OHMYGOSSIP — Slash has no recollection of his early concerts due to being addled by alcohol.
The Guns N’ Roses axe-slayer, 58, formed the blues cover group Slash’s Blues Ball in 1996 with Teddy “Big Bag Zig Zag” Andreadis, Johnny Griparic, Alvino Bennet, Bobby Schneck and Dave McLaurin.
And although the blues gigs were inspiring for him, he was too drunk to remember anything that went down.
He told PEOPLE: “It was such a drunken kind of thing, and it was just for the fun of it.
“I do not recall any of those gigs.”
He added: “When I first met them, a couple of the guys, they were playing in a band called The Screaming Cocktail Hour, which was a great blues band that used to play at the local Rogie’s and Baked Potato and Cozy’s and all these small little blues dives around L.A. And I would go and hang out with them and get there 10 or 11pm and jam until two o’clock in the morning.”
“I got a couple of other guys.
“And so we started doing the same circuit, but then that turned into an actual tour, and we did it on and off for a couple of years, even managed to make it to Europe.”
Their setlists would go on to inspire Slash’s recent blues project, ‘Orgy of the Damned’.
Slash will be embarking on the touring ‘S.E.R.P.E.N.T Festival’ tour this July, which will see him joined by special guests Warren Haynes Band, Keb’ ‘Mo, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Robert Randolph, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, ZZ Ward, Jackie Venson, and Larkin Poe.
Comparing his new jaunt to his formative years, he said: “I can’t remember that much about the Blues Ball, but [S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival] is not the same as just a drunken club band that was just touring around for beer.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Razorlight are set to play a one-off UK show to mark the 20th anniversary of their debut album ‘Up All Night’.
On November 21, Johnny Borrell and co will perform the record – which spawned the singles ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Lies’, ‘Rip It Up’, ‘Stumble and Fall’, ‘Golden Touch’, ‘Vice’ and ‘Somewhere Else’ – in its entirety along with old and new songs at London’s O2 Academy Brixton.
The ‘America’ group recently released a deluxe edition of the LP to mark the milestone, boasting 17 additional B-sides, some of which had never been on streaming platforms.
What’s more, a mini documentary entitled ‘The Making Of Up All Night’ is on the way, with “frank interviews with people who worked on the record or were around the band in 2003/4, allowing for the first time real insight into the circumstances of one of the decade’s defining records, as reviews at the time testified.”
Frontman Johnny, 44, reflected on the hate the group received at the time and bragged that they can still “rock f****** hard”.
He said: “I’ve been looking back on that time because of getting involved with the documentary, etc and yeah, it was a wild, messy, unpredictable, f*** or be f*****, leave everything out there kind of record. Even people in indie clubs who say they hate me always say, ‘Well your first album was really good’ Maybe they’ll drop the hate but keep listening. We’re still in great shape and we still rock f****** hard so it should be a great show.”
The group are also working on brand new music, their first since their 2018 LP ‘Olympus Sleeping’.
Razorlight’s original lineup, including Björn Ågren and Carl Dalemo, reunited in 2021 after a decade apart, and they are joined by Andy Burrows and Reni Lane.
Tickets go on sale on Friday (05.07.24) at 10am via https://www.razorlightofficial.com.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Deep Purple have shared their new single ‘Lazy Sod’ – inspired by a journalist who called frontman Ian Gillan just that.
The 78-year-old rocker agreed with the reporter because he has penned way less music than country music legend Dolly Parton, who is the same age as him.
Ian told ROCKS magazine: “Recently, a young journalist asked me how many songs I had written in my life. I replied that the last time my assistant counted, twenty years ago, it was over 500. I felt quite accomplished until she pointed out Dolly Parton’s 5,000 songs, calling me a lazy sod. I couldn’t help but agree and wrote down the exchange in my notebook.”
The track is the latest from the group’s upcoming studio album, ‘=1’, and follows the singles ‘Portable Door’ and ‘Pictures of You’.
The seminal band – best known for rock staples ‘Hush’, ‘Black Night’, ‘Speed King’, ‘Fireball’ and ‘Smoke On The Water’ – released their 22nd studio album, ‘Turning to Crime’, in 2021, composed entirely of covers, it marked the last record to feature guitarist Steve Morse before he left the band in July 2022; Simon McBride takes his place on the new record.
