Robert Smith teases new music from The Cure

Should fans of the Cure expect new music from the band to coincide with their 40th anniversary as a group? If fans are to believe a recent interview with frontman Robert Smith, then the answer to that question is maybe. On Tuesday (April 10), Smith appeared on BBC Radio 6 Music to talk about his role as curator for the 25th anniversary of London’s Meltdown Festival.

During the chat, Smith revealed that helping curate the upcoming event may have reignited his passion for writing music.

“I’ve suddenly fallen in love with the idea of writing songs,” Smith told DJ Shaun Keaveny.

“Funnily enough, doing this Meltdown thing has actually galvanized me and I’ve booked studio time for the band.”

As the interview continued, Keaveny asked Smith if Meltdown attendees should expect the Cure to hit the stage. Smith revealed that usually the final night of the show is reserved for that year’s curator and explained how the group has thrown out ideas on how they should celebrate their major anniversary which will actually take place on July 9.

“What shall we do? Go back to Crawley, where it all started? Play in the pub where we did our first show as the Cure? Or should we go mega, play a show in every capital city in the world?”

Currently, the Cure only have two shows lined up for 2018; Meltdown and a one-off gig at London’s Hyde Park in July. If the band does go into the studio to record new music, then maybe, just maybe that will mean they will hit the road to promote the new tunes and celebrate the milestone.

The Cure’s last official studio recording was their contribution to a Paul McCartney tribute album in 2014. The group covered the Beatles’ “Hello Goodbye” for that record. Their last studio album was 2008’s 4:13 Dream.

Foo Fighters Tribute Band to Play for Disappointed Fans

When the Foo Fighters announced that all their European tour dates had to be scrapped because of the massive injury frontman Dave Grohl suffered during the band’s show in Sweden, there was a collective sound of hearts breaking.

In an attempt to make those fans feel a little better, UK Foo Fighters, a Foo Fighters tribute band, has announced they will be performing two shows for those brokenhearted people.

The tribute band announced the news via a tweet that they will be performing at a venue near Wembley Stadium in London during the same two days the iconic group were set to perform; Friday (June 19) and Saturday (June 20).

“It’s an absolute honour to confirm we will be playing Wembley this Friday and Saturday evening for fans from all over the world who have travelled to London this weekend, and for Dave and Foo Fighters, who we know are gutted not to be playing,” the band wrote on the social media platform.

CONFIRMED…. Fri 19th & Sat 20th June @crystalclubs HA9 0HB @wembleystadium @foofighters #sonicmotorways Jay 🙂 pic.twitter.com/gzIblN1g2k

— UK Foo Fighters (@ukfoofighters) June 17, 2015

Tickets for the real show are being refunded, but for those still wanting to get a taste of the Foo Fighters, entry to the shows will be done through charity donations with all proceeds going directly to Given to Live, a United Kingdom charity.

While the tribute version of the Foo Fighters will be taking  the stage this upcoming weekend, the status of when the real Foo Fighters will be returning to the stage is unknown. Grohl’s doctors had advised the frontman that he needed to stay off his injured for a while, but so far, it appears their United States tour is still on.

Vans Warped Tour UK Heading Back to London

Vans Warped Tour fans who live across the pond, get ready because the traveling rock show will be heading that way this Fall.

It was announced earlier in the day that the 2015 Vans Warped Tour UK will be returning to Alexandra Palace in London on Oct.18.

As of now, the line-up for the one day event has not been revealed, but those interested in attending should keep an eye out on June 17, when the line-up will reportedly be released.

As the poster below shows, early bird tickets are currently available on the festival’s website.

Legal Fallout Headed Towards the Cancelled Jabberwocky Festival

Legal trouble and fallout is about to hit the cancelled Jabberwocky Festival in London. Yesterday, it was reported that teh festival had been cancelled 72 hours before bands were scheduled to begin taking the stage.

This last-minute cancellation resulted in concertgoers and the bands alike, being stranded in London. Questions began to rise when decision to cancel the festival happen because not even a week before, the festival organizers were boosting about how the concert was close to selling out.

Even though the harsh reality began to sink on for those who traveled to London for the show, a bigger problem soon came after ticket holder were told they would be able to obtain refunds.

