October, 2011

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has said he feels like the “world just hates us” as he has a habit of dwelling on the negative press his band receives.

Martin made the admission to Spin as Coldplay went to number one in the UK with ‘Mylo Xyloto‘, and also feels some perceive the group to be merely a money-making vehicle due to the huge success they have enjoyed in recent years.

A spokesperson for British star Adele has quickly moved to deny scurrilous internet rumours which suggested the remainder of her 2011 UK tour had been cancelled due to throat cancer.

Adele has been dogged with throat problems for a large portion of the year, and a decision to cancel remaining tour dates for the rest of 2011 was confirmed last week.

Metallica fans rioted in India last weekend after a scheduled gig in Delhi was called off due to apparent safety concerns.

The gig had been due to take place in Delhi last Friday (October 28th), but was cancelled when a safety barrier at the front of the stage collapsed, the BBC reports that the show’s organisers have since been arrested. When the decision to pull the show was announced, dozens of fans invaded the stage, destroying instruments and equipment.

Muse‘s 2003 single ‘Hysteria‘ has the greatest bass line of all-time, according to a new poll conducted by MusicRadar.

The publication places Muse at number one, ahead of Rush‘s ‘YYZ‘ and Queen‘s disco-fused favourite ‘Another One Bites The Dust‘.

Posthumous tracks left behind by Amy Winehouse when she tragically passed away last summer have been worked into a new album by producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, and will be released later this year.

Entitled ‘Amy Winehouse Lioness: Hidden Treasures‘, the record will be issued on December 5th, and is to comprise 12 tracks, including covers of The Shirelles‘ ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow‘, Donny Hathaway‘s ‘A Song For You‘ and Ruby & The Romantics‘ ‘Our Day Will Come‘.

The Slow Show are not your average Manchester band; they sound as though they could flourish in any era and could exist in any place.

Recently formed by five acoustic folk pop enthusiasts from the heart of the industrial city, The Slow Show, whose music aptly fits the group’s name, have been making significant waves on the British indie scene. Their debut EP ‘Midnight Waltz‘ has drawn considerable acclaim from contemporary critics and has even earned the group a support slot for the hugely popular Elbow, a rather impressive feat this early in the band’s career.

Acts including The Maccabees, Miles Kane, The Horrors and Live4ever favourites We Are Augustines have been booked to appear at this year’s XFM Winter Wonderland.

The 2011 event will take place across two gigs at the Manchester Apollo and Brixton Academy on December 5th and 14th respectively, with the likes of Chase & Status, Nero and The Big Pink due to appear in Manchester.

Kings Of Leon drummer Nathan Followill has attacked Qantas Airlines after a second day of strikes today (October 30th), affected their travels to Australia for a series of re-scheduled tour dates down under.

It’s something of a prerequisite for so-called emo bands, certainly bands that sail under the ‘post-hardcore’ banner in any case, to carry on their backs a particularly dedicated following. If this gig is anything to go by, after five albums and several changes in personnel, Welsh rockers Funeral For a Friend have some of the most committed disciples in the whole country.

Before we dive headlong into recapping the finer points of FFAF’s set, a word first on the support acts. The Bunny The Bear kicked things off at Glasgow’s QMU on an utterly raucous note, building the tempo for the subsequent acts. If you’re not familiar with this New York septet; both frontmen don plastic masks that obscure much of their faces, adopting characters of, you guessed it, a bunny and a bear. Employing screaming vocals, sweaty stage strutting and between-song banter, TBTB didn’t quite bring the roof down, but certainly knocked some slates loose, pounding through tracks from their just-released debut ‘If You Don’t Have Anything Nice To Say’.

Coldplay have gone straight in at number one on the UK Album Chart this week, with last week’s chart topper, ‘Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds‘, continuing its impressive opening commerical performance by dropping just one place to #2.