A press release notes how the new LP showcases the “essence and attitude of their 1970s incarnation possibly more than any other album in recent memory.”
The group – completed by bassist Roger Glover, keyboardist Don Airey and drummer Ian Paice – once again worked with studio wizard Bob Ezrin to continue evolving their classic sound.
As for the theme, the document teased: “The enigmatic title ‘=1’ symbolises the idea that in a world growing ever more complex, everything eventually simplifies down to a single, unified essence. Everything equals one.”
The band shared mysterious equations and depictions of multiverses in London, Paris, and Berlin to tease the record, which arrives on July 19.
The legendary rock band will also bring their ‘= 1 MORE TIME TOUR’ to Birmingham, London, Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, with support from indie rockers Reef, this November.
Pre-order the album now via https://deeppurple.lnk.to/equals1.

The ‘=1’ tracklisting:
1. ‘Show Me’
2. ‘A Bit On The Side’
3. ‘Sharp Shooter’
4. ‘Portable Door’
5. ‘Old-Fangled Thing’
6. ‘If I Were You’
7. ‘Pictures Of You’
8. ‘I’m Saying Nothin’’
9. ‘Lazy Sod’
10. ‘Now You’re Talkin’’
11. ‘No Money To Burn’
12. ‘I’ll Catch You’
13. ‘Bleeding Obvious’

(c) Jim Rakete

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OHMYGOSSIP — Camila Cabello didn’t want to play another festival again after experiencing a “difficult” crowd at the Isle of Wight festival.
The former Fifth Harmony member fell out of love with festivals but was “pleasantly surprised” by the reaction to her set at Glastonbury last weekend.
She told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “It was a huge crowd.
“I am always a little nervous before festivals generally because it’s not necessarily people there who are ­coming to see just you. I always expect the worst, but I was so pleasantly surprised.
“People were being so warm and engaging.
“It was hot, so I could completely understand it if everyone was cranky and had had their arms crossed.
“I’ve actually played some festivals that were like that. I remember Isle of Wight was difficult.”
“I remember being like, ‘Festivals are hard. I don’t want to do festivals anymore’.”
The ‘Havana’ hitmaker found her Glasto experience “very intense” and didn’t have the energy to check out the rest of the festival as she had only landed on UK soil at 6am that morning.
She said of Worthy Farm: “It’s very intense. It smells like a farm. There were a lot of tents.
“We actually had a crazy experience where we were in Denmark the night before and landed at six in the morning, that morning.
“I wish I could have stayed there, but I would have literally passed out. I was exhausted.”
The 27-year-old star recently attended a special album party for her latest effort, ‘C,XOXO’, put on by BACARDÍ Rum, at The Box nightclub in London, where she spilled that she felt like she was having a “nervous breakdown once a month” making the follow-up to 2022’s ‘Familia’.
She said: “With any project, there’s just waves where everything is amazing and three days where it’s like, ‘Wow, I just wrote this song in 30 minutes, and I wrote this song in three hours and it’s so easy.’
“Then the next week, you’re like, ‘I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to put words together. I think that was it’.
“There were waves of crippling s*** where I thought that might be my last good day.
“I think I had a nervous breakdown probably, like, once a month.”

(c) Dave Bennett – Getty for BACARDÍ Rum

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OHMYGOSSIP — Niall Horan was forced to walk to his concert for the first time.
The former One Direction star performed at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena at the weekend, but due to manic traffic, he abandoned his mode of transport and walked the streets to get to the venue.
In a TikTok video soundtracked by Proclaimers’ ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’, he said: “Traffic too crazy in Toronto, so I’m walking to the venue.
“In all my years of playing shows, I don’t think I’ve ever walked into a venue.”
Upon their arrival, he added: “We’ve made it!”
The 30-year-old pop star likely found it quite refreshing walking the streets without getting stopped by fans.
The ‘Slow Hands’ hitmaker previously shared how he was terrified to leave the house over the “shock” of One Direction’s intense fame.
He told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “There were periods where you’d go out and you wouldn’t get five yards outside the door.
“I remember one time I stupidly went to Westfield (shopping mall), in West London, and honestly, swear to God, I was like, ‘I’m going to die in here. I’m never getting out’. It was the fear of that which kept me in.
“I probably became a bit of a recluse in 2012, 2013, 2014 . . . It was probably all in my head but I became a recluse because of the thought of going out, when I probably could have.
