Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen shook hands after the Sao Paulo Grand Prix but the gloves are now well and truly off between Formula One rivals Mercedes and Red Bull as the championship enters the final straight. As Hamilton celebrated his 101st win, and possibly the greatest race of his F1 career to revive his […]
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China kept silent Monday over growing concern for tennis star Peng Shuai, who has not been heard from since accusing a powerful politician of sexual assault — the first time the #MeToo movement has struck at the top echelons of the ruling Communist Party. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) called Sunday for Peng’s claims to […]
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Arctic Monkeys have announced their first headline shows of 2022 – see all the details below.
READ MORE: Arctic Monkeys on the cover: “Science fiction allows you to explore the real world”
The Sheffield band, who last performed live in 2019, will hit the road for a string of European dates next August. Tickets go on sale here at 9am GMT (10am CET) next Wednesday (November 24).
Alex Turner and co. will take to the stage in Instanbul (August 9 and 10), Burgas (August 12), Pula (August 16) and Prague (August 18). You can see the full schedule and official tour poster below.
It comes after Monkeys drummer Matt Helders revealed that the group’s upcoming seventh album – the follow-up to 2018’s ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’ – was “pretty much” finished and likely to arrive ahead of a summer 2022 tour.
We are pleased to announce our headline shows in Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia and Czech Republic in August 2022. Tickets go on sale at 10am CET on Wednesday 24th November. https://t.co/PaUDpilxTU pic.twitter.com/47FAHk29Wd
— Arctic Monkeys (@ArcticMonkeys) November 16, 2021
Asked in a recent interview if the new record was “ready to go”, Helders replied: “Yeah, pretty much, yeah. It was a bit disjointed how we had to do it, and there are bits to finish off, but yeah, it’s all in the works.”
He continued: “I think by the time we get everything together it’ll be next year. Hopefully we can get out and tour next summer.”
As for the sound of the forthcoming LP, the drummer explained: “We tend to always move it on a little bit. For us, because we’re so involved in it, it always makes sense.
“[The albums] always kind of pick up where the other one left off in a way. It makes sense when you think about it in the context of the last record. But we always do try and do something a bit different – it’s kind of hard to describe. You can tell it’s the same band.”
Back in January, Arctic Monkeys’ manager revealed that the group had been “working on music” and had initially planned to record last summer. Helders then confirmed that they were in the “early stages” of the album while trying to overcome obstacles brought on by the pandemic.
Then, in August, it emerged that the band had been recording new material in Suffolk.
Fans will now be anticipating an announcement of UK shows as well as potential festival slots. Asked by NME if AM would be headlining Reading & Leeds next year, festival boss Melvin Benn replied: “Arctic Monkeys are a law unto themselves and when they decide next to play live is beyond me, if I’m honest.”
The post Arctic Monkeys announce 2022 European tour dates appeared first on NME.
MONSTA X have teased their upcoming record ‘No Limit’ with a preview video featuring snippets of all its songs.
READ MORE: Every MONSTA X song ranked in order of greatness
Earlier today (November 16), the boyband released a preview of the record on YouTube, featuring short snippets of all seven tracks that will be included on the upcoming record. ‘No Limit’ is due out on November 19 at 2pm KST.
Each snippet is accompanied by promotional pictures of different members, alongside writing and composing credits. Notably, members I.M and Joohoney have been credited as lyricists for all the tracks on the upcoming album. Meanwhile, Hyungwon is credited on the track ‘Mercy’.
‘No Limit’ comes just two months after MONSTA X released their English-language single ‘One Day’. “Our Korean albums are very energetic and powerful, and [so ‘One Day’] shows a different side to MONSTA X,” said rapper I.M in an interview with NME.
Additionally, the upcoming record will be the act’s first domestic comeback since their ninth album ‘One Of A Kind’ arrived in June. In a four-star review of the release, NME’s Ruby C wrote that its lead single ‘Gambler’ was “an alluring and unadulteratedly fun song”.
In addition, MONSTA X have announced plans to release their first movie, Monsta X: The Dreaming. The film will be released in conjunction with the group’s upcoming English record of the same name, set to hit theatres first in South Korea on December 8, before arriving across the globe in over 70 countries on December 9 and 11.
The full-length feature film will document the journeys of Shownu, Joohoney, Minhyuk, Hyungwon, Kihyun and I.M through exclusive new footage, personal interviews in both Korean and English with each member, as well as special performances of some of their biggest hits.
