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‘Beverly Hills Cop’ star John Ashton has died

John Ashton, the veteran actor best known for Beverly Hills Cop, has died aged 76. Ashton’s death was confirmed by his representatives, who told TMZ that the actor had been diagnosed with cancer, though it is currently unclear what kind of cancer he had, or the severity of it. The rep said in a statement: “John leaves behind a legacy of love, dedication, and service. His memory will forever be treasured by his wife, children, grandchildren, as well as his brother, sisters, his extended family and all who loved him. John’s impact on the world will be remembered and celebrated for generations to come.” John Ashton had enjoyed a lengthy career in acting – both in film and TV – for 51 years. He made his debut in 1973 in The Psychopath as Sergeant Matthews. Throughout his career, Ashton racked up over 200 acting credits, but was perhaps best known for his role as Sergeant John Taggart in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise alongside Eddie Murphy. He had starred in the 1984 comedy, along with its 1987 sequel before finally returning to the franchise earlier this year for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. His other celebrated film roles include appearances… Read More →

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Watch Julien Baker bring out Bartees Strange for ‘Ringside’ in Washington DC

Julien Baker was joined by Bartees Strange at her show in Washington DC to perform a special rendition of ‘Ringisde’ – check it out below. Baker is currently in the middle of a North American tour which kicked off earlier this week and featured her debuting two new songs, ‘Middle Children’ and ‘High In the Basement’. It is currently unclear when both songs will be released officially, or if they will be part of a larger upcoming project. The surprises have continued, with Baker bringing out Strange to perform the track from her 2021 album ‘Little Oblivions’ with an added guitar solo. Check it out below: @julienbakerbr Julien Baker e Bartees Strange cantando Ringside no show de Washington! via emma_rizen #julienbaker #julienbakerlive #barteesstrange #ringside ♬ som original – Julien Baker Brasil Advertisement Strange previously supported Boygenius on their North American headline run last year. Earlier this year, Baker announced a string of US and UK tour dates, which includes a three-night residency at Webster Hall in New York and a five-night run at London’s EartH, bumped up from the original three-date schedule. Recommended Tickets for Baker’s other US dates can be found here, while UK ones can be purchased here. Julien Baker 2024 US and… Read More →

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What happens to Celebrimbor in ‘The Silmarillion’ – and how does it differ to ‘The Rings Of Power’?

The second season of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power is drawing to a close, but how does Celebrimbor’s fate in the show differ from Tolkein’s original story? The first seven episodes of the second season of the show are streaming on Amazon Prime Video now, with the closing instalment to be released onto the streamer on October 3. Created by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, the prequel series is set thousands of years before J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and depicts the rise of Sauron in Middle-earth’s Second Age. [embedded content] Advertisement The show’s cast is led by Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, alongside Lenny Henry, Ciarán Hinds and Rory Kinnear, with Jack Lowden joining as a young Sauron. The show initially proved divisive among critics so far, and its audience has reportedly halved in size as it has gone on, but some fans hailed the recent seventh episode as “one of the best TV episodes of the year”. In a four-star review of this season, NME wrote: “The action comes to a head in an epic battle told across two episodes, balanced against some excellent character work (and surprising deaths). Those who complained that nothing happened in House Of The Dragon’s sophomore effort will thrill at how The… Read More →

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Oasis reveal announcement time of US tour dates

Oasis have revealed the announcement time for the US and Canada shows that will be part of their 2025 reunion tour. On Thursday, NME exclusively revealed the list of cities in North America, Asia, Australia and South America that the Britpop legends will be playing as part of their 2025 comeback, in addition to the originally-announced UK and Ireland dates. Now, on the band’s official X account, they have posted four photographs of billboards of the band in major North American cities, alongside the caption: “MONDAY 8AM ET #OasisLive25”. MONDAY, 8AM ET#OasisLive25 pic.twitter.com/pTdgDirrpf — Oasis (@oasis) September 28, 2024 Advertisement No further information about the dates of the shows has yet been shared. Oasis’ last show in North America was on December 20, 2008 at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia as part of their tour in support of ‘Dig Out Your Soul’, their seventh and to date most recent studio album. The sale of the UK and Ireland shows proved to be a controversial affair, with some fans experiencing long queues and technical difficulties, and some tickets being sold at inflated prices due to “dynamic” surge pricing. Recommended [embedded content] In response, Oasis provided “a small step towards making… Read More →