“There is a side of it where you’ve just come from zero to hero, the shock of it. It’s a shock to the system and you’re trying to live a normal life.”
The ‘Heaven’ singer has not performed with his bandmates since they went on hiatus in 2015, and even though he has pursued a successful career as a solo artist, he admitted that these days he can go about his life without anyone bothering him.
He added: “Now I live the most normal life I could possibly live. I can go to the shops and buy my own dinner and just general stuff. There was a period where if someone said, ‘Do you want to grab a coffee?’ or ‘Do you want to go for lunch?’ I’d have said absolutely not.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Sugababes thought someone “famous” had turned up when extra security staff were called to their comeback set at Glastonbury in 2022 – but it was for them.
The girl group – comprising Siobhan Donaghy, 40, Mutya Buena, 39, and Keisha Buchanan, also 39 – are returning to Worthy Farm on Friday (28.06.24) to play the West Holts Stage after going down a treat two years ago, but they’ve revealed they didn’t expect anyone to turn up when they played the smaller Field of Avalon stage.
Siobhan told the BBC: “I remember quite vividly that Mutya, in particular, didn’t think anyone would come to see us.”
So many turned up to hear noughties classics, including ‘Push The Button’, ‘Overload’ and ‘Too Lost In You’, that police had to guard the area.
She remembered: “All this extra security arrived, and we got a safety briefing moments before going on stage.”
Keisha laughed: “We thought someone famous had turned up.”
Siobhan admitted: “I’m pretty sure I came off stage in shock.”
Mutya added: “Every performance is special – but filling up that tent felt really impressive.
“Obviously everyone wants to be on the main stage, but I thought Avalon was amazing.”
Keisha recalled how when the Sugababes played the Pyramid Stage in 2003, with former band member Heidi Range, 41, (Siobhan left in 2001 before the 2011 reunion), they feared being bottled because it was a wildcard booking at the time, as girl groups playing was unheard of.
She remembered: “We were one of the first, if not the first, female pop band to play the main stage.
“It was very controversial at the time. I remember having conversations about what to do if anyone threw a bottle of pee at us.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Coldplay very nearly missed their debut performance at Glastonbury in 1999.
Chris Martin, 47, has revealed he and his bandmates – Jonny Buckland, 46, Guy Berryman, also 46, and Will Champion, 45 – had to leg it across fields with their amp in tow and made it to the New Bands Tent, on Worthy Farm, Somerset, within seconds of their stage time.
Speaking on the BBC documentary ‘Coldplay: Our Glastonbury’ as they prepare to headline the Pyramid Stage for a record fifth time on Saturday (29.06.24), he recalled: “The hunger to go there was so huge. Our first introduction, I think, was probably carrying a not-very-good amplifier with a drunken tour manager who, you know, obviously didn’t know what he was doing either.
“So we sort of had a very quick intake of the whole place, and then started where you should start, which is in the New Bands Tent, first on. I don’t think I thought about the wider, how wild it was. It was just like we were here and we’re late and it’s huge.”
They previously headlined the Pyramid Stage in 2002, 2005, 2011 and 2016.
The ‘Viva La Vida’ singer – who has two children with 51-year-old actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Apple, 20, and Moses, 18– has a spiritual connection to Glastonbury itself that goes beyond the festival.
The ‘Yellow’ singer – who hails from Exeter, Devon, on the border of Somerset – said: “Even when I go there when there’s no festival, it still seems to be like a centring place for what we stand for.
“Maybe that’s because of the land and that’s where I grew up around. That’s the idea of this Pyramid that’s also really connected to the earth. It’s the meeting of these two worlds which I love. Sometimes I go and climb the Pyramid and sit up there to think. Often if we’re going to play that summer, it’s sort of a very true place, as a frontman I can feel what is right and wrong, at least for us.”
Chris – who is in a relationship with ‘Fifty Shades’ star Dakota Johnson, 34 – loves how diverse the lineups are.
He continued: “There’s just a feeling of the land being magical. The vibe being magical. There’s something for everybody.
“That’s what I really liked about it. There isn’t just one headliner. If you don’t like our band that is totally fine. There’s 57 other things to do. If you want to see us, you’re here. And if you want to be in jazz world, you’re in jazz world or in the stand-up tent or dance tent. It contains so many things in such an eclectic way. And it’s all gathered in one circle.”
Chris described Glastonbury as the “natural home” for his band.
