News

The Flaming Lips have recorded a track-by-track cover version of King Crimson's classic 1969 debut In the Court of the Crimson King. The new cover album, called Playing Hide And Seek With The Ghosts Of Dawn, follows on from their 2010 cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. The album includes collaborations with New Fumes, Linear Downfall, Spaceface and Stardeath and White Dwarfs. It's currently being streamed here: http://satelliteheartradio.com/ The Flaming Lips release a new studio album, The Terror, in the New Year.

The Gaslight Anthem have announced a UK tour for March 2013. The New Jersey rockers will play nine dates on the stretch kicking off on March 21 at the O2 Academy, Bristol, before heading up to Leeds, Glasgow and Manchester and finishing up at London's Troxy.

A collage used for the insert in The Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album has fetched more than £50,000 at auction. The collage featured on the 1967 album, the band's eighth record, and shows Sergeant Pepper along with the four Beatles. Copies of it were inserted in the record for fans to cut out and keep.

Johnny Marr has unveiled the video for his first ever solo single, "The Messenger". As revealed by NME last month, Marr will release his debut solo album, also called The Messenger, on February 25. The album was recorded in Manchester and Berlin, and mastered at London’s Abbey Road by Frank Arkwright. The pair previously worked together on remastering work for The Smiths' box set Complete.

Rare footage has surfaced of Elvis Presley talking at a press conference. The event took place the day before the first of four nights at New York's Madison Square Garden in 1972, and is among the last press conferences Elvis ever did. Asked whether he would like to perform abroad, 'The King' expressed a desire to visit the UK. He said: "I've never been to Britain, I’d like to, very much, I’ve never been out of this country except in the service."

Ridley Scott's production company, Scott Free, are making a documentary about Bruce Springsteen. According to a story in Variety, Springsteen And I will be compiled by director Baillie Walsh from footage submitted by fans.

Damon Albarn has created an 'audio collage' to be simultaneously broadcast on every BBC radio station in the UK and worldwide to mark 90 years of radio. The simulcast, named Radio Reunited, will reach a potential global audience of 120 million people across every inhabited continent.

My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James is set to release his debut solo album. Regions Of Light And Sound Of God will come out in North America on February 5, 2013 on the ATO label. The album was inspired by the 1929 graphic novel God's Man, by Lynd Ward, writes Pitchfork.

The Rolling Stones have announced plans to play the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on December 8. The show will come after the band's gigs at London's O2 Arena on November 25 and 29, and before their previously announced shows in New Jersey at the Prudential Center in Newark on December 13 and 15. Tickets for the new date will go on sale November 19. Mick Jagger recently spoke to Billboard about the high ticket prices for the band's forthcoming shows, saying they are so costly because the band's gigs are "expensive to put on".

Billy Bragg delivered the second annual John Peel Lecture earlier today (November 12) at the Radio Festival 2012 at The Lowry in Salford. Bragg's speech saw him rallying against the decline of state educated musicians in the UK Top 40, highlighting a magazine study which revealed that 80% of artists in the charts in 1990 were state educated, as compared to the charts in 2010 which were dominated by those who had been privately educated. He said – via The Guardian: "A decent education in the arts will only be available to those able to pay for it."