The Kaiser Chiefs have done little for nearly a year, apart from a few festival appearances. But they’re now back, working together on new material which will inevitably form the basis for a new album. Just don’t rush them, OK.

It was last March that the Kaiser Chiefs decided they were taking a break from writing, recording, and playing music. The rumor at the time was that Ricky Wilson was eager to forge a career in television, although that seems to have erroneous.
However, there was probably some truth to the fact that the band wanted to go on musical hiatus after …read more

It looks as though Liam Gallagher is so eager to move on from Oasis that not only is he definitely dropping the name, he’s even willing to completely destroy the sanctity of it by suggesting it was crap anyway. Oh, how we love you, Liam.

Oasis split last year, with the Gallagher brothers finally admitting they hate each other to the point they cannot work together a moment longer. Noel is preparing to release a solo album, while Liam has forged a new band out of the ashes of Oasis.
According to Digital Spy, Liam was asked by U.K. radio station XFM …read more

The nominations for the NME Awards were announced earlier this week (Digital Spy has them in full). Oasis have been nominated in four categories, and the Gallagher brothers are likely to turn up to the ceremony, possibly meeting each other for the first time since the band split. I spy trouble.

Oasis split in August, when Noel and Liam’s relationship finally boiled over after years of threatening to do so. Noel has since moved back to Manchester to write a solo album, with Liam setting up a new band out of the remnants of Oasis.
Oasis may be no more, but the …read more

Record labels may think they own the artists they have on their books, but they don’t. And they also can’t license the artists’ music out to companies and campaigns without approval from the artist themselves. Franz Ferdinand have had to remind Epic of this.

According to NME, Franz Ferdinand’s U.S. label Epic, part of Sony Music, allowed one of the band’s tracks to appear on a Web site for fast food chain McDonald’s. Lead singer Alex Kapranos wasn’t too happy when he found out and called Epic and Sony all the names he could think of.

British music has been widely recognized and loved around the world since the early 1950s. And sixty years on, each successive decade has proved to be a beast of its own, unique making. The British Music Experience charts these six decades of music in an interactive and entertaining way.

The British Music Experience is a permanent exhibition at the O2 in London. It has made a home in the O2 Bubble, just one small part of the huge complex formerly known as the Millennium Dome, which now has the O2 Arena at its heart.
The British Music Experience opened in March 2009, …read more

The annual Brit Awards are with us again. The ceremony will take place at London’s Earls Court on February 16, but the nominations have now been revealed in order to allow time for the winners to be voted for by you, the great British public.

Lady Gaga, JLS, Lily Allen, Pixie Lott, and Florence & The Machine have all been nominated for three or more awards. Lady Gaga is up in every category she is eligible for, those being the international awards.
Robbie Williams will be honored for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to Music’, while two new awards have been added as a …read more

We already know that Liam Gallagher is desperate to form a new band from the ashes of Oasis and get on with recording and releasing material. Hopefully before Noel beats him to it. But is he desperate enough to have asked an Oasis fan to be the bassist for the new band?

It appears not.
The story appeared in the News Of The World yesterday. The newspaper claimed that Liam had personally drafted in Louise Davies, an Oasis superfan who runs the Stop Crying Your Heart Out fansite, to be the bassist for his new, as-yet-unnamed band.

We haven’t heard anything from Feeder for a while. Or maybe they just disappeared off my radar. If I’m honest, I’ve only just found out that drummer Mark Richardson has left the band, having returned to Skunk Anansie in May 2009. So there’s a bit of catching up to do.

Maybe Feeder’s newly announced tour is just such an opportunity to reconnect with the band. Although it’s not their usual tour of big venues and the full back catalog.
Instead, Feeder are hitting the road at the end of this month and playing intimate venues, starting at King Tuts in Glasgow on …read more

It was already widely assumed that Blur had ended for the second time but Damon Albarn finally seems to have stated as much semi-officially. Blur reunited for a short stadium tour and some much-celebrated appearances at festivals in 2009, but that, I’m afraid to say, appears to be the end of it.

Blur’s last arranged gig was at the T In The Park festival in Scotland. Albarn set tongues wagging by saying, “This is our last gig” while introducing a song. Since then both Alex James and Graham Coxon have admitted Blur have no future plans.
Now comes Albarn adding his voice …read more

The Rakes were one of several bands which started gaining traction in the British music scene around 2005. Their contemporaries include Bloc Party, The Futureheads, and Maximo Park, three of my favorite British bands. Unfortunately, The Rakes are the first of that group to split.

The band announced the split today and the cancellation UK and US tours in the process. The UK leg was due to start in Leeds on Oct. 26, but all ticket holders will now be issued with full refunds.