Whenever a band have a new album ready for release, and they’ve been away for a while, it’s almost a guarantee that one of the members will start mouthing off against some other band in an effort to get some free publicity, and their name back on the tips of everyone’s tongue.

Oasis are no strangers to this strategy, being part of the notorious Blur Vs Oasis battle in the 1990s where both Britpop bands laid in to each other and gained chart success partly as a result.

The Gallagher brothers have both got big mouths and use them whenever they feel like it, but now they find themselves on the receiving end of someone else’s diatribe.

The man doing the smack talking this time is Ricky Wilson from Leeds Indie kids (Granddads would be more appropriate) Kaiser Chiefs. He has made some rather snarky comments about the legendary Manchester rockers, who let’s face it have outlived many bands such as the Kaiser Chiefs in their day.

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It was only five years ago that The Libertines were on top of the world, as Pete Doherty and Carl Barat’s band gained a legion of fans, and had critics firmly behind them. At that stage they seemed to be the future of British music, the noughties version of Oasis, The Beatles and The Smiths.

However, it all went slightly wrong, as Doherty fell in to a downward spiral of drug addiction, and the band argued their way to breaking up. All of the members have gone on to new projects, even Doherty who is still a druggie to this day. However, all hope is not lost that we could yet see the return of The Libertines.

Doherty and Barat, whose massive falling out over Doherty’s coke and heroin addiction was the main reason they split up in the first place, are now talking again, and in an interview with The Independent, Barat gave hope to a generation of scenesters who’d love to see the band back together.

Talking mostly about his new band Dirty Pretty Things, Barat gave an indication that he would love to work with Doherty again, and that reunion may take the form of the Libertines reforming one day.

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The brilliant Muse have started working on songs for their next release, which should, if everything goes to plan, be their fifth studio album. However, the band aren’t yet sure about what form the release will take, be it a conventional album, a series of singles or even a drawn out rock opera!

Muse released Black Holes and Revelations in 2006, and have since been touring like there’s no tomorrow, playing massive gigs in the UK, including their phenomenally successful Wembley dates last year, and a string of dates around the world. Though the tour isn’t officially ending until after the V Festival in August, the band have already taken a break, and are now back hard at work.

Dom Howard spoke to NME after drumming for Razorlight man Andy Burrows last night at a rare solo outing and confirmed the band were working on new material.

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I think there must be something in the water here in the UK. Something potent that is making old groups decide to reunite and start plying their trade again. The last few years have seen many such reunions occurring, and there could be more to come.

We’ve already had Led Zeppelin reform for a one-off concert at the London 02 Arena, with rumours of a longer tour constantly bubbling around the press. We’ve also seen The Police forget their differences to embark on a huge world tour, which is due to come to an end this year in New York.

There was also the ill-omened Spice Girls tour which unfortunately ended before it was meant to due to poor sales. However, a positive note to come out of it is the retirement of Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham from singing. Two down, three to go.

Then there has been the more permanent reunions such as Take That (hoorah) and Boyzone (boo, hiss), as well as rumours of long-awaited returns for both Blur and The Smiths, both of which still could happen.

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The Futureheads are one of my favourite British bands ever, and one which deserves a lot more credit than they currently get. So when they announced a new UK tour back in March, I nabbed some tickets before they all sold out.

It’s been a long two month wait for the gig to finally come around, but yesterday finally gave me the chance to see the band play live for the first time since they last played Manchester back in 2006. And they have lost none of the magic from those days, and in fact seemed even more energetic than last time I saw them, a tall order indeed.

Maybe it was the small(er) venue which did the trick, as they were playing Academy 2, a compact venue for a band of this magnitude. At one point, the band even acknowledged how good it was to be in a smaller venue and how it helps to see in to the eyes of their notoriously loyal fans. If last night’s show was anything to go on, I’d recommend they play smaller venues more often.

This is the fourth gig I’ve been to this year, with a real mixed bag of artists so far, comprising of Megadeth, The Feeling and Sugababes. They’ve all been brilliant, but this was the best so far, despite being too short for my liking. It was also the complete opposite of the Sugababes gig, with no props, and no costume changes, just out and out good music played at a frenetic pace.

