Franz Ferdinand: Last News

NME journalist James McMahon, who has died age 44.McMahon was NME Features Editor during the 2000s, and passed from soft tissue sarcoma at Whipps Cross Hospital in East London on Thursday (November 14).A passionate champion of all forms of music, especially metal and indie, McMahon was fiercely committed to championing artists from a working class background.News of his death was shared by former NME editor Conor McNicholas, who wrote: “James was someone who really mattered – his words mattered. His actions mattered. He connected people in new ways and changed things, always for the better because he cared so very much.”James McMahon3rd July 1980 – 14th November 2024Words by @ConorMcNicholas Please consider donating in his memory at https://t.co/YCTqHq7c7E pic.twitter.com/JKmjqRsJJ3— The James McMahon Music Podcast (@jamesjammcmahon) November 15, 2024Nadine Shah, Benefits, Alex Kapanranos, Frank Carter, Ash and The Maccabees’ guitarist Felix White were among the musicians paying tribute to James.“So shocked and sad to hear this,” wrote White.

The Futureheads have told NME about their experience touring with The Killers during the 2005 NME Awards tour.The tour, which ran in the lead-up to the 2005 awards ceremony, saw The Killers, The Futureheads, Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs play shows across the UK. At the time, the venues – which included universities – were the biggest the bands had ever played in.Prior to 2005’s edition, the likes of Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand had become household names following their participation in the tour.Speaking to NME recently, Futureheads frontman Barry Hyde had been reminiscing about the impact of the tour, which provided a pivotal platform to the bands, who all went on to have illustrious careers.“All the bands hung out together, and there was a positive competitiveness.

The Mighty Boosh, check out exclusive photos by Dave Brown on NME below.Behind The Boosh 20 was first exhibited in Australia last summer and will be coming to Behind The Gallery at 2 Hoxton Street from October 10-13 – providing a peak behind the curtain of the seminal and zeitgeist-capturing surreal comedy about failing musicians turned zoo-keepers and later shop-owners, Howard Moon and Vince Noir.The photos were taken by cast member Dave Brown – who played Bollo the ape in the show – who captured candid moments of the comedy troupe backstage and on st.“I’m in total denial that it’s been 20 years since I donned a fake mullet and sprayed on the fake tan to play Joey Moose in ‘Killeroo’, the first episode of season 1 back in 2004,” Brown said in a press release.

Franz Ferdinand debuted six new songs from their upcoming album ‘The Human Fear’ at a show in Scotland this week – check out footage below.The indie greats were playing the first of a run of three Scottish shows at the Strathpeffer Spa Pavilion in the Highlands on Thursday (September 26) and took the chance to give several new tracks their world premiere.As well as the live debut of the album’s lead single ‘Audacious’, Franz Ferdinand also played ‘The Doctor’, ‘Bar Lonely’, ‘Night Or Day’, ‘Hooked’ and ‘The Birds’.Sharing an excerpt of ‘Audacious’, the band wrote on X after the show: “Strathpeffer, thanks for helping us kick off these shows in the right way. Next up is Stirling, see you tonight.”Strathpeffer, thanks for helping us kick off these shows in the right way.

Franz Ferdinand have announced a North American headline tour for 2025 – find all the details below.The Scottish band will head to the US and Canada next spring in support of their long-awaited sixth album ‘The Human Fear’, which is due for release on January 10 (pre-order/pre-save here).“We’ve seen all of your comments and we are happy to announce that we’re heading back to North America in March and April next year,” they wrote on social media to confirm the dates.Kicking off in Seattle on March 24, the forthcoming trek is also scheduled to visit Vancouver, San Francisco, Kansas City, Washington DC, Brooklyn, Montreal, Toronto and other cities.Tickets go on general sale at 10am local time tomorrow (September 27) – you’ll be able to buy yours here. Alternatively, fans can access a pre-sale now by using the password ‘humanfear’.Check out the announcement post and full itinerary below.Local Pre-sale starts Thursday 26th September at 10AM Local and general sale starts Friday 27th September at 10AM Local.

Franz Ferdinand have returned with their bold new single ‘Audacious’ and announced details of their long-awaited sixth album ‘The Human Fear’ along with UK and European tour dates. Check everything out below, along with our interview with frontman Alex Kapranos.Read More: Franz Ferdinand on their greatest hits and new line-upTheir first studio album since 2018’s acclaimed and dance-driven ‘Always Ascending’, ‘The Human Fear’ will arrive on January 10, 2025.

