Weekly News Round-Up: Noel Gallagher, Arctic Monkeys and more

You’re in the right place if you’ve missed any of the week’s top news stories – here Live4ever’s Weekly News Round-Up presents a recap of ten of the biggest headlines in British music we featured during the last seven days.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds @ Liverpool Echo Arena. April 2016. (Photo: Gary Mather for Live4ever Media)

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are among the headliners confirmed for the first ever BBC’s Biggest Weekend, which will be held across various outdoor UK venues in May.

Gallagher is heading up to Scotland to top Scone Palace in Perth, while Manic Street Preachers and Beck are on the 6Music led bill at the Titanic Slipways in Belfast with Courtney Barnett and Public Service Broadcasting.

Mike Skinner has unleashed more new Streets material after restarting the band for a Greatest Hits tour late last year.

That tour will take place throughout Europe in April, but while much of it is likely to focus on the modern classic debut Original Pirate Material, Skinner has a decent selection of new music to consider thanks to Burn Bridges, Sometimes I Hate My Friends More Than My Enemies, and this latest cut If You Ever Need To Talk I’m Here.

Richard Ashcroft, Seasick Steve and Squeeze will all be performing before Roger Waters‘ headline appearance at British Summer Time in London.

Waters’ day at Hyde Park is part of the European leg of his Us + Them tour which is due to begin in April. The above support acts are joining him on July 6th, Ashcroft quickly adding to his outdoor Irish gigs backing Liam Gallagher in June.

Gaz Coombes will start a full UK tour in May after the release of his new solo album World’s Strongest Man and a date at the London ULU on February 28th.

With the LP due out on May 4th, Coombes has arranged shows later that month in Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and London. An Irish concert at the Dublin Academy then takes place on May 25th.

Liam Gallagher and The xx are heading another brilliantly eclectic Parklife line-up.

The 2018 edition of the Manchester event, which will be held at the city’s Heaton Park venue on June 9th and 10th, will also have performances from Skepta, Lorde, NERD, Chvrches and Everything Everything to name a few.

The Last Shadow Puppets’ Alex Turner on stage with the Arctic Monkeys (Photo: Todd Howe for Live4ever Media)

A headline spot at TRNSMT along side Liam Gallagher, The Killers and the Stereophonics is just one of many 2018 festival appearances confirmed by Arctic Monkeys last week.

Various European events have added the Sheffield band to their line-up, with an already ridiculously strong Mad Cool, Primavera, Flow and Sziget among those getting in on their live return.

Paul Simon is the latest big name to be confirmed for this year’s British Summer Time Festival in London.

The songwriting legend joins the likes of Roger Waters, The Cure and Eric Clapton at the Hyde Park event, and will himself be joined on July 15th by James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt for a gig which is being dubbed ‘Homeward Bound – The Farewell Performance’.

The Boxer Rebellion will release their new album Ghost Alive in March.

“This album was certainly born during a particularly challenging time for my family and I,” says frontman Nathan Nicholson. “Late one evening – right in the middle of pre-production – I was informed by telephone of my Dad’s passing. I was in London with my wife and son, and left first thing in the morning to fly back to Maryville, Tennessee, where I’m from.”

Idles have signed to Partisan Records after completing work on their second album.

“This is not a decision based on greed,” Joe Talbot responds. “They excite us and have injected ideas and passions into our camp that we would not have mustered. We as a family have realised our limitations in as far as the ship we have built with you all is becoming too much for the team we have to achieve the best of our abilities.”

Chvrches have returned with their single Get Out.

It marks the next chapter after 2015’s Every Open Eye and arrives ahead of their impending visit to New York’s Randall’s Island and the Governors Ball festival in June.