Weekly News Round-Up: The Faces, Reverend & The Makers, The Maccabees and more

Wondering if you’ve missed out on any of the week’s top news stories? Wonder no longer – here Live4ever looks back on ten of the biggest headlines we featured during the last seven days in British music.

Jon McClure, Reverend & The Makers (Photo: Gary Mather for Live4ever)

Reverend & The Makers will release ‘Mirrors‘, their fifth studio album, on October 9th. Check out ‘Black Widow‘, the first song to be revealed, in the full article.

The album has already drawn praise from Noel Gallagher and Carl Barat of The Libertines after recording sessions at Sheffield’s 2 Fly Studios and the Geejam Studios in Jamaica. It was produced by Dave Sanderson, with the additional assistance of Youth and Alan Smyth.

Sleaford Mods went to number one on the week’s UK Record Store Chart, displacing Tame Impala who dropped one place with ‘Currents‘.

The Chemical Brothers and Roger Waters were also high new entries, while The Maccabees and ‘Marks To Prove It‘ debuted back at #15.

Jimmy Page pushed hard for a Led Zeppelin reunion last year as he worked diligently on the extensive reissues of the band’s back catalogue, but he now appears to have given up on ever bringing Robert Plant around to his way of thinking.

“We tried it a few times,” he’s told the Daily Beast. “It always seemed to be done in a hurry and it never worked. That’s why the O2 show was done with such intent. We rehearsed loads so that Jason — John’s son — felt like he was part of the band and not just some novelty. We all needed it to be that way.”

Kele Okereke has suggested a new Bloc Party line-up is taking shape nicely as the band work on a fifth studio album.

The departures of bass player Gordon Moakes and drummer Matt Tong left Okereke and guitarist Russell Lissack as the two remaining original members, but during an interview with Triple J the frontman seemed happy with their yet-to-be-announced replacements.

Surviving members Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones will return as The Faces in September as part of a special charity gig supporting Prostate Cancer UK.

“This year is the 40th anniversary since The Faces parted ways so it’s about time we got together for a jam,” Rod Stewart says. “Being in The Faces back in the day was a whirlwind of madness but my God, it was beyond brilliant. We are pleased to be able to support Prostate Cancer UK.”

The Maccabees have gloriously hit number one in the UK with their new album ‘Marks To Prove It‘.

The long wait for a follow-up to 2012’s ‘Given To The Wild‘ ended last week, and the band’s fourth studio album has duly handed them a first number one.

Franz Ferdinand and Sparks will take their unusual band amalgamation FFS to North America from the end of next month for a full tour.

Having released the eponymous debut album in June through Domino, the two groups have since concentrated their touring primarily on Europe, but will spend a few weeks in the US and Canada from September 30th, when the first show is held at Sound Academy in Toronto.

Keith Richards has reignited half-a-century of friendly, but often creatively taut rivalry, with The Beatles by declaring the legendary band’s equally legendary seventh studio album ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band‘ as ‘a mishmash of rubbish’.

Richards was speaking to Esquire ahead of the release of ‘Crosseyed Heart‘, his first solo album in twenty years.

Johnny Marr‘s October UK and Ireland tour has increased again to the tune of four shows.

Having already added a second night at the Albert Hall in Manchester on October 8th, Marr will now press on with extra shows in Belfast, Dublin, London and Bristol after the original last night in Edinburgh on October 14th.

Foals have unveiled another track set to feature on their upcoming ‘What Went Down‘ album when it is released at the end of this month – check out the lyric video for ‘A Knife In The Ocean‘ in the full article.

It follows the premiere of the album’s stupendous title-track, as well as ‘Mountain At My Gates‘, which frontman Yannis Philippakis talked through with NME.

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