Category Archives: Music

Tennessee man testifies that he and another man killed rapper Young Dolph

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Cornelius Smith said he and Justin Johnson shot Young Dolph after brother of rival rapper Yo Gotti put a hit on him

A Memphis man testified on Monday that he and a second person shot and killed rapper Young Dolph after Big Jook, the brother of rapper Yo Gotti, put a hit on him.

Cornelius Smith identified himself and Justin Johnson as the two people seen on a 17 November 2021, surveillance video exiting a white Mercedes outside a Memphis, Tennessee, cookie store about 30 seconds after Young Dolph entered the store and then opening fire in broad daylight.

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Rapper Shyne says former mentor Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs ‘destroyed’ his life

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Belize’s House opposition leader Moses Barrow ‘takes no joy in anyone’s challenges’ after recent charges

The rapper and former Sean “Diddy” Combs protege Shyne has said his ex-mentor “destroyed” his life in the wake of a 1999 New York City nightclub shooting in which they were both implicated – yet he denied gaining any sense of schadenfreude from the Bad Boy Records founder’s recent arrest on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and other related crimes.

“One of the things that I would never wish on my worst enemy is to be incarcerated,” said the artist born Moses Barrow, a native of Belize who spent about eight years in prison while Combs was acquitted of charges in connection with the same shooting. “So I take no joy in anyone’s challenges whether with the criminal justice system or otherwise.

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Green Day in Sydney for $500 – is dynamic pricing reserving live music for the rich?

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Ticketmaster and Ticketek claim demand-driven prices mitigate the problem of scalping, when tickets are bought – often by AI bots – and resold at inflated prices

Dynamic ticket pricing helps combat ticket scalpers, the company behind $500 Green Day tickets claims – but music industry insiders and consumer groups dispute that, with some concerned the controversial practice skews live events to the rich.

Dynamic pricing – when the cost of products rise and fall according to demand – is well established in Australia, from Uber’s surge prices to utilities and airline fares.

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Starmer’s free tickets for Arsenal and Taylor Swift part of job, says minister

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Business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, defends PM over gifts he has received since becoming Labour leader

Keir Starmer’s attendance at Arsenal football matches and Taylor Swift concerts is “part of the job”, the business secretary has said.

Jonathan Reynolds described the occasions for which Starmer had accepted tickets, including a Coldplay gig and football matches, as “major cultural, sporting events”.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to stay in jail until sex-trafficking trial begins as bail again denied

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Second judge refuses bail to music mogul, 54, citing possibility that he could tamper with witnesses

Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs will have to await trial on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges in a Brooklyn jail instead of his luxurious Miami Beach mansion after a second judge refused to grant a $50m bail package offered by his lawyers.

On Wednesday, US district judge Andrew L Carter Jr denied Combs’s request to be released to home detention with GPS monitoring, pointing to the possibility that Combs may tamper with witnesses.

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Berlin’s Watergate nightclub will close with New Year’s Eve last dance

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Upmarket Kreuzberg club blames economic pressures, a pandemic hangover and Berlin’s dated image as factors leading to end of 22-year party

Berlin’s Watergate nightclub, one of the institutions of the German capital’s nightlife, is to close down after 22 years, with its owners saying the night-time economy still hasn’t recovered after the pandemic.

In a statement, the club’s management said it had made the “difficult decision” not to extend its lease and close its premises after a New Year’s Eve party at the end of the year.

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Green Day presale tickets for Australia tour as high as $500 under Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing

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Regulator says dynamic pricing is legal if consumers are not misled as fans considering giving the Saviors tour a miss

Tickets to Green Day’s Saviors tour in Australia were as high as $500 in the initial presale after Ticketmaster revealed dynamic pricing was in effect for the rock band’s upcoming shows.

The first presale for the March 2025 leg of the tour went on sale Monday for three locations – the Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne. The cheapest general admission tickets were capped at $200 plus booking fee, but those wanting seated tickets were informed at purchase point that the price was as high as $500 due to what Ticketmaster calls “In Demand” pricing.

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Kanye West performs in China after rare approval by country’s censors

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Flow of foreign artists to China has slowed to a trickle, but economic pressures could be forcing authorities to rethink

When Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, took to the stage in Haikou on Sunday, his Chinese fans could barely believe it. One of the biggest and most controversial foreign acts in the world had been allowed in by China’s notoriously censorious regime.

Ye’s only China show – all the more surprising for skipping big cities in lieu of the holiday island of Hainan – was announced just days earlier, and more than 42,000 tickets sold out within minutes. It was his first time back in the country for 16 years. In that time the Chinese government’s tolerance for western musicians has diminished, while Ye’s reputation for controversy has grown.

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Tito Jackson, Jackson 5 member and brother to Michael, dies aged 70

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The third of nine Jackson children and last to release a solo project, Tito was ‘incredible man who cared about everyone’

Tito Jackson, one of the brothers who made up the pop group the Jackson 5, has died at the age of 70.

Tito was the third of nine Jackson children, including global superstars Michael and sister Janet.

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Real Madrid pauses concerts after ‘torture-drome’ noise complaints

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Football club announces cancellation or rescheduling of gigs at refurbished Santiago Bernabéu stadium

Real Madrid has cancelled or rescheduled all concerts at its Santiago Bernabéu stadium and is working to comply with council noise regulations after local people complained that a series of loud, late gigs had turned the arena into a “torture-drome”.

