Check it out the performance below:

McKenna released his sophomore album ‘Zeros’ last Friday to rave reviews and is likely to take the number one spot in the album charts this week. But he’s be competing head-to-head with the Rolling Stones’ reissue of their 1973’s ‘Goats Head Soup’, with Billy Ocean and Paloma Faith not far behind. If he clinches the top spot by this Friday, ‘Zeros’ will be the indie superstar’s first chart topper and first top 10 album.

Speaking to Dork last month about the album, McKenna said the pop heart of the album is informed by his inclinations for experimentation: “The songs that come to me naturally are just pop songs. I’m not trying to be a crazy math-rock artist or anything like that, but I like experimentation to be at the base of my work. I always end up writing pop songs, but there has to be something new about it for me. It has to feel fresh and give me that burst of energy you get when you hear a song you really like. I have to experience that with a song I’m writing, or I just give up straight away.”

And Mckenna has also been open about the struggles of recording an album and emerging as one of the biggest new artists of recent years, telling NME: “The most imposter syndrome I’ve ever felt is now,” he says. “I’ve just been sitting on an album for a year, and I have had too much time to ask myself questions about the musical direction I have gone in. When you get to that point, you begin to wonder if you are an absolute fraud.”

The artist performed a small, socially-distanced gig on September 4th in London to celebrate the release of ‘Zeros’.

The song was revealed on Twitter alongside cover art of the virtual band in colourful astronaut suits and Smith’s head emerging from an ominous doorway behind. No release date or teaser video was shared.

Coming up on Song Machine…
It’s @RobertSmith
Follow your nearest Song Machine NOW!https://t.co/LxIgC7zkVH#SongMachine pic.twitter.com/vx3GFgDTUP

— gorillaz (@gorillaz) September 7, 2020

Previous entries into the ‘Song Machine’ have included collaborations with ScHoolboy Q on ‘PAC-MAN’, Octavian on ‘Friday 13^th’, Fatoumata Diawara on ‘Désolé’, Peter Hook and Georgia on ‘Aries’, and Slowthai and Slaves on ‘Momentary Bliss’. In typical Gorillaz tradition, each track is accompanied by a colourfully animated music video of Murdoch, 2D, Noodle, and Russell getting up to some mischief.

Gorillaz have had a busy year. Back in May, they released ‘How Far?’ in tribute to, and in collaboration with, the late Tony Allen, and released a short browser racing game to accompany their third ‘Song Machine’ episode, ‘Aries’, that recreates the retro racing games of the NES era. The band will also be releasing ‘The Gorillaz Almanac’ in October, their first hardback annual containing artwork, comic strips, puzzles and games, as a homage to two decades of Gorillaz history.

The Cure also have new music on the way and last year revealed they were working on three new albums. They had expected to have one finished by the end of 2019 but that didn’t emerge. Speaking to NME last year, Smith said the album was a “work in progress” and described it as “merciless”. The Cure’s last studio album, ‘4:13 Dream’, released in 2008.

The announcement comes at a busy time for Nines, who last week landed his first number one album, ‘Crabs in a Bucket’, beating music heavyweights Metallica, Disclosure and Katy Perry for the top spot on official UK charts. The London rapper’s third studio album was the most streamed and most downloaded album of last week, narrowly finishing ahead of Metallica’s latest release, ‘S&M2’, by just short of 2,000 chart sales.

Talking to ‘Official Charts’, Nines said: “Thanks to everyone that put me in this position, I still can’t believe I’m Number 1 – Finally won a golden boot!”

Nines also took to Twitter to thank his fans for their support and list some of his inspirations behind his success, as well as pose with his Official Chart award outside of his local estate in north-west London.

Church road got more trophies than white hart lane #IceCityGonePlatinumBaby pic.twitter.com/eDdpObpnBG

— Nines (@nines1ace) September 4, 2020

‘Crabs in a Bucket’ is Nines’ third studio album but his first recorded with a major label. It charts his journey from childhood to his current rap career and gives a confessional glimpse into the conflicts he faced along the way and continues to face.

He also released a 35-minute film, ‘Crop Circle 2, to YouTube back in April this year in promotion of his latest album. It features cameos of other British rappers including Kojey Radical, Ghetts and Delilah Rose.

Nines’ 2021 UK tour dates:
02/05/2021 – Great Hall – Cardiff
03/05/2021 – O2 Academy – Leeds
04/05/2021 – SWG3 – Glasgow
05/05/2021 – Rock City – Nottingham
06/05/2021 – O2 Academy – Birmingham
07/05/2021 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester
09/05/2021 – O2 Brixton Academy – London

Check it out below:

This wasn’t the first livestreaming treat from Bay. Last week, he played a unique performance at the top of the London Eye as part of a surprise performance on The Late Late Show with James Corden. With each bandmember positioned in a separate pod, the iconic London attraction made the ideal spot for a socially distanced gig, as it rotated over London below.

At over 400ft above London, the performance included some incredible views of the city, although Bay did admit on Twitter to being a little unsettled by the heights.

