Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson were, at one time, good friends and collaborators. They worked together on a number of songs, including duets Say Say Say and The Man. However, their friendship fell apart after Jackson bought a 50 percent stake in the publishing rights to The Beatles back catalog. He did this by outbidding both McCartney and Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono.

When Michael Jackson died at the tender age of 50, rumors abounded all across the Web that he’d left McCartney the Beatles songs he effectively stole from under his nose in 1985. However, the will has been examined and there is no mention of Paul McCartney in it anywhere, which is a little bit disappointing as it would surely have been the right thing to do.

Is McCartney upset at the news? The press says yes, he says no.

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Drugs go hand in hand with rock music - that’s an immutable fact of life only denied by those on the outside. Sex, drugs, and rock’n'roll fit together like a glove, and any rock musician who doesn’t understand this really has no place referring to him or herself as a rock musician in the first place. Those who do admit it’s the case may be condemned as bad influences but their only real crime is telling the truth.

Noel Gallagher isn’t one of these deniers. In fact, in his usual carefree attitude of saying what he wants and not caring about the consequences, he’s admitted that he and the rest of the Oasis boys were one of the hardest rocking bands of the nineties. Back when Britpop battles between Oasis and Blur were a monthly occurrence, the Gallaghers probably kept the black market economy of London going single-handedly.

Gallagher has never been one to hold his tongue and keep a low profile. In fact, give him a microphone or sit him next to a reporter and you can be almost guaranteed to get a classic and probably controversial statement or two. This trend has continued with an interview Noel recently gave to Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.

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Michael Jackson’s life and death has now been discussed ad nauseam by both the people who knew him and the people who didn’t. I must admit to being a little bit bored of the whole thing now. Michael Jackson was a great singer, songwriter, dancer, and performer. But he was not the second coming. It’s very sad that he has died at the tender age of 50, but since his death on June 25, thousands of other people have died around the world, many of them younger than Jacko, and all of them having had less of a privileged life.

However, there is one man’s opinion I still wanted to hear regarding the life and death of Michael Jackson. That man is Jarvis Cocker, who had a brief but very famous connection to the King of Pop. Cocker, formally a member of the Britpop band Pulp, appeared on the British television show Question Time last week and was asked for his opinion on the passing away of the once-great music artist.

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This is the dilemma facing 750,000 people right now. They’ve all bought tickets to see Michael Jackson make his comeback in a series of concerts at the London O2 Arena this summer, concerts which will now never take place in light of Jackson’s death last week. So what to do? Claim the refund from the concert promoter AEG Live or choose to still be sent the ticket and either keep it as a piece of music memorabilia or sell it on eBay?

February saw Michael Jackson making plans for a comeback tour. Called This Is It, the tour would begin in London, with the ten dates initially announced becoming 50 in March when the first run of concerts sold out. In the end, all 50 concerts sold out completely, meaning 750,000 people had paid £75 or more to see the singer make his comeback.

When Jackson died, AEG Live announced it was giving fans the chance to either claim a full refund of the asking price of the ticket they had bought OR get the ticket sent as a souvenir. The ticket was reportedly designed by Jacko himself and comes with a 3D holographic image on the front. Many fans were sickened that they wouldn’t be allowed to claim the refund AND keep hold of the unusable ticket as a souvenir as well.

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The Ting Tings seemed to appear from nowhere at the beginning of last year. Although both members, Jules De Martino and Katie White, had been in other groups for years, The Ting Tings was the first to become really big. They quickly built a sizable fan base thanks to their cross genre appeal, with both clubbers and Indie fans falling for their addictive songs.

Their debut album, We Started Nothing, is astoundingly good, full of catchy tunes perfect for playing on a hot summer’s day. It includes the five singles released which charted, including That’s Not My Name which reached number one in the British singles chart. And now, they’re preparing to record their as-yet-untitled second album.

The Manchester duo recently told BBC Newsbeat of their plans, which see the group going to Germany to try out new material and set the tone for the new record.

