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Watch Drake join the Backstreet Boys onstage during ‘I Want It That Way’

Drake made a special appearance during the Backstreet Boys‘ show on Saturday night (July 2), joining them for ‘I Want It That Way’.

The iconic boyband were performing in Drake’s hometown of Toronto where they brought the singer out for the classic 1999 hit, after introducing him as “the sixth member”. Watch footage from the concert below.

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The outfit are currently on the North American leg of their ‘DNA’ world tour, which kicked off in April. They’ve still got another two months of North American shows to go before heading over to Europe and the UK for a run of shows throughout October and November.

Drake released his seventh studio album ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ last week, just hours after announcing it.

The record was executive produced by Drake himself, Noah “40” Shebib, Oliver El-Khatib, Noel Cadastre and South African producer and DJ Black Coffee, whom Drake worked with on 2017 project ‘More Life’. It also featured production credits from DJ Carnage, aka Gordo, who worked on six of its 14 tracks.

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NME awarded the album three stars in a review, calling it a “long-overdue career boost”.

“‘Honestly, Nevermind’ is an unexpected elevation from the bland trap, R&B remakes and Drake’s melancholic attitude to love we heard last time around,” wrote NME‘s Kyann-Sian Williams.

“He doesn’t quite shift the latter as much as one would hope – the album is as tiresomely woe-is-me as anything he’s ever done – but the house sound has at least given him the creative boost that his recording career has been crying out for recently.”

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The Music share teaser with concert footage ahead of announcement on Monday

A month after they performed their first hometown show in 11 years, Leeds-native alt-rockers The Music have teased a big announcement for next week.

The band posted a short video to their social media pages yesterday (July 1), showing 10 seconds of concert footage – seemingly filmed at that hometown gig, which took place at Temple Newsam on June 2 – before revealing the date of Monday July 4.

Have a look at the teaser below:

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Posted by The Music (UK) on Friday, July 1, 2022

As for what The Music could be teasing, there was no hint offered in the caption (three staring eye emojis), however the inclusion of concert footage has fans arguing between two theories. The first is that the band could be releasing a live album and film of their Leeds show, as it was professionally recorded. The other, expectedly, is that the band could be set to embark on a proper tour in the immediate future.

The Music performed 15 songs at Temple Newsam – seven from 2002’s self-titled debut album, and four each from 2004’s ‘Welcome To The North’ and 2008’s ‘Strength In Numbers’. It was their first gig in Leeds since August 2011, when they closed out their farewell tour (which was dubbed ‘The Last Dance’) at the O2 Academy. 

Initially slated to mark their first gig since reuniting in 2020, the Temple Newsam show was pre-empted by a performance in Scotland, where they played at Glasgow’s Barrowland on May 31. There, they played the exact same set as they did three nights later in Leeds.

The Music announced their breakup in March 2011, and released their final song, ‘Ghost Hands’, the following month. Their reunion was confirmed on September 4, 2020, when they announced the Temple Newsam gig (then slated to go down in May 2021, before it was postponed due to the pandemic). As is now the case with next week’s announcement, that news was preceded by a cryptic teaser.

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Authorised biography of The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts announced

An official biography of Charlie Watts, authorised by both The Rolling Stones and Watts’ family, has been announced.

  • READ MORE: Charlie Watts, 1941 – 2021: the ballast that kept The Rolling Stones tempered and on-track

Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Authorised Biography of Charlie Watts is due to be released on September 15 in the UK and October 11 in the US, according to Rolling Stone. The book features forewords from both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, plus a prelude from the band’s former manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham.

The longtime Rolling Stones drummer died at the age of 80 last August prompting a huge outpouring of tributes from the music world and beyond.

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His surviving bandmates reflected on the “huge loss” in September last year before later dedicating their first show of 2021 to Watts.

The new biography has been written by author-broadcaster Paul Sexton and includes new interviews with Jagger, Richards, and Ronnie Wood, as well as friends, family and collaborators.

“Our dear friend Charlie Watts was not just a fantastic drummer but a wonderful person,” the Rolling Stones said in a statement. “He was funny and generous and a man of great taste and we miss him terribly. It’s great that his family have authorized this official biography by Paul Sexton, who’s been writing and broadcasting about Charlie and the band for many years.”

