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Live Updates

Kev Geoghegan and Mark Savage

All times stated are UK

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  1. Music News LIVE.. out (mic drop)

    That's your lot for this sunny Monday, scroll down for news on Anthony Kiedis' sore tummy, a new video from crooner Jake Bugg, a new single from Adele and a long overdue apology from Azealia Banks.

    We'll leave you with a 12-minute Janet Jackson megamix, created by DJ Kayper as BBC 1Xtra celebrates the singer's 50th birthday, which is today. It's got all of the hits: Rhythm Nation, Nasty, What Have You Done For Me Lately, If, No Sleeep, Together Again, Escapade, and "Interlude: Racism".

    Happy birthday, Ms Jackson. 

  2. Black Grape announce new album

    Shaun Ryder

    Good news if you were a student in the mid-90s: Black Grape are reforming and making a new album.

    Shaun Ryder's post-Happy Mondays band scored major hits with In The Name of the Father and Reverend Black Grape, but fell apart in 1998 when Ryder fired each of the members, one-by-one, while they were on tour.

    They got back together last year to mark the 20th anniversary of their debut album It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah, and have now announced more live dates for November and December 2016.

    Would Ryder say he was really enjoying it this time round, more than ever?

    Quote Message: I am loving Black Grape and really enjoying it this time round, more than ever. I'm looking forward to doing It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah on tour and can't wait to get stuck into recording a new album. from Shaun Ryder
    Shaun Ryder

    Now, let's gather round while he blows his own trumpet.  

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  3. World's longest-serving orchestral player dies on stage

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    The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra lost a legend this weekend.

    Jane Little, a bassist who held the Guinness World Record for the longest professional tenure with a single orchestra, died on Sunday night after collapsing on stage during a performance earlier that afternoon.

    The musician, who was 87, joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 71 years ago after studying bass in high school.

    The Atlanta native performed under guest conductors including Igor Stravinsky and Sir John Barbirolli, while also touring with with American Ballet Theatre and Boris Goldovsky Opera Theatre.    

    "It truly is unbelievable and fitting that she spent her last day at her home on the stage at Symphony Hall," said Tammy Hawk, a spokeswoman for the orchestra.

    Fittingly, the encore during which she lost consciousness was the song There’s No Business Like Show Business from Annie Get Your Gun. 

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  4. Pet Sounds turns 50

    Pet Sounds cover art

    The Beach Boys' legendary Pet Sounds album was released 50 years ago today (in the US, at least. The UK didn't get it until July).

    A groundbreaking album, both in terms of composition and production, it layered vocals and instruments to create pop's first symphonic masterpiece. 

    The project was masterminded by Brian Wilson, who created the album in the studio while the rest of the group were on tour in Japan.

    But as Wilson told Johnnie Walker and David Hepworth in 2013, his bandmates weren't impressed with the results.

    Video content

    Video caption: Johnnie and David Hepworth discuss the making of Pet Sounds.

    To mark the anniversary, Rolling Stone has compiled a list of "15 things you never knew about Pet Sounds," covering everything from Barbie dolls and saxophone solos, to the revelation that one of the songs was in contention to become a Bond theme.

    And BBC 6 Music broadcast a special documentary about the record yesterday, which you can hear on the BBC iPlayer.

  5. Roisin Murphy films a video on the Death Star

    Roisin Murphy in the video for Ten Miles High

    Quirky pop maven Roisin Murphy has filmed her latest video, Ten Miles High, in and around London's metropolitan transport system - including Canary Wharf tube station, which recently subsituted for Darth Vader's Death Star in the trailer for Star Wars: Rogue One.

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    Sadly, Roisin doesn't dress up as a Storm Trooper or Bom Vimdin during the video, instead appearing as a transit worker, businesswoman and construction worker, all of whom are hoping to escape the dirt and grime of everyday life.

    The track premiered on Lauren Laverne's 6 Music show this morning, where it was described as a "nugget of perfectly packaged pop".

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  6. Gregory Porter breaks 10-year jazz curse

    We already know that Radiohead scored their sixth number one album on Friday, as A Moon Shaped Pool made its debut at number one.

    But here's something that escaped our attention when the countdown was announced on Friday: Gregory Porter is the first jazz artist to make the UK top five in a decade.

    His album Take Me To The Alley was a new entry at five, outselling the likes of Justin Bieber, Jess Glynne and Adele.

    The last jazz act to scale these heights was Jamie Cullum, whose Catching Tales reached number four in 2005.

  7. Tour news: Puff Daddy and Barbra Streisand on the road

    Puff Daddy

    Nope, they're not touring together, that would be preposterous.

    Puff Daddy, however, is reuniting with Lil Kim, Mase, and Faith Evans for a Bad Boy Records US reunion tour in the summer. 

