“To have an album that connects this much, with what we’re talking about – trying and pushing for a better world – it’s unbelievable. Thank you for your support, from day one this means so much not just to us but to everyone. As ever, everything we do is for Tom Searle, our brother.” Searle, the twin brother of drummer Dan Searle and former Architects lead guitarist, passed away from melanoma skin cancer in 2016. As well as reaching the official UK chart top spot, the album also topped the Official Rock & Metal Albums Chart, becoming their sixth album to do so.  ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ is the week’s best-selling album on vinyl and top seller in independent record shop, according to the OCC.

Maximo Park’s ‘Nature Always Wins’ becomes the band’s first top 10 album in seven years, matching their highest ever chart position since ‘Our Earthly Pleasures’ reached the number two spot in 2007. It becomes their first top ten since 2014’s ‘Too Much Information’.

At number three, West London rapper Digga D made his personal best album chart peak with ‘Made In The Pyrex’ – his new mixtape. While missing the top spot of the official UK album chart, ‘Made In The Pyrex’ was the most streamed release of the week, and marked the highest charting project to date for a millennium-born UK rapper, as well as the highest-charting independent UK Drill project on the Official Chart to date. At number four Alice Cooper matched his highest charting album since 1991 with ‘Detroit Stories’; 30 years ago ‘Hey Stoopid’ also peaked in fourth position. Rounding off the all-new top five is Lucy Spraggan’s sixth album ‘Choices’. In response to the news she tweeted: “This might not seem much to a lot of artists out there, but this is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me. THANK YOU!!!”

READING n LEEDS c’mon you fuckers LG x

— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) February 24, 2021

Hoskin said: “What’s become apparent from comments on social media and people contacting the council is that some people are under the impression that the council has approved Reading Festival taking place this summer. That is not the case. Reading has not, and nor has anyone else, agreed anything. But, certainly, the announcement is the intention of Reading Festival to happen. That is going to be a major item for our licensing department and various other national bodies to consider but nothing has been agreed by the council.”

Festival Republic director Melvin Benn told The Guardian “We’re enthusiastic, we’re excited, and we’re certain that it’s going to go ahead”. However, he added that the event is not insurance as it was then impossible to buy, but added that he is hopeful the government will include an insurance package “in some form or another”. 

Earlier this year, organisers Michael and Emily Eavis of the Glastonbury music festival – the largest of its kind in Europe – announced the event would be cancelled for the second year in a row. Since 2020, the Reading and Leeds Festival has been on course to take place, with the the star-studded lineup – including headliners Stormzy, Post Malone and Liam Gallagher, as well as Yungblud, Doja Cat and Lewis Capaldi – revealed late last summer. Following last week’s confirmation, the event has now sold out all tickets. In a statement published on the festival website, the organisers wrote: “After the year we had, it was always going to happen. We never lost faith, and today we’re excited to say that – thanks to everyone who managed to purchase a ticket – Reading Festival 2021 is now officially SOLD OUT. It’s going to be a summer to remember, and we can’t wait to welcome you back into the fields.”

Announcing via Twitter, the band said: “As you probably have been expecting, we are messaging today to let you know that Suede’s Coming Up tour dates will have to be postponed once more. For info about the Coming Up shows on mainland Europe, please watch this space. We hope to be able to announce more information about those dates – and more fun Coming Up stuff – in the not-too-distant future. Stay safe! – Suede HQ.”

The tour was originally set to take place last summer, but postponed until 2021 since coronavirus restrictions would not permit large music concerts from taking place at the time. In the wake of last year’s decision, the band uploaded a number of concert videos to Youtube, including memorable concerts at Sheffield’s Leadmill in 1993, London’s Roundhouse in 1996 and the Royal Albert Hall in 2010.

When postponed to 2021, the band recognised the new tour dates would coincide with the 25th anniversary of the ‘Coming Up’ album release. “The good news is that the postponement means that (a) we can add a couple of shows that we couldn’t fit in before, and (b) they’ll now take place exactly 25 years from Coming Up’s release – much more numerically satisfying,” they added. Suede last released music in 2018 with their eighth studio album ‘The Blue Hour’ to largely favourable reviews. “While there’s a comforting familiarity that comes with all things Suede, it’s wonderfully shrouded on ‘The Blue Hour’ by a very new, romantic and alluring strangeness,” Andrew Trendell said of the album for NME. “These are not hits to shake your bits to. Nor will these beats shake your meat. Rest assured, Suede remain the beautiful ones, but are just looking for beauty in ever more curious places.”