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Suge Knight calls out Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and more for not “stepping up” after Diddy arrest

Suge Knight has slammed Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and more for being silent and not “stepping up” after Diddy‘s recent arrest. Earlier this month, Diddy – real name Sean Combs – was arrested and charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has since been detained in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, This week (September 25), Knight spoke to Chris Cuomo on NewsNation from prison – where he is serving 28 years for a 2015 fatal hit-and-run – and called out some of the biggest rappers for not denouncing Combs’ behaviour. “I look at it real plain and simple: [I] ain’t no whistleblower,” he said over the phone. “The facts [are] there but, right now, I don’t care if it’s T.I., I don’t care if it’s Rick Ross, I don’t care if it’s Jay[-Z], I don’t care if it’s Snoop [Dogg], I don’t care if it’s [The] Game, I don’t care if it’s Drake, nobody is stepping up.” Advertisement [embedded content] Some rappers have commented on Diddy’s recent arrests. 50 Cent has always spoken out against the rap mogul and is even making a documentary about Combs and his crimes. LL Cool… Read More →

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Here’s every movie Brad Pitt and George Clooney have worked on together

Wolfs, the new action comedy starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, is streaming now, but what other films have the A-list pair appeared in together before? The film, directed by Jon Watts, who has also helmed the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man trilogy, sees Clooney and Pitt playing two professional fixers who are forced to work together on a job, despite both preferring to work as lone wolves. Wolfs premiered at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month and saw a limited cinematic release in the US before now landing on Apple TV+, where it is streaming around the world now. The film also stars Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, Richard Kind and the voice of Frances McDormand, and currently sits on a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 72%. The site’s consensus concludes that the two actors give the film “zip, even when it cycles through cliches of the fixer genre, making for a pleasing and slick throwback”. Advertisement [embedded content] Apple have already confirmed that a sequel to Wolfs is in the works, with Watts, Pitt and Clooney all set to return. “I absolutely did not write the movie with a sequel in mind,” Watts said. “But it was very fun… Read More →

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‘John Wick’ spin-off ‘Ballerina’ drops Elton John-backed first trailer

The first trailer for Ballerina, a John Wick spin-off film, has been released – watch it below. READ MORE: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ review: an all-action blockbuster that truly gives its all Ballerina is the first feature-length spin-off film set in the John Wick universe, following the spin-off series The Continental. The upcoming film stars Ana de Armas as Eve Macarro, a ballerina who is trained to be an assassin in hopes of avenging the death of her family. The trailer – which is aptly backed by Elton John‘s ‘Tiny Dancer’ – sees the return of several faces including Ian McShane’s Winston and the late Lance Reddick‘s Charon, who take in a young Macarro and begin training her to be an assassin. The film is set after the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, with Macarro seeking revenge agains the people who killed her family. The end of the trailer also sees Keanu Reeves‘ John Wick returning, though the extent of his role in the film remains unknown. Advertisement Watch the trailer for Ballerina below. [embedded content] Ballerina is due to hit cinemas in the UK on June 6, 2025. Recommended While the upcoming film marks Ana de Armas’… Read More →

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Interpol “pumped” to be working on a new “rock” album: “My favourite tracks so far are quite high energy”

Interpol‘s Paul Banks has shared that he’s “pumped” at the new material the band are working on. Find out more below. Last month, it was reported that Interpol were back in the studio, with drummer Sam Fogarino returning to playing following his recovery from spinal surgery. Now, in an interview with NME, Banks has shared that they are in fact working on “a rock record”. “I’m pretty pumped about the stuff that we have worked on so far,” the frontman said. “That’s all I can really say: it’s an enthusiastic ‘yes’. It’s pretty cool.” Interpol’s last album ‘The Other Side Of Make Believe‘ was released in 2022, which Banks told us he sees as “really intimate”. “It stretches out in different ways and has new energies. We worked with Flood who is a very talented genius in the studio too. Advertisement “It sounding weird is probably one of the benefits of writing it more remotely. Having written in the lockdown, and then rehearsing a bit allowed for a certain characteristic,” he said. [embedded content] “With this [next] record, we’re getting back to writing together in a room and my favourite tracks so far are quite high energy.” Recommended Banks also… Read More →

