It’s not a bad year for LCD Soundsystem, who have co-headlining shows with Pulp this fall and were recently covered by Dave Grohl at a surprise show. Last night (June 22) in London, James Murphy and co. pleased fans by playing “45:33” for the first time in 14 years during their residency at the O2 Academy Brixton.
Yesterday (June 22), Sting returned to Liverpool for the first time since 1979 with a headlining performance at On The Waterfront. However, the former Police frontman had to begin his set at Pier Head by acknowledging a horrific incident: A member of the opening band the Christians collapsed mid-performance from cardiac arrest.
Earlier this month Bonnaroo was canceled due to severe weather, which was the third cancelation in five years. The four-day music festival only had one successful day, and therefore was only offering 75% refunds. Backlash prompted them to then offer 100% refunds, and now it looks like they’re considering changing when Bonnaroo happens.
Jay-Z doesn’t give very many interviews these days, nor does he make a ton of live appearances with his wife Beyoncé. But I guess something’s in the air: At Fanatics Fest in New York City on Friday, kid sports journalist Elijah Bloom got to asked Jay-Z who his favorite collaborator was. “Beyoncé,” the doting husband responded. “She’s the best. She’s amazing. She’s an incredible songwriter and an incredible performer.” To drive his point home, he came onstage with Bey during her third Paris show of the Cowboy Carter Tour tonight, their first time sharing the stage in seven years. Together, the couple did their songs “Crazy In Love” and “Drunk In Love,” and, naturally, Jay did “N***** In Paris.” (He’s gonna rap to three songs and three songs only.)
It’s been a tumultuous time for Zak Starkey, whose firing, re-hiring, and subsequent re-firing from the Who has been causing quite a stir in elder rock circles. The drummer and son of Ringo Starr has evidently had a lot of unclear back-and-forth with the Who’s lead singer Roger Daltrey, but we haven’t heard much from his bandmates about the whole ordeal — that is, until very recently, when the band’s guitarist and primary songwriter Pete Townshend remarked on it in a new interview with iNews. It sounds like he’s just as confused as the rest of us.
It appears that Morgan Wallen, whose recent triple-LP I’m The Problem is now the #1 album in the country for the fifth week in a row, tries to give himself the star treatment whenever he can. That includes making some conspicuous exits as well as some high-profile entrances. He likes to do sports-style walk-ons at his concerts, like last summer’s Kansas City show where Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes escorted him onstage. Last night at his second show at Houston’s NRG Stadium, Morgan got escorted onstage by onetime Astros pitcher Roger Clemens and Drake. Three controversial figures!
Earlier this month Douglas McCarthy, vocalist and founding member of the English electronic band Nitzer Ebb, died at 58. The group had some tour dates planned through the rest of the year and into 2026, though it was still up in the air whether or not McCarthy would make those shows, ad he’d been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver last year. Today, the surviving members of Nitzer Ebb have confirmed that — save for their scheduled appearance at Eastside Festival next month, which they’ve pulled out of — they’ll continue the rest of their tour dates as planned, with McCarthy’s role filled by fellow founding member Vaughan “Bon” Harris.
It’s a really, really terrible time to be a young transgender person in the United States right now. We’ve heard a lot of firsthand accounts of the current administration’s anti-trans policies from 21-year-old leftist social media personality Vivian Wilson, whose coming-out a trans woman in 2020 seemingly put the nail in the coffin of her fraught relationship with her estranged father Elon Musk. Thankfully, amid all that bullshit, it looks like Wilson’s still been able to have quite a bit of fun lately: She landed the cover of Teen Vogue earlier this year, recently ticked off her longtime bucket list item of doing drag, and now she’s out here posting with the very popular “global girl group” KATSEYE.
Dua Lipa sold out two shows at London’s Wembley Stadium. The pop star has been surprising her tour audiences with covers of artists from the cities and countries she’s singing in, like AC/DC and Natalie Imbruglia in Australia and Lorde and Crowded House in New Zealand. For the first night she brought out the English acid jazz and funk group Jamiroquai for the 1996 hit “Virtual Insanity,” and for the second she was joined by the British brat Charli XCX for “360.”
Earlier this month, Timbaland introduced TaTa, the first signee of the AI entertainment company Stage Zero that he co-founded with Rocky Mudaliar and Zayd Portillo. Now he’s catching heat online after allegedly using producer K Fresh’s music to train Suno AI. After K Fresh threatened legal action, Timbaland shared an apology on social media.