Neither the festival organizers nor the ticket retailers seen to know what happened to the money that was made from the customers.

In a statement on Facebook, All Tomorrow’s Parties (the organizers) advised ticket holders they would be able to obtain refunds directly from Dash Tickets. “It is their responsibility to refund the customer, as they were the company that took payments; not ATP,” read the post.

But now, Dash is speaking out, calling out the organizers and accusing them of “deliberately misleading” the customers since the ATP had already received the payments from the ticket sales.

In a press statement given to NME, the ticket company not only said that they are on a mission to find out what happened to the funds, but that they will also be pursuing legal action in order to cover money they spent as part of their relationship with the doomed festival.

“Our trust in ATP seems to have been misplaced, as their emails to fans and customers today concerning refunds have become deliberately misleading. It is for this reason that we feel compelled to make it clear that Dash has given to ATP all funds that Dash received for ticket sales to Jabberwocky. In addition to giving ATP all the ticketing funds, Dash has made substantial advances to ATP which remain unpaid, as do considerable fees for the work we have undertaken on their behalf.”

But the legal issue is not going to just be behind the concert organizers and the ticket company, it seems.ATP’s publicists, The Zeitgeist Agency, are claiming that they are owed money and have not been paid for several months and that the organizers had used the money owed to them to secure artists and the venue which now they do not have.

“Willwal Ltd (aka All Tomorrow’s Parties) have failed to pay us for several months. We have tried hard to overcome this situation and find solutions, but Willwal’s representatives have revealed to us in writing that they used the funds destined for us in order to protect payments for venue and artists, rather than settle essential and agreed amounts to our company. This situation has left our company with no alternative but to pursue Willwal Ltd by instituting legal proceedings on the 20th July to recover the substantial debt, to which Willwal Ltd have not responded. This is a course of action which as you can imagine, we have been very reluctant to take.”

As for the concertgoers, they seem to be taking the cancelled show in stride. A Facebook group called the “Jabberwocky Fallout” has formed which has posted about several replacement shows from bands that were supposed to play the event.

All Time Low to Headline Wembley Arena

All Time Low are one of the biggest bands to come out of the pop-punk music scene, so it comes as a surprise that the four piece band have never headlined an arena before though, amphitheaters and Warped Tours are the norm.

Now, it looks like things have changed because the band have announced that they will be headlining their first ever arena show.

The Baltimore-based band announced that big news would be coming on Monday (today) to their loyal (and vicious) fans, the Hustlers. At the time, the band had just posted up a picture of a face with an “x” below it, colored in with a Union Jack. This led to assume whatever the big news was, would be directed towards their fan base across the pond in England.

Today, the news was made public that they would be hitting the stage at the iconic Wembley Arena on March 20, 2015.

The show has been titled, “One Night in London with All Time Low” which will also double as filming of footage for the band’s new live DVD.

Not to shabby for a couple of “East coast kids with a record deal.”

Coldplay to Perform Six Intimate Shows Worldwide

Coldplay’s new album Ghost Stories isn’t due to be released for another month, but the band have already revealed plans to perform six intimate shows in support of the new tracks. 

The album, which came as a surprise to fans and casual listeners alike when the news broke, is due to be released on May 19. The six shows however, are six intimate show around the world, two which will be in the United States. 

On May 5, the band will play New York’s The Beacon which has a total of 2,900 seats and has seen many famous faces since its opening in 1929. The mother U.S. date will coincide with the album’s release. On the album’s release date the band will perform at the Royce Theater on the UCLA campus which features 1,800 seats and was also opened in 1929. as for tickets, no details have been revealed when the will go on sale. 

The other four intimate show dates will take place in Cologne, Germany on April 25, Paris on May 28, Tokyo on June 12 and their hometown of London on July 1 at the Royal Albert Hall. As for those ticket sales, the Germany show will go on sale on Saturday, April 19.

As for the rest of the dates, a spokesperson for promoter Live Nation said that information on tickets for the remaining five shows will be emailed exclusively to subscribers to the Coldplay mailing list which you can easily join on their website, Coldplay.com.

