Soundbites: Amy Winehouse, The National, Laura Marling & more!


In today’s Soundbites we look at a disappointing weekend for Amy Winehouse, one of the many highlights from the 2010 Glastonbury festival, how The National nearly closed down an airport, and there’s the latest news from Laura Marling, Pulp, The Libertines and Mystery Jets.

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Amy Winehouse was denied the opportunity to duet with Stevie Wonder at the recent Hard Rock Calling event, according to reports. An article in the UK’s Daily Star newspaper suggests the singer had made her way to the side of the stage expecting to be given permission to join Stevie Wonder, but was shunned by the security staff. “Amy rocked up at the right-hand side and told the stage manager she had been invited to sing with Stevie,” a ‘source’ said. “He put his foot down and told her that would not happen. Stevie had planned to duet with Corinne Bailey Rae and Jay Kay from Jamiroquai but he decided it would be better to give the fans the solo set they had expected to see.”

Jarvis Cocker has sparked rumours of a Pulp reunion in time for next year’s Glastonbury festival after refusing to rule out a return to the band. When asked by BANG! Showbiz about the possibility of the group getting back together he said: “I still speak to the boys, we’ve had a few offers, so who knows? You can’t rule anything out. I get asked about it, and I suppose it makes me think a little bit. The fact that people seem interested, that makes me think about it a little bit more.”

Carl Barat has hinted his newly-reformed band The Libertines may be ready to air new material when they return to the stage in August. Speaking to NME at Glastonbury, Barat said: “We haven’t done any preparation yet, apart from being in touch. I’m sending Pete a song, I must email that today – maybe we’ll do something with that.”

The National’s Matt Berninger has recently revealed he caused havoc in an airport after a misunderstanding over a present he had purchased. Berninger told spinnermusic the incident happened while he was waiting for a connecting flight to Kauai: “I had bought a novelty clock in Tokyo, some sort of MacGyver, goofball alarm clock that happened to look exactly like a bomb. I had the Honolulu Airport evacuated for about 45 minutes.”

Another excellent Glastonbury festival received plenty of TV and radio coverage last weekend, with the Pyramid Stage’s headliners again delivering the goods. Gorillaz pulled what looked like being a disappointing show back with a storming encore, and Muse again pulled out all the stops and further confirmed their status as one of the best live acts around. Their decision to cover U2’s ‘Where The Streets Have No Name‘ (which can be seen in our Videos section) with The Edge looked like being the highlight, but it’s hard to look past Stevie Wonder’s brilliant rendition of his classic track ‘Superstition‘ as the song of the weekend.

Mystery Jets have announced three US dates in support of their new album ‘Serotonin’, which will be released in the US on July 13th. The band will play two dates at New York’s Mercury Lounge on September 14th and 15th, followed by a date at the LA Troubadour on the 17th.

Jack White’s record label Third Man Records ‘Blue Series’ is set to release a 7″ single by Laura Marling after the songwriter recorded a track in his Nashville studio. White told BBC’s Newsbeat someone ‘turned him onto her’ a few months ago, and that the new single was recorded very quickly. “It was perfect – one take,” he enthused. “She’s gorgeous. Gorgeous voice and an incredible person. A wonderful girl. If people are coming through town I try to catch up with them and ask them if they want to come by before their show and record something.”


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