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Jack White has opened the store venue ‘Blue Basement’ in style, performing for fans-only and followed by a balcony performance to the whole of Soho. 

White appeared with blue dyed hair to presumably mark the bar name – ‘The Blue Room’. He performed a set with Dominic‌ ‌Davis‌ ‌on‌ ‌bass‌ ‌and‌ ‌an ‌amazing Daru‌ ‌Jones‌ ‌on‌ ‌drums‌. They started with The White Stripes classics “Hello Operator” and finished with “Icky Thump”. The performance showed how complex of a musician White is with “his‌ ‌sweet‌ ‌and‌ ‌salty‌ ‌style‌ ‌creating‌ ‌an irresistible‌ ‌tangle‌ ‌of‌ ‌sweet‌ ‌melodies‌ ‌and‌ ‌heavy‌ ‌payoffs“. 

White finished the show by heading to the artist Damien Hirst next-door balcony and performing once more to gathered outside fans. London’s Carnaby Street turned into a rock’n’roll show. 

The new Third Man Records store has three physical spaces that combine two-level retail spaces, an intimate music venue and a European headquarter. “Its been personally designed by Jack White, who recently launched Jack White Arts & Design page showing off two decades of his creative work“.

You can find it in the heart of Soho, on 1 Marshall Street (W1f 9BA) and pop in between 11 am – 6 pm Monday to Sunday.  

Speaking about the new store, Jack White spoke to The Times last weekend and admitted that he feels “scare and confused” without any struggle in his life. “It is this disease I have and I don’t know what started it, but if there is no struggle involved in my life I get scared and confused” -he commented. “If art is not being made in some way, I start worrying. I wish I could pinpoint why this is necessary for me. I can’t get away from it“.

In the meantime, White’s and Alicia Key’s collaboration from the 2008 “Another Way To Die” from Bond movie, has been called “the strangest ever 007 themes“. Independent calls it “the bonkers and baffling “Another Way to Die” – or, as it really should be called, “Seven Nation Barmy”.

The show will not just be the band’s first live performance in two years but will also mark the O2 arena’s reopening, the famous venue was forced to temporally closed its doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions which have been put in place due to the health crisis. The free show will be in support of the NHS staff who have proceeded to be on the front lines of the current health crisis, NHS workers and their families will be able to attend the concert by showing their NHS pass along with their tickets. The gig will take place a day before the band’s original rescheduled date on 11th August 2021, the sold-out event will also take place at O2 Arena.

The group took to their Instagram page to announce the news, the post also featured a message of thanks from drummer Russel Hobbs.

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The O2 Arena’s VP and General Manager, Steve Sayer, has also commented on the importance of the show as well as the venue’s excitement to be back at business. “This is such a big moment for us. Our first live show in over 500 days, with one of the UK’s best bands playing to an audience made up of NHS staff and their families. We have missed the fans and live performances so much, we couldn’t be more proud to reopen with this event and to welcome such a great audience.”

The live dates in August will not be the group’s only live performances, the group has also been announced to play at Primavera Sound Festival in 2022. The festival is set to take place at the Parc del Forum located in Barcelona Spain and will be held across two weekends in the month of June. Over the two weekends, 2-4 June 2022 and 9-11 June 2022, ticket-holders will get to see over 400 acts perform. Other acts including Gorillaz on the line up include Lorde, Tame Impala and indie icons The Strokes.

The group consists of non-virtual and virtual members, the non-virtual bandmates include Blur member Damon Albarn, comic book artist Jamie Hewlett and producer Remi Kabaka Jr. The ‘Feel Good Inc’ performers also include virtual and animated bandmates, 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and Russel Hobbs. The band recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of their debut album ‘Gorillaz’ released on 26th March 2021. The album featured the now-legendary track ‘Clint Eastwood’ which launched the group into immense popularity, the album also gained the group entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. They were included within the impressive roster of achievements as the Most Successful Virtual Band and the album reached a phenomenal 3 million global sales. For this year’s Record Store Day the band also marked their debut album’s birthday celebrations with their participation in the event, the group released a box set of six of their studio albums. The box set was entitled ‘G Collection’ and was a popular item for Record Store Day.