The band came on at about 9.20pm, and apart from the huge cheer, there was no fanfare, no impressive light show or anything. These guys just let their music do the talking, and that’s all the fans need.

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Paul McCartney’s relationship problems have been rather well publicised over the last few years, with Heather Mills nabbing the multi-millionaire and managing to wheedle her way to a proportion of his hard-earned fortune in a long-running and acrimonious divorce battle.

You’d imagine that little experience would have put McCartney off women for a while but no chance, as he’s already embarking on another dalliance with the opposite sex, this time with US socialite Nancy Shevell.

But any thoughts that this was just a fling or friendship seem to be dashed after he apparently declared his love for her last week.

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I’ve been avoiding talking about Amy Winehouse and her efforts to become the next Bond girl, well singer of the theme tune at least, mainly because it was just speculation and I wanted to wait until the official announcement was made.

But this isn’t that, instead it’s more rumour, speculation and gossip about it all… I just couldn’t resist.

It’s been known for a while that bosses of the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace have been looking at Winehouse as a possible candidate for the theme tune. First it was on, then off (with the studio heads probably concerned about the negative connection with drink and drugs and a jailbird husband) and still nothing has been decided.

Winehouse and Mark Ronson, her friend and producer are reported to have fallen out earlier in the month while trying to record the theme together, with Ronson claiming in the press that she wasn’t ready to make music. But now it seems that they are mates again, and back trying to come up with a winning theme song.

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Lily Allen has been getting some interesting press lately mainly from the tabloid press who have been covering her 2 week holiday in the south of France.

First there were paparazzi shots of her sunbathing and swimming topless, then reports of her being totally out of control in Cannes, and lastly speculation that she may be trying to get back together with ex boyfriend Ed Simons from The Chemical Brothers.

It’s very unlike Lily to take things lying down and not speak her mind so she has now chosen to answer the criticism and rumours flying about in a new blog post on her MySpace page.

She first defends her behaviour in the south of France claiming everything she did there was normal behaviour for her age.

“For the record I was not thrown off anybodys yacht in Cannes , occasionally I drink wine with lunch and yes i swim topless , this in my book is not embarrasing behaviour I’m 23 years old it’s not my fault if photographers follow me everywhere and need a story to print with their pointless pictures.”

She then wholly condemns the paparazzi who seem to spend their whole life trying to grab a snatch or boob shot of a celebrity, and likens them to members of a ultra right wing neo-nazi political party here in the UK.

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The Ivor Novello Awards 2008 results are in, with a star studded ceremony held in London tonight. The best of British as well as some American artists have been rewarded and recognised for their song writing talents at the annual celebration of all that is good in music.

This time last month, I highlighted the nominees, which included Brit Music Scene favourites Amy Winehouse, and Take That, both of whom were successful on the night.

Amy Winehouse, nominated for three awards won the big one, with Love Is A Losing Game named as the best song musically and lyrically. Her father Mitch accepted the gong on her behalf:

“Unfortunately Amy couldn’t make it, but she is getting better and sends you all her love. She has asked me to thank the Ivors for being the first to recognise her songwriting talents.”

Getting better? Isn’t she always getting better, like for the last two years? It’s much more likely that she was too busy making videos with Pete Doherty and some baby mice to attend the ceremony, or maybe she was just too pissed.

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We heard earlier that the Wax:On Live festival has been cancelled. Now The Zutons have criticised the measures you now have to go through to secure a ticket for Glastonbury, a festival they are actually performing at.

The registration system has been tweaked in recent years and culminated this time around in a complex procedure where fans who wanted to attend had to fill in a load of details about themselves, and send in a passport photo just to have the chance to buy a ticket. This was all done six weeks prior to the tickets actually becoming available, and no-one was actually guaranteed a place.

However, ticket sales have actually hit a record low this year, and the Zuton bassist Russ Pritchard blamed the way it has been slowly but surely turned in to a middle-class affair.

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