Got a TV Licence?

You need one to watch live TV on any channel or device, and BBC programmes on iPlayer. It’s the law.

Find out more
I don’t have a TV Licence.

Live Updates

Sarah Jane Griffiths and Kev Geoghegan

All times stated are UK

Get involved

  1. That's your lot...

    And that's all we've got time for today, but we'll be back bright and early for all the New Music Friday releases and a look ahead to this weekend's T in the Park and British Summertime gigs in Hyde Park plus we'll heard from Biffy Clyro on their new album

    Scroll down for new videos from Two Door Cinema Club, Courtney Barnett and Adam Lambert, and Drake's personal response to the Police shooting of Alton Sterling in the US.

    Plus, there's Prince news - from a Coldplay and Lianne La Havas tribute in Copenhagen to news of a reunion for his band The Revolution. 

  2. Kaiser Chiefs: 'We've entered a new chapter'

    Sarah Jane Griffiths

    Entertainment reporter

    Kaiser Chiefs

    When Kaiser Chiefs debuted their new single Parachute last month - produced by Girls Aloud and Pet Shop Boys collaborator Brian Higgins - reactions on Twitter ranged from "sounds like Take That..." to "...summer anthem". 

    "I was quite happy because the only complaint they had, I disagreed with," singer Ricky Wilson says of the feedback. 

    "They said they wish we'd make records like the first one. Well, if we did that we wouldn't have made a second one and a third one and then we wouldn't be here today - we'd be sat at the end of a bar saying how rubbish the music industry is."  

    The band tell us they made a conscious decision to embrace a new direction on album number six, Stay Together, for their own piece of mind.

    "You just have to go ahead and make a record that you want to make," adds keyboardist Nick "Peanut" Baines. 

    "It's important to try new things and broaden your horizons. We've entered a new chapter, a new bit of Kaiser Chiefs. 

    "You'd get shot down if you tried to make I Predict a Riot again."

    View more on youtube

    "I got excited about covering ground we haven't covered before," adds Ricky. 

    "It's more 'relationshippy' - which seems like a silly idea, because that's what everyone writes about, but we have to find another way in and I think we've done that." 

    The singer's already eschewed the chance of being a coach on the next series of The Voice in favour of touring the record, but he says it feels like a long wait till the 7 October release date.

    "We've got an album, which is weird because we've finished it, I've got a copy. Now comes the uncomfortable bit, saying how much we love it and how brilliant it is and how it's going to blow your minds, but - see i did it! I finally did it."

  3. Destiny's Child star joins BBC Proms line-up

    Michelle Williams

    It's a good time to be a former member of Destiny's Child - as Beyonce rules stadiums up and down the land, her bandmate Michelle Williams has been added to the line-up for the Late Night Gospel Prom later this month. 

    She'll perform at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday 19 July, alongside some of the UK's top gospel talent - including a home grown ‘super choir’. 

    It'll be made up of members of the UK's biggest and best groups and choirs and will include singers Dawn Thomas Wallace, Israel J Allen and Tehillah Daniel.

    In a statement Williams said: "I can't wait to get to the Proms." 

    Tickets for the "all-singing, all-dancing" prom party are available on the Proms website, where you'll also be able to watch the show live, as well as listening on Radio 3. 

  4. Adam Lambert calls people to take pride in themselves

    Adam Lambert has released a new video for his song Welcome to the Show, accompanied by a lengthy blog calling for people to take pride in them themselves.

    "I am no stranger to the feeling of not liking myself. Once I get past my own body image issues, I realise that I sometimes also neglect my own spirit," he wrote.

    "Living in a world filled with so much hatred sometimes makes cultivating self-love a very difficult task. I have always struggled with this as I’m sure many of you have." 

    He added: "Take your flaws in stride, nurture your talents, take pride in your Queerness, and share all the love you have.”

    You can read the whole statement on his website.

    View more on youtube
  5. Judge 'approves' 50 Cent payback plans

    50 Cent

    In celebrity banking news - 50 Cent has reportedly had plans to pay back creditors and reorganise his finances approved by a US federal bankruptcy court judge

    Despite regularly being pictured in gold chains, watches and glugging bottles of expensive champagne, he filed for bankruptcy a year ago, days after a jury ruled he had to pay $5m (£3.2m) to a woman suing over a leaked sex tape.

    Fiddy cited debts of $36m and assets of less than $20m last July.

    Read more

  6. Frances Bean Cobain's ex refuses to give back Kurt's guitar

    TMZ

    Frances Bean Cobain

    It is a musical instrument which has earned a place in music history.

    The 1959 Martin D-18E, played by Kurt Cobain on Nirvana's legendary MTV Unplugged session.