“Alone” and the return of The Cure

In amidst the billowing synthesisers and windswept guitars, here’s a couple of lines where Robert Smith in “Alone” – The Cure’s first new single for 16 years – sings about “a boy and girl / who dream the world is nothing / but a dream”. In some respects, it’s not too much of a stretch to see The Cure as Robert Smith’s own dream world – a self-sufficient fiefdom which operates on his own terms, largely without external influence. Musically, The Cure always been skilled at conjuring up their own hermetically-sealed musical environments, but this is also a band who have existed for almost a third of their lifetime purely as a live entity, away from the endless album > tour > album > tour routines familiar to most bands, admirably pursuing their own agenda, however mysterious that might sometimes appear. THE BEATLES, JONI MITCHELL, VAN MORRISON, MICHAEL KIWANUKA AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! Take, for example, new music, which Smith has been teasing sporadically since 2014, when he announced 4:14 Scream – the follow-up to the band’s 2008 album, 4:13 Dream. Since then, they played two new songs “It Can Never Be The… Read More →

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Watch Neil Young perform 1977 track ‘Hey Babe’ live for the first time ever

Neil Young has performed the elusive 1977 song ‘Hey Babe’ live for the first time ever – watch fan-shot footage of the debut performance below. READ MORE: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – ‘Barn’ review: rugged and rural beauty, with a sense of hope In 1977, Young wrote and released ‘Hey Babe’ along with Crazy Horse, Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette Larson as part of his eighth studio album ‘American Stars ‘N Bars’. For the 47 years since its release, the song was just one of two tracks off the record that had never been performed live, alongside ‘Will To Love’. While performing at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York on September 24, Young surprised fans by performing the song for the first time ever, just six songs into his setlist. Watch footage of ‘Hey Babe’ below. Advertisement [embedded content] Last month, Young finally commented on his recently axed Crazy Horse tour dates, explaining that it was due to an undisclosed illness. “My body was telling me, ‘You gotta stop.’ So I listened to my body. Then it gets into all the legal matters: ‘You got this, you got that, people bought tickets, they did this, they did that.’ I understand… Read More →

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Whoopi Goldberg tells football fans blaming Taylor Swift for Travis Kelce’s performance to “grow up”

Whoopi Goldberg has hit out at football fans who have blamed Taylor Swift‘s presence in the stands for her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s performance. While Kelce’s team, the Kansas City Chiefs, have done well so far this season by winning their first three games, some fans have complained about how he has done on the field. Somehow, they’ve ended up pointing the finger at Swift. On the latest episode of The View, which aired on Tuesday (September 24), the talk show host said: “They apparently forgot that they won a Super Bowl last year with [Kelce], and [he and Swift] were just as tight then as they are now,” she said. “Grow up, y’all. Stop putting this on her. Your team is fine, your team is doing well. Shut up.” Swift was not present at the Chief’s most recent game on Sunday (September 22), which was fairly quiet for Kelce, but she had been in attendance for their first two games of the season. Nonetheless, for their third game of the season, they still claimed victory. Advertisement “She wasn’t even at the game,” pointed out cohost Sunny Hostin. “Is she supposed to play the game too? “I also love how we’re… Read More →

The The – Ensoulment

The The’s excellent 1983 album, Soul Mining, captured a feeling of deep, pronounced, soul searching like few other debuts have managed. Nearly 40 years on from that record Matt Johnson found himself engaging in a similar form of intense reflection and contemplation, as he navigated getting over a serious illness, grappling with the pandemic, dealing with grief and witnessing a rapidly changing world as AI boomed. It’s been 24 years since The The’s last studio album, with Johnson largely retreating into soundtrack work in the intervening years, but after a surprise return single in 2017 and the band’s first tour in 17 years, a full comeback was put into place. THE BEATLES, JONI MITCHELL, VAN MORRISON, MICHAEL KIWANUKA AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! During the making of this album, Johnson found himself reflecting on the current state of the world, which he called “fascinating” yet also “strange, inverted and hallucinogenic”. These are all feelings that have found their way onto Ensoulment, an album that tackles many of life’s big questions, topics and subjects – albeit one that is at its strongest when it steps back from those and offers up something more personal…. Read More →

Harold Budd, Elizabeth Frazer, Robin Guthrie, Simon Raymonde – The Moon And The Melodies (reissue, 1986)

