Indie: Last News

Working Men’s Club have announced their biggest UK and Ireland headline tour to date – tickets will be available from here.The Yorkshire band are set to release their second studio album, ‘Fear Fear’, on July 15 via Heavenly Recordings. It’s already been previewed with the 2022 singles ‘Widow’, ‘Circumference’ and ‘Ploys’.Today (July 5), Working Men’s Club confirmed that they’ll be hitting the road in November for a string of nine UK/Ireland dates in support of their forthcoming record.They’ll be visiting Glasgow (November 18), Newcastle (19), Birmingham (20), Brighton (22), Bristol (23), Dublin (25), Manchester (26) and Cambridge (27) before ending the stint at the Forum Kentish Town in London on November 29.Tickets go on general sale at 10am BST this Friday (July 8) – you can purchase yours from here, and see the full live itinerary in the tweet below.Pleased to announce that we are going to be playing some shows in the UK and Ireland in November, tickets go on sale this Friday at 10am from https://t.co/OgRw68FCzuGlasgow, Newcastle, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Dublin, Manchester, Cambridge and London, we’ll see you soon X pic.twitter.com/sIgREmZ8Q9— Working Mens Club (@work1ngmensclub) July 5, 2022Working Men’s Club are due to open for Primal Scream in Halifax on Friday night before playing various festivals, including Tramlines, Bluedot and Kendal Calling.

Sea Power have finalised the line-up for the second edition of their Cumbrian festival Krankenhaus – check it out below.The band’s festival debuted in 2019 and returns this August (26-29 at Muncaster Castle) with the likes of Gruff Rhys, Low, This Is The Kit, Richard Dawson, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Simon Armitage and more alongside Sea Power themselves.“The first Krankenhaus was an unforgettable weekend,” Sea Power’s Scott ‘Yan’ Wilkinson said in a statement. “It felt amazing to bring brilliant music and wonderful authors to such a magical part of the world.“Covid stopped us making an immediate return but now it feels great to be going back – with a bigger bill and a bigger audience.

Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has shared his debut solo single ‘London Bridge’. Check it out below, along with our interview with Rowntree discussing a new record on the way, politics, and what the future holds for Blur.Released on Cooking Vinyl and produced with Leo Abrahams (Wild Beasts, Brian Eno, Ghostpoet) the emotive synth-led track was inspired by the drummer’s childhood growing up in Colchester, before moving to London with Blur.“There was a phase in my life as a child when the number 126 would pop up everywhere,” Rowntree told NME.

Ride‘s Andy Bell has shared a new cover of Pentangle’s ‘Light Flight’ as a B-side for a new single – check it out below.The track comes as part of a new single called ‘Lifeline’, which appears on Bell’s recent solo album ‘Flicker’.Discussing ‘Lifeline’, the former Oasis member said: “In my opinion it’s important to be there for people we love who have gone down rabbit holes, ready to accept them when they come back.“I hope and want to believe that they will be back from the wilderness at some point.”Listen to ‘Lifeline’ and the cover of ‘Light Flight’ below.‘Flicker’ followed Bell’s 2020 solo debut ‘The View From Halfway Down’ and was released on February 11 via Sonic Cathedral.Speaking about ‘Flicker’, Bell explained in a statement: “When I think about ‘Flicker’, I see it as closure. Most literally, on a half-finished project from over six years ago, but also on a much bigger timescale.“Some of these songs date back to the ’90s and the cognitive dissonance of writing brand new lyrics over songs that are 20-plus years old makes it feel like it is, almost literally, me exchanging ideas with my younger self.”“The ‘flicker’ I’m talking about in the lyrics of ‘Something Like Love’ is that flame that makes a person who they are,” Bell said of the track.

Glass Animals have cancelled both their Mad Cool and NOS Alice sets due to illness.Frontman David Bailey said he was “gutted” to cancel the shows but had no option due to issues with his “vocal cords”.He wrote: “Gutted to say we have to cancel our shows tomorrow and the following day in Madrid and Lisbon. I absolutely hate cancelling shows, but my vocal cords have had it.”He continued: “I took steroids to bring down the swelling [for] the last two shows but it doesn’t seem to be doing theatric anymore and I’ve been recommended to take a few days to rest them so it doesn’t turn into something worse.“We  were so looking forward to these shows, but we’ll be back asap.

