OHMYGOSSIP — Sam Fender has no plans to rush his third album.
The 30-year-old singer released his second LP, ‘Seventeen Going Under’ in 2021, two years after his debut ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ and he now thinks he brought it out to soon, so while he’s got “loads of stuff” lined up for his next record, he’s determined to make sure it’s the best it could possibly be.
Speaking in an upcoming interview on Sky Arts’ ‘Johnson and Knopfler’s Music Legends’, he said: “We have been recording and recording and making loads of stuff but it got to the point where I thought, ‘We don’t need to get this out yet. We need to get it right’.
“For the second one we rushed to get that out and the third one we started rushing and I thought, ‘No, we have got to take the time’.
“I want to do the best I possibly can. I’d rather it be late and great than early and s****.
“What we have got so far I am absolutely over the moon with but I want to give it that bit more time and more thought.”
The ‘Will We Talk?’ hitmaker credited being bullied at school with giving him his drive to succeed.
He said: “Schoolyard bullying is what makes a rock star. It is either going to put you down or it is going to make you work harder for it.”
Sam previously expressed his frustrations at being compared to Bruce Springsteen but could understand why people did it.
He was quoted by The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column as saying: “I’m not too keen on that tag. I feel I would rather be me. It’s like, ‘hang on, I don’t just rip him off, I have ripped off loads of other people’.
He continued: “You take bits from everything as a musician. I have a saxophone and I am from a working-class town and I speak about working-class life, so it is easy to get stuck in.
“I can see where the crossover comes.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Dionne Warwick refuses to listen to her own music.
The iconic singer – whose songs ‘Walk On By’, ‘Alfie’ and ‘Don’t Make Me Over’ are all in the Grammy Hall of Fame – insisted while she would be happy to watch herself ‘live’ in an ABBA-style hologram avatar show, she doesn’t enjoy listening to her own tunes in her day to day life.
She told the Metro newspaper’s 60 Seconds column: “Oh, yeah. I’d love to see me. But I don’t listen to my music. I listened to it one time when I recorded it.
“I am so critical I will say things to myself like, ‘Why didn’t you sing this other note?’ or ‘Why didn’t you do it this way?’
“So I refrain from listening to me. I listen to my peers.”
The 83-year-old star admitted she would rather listen to the likes of Johnny Mathis, Tina Turner and “a lot of Brazilian music” instead.
She “fell completely in love” with Brazil when she first toured there in the 1960s, and feels “a mutual love affair” with the people and their music.
When it was suggested that there is a big difference between Brazilian music and her own, she replied: “I describe it as happy music. Music that makes you smile, makes you move.”
And while some of her own material may seem quite sad, she thinks of it in a different way.
Dionne explained: “I think the songs are basically songs of reality. Hal David wrote lyrics [to Burt Bacharach’s music] that he felt were needed to be heard.
“‘Walk On By’ is a song specifically about the way most people don’t want things to turn out.
“But if things don’t work out the way you want then, ‘Bye bye!’ So there are different phases of life that I sing about.”
And while some people may try to label her sound, Dionne is keen to point out that music should simply be enjoyed for what it is.
She added: “I don’t categorise music. Music is music. They try to put you into a box all the time. But you can’t put me into a box.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Daniel Bedingfield is finally set to release his long lost duet with Mariah Carey.
The ‘Gotta Get Thru This’ hitmaker is launching a tech company to help artists release discarded recordings from the past, and he’s hoping to unveil his ballad with the pop icon titled ‘Thousand Life Times’, which they worked on two decades ago.
He told the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column: “It really burns a hole in my heart, just sitting there unreleased. The fans would love it.”
The 44-year-old singer has been inspired to start his company H00ks knowing how many unheard songs are sat “on hard drives” because the record labels didn’t bother to release them.
He said: “There are hundreds and thousands of songs that are recorded and left on hard drives, hundreds of the best albums I have ever heard that record companies have just never released.
