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This 1979 Album Made Tom Petty Declare Bankruptcy
Tom Petty’s 1979 album Damn the Torpedoes became a major commercial breakthrough for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, but its creation was shaped by a bitter dispute with MCA Records. Petty objected when his contract was transferred during MCA’s purchase of Shelter Records, arguing that he and his band were being treated as commodities rather…
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Katy Perry Talks Justin Trudeau Romance, Dolly Parton and Embracing “Queen of Cringe” Title
Katy Perry surprised fans at a Los Angeles IMAX screening of her new concert documentary, Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour — Live From Paris, joining them for the finale and describing the event as a party-like cinema experience. The film documents her 2025 world tour and is due for a global cinema and IMAX release,…
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Director Thom Lunshof on ‘First Zone’: “I don’t believe in this day and age that it’s effective to throw big doom scenarios in people’s faces”
Director Thom Lunshof’s debut feature, First Zone, premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and follows Fenna, a woman living alone in a wind turbine after flooding submerges much of her country. Rather than presenting climate change through a conventional disaster narrative, Lunshof uses it as the setting for a personal story about isolation, survival…
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The “scary” 1993 song that gave The Pogues life after Shane MacGowan
The article examines how The Pogues adapted after dismissing frontman Shane MacGowan in 1991 because his alcoholism and drug addiction had made working with him increasingly difficult. It argues that James Fearnley’s 1993 song ‘The Drunken Boat’ helped articulate the band’s uncertain new identity, using a hazardous tanker without a port as a metaphor for…
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Watch Phoebe Bridgers Cover Nirvana’s ‘Lithium’ for BBC Radio 1
Phoebe Bridgers performed a stripped-back cover of Nirvana’s ‘Lithium’ for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge, alongside her own song ‘Bobby’. The appearance is notable because it was recorded only hours before she was hospitalised with appendicitis, which forced her to postpone several UK shows. The cover comes shortly after the release of Bridgers’ third album,…
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The summer camp in East Mersea that gave the world Yes in 1968
Yes played its first concert at East Mersea Youth Camp on the Essex coast in 1968, before becoming one of progressive rock’s defining bands in the 1970s. The occasion matters because the group began not with its later elaborate original compositions, but as a newly renamed band relying on inventive cover versions to fulfil an…
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Fleetwood Mac May Not Have Succeeded Without This Cult’s Intervention
Fleetwood Mac’s early line-up was reshaped by a series of departures linked in the article to the pressures of fame, mental-health struggles and substance use. Jeremy Spencer’s abrupt exit in 1971 was especially consequential: he disappeared before a planned Los Angeles concert after encountering members of the Children of God religious sect, forcing the band…
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Harry Styles’ Brand New Together, Together NYC Setlist: Every Song Played at Tour’s First U.S. Show
Harry Styles opened his 30-night Madison Square Garden residency with a newly reordered Together, Together setlist, adding fan favourites not previously played on the tour and a tribute to Dolly Parton. – The first New York show was the tour’s first and only US date. – The residency runs consecutively through Halloween. – Styles is…
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Harry Styles honours Dolly Parton at revamped MSG opener
Harry Styles opened his 30-show Madison Square Garden residency with a substantially revised set, departing from the largely unchanged programme used on his “Together, Together” tour. He also paid tribute to Dolly Parton following the announcement of her death, thanking her as an influence before a recording of “I Will Always Love You” was played.…
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“It wasn’t just his writing”: the Motown artist Berry Gordy knew “excelled at everything”
The article argues that Stevie Wonder became one of Motown’s defining artists because of his unusually broad musical abilities and willingness to develop beyond the label’s early formula. Berry Gordy initially valued Wonder chiefly as a harmonica player, but later praised his songwriting, production, distinctive sound and complex chord structures, seeing him as an artist…