The post Listen to snippets from MONSTA X’s forthcoming mini-album ‘No Limit’ appeared first on NME.
UK independent artists and labels have spoken of the “outrageous” impact and “spiralling costs” of sending music and merchandise to Europe in the wake of Brexit.
READ MORE: “It’s going to be devastating” – here’s how Brexit will screw over British touring artists
While so much has been said and written about the “devastating” result of the UK’s musicians and road crew being dealt a “no deal” when it comes to touring Europe in the new Brexit landscape – as well as ongoing criticism of government inaction – a number of post-Brexit factors and regulations have also led to a great deal of money being lost from independent artists and labels who have struggled in getting records and other products to their fans on the continent.
A lot of products are being held up in customs and returned, that’s if European customers have gone as far to even order them due to a dramatic increase in postage prices.
Catherine Anne Davies, aka The Anchoress, released her second album ‘The Art Of Losing’ to great critical acclaim on Kscope records back in March of this year before being nominated for the Welsh Music Prize. However, Davies said that she saw “an immediate impact with Brexit” when the record was released.
“We got lots of reports of fans in Europe whose pre-orders of an ‘Amazon exclusive’ vinyl version of ‘The Art Of Losing’ got cancelled and we never really got a straight answer as to why it was,” she told NME. “It seemed like Amazon weren’t even sure what the new rules would be, so didn’t want to take the chance with orders being returned.”
She continued: “Since then, it’s been a sorry tale of merch held up in customs – most recently an order from my Bandcamp store took two months to get to Ireland. Similar tales for the rest of Europe as even low-value items are held up in the post. Things have been made slightly easier of late as Bandcamp has introduced charging VAT and tax at the point of sale for European customers.
“While this might take the guessing game out of how much an item will end up costing them, I also see that orders to Europe have plummeted in terms of numbers of sales. The extra import charges are just too high for most people.”
Davies also said that she’d experienced a six-week delay on getting CDs made of a collaboration with prog band The Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost as the packaging was made in Europe and “got stuck in customs for absolutely ages”. Besides the ongoing delays in getting vinyl made, lead times on making CDs can even be two months or more as many are made in the EU.
“It’s utter chaos out there and unless you are a major label with guaranteed allocation at any of the pressing plants or manufacturers, it’s causing huge delays to independent releases,” she added.
The Anchoress. CREDIT: Press
Meanwhile, Jack Clothier from Alcopop! Records (home of TIGERCUB, Art Brut, BO NINGEN, DZ Deathrays, False Advertising, Pulled Apart By Horses, and many more) said that it was “difficult to entirely separate Brexit from COVID issues” when it came to many matters having an impact shipping products to Europe, but that issues relating to “outrageous” postage prices and delays were “Brexit through and through”.
“Postage prices have gone through the roof,” said Clothier. “Two years ago, we used to be able to ship vinyl to Germany for around £6, but now it’s now double that or more.”
He continued: “Couriers from Czech Republic (where the majority of indie vinyl is pressed) are only spiralling. Brexit. COVID. Both? It’s all sending it through the roof. One vinyl manufacturer is now even telling their clients that they have to allow scope for the cost of production to go up over the next six months, as we don’t know how fucked up the world will be by then.
“Imagine that email: ‘Sorry Jack, that vinyl you ordered six months ago is going up by £400 because Boris has nuked our one remaining link with Europe. You can cancel it and go somewhere else, but that’ll add another half a year onto your album campaign’. You’re stuck aren’t you?”
He added: “When you’re working on razor-thin margins in an indie label anyway, you start adding all those expenses on and you suddenly go from a razor-thin profit to a pretty chunky loss.”
Pulled Apart By Horses. Credit: Mark Howe
Clothier explained how Brexit had not only meant there were now duty costs, additional admin and paperwork for confirming the source of records and filling out the relevant trade tariff HS coding, making it “kind of untenable to ship records to Europe”. Not only that, but the new issues in shipping post-Brexit had meant that “so much stuff is being lost or returned”.
As a result of the extra costs and manpower due to operating with small teams, Clothier explained how Brexit had led to “direct losses in sales” and less time spent on creative development with talent so they could instead tend to delivery work and reposting items.
