chris Stein, Clem Burke, Leigh Foxx, Matt Katz-Bohen and Tommy Kessler - formed in New York in 1974 and became the most successful New Wave act of the late 70s.
When asked how they keep things fresh after so long, Debbie told BANG Showbiz: "We're creatively involved in what we're doing and we're not just doing a review of our history. That's very important to us.
"I think the last album ['Panic of Girls'] we all kicked ourselves away upstate in the woods and worked in a big studio. This time [for forthcoming album 'Ghosts of Download'] we emailed things back and forth, we worked with bits and pieces and then everyone later put their parts down. It was a little different as a process."
Blondie closed the NME Awards, held at Brixton Academy in London, by performing an eight song set including their classic tracks 'One Way Or Another', 'Rapture' and 'Call Me'.

Rebecca Ferguson has "p****d off a lot of people" in the music industry.
The 'I Hope' singer says she's become a "rebel" since rising to fame on 'The X Factor' in 2010, and thinks it could be the reason why her second studio album 'Freedom' wasn't nominated for a BRIT Award last week, despite having charted in the UK top ten.
Expressing disappointment that she is yet to receive a nomination, Rebecca told Digital Spy: "I wasn't nominated for my first album [Heaven] either! I don't know what that's about. Who are the BRIT Awards decided by? Because I have p****d off a lot of people in the industry. That would be interesting - I want to know!"
The 27-year-old singer says that while she enjoys a boozy night out at the BRIT Awards in London, she is considering building better relationships within the industry in hope of being acknowledged for an award next year.
She added: "Maybe I'll have to start being a bit nicer, but this industry needs a few rebels. It's a fun night out though and I do love the awards."

Scissor Sisters' Jakes Shears has written a "whole album's worth" of songs with Kylie Minogue.
The frontman and band mate Babydaddy worked with the 'Into The Blue' singer on her 2004 hit 'I Believe In You' and 2007 record 'Aphrodite' and claim there's a catalogue of songs which could be released.
Jake told Attitude magazine: "I love writing with her and always have. I'm really proud of all the songs I've written with her and I think someday I'm gonna, like, put together a Scissors-Kylie record.
"There's a whole album's worth of music. It's from over the years. There's some really cool stuff that no-one has heard. We could definitely put together a fun little album. Someday I'm gonna be shifty and leak it."
The 'Filthy/Gorgeous' hitmaker, 35, also praised the 45-year-old singer's writing and claims she is "a lot of fun in the studio" and the trio don't treat recording as work.
He continued: "She's a great writer and I love writing with her, she's great with lyrics. But it's just like playtime, you know. It feels like play, not work. It's just a nice time for us to hang out and be creative with each other."
Jake will also join 'The Voice' coach on the talent show on Saturday (01.03.14) to help advise this year's contestants.

Rudimental have collaborated with Beats by Dr. Dre.
The BRIT Award-winning drum'n'bass group are giving fans a unique look into the creative process behind their latest single, 'Powerless', which features vocals from Becky Hill.
The 'Waiting All Night' quartet feature in the first of a new YouTube series, 'Beat by Beat', which examines the sounds and elements used to create the track, and experience the song as the stars' intended when they were recording it.
In a unique innovation, fans of Rudimental - who won Best Single at last week's BRIT Awards and performed with Bastille - will be able to simultaneously play six different video clips on one page to create different sounds, giving the impression of a DJ's sound mixing desk.
Rudimental - consisting of Piers Agget, Kesi Dryden, Amir Amor and DJ Locksmith - recently revealed how they risked their careers by releasing the smash hit 'Waiting All Night'.
DJ Locksmith told BANG Showbiz: "Everyone was kind of against us putting it out there and all four of us came together and we put our careers on the line with 'Waiting All Night'. It got us through to where we are now, that's why it's such a special track for us."
Watch Rudimental's Beat by Beat video by visiting youtube.com/user/Officialbeatsbydrdre.

Pharrell Williams is streaming his new album 'G I R L' online for free.
The 'Get Lucky' hitmaker says he is "happy to share" an early preview of his second studio album, ahead of its official release on March 3, and all the tracks have been made available to listen to on iTunes radio.
Taking to Twitter, Pharrell wrote: "Thankful for the opportunity to share my new album with everyone. (sic)"
The ten-track follow-up to Pharrell's 2006 debut 'In My Mind' features his Oscar-nominated hit, 'Happy', along with a collaboration with Justin Timberlake on the track 'Brand New', while Alicia Keys teams up with the star for 'Know Who You Are'.
Pharrell, 40, worked with Miley Cyrus on her controversial '#Bangerz' album last year she has returned the favour by lending her vocals to his song 'Come Get It Bae'.
The album also sees a reunion between The Neptunes producer and French house duo Daft Punk following the success of their hit 'Get Lucky', which conquered the charts.
Speaking about the inspiration behind the album's title, Pharrell said: "Imagine if all of the talk show hosts in the world were women, all of the presidents were women, this is my gift to them. This album is dedicated to women across the world."

'G I R L' Tracklisting:
1. Marilyn Monroe
2. Brand New (feat. Justin Timberlake)
3. Hunter
4. Gush
5. Happy
6. Come Get It Bae (feat. Miley Cyrus)
7. Gust of Wind (feat. Daft Punk)
8. Lost Queen/Freq (feat. JoJo)
9. Know Who You Are (feat. Alicia Keys)
10. It Girl