“And so what I am fascinated with right now is creating a system to get those unreleased songs released.
“Because the record companies don’t care about them but the artists really do, and the fans do.”
The idea behind Daniel’s new project is to drop a 40-second “TikTok length” clip of an older, unreleased recording and see if it hooks fans.
He explained: “Then fans create videos for them blow them up on socials and then the artist knows, ‘Oh actually this music that is unreleased is the hit as it’s going viral.”
The ‘If You’re Not The One’ star rose up the charts in the early 2000s before turning his back on his singing career to focus on trying to “reverse climate change” with his Los Angeles farm.
However, Daniel – whose sister is ‘Unwritten’ hitmaker Natasha Bedingfield – recently returned to music and performed three UK shows, and he has reflected on the way the industry has changed.
Earleir this year, he told The Sun newspaper: “I don’t think the charts matter at all now, to be honest.
“I think everything’s to do with streaming and visibility and connection and subscribes and shares, so I’m not looking at the charts at all.
“It’s really hard to get from zero to 60 right now for young artists. There are human being on this planet I think are some of the greatest musicians of all time that are starving right now.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Linkin Park are reportedly planning a reunion tour with a new female vocalist.
The ‘In The End’ hitmakers have been on hiatus since the tragic death of frontman Chester Bennington – who took his own live aged 41 in 2017 – but now they may be ready to get back on the road as a band in 2025.
According to Billboard, the group’s booking agency WME is “taking offers” for a potential tour as well as headline festival dates.
The lineup would feature longtime members Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and Dave Farrell.
There is no official word on who could succeed the late singer, but a source told the outlet that the group is “hoping to find a female vocalist” to step in.
This matches recent rumours, with Jay Gordon of the band Orgy suggesting he had heard the same.
He told KCAL 96.7 show ‘Wired in the Empire’: “Very, very cool guys and obviously a great band. They’ve been around a long time and they’re still going for it. It’s going to be tough without Chester, but we’ll see.
“I hear they got a girl singer now. That’s what I heard.”
He later insisted his comments had been taken out of context, and claimed on social media that he knew “nothing about any of that”.
Evanesence singer Amy Lee has since shot down suggestions she is lined up to join Linkin Park, which comes as fans were hoping she could be the mystery singer.
She told iHeartRadio Canada: “That is an incredible compliment. I have not heard that. No, I have not been contacted or anything like that. But [I’m a] huge fan feel like our worlds, our fanbases are a lot of the same people.”
She joked they “should ask”, and despite her own hectic schedule she “might do it part-time”.
Last month, guitarist Mike Shinoda insisted once there is something firm to announce, fans will hear the news direct from the ‘What I’ve Done’ group.
He told Revolver magazine: “People always ask what’s next for the band, and the best answer I can ever give anybody is when there’s something to tell you, we will tell you.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — St Vincent was in awe of how quickly Dave Grohl got to grips with her songs.
The 41-year-old singer – whose real name is Annie Clark – had the 55-year-old Foo Fighters frontman in the studio for her new album ‘All Born Screaming’, as he played drums on ‘Broken Man’ and ‘Flea’, and he knew “every twist and turn” almost immediately.
Speaking to NME magazine, she said: “I’m so lucky to have great friends who also are great rippers.
“Dave Grohl is a buddy and he came into my studio and, like, everything they say is true: he’s the nicest guy in rock and the most fun hang.
“Like, he just drives over in his truck and because he’s so musical, he’s heard the song a few times and knows every twist and turn.”
St Vincent admitted he “lights you up” to hear ‘Best of You’ musician – who rose to fame as the drummer in Nirvana – doing his thing at the kit.
She added: “So you just hang and smoke some Parliaments; he tells war stories, you drink some coffee and smoke more Parliaments, and then he’s like: ‘Cool, let’s go!’
“And he goes in there and it’s Dave Grohl on the drums and he plays it perfectly. Man, it just lights you up to hear him play.”