Sexton added: “One of Charlie’s good friends said to me that he was a very easy man to love. Having had the pleasure of his company on so many occasions over the course of more than a quarter of a century, that’s a sentiment I echo wholeheartedly. To be able, with the help and encouragement of those who knew him best, to draw on my time with this unique man and his fellow Rolling Stones to write his authorized biography, is a thrill and an honor.”

The Stones’ ‘SIXTY’ UK and European anniversary tour kicked off in Madrid on June 1. At that show, they delivered the first-ever live performance of their 1966 single ‘Out Of Time’ and delivered a tribute to Watts.

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Filling his spot on the ‘SIXTY’ tour is session drummer Steve Jordan, who the band confirmed in March would record parts for their upcoming 24th album.

The Stones postponed two gigs on the tour in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Bern, Switzerland due to Jagger’s ill health, resuming in Milan on June 21. The band are due to play the second of their BST Hyde Park shows on July 3, with Sam Fender and Courtney Barnett on support.

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Placebo’s Brian Molko on why they covered Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’

Placebo‘s Brian Molko has spoken about the band’s connection to Kate Bush and the reason they chose to cover ‘Running Up That Hill’.

  • READ MORE: Placebo: “David Bowie taught me how to be a better person”

The original song has found renewed popularity after featuring in the fourth season of Stranger Things. The track – which appears on Bush’s 1985 fifth studio album, ‘Hounds Of Love’ – reached Number One on the UK singles chart earlier this month (June 17).

In an interview with the Guardian, the frontman revealed how he first came across Bush. “My first exposure to Kate Bush was the video for Babooshka when I was a preteen,” he said.

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“I’d never seen anything like it: who is this person from outer space, singing an incredibly strange song? I was completely captivated by this beautiful woman who had such charisma and seemed so unique.

“Then I discovered that my older brother had [album] ‘The Kick Inside’, so I was introduced to ‘The Man With the Child in His Eyes’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’. Then [in 1985] ‘Hounds of Love’ came out and blew my mind completely.”

Placebo covered ‘Running Up That Hill’ in 2003, with the song becoming the first track on the band’s ‘Covers’ album that same year. Their cover ended up peaking at Number 44 on the UK Singles Chart in 2006, after being used during the fourth-season premiere of The O.C.

Molko continued in the interview: “We were already in the habit of covering our favourite songs from the 80s, so I suggested that we do ‘Running Up That Hill’ but that we slow the tempo down as much as we could without it becoming a dirge, and obviously we wanted to keep it electronic with sounds from the early 2000s.

“I met Kate once at a party: it was a record company do and there was an orderly queue to speak to her. When I got to the front the first thing she said to me was: “I like your cover of my song.” That was enough. I’m very, very pleased that it got Kate’s endorsement.”

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Last month, Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower revealed that he listened to Placebo‘s cover of ‘Running Up That Hill’ to help him get out of character as Vecna.

“When I was prepping for Vecna, to get into Vecna, I would use a lot of bands like Sun 0))), Carpathian Forest, Darkthrone, Mayhem,” the actor recently revealed on the Kyle Meredith With… podcast.

“Escaping Vecna… I’m a huge fan of Placebo,” he said. “I love Placebo. And obviously Placebo covered Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ sometime in, I dunno, I guess it must have been the late ’90s, early 2000s. And so I would go with that.”

Earlier this week, it was announced that Kate Bush had officially broken three Guinness World Records following the recent resurgence of ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’: Oldest female artist to reach Number One, longest time for a track to reach Number One on the UK’s Official Singles Chart, and longest gap between Number Ones.

Meanwhile, the final two episodes of Stranger Things season four landed on Netflix today (July 1).

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Simon Pegg on being mates with Chris Martin and going to Disneyland with Jay-Z

Speaking to NME backstage at Glastonbury 2022, actor and writer Simon Pegg told us about his friendship with Coldplay‘s Chris Martin and a recent trip to Disneyland with Jay-Z.