“I went to the post office the other day to send three vinyl to Germany for £40,” he said. “It’s those things that are costing me time and effort on a day-to-day basis. We have this mad situation where we work with a Derry band, where I have to post stuff to his manager in Belfast who can then pop over the border and post it from there so we can bring the costs down. It’s made life a hell of a lot more difficult for us.
“We use a distributor who understands all of this a lot more, but when I’m shipping stuff personally, the amount of stuff that’s returned is just crazy. We spoke to the Post Office people the other day and they just said that Europe don’t like us anymore after Brexit, so even the tiniest thing or mistake will lead to stuff being sent back.”
The label-runner went on to explain how he believed it would be up to private companies to solve matters, repeating the notion that the government had treated the £5.2billion music industry like “an afterthought” in comparison to the £1.2billion fishing industry.
“I have little faith in the government as they had years of failing to plan for this and we’ve been left to pick up the pieces,” he admitted. “I think capitalism will drive change when bigger markets demand it.
“For us and our bands, it’s been tricky. We now have very difficult cash flow problems in terms of vinyl not arriving until however many months after we’re pressing it. It’s been private companies like Shopify and Bandcamp that have been reaching out to help labels musicians, rather than the government.”
This comes as a global crisis and backlog is seeing some labels and artists unable to get vinyl records pressed until 2023 at the earliest.
The post-Brexit touring fiasco meanwhile rumbles on, after a number of leading organisations in the music industry penned an open letter to the UK government criticising “misleading” new claims about the status of the situation for artists and crew.
Last month, a number of figures from the music industry spoke to NME about how new visa rules, as well as prohibitive costs and admin rules, meant that many UK artists could no longer afford to tour in Spain in particular – cutting off one of the biggest markets for UK talent.
The Anchoress will be heading out on a UK headline tour next spring.
The post Independent artists and labels say Brexit has had “outrageous” impact in shipping music and merch to and from Europe appeared first on NME.
MANILA, Philippines — Four Team Lakay fighters, led by former undisputed bantamweight champion Kevin Belingon, will see action in ONE: Winter Warriors II next month at Singapore Indoor Stadium. Eyeing another shot at the world title, Belingon clashes with South Korea’s Kwon Won II. Belingon’s return comes more than a year after he was stopped […]
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MANILA, Philippines — Veteran guard Alex Cabagnot attended his first practice at Terrafirma on Tuesday, three days since being surprisingly let go by San Miguel Beer. So far, Cabagnot seems to be fitting in well with his new teammates. Terrafirma rookie James Laput welcomed Cabagnot on the team on his Instagram with the nine-time PBA […]
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Brave Girls’ Yujeong has released a cover of Yoo Jae-Ha’s 1987 song ‘You In My Arms’.
READ MORE: Brave Girls are proof that K-pop success can be fickle, but hard work – and good timing – pays off
In the video’s description, Yujeong wrote about how she found it hard to choose which song by the late Yoo Jae-Ha’ to cover, but ultimately decided on ‘You In My Arms’ as she felt it would be the most meaningful to the girl group’s fanbase, also know as Fearless.
“I tried singing this song, since I thought this song was the most apt in expressing what I want to say to Fearless,” the description reads. “Although I may be lacking in abilities, I am always very thankful to everyone who listens and cheers me on.”
Meanwhile, the cover sees the singer performing the song while sitting in a recording booth lit by purple lights. “Atop a rowboat, floating along / I want to remain with you, my lake,” Yujeong croons in her rendition of the ballad.
Earlier this year, Brave Girls released ‘After We Ride’, the city pop-inspired sequel to their 2020 track, ‘We Ride’. The latter track had become a sleeper hit earlier this year following the sudden viral success of their 2017 single, ‘Rollin’’.
“We thought that ‘We Ride’ would be our last album. But due to the resurgence of ‘Rollin” and later ‘We Ride,’ we were able to build a sequel to that story,” leader Minyoung said of ‘We Ride’ during a press conference for the release of ‘After We Ride’, per Soompi.
In February, ‘Rollin’’ surged up the charts after a fan-made video of them performing the song at various live events went viral on YouTube. Prior to their sudden popularity, the group had struggled to find success throughout their 10-year long career and did not expect to perform again after promotions for their 2020 single ‘We Ride’ ended.
The post Brave Girls’ Yujeong drops cover of Yoo Jae-ha’s ‘You In My Arms’ appeared first on NME.
