Katy Perry, Snow Patrol and Bloc Party will all play the Oxegen Festival in Ireland this summer, it has been announced.
The trio of acts join the bill for the July event, which will be headlined by Kings Of Leon for the second consecutive year.
As previously reported, the Followill clan sealed their top billing after a campaign from fans.
This year's Oxegen takes place on Punchestown Racecourse, Naas from July 10-12.
Robbie Williams' disguise failed to stop fans recognising him as he went shopping for a new bike on his return to Britain.
The former Take That star was photographed in a balaclava leaving a cycle shop in Swindon, Wiltshire - the county where he is understood to have bought a £7 million mansion.
The shots, taken by the Swindon Advertiser on Tuesday, are the first time Williams has been pictured in England since it emerged that he planned to return from Los Angeles.
Several fans gathered outside the Red Planet shop to meet the singer, who made his fortune with hits including Angels and Let Me Entertain You.
The paper reported that one of his security staff asked the throng "not to hassle him so he could have his first day back in peace".
Sir Paul McCartney, The Killers and The Cure will headline the Coachella Festival in April, it has been announced.
My Bloody Valentine, Amy Winehouse, Morrissey, Fleet Foxes, White Lies, Leonard Cohen and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are also on the bill.
Speaking about the announcement, which will see Macca play his first festival on American soil, the former Beatle said he was looking forward to the event.
"I have heard that Coachella is one of the greatest festivals in the world. I'm really excited to get out there and rock!", he explained.
Coachella 2009 takes place on April 17-19 at Empire Polo Field in Indio, California.
The Streets were forced to cancel a show in London last night following a power cut, it has been confirmed.
Mike Skinner and co were due to play the Brixton Academy on Thursday evening but fans gathered at the venue were turned away.
The band's leader admitted he was "gutted" by the cancellation and has "no idea" if or when the gig will be rescheduled.
Writing on his blog, Skinner said: "I was really excited, turned up and no lights in the whole building. They phoned the power company, who weren't very helpful unfortunately."
The Streets' current world tour, in promotion of current album "Everything Is Borrowed", now moves onto Australia.
Kelly Clarkson has entered the record books in the US chart with new single "My Life Would Suck Without You".
The "American Idol" winner has jumped more places than any other act in music history on the US Billboard Hot 100.
The track has gone from number 97 to 1 after selling around 280,000 digital-downloads in its first week on-sale.
It is the second time in her brief pop career that Clarkson has broken the record, after her debut single, "A Moment Like This", leapt 50 places in 2002.
Clarkson's new album, "All I Ever Wanted", is due for release in March.
The sons of late Beatles legend John Lennon are reportedly set to perform together for the first time at a United Nations concert in New York.
Julian Lennon, 45, from the star's first marriage to Cynthia Lennon, and Sean, 33, who is Yoko Ono's son, have both enjoyed solo careers in music - but have never teamed up together in public.
The half-brothers are now said to have agreed to play at the UN-Millennium Goal Awards, which will take place in Manhattan on 26 February, according to Fox News.
Lennon's murder in 1980 reportedly left a rift between the siblings, with Julian and his mother left to battle Ono through the courts for a share of the singer's estate.
But the pair is said to have grown closer in recent years, bonding over their shared love of music.
The Lennon brothers will join a line up which reportedly also includes Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, Akon and Macy Gray
Paul McCartney is one of the special guests to appear on the new album from Cat Stevens, it has been revealed.
The former Beatle features on the song "Boots & Sand", which is amongst the artist's first set of non-religious songs in nearly 30 years.
Stevens now works under the name Yusef and says the Macca collaboration was inspired by events after 9/11, including being barred from entering the US in 2004.
"It's a slight oddity of a song", he explained. "The image I had was kind of a cowboy B-movie made in Italy, but the story came from real events, real people."
Yusef's currently untitled new record is due for release later this year and also features Dolly Parton.
Etta James has spoken of her pride at Beyonce choosing one of her songs to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama this week.
The 70-year-old soul legend was not able to be in attendance at the historic event in Washington DC on Tuesday.
