Entertainment

Satire from Jack Peat.  Bob Geldof has announced he is to re-re-re-release the Band Aid track ‘Do They Know it’s Christmas’ to fight the latest outbreak of Bird Flu. The Irish musician, known for being in the same room as Midge Ure when he wrote the popular Christmas record, said the cull of 6,000 ducks at a breeding farm in East Yorkshire was “bollocks”, adding that it was “bollocks” after further probing from a Sky News journalist. Leeds rockers The...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor In the heart of Soho on Windmill Street, located next to Paul Raymond’s famous Windmill Club and opposite the new Firmdale Hotel, a brand new radio station has evolved and is aiming to revolutionise the air waves in London and beyond. Soho Radio is a street level visible station, broadcasting via a large shop window which is a unique attraction in itself. I met up with Co-founder Dan Gray, 33, whose day job is in music management representing...

By Harry Bedford, Music Editor  Taylor Swift is one of biggest selling recording artists around today. Her evolution from country teen to pop princess has been incredibly successful and her latest album 1989 is already the best selling album of the year. However, the charismatic 25-year-old has caused a little controversy in the music industry this week by removing all of her back-catalogue from the music streaming service Spotify. In 2012, she refused to add her album Red to the...

By Holly Carter, Music Reporter Last weekend Asaf Avidan played two shows at The Islington Assembly. Asaf is an Israeli singer-songwriter currently signed to the record label Polydor. He is well known for performing as part of Asaf Avidan & The Mojos but in 2012 he decided to focus more on his solo career which saw the release of live album Avidan in a Box. Throughout his career he has performed alongside and supported legendary musicians such as Bob Dylan,...

By Harry Bedford Multiculturalism is as much a part of the fabric of London as Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and that gloried Ferris wheel that resides downstream. In many ways London is a miniature version of the world and all its cultures, so luckily for us we don’t have go far to experience things that would usually require a several-hour flight. Comptoir Libanais is a new chain of chic cafes dotted around the capital that deliver the taste of Lebanon...

By Harry Bedford, Entertainment Editor The civil rights movement and popular music were married together back in the 1950s and 1960s. Artists such as Sam Cooke singing 'A Change is Gonna Come’ and Bob Dylan singing ‘The Times they are a-changing’ were hugely significant at the time. So it makes sense that a musical, set in Memphis, about the integration of black and white culture would work. Memphis tells the story of the over-confident, under-educated young white man Huey, played...

Tomorrow sees the 2014 Mercury Prize awards. This prestigious music prize is awarded to best album of the year released in the UK and Ireland. Previously won by such artists as The Arctic Monkeys, Pulp and Franz Ferdinand and was won last year by James Blake. Spotify has created the official Mercury Music Prize Playlist of this year's nominees. Have a listen below.

By Chris Tate, Music Reporter A lot has changed in the last six years. For Jackson Browne, things are all too similar to how they were 50 years ago. Love, hate and conflict has always dominated his music, and his latest offering, Standing in the Breach, touches on all these points. It seems all too easy for an experienced artist to slip into the retirement era of their music. Where there was once hits and inspiration, there sits uninspiring album...

By Chris Tate, Music Reporter On Friday morning I switched on Radio 2, my usual morning ritual, to hear the new single by Take That. It will mark their first release as a trio since Jason Orange left little less than a month ago. This got me thinking. Is it really Take That? Can they justify releasing a new album under that name? Then I thought a little more, can you really blame them? Bands all over the world are...