OHMYGOSSIP — The Pretenders have followed up their star-studded Glastonbury set with the new single, ‘A Love’.
The new tune about love being addictive is taken from their upcoming LP ‘Relentless’ – which is out on September 15 – and follows their Worthy Farm set last month that featured Foo Fighters Dave Grohl and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr.
Frontwoman Chrissie Hynde, 71, said of the track in a statement: “I suppose that’s the most traditionally Pretenders-sounding song on the album, in the vein of ‘Kid’ or ‘Talk of the Town’ or any of the mid-tempo ones over the years. I often see love/relationships almost in the same vein as drug addiction. Although, having said that, I know I am jaded, and cynical… ‘The Buzz’ on ‘Hate for Sale’ visited the same theme.”
At Glasto, Nirvana legend Dave, 54, played drums and Johnny, 59, guitar on ‘Tattooed Love Boys’.
Singer Chrissie Hynde had first brought Johnny – who had briefly joined the band in 1987 – onto the Park Stage to perform a string of hits including ‘Back on the Chain Gang’ and ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’.
She told the crowd: “My favourite thing about Glastonbury over the years is seeing my guitar heroes.”
Chrissie joked as she introduced Dave to the stage: “Apparently there’s a drunk guy backstage…he insists on playing.”
June also saw the group team up with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood on the collaboration ‘I Think About You Daily’.
The musician composed a stunning string arrangement on the brooding ballad, for which he also conducted the 12 Ensemble.
The song is the closing track on ‘Relentless’.
Chrissie said of working with Radiohead’s lead guitarist: “I met Jonny a couple of times, and we’re obviously big fans of him because he’s done some incredible music over the years. I saw him at the Phantom Thread premiere where the film was running on screen with a live orchestra playing. And we spoke afterward and he expressed an interest in doing something one day. I was thrilled and very surprised. He also came down to see a Valve Bone Woe show we were doing in the basement of a Pizza Express. So when the idea of getting strings on ‘I Think About You Daily’, he was first choice. Legend!”
Jonny added: “It was a genuine honour to score strings for Chrissie. The arrangement wrote itself because of THAT voice. She’s one of the greatest singers in popular music, and her continuing passion for creation was an inspiring experience from first the email to the last note of the recording.”
The album will be the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Hate for Sale’.
Speaking about the album title, Chrissie said: “I enjoy seeing the various meanings and origins of a word. And I liked the definition: “showing no abatement of intensity”. It’s the life of the artist. You never retire. You become relentless.”
The rock legend has co-written all the tracks with guitarist James Walbourne for the second time consecutively.
The album features The Pretenders Collective, also including Kris Sonne (drums), Chris Hill (double bass), Dave Page (bass) and Carwyn Ellis (keyboards and guitars).
Meanwhile, the band are supporting Guns N’ Roses in the UK and Europe.
Head to thepretenders.com to pre-order the album and see the band’s full tour schedule.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Paramore have cancelled a further three concerts in the US, after postponing their San Francisco show at the last minute.
Hayley Williams and co were forced to pull out of their show at the Chase Center on Saturday night (22.07.23) and reschedule it for August 7, due to illness within the touring party.
And the ‘This Is Why’ hitmakers have now rescheduled their planned concerts in Seattle, Portland and Salt Lake City.
They were due to perform at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on Monday (24.07.23) and will now play that show on August 9.
The Portland show scheduled for Tuesday (25.07.23) will now take place on August 10, and Salt Lake City on July 27 is now set for August 13.
The original statement read: “Due to sickness within the touring party, we will be rescheduling our show tonight at Chase Center in San Francisco to Monday, August 7, 2023.”
The emo pop legends then went on to apologise to all the fans who had queued for hours and travelled far to see them in San Francisco and have now offered refunds to those who cannot make the new dates.
The group wrote: “To everyone affected by these postponements, please know that we do not take postponing a show lightly.
“The last thing we want to do is postpone a show that we’ve all been looking forward to for months. We love you, we are sorry, and we hope to see you soon.”