  • READ MORE: Glastonbury 2022 – Your favourite artists on why it matters

The Spaced, Big Train, Star Trek and Mission Impossible star was talking to us just after his appearance in the Greenpeace Field, when he recalled a previous visit to Worthy Farm in 2016 when his daughter joined Coldplay on stage.

“On her first Glastonbury she sang backing vocals with Coldplay,” said Pegg. “Chris Martin is an old, old friend and [my daughter] Tilly’s godfather. He invited her up on stage with his kids and their friend to sing the backing vocals on ‘Up&Up’. I was an incredibly proud dad that day.”

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During the performance, Pegg was seen side of stage with “all his friends” Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Gwyneth Paltrow, but said that he wasn’t particularly close to the former rapper.

“I did go to Disneyland with Jay-Z recently,” Pegg admitted. “I don’t know him that well but he’s friends with Chris [Martin] and we’ve met a couple of times. He’s a really sweet guy. He’s a dad too. We were all being told to go on the rollercoasters by our kids who are braver than we are.”

  • READ MORE: Simon Pegg at Glastonbury 2022: “Tom Cruise would bring his own toilet”

Asked about the most fun celebrity he’d ever been to Glasto with, Pegg replied: “I have been able to go backstage a few times here with Coldplay through knowing Chris. But it is more fun to be out and enjoying the festival. You get a weird detached version of the festival [when you’re backstage].

“Having said that, I’m not camping, I’m staying in a hotel nearby. I’m 52 and I shouldn’t have to sleep on a plastic sheet. That doesn’t happen until I’m 70! Even glamping I can’t do. I want room service and clean sheets every day.”

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Check out more of our chat with Pegg here, where he also discusses Greenpeace, other projects and how much Tom Cruise might enjoy Glastonbury.

Also, check out this week’s Big Read cover story where the likes of Pegg, HAIM, Pete Doherty, Sigrid, Yungblud, Baebadoobee, Fontaines DC and more tell us about Glastonbury and what it means to them.

Check back at NME here for the latest news, reviews, interviews, photos and more from Glastonbury 2022.

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Cardi B Turns Up The Heat On Ye-Assisted Banger ‘Hot Shit’

Cardi B is turning up the heat this summer, dropping her latest single, “Hot Shit,” on Friday (July 1). Collaborating with Ye and Lil Durk, this is her first new music release since dropping the upbeat song “Up” in 2021. In this new record, she raps about luxury, extravagance, and her “checks comin’ fast.”

“Either way you slice it, bottom line, I'm the top bitch / New Chanel, I rock it, twist and it ain't even out yet,” Cardi spits, flaunting her success in a fiery verse. “All this jewelry at the grocery store, I'm obnoxious / Bought a home and closin' on another, I know I'm blessed.”

She also drops some lines toward the haters who have been trying to drag her down throughout her career: “Pretty when I wake up, I'm a bad bitch at breakfast / Still might slide on a opp / Hatin' didn't work so they lie / These bitches lookin' hurt and they fried.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c14MVsSeVho

Lil Durk comes through smoothly in the second verse with a line telling off those who try to use Cardi’s past against her. “This that pill talk, gotta bust his head, he cut on opp music / Who said you gang / Who said you could come around this bitch and hang?” he raps. “I got plenty cars, I hit plenty stars and didn't come / I said it plenty times, I pay for bodies, I ain't pay for none.”

By the third verse, Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, pops off. “Pinky swear you ain't scared when you heard Ye appear,” he raps. “I'ma hop up out the bushes, me and Pusha kill your man / I'm just sayin', now I start to get used to the pain / 'Til one day I said, ‘Fuck it,’ brought my masseuse on the plane.”

Ye pays homage to his late friend Virgil Abloh, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director and Off White’s CEO, who passed away in 2021. “When we lost Virg, I was on the verge, mm-mm,” he raps. “I just hit the Louis store, I had to splurge, mm-mm.” A longtime collaborator of Demna Gvasalia, the designer of Balenciaga, Ye mentions the luxury brand by name: “Guess who at Balenciaga? Guess who shoppin' now?”