Taylor Swift has shared an acoustic live performance of ‘All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)’.
READ MORE: Taylor Swift’s ‘All Too Well’ short film highlights the emotional power of her storytelling
The extended take on Swift’s 2012 track features on the recently released ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, the latest in her ongoing series of re-recorded albums. It was accompanied by the All Too Well short film, which was written and directed by Swift.
During the premiere of the Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien-starring visuals, the singer debuted the 10-minute version of ‘All Too Well’ live at the AMC 13 Lincoln Square cinema in Manhattan, New York.
Swift has now released an official recording of “the first ever performance” of the song, which took place in front of 400 fans. “We recorded the acoustic performance so now we can all experience it together,” the star wrote on social media.
You can listen to the track here.
The first ever performance of All Too Well (10 min version) was at the AMC 13 theater in front of 400 fans. We recorded the acoustic performance so now we can all experience it together It’s available here https://t.co/H55gVedcRh pic.twitter.com/ntDSDI9tYV
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 15, 2021
Swift performed the 10-minute version of ‘All Too Well’ on last weekend’s Saturday Night Live, where she also joined Pete Davidson in a sketch about “three sad virgins”.
Taylor Swift has made Spotify history with ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, racking up the biggest number of first-day streams by a female artist in history. Songs from the record were played online 90.8million times in the first 24 hours of their release.
Yesterday (November 15) Swift shared the official video for ‘I Bet You Think About Me’. Co-written and directed by Blake Lively, the clip stars Whiplash actor Miles Teller, whose character is confronted by an ex (played by Swift) on his wedding day.
In a four-star review of ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, NME wrote: “The vocals offer the most significant change, with Swift’s voice maturing significantly in the intervening decade. . You hear it clearest on the spoken-word moments, like ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’s withering put-down: “With some indie record that’s much cooler than mine“.
“It’s the sort of eye-roll moment typical of being a young adult, and while delivered with vim in its creation, in these moments the shifts in Swift’s lyricism and vocals in the 10 years since it was first released are obvious. It’s one of the only recognisable differences to the album’s original.”
The post Taylor Swift shares acoustic live version of 10-minute ‘All Too Well’ appeared first on NME.
Thai-born K-pop singer Sorn has left the group CLC and her long-time agency CUBE Entertainment.
READ MORE: Every TWICE song ranked in order of greatness
Earlier today (November 16), CUBE Entertainment released a statement to South Korean news outlets, announcing Sorn’s departure from the group. The company also confirmed that the Thai singer’s contract with CUBE has ended.
“This is an announcement that our exclusive contract with Sorn has been terminated”, CUBE said, per MyDaily and translated by Soompi. “As her exclusive contract has ended, she has also left CLC. This decision was made following mutual discussion.”
Sorn later personally confirmed the news with posts on her social media accounts, also noting that she and the company “mutually agreed to part ways.”
“I would like to thank everyone who has been supporting me and everything I’ve done with CLC,” she wrote. “For the past 10 years, I’ve learnt so much from the whole experience. I’ve met six wonderful girls who have become my second family in Korea.”
“I’m so proud of all the achievements we have accomplished together as a team and I’ve enjoyed every single moment with them through our ups and downs,” Sorn added. “I wish my girls all the best and I will support them in everything they do.”
— Sorn Sajakul (@sssorn_clc) November 16, 2021
With this, Sorn has become the second member of CLC to leave this group this year, following the departure of Elkie. The Hong Kong-born singer later claimed that there was “no reason” to remain in CLC after their agency had stopped providing support to the group.
Last week, Sorn teamed up with f(x)‘s Amber and influencer Emily Mei on the latter’s debut single ‘My Domain’. The music video for ‘My Domain’ is the first taste of a new story universe from Mei, according to a press release.
The post Sorn leaves CLC and CUBE Entertainment: “We have both mutually agreed” appeared first on NME.
Rain or Shine coach Chris Gavina talks about the promising future of Rain or Shine as he expects the Elasto Painters to contend for a title
The post WATCH: Gavina on Rain or Shine’s promising future, high expectations heading into next Govs’ Cup appeared first on Inquirer Sports.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have been fined $250,000 by the NBA after holding a pre-season training camp in Miami, the league said Monday. The Timberwolves visited Miami in September for events which included a party at new minority owner Alex Rodriguez’s mansion. But the trip to Florida came with a hefty price tag, with the team […]
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