Although best known as the home of one of Spain’s greatest football teams, the Bernabéu – which has just undergone a five-year, €900m (£760m) refurbishment – has hosted a string of high-profile concerts over the spring and summer. Recent headliners have included Taylor Swift, Luis Miguel and the Colombian star Karol G.

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‘The UK is invited’: Bradford reveals 2025 City of Culture lineup

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West Yorkshire city to host magic, music, film and theatre performances celebrating local talent, plus Turner prize

A city centre magic show, the Brontës as you’ve never seen them before, and a bassline house symphony are all part of Bradford’s City of Culture lineup, which its organisers call a celebration of everything that makes the West Yorkshire city great.

Shanaz Gulzar, the creative director of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, said the whole of the country was invited to come next year to a place she billed as young, diverse, creative and “the heart of the UK”.

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Dave Grohl says he has become father of baby girl born ‘outside my marriage’

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Foo Fighters frontman posts that he aims to be loving parent to new daughter and earn family’s forgiveness

Dave Grohl has announced that he has become the father to a baby girl born “outside of my marriage”.

The Foo Fighters frontman, 55, said he plans to be a “loving and supportive parent” to his new daughter in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

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White Stripes sue Trump over ‘flagrant misappropriation’ of hit song

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Band accuse campaign of unauthorised use of Seven Nation Army and seek ‘significant monetary damages’

The White Stripes’ Jack White and Meg White have filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump for what they allege is the “flagrant misappropriation” of a recording of their hit song Seven Nation Army in a campaign video.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Jack White shared the first page of the lawsuit, filed in court in New York, with the caption: “This machine sues fascists.”

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V&A celebrates a century of national theatre archive with tribute to avid collector

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New exhibition, named after ‘theatrical encyclopedia’ Gabrielle Enthoven, showcases British stage history from the Restoration to Fleabag

She was an avid collector of playbills, programmes and props who kickstarted the largest theatrical archive of the nation, now housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Without Gabrielle Enthoven, we would not have theatre studies as a discipline today, according to Simon Sladen, the museum’s senior curator of modern and contemporary theatre and performance.

Yet many will never have heard of Enthoven. That is about to change as the V&A has named a new exhibition in her honour, celebrating a century of the national archive, which is now protected by law.

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Will Jennings, Oscar-winning lyricist of My Heart Will Go On, dies aged 80

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Songwriter wrote No 1 hits for Whitney Houston and Barry Manilow, as well as iconic ballads such as Up Where We Belong and Tears in Heaven

Will Jennings, the Oscar-winning US lyricist behind hit songs such as My Heart Will Go On, Tears in Heaven and Up Where We Belong, has died aged 80. His agent said Jennings died at home in Tyler, Texas, and did not give a cause of death.

Born Wilbur Jennings in 1944, he was raised in Tyler and initially went into academia, teaching at the University of Wisconsin. But in 1971 he headed to Nashville and became a lyricist in the city’s country music scene, earning his first country No 1 in 1975 with Feelins’ by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn.

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Oasis fans affected by ticket sales debacle invited to join second ballot

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Fresh chance for ‘eligible’ fans to buy reunion tour tickets after many people’s transactions failed last Saturday

A select number of Oasis fans who missed out on tickets for the band’s reunion concerts in a disastrous sales launch last week have been invited to try their luck again in a second ballot.

The band said they would send invitations out to “eligible fans we have been able to identify”, including some of those who were signed in to the Ticketmaster website last Saturday but were unable to complete their transactions.

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Elton John makes first appearance after revealing ‘limited vision’

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Singer speaks at Toronto film festival after announcing eye infection had left him with limited vision in one eye

Sir Elton John has made his first public appearance at Toronto international film festival, days after announcing a severe eye infection had left him with limited vision in one eye.

The British singer, 77, was pictured in good spirits as he arrived on the back of a buggy at the Canadian festival, alongside his husband, David Furnish.

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British pop art pioneer Derek Boshier dies aged 87

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Portsmouth-born, working-class artist was known for collaborations with David Bowie and the Clash

Derek Boshier, the working-class artist who was a key part of the pop art movement and a collaborator with the Clash and David Bowie, has died aged 87.

The Portsmouth-born artist studied at the Royal College of Art in London from 1959 to 1962 alongside David Hockney and was profiled with Pauline Boty and Peter Blake in Ken Russell’s 1962 film about the pop art movement, Pop Goes the Easel.

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Brazilian musician Sérgio Mendes dies aged 83

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Mendes, who popularised bossa nova among global audiences in the 1960s, had been suffering from the effects of long-term Covid, his family said

The Brazilian musician Sérgio Mendes, who brought bossa nova to an international audience in the 1960s with his band Brasil ’66, has died aged 83 as a result of health challenges related to long-term Covid.

In a statement, Mendes’s family said he “passed away peacefully” in his home town of Los Angeles. “His wife and musical partner for the past 54 years, Gracinha Leporace Mendes, was by his side, as were his loving children. Mendes last performed in November 2023 to sold out and wildly enthusiastic houses in Paris, London and Barcelona,” they said. “For the last several months, his health had been challenged by the effects of long-term Covid.”

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Watchdog to investigate Ticketmaster over Oasis ticket sales

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Competition and Markets Authority to look at how ‘dynamic pricing’ may have been used to increase prices

The competition watchdog has launched an investigation into the Oasis ticket sales fiasco.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will investigate Ticketmaster’s handling of sales for the band’s forthcoming tour, including how “dynamic pricing” may have been used to adjust the price.

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