News

Ray Manzarek has died after a battle with cancer. He was 74. The news was broken by The Doors' official Facebook page who wrote that Manzarek passed away at 12:31pm (PT) today (May 20) at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany. They add that Manzarek was surrounded by family, his brothers Ric and James and his wife Dorothy at the time of his death.

The Rolling Stones were joined onstage by Dave Grohl on Saturday night (May 19) at their gig in Anaheim, California – watch footage of it below. Grohl, who duetted with Jagger on the Sticky Fingers track "Bitch", is the latest guest to join the Stones' 50 & Counting tour. Tom Waits, John Mayer and Katy Perry have also appeared.

Manic Street Preachers are reportedly recording two new albums. Frontman James Dean Bradfield revealed the news to reporters at the Ivor Novello Awards in London on Thursday (May 16), and let slip that the first LP will be almost completely acoustic.

John Fogerty answers your questions in the new issue of Uncut (dated July 2013, and out on Thursday, May 23).

Beck is set to bring his 'Song Reader' album to London in July for a one-off performance including guests Franz Ferdinand and Jarvis Cocker. Song Reader is a book of sheet music, which was released in December 2012. It includes 20 songs and more than 100 pages of art. Beck's idea for the release is that the listener becomes the artist, with all 20 songs open to interpretation by different individuals. The London performance will take place at the Barbican on July 4 with tickets going on sale this Friday (May 17).

Thom Yorke has composed the score for a forthcoming documentary film about tax avoidance. The Daily Telegraph says that Yorke and Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja will provide the music for The UK Gold, which explores the history of tax avoidance and will be narrated by The Wire actor Dominic West. The film, which is directed by Mark Donne, will premiere at London's Troxy Theatre on June 25. A musical performance by a special secret act will also take place immediately after the screening.

Laura Marling has covered Bruce Springsteen's hit single, 'Dancing In The Dark'. Marling covered the classic track from 1984 with fellow singer-songwriter Eddie Berman for The Lab magazine. Click below to watch the acoustic performance. Meanwhile, Marling's forthcoming new album Once I Was An Eagle, is set for release on May 27. You can read our exclusive interview with the singer-songwriter in the new issue of Uncut, on sale now.

AC/DC have backed plans which call for a monument to be erected in honour of former singer Bon Scott in his hometown. The campaign to pay tribute to Scott, who died aged 33 in 1980, by building a statue in Kirriemuir, Scotland started last year when DD8 Music, who are also behind the annual Bon Scott music festival in the town, approached sculptor John McKenna to design a tribute.

Bob Dylan missed his induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, held yesterday (May 15). According to Rolling Stone, Dylan was voted in as an honorary member, joining a prestigious pool of individuals including Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese.

Mike Mills has revealed that there are "zero plans" for an R.E.M. reunion. Speaking to Rolling Stone ahead of the 25th anniversary re-release of the band's Green album, Mills admitted, "We said we're done and we're done. If we honestly thought there was a chance of a reunion tour, we might have said so at the time." R.E.M. broke up in September 2011, six months after the release of their fifteenth studio album, Collapse Into Now.