Meanwhile, Paramore were recently joined by special guest Billie Eilish to perform ‘All I Wanted’.
The Grammy winner joined the band onstage at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on July 19 for the special duet.
Later, Billie, 21, later gushed on Instagram: “i love you so much hayley holy s***. wish i could tell tiny me (sic)”

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OHMYGOSSIP — S Club will pay tribute to Paul Cattermole by releasing their first single in 20 years.
Paul died suddenly of heart issues in April at the age of 46 and his devastated bandmates have decided to release ‘These Are The Days’ in his memory, along with an emotional music video featuring clips of Paul.
The band, now comprised of Rachel Stevens, Jo O’Meara, Bradley McIntosh, Jon Lee and Tina Barrett as Hannah Spearritt left the group after Paul’s death, have reunited with their songwriting team for the new single, which will be released this week.
A source told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “It didn’t look like S Club were ever going to make music again but Paul’s tragic passing has brought them closer than ever. They have bonded in their grief.
“The single has been written by the same team who were behind the majority of their No1s.
“It is a beautiful slice of nostalgia and fans will instantly recognise it as S Club.”
“It sounds like a classic which will slot right in with their old tunes.
“It is about looking back at what an amazing man Paul was and the video was extremely emotional for them all.
“It celebrates his life and the amazing career S Club have had.”
The group announced their 25th anniversary reunion in February and have now renamed it ‘The Good Times Tour’, after one of the tracks on which Paul had lead vocals.
The tour will kick off in October.

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OHMYGOSSIP — S Club’s first single in 20 years is titled ‘These are the Days’.
The group – now comprised of Rachel Stevens, 45, Jo O’Meara, 44, Bradley McIntosh, 41, Jon Lee, 41, and 46-year-old Tina Barrett – confirmed the name of the song in a press release on Monday (24.07.23) after it was reported they were releasing a track in memory of their late bandmate Paul Cattermole.
It was also revealed the song will come with a “moving film story that ends with S Club revealed as the five-piece pop act that they are today”.
The track is written by the band’s original No 1 hit songwriting team of Cathy Dennis, Simon Ellis, Johanne Ellis and producer John Nathaniel.
A release promoting it said: “The track pays tribute to their former friend and beloved S Club member Paul Cattermole with a moving film story that ends with S Club revealed as the five-piece pop act that they are today.”
The single also is set to mark the British group’s 25th anniversary and a sold out 15 date UK arena tour planned for Autumn 2023 which has been renamed ‘S Club: The Good Times Tour’, also in tribute to Paul, as it takes the name of an S Club song and a big fan favourite song on which he sang lead vocals.
S Club is now a five-piece as Paul died from heart issues in April aged 46 and his ex-girlfriend and former bandmate Hannah Spearritt, 46, decided to leave the group before their new tour after speaking of her devastation over Paul’s death.
A source told The Sun about the group’s new single: “It didn’t look like S Club were ever going to make music again but Paul’s tragic passing has brought them closer than ever. They have bonded in their grief.
“It is a beautiful slice of nostalgia and fans will instantly recognise it as S Club.
“It sounds like a classic which will slot right in with their old tunes.
“It is about looking back at what an amazing man Paul was and the video was extremely emotional for them all.
“It celebrates his life and the amazing career S Club have had.”
Formed by Simon Fuller, S Club amassed four UK number one singles with ‘Bring It All Back’, ‘Never Had a Dream Come True’, ‘Don’t Stop Movin’, and ‘Have You Ever’, as well as the UK number one album ‘7’.
They recorded four studio albums, released 11 singles that all entered the top five in the UK charts and sold more than 10 million albums worldwide.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Liam Gallagher called himself Lou Cypher while on tour with Oasis.
The singer, 50, used the alias to check into hotels to throw the band’s groupies and obsessive fans off the scent, his older brother Noel has revealed.
Noel, 56, was quoted in the Daily Star saying about Liam’s devilish pun moniker: “Like, he thought it was funny, right, to call himself Lou Cypher. Like Lucifer. Like, ‘Ohhh!’