    It is said to be the last guitar he played prior to his suicide in 1994, and now it's back in the news because it's apparently at the centre of a custody battle between his daughter and her estranged husband. 

    Frances Bean Cobain, Kurt's daughter with singer Courtney Love, married Isaiah Silva in 2014 and he is now apparently refusing to give it back as part of the pair’s divorce settlement.

    The acoustic guitar is estimated to be worth millions of dollars.

    Silva claims it was given to him as a present - but Bean denies that.

    Courtney Love told TMZ: "It’s not his to take". 

    Here is Kurt playing the instrument in question:

    Warning: Third party content, may contain ads. 

    View more on youtube
  7. Bastille say 'heartbreaking' Brexit has politicised the band

    NME

    Bastille at Glastonbury

    Bastille have credited the Brexit vote with helping the band to find their political voice. 

    Singer Dan Smith has told NME he'd avoided sharing his views in the past because "overtly polticial musicians can be embarrassing, particularly when they don't know what they're talking about." 

    The band - who performed at Glastonbury the day the result was announced - altered the lyrics to Pompeii to refer to the vote during their set at the festival.

    They changed the chorus to “The pound kept tumbling down on the weekend that we love.” 

    “It’s so small and insignificant us doing that, but we couldn’t not react," said Smith at time. 

    "It’s the only thing anyone wants to talk about today. I was hoping to be on stage and be like, ‘We’re still part of Europe!’ But that daydream is over.”  

    Read more

  8. Courtney Barnett is a bellhop in new music video

    Australian singer Courtney Barnett's debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, made many music critics' Best of 2015 lists...

    Now she has released a music video for one of the tracks, Elevator Operator, featuring Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, Sleater-Kinney and a host of Australian indie music stars.

    It is also an awesome tune.

    Warning: third party content, may contain ads. 

    View more on youtube

    Barnett is also due to play at Somerset House in London next week.  

  9. Coldplay and Lianne La Havas team up for Prince tribute

    She's been supporting Coldplay on the Europe leg of their huge tour for the past month, but last night in Copenhagen Lianne La Havas joined Chris Martin for a special duet of Prince’s Sometimes It Snows In April. 

    During the acoustic section of the show, Chris told fans "this is our favourite Prince song", adding that it was "a special thing" to get to sing it with Lianne, a friend and collaborator of the late star. 

    View more on youtube
    View more on twitter
    View more on twitter
    View more on twitter

    It was their last gig in Europe before they head off on the US leg of their tour.

    Scroll down for more Prince news, as his former band The Revolution have announced two special tribute shows. 

  10. Pharrell and Timbaland to lead Missy Elliot tribute at hip-hop honours

    Rolling Stone magazine

    Missy Elliott

    Pharrell Williams and Timbaland will lead a special tribute to Missy Elliott at this year's VH1 Hip-Hop Honors, the centrepiece of an evening dedicated to "the trailblazing ladies of hip-hop".

    Others taking part in the performance include Nelly Furtado, Keyshia Cole, Remy Ma, Fantasia, Eve, Monica and Raven Symone.   

    The show, in New York on 11 July, is dubbed All Hail the Queens and will also feature similar tributes for the likes of Salt-N-Pepa and Spinderella, Lil Kim and Queen Latifah (whose 1989 album is called All Hall the Queen).

    Read more

  11. Two Door Cinema club don prosthetics for new video

    It's Two Door Cinema Club as you've never seen them before in their new video Are We Ready? (Wreck). 

    The first track off the band's forthcoming third album Gameshow was premiered on Annie Mac's Radio 1 show last month, and is all about "being at odds with the world around you". 

    So Alex, Kevin and Sam have donned prosthetics and jumped into a surreal Mad Men-style 1950s ad for the video, which sees the trio "begin to unravel, both physically and mentally".

    Directing duo Thunderlips say it was inspired by growing up "in a tornado of ads", adding: "This video is like our collective nightmare". Enjoy!

    Warning: third party content, may contain ads. 

    View more on youtube
  12. Dolly Parton to include Glastonbury set in new album

    Country and Western legend Dolly Parton is still widely considered to be one of the highlights of 2014's Glastonbury, with singalongs to songs such as Jolene and 9 to 5.

    Video content

    Video caption: Highlights of Dolly Parton's set on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury 2014

    It turns out it was a highlight for her too, enough to warrant including the full set with the release of her latest album Pure & Simple.

    "I may not be pure, but I’m as simple as they come!" she says proudly.

    Thge album is out on 19 August

  13. Ricky Gervais on David Brent's music career: 'He's trying his best'

    BBC Radio 2

    David Brent

    Ricky Gervais stopped by Steve Wright's show yesterday to discuss his character David Brent's flourishing music career. 