However, the new President and First Lady Michelle took their first dance at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball to Beyonce's cover of "At Last".
The James original was first released in 1961 and her son Donto has now revealed how touched his mother was by the decision.
"She was looking forward to seeing it. She was honoured (and) she thought it was great", he told the New York Daily News.
"She's gotten emotional, just like everybody else", said Donto, following Obama's ascension to the White House.
Seasick Steve and Jack White are to go into the studio to record together, according to reports.
The blues pensioner revealed news of the collaboration earlier this week at the BRIT Awards nomination party in London.
After being named in the Best International Male category, Steve told reporters what the rest of the year holds.
"I'm meeting up with Jack White to record soon, so things are going very well indeed", he explained.
The 2009 BRITs takes place on February 18 at Earl's Court.
Blues singer Etta James was overcome with pride watching Beyonce Knowles covering her classic song At Last for new US President Barack Obama.
Knowles, who depicts James in the drama Cadillac Records, sang the icon's 1961 ballad as Obama and his wife, Michelle, shared their first dance as America's President and First Lady following his inauguration ceremony in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.
And James, who watched the performance live on TV in her California home, is delighted her love song has taken a place in history.
Her son, Donto James, tells the New York Daily News, "She was looking forward to seeing it. She was honoured (and) she thought it was great. She's gotten emotional, just like everybody else."
Knowles was one of the headline acts to appear at the politician's Neighborhood Ball celebration after he was officially sworn into office.
Thom Yorke is to be the subject of an unofficial and unauthorised biography, it has been announced.
Neither the singer or his band have collaborated on a book about their groundbreaking career as yet.
"Thom Yorke: Radiohead & Trading Solo" is due for release next month and is said to have delved deeply into the star's background.
Publishers Independent Music Press confirmed news of this biography, written by Trevor Baker, this week in a statement.
"From the formative childhood experiences as a public school outcast that first shaped his songs to each Radiohead album - from his perspective - as well as his solo work and his expansive charitable and ecological campaigns.
"'Thom Yorke: Radiohead & Trading Solo' provides a fascinating portrait of a band and a man who would never settle for second best", it reads.
The book is due for release on February 26.
Lily Allen took part in a lesbian romp with twins and often dreams about having sex with girls, she has revealed.
The outspoken UK star has hit the headlines again after discussing the intimate details of her private life in a new interview.
"I did once snog identical twins in San Diego. I was on the sofa and I had them both. I was dancing and shoving my a*se on one of them.
"That's the only time, but I have lesbian dreams a lot", Lily told The Gay Times, ahead of the release of her new album.
"It's Not Me It's You" is out on February 9.
Arcade Fire and Jay-Z played a private concert for Barack Obama's staff in Washington CD yesterday, according to reports.
Both acts were amongst the new President's most vocal supporters during his successful election campaign.
The show is understood to have taken place at the Armory in the city where Obama was inaugurated on Tuesday.
The gig is the latest in a string of performances from Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce this week.
She was chosen to serenade George W Bush's successor and the First Lady Michelle with their first dance at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball.
Veteran rocker David Bowie is back in the studio after a six-year break to record a new album.
The legendary pop star has travelled to Berlin, Germany - the city where he recorded previous albums Heroes, Low, and Lodger - to find inspiration for new tracks.
A post on Bowie's social networking Twitter site reads, "Cheers from a snowy Berlin! Working on some new material!"
Bowie's last album was the acclaimed 2003 LP Reality.
Newly single singer Katy Perry has vowed to remain celibate in 2009, following her split from rocker boyfriend Travis Mccoy.
The pair ended its year-long romance over the New Year, and the I Kissed a Girl hitmaker has no plans to find new love.
When asked who she would be kissing at the forthcoming Grammy Awards, where she is nominated for a prize, the 24-year-old replied, "I've actually taken a vow of celibacy this year… no kissing anyone. Just my cat, Kitty Purry."
Lily Allen's actor dad KEITH has urged his daughter to "shut up" in a new magazine tribute piece.
