The new Oasis album, Dig Out Your Soul, is as good as The Beatles classic album, Revolver, often cited as the Fab Four’s best long player.

At least that’s the opinion on Alan McGee, the former boss of Creation records who signed Oasis to his record label after seeing them play live in Glasgow in 1993.

In a Guardian newspaper article titled ‘Why the music world needs Oasis’, McGee recounts meeting the Gallagher brothers last year, a meeting that ended with typical Oasis debauchery.

Then he waxes lyrical about the new album and explains why he thinks it’s as good as What’s The Story (Morning Glory), seen by many as the highlight of the band’s career.

Read more

Friday morning saw the news we’d all been waiting for finally come to pass: Led Zeppelin were set to tour and Robert Plant had agreed to be a part of it. Except it wasn’t actually true, and Plant has now not only denied the story but also ruled out being part of any reunion tour for the next two years.

The Sun newspaper was behind this latest declaration that a tour was going to happen, with a source supposedly telling the British tabloid that Plant had succumbed to the calls to join the rest of the band on tour after they issued him with an ultimatum - come with us or we’ll find another singer.

Robert Plant has now wholeheartedly denied the story, issuing an official statement on his website.

Read more

Paul McCartney finally played live in Israel on Thursday September 25th, 2008, over 40 years since The Beatles were banned from the country for their potential to corrupt the country’s young people. But, was this high profile gig an honourable peace protest, or was it just a pretentious publicity stunt from McCartney?

Israel banned The Beatles from playing in Israel in 1965 due to the upsetting effect of Beatlemania. It took 40 years for the ban to be lifted, but once it was, one of the only two surviving members of the band wasted no time in organising a concert in the war torn country.

Paul McCartney’s gig was billed as a concert of peace, and McCartney was very careful not to be seen taking sides in the conflict between Israel and Palestine that has been going on for decades. On Thursday night, McCartney played Tel Aviv, and by all accounts, it was a successful set by anyone’s standards.

Before the concert, McCartney also took the time and trouble to visit different parts of the area, calling for peace along the way. During the gig itself, McCartney wore a lapel badge supporting One Voice, a joint Israeli-Palestinian organisation calling for a two-state solution to the conflict.

McCartney kicked off the gig by playing Hello, Goodbye, and sprinkled his set with Beatles classics. The 40,000 strong crowd also saw him perform many of his own solo material, including Live and Let Die with an accompanying fireworks display.

Read more

The new Keane album, Perfect Symmetry, is due out on October 13th, and this song, Spiralling, is the first single to be released from it. In the absence of any kind of official video (at least from what I’ve found online), I’ve had to make do with a video of the band performing the song on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross instead.

It’s weird seeing the band back after quite an extended period of time out of the limelight but expect to see a lot of them over the next few weeks as they try to sell the new album to a potentially disinterested public. See if you can spot what’s changed since the band have been away.

Read more

We all know Amy Winehouse hasn’t exactly been healthy for the last couple of years, with the continued drink and drugs abuse really taking a toll on her body. But there are new fears over the state of her health after her latest public appearance where she looked almost on the verge of death.

Winehouse’s year started off surprisingly well, with her winning five Grammy Awards stateside. This made her the most successful artist at the annual backslapping event, and although she couldn’t attend in person, she performed via satellite without messing up one little bit. She actually looked quite healthy and there was optimism surrounding her addiction problems.

But it’s been downhill since then. Her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, has been jailed, although he’s expected to be released in to his mum’s care soon. And Winehouse has also been hospitalised twice, the second time being when she was diagnosed with emphysema.

And then there are the numerous incidents of fighting in the street with paparazzi, reporters, and innocent bystanders. While all of this has been going on in her (supposedly) private life, her professional career has bombed, with the James Bond theme slipping away, and her new album nowhere near being finished.

Phew. And that’s only the half of it.

Read more

Led Zeppelin could be about to tour once again, with reports suggesting that a full reunion is now back on the cards after lead singer Robert Plant finally agreeing to come on board. There has been no official word from the band as of yet, but if this is true, it could see Led Zeppelin kick off a huge world tour in the summer of 2009.

Ever since Led Zeppelin reformed for the one-off Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert at the end of 2007, there has been speculation over the reunion being made more permanent. The fans wanted it to happen, and most of the band did too, but Robert Plant seemed insistent that he was too busy working on his collaboration with Allison Krauss to get involved.

The beginning of this week saw rumours of a split in the camp, with the rest of Led Zeppelin (barring Robert Plant) preparing to go on tour without him. To this end, Jimmy Page, John-Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham had been testing out other singers, with one in particular, rumoured to be Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, standing out.

The report stated that Jimmy Page and co. had issued a sort of ultimatum to Plant: come on tour with us or we’ll find someone else. If true, it seems to have worked, with The Sun reporting that Plant has now signed up to the idea of touring once again.

Read more

Will Young is one of the few winners of the whole Simon Cowell reality show (Pop Idol, X-Factor) phenomenon to emerge from it all with a career. Not only that but he’s become accepted as an artist in his own right rather than merely the winner of Pop Idol 2002. Well, at least until folk like me mention it in reviews of his new single.

Apart from the glamorously dull Leona Lewis, Young is really only Cowell manufactured artist to stand the test of time. Where are the likes of Gareth Gates, Steve Brookstein, and Michelle McManus now? Hell, forget them, whatever happened to last year’s winner Leon Jackson?

This new song is titled simply Changes, and it’s probably Will Young’s best song since Leave Right Now, which was incidentally written in collaboration with the same guy. Both the song and the video are quite inspiring, and leave you with a floaty happy feeling that your life isn’t so bad after all.

Read more

The Police have topped the Forbes Magazine poll to find the highest-earning musicians of 2008. The British rockers beat the likes of Beyonce Knowles and Madonna to come first in the list. Only one other British act featured in the top ten, with Genesis making it to number nine.

The Police managed to rack up income of $115 million over the past year, mainly down to the incredibly successful reunion tour which drew sell out crowds around the world and raked in $84.9 million. That’s an incredible $28.3 million each earned by each member of the group for a year’s work.

Read more

George Michael’s latest arrest in a public toilet on suspicion of drug possession is just the latest in a long line of embarrassing and quite openly illegal acts committed by the British singer. But he always seems to comes back from them. Could this finally be the incident that kills his career?

I’ve never really been a fan of George Michael. I can see the appeal, and some of his big hits are definitely up there with the best of British. But from his days in Wham through to his burgeoning solo career, he’s never really been my favourite artist in the world, or even come close to the top 50.

While his private life should really remain separate from his public life, the two have become inextricably intertwined over the past few years as Michael has found that he does in his spare time can sometimes become important to his career.

Read more

It’s been almost a year since I last wrote about Blur, mainly because the band doesn’t exist at the moment after going on an indefinite hiatus in 2003. Last October saw the four original members of the band meet up for lunch but that was as far it went, with no hint of a studio return since.

Graham Coxon leaving (or being asked to leave) Blur in 2002 was the start of the end for the band, and since then, they have all gone their separate ways and partaken in various side projects, some successful, others not so. But, there is at least some hope for a reunion taking place at some time in the future, with the band insisting relations within the band remain amicable.

However, maybe the chances of a reunion have lessened in recent days. First of all, Blur front man Damon Albarn seemed to rule out a reunion ever taking place when he declared in an interview with Argentinian newspaper Clarin that “Blur is over”.

And now, Coxon has responded to this declaration in a long and rambling post on the band’s official message board. According to NME, Coxon wrote under his username, tweedo, and posted a stream-of-consciousness style update on his feeling about Blur and the chances of a reunion.

Read more