Noel Gallagher has been criticised for “belittling the experience of disabled music fans” after comments he made about his experience at Glastonbury Festival.After the Oasis man played the Pyramid Stage on the festival’s Saturday night (June 25), he remained at Worthy Farm to watch a number of sets, including Jamie T‘s headline slot on the John Peel Stage on Sunday night.On a new appearance on The Matt Morgan Podcast, Gallagher revealed that, unable to get a vantage point for the show at the front, he and his friends instead watched from the tent’s disabled platform, which he said he didn’t initially realise the purpose of.He said: “[We] couldn’t get to the bit on stage because we were fucking wasted,” so showed his pass and said “this lot are with me, and we walked on to this platform – unbeknownst to us it was the disabled platform”.Noel then added: “I said: ‘See that pass mate? It gets me any-fucking-where,” going on to joke that he would have tipped a disabled fan out of their wheelchair for his son to get a better view, and have touched disabled fans on the forehead, telling them: “Rise, you can walk”.“I gotta say, those disabled cats have a great view of everything,” he added.❌ Accessible platforms at events aren’t for privileged rock stars and their friends.

Morrissey has debuted new song ‘Bonfire Of Teenagers’ – a track he says is about “England’s 9/11”, the Manchester Arena bombing.On May 22 in 2017, 22 people died and hundreds were injured when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in the foyer at the venue at the end of an Ariana Grande concert. In the wake of the tragedy, Oasis‘ single ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ became an anthem of love and solidarity for many in the city.Grande and Coldplay famously covered the track together at the One Love Manchester tribute show, Noel Gallagher and U2 also played it in memory of the victims (with Noel being joined by Johnny Marr for a performance of the song on the first anniversary of the bombing) as did Courteeners when they played an emotional homecoming show at Manchester’s LCCC Old Trafford cricket ground shortly after the attack, with Metallica also performing a rendition in tribute since, along with many others.Noel Gallagher also vowed to donate royalties from the song to help the families of victims, before Liam followed suit.Now, fellow Mancunian Morrissey has addressed the attack, airing the title track of his upcoming album during his current Las Vegas residency.“This song is new, it’s about England’s 9/11,” he told the crowd last week before performing the track.

Manic Street Preachers have shared a new playlist focussing on the cover versions they’ve recorded over the course of their career – listen below.Titled ‘Sleep Next To Plastic’, the 37-track collection consists of lost recordings, B-sides and album tracks. Fifteen of the cuts were previously unavailable through official streaming platforms – including the band’s recent spin on Madonna’s ‘Borderline’.The Manics first aired their rendition of the pop icon’s 1983 song during a performance at the BBC 6 Music Festival in March.

Velvet Underground multi-instrumentalist John Cale set to headline.Formerly known as the Festival of Voice, Llais takes over the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay for five days, kicking off with the Welsh Music Prize ceremony on October 26.Other acts announced for the festival include Suede‘s Brett Anderson performing ‘Death Songbook’ with Charles Hazlewood and Paraorchestra. It debuted online at last year’s Gŵyl 2021 and will be performed in front of a live audience for the first time at Llais.Elsewhere on the line-up is South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, Black Midi, Cat Le Bon, Midlake, Bombino, Keeley Forsyth, and Les Amazones d’Afrique.The multi-day festival includes both free and ticketed events, with live music, digital experiences, free workshops, and more on the programme.Further acts will be announced in September and tickets can be found here.The time has come to reveal your Llais 2022 line-up.

Stereolab have announced a new run of UK and European dates, which will take place in October, November and December this year – find tickets here.The band will begin their tour in Paris at La Gaité Lyrique on October 26, after their extensive US tour finishes up in North Carolina. The Paris show is followed by dates in Lisbon, Amsterdam, Rome, Berlin and more.They head to the UK on November 24, where they’re due to play Concorde 2 in Brighton, with shows in Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow shortly after.The tour culminates with a takeover of both stages at EartH in London on December 3, where the band will be be joined by four other acts that are still to be announced.Afterwards, Tim, Laetitia and Martin will be playing disks in the main room until 3am for the UltraDisco.

