Category Archives: Music

Judith Durham, Australian singer and vocalist of The Seekers, dies at 79

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Melbourne-born entertainer rocketed to international fame in the 1960s with hits including The Carnival is Over, A World of Our Own and Georgy Girl

Judith Durham, the Australian singing great and vocalist of The Seekers, has died aged 79.

Durham released a number of solo albums but was best known as the voice of folk music group The Seekers, who she performed with from 1963 until 1968, when she left to pursue a solo career.

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‘Big tree down’: Archie Roach remembered as a truth-teller, healer and First Nations champion

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Cathy Freeman, Paul Kelly and Linda Burney among those who have paid tribute to the musician after his death

The Indigenous Australian songwriter and activist Archie Roach has been praised as a “courageous” and “powerful” truth-teller, as leading figures in politics and the arts mourn his passing.

Roach died aged 66, after a long illness, surrounded by his family and loved ones at Warrnambool Base Hospital.

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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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‘If there is anywhere that can put on a party’: UK cities bid to host Eurovision

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Sheffield, Glasgow and others tell why they should play host after decision not to hold event in Ukraine

In 1956 Sheffield became, it is believed, the first UK city to officially twin with one behind the iron curtain, partnering with a similar steel and mining-rich place then called Stalino, but later Donetsk.

It is the reason that there is a Shefield Square on the banks of the River Kalmius. In Sheffield there’s a long, busy road called Donetsk Way. And it those links that are one reason the Yorkshire city is now bidding to host next year’s Eurovision song contest, which is coming to the UK but, everyone agrees, should really be in Ukraine.

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UK to host Eurovision song contest in 2023 on behalf of Ukraine

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BBC says programme will have ‘glorious Ukraine at its heart’, with cities invited to bid to host event

The Eurovision song contest will be hosted in the UK next year after Ukraine’s public broadcaster dropped its objections and agreed to work with the BBC on the event.

Ukraine won this year’s Eurovision with the song Stefania by Kalush Orchestra, earning the right to host the 2023 edition. However, organisers concluded this could not be done safely while the country was at war with Russia – angering the Ukrainian government, which said it had submitted a workable safety plan.

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Russian sponsorship row overshadows opening of Salzburg festival

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The festival defends decision not to cancel Teodor Currentzis’s appearance despite links to ‘Putin’s private bank’

The official opening of one of the world’s leading classical music festivals is being overshadowed by the appearance of a conductor whose orchestra and choir are funded by a bank controlled by the Russian government.

Cultural commentators have described Austria’s Salzburg festival, which is also receiving sponsorship money from a foundation with close ties to the Kremlin, of being in the grip of Vladimir Putin’s influence. Along with other classical music events in the region, they argue it has turned itself into a paradise for dubious and often intransparent cultural-corporate partnerships, referred to as “toxic sponsorship”.

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Rapper Kodak Black arrested on drug charges in Florida

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The rapper was released on $75,000 bond on Saturday after being booked into jail in Fort Lauderdale

Rapper Kodak Black has been arrested in south Florida on charges of trafficking in oxycodone and possession of a controlled substance.

The rapper, whose legal name is Bill Kapri, was previously pardoned by Donald Trump on the last day of his presidency for a previous conviction on a weapons charge. He was booked into jail in Fort Lauderdale on Friday and released on Saturday after a $75,000 bond was negotiated at a bail hearing, his lawyer Bradford Cohen told Rolling Stone.

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‘Worth waiting for’: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck get married in Las Vegas

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Lopez and Affleck married in a small ceremony on the weekend, culminating a relationship that has stretched over two decades and two engagements

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck got married in a Las Vegas drive-through chapel late on Saturday night, culminating a relationship that stretched over two decades in two separate romances and headlined countless tabloid covers.

Lopez announced their marriage on Sunday in her newsletter for her fans, On the J Lo, with the heading “We did it”. Lopez initially made their engagement public in April on the same newsletter.

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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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Parents forced to spend hundreds to chaperone teenagers at Splendour in the Grass after late rule change

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Under-18s who can’t find adult supervision for music festival scramble to resell tickets

Splendour in the Grass, one of Australia’s largest outdoor music festivals, has been thrown into chaos, with changes to terms and conditions of entry made less than two weeks out from the event.

Young ticket holders for the 2022 festival – the first held in three years due to Covid-19 – learned on Monday that if they are under the age of 18, they must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

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Nicki Minaj’s Camden meet and greet cancelled due to overcrowding

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Police order dispersal of crowds awaiting rapper at Cafe Koko after numbers threaten public safety

A meet and greet scheduled in Camden for Nicki Minaj had to be cancelled due to overcrowding.

