The London band had previously promised via Radio X that they would bring out a special guest for their performance at Worthy Farm who had appeared on their album ‘My Big Day’. Then X account @secretglasto hinted at who the mystery guest was going to be saying that the guest “could make Bombay Bicycle Club’s set go by in a Blur.”

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A post shared by BBC Radio 2 (@bbcradio2)

Albarn thanked Jack Steadman of Bombay Bicycle Club’s Jack Steadman and then and then took to the stage and addressed the crowd on “three things” that “You have to show me how you feel about it,” which he said during the performance of ‘Tender’. He then attempted to encourage the Glastonbury crowd to vote in the coming UK general election which looks like it is going to be an overwhelming victory for Labour over the conservatives.

He addressed the crowd on how they felt about Palestine. “Are you pro-Palestine? Do you feel that’s an unfair war?”

He then continued, telling fans they need to vote. “The importance of voting next week. Now I don’t blame you for being ambivalent about that, but it’s still really important.”

Before saying “And thirdly, maybe it’s time we stop putting octogenarians in control of the whole world” probably in reference to the USA election which will see voters choosing between 81-year-old Joe Biden and 78-year-old Donald Trump. The two engaged in a debate on the 27th of June.

Speaking to Sky News Bombay Bicycle Club said that they “were never expecting to have him on the record or to be playing a show with him, but… we just kind of asked, and he was really up for it. You don’t ask, you don’t get.”

The first day of Glastonbury also saw a secret DJ set played by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker in the early hours of Saturday Morning. This came after Kevin Parker appeared alongside Dua Lipa on her headline set of the Pyramid stage on Friday (June 28). The two had previously collaborated on Dua Lipa’s last album ‘Radical Optimism’ and they paired up for a performance on Tame Impala’s huge psychedelic hit ‘The Less I Know The Better’.

As well as this, elsewhere in Worthy farm on the first day of the festival Paul Heaton and Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) paired up for a Housemartins reunion where they performed their 1986 hit ‘Happy Hour’ on the Pyramid stage. IDLES also brought out Danny Brown as a special guest during their closing set on the Other stage where the rapper joined the Bristol band for a performance of the band’s song ‘Pop Pop Pop’.

TRAINING SEASON IS OVER!!!!!! UGH OUT NOW EVERYWHERE!!!! FINALLY!!!!
THANK YOU TO THE DREAM TEAM https://t.co/fAMM6SsQE7 pic.twitter.com/08CCkjgjR8

— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) February 15, 2024

In a press release, Lipa discussed the backstory behind the single, stating: “I had been on a string of bad dates, and the last one was the final straw. The next morning I arrived to the studio to Caroline and Tobias asking me how it all went and I immediately declared “TRAINING SEASON IS OVER,” and like the best “day after” debriefs with your mates, we had a lot of laughs and it all quickly came together from there.”

She continues: “And while it is obviously about that feeling when you are just absolutely done telling people… men specifically in this case, how to date you right; it is also about my training season being over and me growing with every experience. I have never felt more confident, clear or empowered. And while it may be that training season is never over for any of us, you start to see the beauty in finding that person to experience it with. You stop looking for the trainees and become more interested in having someone where you are and someone to grow with.”

Lipa’s last album was 2020’s ‘Future Nostalgia’, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and earned her more than 10 billion streams on Spotify, as well as the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal in 2021. The singer is yet to share any news of her upcoming third album, but there appears to be plenty on the cards for her this year. Directed by Vincent Haylock, you can watch the full ‘Training Season‘ music video below:

While the idea of a Parker/Ross crossover has been in the zeitgeist since late last year, the news stagnated pretty quickly. Parker was going to produce a track for Ross’ last album Thank You. In a quote from The Sun, an unknown source explained “She’s really excited to work with Tame Impala, and is ecstatic with the track,” concluding, “She can’t wait for fans to hear it.” As far as I’m aware, no credits were ever given to Parker on the album, so fans were left a little confused. But now, more than 6 months later, it seems we’ve got a whole project to chew on.

The scale of the headline collaborators would normally be enough to turn this project into something worth building some hype. No one was ever wondering if anyone else was involved with Silk Sonic, for instance. But if you take a little look at the poster… it just get better. First of all, produced by Jack Antonoff, then an extra mention to his band Bleachers, a bit of gnarly guitar playing from St. Vincent and Gary Clarke Jr (?), BROCKHAMPTON are coming back together – or maybe just a few of them – there’s even space for RZA.