The pair have been good friends for a long time, and she previously joined Nirvana at a reunion show a decade ago in Los Angeles.
Along with Beck and Dave’s daughter Violet, she performed ‘Lithium’, ‘In Bloom’, ‘Been a Son’, ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ and a rendition of Nirvana’s Davie Bowie cover ‘The Man Who Sold The World’.
Reflecting on Dave’s impact on ‘Broken Man’, she admitted he took the song to another level.
In a recent interview with NME, she said: “From the beginning of the song, it’s a slow-burn.
“The shape of the song is climbing the mountain, because it just grows and grows.
“There are essentially three drummers on the track: the first part is my programming, the second part Mark Guiliana comes in, and then at the very end of the track – just when you think it can’t get any higher – Grohl comes in with this absolute reckless spirit and just takes it to the edge.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Billie Eilish, Lorde, and Green Day are among 250 artists to sign an open letter to pass the Fans First Act to protect gig-goers from ticketing scams and ludicrous resale prices.
The likes of Diplo, Cyndi Lauper, Fall Out Boy, and Becky G. signed the document calling on the Senate Committee on Commerce to do more to stop bots and scammers making buying tickets a laborious task.
The letter began: “As artists and members of the music community, we rely on touring for our livelihood, and we value music fans above all else.
“We are joining together to say that the current system is broken; predatory resellers and secondary platforms engage in deceptive ticketing practices to inflate ticket prices and deprive fans of the chance to see their favourite artists at a fair price.”
It went on to slam “predatory resellers” who are plaguing fan experiences.
They said: “Predatory resellers should not be more profitable than the people dedicating their lives to their art.”
If the bill passes it wants to prohibit “fake tickets and deceptive marketing tactics that trick our fans into paying more for tickets that may never get them into a show.”
‘What Was I Made For?’ hitmaker Billie was recently among 200 music stars to call for the “predatory” use of generative AI in the music industry to be stopped.
The letter – which was also signed by the likes of Sam Smith, Jon Bon Jovi, Nicki Minaj, and Katy Perry – was sent to machine-learning software companies, which called for tighter regulations on the technology in the industry to “protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem.”
The letter, which was produced by the not-for-profit organisation Artist Rights Alliance (ARA), read: “Make no mistake: we believe that, when used responsibly, AI has enormous potential to advance human creativity and in a manner that enables the development and growth of new and exciting experiences for music fans everywhere.
“Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rightsholders. When used irresponsibly, A.I. poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods.
“Some of the biggest and most powerful companies are, without permission, using our work to train AI models. These efforts are directly aimed at replacing the work of human artists with massive quantities of A.I.-created ‘sounds’ and ‘images’ that substantially dilute the royalty pools that are paid out to artists. For many working musicians, artists and songwriters who are just trying to make ends meet, this would be catastrophic.”
The organisation warned that unregulated machine-learning software would “devalue” the work of musicians.

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OHMYGOSSIP — RM has announced his second solo album, ‘Right Place, Wrong Person’.
The BTS superstar, 29, will release the record on May 24, with pre-orders available today (26.04.24).
In a statement, RM’s label Big Hit Music said: “We are pleased to announce the release of ‘Right Place, Wrong Person’, BTS member RM’s second solo album.
“‘Right Place, Wrong Person’ is an 11-track album that captures some of the universal emotions we all experience at some point in life, such as the feeling of being an outsider who doesn’t fit in.
“The album falls within the alternative genre, boasting a rich sound coupled with frank, honest lyrics.
“Your anticipation and support for RM and his second solo album would be much appreciated.”
RM released his debut solo album, ‘Indigo’, in 2022.
Meanwhile, the South Korean boy band – also comprising J-hope, Jin, SUGA, V, Jungkook and Jimin – plan to reunite in 2025.
BTS revealed at their annual FESTA dinner, in 2022, that they would be focusing on solo projects and military service.
