The charity single has been released to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust, with all proceeds from vinyl sales and an undisclosed portion of digital downloads going towards the charity.

In a press statement for the new single, Townshend said, “The pandemic years were terrible for charities; the Teenage Cancer Trust was created in order to take the money from a series of concerts at the Albert Hall every year and various other things and that had all dropped out.”

He continued, “So, the idea of doing this, which is it’s something that has sprung out of Lockdown about mental illness, but also for this particular charity. If you’ve got a scenario in which somebody in your family or a teenager has got cancer, they’re being treated, Lockdown hits, and you’re not allowed to go and visit them. There’s a poignancy to the whole thing about the song.”

The track was composed and produced by Townshend’s partner, Rachel Fuller.

Speaking on how the track came to be created, Fuller said, “We’d just moved house and Pete was as happy as Larry up in his studio, working every day, and I put my back out, I was just climbing the walls, I couldn’t do any creative work and obviously, we couldn’t go anywhere, and I really started to think about how unbelievably difficult this period of time was going to be for so many people. I wrote lyrics and then I sat at the piano and wrote the music, and then I thought, ‘Oh, I really would like to record it, because it’s really not a bad song at all’ — and my singing days are long over. So, I asked Pete to record the demo.”

On working with his partner Rachel, Townshend said, “I’ve helped Rachel make the demos for several of her theatrical projects. She’s a really a fast worker. It’s not that you say to me, ‘Let’s go into the studio for two weeks and work on this project.’ We do it two hours later, or an hour later, it’s done — so it’s easy to work with her.”

“Can’t Outrun the Truth” was recorded in Townshend’s home studio in September 2021. Townshend sings on the track as well as playing violin and lap steel guitar on it for his first solo effort in almost 30 years.

Read more about Teenage Cancer Trust’s incredible fundraising efforts here.

Stream “Can’t Outrun the Truth” here.

These restrictions come despite Ireland having a high vaccination rate, around 90% at the time of writing. There is a sense of frustration around the decision; Donall O’Keeffe, chief executive of the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) told the BBC: “We were told that if we waited until the majority of the public was vaccinated we would be able to get back to trading. Well we waited and that wasn’t enough.” On the LVA’s Twitter, they posted a tweet reading: “Based on this announcement the reintroduction of the full level of supports for the people who will once again find themselves out of work and for the businesses who employ them is essential.”

Based on this announcement the reintroduction of the full level of supports for the people who will once again find themselves out of work and for the businesses who employ them is essential…

AND the Gov must develop nuanced longer term, practical solutions for hospitality

— LVA (@LVADublinPubs) November 16, 2021

Martin, about the restrictions, said in a statement: “We’ve got to make decisions today but also I think collectively as a society we’ve got to look out for each other and just be very aware that the situation is getting worse, and will get worse before it gets better.”

Three months ago, Ireland had announced that they were to lift all restrictions. Now, however, amid a concerning rise in cases in numbers that approached the January peak, they are taking sharp and decisive action. Work from home is being advised, and the rules around testing and close contact have been made more stringent.

The curfew comes less than a month after the lifting of the previous 11:30 pm curfew, made on the 22nd of October. The rise in cases can be explained in part by the lifting of these restrictions, as well as the waning effectiveness of the vaccine. Health officials have commented on the vaccine that it has been less effective than they hoped at limiting the spread of the vaccine, according to Reuters.

The LVA’s Twitter account has been retweeting critics of this move, most notably from Richard Guiney, who says that “we need clear policies for living with Covid. Long term closure with intermittent re-opening doesn’t work for anyone.” 

We need clear policies for living with Covid. Long term closure with intermittent re-opening doesn’t work for anyone. What are the conditions and ground rules that we can live by? Or are we looking at permanent restriction and closure? https://t.co/RCL6yEoslT

— Richard Guiney (@GuineyR) November 16, 2021

See official guidelines from the Irish government here.

Image credit: Raymond Flotat

He then explained that performances from the band will not be conventional and instead, he’ll rent a place which he’ll use to display his artwork which he created over lockdown and at night, he plans to host and DJ old school raves. He said during the live feed, “I’m gonna do this thing with my friends. Form a band and what I’m gonna do is rent a space, put my art in there. During the day it’ll be a gallery. Then at night I shall be DJing and it will be a musical venue, something the old folks will call a rave.”

