Soundbites: Kylie Minogue, Jay Z and U2, Jim Jones Revue & more!

In today’s Soundbites, our quick take on news, reviews and tabloid gossip, Kylie Minogue performs some pub karaoke, there’s a look at Jim Jones Revue’s new single, anda chance for your music to be heard in Space. There’s also news of more Beatles memorabilia changing hands, Sufjan Stevens returns out of the blue and there’s a bit of a superstar get-together on U2’s tour.

Now is this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to catch a popstar in action up close, or just a good way of clearing a pub at the end of a night? Well it was almost certainly the former, at least for those in attendance, when Kylie Minogue performed an intimate set at a local pub in Somerset last weekend as a gift for members of her record company Parlophone. Her set included an acoustic version of her current track ‘All The Lovers‘ as well as the ’80s hits ‘I Should Be So Lucky‘ and ‘Locomotion‘, and according to landlady Lauren Goddard, things went very smoothly: “It was all quite surreal, to be honest. It’s not the sort of thing you expect to see in a quiet local pub like this. We were sworn to secrecy and didn’t even tell the staff until 30 minutes before the doors opened. Kylie was very friendly and down-to-earth. She didn’t make any demands and she was very polite.”

As NASA prepares to wind up the Space Shuttle Programme, they have announced an opportunity for one lucky artist to have their music used to wake the shuttle astronauts up from their slumbers on the STS-134 mission, which has a provisional launch date of Feb. 26, 2011, by uploading an original song on to the NASA website. A panel of NASA employees, always renowned for their musical expertise, will pick the winner. In addition, the public can vote on the wake up music for the STS-133 mission, which include U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’ and The Clash’s ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’.

Fresh from a storming SXSW earlier this year, Jim Jones Revue return this week with the release of ‘High Horse‘, set to feature on new album ‘Burning Your House Down‘, which is due out on September 6th. In true Jim Jones Revue tradition, the track is driven by old-school keys and heavy guitars, with Jim Jones’ frantic vocals battling to keep up with the relentless pace. So with the 50s influences still as apparent as ever, all is well in the Jim Jones Revue world, and if the single is anything to go by, their new album is set to be another absolute riot.

The conservation of another piece of Beatles memorabilia has been secured after the director of A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, Richard Lester, donated the films’ draft scripts to the British Film Institute. The scripts, simply entitled The Beatles and Beatles Two, are part of a collection of archives which Lester is donating to the BFI. Also featured is a letter from the late British comedian Spike Milligan, asking to be included in one of the films. Part of the letter reads: “Have own beard and wig, on site laundry done and secret masses said for Polish Catholics.”

Sufjan Stevens has announced his swift return this week, by suddenly releasing an eight-track EP online. The EP features the tracks ’All Delighted People‘, ‘Enchanting Ghost‘, ‘Heirloom‘, ‘From The Mouth Of Gabriel‘, ‘The Owl And The Tanager‘, ‘All Delighted People’ (Classic Rock Version)‘, ‘Arnika‘ and ‘Djohariah‘. The collection is available now at Asthmatickitty.com, with a physical release set to follow.

Australian fans look set for one hell of a show this December with reports of superstar rapper Jay-Z joining U2 on the Aussie leg of their mammoth World Tour. Jay-Z is said to be due to perform an hour long set at the shows in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Auckland, New Zealand before Bono and co take to the stage. U2’s manager Paul McGuinness told the Herald Sun: “It was important to the band that we were able to bring the whole 360 Degrees production to Australia and New Zealand so fans could experience the latest of U2’s legendary productions.”