Cardi B posted on Instagram a short snippet of her single on Sunday (June 26) that she would be dropping “Hot Shit.” A day later, she announced Lil Durk and Ye would join the club. In the days leading up to the release of the song, she took to Twitter Spaces and revealed the single is older than fans may have expected.

“I have [had] this record already for almost three years,” she said. “I think this record is actually older than ‘WAP.’ It is everyone’s favorite.”

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Elvis

Of all the filmmakers who could have made an Elvis biopic, it had to be one whose aesthetic is more Vegas bloat than Sun Studios leanness. Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis lives up
to the swooning excess of his Moulin Rouge, even down to its digital diamanté-studded end credits. Less a narrative than a deluxe jukebox musical with touches of Douglas Sirk melodrama, Elvis is framed as a sort of Citizen Kane deathbed reverie from Colonel Tom Parker, Presley’s Dutch-born, Mephistophelean manager. He’s played by Tom Hanks with a bizarre, undefinable European accent, in makeup suggesting a cross between the Penguin and a papier-mâché effigy of Rupert Murdoch.

  • ORDER NOW: THE BEATLES ARE ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST ISSUE OF UNCUT

How Parker ‘created’, or rather enslaved Presley is the narrative drift, but the film’s real pleasure lies in its full-tilt comic-strip stylistics and a terrific performance by Austin Butler (a TV stalwart previously seen in Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time…). His Elvis is something of a coy innocent, less of a confident joker than the original, not quite aware of his powers, but rebellious when it comes to doing things his own way, as on the ’68 TV Comeback Special.

Don’t expect the dark stuff – the decline isn’t touched on, nor his attempts to ingratiate himself with Richard Nixon (this film paints Elvis as a tender-hearted liberal). Priscilla, played by Olivia de Jonge, barely gets a look-in. The film is best experienced as a showbiz panto, with famous names flitting by – Kelvin Harrison Jr as BB King, Alton Mason show-stealing as Little Richard.

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The emphasis on Elvis’s debt to black music might have expressed itself more subtly than with tarted-up rap recreations of his work – Doja Cat, CeeLo Green and Eminem are among the soundtrack contributors – but then this is no more a film for purists than Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet was for Stratford-on-Avon regulars. Elvis is hyperbolic, one-dimensional and ludicrous – but as high-excess cinematic myth-making, it’s a blast.

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Cha Eun-woo reportedly set to join upcoming Hollywood film about K-pop

South Korean K-pop idol and actor Cha Eun-woo has reportedly been offered the lead role in the upcoming Hollywood film, K-Pop: Lost In America. 

  • READ MORE: ASTRO talk pursuing a “relaxed, mature vibe” for ‘Candy Sugar Pop’, and their “meaningful” new solo songs

Yesterday (June 30), Deadline first reported that Australia actress Rebel Wilson (Senior Year) and Riverdale actor Charles Melton have been cast in an upcoming film to be titled K-Pop: Lost In America, with filming said to kickstart sometime this fall.

South Korean news outlet StarNews later reported today (July 1) that ASTRO member Cha Eun-woo has also been offered a role in the upcoming film. The publication claims that the singer is “in talks to play the lead”, as translated by Soompi, and that Cha has also “cleared part of his schedule for the second half of 2022 in order to prepare for filming”.

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K-Pop: Lost In America was first announced in August 2021 by South Korean media company CJ ENM. The film will be produced by Parasite executive producer Miky Lee and Interstellar producer Lynda Obst.

The film will reportedly revolve around a K-pop boyband who accidentally end up in Texas two days before their grand global debut in New York City, and must find a way to make it there with limited time and money.

K-Pop Lost In America is not the only K-pop-inspired movie currently in the works. Earlier in 2021, Sony Pictures Animation announced that it was working on a musical film called K-Pop: Demon Hunters that would centre around a demon-hunting K-pop girl group.

Meanwhile, Cha and his fellow ASTRO bandmates recently returned with new music in May. The boyband released their third studio album ‘Drive to the Starry Road’, led by the title track ‘Candy Sugar Pop’.

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Nova Twins speak out on “scary” Roe v. Wade reversal: “We’re gonna keep fighting”

Nova Twins have responded to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, saying they “can’t even fathom” a similar ruling in the UK.