He continued by saying, “I’ll be on the espressos. Oh yes I will. Quadruple espresso. Doing it old school. I’m very, very excited about this. I want to do it in Berlin. I also want to do it in Tokyo. I wanna do it in several places. Be fun won’t it? It’s one of them things, it’s a passion project. If some thing hap-pens then great, if not, I’ve just had fun.”

As well as keeping busy with his artwork over lockdown,  Robbie has been songwriting and has created more than 50 songs during the period. The Sun newspaper reported that back in June, “he confirmed he had been writing music with his former bandmate Gary via Zoom.” During lockdown back in May, Robbie re-joined his former Take That bandmates, for a one off virtual charity gig.

He revealed his latest news just weeks after his surprise release of his latest Christmas song, “Can’t Stop Christmas,” which is a light hearted, cheeky song which has references to the measures we’ve all faced over the past 12 months due to the pandemic. Robbie mimics zoom, facetime, hand sanitizer and the two metre social distancing rule in his latest track with a line which is written in The Daily Mail, “‘Santa’s on his sleigh, but now he’s two metres away.”

The song begins, “Oh what a miserable year, but what a time to be alive. Sadly some friends disappeared , It’s never been like this before, It feels like we’re at war. So I wonder who’s gonna decide, if we can do the Auld Lang Syne. I wish that I could do what I like, with this family of mine We’re going out of our minds.” Although the unprecedented 2020 in nearly at an end, it seems that Robbie has used his time over lockdown wisely with new creations and exciting plans for future projects for 2021.

The album was recorded earlier this year in Sussex and features live takes of the musician on vocals, guitar and piano and an overdubbed bass and piano part. He began writing the album after revisiting an unreleased track, ‘When Winter Comes’ Which he worked on in the 90’s with George Martin.

He told The Guardian, “It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job,” he says. “I had some stuff I’d worked on over the years but sometimes time would run out and it would be left half finished so I started thinking about what I had. Each day, I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up. It was a lot of fun.”

Some of the other instruments he used to record the album included his violin shaped bass guitar, used at Abby road studios by ‘The Beatles’ and a double bass that backed Elvis Presley and The Wings sessions in 1971. Many other musicians have followed suit by recording at home during the pandemic, and it felt the right time for McCartney to complete his trilogy during lockdown.

He talks about the album to Rollingstone.com saying ““Each day I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up; it was a lot of fun,” he added. “It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job. So, I just did stuff I fancied doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album.”

His solo album, ‘McCartney’ released in April 1970 was greeted eagerly from fans as it was his first solo work since ‘The Beatles.’ The album turned out to be heavily criticised by critics for being, ‘shambolic, primitively recorded collection of instrumentals, song fragments, experiments in what would eventually be called world music,’ – The Guardian

‘McCartney 11′ his second solo album was recorded with his 1970’2 band, ‘Wings Collapsed’ and has more of a 70’s synth based sound to it with influences of disco punk. Both of the albums were, in a sense, experimental music and very different from the melodic tunes has written.

When asked about retirement, McCartey replied, “Everything I do is always supposed to be my last. When I was 50 – ‘That’s his last tour.’ And it was like, ‘Oh, is it? I don’t think so.’ It’s the rumour mill, but that’s OK.”

McCartney was due to headline ‘The Glastonbury Festival’ this year for it’s 50th Anniversary edition but due to the coronvirus pandemic, it was cancelled in March. After a 40 year wait for the new solo album, fans are excited to hear his new music, which will complete his trilogy.

Mayor Andy Burnham said the following, in the midst of his negotiations with Downing Street: “What we’ve seen today is a deliberate act of levelling down … I don’t believe we can proceed through this pandemic by grinding people down. We need to carry them with us, not crush their spirit.” At this point he had failed to secure a financial support package – subsequently, Boris Johnson has announced an additional £60 million will be divided between Manchester’s boroughs.

Manchester has always had a huge and vibrant music scene, and it has always inspired a huge amount of local pride in the musicians it has cultivated. Many of them turned to Twitter today to voice their discontent. These range from the eloquent, to the cryptically rude.

A Certain Ratio simply declared, “We’re with you @AndyBurnhamGM, and everyone in Greater Manchester.” Primal Scream took a firm and political stance with their tweet, “Good on @AndyBurnhamGM standing up for the people of Manchester. Tories hate the working class north in the same way they despise Scots / Welsh / Irish / Blacks / Muslims. #ClassWar  #ToryCorruption #HitTheNorth.”