Noting a conversation he had with his bandmate Suga during a livestream on Weverse, RM said in 2023: “He told me that there were a great number of ARMY [their fans] across the globe wanting the seven of us to reunite and perform again.”
He continued: “But as I’m working on my solo project, I keep thinking this way: ‘This is like a vacation’.
“What I mean by that is that it’s a kind of vacation that we, BTS and ARMY, need to take to successfully come back as a whole. So, I believe all our solo activities are important trips for our next chapter, and they’re also trips which we must go on in order to safely come back home.”
RM insisted: “We’ll be joining together again. And that will be in 2025.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Jess Glynne contemplated quitting music.
The 34-year-old ‘Rather Be’ hitmaker has faced lots of online criticism over the years and considered jacking it all in because of the “way it made me feel, the pure slog, the scrutiny.”
In a candid interview with The Independent, she said: “The amount that I’ve put in and the self-belief and the fight and the battles (I’ve gone through with) myself and with people around me to get to where I am, I was like: ‘Nah man, you can’t throw it all away.'”
Jess has returned with her first album in six years, ‘Jess’, and she hopes people get to “understand the person” she is after years of feeling “misunderstood”.
She said: “I feel like I have been misunderstood and I think that’s something that I don’t want to continue in my career,” the 34-year-old musician reflects.
“I want people to listen to my records and understand where they’ve come from, and understand the person that I am.”
The ‘Hold My Hand’ hitmaker was “terrified” at one stage when she was all alone after leaving Atlantic Records.
She recalled: “I was absolutely terrified.
“I was like: ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ Massive moments of doubt, massive moments of fear because I was all alone. I’d no-one in my career supporting me at that point.”
However, she has since signed to EMI, and is managed under Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
Jess admits the only way she could move forward with her music career was by being unapologetically herself.
Speaking about the track ‘Enough’, she said: “When I wrote that song, I think it was just highlighting, this is me being me unapologetic and being honest and being raw and I think that’s just how I need to lead.
“And to stop pressuring myself to be this artist or be that artist or regurgitate a song like this or be something from our past, I need to look forward and be me now…
“Through the process of leaving my previous label, my previous teams and everything that’s gone on in my personal life as well, the more that time’s gone on and things have happened, and the more that I’ve been challenged… the only thing I can do when I go in the studio and when I write is be me.
“And I think that’s why I called it Jess.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Richie Sambora has shared the first of four new songs he’s releasing week-by-week.
The former Bon Jovi guitarist has kicked off the series with the track ‘I Pray’, which will be followed by ‘Livin’ Alone’ (May 3), ‘Songs That Wrote My Life’ (May 10), and ‘Believe (In Miracles)’ (May 17), which were produced by the ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ group’s producer Bob Rock.
Sambora, 64, has no desire to top the charts with his new solo tunes and simply wants the listener to have an uplifting experience.
He said in a statement: “I’m at that point in my life where I am truly happy and a big part of that joy comes from writing songs and making music. There’s a tremendous freedom with these songs because I don’t have to think about charting #1 or what’s happening on the radio, but I still put the same craftsmanship, care and love into it as I did with ‘Slippery When Wet’ or ‘New Jersey’ and I hope they bring a similar happiness to those that choose to listen and push play on streaming services.”
A press release adds that: “The musician will celebrate his new music and body of work on an eagerly awaited live tour, with complete details to be announced soon.”
Meanwhile, Bon Jovi are the stars of the warts-and-all docuseries called ‘Thank You, Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story’, which is airing on Hulu.
The four-part series explores Sambora’s exit from the band.
Jon Bon Jovi, 62, said: “There’s no shields up on this project. Everybody showed warts and all.”
Jovi has just insisted he is ready and waiting for the day Sambora rejoins the group he quit in 2013 to spend more time with his then-15-year-old daughter, Ava, whose mother is actress Heather Locklear, and insists there is “no animosity” between the pair.
