Weekly News Round-Up: Glastonbury, Sam Fender 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 the biggest headlines we featured during the last seven days.

Stormzy performing at TRNSMT Festival, July 2017 (Gary Mather for Live4ever)

Bjorn Again and The Vaccines got the main Pyramid and Other stages underway on Friday morning as Glastonbury returned from a year’s break.

Friday also saw performances from the likes of Idles, Fontaines D.C., Cat Power, Goat Girl, Tame Impala and Lauryn Hill across Worthy Farm, while Stormzy made history as the night’s Pyramid Stage headliner. “I am first black British artist to headline Glastonbury,” he wrote on social media.

Idles have announced a short December UK tour which will conclude with the biggest headline show of their career so far.

When you release an album like Joy As An Act Of Resistance, you want to play it to as many people as possible and Idles have certainly been doing that since its release last year; frontman Joe Talbot has said the landmark headline gig at Alexandra Palace in London will be a chance for the band to bring this campaign to a close in style.

Frightened Rabbit have unveiled the Harkin & Sarah Silverman and Manchester Orchestra versions of My Backwards Walk, and the full cast of musicians who have helped to put a brand new take on their Midnight Organ Fight album for its 10th anniversary.

Along with Biffy Clyro and Julien Baker whose recordings of The Modern Leper were revealed the previous week, the likes of The Twilight Sad, Wintersleep, Craig Finn and Daughter have also contributed to Tiny Changes, a project which the Rabbits have said Scott Hutchison played a ‘vital part of bringing together’.

Liam Gallagher will embark on a UK and Ireland arena tour after the release of his second solo album Why Me? Why Not on September 20th.

Gallagher is set to start the run in Cardiff on November 11th and move on to cities such as Newcastle, Liverpool, Dublin and Nottingham before the final gig at the O2 Arena in London on November 28th.

Sam Fender playing the Bristol Louisiana (Jessica Bartolini / Live4ever)

Sam Fender wasn’t be at Glastonbury this weekend as he continues to battle an illness.

The singer had been due on the John Peel Stage but, like ones at Isle of Wight and Neighbourhood Weekender before it, the appearance was cancelled. “Absolutely gutted to share that I’ll not be able to perform at Glastonbury this weekend,” a social media message read.

Thom Yorke‘s new solo album ANIMA has been released digitally.

The album was produced by Nigel Godrich and will get a physical release on July 19th. Before then, and also out last Thursday, was a Netflix ‘one-reeler’ special directed by Paul Thomas Anderson which is soundtracked by three songs from the record.

Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard has announced her debut solo album Jaime.

Out on September 20th via Columbia Records, it’s named after Howard’s sister who died of cancer when they were teenagers. “The title is in memoriam, and she definitely did shape me as a human being,” she says.

The Libertines will head out for their first major tour of the UK in over two years this coming December.

To go with a trip around mainland Europe in October and November, the band have arranged UK shows in Bournemouth, Leeds, Dundee, Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol and London with their Albion Rooms hotel/recording studio in Margate due to open its doors on August 16th.