News

Magic Slim, the Chicago blues guitarist, has died aged 75. A heavy smoker who suffered from emphysema and heart problems, Slim was forced by illness to cut short a tour with his band, the Teardrops, in late January, reports Reuters. Born Morris Holt to Mississippi sharecroppers in August 1937, Slim started out playing the piano. But after losing a little finger in a cotton gin accident at 14, he switched to guitar. On his first trip to Chicago to play for friend and mentor Magic Sam, Sam nicknamed his friend Slim on account of his physique.

Atoms For Peace have been announced as the headliner for two festivals this July. Thom Yorke’s side project with Flea, Nigel Godrich, Mauro Refosco and Joey Waronker will play The Melt! Festival in Ferropolis, Germany and the Exit Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia. Melt!, now in its 16th year, will also include Alt-J, Django Django, Dan Deacon and The Knife. It takes place between July 19 and 21. Tickets are €119 (£102.85) plus fees including a €5 garbage disposal surcharge.

Elvis Costello is reportedly to release a new album for Record Store Day 2013. The album, as yet untitled, will be a collaboration between Costello and The Roots. According to an interview on NYU Local with Roots’ drummer Questlove, the collaboration grew out of Costello’s appearances on American chat show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, where The Roots are the house band.

Guitarist Gerry Leonard has revealed that David Bowie could tour off the back of his forthcoming new album. "I would say that it's 50-50," he told Rolling Stone. "A couple of times, when we played back one of the more kick-ass tunes from the new record, he'd be like, 'This would be great live!' Of course, everyone was like, 'What? Did he just say that?' But other times he'd just roll his eyes if someone brought up playing live."

The official website for Iggy And The Stooges has announced plans to release a DVD of its 2011 tribute concert for band member Ron Asheton in April. Asheton died in 2009 of a heart attack. He was the Stooges' original guitarist, but moved to bass for Raw Power, a position he held through the band’s reunion.

Good Ol’ Freda, a documentary about former Beatles secretary Freda Kelly, has scaled the Everest of music licensing feats: it has licensed three Beatles songs.

Bob Dylan is reportedly releasing a 7” single as part of Record Store Day 2013, according to an online round up of this year’s planned releases. The 7” will comprise versions of “Wigwam” b/w “Thirsty Boots”, which may be taken from the forthcoming Bootleg Series Volume 10.

Kevin Ayers, one of Britain’s most gifted and idiosyncratic singer-songwriters, has died at the age of 68. Ayers was born in Kent in 1944. Though he spent his childhood in Malaysia – moving there with his mother and British district officer stepfather – he returned to London at 12, only to be told to leave the city by a magistrate five years later following a drug bust. Ayers always maintained the bust that sent him into exile (and more importantly, into Canterbury) was a set-up. Whether it was or wasn’t, it was certainly an act of fate.

Suede have announced details of a new single and intimate London show. The band will release the track 'It Starts And Ends With You' – which you can listen to below – to coincide with the release of their new album 'Bloodsports' on March 18. The track follows 'Barriers', which you can hear on Suede's official website. The band have also announced that they will play an intimate show at The Barfly in Camden on March 4 for XFM, which they will follow-up with a big London show at Alexandra Palace on March 30.

Jack White has been named the official ambassador for Record Store Day 2013. The former frontman of The White Stripes has been named as the figurehead of the celebration of independent record shops thanks to the fact that he not only makes records, but also owns a record store and a record label: his Nashville based Third Man Records.