News

Singer Tony Martin has died at the age of 98. The legendary crooner, who was best known for his hit singles "I Get Ideas", "Begin The Beguine" and "There's No Tomorrow", passed away on Friday (July 27) from natural causes at his home in West Los Angeles, reports Reuters. Martin, who enjoyed the most successful periods of his career in the 1930s and 1950s, was a contemporary of the likes of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra and sold over one million copies of his most successful single "To Each His Own".

Paul McCartney was reportedly paid only £1 for his performance at the Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday [July 27]. According to Associated Press, McCartney, as well as fellow performers Mike Oldfield, Emeli Sandie and Dizzee Rascal, were paid nominal fees of £1 ($1.57) to make the Olympic contracts binding. The ceremony was watched by an average of 42 million people worldwide. However, many music fans in America were left outraged after NBC's broadcast of the Opening Ceremony failed to include a number of key musical segments.

Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder has said he's happy his band didn't as wait as long as The Stone Roses to reform. When asked by The Guardian if he wished he had left it longer to reform the Mondays after finding out the amount of money the Roses were offered to reform, which has been estimated at £26 million, he replied: "What, and got as skint as they did? No thanks! I've got six kids who've all gotta go to private school!"

Arctic Monkeys' cover of The Beatles' 'Come Together' is racing up the singles chart. The track – which featured as part of Danny Boyle's four-hour Olympic Opening Ceremony extravaganza on Friday – has climbed to Number 14 in the iTunes download chart. "Caliban's Dream" – the Underworld-penned track sung by Two Door Cinema Club frontman Alex Trimble is currently at Number Five.

Radiohead closed Fuji Rock festival in Japan with a 23-song headline set last night (July 29). Walking on stage at the stroke of 9.30pm, the five-piece strolled through "Lotus Flower" and "Bloom" from The King Of Limbs and "15 Step" from In Rainbows in quick succession, to the delight of the 50,000-strong crowd. Songs from The King Of Limbs and In Rainbows made up most of the rest of the set, with just a handful of songs from The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief featuring.

Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash has announced a full UK solo tour for later this year. The guitarist, who released his second solo album Apocalyptic Love in May, will play five shows across the UK in October. The gigs begin in Edinburgh at the city's Corn Exchange on October 7 and run until October 15 when the guitarist and his band headline Newcastle's O2 Academy. The run of gigs also includes shows in Manchester, Birmingham and London.

Animal Collective have unveiled their new single "Today's Supernatural". Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to listen to the track. The track is the first to be taken from the Baltimore electro-psych band's new album Centipede Hz. The album, which is the band's first studio effort since 2009's Merriweather Post Pavillion, will be released on September 3. It will be their 10th album and follows the release of 2010's "visual album" ODDSAC.

Feminist punk collective Pussy Riot have claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin is scared of them, on the eve of the trial of three of their members. The three members of the band - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich - have been in pre-trial detention since March of this year, after they staged a protest against Russian President Vladmir Putin. A court recently ruled that the three women will remain in custody until January 12, 2013, however legal arguments will be heard tomorrow (July 30).

Just a follow up to my post earlier this week about the new Bob Dylan album, around which a certain excitement seems to be accumulating. As I mentioned, the album features ten new Dylan songs that I can now give titles to, including “Roll On John”, the album’s closing track, a wistful tribute to John Lennon that quotes lines from several Beatles songs, including “Come Together” and “A Day In The Life”.

The new issue of Uncut, which hits shelves today (July 27), features Joe Strummer, Captain Beefheart, Bob Dylan and Animal Collective. Strummer is on the cover, and inside is the story of the late Clash legend’s secret history – the wilderness years between the end of his group and his final creative rebirth. Captain Beefheart’s whole story is told by The Magic Band, while Bob Dylan’s live show at Hop Farm is reviewed and Animal Collective talk us through their back catalogue.