There is something characteristically perverse about the fact that the Cocteau Twins’ greatest hits aren’t credited to them. In their lifetime, their biggest single was their uncanny, half-million selling, independent-chart-topping cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song To The Siren”, released under the aegis of 4AD boss Ivo Watts-Russell’s This Mortal Coil project. Since the group’s demise in 1997 the song that has risen to the top of the streaming stats is, remarkably, “Sea, Swallow Me”; never a single when it was released at the tail-end of 1986, yet currently racking over 100 millions plays on Spotify alone, and officially credited to Harold Budd, Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde. THE BEATLES, JONI MITCHELL, VAN MORRISON, MICHAEL KIWANUKA AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! This collaboration was almost an afterthought. A production company had floated the idea for a TV series that fostered pan-genre collaborations – metalheads and reggae rhythm sections, rockers and dance producers (such cross-fertilisation would ultimately lead to 4AD’s biggest hit, MARRS’ “Pump Up the Volume”). The documentary got bogged down in development purgatory, but the idea stuck with Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde, who hooked up with LA-based ambient composer and… Read More →

Remember His Name

Critically panned on release in 1971, David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name is now rightly acknowledged as a masterpiece, its hallucinatory psych-folk emblematic of the shifting West Coast spirit of the times. “I didn’t hear it until about ten or fifteen years ago,” admits The Waterboys’ Mike Scott. “But I loved its spontaneity. It captures a moment of freedom and stoned optimism.” THE BEATLES, JONI MITCHELL, VAN MORRISON, MICHAEL KIWANUKA AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! This October, Scott will take his place alongside a number of artists – Hothouse Flowers’ Liam Ó Maonlaí, Kris Drever and The Staves – for the first ever live performance of Crosby’s signature solo album as part of Llais, Cardiff’s annual international arts festival. “If I Could Only Remember My Name holds a special place in my heart,” says musician and arranger Kate St John, who devised the concept and will lead the accompanying band. “I’ve had the idea of realising this for years and have been playing around with ideas in my head. I’m not interested in a slavish reproduction, I want to throw it open to the singers and the band and for… Read More →

We’re New Here – Thee Sacred Souls

“The quality just feels timeless – it helps you feel good, helps you perform with so much more energy.” Frontman Josh Lane is talking about the stylish vintage clothes that characterise the look of Thee Sacred Souls, but he could just as easily be talking about their music, an irresistible brand of righteous, sun-blessed soul that consciously rekindles a classic ’60s and 70s R’n’B sound. “Absolutely,” he concurs. “It’s all part of the same package.” THE BEATLES, JONI MITCHELL, VAN MORRISON, MICHAEL KIWANUKA AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! Since forming in 2019 and signing to New York soul and funk label Daptone after only their second show, they’ve built up a keen following from touring with the likes of St Paul & The Broken Bones, Belle & Sebastian and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Nightsweats. Their forthcoming second album Got A Story To Tell promises to further cement their reputation as standard-bearers for classic American soul. Advertisement The sound of Thee Sacred Souls, so marinated in quality that it could have been preserved in oak casks, evolved after drummer Alex Garcia and bassist Sal Samano hooked up with Lane via social media and jammed… Read More →

Watch Neil Young play 1977’s “Hey Babe” live for the first time

Neil Young played “Hey Babe” live for the first time on September 24, 2024 at the Capitol Theatre, Portchester, New York. THE BEATLES, JONI MITCHELL, VAN MORRISON, MICHAEL KIWANUKA AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! The song originally appeared on Young’s 1977 album American Stars ‘N Bars, while a previously unreleased version of the song appeared more recently on Archives Vol. III (1976 – 1987). Advertisement [embedded content] Young has recently been playing with a ‘new’ band, The Chrome Hearts, comprising guitarist Micah Nelson, bassist Corey McCormick, drummer Anthony LoGerfo and Spooner Oldham on keyboards. McCormick and LoGerfo are also members of Promise Of The Real, with whom Young has often collaborated since 2015’s The Monsanto Years, along with Nelson. Oldham, of course, is a veteran of many of Young’s campaigns since 1978’s Comes A Time. Young debuted The Chrome Hearts at Farm Aid on September 21. It was his first live appearance since he curtailed Crazy Horse‘s recent Love Earth Tour in May due to illness. Young is next expected to appear at the Harvest Moon – A Gathering event on October 5 at Lake Hughes in California on a bill that also… Read More →