    The mockumentary film and accompanying album David Brent: Life on the Road are due on 19 August, catching up with Brent 12 years on from The Office as he attempts to make it in the music business.

    Ricky says Brent has cashed in his pensions to self-finance a tour with his band Foregone Conclusion: 

    Quote Message: He's alright, he's good, and he tries his best and he takes it seriously. And they're not comedy songs. They're just probably inappropriate for a 55-year-old rep to be singing, about crossing America and picking up chicks, something he's never done. And he gets it slightly wrong, bless him. He's doing what he always wanted to do, it's just that he's haemorrhaging cash doing it, hoping that Simon Cowell will pop in and go 'we need a song just like Native American'.

    Brent's music clearly has an audience though,as two gigs at London's Hammersmith Apollo announced last week sold out in minutes.

    You can listen to the full interview on the Radio 2 website and watch the video for his track Lady Gypsy below.

    Warning: third party content, may contain ads. 

    View more on youtube
  14. New SFW version of the Kanye video... by Radio 1

    BBC Radio 1

    Kanye West's music video for Famous, which features the naked sleeping likenesses of celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Chris Brown and Donald Trump, has been making headlines since it premiered on Tidal last month.

    But in case the sight of naked sleeping waxworks offends you, Radio 1 has luckily created a non-nude version - featuring Justin Bieber, Cheryl, Craig David and Ant and Dec.

    View more on youtube
  15. How the Spice effect still packs punch

    Spice Girls

    Twenty years on from the Spice Girls' arrival, the group's pop culture influence continues to grow, and in some unexpected ways.

    Their first single Wannabe was a springboard for 80m global album sales, and the now ingrained slogan "Girl Power".

    They set the bar for merchandising and Victoria 'Posh' Adams' fledgling romance with David Beckham set the standard for today's obsession with power couples like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian and, if paparazzi pictures are to be believed, Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston.

    Read more 

  16. Drake writes open letter following shooting of Alton Sterling

    Drake

    Canadian rapper Drake has written an emotional open letter following the death of Alton Sterling, a black father of five shot dead by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

    A video emerged on Wednesday that showed the altercation between Mr Sterling and two police officers.

    It appears to show Mr Sterling being held down and then shot several times.

    Drake said the video left him "disheartened, emotional and truly scared".

    He called the relationship between black and brown communities in the US and the police "as strained as it was decades ago".

    He ended with the message: "Be safe out there. More life."

    View more on instagram
  17. Drummer Steven Adler joins Guns N'Roses for first time in 26 years

    Guns N'Roses

    Steven Adler has rejoined the newly-reunited Guns N'Roses for two songs on stage in Cincinnati, Ohio - his first performance with the band in more than 25 years.

    The drummer, who was part of the LA rock band's original line-up alongside singer Axl Rose, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan, was fired in 1990 for drug abuse.

    Adler had also joined the band when they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame (pictured above, centre) in 2012.

    According to website Blabbermouth.net, he performed two songs: Out Ta Get Me and My Michelle.  

    Axl Rose introduced him to fans at the Brown Stadium by saying: "On the drums, you might know this guy. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Steven Adler." 

    Read more

    View more on twitter
    View more on twitter
  18. The Revolution announce Prince tribute

    Prince performing in 1985

    Key members of The Revolution - Prince's backing band during his 80s heyday and albums 1999 and Purple Rain - have confirmed they will reform for two special tribute shows.

    The group will perform at the First Avenue club in Minneapolis - which was the partial setting of the Purple Rain film - on 2 and 3 September.

    Key members Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Brown Mark, Bobby Z and Matt "Doctor" Fink will all take part.

    Announcing the shows, they called Prince's death a "profound loss".

    "Only by playing for you, the fans, can we be Prince's Revolution," they added. "He gives us to one another now, as we all start to heal and fill forever emptiness with sound. Together we are The Revolution."

    Bassist Brown Mark hinted more dates could be announced soon, writing on Facebook: "Minneapolis First Avenue is just the beginning."

    Read more

  19. Morning all...

    Welcome along to today's Music News LIVE, where we'll be celebrating the influence of the Spice Girls (Buffalo trainers anyone?) as debut single Wannabe turns 20. 

    We've also got news on a Guns N' Roses reunion, we'll hear from Kaiser Chiefs on their new sound plus the latest videos from Courtney Barnett, Two Door Cinema Club and even David Brent. 

    Catch up on yesterday's page to hear Mumford & Sons speak about boycotting a Swedish festival following numerous sex attacks, plus a new Orlando tribute from Britney, Selena Gomez, Pink et al, and music from Pixies, Lady Leshurr and Bryan Adams.