Alabama Shakes returned to the UK last night [May 3] for their first gig since storming into the Official UK Album Charts at No 3.

The Athens, Alabama five-piece performed at London’s Brixton Electric in their first UK show since their album Boys & Girls was released on April 9. They played a mixed set of songs from the album and some brand new tracks.

Speaking to NME after the show, singer Brittany Howard said: “I think it went really, really well. Everyone was really awesome out in the crowd. It sounded good, it looked good. I’m happy about it”.

Alabama Shakes played:

‘Goin’ To The Party’

‘Heat Lightning’

Lloyd Brevett, co-founder of the influential ska band The Skatalites, has died aged 80.

Brevett played upright bass in the band, best known for the track “Guns Of Navarone“, which was later covered by The Specials – pictured below. Scroll down to listen to both versions of the track. The original incarnation of The Skatalites formed in 1963 and were only around for 18 months before they disbanded in 1965.

Billboard reports that Brevett passed away yesterday [May 3] in Jamaica at Andrews Memorial Hospital in St. Andrew, following a stroke and seizures.

In 2001 Brevett was given Jamaica’s fifth highest honor, the Order of Distinction and in 2010 the Silver Musgrave Medal for his contribution to music.

The Jamaica Observer – via Billboard – recently reported that Brevett’s friend Maxine Stowe, a former A&R at Columbia Records, said that Brevett’s health had deteriorated after his son Okeene Brevett was shot dead in February. Okeene was killed on his way home after picking up an award from the Jamaica Recording Industry Association on his father’s behalf.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has spoken about the band’s surprise at the overwhelmingly negative reaction they received to their collaboration album with Lou Reed, Lulu.

Speaking to Spin, Ulrich said that the band all knew the project would be “difficult to embrace”, but that the bile the record received took them all by surprise.

Speaking about this, he said: “It was more spiteful than anyone was prepared for. Especially against Lou. He is such a sweet man. But when Metallica do impulsive riffing and Lou Reed is reciting abstract poetry about German bohemians from 150 years ago, it can be difficult to embrace.”

Ulrich also spoke about a disagreement he had with Reed over his decision to include the line ”I swallow your sharpest cutter / Like a colored man’s dick” on the album and joked that Reed challenged him to a street fight to settle their dispute.

He said of this: “One time I had to point something out to him about how things were functioning in the outside world and he got hot and bothered. He challenged me to a street fight, which is a pretty daunting proposition because he’s an expert in martial arts and is never too far from a sword. The good thing about me is I can do the 100-meter dash faster than most other 48-year-old musicians.”

Metallica will play a headline slot at this summer’s Download Festival as well as a series of other large European shows.

The Prodigy have revealed the working title for their new studio album.

The record, which is the follow-up to their 2009 effort Invaders Must Die, has been given the working title ‘How To Steal A Jet Fighter’, the band’s frontman Liam Howlett told NME.

Howlett promised that the band’s sixth studio LP would be “heavier and darker”.

Howlett said: “We’re really excited about it. The last record was kind of a party album, I guess. We were all happy to be back together again. But the best tunes of that album are the ones that have less of that. It’s definitely going to be heavier, darker.”

The Prodigy are expected to debut new songs during their headline slot at this summer’s Download Festival. They will top the bill at the event along with Metallica and Black Sabbath.

Bruce Springsteen brought to a close the first leg of his current world tour last night [May 2] in Newark, New Jersey, with a cover of The Band song, “The Weight”, in tribute to drummer Levon Helm, who died two weeks ago.

Speaking from the stage, Springsteen said of Helm: “He was one of the greatest, greatest voices in country, rockabilly and rock & roll. Levon’s voice and drumming was so incredibly versatile. He had a feel on the drums… it comes from a certain place in the past and you can’t replicate it.”

Springsteen plays the UK in the summer, including the Isle of Wight Festival on June 24 and Hyde Park Calling on July 14.

Leonard Cohen has announced a 21-day tour of North America to support Old Ideas, his 11th studio album that was released in January.

Speaking to Rolling Stone earlier this year about going back out on tour, Cohen said, “I have two minds. I don’t like to do a small tour, so whether I’m going to sign up for for another couple of years…is that really where I want to be? Maybe it is…touring is like taking the first step on a walk to China. It’s a serious commitment, so there are a lot of factors to be examined.”

