Weekly News Round-Up: The Kinks, Black Sabbath, Bloc Party 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.

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Dave Davies has told Rolling Stone there remains an ‘outside shot’ of a Kinks reunion.

A return was looking increasingly likely as 2013 progressed thanks to productive meetings between the Davies brothers that summer, leading frontman Ray to declare a return the ‘closest it’s ever been’ in January 2014.

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Mumford & Sons have added a couple of extra nights to their tour of UK and Ireland arenas later this year.

The tour was announced as the band headlined Reading Festival last weekend, and will start in Nottingham on November 28th.

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Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis has given short shrift to those in bands who complain about the rigours of touring, saying they should see it as a ‘blessing’ to be up onstage.

There’s been a seemingly growing number of stories from a seemingly growing number of artists rejecting the challenges of life on the road, but Philippakis believes anybody entertaining such thoughts would do well to remember the privileged position they hold.

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The Official Charts Company has launched a dedicated UK Prog Album Chart for the first time, and it’s topped by Tame Impala.

“We felt it was an oversight not to have done this a long time ago,” the OCC’s Martin Talbot says. “Progressive music is as alive and kicking as it’s ever been. It’s more a state of mind than a genre.”

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Kele Okereke and guitarist Russell Lissack are showing off the new Bloc Party line-up for the first time after announcing a run of European dates at the end of this year.

After the departures of Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong, the original pair have been joined by bassist Justin Harris and drummer Louise Bartle, and will start the dates at the Paradiso in Amsterdam on November 27th. UK shows in Manchester and London follow in December.

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Black Sabbath will call time on their long, influential career during a farewell world tour beginning in January 2016.

“It’s the beginning of the end,” a video message from the band states. “It started nearly five decades ago with a crack of thunder, a distant bell ringing and then that monstrous riff that shook the earth.”

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Elephant Days, a new documentary from The Maccabees focusing on the Elephant and Castle area of London, will receive its premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 12th.

The band have called Elephant and Castle their home for a decade, and used the area as the chief inspiration during the recording of ‘Marks To Prove It‘. The film centres around seven local stories, including The Maccabees’ work on their latest studio album.

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Folk heroes Bellowhead will release the greatest hits collection ‘Pandemonium – The Essential Bellowhead’ on October 16th before embarking on farewell tours of the UK in November this year and April 2016.

After lead singer Jon Boden made the decision to step away from Bellowhead earlier this year, his fellow bandmates ‘felt they didn’t want to continue without him’, and will therefore start their goodbyes at the Torquay Princess Theatre on November 14th.

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The Libertines have lined up five small UK gigs during the build-up to the release of ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth‘ on September 11th.

There’s already a series of events going on under the banner Somewhere Over The Railings as the reunited bandmates prepare to release their first album in over a decade, and now UK shows in Glasgow, Nottingham, Bristol, London and Manchester – the latter on the day of the LP’s release – have been unveiled.

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Alt-J are looking forward to a break very soon but are equally excited about beginning work on a follow-up to last year’s ‘This Is All Yours‘ album.

The band’s second record continued their love-affair with critics, whilst keeping enough of an eye on the mainstream across the Atlantic to deliver arena-filling gigs in London and New York. This fruitful period is now coming to an end, but plans are being laid already  for the future.

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