Franz Ferdinand have announced their brand new single ‘Audacious’ will be released later this week.The Scottish rock band took to their official social media accounts to share a video teaser of their new track which sees Miaoux Miaoux – real name Julian Victor Corrie, the band’s keyboard and synthesizer player – turn the left as he looks at something that completely grabs his attention and leaves him in a state of surprise.‘Audacious’ is set for release this Wednesday (September 11) and is available to be pre-saved here. Along with the new single, the indie icons are also expected to release a new album in the near future.Audacious – New SingleWednesdayPre-save here: https://t.co/ypT4u25Gwt pic.twitter.com/W0Wxdb9PJX— Franz Ferdinand (@Franz_Ferdinand) September 9, 2024The band’s last full-length release was 2018’s ‘Always Ascending’.

Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos has hit out at the RAC after his vehicle broke down on a motorway.Kapranos posted a string comments on X complaining that he had been waiting for 15 hours before the breakdown service assisted him.In an initial post he wrote: “Hi @TheRAC_UK @RAC_Care. I’ve been waiting to be picked up from a motorway breakdown for 7 hours. Your operators don’t seem to know what is going on.

Paisley's Paolo Nutini is giving the Scots Government 0/10 after it cut aid to budding musicians.

Cassius are set to perform for the first time since the death of Philippe ‘Zdar’ Cerboneschi in 2019.The French producer and DJ, who made up one-half of the musical duo, died at the age of 50 in 2019 after accidentally falling from a high floor of a building in Paris. He was a week away from releasing the last Cassius album, ‘Dreems’.Now, surviving member Hubert ‘Boombass’ Blanc-Francard is set to play a one-off set at the Paris Paralympics closing ceremony in honour of his late co-producer.The performance will take place on Sunday September 8 at the Stade de France, where much of the games have taken place.Boombass will be joining a line-up of other French electronic artists, including Jean-Michel Jarre, Anetha, Busy P, Chloé Caillet and Kiddy Smile for a three-hour “electro party” that will celebrate the country’s rich music scenes.A post shared by Cassius (@cassius)Cassius were pioneers of French Touch, a subgenre of house music that emerged in France in the ’90s.

The Mighty Boosh will be coming to London later this year.Behind The Boosh 20 was first exhibited in Australia last summer and will be coming to Behind The Gallery at 2 Hoxton Street from October 10-13.The photos were taken by cast member Dave Brown, who wasn’t an official photographer but captured images of the cast purely for fun.“I’m in total denial that it’s been 20 years since I donned a fake mullet and sprayed on the fake tan to play Joey Moose in ‘Killeroo’, the first episode of season 1 back in 2004,” Brown said in a press release. “I had a Nokia brick phone back then, social media consisted only of Friends Reunited and MySpace, Franz Ferdinand was number 1 and Rich Fulcher had a perm.“It’s been a while since I showed some Behind The Boosh pics to the UK fans! It’s gonna be great to get my monkey hands back into the dusty Boosh archives to find some old fan-favorite classics but I’m also keen to show some never-before-seen moments from all the TV and Live shows,” Brown said [via Behind The Gallery].“The exhibitions I had last year in Sydney and Melbourne blew me away, it was so great to meet a new generation of fans whose older siblings and parents had handed their Boosh love down to them, I’m hoping there are a few new Boosh babies over here too but also great to see all the fans who still watch it late on a Saturday night with a Pot Noodle and a bowl of Coco Pops.”Behind The Gallery Creative Director Stephen Dallimore added: “The love The Mighty Boosh still has to this day, is comparable to legendary acts such as Monty Python and continues to draw together all fringes of society.

Franz Ferdinand have announced details of some live shows in Scotland – marking their first tour dates in over a year. Find ticket details below.The band first shared an update with fans on Saturday (July 13), when they uploaded a clip to their social media channels confirming that an official announcement about new live shows was on the way.“We’re very excited to announce that we’ve got a few live shows coming up in Scotland,” they wrote in the caption, also adding that the full announcement would arrive on Monday (July 15).In the clip, Alex Kapranos is seen speaking directly to the camera.

Glastonbury veterans will know that almost every year, there's a secret set announced last minute that surprises festival-goers. After the full line-up and set times have been revealed, there's always a few slots that read TBA which stands for 'to be announced.' These slots are nicknamed secret sets by fans, as in previous years, huge artists have turned up and played them unexpectedly.This year, fans are convinced that nineties band Kasabian will be surprising Glastonbury crowds.The speculation comes after William Hill suspended betting on the band appearing at the festival next week. Other rumoured secret set contenders include Pulp, Kings of Leon, The Killer and Harry Styles.