  • READ MORE: Five things we learned from our In Conversation video chat with Nova Twins

Last week, the US Supreme Court made the decision to overturn the landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade. This means abortion will no longer be protected as a federal right in the US for the first time since 1973, and each state will be able to decide individually whether to restrict or ban abortion.

“It’s a scary time for women, and we can’t even fathom what it would be like if that was happening here,” singer and guitarist Amy Love told Channel 4‘s Krishnan Guru-Murthy. “We’re gonna stand in solidarity. We have a responsibility for the people that come to our shows to make sure they feel safe and heard.”

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Love continued: “It’s definitely a dark time. We’re gonna keep fighting. It’s our right, it’s our bodies. It’s crazy to think somebody is sitting there making that decision for us. It’s wrong on so many levels.

“We never thought this would come to this. We’ve worked so hard to get to where we are now. In 2022, for this to happen, everybody’s terrified. We don’t know what’s going on.”

Bassist Georgia South added that for a ruling “enshrined for the last 50 years to be taken away like this, it’s like, what’s next?”

Nova Twins
Nova Twins. CREDIT: Federica Burelli/Press

A number of other figures from the world of entertainment have spoken out against the Supreme Court’s reversal, including Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam, Charli XCX, Maggie Rogers, Green Day, Finneas, Yungblud, Alicia Keys and more.

Some used their performance at Glastonbury this past weekend to speak out, including Lorde who told the crowd: “You wanna know a secret, girls? Your bodies were destined to be controlled and objectified since before you were born. That horror is your birthright.”

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Phoebe Bridgers led her audience in chanting “Fuck the Supreme Court” on Friday night (June 24), while Billie Eilish used her headline set on the same night to make reference to the decision.

On Saturday (June 25), Olivia Rodrigo brought out Lily Allen to sing the British star’s ‘Fuck You’ together. Before they began the song, Rodrigo told the Other Stage crowd: “I’m devastated I’m terrified and so many women and so many girls are going to die because of this.

“I wanted to dedicate this song to the five members of the supreme court, who showed us that at the end of the day they truly don’t give a shit about freedom.”

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Vince Staples lands lead role in comedy pilot ‘The Wood’

Vince Staples has been cast in a comedy pilot for Showtime based on the 1999 film The Wood.

According to Variety, Staples, Xavier Mills (Legacies), Karen Obilom (Doom Patrol), Melvin Gregg (Snowfall) and Essence Renae (Bosch: Legacy) will star in the pilot.

  • READ MORE: Vince Staples: “It’s important for me to tell the truth about my experiences”

Original stars Richard T. Jones and Tamala Jones will also reprise their roles as Slim and Tanya respectively in the show.

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The film’s original director and writer, Rick Famuyiwa, will return to direct and executive produce the pilot. Famuyiwa previously worked with Staples on his previous feature film Dope.

The Wood film
Richard T Jones, Omar Epps and Taye Diggs in 1999 film ‘The Wood’ CREDIT: Alamy

The show is described as an “honest look at friendship and dating from the perspective of three young Black males born and raised in the gentrifying LA suburb of Inglewood”.

Staples will play Jamal, an aspiring photographer from Ladera Heights who has been cut off by his upper-class family when he decided to follow his own path instead of going to Morehouse College.

Mills will play the educated and ambitious Dame, Obilom stars as confident, polished engineer Brielle, while Gregg plays Pokémon card reseller Shawn. Renae stars as Ashley, the mother of Shawn’s daughter and an aspiring fashion designer.

Staples has previously dabbled in acting with voice roles in American Dad! and Adult Swim series Lazor Wulf. He also made an appearance as himself in HBO series Insecure.

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According to Deadline, Staples has also joined the cast for the reboot of White Men Can’t Jump alongside Myles Bullock. The reboot, based on the 1992 sports comedy film, has yet to receive a release date.

Earlier this year, Staples released his fifth studio album ‘Ramona Park Broke My Heart’ to critical acclaim. In a four-star review of the album, NME wrote: “The production is clean and the rhymes are imaginative as the artist digs deeper than ever before.”