Outside of new tunes, Tame Impala are currently in the midst of an extensive world tour. The tour takes the band through the US and Europe hitting most of the major festivals along the way, both weekends of Barcelona’s Primavera Sound and Budapest’s Sziget festival stand out as cracking line-ups. But if you don’t fancy a trip abroad, Tame Impala’s only confirmed UK date this year sees them play London’s Victoria Park at All Points East. Swedish fusion group Goat, South-London based post-punk outfit Dry Cleaning, and the fabulous Caroline Polachek will be joining them this August. A few tickets to the date still remain, so if you want to get in on the action you can check out here.

The poster shown above was taken by a fan, Adam Lewis.

Following a string of single releases The Streets released the song in tandem with the announcement of an upcoming mixtape due to be released later this year, which will be the first Streets project in 9 years. 

Unexpectedly the new single is a collaboration with psychedelic Australian outfit Tame Impala. On a post on his Instagram Kevin Parker said “This is a pretty big honour and a dream come true.” This collaboration is one that was not foreseen by anyone and came as a welcome surprise to fans of both artists alike. 

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If you know me well you know that i fucking love The Streets. So this is a pretty big honour and a dream come true. And i know many others join me in being fairly happy he has returned. Full vid on youtube.

A post shared by Tame Impala (@tameimpala) on Apr 13, 2020 at 6:51pm PDT

The video was also released which featured some of the artists who will appear on the mixtape such as Greentea Peng, Ms Banks and Donae’o. It was shot in multiple locations such as a ski resort, Western Australia and London. Watch the video on YouTube below.

Fans of The Streets will be over the moon with the announcement of a new mixtape as they have been waiting on new material from Skinner for years, with his last full length project being 2011’s Computer and Blues which was met with a lukewarm response from critics. 

This is a backtrack on his own words as Skinner revealed in a 2011 interview that there would not be another Streets album. He said “I do not feel any sadness, I would feel frustrated if I had to make another one.”

In the meantime, Skinner has turned his attention to other projects such as releasing music under the moniker The Darker The Shadow, The Brighter The Light and has even tried his hand at acting.

Given the circumstances we collectively find ourselves in, the announcement of an upcoming mixtape will excite a lot of people and, during a time in which a lot of artists are postponing their releases, it’s good to see Skinner announcing releases during the lockdown. All we have to do now is do as The Streets once said; ‘Stay Positive’.

Suspicions about Ronson and Parker collaborating have been running rampant since they premiered a new song featuring SZA during a DJ set at New York’s Governors Ball Festival.

After the new track sent fans into a frenzy, SZA herself has confirmed the project to the Los Angeles Times, and also took the time to discuss her musical influences.

“People grapple with labelling me as hip-hop, R&B or pop, and it’s interesting to me,”she mused. “I’m just making music. I listen to Stevie Nicks. I love classical jazz. I love folk. I love rap. I love Modest Mouse.

“I’m making an album with Tame Impala and Mark Ronson. When you try to label it, you remove the option for it to be limitless. It diminishes the music.”

The potential project with Ronson and Parker could be the California songstress’ second album in as many years, having released her debut full-length album Ctrl earlier this year, to much acclaim.

Ronson and Parker meanwhile, have been DJ’ing together at several festivals over summer, as working together on Ronson’s tracks ‘Daffodils’, and ‘Summer Breaking’. The pair also produced Lady Gaga’s popular single ‘Perfect Illusion’. Ronson also produced Queens of the Stone Age’s latest LP Villains.

Parker explained in some detail about how the collaboration came to pass, citing Ronson as a key figure in it. “Mark was telling me he was gonna work on the Lady Gaga album, and just asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. So obviously I did! It was so left field for me, but because it was Mark I had no hesitation in just diving in headfirst. There was no fear, I knew the project was in good hands with Mark. So yeah, it just went from there.”

“Luckily it wasn’t a room full of people, it was just Gaga and Mark,” Parker continued, and despite the clear deviation from his musical comfort zone, he clearly loved working with the pair, disclosing that Lady Gaga “[She] is now the first person I’ve ever written lyrics with,” he confesses. “It was getting towards the end of the day, we were deep in that zone, writing lyrics for ‘Perfect Illusion’, and I suddenly realised it was the first time. Gaga commented that I was easy to work with lyrically, we’d bounce ideas off each other really well, and I was like, ‘Y’know this is actually the first time I’ve written lyrics with another person!’[…]  normally that whole conversation just happens inside my head. It was quite a weird sensation.”

The interview then turned to Parker’s future plans: “There’s definitely a few other things coming up,” but also acknowledging that the fame and notoriety of those he works with will now be greater than before: “You don’t have to be switched on to realise that if I do this, and then this happens… it’s just the way the music world works, you know? So there’s going to be other things happening, but I think I’d be ruining it if I mentioned who.”

The team-up with Gaga and Ronson follows Rihanna’s cover of Tame Impala’s ‘New Person, Same Old Mistakes’ on her album Antie earlier this year, suggesting that Parker’s star is very much on the rise, even outside of alternative music.