He added: “The spirit of the festival is so intertwined with how we are as a band that I wouldn’t know how to separate them out. It’s like, yeah, that’s the kind of place we’d like to be able to play. It always felt like the natural home and only become more so.”
‘Coldplay: Our Glastonbury’ is available on BBC iPlayer now.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Dua Lipa has always aspired to headline Glastonbury.
The 28-year-old popstar will take to the main stage at the legendary music festival in Somerset, England, over the weekend and Max Lousada, CEO of Recorded Music for Warner Music Group, revealed Dua has been talking about Glastonbury since they first signed her.
He told Variety: “This was always one of her big aspirations. From the moment we signed her, she was like, ‘I want to headline Glastonbury’, so I’m thrilled for that dream to come true. She’s become a really dynamic and incredible performer. That has taken work and real dedication that showed on the last cycle, when she became an arena act, and now she starts to progress from an arena to a stadium act. This show is going to have some incredible surprises and some unexpected moments – she’s just going to bring the party.
“What I love about Dua as a performer is, her videos are strong, her songs sound great on radio but, live, you can really hear her voice – she has such resonance in her vocals. I’m really looking forward to seeing her play to an audience that hasn’t seen that. The great thing about festivals is, you’re playing to audiences you haven’t necessarily played to before. For Dua, this is going to be a step change and a key moment in her career.”
And, Max is thrilled with the success of Dua’s third album ‘Radical Optimism’.
He said: “She had her biggest week one in North America, ‘Houdini’ is already over a billion streams, and this is going to be a long campaign. We had a different dynamic going into this campaign, because we were coming off ‘Dance the Night’ from ‘Barbie’.
“The whole ‘Barbie’ moment was just so much bigger than we anticipated. Normally, you build an element of space and we came off this huge franchise into the record. But it’s great that the album’s out and we see Glastonbury as a driver for the next bit of her campaign. She’ll smash it, because she’s got a catalogue of wonderful records.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Geezer Butler was a surprise guest as the Foo Fighters performed the final UK show of their ‘Everything Or Nothing At All Tour’.
The ‘Monkey Wrench’ hitmakers performed at Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham – the home of Premier League football team Aston Villa, who Geezer is a huge fan of – on Thursday night (27.06.24) to see out the last leg of their UK run of gigs, and the Black Sabbath bassist joined the rockers for a special performance.
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl teased fans about a special guest “who grew up three streets away from here”, and he told the crowd the mystery star had “never played” at the football stadium of his beloved Villa.
He then said: “Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath is going to come out!”
The Foos and Geezer launched into a version of Black Sabbath hit ‘Paranoid’, which saw Dave perform Ozzy Osbourne’s vocals.
Geezer didn’t interact with the crowd, preferring to let his bass do the talking.
Earlier in the show, Dave praised Birmingham as the “most beautiful city” in England after a rainbow broke out over Villa Park.
He said: “What is this, Hawaii? Birmingham is the most beautiful city in this entire country!
“I feel like I’m on vacation.”
Earlier this week, Foo Fighters performed at West Ham United’s London Stadium, and 55-year-old frontman Dave ended the rock group’s pair of gigs there by throwing open the doors to his very own Duke of York boozer inside the dressing rooms.
The Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney, 82, and U2 frontman Bono, 64, were all invited.
A source told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “Dave knows how to party and loves a drink-up. He opened his own pub for his VIPs – and they stayed up until 6am going at it.
“They drank the bar dry after their last show and it was light by the time everyone started getting cars home.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Megan Thee Stallion has dropped her new album, ‘MEGAN’, after a huge fiasco with an anime sample on the track ‘Otaku Hot Girl’.
The 29-year-old rap superstar asked for approval from the production company of an anime show, which she sampled, but was forced to remove any mention of the show or its characters to keep it.
Addressing the saga on Instagram Live this week, she said: “I’m not talking bad because I’m very grateful.
“Y’all know how I told y’all I got an anime sample on my album? This has probably been the hardest song to try to have on my album — but like I said I’m not complaining ’cause I’m grateful.”
She continued: “Last night, we get an email. They said, ‘Actually I need you to take out the names of the characters that’s in the show.’ That is the whole song. That makes the song make sense.
“They said, You could either do this — you could have the music clearance, or you can have the name clearance.’ The music is what’s really important to me, but the names really tied it all together.”