The tough guy was asked to comment on his pop star daughter's wild life for a new Spin magazine article in America, and after defending her over accusations she parties too much, Allen insists the candid Smile singer has to learn what not to say in interviews.
He says, "I don't mind say this, because I've told her already: she needs to know when to f**king shut up."
The comment comes just days after his daughter told the media she retreated to a "nuthouse" after suffering a miscarriage just over a year ago.
Before Allen blasts his daughter for talking too much, he takes time to support her lifestyle.
He tells Spin, "As a man, I could drink, snort (drugs), and f**k to my heart's content without any detriment to my career. A girl cannot do that.
"The tabloids are shameless in trying to create a race-to-rehab between any girl out there who has a drink.
"Lily's learning what daddy learned long ago: fame is a pain in the f**king arse."
Coldplay and Duffy led the way at the Brit Awards nominations with four nods apiece.
The recognition caps a remarkable debut year for the Welsh singer-songwriter, whose Rockferry was the best-selling album of 2008 and moved 4.5 million copies around the world.
Duffy was nominated for best album, best single for chart-topper Mercy, best female solo artist and best breakthrough act.
Fresh from leading a British invasion of the Grammys, where they bagged an an impressive seven nominations, Coldplay will go head to head with Duffy at the Brits for best album for Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends and best single for Viva La Vida. They are also up for best live act and will do battle for best group with Girls Aloud, Radiohead, Take That and long-time indie underdogs Elbow.
Bruce Springsteen will play a string of stadium shows in the UK this summer, prompting further speculation about an appearance at Glastonbury.
The Boss today revealed details of six concerts with The E Street Band in June and July, in support of new album "Working On A Dream".
The dates sandwich a possible headlining slot at the Somerset event, which he has been linked with in recent weeks.
The following concerts have been announced so far:
June 2009
02 Tampere, Finland
04+05 Stockholm, Sweden
09+10 Bergen, Norway
July
08 Heming, Denmark
"Working On A Dream" is released on January 27.
Lily Allen has hinted she will playing at Glastonbury this year.
The 23-year-old singer - who has gushed about how much she loved playing the festival in previous years - let slip to Absolute Radio Hometime DJ Geoff Lloyd she will be appearing on the 2009 bill.
Lily said: "I will be playing lots of festival this year. I'm not allowed to say which. But yes, one begins with a G."
The singer recently bought a beach in Jamaica.
She revealed: "It is like a compound, that's what the idea is, yes. Almost like a kind of communey thing. We're going to have like a big sort of central house and a pool, and then that all looks out onto the sea, and then I'm going to have like little sort of Adobe villas, just little two beds, like a bedroom with a shower, like really simple.
"I'm going to opt out of society, and lie on my own beach. Yes, I'm going to have it's so nice, so beautiful there."
To hear the full interview, tune in to Geoff Lloyd's Hometime Show on Absolute Radio from 5pm this Tuesday January 27, or watch the video at www.absoluteradio.co.uk.
Pop superstar Madonna once dated troubled singer Bobby Brown, according to a sensational new book about the former New Edition star.
The claim is one of a number of revelations in Derrick Handspike's book Bobby Brown: The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But...
A publishing source tells the National Enquirer, "It (romance) began when one of Bobby's bodyguards caught the Material Girl with Bobby in the back of his limo. The couple met years before when Madonna was on her way up and served as the opening act for some New Edition shows.
"The book discloses, after both had become well known, Madonna was interested in having a relationship with Bobby."
It's alleged Brown ditched Madonna when he fell for Janet Jackson, and turned to drink when his relationship with the Control hitmaker soured.
Pop sensation Katy Perry has reclaimed the number one spot on the European singles chart with her latest single Hot N Cold - 12 weeks after its release.
The singer knocked Beyonce's If I Were A Boy from one to two, and Britney Spears' Womanizer stays put in third place to complete the top three.
The only new entry in the top 10 comes from Lady Gaga, whose single Just Dance featuring Colby O'Donis has jumped up 58 places to take the number eight position in the new chart.
Meanwhile, AC/DC are still the kings of Europe - their album Black Ice cannot be shifted from the top of the European albums chart having spent 12 weeks in pole position.