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babyMINT: the Taiwanese girl group making irreverent, irresistible pop bangers

babyMINT are game for whatever. The Taiwanese girl group’s biggest single, the absurdly titled and TikTok-viral ‘​Hellokittybalahcurrihellokitty美味しい’, is stuffed with musical ideas: an opening cheer routine set to retro video game synths, a playful rap about eating your vegetables, and a rave breakdown that trails off into cathartic screams. Watch babyMINT’s six members lazily floss and tackle the song’s head-banging choreography alongside its maximalist production, and you’ll find yourself breaking into a wide grin. LIN of babyMINT. Credit: HIM International Music Inc. babyMINT formed via Next Girlz, a Taiwanese reality competition between six trainee girl groups that aired last year on YouTube. Over 12 weekly episodes, they went through near-constant stylistic switches: no idea felt off-limits as they put their whimsical and eccentric flair on trendy sounds like hyperpop and drum’n’bass. Reflecting on the show, they consider it a learning experience. Each round’s experimentation helped solidify the babyMINT concept and made them more self-assured on- and off-stage. “This is babyMINT,” asserts Vikky, “we are weird and we accept it.” The six members who made their official debut as babyMINT last month – LIN (who was formerly known as Lin Lin in the now-defunct K-pop group Cherry Bullet), Vikky, Siena, PX,… Read More →

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Johnny Depp says his life “turned into a soap opera” in new press conference

Johnny Depp has reflected on life turning “into a soap opera” for him in recent years during a press conference for his latest directorial outing. Depp has helmed Modì, a dramatisation of the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, which stars Riccardo Scamarcio and Stephen Graham. Its world premiere takes place tonight (September 24) at the Sam Sebastian International Film Festival and will be released theatrically on December 5. According to producer Stephen Deuters, Depp has always expressed his gratitude for being invited onto the project, especially in the aftermath of his legal battles with Amber Heard. In the press conference, Depp was asked about how his own experiences compare to that of the protagonist’s, to which he said they have both had to earn their keep. Advertisement “Sure, we can say that I’ve been through a number of things here and there, but I’m alright,” he said before seemingly alluding to his legal troubles. “I think we’ve all been through a number of things, ultimately… Maybe yours didn’t turn into a soap opera, televised in fact, but we all experience and go through what we go through.” [embedded content] He also said that the experience “allowed me to be… Read More →

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Big Bang’s Daesung says performing with G-Dragon and Taeyang again was “pure joy”

Big Bang singer Daesung has opened up about performing on stage with bandmates G-Dragon and Taeyang again for the first time in years. Earlier this month, Big Bang’s Taeyang kicked-off his ‘The Light Year’ tour in Seoul, where he invited bandmates Daesung and G-Dragon to perform some of the group’s hits on stage. In a new episode of Daesung’s YouTube show Zip Daesung, the vocalist offered a behind-the-scenes look into the concert and shared his thoughts on their first performance together since December 2017. “It was pure joy,” he said. “The fact that people still remember us and talk about us is just incredible, you know? For a group that’s almost 20 years old, that’s quite an achievement. I’m truly grateful for that.” Advertisement The singer also shared that it felt “surreal” to perform Big Bang songs again. “As I looked at Taeyang while performing together on stage, my heart raced. It was such a fun and exciting experience,” Daesung added. [embedded content] Daesung also hinted at possible appearances by Taeyang and G-Dragon on his YouTube channel. “It was the first time we saw the reactions to [the three of us together]. Since we got a taste of it, I… Read More →

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New ‘Friends’ game show starts filming next month

A Friends game show is being made to celebrate the long-running comedy’s 30th anniversary. Titled Fast Friends, the four-part HBO Max show will be filmed inside The Friends Experience: The One in New York, a two-story, 17,000 square-foot attraction featuring various recreated sets from the hit show. Production begins next month, but a transmission date has not yet been confirmed. “From racing through Rachel and Monica’s apartment to darting across Joey and Chandler’s bachelor pad and grabbing a coffee at Central Perk, fans will relive their favorite moments while being put to the test with trivia, puzzles and games that will keep even the most die-hard Friends fans on their toes,” according to a press release. The teams will compete to be crowned the ultimate Friends fans. The pilot episode of Friends aired 30 years ago yesterday (September 22). It ran for 10 seasons, ending in May 2004. Advertisement The cast of ‘Friends’, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow, on Sept. 12, 2003 in Burbank, CA.(Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images) Recently, while reflecting on the milestone anniversary, Courteney Cox said she “can’t imagine” that a reboot of the show would work. “It’s hard to try to redo anything,”… Read More →