We’re with you @AndyBurnhamGM, and everyone in Greater Manchester.

— A Certain Ratio (@acrmcr) October 20, 2020

Good on @AndyBurnhamGM standing up for the people of Manchester. Tories hate the working class north in the same way they despise Scots / Welsh / Irish / Blacks / Muslims. #ClassWar #ToryCorruption #HitTheNorth

— Primal Scream (@ScreamOfficial) October 21, 2020

The lead singer of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly held a similar, angry position to Primal Scream with the following: “The north of England and the devolved Nations deserve a lot more respect from Central Government. It’s embarrassing and frankly insulting to millions of people.” Blossoms’ drummer, Joe Donovan, shared a photo from an edited Transport for London service board that has been circulating in the #IStandWithManchester hashtag.

The north of England and the devolved Nations deserve a lot more respect from Central Government. It’s embarrassing and frankly insulting to millions of people. — Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (@forgetcape) October 20, 2020

pic.twitter.com/KwwP1siEG4

— Joe Donovan (@JoeDonovan92) October 21, 2020

Finally, many have interpreted the following Liam Gallagher tweet as a response to the government’s handling of Manchester’s predicament. Gallagher is notoriously prolific online.

SHIT SHOW — Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) October 21, 2020

The music world is already painfully familiar with the way that the pandemic is capable of bringing absolutely everything to a standstill. Just today, it was estimated that up to 170,000 jobs in the live music industry could be lost – before the end of 2020. Andy Burnham’s statement about not grinding one another down takes on even more significance in this worrying context.

The advice comes from a collaboration between the following bodies: the Association of Festival Organisers (AFO), the Events Industry Forum (EIF) and Attitude Is Everything, alongside additional guidance from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and Public Health England (PHE). They have shared their current guidance in a document which you can read in full here. As the situation progresses, the advice will update.

Available now and free to all from @ThePurpleGuide website. The aim is to assist festival organisers, local authorities and other industry parties in assessing risk levels and planning based on a flexible, pragmatic and realistic approach to the current pandemic.

— AIF (@AIF_UK) October 13, 2020

The COVID-19 Supplementary Guidance offers a lot of information for festival organisers that will perhaps be of little interest to festival-goers. Naturally, much of this advice depends on a number of constantly changing variables, including the situation with testing for coronavirus and the potential for a vaccine to be in place. Terms that have become part of our everyday vocabulary come up here as well; there is talk of festival staff wearing PPE, festival-goers bringing their own disposable masks and hand sanitiser, and embracing the NHS Track & Trace initiative.

The document also contains a “mitigation checklist”, as relevant to the current state of the pandemic. This is a list of questions that comprehensively covers the planning and safety of every conceivable area of a festival, including the organisation of the outdoor space, crowd control, and the safety of festival staff.

The guidance is thoughtful with regard to all of this uncertainty; it notes, that the experience of putting on a festival during COVID will be a first for many of them, and also that COVID should not eclipse the rest of their health and safety provision. The COVID-19 Supplementary Guidance maintains a positive tone throughout.

Despite all the uncertainty that the industry currently faces, it concludes with a positive note: “ultimately, the music festival industry is principally defined by planning for and implementing mitigation of risk … Festival organisers are already practically in a very good place to meet the challenges that COVID-19 bring to the festival sector.”

Paul Reed, the CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals, said this about the new guidance:  “Risk mitigation is what festival promoters do for a living, so the intent of this guidance is to outline Covid-19 specific planning considerations that will allow for bespoke risk assessment approaches in liaison with relevant authorities and agencies … I’d like to thank the AIF Ops Group for leading on this important piece of work and also DCMS, PHE officials and the wider festival industry for their invaluable contributions.”

View this post on Instagram

The live events sector is in crisis. Today, we join with many others to call on the government to provide urgent support to protect an industry which means so much to so many, and provides billions to the economy. #WeMakeEvents (@fineline_lighting)

A post shared by Glastonbury Festival (@glastofest) on Sep 30, 2020 at 4:02am PDT

The document presents comprehensive and reassuring guidance about the state of festivals next year. It is undoubtedly going to be an enormous job for festival organisers, and much remains subject to change. In wake of the new advice, though, festival-goers can finally relax for the time being, and cast their minds longingly to much simpler organisational tasks, like what to wear, and who to see if the line-up clashes.