Cohen plays the UK at Hop Farm on September 8. It is his only UK date to far.

Meanwhile, Cohen plays:

October 31, Austin, Texas – Bass Concert Hall

November 3, Denver, Colorado – 1st Bank Center

November 5, Los Angeles, California – Nokia Theatre

November 7, San Jose, California – HP Pavilion

November 9, Seattle, Washington – Key Arena

November 11, Portland, Oregon – Rose Garden

November 12, Vancouver, British Columbia – Rogers Arena

November 16, Calgary, Alberta – Scotiabank Saddledome

November 18, Edmonton, Alberta – Rexall Place

November 20, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – Credit Union Centre

November 23, Chicago, Illinois – Akoo Theatre

November 26, Detroit, Michigan – Fox Theatre

November 28, Montreal, Quebec – Bell Centre

December 2, Quebec City, Quebec – Colisee Pepsi

December 4, Toronto, Ontario – Air Canada Centre

December 7, Ottawa, Ontario – Scotiabank Place

December 11, London, Ontario – John Labatt Centre

December 13, Kingston, Ontario – K-Rock Centre

December 15, Boston, Massachusetts – The Wang Theatre

December 18, New York, New York – Madison Square Garden

December 20, Brooklyn, New York – Barclays Center

Damon Albarn has hinted that there could be another Gorillaz album without his partner, Jamie Hewlett.

Speaking in an interview with Shortlist, Albarn said that nothing would change musically if he went ahead and made a record without Hewlett, but that there would be no cartoon element in the form of Murdoc. He said:

“It was very much Jamie [Hewlett] did the visuals and I did the music. The music won’t change, so there could be another Gorillaz record tomorrow. It wouldn’t necessarily have Murdoc – the cartoon aspect to it – but musically, no, nothing’s changed whatsoever.”

Albarn also denied that Gorillaz was finished as a project, adding that when he and partner Jamie Hewlett reconciled after their recent fallout, they’d make another album.

“Jamie wants to do other things and I understand,” he said. “But you never know, in a few years he might have a burning desire to draw those pictures again, and as soon as he does that, as far as I’m concerned, there could be another Gorillaz album.”

Albarn recently backtracked on comments had made suggesting that both Blur and Gorillaz were over. The singer was recently quoted as saying that it is ‘unlikely’ that there will be any more new material from Gorillaz and that Blur’s Hyde Park gig this summer might be the band’s final show.

Kings Of Leon‘s Jared Followill and his girlfriend Martha Patterson are engaged, according to reports.

The bass player, 25, apparently proposed to Patterson, a 21 year old model, last month on April 11. Rolling Stone reports that the pair have only been dating a few months. Followill confirmed the news earlier today via his Twitter account, joking:

It’s true! I’m engaged! CANNOT wait to finally lose my virginity.

Following his online revelation, The Strokes‘ Nikolai Fraiture responded: “Congrats man! You’re gonna love it!”

Earlier this year, Kings Of Leon hinted that they could start work on a new studio album at some point in 2012. Speaking to MTV, drummer Nathan Followill said the band had repaired their relationship after a tumultuous 2011 and would “probably start kicking around” some new ideas in the studio soon.

The Tennessee stadium rockers were forced to cancel their entire US tour last year after frontman Caleb Followill stormed offstage in Dallas in July and was deemed too ill and exhausted to tour, with his bandmates later plagued by rumours that they wanted to kick him out of the band and were forcing him to go to rehab.

However, Nathan claimed that the band were now on good terms and also revealed that they had purchased a studio in Nashville and were hoping to start working on new material there soon, adding: “We’re going to spend the next few months getting that up and running; kind of make it our little clubhouse to get there and just kind of goof off whenever we want to.”

The xx are set to make a live return with three dates in London this month.

Tickets are being allocated through a special lottery system on the band’s website.

The xx will play:

London Electrowerkz (May 14)

London Chats Palace (15)

London Battersea Arts Centre (18)

The band are currently working on the follow-up to to their Mercury Prize-winning debut.

In December the band posted a demo of a new song titled “Open Eyes” on their blog.

The track followed the trio’s announcement in November that they had started recording new material. Jamie xx has hinted that “club music” had been an influence on the new record.