Last week Boris Johnson announced Britain’s roadmap out of lockdown, outlining steps towards a complete removal of all social restrictions on June 21st. Since the New Year, several acts have postponed their touring dates, while others – such as The Who and the 1975 – have cancelled planned tours altogether.

Suede’s updated touring schedule is as follows:

13/04/2021 – Cirque Royal – Brussels
14/04 – Tempodrom – Berlin
16/04 – TivoliVredenberg Ronda – Utrecht
17/04 – La Salle Pleyel – Paris
26/04 – Falconer – Copenhagen
27/04 – Annexet – Stockholm
03/11 – Usher Hall – Edinburgh
06/11 – O2 Academy – Birmingham
09/11 – O2 Academy – Leeds
10/11 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester
11/11 – Alexandra Palace – London

I’m thrilled to be launching the new #CirclesofChange campaign with @TheCircleNGO for #IWD2021. Tell us about the people who inspire you and take a pledge to stand in solidarity with women and girls around the world https://t.co/GXvtCy4JKo pic.twitter.com/gV7JrhUH1l

— Annie Lennox (@AnnieLennox) March 1, 2021

Speaking on the new campaign, Lennox said: “The Circle came from the notion of women connecting, supporting and inspiring each other to become advocates and change agents, through our passion, skills and ideas. 

“The pandemic has shown that we are all connected, we are a global community, and we are asking people to commit to becoming global feminists. This means listening to the voices of all women. Sharing stories and connecting across communities. It is about standing in solidarity to end oppression, racial injustice, and violence and economic disempowerment. It is about building bridges with people across communities and finding ways to amplify their voices.  

“The concept of The Circle came from the notion of women supporting, connecting and inspiring each other to become advocates and change agents, through our passion, skills and ideas. I encourage you all to join our campaign and become global feminists. Let’s celebrate the change makers and people who inspire us, and at the same time make a pledge to women and girls everywhere.” 

Raakhi Shah, CEO of The Circle, said: “International Women’s Day is always a key global moment to commit actions and make pledges towards gender equality and safety for all women and girls. History shows us that collective power can make change. By pledging to support grassroots organisations working on the frontline we can share resources with women and girls across the world, and we can build bridges to a world where women and girls are a step closer to living in a world with equal rights.” 

“In 2020, The Circle supported over 5,000 women and girls disproportionately affected by the pandemic in Asia, Africa and the UK and is doubling down its efforts to support even more women in the coming year.”

Lennox’s last musical release was in November 2020, sharing a revamped anniversary edition of her 2010 Christmas album, ‘A Christmas Cornucopia’. In May 2019, Lennox released ‘Lepidoptera’, containing four improvised piano songs.

“On 13th-14th May 2021 you can expect a huge snapshot of the best new artists showcasing their talents, plus The Great Escape Conference featuring the CMU conference strands, keynote speakers, panels, talks and debates as well as dedicated facilities for the industry to come together and network – just without the sea air and dashing between our beloved venues into the early hours…”

Important information regarding The Great Escape 2021 pic.twitter.com/j6s3QYrmE8

— The Great Escape (@thegreatescape) February 26, 2021

The 2020 event was cancelled last year amid complications created by pandemic restrictions, with the hope that 2021 would bring a more fortuitous year. Adding to the news, the organisers also included a message of appreciation for the NHS throughout the pandemic, along with next year’s event dates: “We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the NHS for their extraordinary efforts in rolling out the vaccine, as well as thanking all of you for your patience and we look forward to being together again in 2022 for our belated 15th birthday. It’s going to be a Huge celebration. We’ll see you online in May 2021 and on the beach in 2022.”

Earlier this week Boris Johnson revealed his ‘roadmap out of lockdown’, outlining each step towards a full dismissal of social restrictions on June 21st. Following the Prime Minister’s announcement, a number of festivals have confirmed they will be going ahead as planned later in the year, including Green Man, 2000 Trees and the Reading and Leeds Festival – the latter selling out tickets just two days after the announcement.