Las Vegas rockers The Killers have credited financial problems with bringing the band together - calling the 2001 US economic downturn a "blessing in disguise".
The 9/11 terrorist attacks, including the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, had a crippling effect on the US economy, which lasted for several months.
At that time, the Mr. Brightside hitmakers were a newly formed, unsigned act.
And guitarist Dave Keuning admits that if he hadn't been out of work, he wouldn't have been able to put so much effort into preparing the band for success.
He tells music magazine NME, "Our first phone call was just before 9/11, and we started practising right around 9/11. I got fired just before then, because the store I was working in wasn't doing any business. But then after the event it became hard to get a job because business went down the drain. I managed to scrape by living off ramen noodles.
"It wasn't easy at all, but it was a blessing in disguise, because it allowed me and Brandon (Flowers, frontman) to spend lots of time together - writing songs, working on ideas, coming up with a name and a feel for the band. Having that time turned out to be a huge blessing."
Rocker Courtney Love wants to follow in Radiohead's footsteps and let fans decide how much to pay for her forthcoming album.
The former Hole frontwoman is busy putting the finishing touches to Nobody's Daughter, her first album in five years.
Love was due to post tracks online on 1 January, but the release has since been pushed back to February.
And the singer now plans to release it via a 'pay-what-you-want' scheme.
In a post on her MySpace.com blog, she writes: "There's millions of people worldwide waiting on this record. Well, maybe, there's 10! But in any case, I assume there are millions because in the past there have been millions.
"My strategy is to make it available to people in every country for free and for what you feel I deserve..."
Radiohead released their last album, In Rainbows, using a similar 'pay-what-you-want' experiment.
Bat For Lashes will return with their new album, "Two Suns", later this year, it has been announced.
Natasha Khan and co revealed news of the follow-up to the Mercury nominated debut "Fur And Gold" today.
It was recorded in London, New York and the Joshua Tree National Monument, California, with production from David Kosten.
Pop legend Scott Walker guests on one track, while Brooklyn's Yeasayer are amongst the other collaborators.
The band will tour the record in April, playing the following gigs:
April 2009
07 Manchester Ritz
08 Glasgow Queen Margaret Union
09 Newcastle Northumbria University
11 Leeds Metropolitan University
12 Birmingham Town Hall
13 Oxford Regal
15 Bristol Ansom Rooms
16 Brighton Corn Exchange
17 London Shepherds Bush Empire
"Two Suns" is due for release on April 6.
Jewellery designer Dara Dubinet has designed £18,000 black Chinese agate rock ring for Britney Spears to wear to the Grammy Awards in February.
Dubinet started work on the huge gem after she spotted Spears wearing a Tourmaline ring she had created and sent to the pop star when she appeared on US morning show Good Morning America on her 27th birthday in December.
The designer tells Life & Style magazine she was told Spears "loved" her birthday gift.
And a source tells the publication, "She's worn it several times, She says it has a positive energy, and it just makes her smile."
The new U2 album has been inspired by Led Zeppelin and Jack White, the band have revealed.
"No Line On The Horizon" is due for release in March, five years since its predecessor, "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb", came out.
The Edge says hooking-up with Jimmy Page and The White Stripes' leader for a recent rock documentary had rubbed-off on his guitar work.
"I was just fascinated with seeing how Jimmy played those riffs so simply, and with Jack as well", he explained.
Meanwhile, singer Bono has revealed that much of the album attempts to address the current global climate and capture "the world at the window".
"No Line On The Horizon" is due out on March 2.
Former Led Zeppelin star Robert Plant has picked up his second major award of the new year (09) after he was named the Greatest Voice in Rock in an online radio network poll.
Plant, who was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen's New Year Honours list for his services to music and the entertainment industry, has topped Planet Rock's new The Greatest Voice in Rock Top 40 ahead of Freddie Mercury and Mercury's Queen replacement Paul Rodgers.
The only woman to make the new list is Janis Joplin.