Ron Sexsmith, a dear friend of Elton John, has sent the video to the singer. And Elton John was “blown away” by it. Since the cover of his 1983 classic has “really cheered me up”, as he revealed, he decided to send a personal message to the class and their teacher.

“I watched it three times in a row because I couldn’t believe how good you sang and played it”, the 73-year-old said. He describes the cover as a “brilliant version of I’m Still Standing”, admitting that the the students “did something brilliant.”

He also promised the students to welcome them at one of his future UK shows, once live concerts will be allowed again. And the singer is also hoping that one day, the students might fill in his shoes: “I hope you all have a great career and music plays a big part in it because you have certainly got talent.”

It’s not surprise that just like Elton John was “blown away” by the cover, the teacher was blown away by receiving a personal message from the legend. “I just couldn’t believe it when I received contact from Sir Elton”, teacher Ben Millington reveals. When he first gave the students the task to cover the song, all he had in mind was to cheer people up during those strange times: ““I wanted to do something practical showcasing the amazing talent of our students, whilst also cheering people up at this difficult time.”

No one was expecting such a reaction, so naturally the students freaked out when Millington told them: “When I showed the students there was screaming, crying, hands over mouths. I had to mute the microphones so we could actually hear what Elton was saying!”

According to Folly Group’s percussionist, Kai, time spent in lockdown has been utilised to ensure the four of them made the mistakes “every band needs to make – a lot of them…” One key learning has been to simplify the texture of their musical output, ensuring that the sounds of an online release can be easily replicated in real life. According to guitarist Louis, it was after Kai had joined the collective, “and we’d incorporated the electronic sound,” that the band saw their “eureka moment.”

The new single, released yesterday (June 16th) on their official YouTube channel, offers some strikingly trippy energy and the central appearance of the band’s drummer and co-vocalist Sean. Considering the limitations of performing live music – rather than being able to tinker, adjust and refine a recording with the use of digital software – he posits that, “It gives you limitations that force you to be really creative. It gives us healthy confines which lends themselves to making the best with what you’ve got, as opposed to just chaos.”

Yet the sudden disappearance of opportunity for live gigs was a huge blow for the band this year, on the cusp of breaking it big in the British capital. “Having live music swept out from underneath us is a bitter pill to swallow,” as Louis conceded. Adding to this, Sean says the band “almost decided … that we weren’t going to put another song out if there wasn’t a live show to celebrate. It would feel half-released.”

Fortunately they were all able to continue recording in Kai’s bedroom studio and the volcanic masterpiece you saw above is the lurid, remarkable fruit of that labour.

- Photo credit: Holly Whitaker

On June 9, Alok Sharma announced that non-essential stores could now relaunch their businesses from June 15 under the condition to render their shops “COVID-secure”. The business secretary also promised that, with the lockdown being gradually lifted up, high streets across the country would come back to life.

Sharma said, “So I can confirm today that retail outlets which have been required to be closed will be able to open their doors from Monday, 15 June. This is the latest step in the careful restarting of our economy, and will allow high streets up and down the country to spring back to life.” Read the full story here.

By the virtue of this good news, numerous record stores around the UK have prepared for a great comeback. Among the leading names, all four branches of Rough Trade—Rough Trade East (London), Rough Trade West (London), Rough Trade Bristol and Rough Trade Nottingham—will be reopening from June 16, with the opening hours from 11 AM to 5.30 PM.

We are very pleased to announce that Rough Trade East, Rough Trade West, Rough Trade Bristol and Rough Trade Nottingham will be reopening on Tuesday 16th June, at 11am.

More info at the link https://t.co/Zl09ggEblU

— Rough Trade (@RoughTrade) June 9, 2020

Meanwhile, 90 shops of HMV also plan to relaunch this week. Leeds’ Crash Records will also be working daily from 10 AM until 5 PM exclusively for collecting pre-ordered items from the online site and over the phone, meaning customers are not allowed for browsing but can purchase in-stock records.

We are really looking forward to welcoming you back through our doors!
Social distancing measures will be in place
Visit https://t.co/6drVmWuXHv for the full list of stores reopening.