On the mammoth task of getting the song changed as the release date was fast-approaching, she said: “I really hope y’all think this s*** sound fire, ’cause I had to jump through eight million hoops to get this s*** Once y’all hear the sample, y’all are gonna know why they was giving us a hard time. “This is a very big production company so for them to even say yes — and I be cussing and s*** — like I said, I’m grateful. I’m not complaining. I really wanted this sample. I really wanted to do it, so I’m doing everything I got to do to keep it. But change the names? Change the names the day before the album out? That was nuts.”
‘MEGAN’ features a host of special guests, including Victoria Monet, Kyle Richh, GloRilla and UGK.
It boasts the trio of previously released snake-themed singles, ‘Cobra’, ‘Hiss’ and ‘Boa’.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Country music star and satirist Kinky Friedman has died aged 79.
The Chicago native passed away after enduring “tremendous pain” on June 26, 2024, at his home at Echo Hill Ranch, Medina, Bandera County, Texas, from complications of Parkinson’s disease.
A statement on his social media pages read: “Kinky Friedman stepped on a rainbow at his beloved Echo Hill surrounded by family and friends. Kinkster endured tremendous pain and unthinkable loss in recent years, but he never lost his fighting spirit and quick wit. Kinky will live on as his books are read and his songs are sung.”
Kinky – who was affectionately known as Kinkster and Kinky but born Richard Samet Friedman – was known for satirising politics with his band King Friedman and The Texas Jewboys, who formed in 1973, and they weren’t afraid to tackle some taboo topics of the time and ruffle feathers; even causing fights to break out at their concerts.
Kinky also toured with his good friend, Bob Dylan, 83, between 1975 and 1976.
In 1983, he broke away from music to become a novelist and was also a humourist, a politician, and satirical columnist for Texas Monthly.
He was friends with former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and he penned a column entry about his visits to the White House in a November 2001 column for the publication, ‘Hail to the Kinkster’.
He penned many detective novels based on a character called Kinky Friedman and was inspired by Sherlock Holmes
After a while, he returned to music and his final album was 2018’s ‘Circus Of Life’.
Kinky was partial to a cigar and even had his own line, Kinky Friedman Cigars.
He also made cameos in 1978 comedy ‘Loose Shoes’ and the 1986 horror classic ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2’, in which he played Sports Anchorman.
His close friend, author Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman, has led the tributes.
He penned on X: “I lost my best friend and the world lost a giant today. Kinky Friedman was the sweetest, most generous, and compassionate person I’d ever met. May his memory be a blessing.”
Country star Margo Price, 41, commented: “We’ll miss ya Kinky.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Calvin Harris is rumoured to be joining headliner Dua Lipa at Glastonbury tonight (28.06.24).
The superstar DJ, 40, is staying at the luxury celebrity haunt of Babington House, which is just down the road from Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, and it’s claimed he’s hiding out there before potentially heading to the site in style, via a chopper, to join his ‘One Kiss’ collaborator, 28, on the Pyramid Stage.
A source told The Sun: “It seems Calvin is going to be coming out with Dua as one of her surprise guests tonight.
“He is staying at Babington House, a really lovely hotel where loads of celebrities stay before they come to Glastonbury.
“It is likely he will be flying in later on a helicopter before coming out to join her on stage for One Kiss.
“Dua has a huge amount of respect for Calvin and that track is one of her best hits.”
The ‘Dance The Night’ hitmaker is also rumoured to have invited ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ hitmaker Cyndi Lauper, 71, to join her for a duet, as she is also playing on Saturday.
A source previously told The Sun’s Bizarre column of the invitation: “Dua is raring to go for Glastonbury and she can’t wait for people to hear her new music.
“She knows the record will strike a chord with her fans but for the old school musos at the Farm, she wants a touch of nostalgia.
“Kevin Parker from Tame Impala, who worked on Radical Optimism [her latest album] with Dua is another.
“She wants this set to go down in history.”
It was recently claimed the ‘Houdini’ singer is planning a spectacular moving stage set.
A source told the outlet: “Dua is the most pop focused headliner Glastonbury have had in years and she is pulling out all the stops to impress.
“She knows how to put on a big show, and she is planning to bring all of that to Worthy Farm.
“Dua will have a dance troupe on stage and will be performing some seriously tricky choreography.
“She is taking some inspiration from Kylie Minogue and will have moving platforms on the stage like Kylie did during her headline slot in 2019.”
