Weekly News Round-Up: David Bowie, PJ Harvey 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.

David Bowie (2)

David Bowie‘s new single ‘Lazarus‘ has been revealed in full on BBC 6Music and will be available to purchase tomorrow (December 18th).

It’s the second track to preview Bowie’s upcoming ‘Blackstar‘ album, which is released next month. Speaking to Rolling Stone recently, producer Tony Visconti said a chief inspiration on the follow-up to 2013’s ‘The Next Day‘ was Kendrick Lamar as the pair looked to purposefully ‘avoid rock and roll’ during its recording.

Paul Weller will present an online documentary during the festive period which will go behind the scenes of his 2015 world touring behind ‘Saturns Pattern‘.

“‘One’ is one year in the life of Paul Weller and his band,” says Weller’s live keyboardist and the man behind the doc, Andy Crofts.

After concluding North American tour dates which were announced yesterday (December 14th), AC/DC will head to the UK for two outdoor gigs in June 2016.

The band has lined up a show at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London on June 4th, and will then move north to the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on June 9th.

Kurt Cobain‘s cover of The Beatles‘ ‘And I Love Her‘, a standout from the Montage Of Heck soundtrack album, was on top of last week’s UK Vinyl Singles Chart.

Enter Shikari were also a Top 5 new entry, while Beck and The 1975 were new inside the Top 10.

Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher led a supergroup formed to celebrate Paul Simonon‘s 60th birthday in London last night (December 13th).

The pair were joined by Jeff Wootton, Chrissie Hynde, Zak Starkey and others for covers of Gorillaz and Clash tracks – one of which, ‘DARE‘, can be seen in the full article.

Maria Mochnacz

PJ Harvey has shared a teaser clip ahead of a new album release in the spring of next year.

The album is set to document her journeys to Kosovo, Afghanistan and Washington, D.C, and is the culmination of the Recording In Progress sessions which took place during a public residency at Somerset House in a purpose-built studio as she looked to follow-up 2011’s Mercury Prize winning ‘Let England Shake‘.

Wilko Johnson will head back out on the road in April next year, joined by blues musician Joanne Shaw Taylor.

The Dr. Feelgood hero starts on April 14th at the ABC in Glasgow, and will move on to Newcastle, Manchester, Bristol and Leamington Spa during the next week ahead of a closing date in Kentish Town on April 23rd.

Primal Scream are leading the first additions to the BBC 6Music Festival, which has invited various live music venue across Bristol to host its events for 2016.

Next to the Scottish band first through the door are Roni Size, BEAK and Tricky, who will all be joined at the party by a full line-up announced on January 19th.

Mumford & Sons have issued a plea to fans to help them curb touts after claiming around 6,000 tickets for the recent UK tour found their way onto secondary sites.

“We’ve worked so hard over the years to keep our ticket prices reasonable – we want all of our fans to be able to come to our shows,” the band say in a long statement.

NWA and Deep Purple will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame next year, but The Smiths have missed out this time.

Back in vogue thanks to the recent Straight Outta Compton movie biopic, the groundbreaking rap troupe will be inducted during a New York ceremony next April. As well as Deep Purple, they’re joined by Cheap Trick, Chicago and Steve Miller.