Baby Queen has shared a brand new song – listen to ‘Nobody Really Cares’, a track about not pleasing others, below.The track follows the singer’s recent track ‘Colours Of You’, which appeared on the soundtrack to Netflix show Heartstopper.“’Nobody Really Cares’ is about realising it’s okay to be yourself and do exactly what makes you happy because people are selfish in nature and only have so much space inside their brains reserved for you,” Baby Queen said of the new track in a statement.She added: “I think it’s really liberating to know that nobody cares about your self expression as much as you sometimes think they do so filtering yourself to please them is pointless.”Listen to ‘Nobody Really Cares’ below.‘Nobody Really Cares’ and ‘Colours Of You’ are the artist’s first new music since the release of 2021’s “underdog’s anthem” ‘Wannabe’.At a recent London show, the cast of Heartstopper joined Baby Queen on stage for her performance of ‘Colours Of You’.“To be asked to be a part of a story as beautiful and culturally important as Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper was unbelievable, and still feels completely surreal,” Latham said about recording ‘Colours Of You’ when the song was released last week.“‘Colours Of You’ is a song I wrote about one of the lead character’s journeys through the discovery and acceptance of his own sexuality. The song means a lot to me and is different to a lot of the music people have heard from me before, so I feel like I get to show a different side to myself as an artist and a writer,” she added.Baby Queen is currently at the tail end of a support tour with Olivia Rodrigo.

The 1975‘s frontman Matty Healy has rejoined Reddit and shared details about the band’s new album with fans.Last week, the band revealed the title and tracklist for fifth album ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’, which will be previewed this Friday (July 7) with first single ‘Part Of The Band’.A sax-flecked snippet of the track was shared on Instagram by Matty Healy last week, and lyrics to ‘Part Of The Band’ appeared on billboards. “She was part of the airforce / I was part of the band,” the song begins, with other lyrics including: “Am I ironically woke? The butt of my joke? Or I am just some post-coke, average, skinny bloke calling his ego imagination?”Commenting on a Reddit post about the band’s new album, Healy told fans: “Hey guys I’ve just started doing interviews where I explain the record and it’s context.”He went on to explain that ‘New York’, a song believed to be a new 1975 track that he performed live in Los Angeles while supporting Phoebe Bridgers last year, is actually by Dirty Hit labelmate Benjamin Francis Leftwich.“I love the song and it didn’t have a bridge.

Kate Bush‘s ‘Running Up That Hill’ has entered its third week at Number One on the Official UK Singles Chart, with Bush describing it as “a bit surreal”.Originally released in 1985, Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ regained relevance in a big way when it appeared in the fourth season of Stranger Things in May. Since then, the song has broken three Guinness World Records, reached Number One in Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland, and was, at one point, the most-streamed song on the planet.“I just can’t believe it – No.

Beck has said that he regrets rejecting Weird Al Yankovic’s request to parody ‘Loser’.Yankovic had asked to cover Beck’s hit in the mid-’90s but he turned him down, fearing that he was already not being taken seriously as an artist.At the time of Beck’s breakout success with ‘Loser’, he was facing what he today remembers as a barrage of negative press.Beck said in a preview of his upcoming Audible Original premiered by Billboard that he was worried the move would vindicate industry bosses and journalists who regarded his songs as “hodgepodge ideas” that weren’t “real songs”.“‘Weird Al’ Yankovic tried to do a parody of it. It was going to be called ‘Schmoozer’,” Beck recalled in the preview. “I regret denying him permission to do it.

NME about collaborating with PJ Harvey for her forthcoming Apple TV+ show Bad Sisters – revealing that the iconic singer-songwriter has recorded a version of Leonard Cohen’s 1974 track ‘Who by Fire’ as its theme tune.Horgan, the acclaimed writer and actor known for creating and starring in the Channel 4 sitcom Catastrophe and BBC comedy Pulling, has adapted the Flemish series Clan for the 10-part series – due to premiere in August.Having revealed that Harvey had composed the theme tune and co-written its soundtrack in NME’s recent interview with her, now she has provided further details about the team-up. As well as featuring her rendition of ‘Who by Fire’, the dark family drama also sees Harvey open her archive to contribute previously-unheard material.The idea of reaching out to Harvey, who has previously composed scores for a number of projects including Shane Meadows’ 2019 miniseries The Virtues, first came about while discussing ideas for working with indie musicians on the show with Bad Sisters’ score composer Tim Phillips, whom Horgan had previously worked with on the 2022 Courtney Cox-starring horror-comedy series, Shining Vale.