    The label launched the careers of those artists and the late Notorious BIG.

    It's kicking off on 25 August in Columbus, Ohio and will include 25 dates before wrapping up on 8 October in Oakland, California. 

    Barbra Streisand

    Meanwhile, Barbara Streisand has announced a nine-city US tour, also during the summer.

    According to her manager, it will precede a new album later this year.

    Strange that, as Babs billed her 2000 concert tour as a 'farewell'. She has since hit the road in 2006 and 2012.

    That is one long goodbye.

  8. Top ten songs featuring animal noises...

    The Beach Boys

    What are your favourite songs featuring animal sounds?

    We're talking actual, real animals rather than anything featuring bassist Flea from RHCP or Cat Power, or even anything by The Bees.

    Here is BBC Music's selection.

    Sadly, one of our faves - Beastie Boys' Sure Shot didn't make the cut...

    Warning: Third party content may contain ads.

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  9. Ellen spoofs Beyonce's Lemonade and 'Becky with the good hair'

    Ellen DeGeneres has gone down the tried and tested route of comedians inserting themselves into videos for comic effect - see every Oscars ceremony since about 1990, including this year's with Chris Rock.

    So, here is Ellen in Beyonce's Lemonade - is it us or is this about a week late?...

    Warning: Third party content may contain ads.

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  10. Adele announces new single

    Still image from Adele video

    Under-appreciated pop artiste Adele is to promote her struggling career with the release of a new single from the album 25.

    Send My Love (To Your New Lover), produced by Swedish pop overlord Max Martin, will be the follow-up to underground hits Hello and When We Were Young, with a brand new video shot by Patrick Daughters (Feist, Muse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs).

    The clip will premiere at the Billboard Music Awards this Sunday, 22 May, alongside performances from Rihanna and DNCE, and a tribute to Prince by Madonna.

    Adele posted a teaser on her Twitter account mere moments ago.

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  11. Singer Gaz Coombes joins RSC for one-night only

    Gaz Coombes

    As any Shakespeare scholar knows, the bard was a massive Supergrass fan* so he would undoubtedly be thrilled to know that frontman Gaz Coombes is to play one-off gig at the RSC next month.

    He'll be playing tracks from his solo career, including his latest album Matador, nominated for the 2015 Mercury Prize, and a selection of hits from his time with Supergrass. And if that doesn't include Richard III, he's doing it wrong.

    Warning: Third party content may contain ads.

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    Quote Message: The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils

    Gaz is performing in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on Sunday 19 June.  

    *okay, we made this bit up....

  12. Radiohead video upsets Trumpton creator

    Still image from Radiohead's latest video

    The video for Radiohead's new single Burn The Witch appears to have caused a lot of heartache for the family of Trumpton creator Gordon Murray.

    The clip sees characters from Trumptonshire recreate scenes from Wicker Man - but the band apparently didn't seek consent from Murray, who was the series' writer and producer.

    "We consider this a tarnishing of the brand," his son-in-law told the Mail On Sunday. "It is not something we would have authorised. We consider that there is a breach of copyright and we are deciding what to do next.”  

    Whether the family would have a case or not is hard to say. To begin with, the copyright for Trumpton resides with the BBC, which made the series in the 1960s. 

    Furthermore, Radiohead's video is likely to be protected from copyright claims under the "parody exception" - which allows the use of material so long as it is fair and does not compete with the original version.

    We've contacted Radiohead's record label and video director Chris Hopewell for a response. We'll let you know if they reply. In the meantime, watch the video before the lawyers rip it down.

    Warning: Third party content may contain ads.

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  13. Harold Faltermeyer on the music of Top Gun

    German composer Harold Faltermeyer won a Grammy Award for his Top Gun theme, recorded with Steve Stevens - a guitarist so good they named him twice.

    To mark the 30th anniversary of the film - which made Tom Cruise a star - the Today Programme spoke to the musician, whose credits also include Beverley Hills Cop and... er Tango and Cash.

    He revealed that director Jerry Bruckheimer had given him one piece of direction: "What you want to do here is rock and roll in the sky."

    Quite a literal instruction for a movie director...

  14. Could this be the next generation of pop stars?

    Adele with a giant question mark on her face

    The music business is a hungry beast, chewing up and spitting out talent like a rabid antelope. So who will be the next Adele? How can we replace Ed Sheeran? And can we ever, in all seriousness, find a talent to compare to Rizzle Kicks?

    Luckily, the Young Songwriter Competition is here to help. Established five years ago, it aims to find and encourage new writers, with the winners getting to record their song in a professional studio with a "big name producer" (we presume they mean someone famous, rather than someone with an exceptionally long name, but you never know).