Adoring fans descended upon Cafe Koko in their droves after the rapper took to social media to reveal she would be at the venue from noon on Monday.

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Post-Brexit visa rules a ‘disaster’ for arts, says Edinburgh festival director

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Fergus Linehan calls for visa-free travel for British artists to solve logistical problems of touring

The outgoing director of the Edinburgh festival has called for the UK’s visa and exports rules to be greatly simplified to allow musicians and artists to travel overseas far more smoothly.

Fergus Linehan, who directs his last international festival next month, said the UK’s post-Brexit visa rules had been a “disaster” for the arts and for artists by stifling collaboration and making it harder for British artists to tour abroad.

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Row over UK child visas as Ukrainian violinist’s three-month wait continues

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Talented musician, 17, stuck in Russian occupied area after British government changes policy on travel rules

A talented 17-year-old violinist living on the frontline in south-east Ukraine has been left waiting three months for a British visa, revealing serious flaws in government promises to help unaccompanied children.

Anastasiia, who lives in the Russian occupied Zaporizhzhia region, where fighting has been intense, has faced constant shelling while waiting to join a family in Hertfordshire.

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‘The spirit of Love Parade’: organisers to bring techno event home to Berlin

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Politics, electronic music and 25,000 people expected at Rave the Planet Parade this weekend, 12 years after fatal Duisburg crush

Neon bodypaint, string vests and no-nonsense four-to-the-floor beats will return to the streets of Berlin this weekend as the legendary Love Parade techno event makes a comeback in the German capital after a hiatus of more than 15 years.

Saturday’s daytime outdoor event carries a new name – the Rave the Planet Parade – but is being organised by some of the same people who put together the first Love Parade on the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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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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What makes a song sound happy? It depends on your culture, study finds

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The perception of music in major keys as happy and minor keys as sad is not universal, Australian researchers say

What makes a piece of music seem happy or sad? Whether it has been composed in a major or minor key is a significant factor. It’s part of what distinguishes the cheeriness of Walking on Sunshine from the pensiveness of Ain’t No Sunshine, for example.

But the perception of major keys as happy and minor keys as sad is not universal, according to Australian research that suggests the effect may result from the influence of western culture.

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Paul McCartney’s Glastonbury show hailed as ‘phenomenal’

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Ex-Beatle’s gig seen by many in huge festival crowd as ‘something to tell your grandkids about’

Paul McCartney’s history-making Glastonbury set was hailed as one of the greatest headline performances of this generation as a crowd of more than 100,000 people gathered at the festival’s famous Pyramid stage to watch him play.

He was joined on stage by Bruce Springsteen and Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl – and even sang a duet with his old bandmate John Lennon, using special effects pioneered by the Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.

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Plea after ‘irreplaceable’ records accidentally sold at Derbyshire car boot sale

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Relative mistakenly sold ‘shocked and horrified’ Buxton woman’s inherited vinyls for less than £1 each

A woman has told of her devastation after a relative mistakenly sold her collection of irreplaceable vinyl records for less than £1 each at a car boot sale.

Rohan Mellor, 26, inherited the 16 pieces of vinyl from her late uncle to whom she was very close.

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Sir Paul McCartney plays surprise pre-Glastonbury gig in Frome

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Set at Cheese and Grain sold out in under an hour after being announced on Thursday night

Sir Paul McCartney delivered a surprise performance the night before his Glastonbury festival headline set, which had caused traffic congestion as fans tried to buy a coveted ticket.

The impromptu gig at the Cheese and Grain entertainment venue in Frome, Somerset, was announced on Thursday evening and sold out in under an hour.

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Digested week: the joy of missing out on Glastonbury, and why moaning works

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Glastonbury makes me revel in my sprung mattress from where I can watch RMT boss Mick Lynch dressing down media pundits

Hurrah! After an enforced three-year hiatus (there was this pandemic thing – I can’t get into it now) Glastonbury is back! The older I get, the more I love this music festival of music festivals, its noise, its mud, its people. The knowledge that I don’t have to endure any of it gets sweeter with every passing year. The sheer Jomo of it all far outpaces the delights of birthdays (they start to pall once you’re past seven and I’ve had 40 of them since then) and even Christmas (so much work now that I have a child of my own and can’t slip into a mimosas-bellinis-prosecco stupor over the course of the day).

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