Category Archives: Pop and rock

John Farnham cracking jokes with nurses after mouth cancer surgery, sons say

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Singer, 73, is focused on getting better after 12-hour operation in August to remove cancerous growth, sons Robert and James say in TV interview

The Australian singing legend John Farnham is on the long road to recovery after his life-saving cancer surgery, his sons say.

The 73-year-old underwent a 12-hour operation in August to remove a cancerous growth from his mouth.

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Sam Fender cancels shows to look after his mental health

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Singer-songwriter apologises to fans in announcement on Instagram after becoming ‘burnt out’ from touring

Sam Fender has cancelled a number of forthcoming shows and announced he is “taking some time off the road” to look after his mental health, after admitting that he was “burnt out” from touring.

The 28-year-old singer-songwriter from Newcastle posted the announcement on Instagram, saying it would be “completely hypocritical” of him to advocate for discussion of the topic without looking after his own mental wellbeing.

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Lewis Capaldi reveals Tourette syndrome diagnosis: ‘It’s something I am living with’

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The 25-year-old Scottish singer has been treating the condition with botox injections and says that he is ‘learning new ways to cope all the time’

Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi has revealed that he has been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. The 25-year-old star, who broke out with the chart-topping 2018 single Someone You Loved, said on Instagram Live that the diagnosis “makes so much sense”: “When I look back at my interviews from 2018, I can see that I’m doing it,” he said.

The singer said that he chose to go public with the diagnosis because he “didn’t want people to think I was taking cocaine or something,” and noted that he had initially thought it was “some horrible degenerative disease” before he was properly diagnosed. “My shoulder twitches when I am excited, happy, nervous or stressed,” he said. “It is something I am living with.”

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Nirvana win lawsuit over Nevermind baby album cover

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A US judge has dismissed Spencer Elden’s claim that an image of him as a naked baby on the 1991 album constituted child sexual abuse

Spencer Elden, who appeared on the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 album Nevermind as a baby, has lost his lawsuit claiming that the image constituted child sexual abuse.

In the suit Elden claimed that the album cover, which depicts him at four months old and was taken by a family friend, had caused him “permanent harm” and a “lifelong loss of income-earning capacity”.

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Taylor Swift announces new album, Midnights, to be released in October

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The 32-year-old singer used her acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards to reveal her 10th studio album is on the way

Taylor Swift has announced she is releasing a new album, Midnights, in October.

While receiving the top honour at MTV’s annual Video Music Awards, the 32-year-old singer used her acceptance speech to announce her 10th studio album would come out on 21 October.

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John Farnham recovering in ICU after mouth cancer removed in surgery, singer’s family reveals

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Veteran Australian hitmaker is in a stable condition in hospital after surgery for almost 12 hours as doctors worked to successfully remove a cancer tumour from his mouth

The veteran Australian singer John Farnham is recovering in hospital after undergoing almost 12 hours of surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his mouth.

In a statement released Wednesday morning, Farham’s wife, Jill, and sons Rob and James said the singer was in a stable condition.

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Svika Pick, Israel’s ‘king of pop’, dies aged 72

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Songwriter behind hits including 1998 Eurovision winner, and Quentin Tarantino’s father-in-law, dies at home

Svika Pick, a prolific songwriter and musician who was known as Israel’s “king of pop” and by the moniker the Maestro, has died at the age of 72.

He died on Sunday in his home. The cause of death is yet to be announced.

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Taylor Swift files in Shake It Off copyright lawsuit: ‘The lyrics were written entirely by me’

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Singer had been sued by writers of 3LW’s 2000 song Playas Gon’ Play for alleged plagiarism, and the case is due to return to court

Taylor Swift has defended herself as the sole writer of her 2014 hit Shake It Off in response to a lawsuit claiming that she plagiarised lyrics from the 2000 song Playas Gon’ Play by girl group 3LW.

“The lyrics to Shake It Off were written entirely by me,” Swift stated in a sworn declaration filed on Monday. “Until learning about Plaintiffs’ claim in 2017, I had never heard the song Playas Gon’ Play and had never heard of that song or the group 3LW.”

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Archie Roach, Australian songman and voice of the stolen generations, dies aged 66

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Tributes pour in for musician whose song Took the Children Away became the anthem of the stolen generations

Archie Roach, the Indigenous Australian songwriter whose celebrated song Took the Children Away brought national attention to the story of the stolen generations, has died aged 66.

Roach died at Warrnambool Base hospital after a long illness, surrounded by his family and loved ones.

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Horror at Hong Kong boyband concert as huge video screen falls on to performers

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Two dancers injured as suspended LED screen crashes down on to stage during show by Cantopop band Mirror

Two dancers have been injured at a Cantopop concert in Hong Kong after a massive video screen suspended above the stage fell on to performers below.

The concert on Thursday, by Cantopop boyband Mirror, was the fourth of a series of 12 scheduled concerts by the band held at the Hong Kong Coliseum.

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Schlager louts? Row erupts over ‘sexist’ pop hit in Germany

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Town festival authorities refuse to play chart-topping Layla by DJ Robin & Schürze, prompting complaints of censorship

They are loud in volume, unsophisticated in tune and often offensively bawdy in content. With titles ranging from Sex With a Bavarian to Big Tits Potato Salad, the ballermann sub-genre of schlager pop is a big hit in German-dominated nightclubs on the Balearic island of Mallorca, but is more likely to elicit winces of embarrassment or Fremdschämen at home.

Yet this week German newspapers have been filled with detailed analysis of schlager song lyrics, and even the country’s justice minister felt inclined to share his musical taste after a Bavarian city decided to banish this holiday season’s ballermann hit from its beer halls for its sexist tendencies.