“Lucifer! What you? With your f****** hands behind your back, singing out of tune?
“Lucifer? I don’t f****** think so mate. I mean, it’s not even funny.”
Liam and Noel have been widely rumoured to be heading for an Oasis reunion despite the pair’s war over tweets Liam sent about his brother’s family and in the wake of Oasis’ bitter break-up in 2009 after a bust-up in Paris.
Along with Lucifer, Liam has wanted to be known by another name – John Lennon.
Noel told the Britpop documentary ‘Live Forever’ Liam wanted him to call him John after he told him he thought he was the reincarnation of the late Beatles singer.
Liam said in the same film about believing he “is John Lennon”: “I’m pretty happy with myself actually. It’s just life that’s a bit puzzling, but which is good – ‘Who am I? Where am I? Where do I come from? What was I doing? Where I am going?’
“Yeah, I was John Lennon. And now he’s me.”
He added his favourite Oasis track was ‘Live Forever’ as “it’s about living forever, innit”.
Dad-of-four Liam named his son Lennon after his Beatles hero – but John’s widow Yoko Ono, 90, told him it was a “silly” choice.
He told the Daily Mirror: “Yoko said, ‘I’ve heard you’ve called your son Lennon.’
“I said, ‘Yeah’, she said, ‘Why? Do you not think it’s a bit of a silly name?’”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Sir Tom Jones has kept his vow to “keep on singing Delilah”.
The 83-year-old crooner defiantly belted out the song on Friday (21.07.23) at Cardiff Castle in Wales, then again delighted fans with it at Newbury racecourse on Saturday (22.07.23) after he publicly challenged a ban on choirs performing his grisly hit about a woman’s murder.
Addressing fans in Cardiff by questioning the Welsh Rugby Union’s decision to stop playing ‘Delilah’ at Wales matches, he said: “Who was the man who didn’t want us to sing ‘Delilah’?
“He stopped the choir from singing but he didn’t stop the crowd from singing it. And we will keep singing it too.”
He’s also said to have told fans: “You can’t stop us singing ‘Delilah’. Can you imagine?… they may stop the choir from singing it, but they haven’t stopped the crowd. Keep on singing it – and I’ll keep on singing it too.”
The 1968 ballad, written by Barry Mason, was removed from playlists at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff due to its lyrics describing a woman’s murder by her boyfriend after she is caught with another man.
Tom’s defiance has been backed by former Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey, 64, who says it is a “classic murder ballad that goes back to the very foundations of folk music”.
Tom previously defended the song in 2014 amid calls to have it banned from being sung at rugby matches.
He said: “I love to hear it sung at rugby games. It makes me very proud to be Welsh.
“I think if they’re looking into the lyric about a man killing a woman, it’s not a political statement.
“It’s just something that happens in life that (a) woman was unfaithful to him and he just loses it.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Sophie Ellis-Bextor is collaborating on a Christmas ballad about the “importance of belonging”.
The ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ singer, 44, has teamed up with the James Bond theme song team of composer David Arnold and lyricist Don Black to create ‘As Long as I Belong’, which will be the theme song to Channel 4 and Universal Pictures’ much-anticipated adaptation of Judith Kerr’s classic children’s book ‘Mog’s Christmas’, coming out this December.
Sophie, who has five sons with her musician husband Richard Jones, 44, said: “When I told my kids I’d been asked to sing Mog’s song, they couldn’t really believe it because Mog has been part of our world since my eldest was small, and he’s 20 next year! It feels really special.”
David Arnold added: “I’d have been really annoyed if they’d have asked someone else – it takes you back to the days when you were reading the book to your kids, so it’s a lovely thing to be asked to do.”
Don Black said: “We both had such a great time doing ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ that it was an easy decision to come back for ‘Mog’ – it’s a dream project for a lyricist.”
A press release announcing the track said: “The beautiful ballad, which is about the importance of belonging, will play over a specially animated segment of the hand-drawn animated special and illustrates Mog’s dream as she falls asleep on a snowy rooftop on Christmas Eve.”