Sacha Lord – co-founder of the Manchester Parklife festival – has expressed his optimism that his festival will go ahead this year. “The vaccination roll-out has been incredible and hats off to all our scientists and NHS volunteers,” he told NME. “For once, we can say that we have got something that’s world-beating. It’s phenomenal and we’ve got leading scientists saying they’re confident that everyone will have had their second vaccine by July. We pushed back Parklife to September and we’re confident it will go ahead. We’ve got New Order on the night before and we’re gearing up for success with an 80,000 capacity,””

McCartney said: “More often than I can count I’ve been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right. The one thing I’ve always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs. Some people, when they get to a certain age, like to go to a diary to recall day-to-day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks. What I do have are my songs, hundreds of them, which I’ve learned serve much the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life.

“I hope that what I’ve written will show people something about my songs and my life which they haven’t seen before. I’ve tried to say something about how the music happens and what it means to me and I hope what it may mean to others too,” he added

The book was edited by Pulitzer prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, who compiled the work based on his conversations with McCartney over a five year period. “These commentaries are as close to an autobiography as we may ever come,” Muldoon said. “His insights into his own artistic process confirm a notion at which we had but guessed — that Paul McCartney is a major literary figure who draws upon, and extends, the long tradition of poetry in English.

“He’s one of the most buoyant, upbeat people I know, but his general demeanor shouldn’t suggest that he’s anything but a deep thinker. He looks long and hard into every aspect of life and I believe readers, old and new, will be struck by a book that will show that side of him”

 ‘The Lyrics’ is available to pre order now and will be released November 2nd.

READING n LEEDS c’mon you fuckers LG x

— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) February 24, 2021

Tickets for this year’s event have been on sale since late last summer, as festivals organisers correctly forecast the government’s intention of attenuating coronavirus restrictions by August of 2021. After last year’s festival was cancelled with the stagnation of the live sector amid pandemic complications, Reading and Leeds boss Melvin Benn informed MPs that the event could not take place while full scale social distancing measures were in place. However, he added that should mass testing create “an environment where everybody in the space has tested negative in order to gain entry and are therefore unable to transmit the virus to other people,” then live music could resume. Any contingency plans for social distancing measures at Reading and Leeds 2021 are yet to be revealed.

Earlier this year, organisers Michael and Emily Eavis of the Glastonbury music festival – the largest of its kind in Europe – announced the event would be cancelled for the second year in a row – much to the dismay of organisers and fans alike. In a statement published on Twitter, the pair said: “In spite of our efforts to move Heaven and Earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the festival happen this year. We are so sorry to let you all down.” Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney and Diana Ross were billed as headliners for the cancelled 2020 event, which would have marked the festival’s 50th anniversary.

Despite the Glastonbury cancellation, in early February Rowan Cannon, of festival organisers Wild Rumpus, told a parliamentary committee that smaller festivals could be ‘as safe as Sainsbury’s” this summer should the appropriate measures be imposed. “The idea that the festivals can’t go ahead and be socially-distanced is inaccurate,” Cannon told MPs. “We can absolutely adapt our programming, put infrastructure in place, [and] change the way that we do things, to enable something to happen with social distancing in place.” 

“I first got a car when I was 17, and I remember driving from north Wales to Manchester quite a lot – someone made me CDs for the drive and there was a shit load of Daft Punk on there,” Lee Owens told NME. “I was a bit of an indie kid at the time and I listened to that first album, ‘Homework’ and remember being like, ‘Huh – there’s something in this’. It was like a door opening for me that allowed me to step into another place, where everything is new and sounds weird and interesting. I just felt this raw energy that these people, or robots, were creating; and the mystery shrouded around them was super intriguing.”

fuck.
thank you.
i love you. pic.twitter.com/7clbag4nP4

— Kelly Lee Owens (@kellyleeowens) February 22, 2021

Born in Flintshire, Wales, Lee Owens dropped her career as an auxiliary nurse in a cancer ward to pursue musical ambitions in 2009. In 2017, she released her eponymous debut album via indie label Smalltown Supersound, with the follow up ‘Inner Sound’ arriving last year.  “They (Daft Punk) were signed to major labels and doing a licensing deal, and that really informed me in terms of what I should do with my music – I now have licensing deals with my independent label Smalltown Supersound,” she told NME. “They showed that you don’t need to give your masters away and play all these games: you can make great music and people in the industry will want to work with you anyway. That spirit is really needed more than ever. And it’s not about being ‘controlling’, it’s being protective of their creativity and not allowing that to be exploited.