The band will hit the festival circuit this summer, having been lined up for Primavera Sound 2012, where they’ll be joined by the likes of Bjork, Spiritualized and The Drums. They will also play Bestival along with The Horrors, Two Door Cinema Club and Azealia Banks.

Pic: Owen Richards

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has launched his own aircraft repair business in South Wales.

Dickinson, who has worked as a commercial pilot for over a decade, has launched a firm called Cardiff Aviation Ltd, which will be based at the Twin Peaks Hangar at St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan, reports BBC News.

The firm’s launch could create up to 1,000 new jobs, with Dickinson vowing to help develop the local area.

Speaking about the firm, the singer said: “We’re coming into this enterprise with the knowledge that we’ll also be bringing business to South Wales. South Wales has long had an association with the aircraft industry and I am delighted that I am able to have a small part in the continuation of that tradition.”

Dickinson first stated that he was interested in starting his own firm in November last year when his former employer Icelandic airline Astraeus went out of business.

Speaking at the time, he said: “I’m already working on a plan to create a new business with new jobs for my friends and former colleagues at Astraeus. This is a serious plan involving people who are very good at their jobs.”

Iron Maiden released a new live album and DVD titled En Vivo in March. They are set to tour North America this summer.

Pic credit: John McMurtrie

Robert Plant has announced details of three live dates for this summer.

Plant will debut his new band, Sensational Shape Shifters, at:

** Gloucester, Guildhall – May 8

** HMV Forum, London – July 12

** WOMAD, Wiltshire – July 29

Apart from Plant, the line-up for the Sensational Space Shifters is:

Juldeh Camara (JuJu)

ritti (one-stringed African Violin), kologo (African Banjo), talking drum, vocals.

Justin Adams (JuJu, Jah Wobble)

guitar, bendir, vocals

John Baggott (Massive Attack, Portishead)

keyboards

Liam “Skin” Tyson (Cast)

guitar, vocals

Dave Smith (JuJu, Outhouse Ruhabi)

drums and percussion

Billy Fuller (JuJu, Beak)

bass guitar, vocals

The band will be joined by Patty Griffin on the May 8 and July 12 dates.

The Allman Brothers Band have confirmed a number of American shows to take place over the coming summer.

The band have announced six co-headlining dates with Santana (see all dates below) as well as one-off festival dates, their own Peach Festival in Scranton, Pennsylvania and dates with fellow Southern rock icons, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The Allman Brothers Band play the All Good Music Festival on Saturday, July 21 in Thornville, Ohio. The line-up also includes Phil Lesh & Friends, the Flaming Lips and Bob Weir & Bruce Hornsby.

Their tour dates with Santana are:

July 22, Darien Center, New York

July 24, Wantagh, New York

July 25, Holmdel, New Jersey

July 27, Saratoga Springs, New York

July 28, Hartford, Connecticut

July 30, Columbia, Maryland

And they play with Lynyrd Skynyrd:

August 3, Charlotte, North Carolina

August 4, Raleigh, North Carolina

The Allman’s own Peach Music Festival runs on August 10 and 11 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Also on the bill are Zac Brown Band, Warren Haynes Band and Tedeschi Trucks Band.

Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters is set to direct and produce a new documentary about the iconic California recording studio, Sound City Studios.

The new movie, also entitled Sound City, will tell the story of the Van Nuys studio in which Nirvana recorded their 1991 album, Nevermind, reports Variety. Grohl apparently came up with the concept for the documentary last year, when he bought the Neve 8028 recording console from the studio after they closed down for commercial use in May 2011. Of the film, Grohl has said: “Sound City is a film about America’s greatest unsung recording studio. Deep in California’s sun-burnt San Fernando Valley, it was the birthplace of legend. It was witness to history.”

The 1972 console Grohl bought was used to record everyone from Tom Petty and Guns N’ Roses to Rage Against The Machine, Slipknot, Nine Inch Nails and Metallica. Classic Fleetwood Mac albums Rumours and Fleetwood Mac were recorded at the studio, as was Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush.

The film will be distributed by Roswell Films, which is part of the Roswell Records label which Foo Fighters release music on. Mark Monroe will write the movie while Paul Crowder will edit.