You can still shop online at https://t.co/3AizCzg74Q for click & collect or home delivery pic.twitter.com/ZehvxDJNae

— hmv (@hmvtweets) June 11, 2020

Thanks to NME, here is the list of stores that already announced their return:

101 Collectors Records
Farnham

81 Renshaw
Liverpool

Action Records
Preston

Adrians
Wickford

Astonishing Sounds
Burnley

Beatdown Records Ltd
Newcastle

Black Circle Records
Leighton Buzzard

Boiler Room Records
Poole

Crash Records
Leeds

Cruisin Records
Welling

Disc World
Deptford

Empire Records
St Albans

Fish Records
Stone

Five’s Records
Southend-On-Sea

Flashback Records Limited
Islington, London

Forest Vinyl
Cinderford

Gatefield Sounds
Whitstable

Global Groove
Stoke-On-Trent

Grind And Groove Records
Keighley

Heathen Chemistry Records
Fareham

Hey Joe
Brentwood

Intense Records
Chelmsford

Jam
Falmouth

Jumbo Records
Leeds

Just Dropped In
Coventry

Left For Dead
Shrewsbury

Lion Vibes
Brixton, London

Lost In Vinyl
Cambridge

Malcoms Musicland
Chorley

Martian Central
Exmouth

Museumvinyl
Saint Austell

Music Mania
Stoke-On-Trent

Raves From The Grave
Warminster

Record Revivals
Scarborough

Replay Records
Grimsby

Resident
Brighton

Revo Records
Halifax

Revolution Records
Stevenage

Rock Box Records Ltd
Camberley

Rough Trade East
Brick Lane, London

Rough Trade West
Notting Hill, London

Rough Trade Bristol
Bristol

Rough Trade Nottingham
Nottingham

RPM Music
Newcastle

S.T. Records
Hackney, London

Seismic Records
Leamington Spa

Sister Ray
Soho, London

Sound Knowledge
Marlborough

Spinning Discs
Sheffield

Square Records
Wimborne

Tasty Records
Altrincham

The Diskery
Birmingham

The Record Shop Ltd
Tottenham, London

The Vault
Bournemouth

The Vault
Christchurch

TNT Records
Barrow-In-Furness

Townsend Records
Blackburn

Truck
Oxford

Union Music Store
Lewes

Up North Records
Chester

Vinyl Attraction
Newark

Vinyl Revival MCR
Manchester

Vinylstore Jr
Canterbury

Wax At Moorgate
Moorgate, London

Winyl
Manningtree

Wrecking Ball Music and Books
Hull

The re-opening of non-essential stores is part of the government’s three-stage plan to gradually lift up lockdown measures. All businesses aimed to relaunch, however, need to stick to the social distancing and hygiene guidelines published last month.

In an announcement tweet made earlier today (May 29th) on their official Twitter page, @tinychanges, the organisation declared that, “Music has the ability to connect people and build community.” Taking place on June 20th/21st, the digital festival is of great importance to charity co-founder Grant Hutchinson, whose work beside that of being a professional musician is raising awareness for mental health issues. As the organisation states in their Twitter bio, “Tiny Changes is a Scottish mental health charity set up in memory of Scott Hutchison with a focus on young people and children.”

Music has the ability to connect people and build community. With this in mind, we came up with Tiny Gigs, a Tiny Changes fundraiser. On 20+21 June, these great artists will livestream via our Facebook page. You can pay what you can if you can at https://t.co/7l3YGOvtkE pic.twitter.com/9IVykLq3SY

— Tiny Changes (@tinychanges) May 29, 2020

Hutchinson told NME in a recent interview, “The message that we’ve been trying to promote throughout all this is togetherness, even at the moment when we’re not physically together.” What he most looks forward to is the “great opportunity to bring new artists and young people to perform, speak and engage and have something to … celebrate.”

As Grant elaborates, the importance of this event is its potential to restore some music fans to a semblance of normality, “giving them these experiences that people feel they’re missing out on. That’s vital. People are finding a lot of comfort and getting a lot of joy out of these parties,” he said, referring to the online listening parties that had been hosted by The Charlatans’ frontman Tim Burgess, whom is one of the featured acts of the future Tiny Gigs event.

OK!
Checking where we all are for this @DexysOfficial listening party

What town? What city?

Shout up!! pic.twitter.com/cZTGcn4iCT

— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) May 29, 2020

“It’s amazing,” Grant concludes, adding that he hopes to establish more listening parties like this in the weeks to come. And like that, our enormous world can begin to feel a little more reconnected in these strange and unsettling times…