Brand New Cover Coldplay and Modest Mouse in London

Brand New might not be playing any big arena tour in the near future, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t be touring around in small venues. The band announced earlier this year that they would be going on a short European tour including England, Germany and Italy. Once that had come to an end, they would be returning home to North America to do a small tour hitting up selected cities in the United States and Canada.

During their recent stop at the Troxy in London (April 12), Brand New went on to perform “The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot” from Deja Entendu, but with a spin. Instead of sticking solely to the track, they decided to do something a little different with the live performance. As seen in the video posted below, they go on to mix Coldplay’s “Yellow” and Modest Mouse’s “Trailer Trash” to the song.

For those interested, upcoming tour dates can be seen here.

‘Harry Potter’ to Hit the Stage in 2015

Stop what you are doing because Harry Potter is coming back!

Yes children or adult or whomever you are, the boy wizard is coming back, but before you think this has anything to do with another book which author J.K. Rowling has been mum about or that film based on one of Harry’s Hogwarts textbooks, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, it really doesn’t.

Yesterday, Rowling revealed that Harry Potter will be hitting the stage in London. The premise of the story is to “explore the previously untold story of Harry’s early years as an orphan and outcast,” while living in the muggle world with aunt, uncle and cousin.

While Rowling was the one to unveil the upcoming plans, she also confirmed that she would not be writing the script for the play. Instead, she will be co-producing the show alongside veteran producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender. As for the lucky person who will be bringing the wizarding world to real life in words, that person or persons have yet to be chosen.

When addressing why she had chosen Friedman and Callender to co-producer the stage adaptation, she said she had received many stage pitches concerning the magical world of Harry Potter, but Friedman and Callender’s imagination of it “was the only one that really made sense to me, and which had the sensitivity, intensity and intimacy I thought appropriate for bringing Harry’s story to the stage. After a year in gestation, it is very exciting to see this project moving onto the next phrase,” the Daily Mail had reported.

The play is expected to premiere at London’s West End within the next two years, but no exact or estimated date has been given yet.

Now you can start all those “the boy who lived” jokes if you want.

Jay-Z Reveals ‘Magna Carta’ Album Art

Call it great publicity or just a bad move, but Jay-Z has revealed the album art for his upcoming new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail and the same exact place where four of the last remaining versions of the Magna Carta are being house. You know, because he is Jay-Z and he can do whatever he wants whenever her wants.

The rapper revealed on his Life + Times page, a photo of his album art just sitting next to the Magna Carta which is currently housed at Britain’s Salisbury Cathedral. But just when you thought that it was just for some kind of publicity, came word that the album could be seen by fans m inside the cathedral until the end of July.

Viewings will take place in the Chapter House at Salisbury Cathedral from 9.30am to 4.30pm Monday-Saturday and 12.45pm to 3.45pm on Sundays.

The Dean of Salisbury, the Very Revd June Osborne released a statement saying:

“We are delighted that Jay-Z has chosen Salisbury Cathedral, home to the finest of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta, as the location for the global premiere of his artwork for ‘Magna Carta… Holy Grail’. We know how important Magna Carta, and all it represents, is to people across the globe. The ideals it embodies are still relevant today. Jay-Z, through his album, is creating a huge awareness of this historic document and its modern significance to a huge audience in the run up to its 800th anniversary in 2015. We hope to welcome many of his fans here this summer to see the artwork in the Chapter House alongside our Magna Carta.”

The Magna Carta Holy Grail will be released tomorrow for those who downloaded his Samsung app. The album will also feature a laundry list of guest stars such as Rick Ross, Frank Ocean, Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake.

Musical Spoof of ‘The X Factor’ Hitting London

Just when you thought that Simon Cowell was nothing more than a pile of muscles in a tight black t-shirt and attitude, here’s a surprise. The super producer will be bringing a version of his hit show, The X Factor from the television screens to the stage on London sometime in 2014.

The judge’s company, Syco Entertainment, will co-produce  a musical spoof written by Harry Hill and directed by Sean Foley about the televised singing competition. Both Syco and Stage Entertainment both say that X Factor: Time to Face the Musical is supposed to be an “affectionate poke” at the talent show. The show will also feature 19 new songs, but cast and location for it are yet to be determined.

For someone who comes off as such a hardass, it nice to see that under all that rough exterior, there’s a jokester. Kudos, Cowell!