Arctic Monkeys have spoken about their plans for the follow-up to Suck It And See and have hinted that their next album may be filled with faster songs.

Speaking to Spinner, bassist Nick O’Malley stressed that it was early days in the writing process, but that the band had a rough idea of what they wanted to do.

Asked about album number five, he replied: “It’s quite early days yet. We’ve not really got any songs for it at all. So it’s difficult to say what the record will be like. But we’re enjoying playing sort of fast songs at the minute, so maybe that’ll be an indication that it may go that way.”

Drummer Matt Helders added that recent releases “R U Mine?” and “Electricity” were unlikely to feature on the album, but may well be a sign of things to come from the band.

He added: “‘R U Mine’ and ‘Electricity’ are just stand-alone singles, but like he said, the songs like that are the most recent things we’ve done, so if that’s any sign of what kind of songs we’re writing, maybe we’ll go that way.”

The drummer also spoke about the band’s recent Record Store Day release of “R U Mine?” on purple vinyl and said that they felt it was important to be involved in Record Store Day.

He said of this: “I think Record Store Day needs to happen to keep people aware that there’s a better way of listening to music available. And it’s good. Then bands get involved and do something special to give people an incentive to buy it, I suppose. For instance, our record is purple, which means it’s more attractive to the eye. I don’t know why we chose purple. We’d already done a white one before.”

Then asked why they’d chosen purple, he replied: “We’re big fans of Barney.”

The line-up for Antony Hegarty‘s Meltdown festival at London’s Southbank Centre has been revealed.

The Antony And The Johnsons singer is curating the annual festival, following in the footsteps of Jarvis Cocker, David Bowie and, most recently, The Kinks’ Ray Davies, by curating the 12-day festival which runs August 1-12.

This summer the event will see performances from the Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser, Diamanda Galás, Laurie Anderson, CocoRosie and Buffy Sainte-Marie while Marc Almond will present Marc and The Mambas’ Torment and Toreros.

For more information visit: Meltdown.southbankcentre.co.uk. Scroll down for the full line-up. Tickets for the events go on general sale May 10 at 12pm (BST). Southbank Centre members can purchase tickets two days earlier, from May 8.

Hegarty is no stranger to the festival, having performed at Patti Smith‘s Meltdown in 2005 and American Jazz composer Ornette Coleman’s in 2009. The Southbank’s artistic director, Jude Kelly, described Hegarty as “one of the most fascinating artists of our age”.

Meltdown runs from August 1 to 12. The line-up is as follows:

Diamanda Galás:

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Ringo Starr is to write the soundtrack for a new Hollywood musical, according to Deadline.com.

Starr will collaborate with former Eurythmics’Dave Stewart on Hole In The Fence, a coming of age story about a group of kids who form a band in a mining town.

Starr and Stewart came up with the idea and will act as both executive producers and songwriters for the film.

Both Starr and Stewart have some history in films. Aside from the Beatles films, Starr also appeared in The Magic Christian, opposite Peter Sellers, That’ll Be The Day and Ken Russell’s Lisztomania, where he played The Pope opposite Roger Daltrey.

Stewart, meanwhile, directed Honest, starring All Saints.

REM‘s Mike Mills, Hop Chip’s Alexis Taylor and Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake are among the artists confirmed to appear at Big Star Third – A concert performance of Big Star’s legendary third album, Sister Lovers.

The show will take place at London’s Barbican Centre on Monday, May 28.

The line-up features REM producer Mitch Easter, only surviving original Big Star member Jody Stephens, Chris Stamey, Ken Stringfellow and special guests including Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip), J on Auer (The Posies), Brendan Benson (The Raconteurs), Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), John Bramwell (I Am Kloot), Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo), Sondre Lerche , Sharon Van Etten , Robyn Hitchcock, Django Haskins (The Old Ceremony), Brett Harris and Skylar Gudasz.

The show will feature a fully-orchestrated performance of Sister Lovers in its entirety followed by a second set of Big Star and Alex Chilton songs.

Sister Lovers (initially titled Third) was recorded in 1974 and released several years later. Peter Buck from REM described it as “a Rosetta Stone for a whole generation.”

Tickets are available from the Barbican Box Office: 0845 120 7550

www.barbican.org.uk