    This year's entrants - 70% of whom were female - were judged by a panel including chart-topping baladeer Tom Odell, professional composer Eg White (Adele, Pink, Sam Smith), singer-songwriter Rumer, and award-winning producer Naughty Boy.

    The winner in the seven-to-12 age group was 11-year-old Sam Hancock from Sale, Manchester. Tom Odell said his song, Superhuman, was "something wonderful".

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    Edinburgh's Gus Harrower topped the 13-18 category with his song Wanderin' Man. Rumer called the musician "very promising", while James Walsh, frontman of Starsailor, said: ”Nice stuff. Good lyrics. Newton Faulkner with a bit of Jack Johnson’s playfulness.” 

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    You can hear all 10 finalists in both age groups by visiting the Song Academy's SoundCloud page.

  15. Breaking news from the "well, that's got to hurt" desk

    Shirley Manson

    KROQ's Weenie Roast festival seems to have been cursed (maybe it's karma for the atrocious name).

    Not only did the Chili Peppers pull out after Anthony Kiedis fell ill, but Shirley Manson took a nasty tumble off the stage.

    The Garbage singer was performing the band's 1998 hit Special when she missed her footing and fell into the press pit. Amazingly, she barely missed a note.

    Fan Holly Clark caught the incident on camera.

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    The band later addressed the incident on their Facebook page, writing: "So we got the first show of 'Strange Little Birds' [album cycle] under our belt yesterday. Could have been worse. Could have been better. There are always monsters to chase in dreams".

  16. Azealia Banks is... sorry

    BBC Newsbeat

    Azealia Banks

    In what can only be described as a "tumultuous" few days in the life of rapper Azealia Banks, she has finally aplogised for a racist / sexist / homophobic / idiotic rant on Twitter which got her booted off the social media site and dropped from a UK festival bill.

    Banks, whose one UK hit, 212, was released nearly five years ago initially accused Zayn Malik of appropriating her style in his latest music video before firing off a stream of missives too offensive to print here.

    Well, she is now  pretty contrite about the whole thing: 

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    Genuine apology or much-needed, slightly too late damage control?

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  17. Matt Johnson debuts new The The song... at last

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    The The - possibly the least Googleable band of all time - have emerged from a sixteen-year hibernation to premiere a new song. But with frontman Matt Johnson as enigmatic as ever, it's almost impossible to hear it.

    He played the track, We Can't Stop What's Coming, live on his Radio Cineola webcast on Saturday night. The programme is ostensibly streaming on The The's official website, but we'll be dashed if we can get it to work. Overwhelming demand, perhaps?

    So we'll have to rely on the word of music blog Hang The Dj, who described We Can't Stop What's Coming as "soulful, powerful, and inspirational".

    Johnson, who talked openly during the webcast about creative inertia and his "talent" for procrastination, previously suggested he would release a new The The album later this year.

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  18. Fatboy Slim spins tunes for toddlers

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    Video caption: Fatboy Slim spins tunes for toddlers

    Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, played a two-hour set to a group of babies, toddlers and young children on Sunday afternoon.The DJ and producer was joined onstage by his six-year-old daughter, Nelly, at the Baby Loves Disco event, organised as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival."It was great fun," said Cook after the party. "The crowd were so up for it!"  

  19. Prince memorial held at his local church

    Prince

    Mourners packed into a Jehovah's Witness church in Minneapolis on Sunday night for a memorial to pop megastar Prince, who worshipped there before he died last month.  

    Media and fans were kept back from the invitation-only event, while a city spokeswoman said police were preparing for up to 500 people, including up to 50 high-profile guests, to attend the service.  

    Prince, who was known as "Brother Nelson" to worshippers at the church, was remembered by bassist Larry Graham (Sly and the Family Stone, Graham Central Station), who introduced him to the faith in the early 2000s.

    The order of service quoted Prince's song Beautiful, Loved and Blessed, saying: "If I were to ever write down my life story, I could truly say with all the fame and glory, I was just a piece of clay in need of the potter's hand."

    The star's two ex-wives also held a memorial in Los Angeles last week, which was attended by Spike Lee, Nile Rodgers, Mavis Staples, Janelle Monae and Esperanza Spalding, amongst others.

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  20. Oasis documentary gets Supersonic film title

    Supersonic poster

    Okay, okay, the headline is a dead giveaway. 

    Oasis’s 1994 single, Supersonic has been selected as the name of new Mat Whitecross-directed documentary about the band.

    The film, which is being produced by Academy Award-winners James Gay Rees and Asif Kapadia - who made the Amy Winehouse documentary, will document the Gallagher's journey from the moment Noel joined his brother Liam’s band, to playing Knebworth Park and the subsequent breakdown of the band.

    Lest we forget, Liam has already seen an early cut of the doc, due out in October, and described it as "biblical"... by which we presume he means "epic", unless it really does contain a crucifixion.