In today’s Soundbites, our quick take on news, reviews and tabloid gossip, we take a look at Kings Of Leon’s new single, there’s a return for Top Of The Pops…sort of, Zane Lowe’s Gonzo replacement is revealed and Jane’s Addiction lose a member after just six months. There’s also news from this weekend’s Bestival and Lou Reed makes Susan Boyle cry.
Zane Lowe’s long-running association with MTV Rocks’ flagship programme ‘Gonzo’ is over, and, joy of joys, the producers have decided his replacement will be the not-at-all irritating former T4 presenter Alexa Chung. Commenting on her new gig, Chung said: “I am thrilled to be presenting Gonzo. It’s a show I’ve always admired and I’m looking forward to reupholstering the sofa.” The first episode of the new series will go out on October 15th at 7pm.
After the runaway success of ‘Only By The Night’, the first play of a new Kings Of Leon track has now become a fairly big newsworthy event. After all the build up and rumour on first listen the new single, ‘Radioactive’, is in the end not too dissimilar to the make-up of their fourth album which proved such a huge seller. Sure, it’s no made-for-radio hit like ‘Sex On Fire’ (thank God), but the crisp, razor tight production which first became apparent on third record ‘Because Of The Times’ remains. According to the band, the track was first written following the release of ‘Aha Shake Heartbreak’, and it is certainly clear that it is borne from the same pool which produced the aforementioned ‘Because Of The Times’ and would have fit very snugly as a stand-out album track on that LP. So not a return to roots as some had hoped, just more of the ever-more familiar sound which the band moved into back in 2007. Check out the video:
Former Guns n Roses guitarist Duff McKagan has left Jane’s Addiction after just six months in the band. McKagan had joined the band in March as a replacement for Eric Avery, but his swift departure was announced this week via an e-mail to fans which read: “We wanted to thank Duff for helping us write songs for our new record. We love the songs we worked on with him – and the gigs were a blast – but musically we were all headed in different directions. From here Duff is off to work on his own stuff so we wish him all the best.”
Rejoice, Top Of The Pops is back on the BBC! Well not really, but while BBC executives continue to work on a format which will appeal to a new generation, their digital station BBC4 is to air classic episodes of the iconic series in full. The new series will be a departure from the familiar TOTP2 format which features a selection of tracks from various episodes.
Might come as a shock this, but apparently Lou Reed isn’t a fan of America’s Got Talent, or the biggest star to emerge from the UK version. According to reports, the Scottish singer Susan Boyle was hoping to perform a rendition of Reed’s classic single ‘Perfect Day’, complete with choir and everything for the hit show. However, at the last minute Reed contacted the producers to let them know he wasn’t overly-impressed with the idea of Susan having a stab and one of his seminal tracks. “Lou didn’t want Susan to perform his song – he’s not a Susan fan,” a source told the New York Post. “It’s a big deal to change a song at the last minute. Susan was really upset. She was in tears and was forced to pull out of the show, and decided to come back to the UK.”
The Isle Of Wight’s Bestival event could be set to share the good weather enjoyed by most festivals this summer if the latest reports are to be believed. Current predictions have mainly dry weather from Thursday to Saturday. Sunday looks likely to be the best day of the weekend with a sunny outlook expected at the dizzying heights of 20°C.