Appearing on Absolute Radio to promote the series, he said: “Well, it’s been 11 years and I’m still waiting for the phone call, so who knows what the future holds. You have to understand that there was never a fight, or a falling out, he quit the band 11 years ago in the middle of the night. There was no animosity, because being in a rock band, as glorious as it sounds, is hard work and he decided that being on the road with us wasn’t for him and he just didn’t show up anymore. That’s really what happened… he came to see the doc though, I watched the first few episodes with him. It’s all good.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Pink Floyd’s ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ will be at the heart of a new immersive exhibition.
‘Brainstorms: A Great Gig in the Sky’ will take over Frameless in London on Friday and Saturday evenings in June, which brings to life the results of a research project from Brainstorms, a joint venture between San Francisco-based creative studio Pollen Music Group and Richard Wright Music Limited. It brings to life the results of the Brainstorms research project that took place last autumn.
The experience is themed around the concept behind the group’s iconic track, with visitors seeing sky-themed creative visualisations of the human brain’s response to music in each of the four galleries, in order to visually show how people respond to music and enhancing the listening experience.
To create the visuals, 125 people had their brain activity recorded while listening to the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ track in immersive sound Dolby Atmos. The EEG readings of brain activity, which will be showcased within the experience, were captured at Dolby by the neuroscience experts within the Pollen Music Group team and reflect the participant’s excitement, interest, relaxation and stress felt whilst listening to the track.
Gala Wright, curator and Artistic director at Brainstorms and daughter of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, says, “The visual representation of brain data provides an accessible and intuitive way to see how a piece of music can be a deeply personal yet also powerfully shared experience. Questioning how this is true for my father’s compositions is a key motivation for me bringing this concept to life with Pollen. The added benefit of bringing awareness to his musicality through the Brainstorms project serves to augment his legacy.”
Musician Imogen Heap ad her nine-year-old daughter took part in the initial brain data capture and their brainwaves will be visualised in the ‘Murmurations’ Gallery, set to her ambient track ‘Cumulus’ in surround sound. D
A limited number of VIP places will be available to book a unique 15-minute EEG brain capture experience, powered by technology provided by AMD and Emotiv, where they will feel more from the music than ever before as they go on an intense and emotional journey as they listen to five minutes of ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ in immersive sound Dolby Atmos via headphones.
Participants will then be able to see their brain activity visualised into stunning large-scale cloud formations, projected into Frameless’ re-imagined ‘Cloud’ Gallery. Each participant will also receive a personalised memento based on their individual brain’s reaction to the piece.
Tickets to Brainstorms: A Great Gig in the Sky are priced from £30 and are on sale now. A strictly limited number of VIP tickets are available that include the brain data capture experience. To buy tickets or to find out more visit www.frameless.com.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Aaron Carter’s twin sister, Angel Carter and his producer Aaron Pearce have released his posthumous track, ‘Recovery’.
The 34-year-old singer was found dead in his bathtub at his California home in November 2022.
In April 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner attributed the cause of death to drowning after inhaling difluoroethane and taking alprazolam, the generic form of brand-name Xanax.
The report added that he was “incapacitated while in the bathtub due to the effects” of the drugs he took which contributed to his death by drowning.
And, 18 months after his tragic death, his twin sister has paid tribute to him by releasing the track ‘Recovery’.
It will be featured on an upcoming album ‘The Recovery Album’, which will include music recorded over 10 years ago, according to Rolling Stone.
A portion of proceeds from the music will benefit mental health nonprofit The Kids Mental Health Foundation and a trust for Aaron’s son, Prince Lyric Carter.
Speaking on ‘CBS Mornings’, Angel said: “The fans have been asking for the music, and after Aaron passed away we put together a benefit concert called ‘The Songs for Tomorrow Concert,’ and we had played ‘Recovery’ during this show. And fans were just reaching out to Aaron Pearce and I, begging us to release this music. So, here we are today.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Pet Shop Boys initially offered one of their new songs to Brandon Flowers.