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La Roux are a new British duo, not a solo act like many have assumed. Elly Jackson is the quiff-wearing front woman, with co-writer and co-producer Ben Langmaid taking a more backseat role. Think of the Pet Shop Boys if Chris Lowe stayed even more in the background than he does already. Their music is a mix of electro-pop and dance, all with an eighties flavor running through it.

La Roux have already released two singles, Quicksand and In For The Kill, the latter of which managed to reach number two in the UK singles chart. Then came their third release, Bulletproof (video embedded below), which hit number one at the weekend. Michael Jackson may have dominated the latest charts but it’s La Roux who made it to the top.

The question for me is whether this success signals yet another 1980s revival? It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened, and with La Roux looking and sounding like the love children of The Human League and Heaven 17, it seems likely to happen.

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Michael Jackson was always popular in the U.K. in life, and the same can now be said of him in death. Just three days after Michael Jackson died, the latest British charts have shown what a massive effect his passing has had on people. It seems as though most of the population went out and brought his music in the days following his death from cardiac arrest on Thursday (June 25).

Michael Jackson had, prior to his death last week, been kind of out of the news for a while. There were, of course, the 50 shows he’d promised to perform at the London O2 Arena, of which we still don’t know the fate. But apart from that, no one was really that interested in him, his life, or his music. His death changed that completely overnight.

Not only has the death of Michael Jackson provoked an outpouring of grief and been the biggest media event for years, it’s also had a huge effect on sales of his records. Retailers around the U.K. are now reporting they’ve sold out of all his albums. Jackson’s albums occupied the top 15 slots on Amazon’s Bestsellers list, while HMV “experienced an 80-fold increase in demand for his music,” according to Digital Spy.

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I doubt there’s a man, woman, or child not shocked by the sudden and unexpected death of Michael Jackson at the tender age of 50. Whether you loved him or hated him, thought he was a freak or just an eccentric, believed all the many stories told about him or not, you cannot argue that he wasn’t a musical genius. He entertained and enlightened many people from all walks of life and it’s a sad loss to the world.

Paul McCartney worked with Michael Jackson on a number of different occasions, including duets Say Say Say (embedded below) and The Man. The pair eventually fell out with each other after Jackson outbid both McCartney and John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono for the publishing rights to The Beatles back catalog. There’s now a rumor that Jackson left these rights to McCartney in his will.

Paul McCartney was clearly as shocked and upset about Michael Jackson’s premature death from cardiac arrest, and posted a heartfelt tribute to the man on his official Web site.

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N-Dubz aren’t my favorite group in the world, or even in the U.K., but they are growing on me and I do have a grudging respect for their music and how they’ve become hugely successful. The group are currently working on a follow-up to their debut album, Uncle B, and preparing to play the Wireless Festival in London in July.

Last month, while N-Dubz were riding high in the charts with their collaboration with Tinchy Stryder, Number 1, Tulisa was rushed to hospital with suspected swine flu. It turned out to be nothing of the sort, and she actually just had the regular sniffles which most of us get a few times a year. But it gave the group some nice publicity, which is never a bad thing.

In an interview with BBC Newsbeat, where she also spoke about being back in the studio writing songs for the group’s second album, and having to spend every day with Dappy and Fazer, Tulisa spoke about the prospect of playing the Wireless Festival in Hyde Park. She, and hopefully her band mates as well, seem to truly understand what’s required to do well at a festival.

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It probably comes as little surprise that we here at Brit Music Scene love British music. It is, without a doubt, the best music in the world, with more important artists to have emerged from the UK than any other country. Which, considering the size of this little island, is pretty damn amazing. But not everyone holds the British music scene in such high regard.

Moby has recently come out and dismissed the British music scene in no uncertain terms. Moby is releasing his new album, Wait for Me, but I’m sure that has nothing to do with these headline-chasing comments. In an interview with The Sun newspaper, Moby claims to have been heavily influenced by The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, and Rod Stewart in his younger days but now isn’t a fan of the UK’s output.

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