Weekly News Round-Up: Slaves, Gruff Rhys 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 eight of the biggest headlines in British music we featured during the last seven days.

Slaves supporting The Cribs @ Leeds Arena (Gary Mather / Live4ever)

Slaves were on social media last weekend confirming work on their third studio album is now complete.

Laurie Vincent and Isaac Holman began recording their follow-up to 2016’s Take Control around a year ago, Holman telling Steve Lamacq on BBC 6Music that the conclusion of the 2017 festival season was when they were planning to reenter the studio.

Already with plans in place for two new albums, Biffy Clyro will head out on the road to support another album release on May 25th.

MTV Unplugged: Live At Roundhouse London was recorded in November last year to relaunch the series, and it will air on the same day as the album version comes out. The band then tour the UK and Ireland in September.

Astronaut Tim Peake was the first to report news of Snow Patrol‘s video for their Wildness album track Life On Earth.

Filmed at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands, it comes after the band made their live return in London last week in anticipation of the album’s release on May 25th.

Arctic Monkeys have added new dates after their UK and Ireland arena tour went on sale.

The band will now play additional shows in London, Birmingham, Dublin and Newcastle during September, gigs which are set to support their upcoming Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino album.

Florence & The Machine have returned with their new track Sky Full Of Song.

It’s one of Florence Welch’s first since How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – and an injury to Dave Grohl – led to a Glastonbury headline performance in 2015. “This was a song that just fell out of the sky fully formed,” she’s said.

Gruff Rhys performing with the Super Furry Animals @ the London Roundhouse (Alberto Pezzali for Live4ever

Babelsberg will be Gruff Rhys‘ first record for Rough Trade since 2007’s Candylion when it is released on June 8th.

More immediately following the ambitious multimedia scope of American Interior, it started life through recording sessions in early 2016 over the course of just three days with producer Ali Chant in his soon-to-be-demolished studio.

Laura Marling and producer Mike Lindsay have teamed up for an album release in June under the name LUMP.

The first seeds of this project were sown when the pair met after Marling had supported Neil Young in London. They will release the LP on June 1st and have offered up Curse Of The Contemporary as its first track, complete with a video directed by Esteban Diacono.

Catfish & The Bottlemen and Kings Of Leon have joined Kendrick Lamar as headliners at this year’s Glasgow Summer Sessions series.

With Kendrick Lamar, N.E.R.D. and Bugzy Malone already booked for Bellahouston Park on August 29th, Catfish & The Bottlemen have been added for August 25th. Chief support will come from Twin Atlantic while DMA’s, Peace and Neon Waltz will also be playing that day.

Primal Scream’s Martin Duffy, Ladyhawke, Debbie Googe of My Bloody Valentine, Klaxons drummer Steffan Halperin and The Horrors’ Joshua Hayward will all appear on a new album fronted by Tim Burgess which has been set for release on Record Store Day.

“We were complaining about how boring things were between Christmas and New Year, so we got together to record some songs,” Burgess says of its genesis.

More names have been confirmed for the Meldown Festival, which this year is being curated by Robert Smith.

Adding to the likes of My Bloody Valentine, The Libertines, Mogwai, Nine Inch Nails, Deftones and the Manic Street Preachers are a host of new additions including Death Cab For Cutie, Frightened Rabbit, The Joy Formidable, Moon Duo and The Twilight Sad, whom Smith has previously covered and handpicked to support The Cure.

Mobilelogo1