David has scored five James Bond films and countless film and television shows, including ‘Sherlock’, while Don has also provided lyrics for five James Bond films as well as a string of hits including ‘Born Free’ which won the best original song Oscar in 1966.
Channel 4’s drama commissioning editor Gwawr Lloyd said: “We are delighted to see David and Don collaborate again on a song for a Channel 4 animation, and this time joined by the fabulous and popular Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
“The song is beautiful and super catchy too! It will transport us all into the wonderful world of Mog for sure.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Steve Aoki is set to play his first UK show in four years.
The two-time Grammy nominee, 45, will host a “day party” at Ministry Of Sound, London, on Saturday 16 September, after last playing a show in Britain in 2019 when he staged his ‘Neon Future’ headline tour that included a sold-out Brixton Academy show.
A press release announcing the upcoming Ministry gig said: “The newly announced day party will offer part-goers nine hours of uncompromising energy, under the roof of London’s iconic Ministry Of Sound.”
With almost three billion music streams to his name, Steve has been described by Billboard as “one of the most in-demand entertainers in the world”.
A Guinness World Record holder for the ‘Most Traveled Musician in a Single Calendar Year’, he has performed at nearly every top festival around the world, including Coachella, Ultra Music Festival, Lollapalooza, Fuji Rock Festival, Tomorrowland and Electric Daisy Carnival.
In 2022, Steve also graced the covers of Entrepreneur Magazine, Electronic Musician, and Adweek as their ‘Visionary of the Year’.
His influential record label Dim Mak, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2021, is known for being a launching pad for the careers of prominent acts including Bloc Party, The Chainsmokers, Bloody Beetroots, The Kills, Zedd and Diplo.
Most recently, Aoki created the A0K1VERSE, an NFT membership community that welcomes his fans to virtual and real-world experiences.
Steve is also executive producer for ‘American Hiro’, a series in development with FX Networks directed by Jon M Chu, chronicling the life of his dad Hiroaki ‘Rocky’ Aoki, the entrepreneur and daredevil businessman who created the Benihana empire.
For a full list of Steve Aoki’s summer dates, see steveaoki.com.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Mimi Webb celebrated her birthday with a surprise set on Barclaycard’s Amp Stage at Latitude Festival on Sunday (23.07.23).
The ‘Before I Go’ hitmaker turned 23 over the weekend and after treating fans to an intimate secret performance of tracks including ‘Good Without’, ‘House on Fire’ and an acoustic version of ‘Red Flags’, the crowd showed their love for the pop star with a ‘Happy Birthday’ serenade.
Earlier in the day, Sophie Ellis-Bextor had also made a surprise appearance on the stage.
She treated the lucky fans assembled for her set to her brand-new single ‘Lost In The Sunshine’, dancefloor favourites ‘Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)’ and ‘Murder on the Dance Floor’, as well as her cover of ‘Crying at the Discotheque’.
Sophie declared during her show: “LatituDE HAS MY HEART.”
On Saturday (22.07.23), indie favourites The Lightning Seeds played a brief set of their classic hits including ‘Pure’, ‘Lucky You’ and ‘Life of Riley’, with frontman Ian Broudie imploring the rain to stay away – but all to no avail as when they played to a wider crowd on the Obelisk Stage just two hours later, the heavens had well and truly opened.
Barclaycard’s Amp Stage hosted a number of secret sets throughout the weekend at the festival, with the likes of rising stars The Big Moon and Rachel Chinouriri, and comics Ed Gamble and James Acaster offering intimate performances for the fans who had cracked the clues shared online and on the festival app.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Switch Disco are choosing chart toppers over their love lives.
The production duo – whose Ella Henderson collaboration ‘React’ has spent 10 weeks in the top 10, having peaked in the number for spot – have no time for romance after members Dan Creasy and Nikos Kalogerias have poured all their efforts into their art.
Dan told the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column: “It is very difficult to build a proper solid relationship at the moment as we are just not around, we not in the same place for a long time.
“Apart from our family and friends, we are prioritising work over everything.
“At the drop of the hat we will fly somewhere, or if a studio session gets booked last minute we have to do it.”