Dua herself has admitted she has spent a lot of time thinking about her performance.
Speaking to the BBC, Dua shared: “I think about it all the time.
“50 per cent of my thoughts go to Glastonbury, then the rest are for everyday tasks.”
Coldplay will headline for the fifth time on Saturday (29.06.24) and SZA will close out the weekend on Sunday (30.06.24).
Ahead of the latter’s headlining slot, Shania Twain will play the Sunday afternoon legends slot.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Cyndi Lauper will be trying to banish her “stage fright” ahead of her Pyramid Stage set at Glastonbury this weekend.
The ‘True Colors’ hitmaker, who is bowing out with the ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour’, will head to Worthy Farm on Saturday (29.06.24) to rock the main stage, but admitted she was previously so nervous to perform in front of the masses at the Berlin Wall, that she burst into tears.
The world-famous festival in Somerset, south west England, will welcome a whopping 210,000 revellers over the weekend, so no pressure, Mrs. Lauper.
Speaking on BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball Breakfast Show, she said: “Should I have stage fright?
“When I did the wall in Berlin in 1990, I started crying because that was really big, I mean really, really big, and I had to tell myself: ‘I was professional and I could do this,’ I did.”
Elsewhere, the 71-year-old icon recalled her chance encounter with Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney, 82, who became the oldest solo act to headline Glasto in 2022, aged 80 – at the dentist of all places.
She shared: “I was standing there, and all of a sudden, I turned around and there he is.
“I didn’t know what to say, so I say: ‘Oh, your teeth look good.’ You know, what (are) you going to say at the dentist? And he was like: ‘Oh, hug,’ so I was like, ‘OK.’ But he seems like a very nice person.”
The musician will bring her last-ever jaunt to UK and Europe in February.
Her first major tour in a decade comes to North America in October and December.
News of her last tour comes after she signed a deal with Swedish virtual avatar company Pophouse Entertainment Group, which is behind the ‘ABBA Voyage’ arena show.
The firm – which was founded by ABBA singer Bjorn Ulvaeus – now owns the majority share of Cyndi’s master recording revenue and publishing.
The company will pursue “creative activations” of her catalogue, including tracks like ‘True Colors’ and ‘Time After Time’, with live shows, TV plans and other projects.
Announcing the deal earlier this year, the pop star said: “Since we first met, Pophouse has impressed me with their commitment to maintaining and developing my professional life’s work and ensuring its legacy.
“Their creativity and vision, combined with my continued involvement via our unique joint venture, is what is most exciting to me.
“I can’t wait to participate in this new stage in my musical evolution and I could not be more pleased to know my music will now be in Pophouse’s safe hands as they build upon my legacy in the years to come.”
And in a video discussing the deal, she told Bjorn she was inspired by the work of the ‘Dancing Queen’ group.
She added: “When I saw the ABBA Voyage, I started to think about what could be done, and then I got excited. I’m not selling, I’m buying.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — The late great Johnny Cash’s former bandmate, Marty Stuart, says the country hero could “cough better than most people could sing”.
Today (28.06.24), the “lost” album ‘Songwriter’ has been posthumously released after being reworked by his son, John Carter Cash.
The 11 songs, which were recorded as demos in 1993, have been stripped back to just Cash’s signature bass-baritone voice and acoustic guitar by his and the late June Carter Cash’s 54-year-old offspring.
And Marty, who played guitar for Cash and was very close to him, has recalled how the ‘I Walk The Line’ hitmaker only had to cough and his “character” would shine through.
In a feature on the album for The Sun newspaper, Marty said: “Johnny Cash could cough better than most people could sing — even his cough had character to it.”
Marty spent many memorable days with Cash, who died in 2003, aged 71, and had recorded the tracks at LSI Studios in Nashville a decade prior to his passing, and learned a lot from him.
He said: “Whether he was conducting an interview or doing a press conference or acting in a movie, I went everywhere with him.
“He was my best friend and I watched everything. For me, the real classroom was behind the scenes.”
His son says his dad always took his notebooks with him to jot down any ideas he got for lyrics, and he has kept them all.
John said: “He lived his life and then the music would come.”
When he penned the songs, Cash had no plans to release an album as he faced personal issues such as a broken jaw and had battled addiction.
His son explained: “He wasn’t looking to release a record.
“He was more focused on his personal life at this time.