The top 10 is:
1. Robert Plant
2. Freddie Mercury
3. Paul Rodgers
4. Ian Gillan
5. Roger Daltrey
6. David Coverdale
7. Axl Rose
8. Bruce Dickinson
9. Mick Jagger
10. Bon Scott
Katy Perry and hip-hop star Travis Mccoy have split just weeks after the I Kissed A Girl singer denied reports the couple was engaged.
Sources close to the pair claim Perry and the Gym Class Heroes frontman broke up after weeks of arguments over her busy 2009 touring schedule, and McCoy has already gone online to blast his ex in a bitter poem on his website.
He writes, "We fight every night, now that's not kosher. I reminisce with bliss of when we was closer. And wake up to be greeted by an argument again, You act like you're 10."
Beyonce has kicked off the New Year at the top of the U.S. pop charts after scoring a fourth week as Billboard Hot 100's number one.
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) keeps Lady GaGa's Just Dance from the top of the year's first countdown, while T.I.'s former chart-topper Live Your Life slips to three.
Kanye West's Heartless and Taylor Swift's Love Story round out the first top five of 2009.
The year's first highest new entry comes from Miranda Cosgrove, whose cover of Sugababes' About You Now debuts at 51.
Music chain HMV has released its top 10 compilation list of "unknowns" tipped to break through this year.
In the past, the store has predicted the success of Franz Ferdinand, The Arctic Monkeys and Duffy.
HMV music buyer Rob Watson said: "There's perhaps not one stand out name that's on everyone's lips, as we saw with Duffy last year, but that's more than made up for by the sheer number and quality of the new acts in the frame. There's a bumper crop of fresh faces out there, and 2009 promises to be a vintage year for new music."
Signed to Polydor are new acts including Gary Go, White Lies, Keri Hilson and Lady Ga Ga.
Gary Go has already done shows in London, with summer festival appearances at Brighton's Great Escape, V Festival, Latitude and In The Park. White Lies, a three-piece, from Chiswick, west London, have been likened to Teardrop Explodes and Interpol.
R&B solo artist Keri Hilson features on Chris Brown's latest single Superhuman and has been writing music for other artists since 2001, including Britney Spears and Usher, while Lady Ga Ga already has chart-topping records across the United States and Europe.
Filthy Dukes is signed with Fiction/Polydor and started as DJ/promoter duo Tim Lawton and Olly Dixon who spun their DJ sets for Mylo, Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem and played stages at Glastonbury and Bestival.
Other acts to watch out for, are blues/rock band The Answer from County Down who have been supporting AC/DC and signed with Albert Productions and five-piece alternative rock band based in London, Red Light Company of Lavolta Records/SonyBMG who have received comparisons with Arcade Fire and U2 and toured with Editors and soulful singer Warner Music's Lauren Izibor is predicted to make it big in Ireland as well as Britain.
Other Brit females include Little Boots signed with 679/Atlantic, from Blackpool, Lancashire, real name Victoria Hesketh and singer-songwriter from Camberwell, south London, Florence and the Machine, aka Florence Welch and her backing-singer collaborators, who is signed with Island Records and has been championed by the NME.
Pop star Katy Perry was forced to battle with record label bosses because they originally wanted her to copy Avril Lavigne.
When the I Kissed A Girl hitmaker was starting out in the industry, every music chief she encountered encouraged her to follow in the footsteps of Lavigne, whose punk pop style was ruling the charts at the time.
But Perry was determined to stick to her own image, even if it meant turning down lucrative offers from several record labels.
She says, "When I first started at 17, the hit song was Complicated (by Avril Lavigne) and everyone wanted me to write a Complicated. I said, 'Look, that's her and this is me. Everybody loves her song and hopefully everyone will like mine.'"
Coldplay's Chris Martin has given his band until the end of the decade to record as much "great stuff" as possible.
The singer believes that musicians typically begin to fade after their first ten years together and Coldplay's debut album "Parachutes" was released back in 2000.
"We feel bands need to fill their first 10 years, so we have lots to do before December 31st 2009," Martin told The Sun.
"I know it's stupid, but that's kind of our deadline. We have to do something good by then."
Martin, who'll be 33 by the time that "deadline" comes around, feels that's an age that marks the start of a "different phase of songwriting.