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Carlos Santana recovers after onstage collapse in Detroit

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74-year-old guitarist says he ‘forgot to eat and drink water so dehydrated and passed out’

The US guitarist Carlos Santana has recovered after collapsing on stage during a concert in suburban Detroit on Tuesday.

The audience was reportedly initially told of a serious medical issue and asked to pray for the 74-year-old musician, but Santana was treated swiftly and was seen waving to fans as he was wheeled off stage. He was taken to a local hospital for observation.

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Britney Spears’ ex-husband given restraining order after crashing wedding

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Jason Alexander pleads not guilty to charges of stalking, trespassing, battery and vandalism

Britney Spears’ ex-husband Jason Alexander has been charged with stalking her, after he appeared unannounced at her wedding last week.

After streaming a video live on his Instagram at the wedding venue, in which he claimed that Spears had invited him and said “I’m here to crash the wedding”, Alexander was confronted by security guards, arrested and taken to a local jail. Spears’ wedding to Sam Asghari, her third husband, went ahead.

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‘I had imposter syndrome’: Taylor Swift talks becoming a director

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At a Tribeca film festival event, the singer discussed directing the short All Too Well as well as the difficult time she went through over control of her music

Lines of young fans stretch down Broadway. Selfies aplenty snapped in a crowded lobby. Wild cheers as anticipation built inside, followed by intermittent shrieks during an opening speech from Tribeca film festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal. A short film screening that morphed into a pop concert, complete with sing-along.

It’s safe to say this wasn’t your standard film festival event. But what else do you expect when the festival, now in its 20th year, decided to trot out the newly-minted Dr Taylor Swift to muse about film-making in honor of her music video-slash-short film aptly dubbed All Too Well: The Short Film? Released in November and directed by Swift herself, it fit like a glove into the festival as production partly took place in the actual Tribeca neighborhood in New York.

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‘I won’t believe humans any more’: Johnny Depp releases self-penned ballad lamenting fame

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New single This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr is a ballad about the difficulties of film stardom, taken from Depp’s forthcoming album with Jeff Beck

Johnny Depp has released a new self-penned song performed with Jeff Beck, This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr, taken from the pair’s forthcoming collaborative album, entitled 18.

A trudging rock ballad sung by Depp interspersed with solo vocals from Beck, it hymns the 1940s film star (and innovative electrical engineer) Hedy Lamarr, though this lament about fame will inevitably be read as a reaction to the high-profile, frequently ugly defamation case he recently brought against his ex-wife Amber Heard.

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Kate Bush earns first ever US Top 10 hit with Running Up That Hill

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Song reaches No 8 in the US 37 years after it was first released, thanks to inclusion in new season of Stranger Things

Kate Bush has earned her first ever US Top 10 hit with Running Up That Hill, 37 years after it was released.

The song is a key plot point in the new series of Netflix’s supernatural drama Stranger Things, and has exploded in popularity since the show debuted on 27 May. It is now at No 8 in the US, and reached the same position in the UK singles chart last Friday.

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‘Do we want music to be a pursuit only of the wealthy?’ Anger grows at PRS Foundation cuts

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Royalties company PRS for Music has announced a major funding cut for its charitable arm. Artists such as Black Country, New Road explain why it could damage the UK music scene

One of the UK’s biggest funders of new and emerging music, responsible for fostering the careers of artists including Sam Fender, Little Simz and 2021 Mercury prize winner Arlo Parks, has this week seen its budget slashed by 60%.

The PRS Foundation, which funds hundreds of aspiring artists and music organisations across the country – including a number of artists from groups underrepresented in the music industry – announced on Wednesday that its income would be cut from £2.75m to £1m from 2024 onwards, citing financial necessity. The decision was taken by its parent company and primary funder PRS for Music, which collects royalties for musicians when their music is streamed or played in public.

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John Peel: personal records and memorabilia set for Bonhams auction

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Items including a handwritten letter from David Bowie and Peel’s horn gramophone will be up for sale next month

Records and music memorabilia once owned by the celebrated former BBC DJ John Peel, including a signed mono pressing of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1968 album Two Virgins, is to be sold at auction in June.

Peel’s family said in a statement: “John/Dad was in a position to have access to many of the most celebrated people and events in the history of popular music. This is reflected in a wealth of souvenirs he collected. In going through the accumulation of 40 years of pop music moments, we decided that some of the most interesting items might find a home, with fans of his programme or of the artists whose music he played.”

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Global hit Pasoori opens doors for Pakistani pop

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Song has more than 111m views on YouTube and has been heralded for transcending boundaries

From radio stations in Islamabad to the nightclubs of Delhi and house parties in Kathmandu, it is a song that in recent months has been impossible to avoid. As soon as the distinctive opening claps of Pasoori, by the Pakistani singer Ali Sethi and his collaborator Shae Gill, are heard, it is often greeted with a roar of approval.

And it is not just in south Asia: since it was released in February, the song, which draws on traditional and modern musical influences, has gone on to become a global phenomenon and one of Pakistan’s most popular musical exports for years. It has more than 111m views on YouTube, it was the first Pakistani song to top Spotify’s global viral charts, and the first Pakistani song to enter its official global songs chart.

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South Korea split in row over military service for BTS

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The K-pop superstars add billions to the economy, so should they be exempt from conscription?

They generate billions for the South Korean economy and have helped turned the country into a cultural superpower, but must Jin, Jimin, V, RM, J-Hope, Suga and Jungkook – the seven members of the K-pop phenomenon BTS – start swapping their stage outfits for military uniforms?

Less than three weeks before South Korea’s new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, takes office, the country is gripped by a debate over who, if anyone, should be exempt from compulsory national service – long seen as essential preparation for a potential conflict with its volatile neighbour, North Korea.

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