Music News LIVE: Pet Shops Boys named 'Godlike Geniuses'

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It seems that lots of Ed Sheeran fans out there are furious today after tickets for the singer's upcoming tour were being re-sold on secondary ticketing sites only minutes later for greatly inflated prices.

The Manchester Evening News report that tickets were being sold for up to £1,000 soon after and point to some unhappy Tweeters.

Ed has teamed up with face value ticket platform Twickets but clearly cannot prevent his tickets getting into the hands of touts.  

Last year saw the secondary ticketing situation get real when concert promoters Live Nation Italy admitted that some of its tickets were put directly onto the resale website Viagogo.

In September, Iron Maiden announced they were going paperless in an effort to combat touts and also in the UK, You Me at At Six singer Josh Franceschi became so fed up of secondary ticketing, he personally sold tickets to a recent show to fans.

In December, the US Congress passed new laws to crack down on bots that buy batches of tickets online before humans.

It remains an ongoing issue for music fans around the world.

It's that time again kids.

This week's Throwback Thursday takes us back to 1980, as on this day 37 years ago influential Coventry two tone ska boys The Specials were sitting at the top of the charts with The Special A.K.A. Live E.P.

Here they are performing the lead track from that record live and warning us all about the perils of playing too many computer games in your teens...or something like that.

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A new film documenting the love story of former Beatle John Lennon and Yoko Ono is in the works.

Producer Michael De Luca is working with the Japanese artist on an as-yet untitled feature which would tell the story of her relationship with the former Beatle, as well as their anti-war efforts.

The pair famously staged a 'bed in' in an Amsterdam hotel room in protest about the ongoing Vietnam War.

De Luca said:

Quote Message: The story will focus on ripe and relevant themes of love, courage and activism in the U.S - with the intention of inspiring today’s youth to stand up for and have a clear vision for the world they want."

The story will focus on ripe and relevant themes of love, courage and activism in the U.S - with the intention of inspiring today’s youth to stand up for and have a clear vision for the world they want."

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The Theory of Everything writer Anthony McCarten and Immersive Pictures’ Josh Bratman are also on board for the production.

Read more.

A wee while ago BBC Culture looked into the dos and don'ts of making a good biopic and apparently it's all about “finding an essence".

Anyway, here are the politically-active couple below imploring everybody to give peas a chance...

Frankly, we don't discriminate against any vegetable...

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A couple of weeks back we showed you the lyric video for Maggie Rogers latest effort and now she has released the full visuals for the song.

She's rocking an Las Vegas era Elvis jumpsuit, at least initially in this single camera shot video.

In case you've forgotten (and why would you?), she was one of the BBC's Sound of 2017 long-list artists and it looks likes shes getting the year off to a colourful start.

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Why change a winning team? That's what we say and it seems film director Paul Thomas Anderson agress as he's asked Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood to score his latest film.

The pair have already worked on three films - including the Oscar-nominated There Will Be Blood and The Master.

Anderson repaid the favour and directed three videos for Radiohead’s recent A Moon Shaped Pool. Check out the one for Daydreaming below if you get a quiet moment of relaxation later.

Now, the pair are reported to be working again on a period drama about a highly sought-after dressmaker set in 1950s London and starring Mr Oscar himself - Daniel Day Lewis.

Read more.

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Bluedot festival has announced its first wave of acts with seminal electronic dance duo Orbital and godfathers of grunge Pixies set to headline.

Belgian DJs Soulwax and perhaps fittingly math-rockers Alt-J will also top the bill at the festival which takes place at the unique academic setting of a deep space observatory near the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank.

Fans of Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy will know the one.

The festival is described by Lonley Planet as "The best geeky festival ever" aims to mix musical acts with live science experiments, expert talks and immersive artworks.

The Moonlandingz also make the bill, but they had to really didn't they? With that name...  

You can view the full lineup of bands below.  We're not sure exactly how many acts are on, but we're guessing 42.

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You may not have heard of Awol Erizku until now but he's the man who took the photo which everyone - and we do mean EVERYONE is talking about.

The Beyonce photo has now been liked over seven million times and you can check out some of the best reactions here.

Newsbeat has complied the five things you should know about the 28-year-old Ethiopian-born artists who grew up in the South Bronx area of New York.

Read more

Meanwhile, police in Atlanta have apologised after posting that Beyonce "may have everyone wanting to celebrate" but warning people not to use "celebratory gunfire".

Good advice we suppose but maybe ill-timed?

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Well that's not strictly true...it's in colour actually. 

But it is the new music video to the American/Russian's track Black and White, taken from last year's album Remember Us to Life.

It's a lot slicker than we've come to expect from the often unpredictable singer, who asks "why should I wait for tomorrow?" while a mystery ballerina dances around her. Why indeed.

It's certainly a grower. See what you think below.

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Many people would celebrate turning 100 with a slice of cake and a glass of fizz - but Dame Vera Lynn is doing it by releasing a new album with a full orchestra and choir.

She's already the oldest living artist to get a top 20 UK album and her new record, scheduled for release just days before her landmark birthday in March, will see her break her own record.

The singer is known as the forces' sweetheart for entertaining troops during World War Two to boost morale.

Dame Vera said: 

Quote Message: It's truly humbling that people still enjoy these songs from so many years ago, reliving the emotions of that time - I was after all just doing my job as a singer - and it's so wonderful for me to hear my songs again so beautifully presented in a completely new way."

It's truly humbling that people still enjoy these songs from so many years ago, reliving the emotions of that time - I was after all just doing my job as a singer - and it's so wonderful for me to hear my songs again so beautifully presented in a completely new way."

Don't be expecting a tour anytime soon though as Dame Vera told Radio 4's Today show however that she doesn't sing anymore and prefers to "remember" her voice as it was.

Read more.

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2017 sees the return proper of London Grammar (has it really been four years since their debut album?)

The Nottingham band released their comeback single Rooting For You on New Years Day and now they've shared a new track, Big Picture, which was Mistajam's Hottest Record on radio 1 on Wednesday night.

"We can tell you that there is an album and it is coming," said singer Hannah.

"At first it was a bit daunting because we were like, 'Do we have anything else to say? We're quite tired from touring'.

"But then we got into the studio with amazing people who made it so much easier."

The band are due to play the new TRNSMT festival this summer.

Sit back, grab a brew and listen to the new song below.

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Following in the footsteps of U2, The Cure and Ian Brown, the Pet Shop Boys have been named as the recipients of NME's Godlike Genius award.

The veteran electro-op duo will collect their award at London’s O2 Academy, Brixton on 15 February.

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe were presented with an outstanding contribution at the Brits in 2009 and last year released their 13th studio album Super.

“We’re really happy to win NME’s Godlike Genius award and we’re looking forward to playing at the awards show this year,” they said.

Read more

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Toronto's finest Drake has promised to refund 20,000 fans after guest rapper Travis Scott fell off stage during one of his gigs in London.

The 24-year-old was joining the Canadian as a special guest on his Boy Meets World tour and performing the track Goosebumps when he tripped into a hole in the middle of the stage.

Here's two angles of the incident.

Whoops.

Drake then told fans he was doing this "for free tonight" and he'd "deal with it later", repeating the offer at the end of the gig.

No official word yet, but it could prove to be a costly fall.

Read more.

Ps. Here's what probably should've been covering the hole Travis fell in.

Southampton horror punks Creeper showed their softer side as guests on Huw Stephen's piano session last night.

The AFI-influenced band are due to release their debut album Eternity, In Your Arms this year.

They performed their track Hiding With Boys, then also tackled another Radio 1 fave by The 1975 which you can watch below...

Without further ado we'll begin with the picture everyone is talking about.

US pop queen Beyonce showing off her pregnant belly, with not one but two babies inside.

That's right following on from Pharrell Williams and his mrs fathering triplets, Queen Bey is to have a pair of twins herself.

Perhaps they could eventually start a five-a-side soccer team together? Bit early for that maybe...

As you can see, the photo shows a heavily pregnant Beyonce, covered with a long green veil, kneeling in front of a giant hedge of roses - for you arty types it's apparently an homage to the Birth of Venus.

The picture has also just become the most-liked Instagram pic so far with more than 7.4 million likes (and counting).

It surpassed the previous record-holder Selena Gomez's now paltry 6.305 million likes.

The photo is accompanied by the following caption:

Quote Message: We would like to share our love and happiness. We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. - The Carters."

We would like to share our love and happiness. We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. - The Carters."

Congrats The Carters, lots of love, The Music News Livers.

Read more.

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Here's a mixed range of reactions to the powerful image appearing online.

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Hello all and welcome back to another edition of Music News LIVE.

Today, we'll bring you incredible news of Dame Vera Lynn's record-breaking new album at the age of 100, the pregnant Beyonce picture that is driving everybody wild and Drake offers a free gig to fans after an onstage incident.

We'll also have an exciting new collaboration between Jarvis Cocker and Chilly Gonzales, plus new music videos from the likes of Regina Spektor, Maggie Rogers and more.

For now have a butchers at yesterday's MNL and 'we'll meet again' shortly.