"Most of my heroes did most of their great stuff before they were 33," he continued.
"It's not that you can't do great stuff afterwards. You just have to have deadlines, otherwise you'll spend all day in the sauna."
Robbie Williams has been getting motivational career advice from Tom Jones, the Welsh crooner has claimed.
The solo artist sought help when Jones moved to the same estate in Los Angeles.
"With Robbie he asked me: 'How do you keep going? I'm starting to wonder about it whether it's for me'," Jones told The Mirror.
"It's because I love it I told him. But Robbie says sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he gets a bit down and said once 'sometimes I don't feel like I'm any good'.
"I told him to just enjoy it, don't worry about it and stop taking it so seriously."
The advice seems to have worked, with Williams all set to finish work on a new album at the end of January.
One track that might make the cut is a rap duet the pair recorded in the former Take That man's bedroom.
Singer Lauren Harris's debut single was released digitally at one second into the new year across the different time zones of the world, in what organisers say is a first.
Harris, the daughter of Iron Maiden founder member Steve Harris, is set to "rock around the clock" with the release of her song Your Turn.
The single released digitally in places including Auckland, New Caledonia, Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, Jakarta, Dhaka, Karachi, Baku, Moscow, Paris, London, Santiago, Indiana, Mexico City, Arizona, California, Alaska, Hawaii and Samoa.
Organisers believe it is the first time such a venture has been organised on this scale and a first for worldwide distributor The Orchard which was co-ordinating all the digital downloads.
Joe Arditti, chief marketing consultant, said of the release: "What better way to bring in 2009, than with a new star born at midnight!"
Harris, who is being billed as Britain's answer to Pink, has been confirmed to support Iron Maiden on their 2009 world tour.
Harris's new album is entitled Calm Before The Storm.
Britney Spears is going out with Bollywood dance instructor Sandip Soparrkar, according to reports.
The pop superstar apparently began their relationship around a month ago and spent much of Christmas together.
The pair are said to have been introduced at a party by Madonna and later collaborated on the video to her comeback single "Womanizer".
A 'source' told a UK newspaper: "It's early days but their romance is going from strength to strength.
"Britney and Sandip tried to keep their reunion in India hush-hush as they're determined to have a relationship just like any other couple.
"Sandip is very down to earth and keeps Britney grounded. He's also quite spiritual and sensitive, which is a side of him she adores", said the 'source'.
Mariah Carey has been accused of failing to understand algebra with the title of recent album "E=MC2".
The US pop icon rejigged Albert Einstein's landmark formula for her record, prompting the allegation from the charity Sense About Science.
Mathematician Dr David Leslie says her interpretation of "emancipation equals Mariah Carey times two" was wrong.
"The 'two' in the equation means C squared, not MC multiplied by two", he explained.
"The correct reading of the equation is E=MCC, so perhaps Mariah's re-interpretation should have been 'emancipation equals Mariah Carey Carey'?"
The singer is yet to comment on Sense About Science's revelation.
Grey'S Anatomy actress Chyler Leigh is expecting her third child with her actor/musician husband Nathan West.
Leigh, 26, married West, 30, in July 2002 after they worked together on the TV series 7th Heaven.
The pregnancy will not be written into the U.S. drama's storyline, according to her spokesperson, Marcel Pariseau.
He tells People.com, "They are absolutely thrilled and looking forward to the new addition to their young family."
The couple share five-year-old son, Noah Wilde, and two-year-old daughter, Taelyn.
Britney Spears is determined to stick to her New Year resolution - she wants to quit chewing her fingernails in 2009.
The Womanizer superstar hates biting her nails, and longs for manicured and attractive hands.
But the singer insists there is a valid reason her dirty habit - she can't stop worrying.
She says, "Next year, I have to learn to stop biting my nails! I would like to stop worrying so much, because I worry all the time. And to learn how to be happier, just in general. I have to learn to take things not so seriously."
But Spears doesn't hold out much hope of sticking to her 2009 promise - because she's never kept a resolution yet.
She adds, "I end up breaking them. It's hard."