It means the pair have to make tough decisions, because they wouldn’t want to put any potential partners in difficult positions.
Dan added: “No matter how understanding that person may be, consistently letting someone down isn’t something we want to do.”
His fellow DJ Nikos agreed, and he admitted he’s been actively avoiding getting involved with anyone.
He said: “I would feel guilty if I can’t commit the time to someone so I am actually avoiding catching feelings for someone and I am doing very well.”
Thankfully, the duo – who are looking to drop another single “before the summer’s finished” – still have each other, describing their bond as a “proper relationship”.
Dan explained: “We can both be very stubborn but we never leave an argument, we always sort it out.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Slash says his collaborations with Michael Jackson “probably would’ve never happened” if he had been pushed into “conforming” into a certain style.
The 58-year-old musician collaborated with the late King of Pop – who died in 2009 aged 50 – on songs such as ‘D.S.’, ‘Morphine’ and ‘Give Into Me’, and Slash loved working with the “phenomenal talent”.
He told ComingSoon.net: “It evolved into a lot of live performances and stuff during that period in the 90s.
“I guess he sort of related to what he thought my trip was all about and just let me do my thing.
“So it was great for me because I loved working with Michael because he’s such a phenomenal talent, and I would’ve been probably not into it if he tried to get me to conform to some other person or style or whatever, and it probably would’ve never have happened.”
Slash told how the ‘Thriller’ hitmaker was happy to let him do his “thing” on song ‘Give in to Me’, which appeared on Michael’s 1991 album ‘Dangerous’.
He added: “Mike just does his thing and he does it so incredibly well.
“I mean, he just exudes … it just comes out of him and he just let me do my thing. So I just did what came natural to me and he just let me have the floor – that was basically it.
“There wasn’t, again, a lot of forethought. When I did ‘Give in to Me’ I went down to the studio [and] met up with Michael for like 15 minutes.
“He went to dinner, and I worked with the producer, and I just put guitars on the thing and left.
“Then Michael heard it, and I got a call back the next day. ‘Loves it. It’s great.’
“So it wasn’t what you’d call ‘true’ collaborating, it was just like, ‘Slash do your thing on this.’ [Laughs]. That kind of deal.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Sophie Ellis Bextor delighted her children with her new single.
The 44-year-old pop star is married to Richard Jones and has Sonny, 19, Kit, 16, Ray, nine, Jesse, seven, and four-year-old Mickey Jones with him and admitted it felt “really special” to record ‘As Long As I Belong’ – which will serve as the theme song for Channel 4 and Universal Pictures’ adaptation of Judith Kerr’s children’s book, ‘Mog’s Christmas’ later this year – because the feline character has been a part of their lives for so long.
She said: “When I told my kids I’d been asked to sing Mog’s song, they couldn’t really believe it because Mog has been part of our world since my eldest was small, and he’s 20 next year. It feels really special.”
The ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ hitmaker has teamed up with lyricist Don Black – who is noted for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber – and composer David Arnold for the project, who claimed he would have been “annoyed” if anyone else had been chosen to work on the track.
He said: “I’d have been really annoyed if they’d have asked someone else – it takes you back to the days when you were reading the book to your kids, so it’s a lovely thing to be asked to do!”
Don – who has worked on the likes of ‘Tel Me on a Sunday’ and ‘Starlight Express’ – described the new track as a “dream project” for someone such as himself, especially after working on the adaptation of Judith Kerr’s famous picture book.
He said: “We both had such a great time doing ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ that it was an easy decision to come back for ‘Mog’ – it’s a dream project for a lyricist!”
‘As Long As I Belong’ will debut in December along with the film.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Bethany Cosentino felt as if she was “put in a box” during her days with Best Coast.
The 36-year-old singer shot to fame alongside Bobb Bruno as part of the rock duo in 2009 but after recently deciding to go on hiatus explained that during the early days of her fame, she found people could be “horrible” to her and felt “reduced” to being a “dumb baby.”