HAIM have spoken to NME about their chance meeting with Drake, saying that the encounter was “like something out of a movie”.We caught up with the trio at Glastonbury 2022, just after their celebrated return to the Pyramid Stage, when the sisters told us about recently having their photo taken with Drake – who also hailed them as “The Beatles“.Asked which of the Fab Four each of them might be, singer Alana replied: “You can’t ask us which Beatle we are. We had no idea he was going to call us The Beatles, so we’re very thankful.

Pete Doherty has shared some of his strongest Glastonbury memories – featuring Kate Moss, an “undercover agent” sent by Vivienne Westwood and a £16,000 cardigan once owned by T Rex legend Marc Bolan. Watch part two of our interview with Doherty above.This week’s Big Read cover story sees the likes of HAIM, Sigrid, Yungblud, Baebadoobee, Fontaines DC and more tell us about Glastonbury and what it means to them. Speaking to NME just after The Libertines stepped off stage from their opening performance on The Other Stage at Glastonbury 2022 last weekend, Doherty told us how Glasto had always had a special place in the band’s hearts.“Carl [Barat] was brought up like a babe in arms at Greenham Common with a real hippie background,” he said.

Elton John has joined forces with Yard Act for a new studio version of ‘100% Endurance’.The pop legend, who is a fan of the Leeds-based band, has contributed piano to the new version. ‘100% Endurance’ is the latest single released from Yard Act’s debut album ‘The Overload‘, which was released in January.Explaining how the collaboration came about, Yard Act frontperson James Smith said: “Within our camp we have a saying, ‘Mad shit happens when you do art’. It means what it means.

Snail Mail have shared a new cover of Superdrag’s ‘Feeling Like I Do’ – listen to it below.Released as part of Spotify’s Singles collection, the indie rock solo project of guitarist and singer-songwriter Lindsey Jordan has also released a new version of ‘Headlock’, a cut taken from Jordan’s 2021 album ‘Valentine’.The original version of ‘Feeling Like I Do’ was recorded at the famed Electric Lady Studios in New York and appeared on Superdrag’s 2002 LP, ‘Last Call for Vitriol’. Jordan’s version hears her dig into lower register to match her crunchy guitar riff.“It’s been really cool getting to cover ‘Feeling Like I Do’ by Superdrag because I love it and I’ve loved it for a while and I was able to make it my own by singing on it,’ she said in a statement.The reason for re-recording ‘Headlock’ came down to simply living with the song for a while out on tour. “So a typical day in the studio for me has been really different from album to album,” Jordan said.

Sunflower Bean‘s Julia Cumming has shared a candid statement about her abortion experience after Roe v. Wade was overturned last week.On June 24, the Supreme Court decided to overturn the landmark decision, meaning abortion will no longer be protected as a federal right in the US for the first time since 1973. Each state will now be able to decide individually whether to restrict or ban abortion.Along with her statement, the band has also released the first episode of a four-part mini-documentary about the making of their most recent album ‘Headful Of Sugar’.

Carl Barât has recovered his guitars that were stolen ahead of Dirty Pretty Things‘ rehearsals last month.The Libertines frontman issued an appeal on May 18 after two of his guitars were taken, sharing photos of the two instruments and asking fans to keep an eye out and “spread the word”.“In the early hours of this morning, two of Carl’s most treasured guitars were stolen in the Homerton area of London, as Dirty Pretty Things rehearsals were about to commence,” last month’s statement read.“These guitars hold an unfathomable amount of sentimental value so any news on their whereabouts would be greatly appreciated, the police have already been informed. Please spread the word and DM if you have any info.”Today (June 30) Barât shared a photo of the singer newly reunited with the guitars on Instagram – along with a caption suggesting the instruments were recovered with the assistance of some fans online.“Blissed out to hold these guys again.