The synth-pop legends released their fifteenth studio album ‘Nonetheless’ on Friday (26.04.24), and duo Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant have revealed album track ‘Feel’ was actually meant for The Killers frontman.
They told Record Collector magazine: “We sent it to him when he was making his solo album with Stuart Price, but we don’t know if it reached him – and then, during lockdown, I read a book about the spy, George Blake, escaping from prison.
“For some reason, it inspired me to return to this, so now it’s about visiting a loved one in prison.”
Brandon worked with Stuart Price on his 2010 debut solo album ‘Flamingo’, while the producer also served as engineer for ‘The Way It’s Always Been’ on his 2015 follow-up ‘The Desire Effect’.
It’s not the only time they’ve offered up a song to another artist only for it to not work out, as they once pitched a track to Bananarama.
Chris recalled: “They were always going to be difficult, were’t they?”
His bandmate added: “They asked us many times to write a song. And Sarah [Dallin] said, ‘You’ve just picked something off the shelf, haven’t you, and given it to us?’
“She just knew. She’s clever.”
Pet Shop Boys did earn worldwide acclaim for their remixes and reimagined takes on other artist’s songs, from the likes of David Bowie’s ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ to Madonna’s ‘Sorry’ and Paul Weller’s ‘Cosmic Fringes’.
In 1994, they reworked Blur’s song ‘Girls and Boys’, and their version took on a life of its own.
Neil said: “Well, we liked the song. And our remix ended up being the version that was released across Europe.
“Blur did a promotional tour of Europe, miming on television shows to our remix.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Blink-182 have announced new 2024 North American tour dates.
The next US leg of their world tour will kick off in June with 30 extra dates and they have promised “new production elements”.
The show will feature increased seat capacity and a full 360-degree view of the stage for fans.
The band announced the news on an Instagram story, which also revealed that support acts will include Pierce The Veil, Alexisonfire, Astronoid, Drain, Ekkstacy, Hot Milk, Jxdn, Landon Barker and Live Without.
They will kick off the tour in Orlando on June 20 and end in Toronto on August 15.
Following the North American leg of the tour, the band will travel to the UK and Ireland for some international dates.
International dates had previously proved tricky after drummer Travis Barker refused to fly again after being involved in a crash in 2008 which killed four people.
However, in August 2021, he flew to Cabo San Lucas with his now-wife Kourtney Kardashian who he praised for “healing” himself and his family.
He told The Los Angeles Times: “I think the power of love really helped me. Kourt made it so I fly, my kids fly now. She healed us.
“It takes a little piece of my life every time I fly. The amount of stress and anxiety it causes is just unbearable.
“It brings up all this old trauma, and sometimes I’m like, ‘Is this worth it?’ But I don’t like anything having a hold on me, either — I don’t like being afraid, and I don’t like having things from my past control my future.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Jon Bon Jovi “wasn’t that impressed” with ‘Livin’ On a Prayer’ when it was first written.
The Bon Jovi frontman admitted he “was wrong” with his original assessment of the 1986 chart-topping single, which went on to become one of the group’s most famous hits, but he’s glad they were able to work on developing the track into what it became.
He told People magazine: “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to record it, but I wasn’t all that impressed on the day that we wrote it.
“It was the simple chord progression, the melodies and the lyrics [at first].
“But the bass line came to life in the demo studio, when we took it back to the band and worked it up. That’s how it became what it is.
“We knew what we wanted, we just didn’t have it, and so I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s good. Good day. Good day at the office,’ and I was wrong.
“It’s one of the biggest songs in our catalogue.”
And the 62-year-old singer also admitted he wasn’t keen on 1994’s ‘Always’ and was ready to shelve the track.
Noting it is “also one of our biggest songs ever”, Jon recalled: “When I’d written that, we demoed it for a movie, that I had written it for, and thought, ‘Yeah, that’s not very good.’ Put it on the shelf, and an A+R guy, who was a friend of ours, was listening to some of those lost songs, and he said, ‘You know, this is a monster hit.’ He was right.”