Primal Scream, Franz Ferdinand, boygenius and Raye all performed at last year’s event. A statement on social media from organisers read: “We’ve decided to take a break with Connect Music Festival in 2024 to take the time to build the next edition of the festival; to make sure it flourishes, evolves, and continues to offer wonderful experiences for fans.”The announcement comes in a year where many other grassroots festival events have also been cancelled by organisers. December saw Herefordshire’s Nozstock Hidden Valley announce that 2024 would be their final incarnation after 26 years due to “soaring costs” and financial risk”, while the fan favourite Shepton Mallet skating and music festival NASS announced that they wouldn’t be putting on an event this summer either as it was “just not economically feasible to continue”.Elsewhere, rising costs also cancelled Dumfries’ Doonhame Festival for 2024, Bluedot announced a year off for the land to “desperately” recover after being struck by heavy rain and cancellations last summer, Nottingham’s Splendour has been canned for this year due to planning delays from a financially-struggling city council, and Barn On The Farm shared that it would be taking a fallow year due to financial constraints.Standon Calling also recently announced its postponement due to a “very challenging climate”.

Alex Kapranos has celebrated the 20th anniversary of Franz Ferdinand’s debut album today (February 9).The band’s self titled debut album arrived 20 years ago today on February 9 2004 – reaching Number Three in the charts, containing the hit singles ‘Take Me Out’, ‘Michael’, ‘The Dark Of The Matinee’ and ‘This Fire’, and going on to win the Mercury Music Prize and become known as an indie classic.In a 9/10 review of the album on its release, NME said: “without doubt, this debut is an album packed with tunes that will make anyone with legs dance. At indie discos across the land their first two singles have been packing dancefloors…“This is an album as much about preening and posing as passion, that’ll have you pouring over the lyrics for an age.

After forming back in 2002, Girls Aloud are back on everyone’s radar after announcing their 2024 comeback tour. Following the tragic death of band member Sarah Harding in 2021, the group revealed that their tour will “honour” Sarah’s life and it'll be a "magical" experience. From Sound Of The Underground to Biology, during the 2000s and 2010s, Girls Aloud dominated the music charts thanks to their infectious sound and spent a whopping 164 weeks in the Top 40 of the UK Official Chart.

Måneskin have released a dramatic video for their new single ‘Valentine’ – check it out below.The band have dropped the deluxe edition of their debut album ‘Rush!’ today (November 10), of which ‘Valentine’ appears as a brand new track. The deluxe, called ‘Rush! (Are You Coming?)’ takes its title from one of the five new songs the band wrote for the album, ‘Honey (Are U Coming?)‘To celebrate the arrival of their deluxe LP, Måneskin have dropped a black-and-white video for ‘Valentine’ with the band performing in a cavernous warehouse.

Franz Ferdinand‘s track ‘Jaqueline’ is running as MP to replace Mhairi Black.Jaqueline Cameron – who is currently the deputy leader of Renfrewshire Council – put her name forward to replace Black and is running to be the SNP candidate in Paisley and Renfrewshire South for the forthcoming General Election.“I was delighted to be approved as a potential candidate and am seeking the honour of representing the area in which I live,” she told The National.“I intend to fight for the needs of our communities, with great local knowledge, experience and a deep passion to address poverty and disadvantage wherever I find it. I respect the decision of Mhairi Black to stand down and share her disgust at how the Tories have ignored the needs of our communities.”No longer working on a desk, but working for her constituents instead.

Connect Music Festival is making its return to Edinburgh later this month, celebrating an array of musical talent, comedy, spoken word and wellness.

The Pretenders have announced that they will be performing a surprise set at Glastonbury Festival this weekend.The band took to their official social media accounts to announce that they will be playing Glastonbury on Saturday, June 24 at the Park Stage at 7.45pm BST. They will also be accompanied by special guests and friends.“It’s always been there for most of our lifetimes.

Måneskin have shared official footage from their sold-out show at The O2 in London this week. Check out their performance of ‘Kool Kids’ in the video above, and ‘I Wanna Be Your Slave’ below – exclusively on NME.As part of their long-awaited ‘Loud Kids World Tour’ in support of their third album ‘Rush!‘, the Italian former Eurovision winners took to the stage at The O2 for their biggest UK headline show to date, playing to a massive 20,000 fans.A climax of the gig came when the band continued their ritual of inviting fans on stage for their performance of album highlight ‘Kool Kids’.“It’s a song we’ve been criticised a lot for because they say we copy you fucking British,” frontman Damiano David told the crowd, adding: “It’s a little bit true!”He continued: “We’re hated all around the world for this tradition, but again we don’t give a shit”.In a four-star review of the show, NME described the moment: “Inviting a small army of fans in fishnets and leather to invade the stage, you see the cult of Måneskin manifest.“There’s no mention of Eurovision and they’ve dropped their covers of indie disco hits (including Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Take Me Out’) from the setlist.