Soundbites: Iron Maiden, Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse, The Walkmen, Robbie Williams & more!


In today’s Soundbites, our quick take on news, reviews and tabloid gossip, Bruce Dickinson moves into marketing, we look at The Walkmen’s new album and Robbie Williams has a giggle at a naked woman. There’s also news of a new Queen biopic, and some Christian students get a bit uppity with the New Pornographers.

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Bruce Dickinson has moved further into the aviation industry, with news of his new position of Marketing Director being announced by Gatwick-based charter airline Astraeus, with whom the Iron Maiden frontman has been a pilot for several years. In a low-key statement on their website, Astraeus simply outlined the slight restructuring of their business which has led to Dickinson’s appointment. “With the rapid growth in the business we have increased our commercial team,” they wrote. “Bruce Dickinson as our marketing director, Claire Ronson has now moved to sales and marketing to support our sales team.”

Good moment of self-awareness from Robbie Williams in his new book, with the singer feeling he may have offended Kylie Minogue by laughing at her on the set of their 2000 single ‘Kids’ after catching sight of her naked. “I just burst out laughing, which I don’t think went down well with Kylie,” he wrote in ‘You Know Me’. “I may have offended her too and she must have felt vulnerable being naked on set and being naked in front of me. I think any chance of anything disappeared when I laughed at her. Perhaps she likes being naked but she probably doesn’t enjoy being laughed at by some idiot.” You said it Robbie.

Back in 2004, The Walkmen quietly released what remains one of the very best tracks of the last decade. ‘The Rat’ was taken from their brilliant second album ‘Bows + Arrows’ and encapsulated everything which makes the US five-piece such a powerful band, chiefly thanks to the impassioned vocals of frontman Hamilton Leithauser and the boundless talents of drummer Matt Barrick. Three albums have followed since, and now the group are back with their sixth studio record ‘Lisbon’. Their strongest since ‘Bows + Arrows’, the LP contains some true gems which match anything which has preceded it, including first single ‘Stranded’, and album highlight ‘Angela Surf City’. Check out this live performance:

After Amy Winehouse declared her former producer ‘dead to me’, Mark Ronson has refused to be drawn into a war of words with his one-time collaborator. After being questioned about the Twitter rant, Ronson simply told the crowd at a MTV gig in Ireland on Sunday night that he doesn’t “know anything about it.” Ronson had previously claimed he would be interested in producing Winehouse’s comeback album once she is ready to record it.

What with Ali G, Borat and Bruno, actor/comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is pretty well versed at playing eccentric and flamboyant characters. He might just surpass them all on his next project however after it was revealed he is set to play Queen’s colourful frontman Freddie Mercury in a new biopic of the late singer. Speaking on the BBC’s Hardtalk programme, the band’s guitarist Brian May confirmed their new booking. “We have Sacha Baron Cohen,“ he said. “Which will probably be a shock to a lot of people, but he’s been talking with us for a long time.” According to reports, the film will primarily focus on the period of the group’s career which led to their seminal performance at the 1985 Live Aid event.

New Pornographers, apparently not the best name to have if you’re hoping to play a gig on a Christian campus. The band discovered as much ahead of a show in Calvin College, Michigan. The college released a statement which read: “After weeks of discussion and consideration, the irony of the band’s name was impossible to explain to many. The band’s name, to some, is mistakenly associated with pornography. Consequently, Calvin, to some, was mistakenly associated with pornography. Neither the college nor the band endorses pornography.” Those who had felt they could just about stomach the gig were given a full refund.


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