First pic: “no I’m not scared of heights.” Last pic: “yeh I’m really scared of heights.”

Either way, here’s some more awesome snaps from the Eye by Isy Townsend pic.twitter.com/iAMpTDXUZF

— James Bay (@JamesBayMusic) September 2, 2020

Speaking to NME back in July about ‘Chew on My Heart’ and his upcoming album, Bay said: “I’m typically a very private person and this next record is much more personal and vulnerable. My long-term girlfriend and I were just kids when we met; we knew each other before any of this happened to our lives. The album is a bit of a tribute to our journey.”

Throughout the last few weeks of lockdown, Bay hasn’t been quiet. He’s regularly released snippets of himself playing popular tracks on Twitter as ‘Live Lessons’. Many have been short tutorials of his own songs, while others have been covers of big pop classics.

And Bay isn’t letting up anytime soon. This Sunday September 6, Bay will be participating in the ninth edition of charity football event ‘Soccer Aid’. The biggest UK charity football event raises money for UNICEF and will also feature music stars Ollie Murs and and Danny Jones of McFly. The event was originally set to take place on June 6 but was pushed back due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The albums were remastered by Sade and her bandmates – Stuart Matthewman, Andrew Hale and Paul Spencer Denman – at Abbey Road Studios. The remastering intended to produce exceptionally clean and detailed audio while faithfully maintaining the band’s sound.

Announcing Sade’s box set entitled ‘This Far’ will be released worldwide on October 9th 2020, featuring remastered versions of all Sade’s six studio albums to date, on pure 180-gram heavyweight black vinyl.

Pre-order here: https://t.co/wbB5KKpW0j pic.twitter.com/uqnhvs2OUb

— Sade (@SadeOfficial) September 2, 2020

Alongside the boxset’s title, a press release hinted that we could expect an expansion to Sade’s discography in the future, suggesting “that the band’s studio work may not yet be fully complete”.

Sade’s found immediate critical and commercial success with her debut album, ‘Diamond Life’, which became the best-selling debut by a British female vocalist. She’s maintained her stature as a successful female artist in the British music industry and beyond, with her most recent record, ‘Soldier of Love’ reaching number one in the US upon its release 10 years ago.

Since then, Sade and her band have been on hiatus, only contributing to a couple of film soundtracks. They released the song ‘Flower of the Universe’ as part of Disney’s ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ in 2018 and composed ‘The Big Unknown’ for the film ‘Widows’ that same year.

Speaking at the time, ‘Widows’ director Steve McQueen said: “it was an honor to work with such a legend. Sade is an incomparable talent and incredible artist who so rarely releases new material, but luckily the original series of Widows had deeply resonated with her.”

Encore surveyed 560 musicians in the study to get a glimpse of the pandemic’s financial impact. They found musicians have lost an average of £11,300 in earnings since March as a consequence of cancelled bookings, made as part of the UK’s lockdown measures. This looks to continue, with 87% fewer gigs booked for August-December 2020 than the same period last year. A staggering 40% of respondents had no gigs booked for the remainder of the year.

With a majority of musicians considering leaving the profession and 40% having applied for non-music jobs since March, this exodus of musicians from the industry threatens wider disruption to the UK economy as a whole. According to a 2019 report published by industry representative and lobby group ‘UK Music’, the UK music industry contributes £5.2 billion to the UK economy and employs nearly 200,000 people.

Breaking down the statistics further, women have been worst affected, with 34% fewer gigs booked for the rest of 2020 than men. Women expect to earn 45% less than men in gig fees for the rest of 2020. Encore also found pop musicians suffered the most and lost an average of £19,900 in earnings as a result of cancellations since March.

Despite the government providing some financial support for workers hit by the pandemic, many musicians have slipped through the net, with 41% of Encore’s survey respondents failing to qualify for any government support.

Speaking about the results of the study, Encore CEO James McAulay said: “We’re acutely aware of the damage the pandemic has done to our musicians’ livelihoods, but I was still shocked to see just how few bookings most musicians have left in the diary for 2020.

“This problem is being felt across the industry – from signed veterans to young musicians at the beginning of their careers. The government must act now to make sure our musicians aren’t left behind.”    

Attendees were treated to 70 local acts across six stages, all in the grounds of the medieval ruins of Vale Castle. Tickets sold out the night before, and the festival proved so popular that organisers had to turn others away at the door. With ferries to the UK mainland cancelled in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus, all bands playing were local acts from Guernsey. Topping the bill were Buff Huddleston, The Recks, Lord Vapour, and Clameur De Haro.

Talking to the BBC, festival organiser Yannic Bearder, said “It was a great day, lots of people out celebrating in the sun. It was unfortunate we had to turn some people away at the door towards the end of the day, but we can only let so many people on the site.

“It was amazing to see all those local acts and our thanks to them as well as all the volunteers who help us put on the festival.”

