Weekly News Round-Up: Jake Bugg, Mercury Prize, Gorillaz and more

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

Jake Bugg (Photo: Paul Bachmann for Live4ever Media)

Jake Bugg has revealed he is now self-producing a third album after label bosses preferred his early demos of new songs to the final versions which had been worked on with an un-named producer.

“Weirdly enough the label preferred my recordings to the producer I’d been recording with,” Bugg’s told the BBC. “It wasn’t my choice, it was their choice. So they must be OK. I’ve been mixing them and making them sound real sharp and real nice.”

T In The Park organiser Geoff Ellis has confirmed the festival will continue at Strathallan Castle in 2016 despite the, in some cases, serious teething problems which were experienced this summer.

The event was forced to move from its long-term home in Balado this year, and settled at the Strathallan estate despite the site being immediately met by opposition due to conservation concerns.

Graham Coxon has revealed an album recorded around the time of his previous solo LP ‘A + E‘ exists, but may continue to remain unreleased.

“I have a solo album sitting on hold right now with no plans to release, one day I would like to put it out though,” he said during a Reddit AMA on October 15th. “It was recorded at the same time as ‘A&E’, I just didn’t want to release another solo album while there was a lot of Blur activity going on.”

Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan has told Classic Rock he holds ‘no respect’ for those behind the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame after his band was nominated once again for induction earlier this month.

“I have no respect for them,” he said. “They’re the kind of people that having seen A Hard Day’s Night decided that The Monkees would be America’s equivalent to The Beatles. They’ve no idea what goes on in the big, wide world outside of their self-arbitrating surroundings.”

Gary Numan will receive the Innovation In Sound prize when the 2015 Q Awards are held tomorrow (October 19th).

“To receive any award in music is an honour, but to receive the Q Innovation In Sound award is particularly special,” Numan says. “Sound is the most important aspect of making music to me, it’s why electronic music has been such an obsession. It allows you the opportunity to constantly create new and exciting sounds.”

Florence & The Machine and Jamie xx are just two of the acts to have landed nominations for the 2015 Mercury Prize, whose shortlist was confirmed at a maddeningly pedestrian rate on October 16th.

‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’ and ‘In Colour‘ had odds of 20/1 and 7/1 respectively yesterday with Ladbrokes, and while some of the other bookies’ picks such as The Maccabees, Everything Everything and Sleaford Mods didn’t make the cut, Florence Welch will now remain as one of the front-runners even if her commercial success may put judges off during the final reckoning. By contrast, Jamie xx may well emerge as the strong favourite to win.

After announcing their return with a UK tour set for early next year, Field Music have now confirmed their new album ‘Commontime‘.

It’ll be the first conventional studio album from David and Peter Brewis since 2012’s ‘Plumb‘, after which they embarked on a series of side projects and new ventures including the 2015 ‘Music For Drifters‘ soundtrack.

Jamie Hewlett has confirmed to DIY that is he involved in the return of Gorillaz.

Damon Albarn had suggested he was considering bringing the hyper-real band back without the artistic help of Hewlett during an interview with Shortlist way back in May 2012, but much more recently Hewlett used his Instagram account to confirm his involvement, and he’s now gone a little further during this interview.

Elbow frontman Guy Garvey will curate next year’s Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre in London between 10th-19th June.

“I see this as the perfect opportunity to shine a light on some amazing new talent whilst recognising and celebrating the artists that have had an influence on the new sounds of today,” Garvey says after adding his name to previous curators which include Morrissey and David Byrne.

Australia’s threatened species commissioner Gregory Andrews has responded to recent criticism from Morrissey over the country’s plans to cull two million feral cats.

“The people of Australia would never agree to this,” Morrissey said back in August. “But of course they will not be consulted, because the Australian government as ruled by Tony Abbott is essentially a committee of sheep-farmers who have zero concerns about animal welfare or animal respect. The cats are, in fact, two million smaller versions of Cecil The Lion.”

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