“His jaw had been broken during dental surgery and he’d gone back into recovery.”
The demo tapes were abandoned when Cash decided to record ‘American Recordings’ with super-producer and longtime collaborator Rick Rubin, however, the re-recordings of ‘Drive On’ and ‘Like A Soldier’ were used on that record.
Cash and Rubin’s recording engineer, David R. Ferguson, joined forces with John to select musicians who previously worked with the late country legend to appear on the record.
Among the players are Marty, late bassist Dave Roe – who passed away last year aged 71 – and drummer Pete Abbott.
Among the collection is the poignant number ‘I Love You Tonite’, in honour of his wife, whilst ‘Like A Soldier’ chronicles his addiction battle.
John took a while to decide whether it was the right move to release the recordings, but he is glad he did as he believes the “beauty and strength he never lost” comes through.
He said: “I’ve always tried to follow dad’s wishes. It made no sense to him to release these recordings so, for a long time, it didn’t make sense to me.
“The person he was hardest on was himself. Looking at these (Songwriter) recordings helps bring up the beauty and the strength he never lost.”
John insists that whenever his dad sang, it was flawless, so they only had to build the music around his “masterful” vocals.
He said: “There is no such thing as a Johnny Cash demo.
“When he held the microphone or stood in front of one to sing and play guitar, his voice was masterful.
“And there is absolutely no lack of brilliance in his voice on these recordings. That being the driving force, we simply built on it.”

Source: IconInsider.com

OHMYGOSSIP — Damon Albarn encouraged fans to vote in the UK election during his surprise appearance at Glastonbury.
The 56-year-old star – who headlined the festival with Blur back in 2009 – spoke about Palestine, as well as the UK and US elections, after he joined Bombay Bicycle Club on the Pyramid Stage on Friday (28.06.24).
Damon – who features on Bombay Bicycle Club’s 2023 song ‘Heaven’ – said to the crowd: “Three things: you have to show me how you feel about it – are you pro Palestine? Do you feel that’s an unfair war?
“The importance of voting next week – I don’t blame you for being ambivalent about that – but it’s still really important. And thirdly – maybe it’s time we stopped putting octogenarians in charge of the whole world?”
Bombay Bicycle Club explained how the collaboration with Damon happened.
The indie rock band told Sky News: “We were never expecting to have him on the record or to be playing a show with him, but … we just kind of asked, and he was really up for it. You don’t ask, you don’t get.
“But, you know, with him, that’s all you need.”
Prior to their collaboration, the band teased that they would be joined on stage by a big-name artist.
Asked if any of their collaborators would join them at Glastonbury, guitarist Jamie MacColl told Radio X: “There is, but we can’t say who I’m afraid!”
Despite this, Jamie did confirm that the unnamed artist featured on their 2023 album, ‘My Big Day’.
Jamie simply said: “Yeah [they’re on the album].”

Source: IconInsider.com

OHMYGOSSIP — Norman Cook has reunited with Paul Heaton at Glastonbury to perform ‘Happy Hour’.
The 60-year-old musician – who is also known by his stage name of Fatboy Slim – joined forces with his former bandmate from The Housemartins to perform the group’s hit single from 1986.
Prior to introducing his former bandmate, Paul joked that they were part of the first boyband ever.
The Housemartins rose to prominence in the 1980s, when ‘Happy Hour’ spent 13 weeks in the UK singles chart, while it was also an underground hit in the US.
Paul and Norman’s joint appearance at the festival drew a enthusiastic response from the crowd, who sung along to the hit single.
The Housemartins made their Glastonbury debut in the 80s. But Paul previously admitted to being surprised by the scale of the festival.
The 62-year-old star – who co-founded The Beautiful South after The Housemartins split in 1988 – said to The Glastonbury Free Press: “The Housemartins did Glastonbury back in 1986.
“Even though I’d read about it, I had no idea how massive it was until I got there.”
The Housemartins played Glastonbury before they achieved real mainstream success.
And Paul relished the opportunity to perform in front of so many fans.
The singer recalled: “We were about to have our first hit with ‘Happy Hour’, so the only people who knew about us were people who had heard us on John Peel and Janice Long’s shows. We played around midday, I think.
“You could see people waking up and coming down the hill towards the stage while we were on. It was dead exciting. It went from 500 to a few thousand, [which was] quite mind-blowing.”

Source: IconInsider.com