Meanwhile, Jon expressed his gratitude for the brotherly bond he shares with fellow performer Bruce Springsteen, 74.
He said: “Our connection is deep, on a whole different level of friendship, because how many guys can talk like we can talk, in close quarters, about life and love and loss?
“Our relationship is deep, and he’s a dear friend of mine, and he really is like a big brother.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Bill Wyman has claimed the Rolling Stones “refused to accept” he had quit for more than two years.
The 87-year-old bassist abruptly announced his departure from the group in 1991 but he has told how the rest of the band didn’t believe he was serious, and it was only when they were preparing to go out on tour again that they realised he had no intention of joining them.
He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “I left in 1991 but they would not believe me.
“They refused to accept I had left. It was not until 1993, when they were starting to get together to tour in 1994, when they said, ‘You have actually now left, haven’t you?’ And I said, ‘I left two years ago’. They finally accepted it, so they say I left in 1993.”
Bill explained he decided to quit because he had “had enough” and wanted to do other things with his life.
He said: “I just had enough. It was half my life and I thought, ‘I have got other things I want to do’. I wanted to do archaeology, write books, have photo exhibitions and play charity cricket. I used to read about ancient cultures while I was on the road and take photos as well. I just had this whole other life I wanted to live.”
The ‘Satisfaction’ rocker is an avid collector of various things, including stamps, Rupert Bear annuals, and music hall posters, and he has also retained an impressive archive about his former band.
He said: “I’ve an archive of the Stones too. I’ve got a library that I created of everything that has happened to me. I wanted to keep an archive of the Stones to show my son I was once in a band.”
Although it is decades since he left the band, Bill – who made a guest appearance on ‘Live By The Sword’ on the group’s latest album ‘Hackney Diamonds’ – still dreams of being on tour with them.
He said: “The weird thing is ever since I’ve left, up until the present day, I still dream I’m on tour, like we are in a dressing room or we are in a hotel.
“I still dream those dreams and I dream of other friends like David Bowie. They are all very nice but very confusing.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Gary Barlow almost rejected Take That because he “didn’t want to be in a band”.
The ‘Greatest Day’ hitmaker played his first shows at 11 years old in working men’s clubs and had racked up “2,000 gigs” by the time he joined the group eight years later, and he wasn’t enamoured with the idea of giving up life as a solo musician.
He told Sorted magazine: “I didn’t want to be in a band, I was doing all my shows by myself at that point.
“And when I first met our manager and he told me about this group he was putting together, I was like, ‘I don’t want to be in a group, because I don’t want to be lugging drums and amps up stairways, and things like that.’
“And then he got me, ‘No it’s not a conventional group, it’s like a vocal harmony group’. And he played us The Jackson 5, New Kids on the Block, The Drifters – that was the type of group he wanted to make.
“And that was a bit more interesting to me. So that’s why I went along and thought, ‘Let’s see what happens here.’ ”
Gary, now 53, also shrugged off the ‘boyband’ label for the group, which is now a trio with Howard Donald and Mark Owen, having previously had Robbie Williams and Jason Orange in the lineup.
He explained: “Well, do you know what? That word wasn’t around when we started. It came later.
“It came towards the end of us being together, because then these other bands [appeared], there were a lot of other versions of what we were doing and that’s when the word ‘boyband’ [came about].”
He didn’t feel any kind of rivalry with the likes of Boyzone, pointing out that Take That were winding down their first run when a lot of the iconic boybands were on the rise.
He said: “They started as we were closing. I remember when we did our press conference to say, ‘Thanks very much everyone but we’re splitting up…’ I remember all of a sudden, all the boybands – NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Boyzone – they were like, ‘We’re going to take that spot now.’
“So I was never in competition with them because they sort of started [after us]. And I’d met Ronan [Keating] quite early on in my solo career and we’ve been mates ever since.
“So never had any chart battles or any of that stuff, thankfully.”

Source: IconInsider.com