Many festival-goers shared images and videos of the event on social media, which makes a strange sight for a summer destitute of live music. One happy attendee tweeted that it was “a cracking afternoon and evening. Can’t have been easy pulling that together under the circumstances. Got to see two of my fave local bands.”

The Vale Earth Fair has been run by volunteers since 1976, with profits raised from this year’s festival money to the charities ‘Free Tibet’, ‘The Burma Campaign’, and ‘Safer’.

The band also performed covers of The Ramones’ ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’, fan favourite Strokes track ‘Reptilia’, and a visceral rendition of The Beatles classic ‘Helter Skelter’ that received immediate fan praise. The band have even given permission to watch the performance that have been uploaded, not so legally, to youtube.

I mean, this shouldn’t even be on YouTube, but what the hell, right? Thank you so much to everyone that tuned in this weekend.

If you want to watch any of them back you can do so here from Monday at 5pm BST for 48 hours.

All is fucking love xhttps://t.co/RyaSVzuNT4 https://t.co/RFQqCAYJZu

— I D L E S (@idlesband) August 30, 2020

Catch the ‘Helter Skelter’ cover here.

Some fans organised online listening parties for the live shows, with one reddit livestream chat busy with euphoric fans happy to see the band performing the first time since lockdown began. Many fans also hoped the livestream would be released as a live LP sometime in the future, but there’s no word if that’s likely to happen.

“The livestreams were incredible. Pure raw passion coming through the screen,” said one fan on Twitter. “You absolutely captured the energy of a live gig and I was desperate – along with the rest of the audience, I’m sure – to be bouncing along in that room with you.”

If you missed the livestreams on the weekend but are craving some aggressive rock to get you through the week, not to worry. The streams are available to watch through livestreaming service LiveFrom until September 2.

‘Ultra Mono’ is the band’s third studio album and is set to release September 25.

‘The Show Must Go On’ was originally released as the final track on Queen’s Innuendo album, and was recorded while Freddie Mercury was already in the final stages of his battle with AIDS.

Speaking about the song in a press release, guitarist Brian May said, “Even though we were all aware of Freddie’s impending tragedy, we had some inspired and joyful times in the studio, making the Innuendo album.  We didn’t speak much about Freddie’s illness – he just wanted to get on with ‘business as usual’ as far as possible.

“The melody called for some very demanding top notes, and I’d only been able to ‘demo’ them in falsetto.  I said to Freddie … “I don’t want you strain yourself – this stuff isn’t going to be easy in full voice, even for you!”  He said, “Don’t worry – I’ll f…ing nail it, Darling!”.  He then downed a couple of his favourite shots of vodka, propped himself up against the mixing desk, and… delivered one of the most extraordinary performances of his life.

In the final mix of TSMGO, when you get to “On with the Show” you are listening to a man who conquered everything to deliver his finest work.”

Adam Lambert, who has sung with Queen since his time on American Idol in 2009, noted the emotive depth of the song: “The Show Must Go On’ is a song with a very deeply resonating message.  I think we all have moments in life where we feel the odds are against us and the climb is a steep one.

I always sense a great cathartic release throughout the audience during this song.  I think we all recognize that it was a big statement for Freddie at that point in his journey as well: He was fighting for his life.”

Queen + Adam Lambert announced the release of the live album last week, which is set for release on October 2.

On Friday, August 28, you can tune in to catch Royal Blood, Billie Eilish, The 1975, Radiohead and more take to the stage, as well as a tantalising as-yet-unnamed ‘special guest’. The Saturday will have Muse, The Prodigy, Charli XCX perform, and on the Sunday Red Hot Chili Peppers, Queens of the Stone Age, Biffy Clyro, and Wolf Alice will grace our screens. A pretty incredible selection.

Celebrate #RandL20 WEEKEND with three days of incredible archive sets from the festivals Check out the dedicated #RandL channel on @BBCiPlayer that kicks off at 12pm on Friday the 28th of August

Reading https://t.co/42KRmk9Apx
Leeds https://t.co/qlxoNpJ8Gc pic.twitter.com/RG1YKuPiWN

— Reading & Leeds Fest (@OfficialRandL) August 27, 2020

Speaking about the virtual-fest in a press release, organisers said: “We’re buzzing to announce that we’re teaming up with BBC Music to bring you live performances from Reading & Leeds over the years. We’ll be marking the August bank holiday with a selection of exclusive performances and unforgettable memories.”

Before it was cancelled, Reading & Leeds 2020 was set to be headlined by Stormzy, Liam Gallagher, and Rage Against The Machine, and also feature Run The Jewels, IDLES, and Sam Fender.

Speaking about the cancellation back in May, organisers said: “We’ve been closely monitoring this unprecedented situation and we were hopeful we could deliver the ultimate festival to you in August, something to look forward to in these strange and confusing times. However, it has become clear that it’s just not possible for this year’s festival to go ahead.”

The BBC’s virtual alternative to the cancelled festival mirrors their response to Glastonbury back in June, which also saw past performances of legendary artists streamed on iPlayer.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat