Black Sabbath, the pioneers of heavy metal, have announced their last ever world tour simply entitled ‘The End’. The announcement on the band’s website stated: “It promises to surpass all previous tours with their most mesmerizing production ever. When the tour concludes, it will truly be the end.” The tour does not include any UK or European dates. Heavy metal, and music in general, will surely miss them.
The UK chart company, hot off the heels of music streaming counting towards the official charts and introducing a vinyl chart, have now introduced a Progressive Music chart. Prog Rock may not be the powerhouse genre it once was, but it is still alive and well today and this new chart is well earned recognition that is long since due. The first ever Prog chart was topped by Tame Impala’s ‘Currents’, closely followed by Muse’s ‘Drones’ and Roger Waters’ ‘Amused to Death’ reissue.
It has been announced that Tesco will be the first UK supermarket to begin selling new vinyl records. A Tesco representative said it was the “next logical step” after their promising sales of record players. Fifty five stores across the country will be stocked with vinyl editions of Iron Maiden’s new album ‘The Book of Souls’, and depending on how they sell the supermarket’s new vinyl section will be sure to expand to meet demand.
The UK’s biggest twin festivals, held at Little John’s Farm and Bramham Park respectively. have come to a close for another year. The world’s oldest surviving music festival has added another stellar year to it’s long and illustrious history. The weather may have been rubbish but the music certainly wasn’t! Thanks to the magic that is BBC iplayer you can enjoy the highlights from warmth and comfort. Continue reading
Throughout September Radio 1 will be broadcasting daily Live Lounge sessions from both big name bands and up-and-coming new artists. Generally live lounges consist of artists performing one song and one often surprising cover, but given the scale of the coming month’s endeavour and the strength of the line up I’m sure a few surprises are in store. Clara Amfo will host the weekday sessions and Alice Levine will host the weekend sessions. Continue reading
The pioneering metal band will be travelling in style for their ‘Book of Souls’ world tour next year. The latest incarnation of Ed Force One, named after their faithful zombie mascot Eddie, is a custom Boeing 747 which is nearly twice the size of their previous 757. Frontman Bruce Dickinson, who has recently undergone surgery and has been declared cancer free, is currently training to be able to fly the jumbo jet. The tour is expected to visit around 35 countries including the band’s first ever concerts in China and El Salvador
The British Board of Film Classification has introduced a scheme which applies film style age certificates to music videos in an effort to protect young children from inappropriate content. British acts signed to Sony, Universal and Warners will now have age certificates displayed on their YouTube videos. However, this only applies to British artists and the vast majority of inappropriate music videos originate from the US. The ratings are hidden away in the videos’ information, which raises the question of why introduce them if they aren’t going to be in plain sight? It seems like another fruitless effort to try and police the internet which strikes me as a waste of time and money.
The Welsh singer has been dropped as a coach on the BBC’s talent show ‘The Voice’. He claims that it occurred with “no consultation or conversation of any kind” and called being kept out of the loop by the show’s bosses as “sub-standard behaviour”. His replacement, Boy George of Culture Club, will join Paloma Faith (acting as a replacement for Rita Ora), Ricky Wilson and Will.i.am as the celebrity coaches on the upcoming 5th series of The Voice.
Canadian prog gods Rush have played what may possibly be their last ever concert, at The Forum in LA, the final stop of their 40th anniversary tour. The show included the seldom performed track ‘Losing It’ and a performance of ‘Xanadu’ featuring classic double neck guitars. A star studded crowd featuring members of Tool, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Foo Fighters assembled to see the band play a show packed with songs from their expansive back catalogue. Rush are hesitant to call ‘R40’ their farewell tour but they have gone on record saying it will be their “last tour of this magnitude”.
Lollapalooza festival has been put on hold due to adverse weather conditions. Following a severe thunderstorm warning for the city of Chicago, attendees were evacuated from the festival grounds. It is currently unclear when the festival will resume and how the scheduling will be affected.
Belwood Music 