In today’s Soundbites – our look back at the past week’s news, features, videos and tabloid gossip – ‘Love Me Do’ is 50, Morrissey and Johnny Marr stun the world when responding to Smiths rumours, Dave Grohl puts his feet up, Mumford & Sons don’t want any more fans, and the week’s most popular video is revealed.
It’s hard to imagine a world without The Beatles, but 50 years ago this week they were known to just a select, visionary few who had followed the band from their Liverpool home to the seedy streets of Hamburg and back again. That all began to change on October 5th 1962 however, when the release of ‘Love Me Do‘ began world domination and epochal cultural changes. Check out our little look at the single, and its video, here and here.
Quelle surprise! Within, oh, maybe 30 seconds of the latest round of Smiths reunion rumours – this time propagated by Holy Moly – Johnny Marr made his regular ascent to the top of a Manchester high-rise, megaphone in hand, to pour scorn on the whispers. But it was Morrissey, coming to the party not long after, who typically stole the show with probably the most emphatic denial in the history of denials. “The Smiths are never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going to reunite – ever,” his spokesman said.
One man who is very much wanting to remain in his band though is Dave Grohl who, despite admitting the Foo Fighters now have no concrete future plans after kicking back on the sofa and lighting a well earned cigar following the completion of their 18-month-long touring duties, confirmed he ‘never wants to not’ be in the band. “I’m not sure when the Foo Fighters are going to play again. It feels strange to say that, but it’s a good thing for all of us to go away for a while,” he has declared. “It’s one of the reasons we’re still here. Make sense? I never want to NOT be in this band.” His letter to MTV can be read in full here.
Live4ever has teamed up again with our friends at HiFi-Tower to offer one lucky reader a new pair of Citronic HB-450PRO DJ headphones. You will be able enter the giveaway by leaving a comment on this week’s New Tunes Guide, letting us know what your favourite new release of recent weeks is. Please note that you must live in the United Kingdom (excluding all Islands) in order to be eligible.
We were delighted to have a bit of a ‘Peter Hook day’ earlier this week. An in-depth interview with the Hooky delved deep into the writing of his new book ‘Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division‘, while our review declared it: “…an honest, no frills account of Joy Division in all their troubled, gloomy glory. Packed with anecdotes and insights, Unknown Pleasures is a rewarding read.” You should be able to find both features in full at this link.
You’d think the millions of albums sales and seemingly inevitable ascent to stadium-sized gigs would be the stuff dreams are made of, especially given that most bands these days are having to settle for flogging their albums out of a box round the back entrance of some smoggy live venue in Preston. But Mumford & Sons have had quite enough thank you very much. Nobody else need fall in love with them, they’ve got more than enough fans already. “I think we’re bigger than we ever wanted to be,” Ted Dwane told NME this week. “I don’t think we want to get any bigger now. We want to deserve the place that we’ve got to and be good to the people who’ve been good to us.” Comments in full at this link.
There was a right royal rock group hug last weekend at the Global Citizen Festival in New York when The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Dave Grohl joined Neil Young onstage for a performance of ‘Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World‘. The video of the extended bluesy jam is the most popular on Live4ever this week – check out all the latest new and classic promos in our Videos section and news round-up.