She told NME: “With Best Coast, I was put in a box by the public. In the beginning of my career, I was widely accepted by critics and the public, but people were also so horrible. I was reduced to these tropes of lazy, crazy, baby: she’s dumb, she doesn’t know how to write a song, she can barely play guitar.”
The ‘Summer Mood’ hitmaker went on to add that she eventually acquiesced when it came to accepting other people’s opinions but now that she is recording under her own name and has released tracks as part of her solo country-pop album’Natural Disaster’, explained that she “doesn’t care” about the past anymore and is just going to say whatever she wants to.
She added: “I said, ‘OK, you guys say that I’m the California stoner, the slacker princess? Fine, that’s who I am and I’m going to continue to explore that persona against different sonic backgrounds or more produced records. I didn’t feel like I could get out of the realm of ‘life is hard, I’m obsessively codependent with my partners, I have really bad anxiety, I can’t sleep, blah blah blah. I don’t care anymore.
“I’m just gonna say what I want to say. I made this record when I was 35 and it comes out when I’m 36, which in industry terms is probably like 90-years-old!”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Blur are open to more “interesting” concert opportunities after playing two sold-out nights at London’s Wembley Stadium, vowing never to “walk away” from the band.
The reunited Britpop legends – who headlined Glastonbury in 1998 and 2009 – would have to be excited enough by any gig offers, with bassist Alex James, 54, quipping that keeping frontman Damon Albarn, 55, “interested is absolutely vital”.
Asked about future live shows, drummer Dave Rowntree, 59, told The Sun newspaper: “I don’t feel as if we’ve drawn a line under anything.
But it took Wembley to tempt us because all the other projects we’ve been slaving over had to go on hold.
“We couldn’t say no to Hyde Park in 2009 or to headlining the Olympics party there in 2012.
“If we get another interesting opportunity, I imagine we’ll jump on that too.”
The ‘Song 2’ band hadn’t toured together since their 2015 run in support of their comeback LP, ‘The Magic Whip’, though reunited Damon got onstage with his Dave, Alex, and lead guitarist Graham Coxon, 54, at his Africa Express show in his hometown of Leytonstone in 2019.
Today (21.07.23), the band released their first album in eight years, ‘The Ballad of Darren’, and the ‘Parklife’ hitmakers have no plans to retire anytime soon.
Alex added: “We all realise that it’s something that none of us can ever walk away from. Why would we want to? It is very emotional for us.”
He then quipped: “Keeping Albarn interested is absolutely vital.
“The minute he loses interest, he’ll be off to write another f****** opera!”

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OHMYGOSSIP — A$AP Rocky wanted to “cause some excitement” with his “modern-day punk” track, ‘Riot (Rowdy Pipe’n)’.
The hip-hop megastar – who has teamed up with Beats Studio Pro, the next generation of Beats’ iconic over-ear headphones, to launch his new single, which he produced with Pharrell Williams – said the intention behind the new tune from his hotly anticipated album is to get people to “rage at shows again”.
He told Bazaar.com: “The message of the song is just modern-day punk. Punk is an attitude, not just a genre, and we wanted to cause some excitement.
“We want to encourage people to rage at shows again. The purpose of music is that it’s another extension of emotions. When you hear it, it should make you sad. It should make you happy. It should be nostalgic and make you recollect and go down memory lane. This thing right here has that rebellious spirit, and that’s what I deliberately wanted to do – just create a song that embodied all of those things.”
In the promo clip, ‘Iconic Sound’, Rocky – who has 14-month-old RZA with R’n’B and is set to become a father again – seen going about his day, including buying nappies and running out of the shop as photographers chase him down the street.
He’s then seen relaxing listening to tunes with his Beats headphones on.
In a statement, Rocky said: “I’ve been a fan of Beats since the beginning, so this has been a full-circle experience.
“I had a vision in mind for this project, and they provided the space for me to zone in and fully express my creativity.”
Beats Studio Pro is now available at the Apple Store and apple.com/UK for £349.99 in the UK. It comes in four premium colours: Black, Deep Brown, Navy, and Sandstone.

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