“The real beauty of Daft Punk’s music is that it’s not pretentious at all. They would want to make something and just do it…there’s some magic that comes from pushing and fusing different worlds together just because it excites them and because that’s what they feel like they need to do. There’s that classic thing of creating and then destroying yourself as an artist to keep yourself creatively open; Daft Punk have done that over and over again.”

Emily Saunders, board director and chair of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion steering group, said: “I’m delighted that we have reached this point and I would like to thank all our directors and trustees for their commitment to championing equality at the Academy and across the music industry. Our members deserve and expect a gender-balanced, representative and inclusive Academy and trustee board to represent their perspectives and interests.

The ⁦@IvorsAcademy⁩ achieves gender balance on its Boards .

Don’t just talk Equality, Diversity & Inclusion….Do it.

To speak for all voices , Music must speak with all voices…..more to do but proud we’re getting there.
https://t.co/2Hkbxco5FM

— Crispin Hunt (@crispinhunt) February 22, 2021

“This is one step of many that we are committed to taking to make sure we are fully diverse and inclusive across everything do. Diverse life experiences, identities and backgrounds bring diverse thinking and new ways of seeing the world, that creates a stronger Academy for all music creators.”

The Ivors Academy committed itself to championing equality, diversity and inclusion after publishing a 12-point action plan in July of last year. Within the manifesto, the organisation outlined the ambition for 50% representation of both genders on its boards. Improving the protection and management characteristics of collected data also featured within the plan, as well as providing equality and diversity training to staff and board members, and providing more support and guidance to improve accessibility when entering awards ceremonies.

Earlier this month the Ivors relaunched the Academy Trust with a line-up of new trustees, described by the he organisation as “an important call to action for increased support for the songwriters, composers and musicians hit hardest by the pandemic and a lack of opportunity”.

Ivors Academy CEO Graham Davies said: “I am delighted to announce the relaunch of The Ivors Academy Trust with an amazing board of talented trustees and ambition to sustain music creators.

“This is an important time for the music industry to increase the level of support it gives to creators. We must throw a lifeline to our talent pipeline on which our industry depends. The Ivors Academy can grow and develop our creative community if we get support to scale the education, development, mentoring, training and support we can provide. This is vital work.”

Brilliant report from @bpi_music out today showing the huge export opportunities for British music.

Even more reason that the Government should do everything it can to support the music industry – it will be key to the UK's post-pandemic economic recoveryhttps://t.co/ZlrN9OtN85

— Jamie Njoku-Goodwin (@jnjokugoodwin) February 18, 2021

“We are at a pivotal moment for British music on the global stage,” commented Geoff Taylor,  Chief Executive of the BPI. “As the UK works to build back from Covid-19 and forge its future as an independent trading nation, music can play a vitally important cultural and economic role. Because of streaming, our country has a huge opportunity to connect artists with fans in ways never before possible.  There is a £1 billion prize to be gained for the UK, which would benefit artists, fans and the UK economy alike.

“We are today putting forward a plan to work with Government to support touring and showcasing by more UK artists and deliver substantial growth in music exports. SME and indie music companies will directly benefit and amplify the extensive work record labels do to develop and promote British music globally.” 

The BPI is calling on the government to support an expansion in the promotion of UK artists and music overseas, primarily through the perpetuation of the successful Music Export Growth Scheme – a BPI administered, Department of International Trade funded initiative to boost British music exports by “supporting small to medium sized music companies as they look to build on the potential of their artists in overseas markets.” 

Mercury Prize winners Wolf Alice are one of 250 groups to benefit from the scheme. “The global reach of British music gives us the ability to connect with fans all around the world, and the support that we had from the Music Export Growth Scheme early in our career was critical in us breaking through in key markets such as the USA,” they said. “With streaming now growing fast even in emerging markets, we hope that other new British artists will receive similar support, so that British music can make even more of an international impact.”