Every customer will get the opportunity to receive one free vinyl record, however, it’s not quite as simple as that as it comes with an all-important twist. All the records will be covered up and customers will not know what they’re taking home, in a bid to encourage people to broaden their musical tastes.

Even though you will not know what you are receiving there is a chance of picking up a gem or perhaps you’ll discover a new favourite. Records from the likes of AJ Tracey to David Bowie are all up for grabs, alongside special editions and rare, collectible albums. This wide range is sure to appeal to both avid collectors and casual vinyl fans alike.

Customers will be able to make use of listening stations available in the store so they can listen to their newly-acquired vinyl. There will also be an in-store DJ to play some awesome tunes while you pick up your free record.

SMARTY Mobile’s collaborator’s Record Store Day recently held an event on June 12 last month. As people were finally getting out of their homes after lockdown fans from all over the UK flocked to record stores.

So just to reiterate the details fully for those hardcore vinyl fans SMARTY Disc-overy store will be open from 11 am – 7 pm BST for one day on 16 July at 19 Air Street, London, W1B 5AG.

Photo by: Luiza Dyjasek

The singer and guitarist took to his Instagram page to share the good news with the world.

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The singer’s twelfth number one was released on 11th June 2021 and debuted at number one, clinching the top spot with over 28,000 chart sales. The chart-topping album found a great deal of success within its physical sales with 9,300 sales on physical formats, the release sold the most units on CD and Vinyl formats over the weekend beating out the rest of the top 5 candidates.

Included in the album’s Vinyl sales, was the limited-edition vinyl which was released especially for this year’s Record Store Day. The spike in physical sales has been accredited to Record Store Day which recently had its first event on 12th June 2021. The final day will take place on 17th July 2021 and fans can predict that physical sales of the album will again surge during the event. The singer also has a personal connection with Record Store Day, Noel Gallagher was recently announced as the ambassador of the event, a position in which the singer has taken to heart.

Gallagher has spoken with OfficalCharts.com concerning his win, thanking fans for another number one in a jovial tone.

“What? I’m Number 1? Again?! Thanks very much for this, I’m running out of Manc-lepiece space for these things, but it’s an absolute honour. Thank you very much.”

In the singer’s acceptance speech, the singer speaks on his win whilst celebrating his Manchester roots. He can be seen with a cardboard cut-out of Pep Guardiola, manager for Manchester City. Gallagher once interviewed the sport’s figure in 2016 after Guardiola had taken over as manager for the premier league football club Manchester City.

Gallagher’s recent number one album was released under the name of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and provides an audible musical history of the band, With a track list of 30 songs which span three discs, listeners can celebrate the band’s decade long career. The release features tracks from the band’s three number one albums, ‘Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’, ‘Chasing Yesterday’ and ‘Who Built The Moon’. The album not only marks a dozen number one albums overall for the musician but makes the new release his fourth number one with his newest band Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

‘Meantime 33:45′ is described as:“The table beer (3.5% ABV) has been brewed especially for the biggest indie record store event of the year and is inspired by the American west coast to offer a Turn-table IPA with Cascade, Chinook and Simcoe hops’ citrus, pine, and floral hits for a truly two-speed player.”

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In collaboration with The Meantime Brewery in Greenwich, who will be the official beer partner of this year’s event, all proceeds from the ‘Meantime 33:45′ beer will go to the charity War Child, an official partner of Record Store Day. War Child is the only specialist charity that works to help children who are affected by conflict. Record Store Day raised more than £12,000 for the charity War Child in their partnership last year. Richard Clarke, Head of War Child Records, said: “We were delighted to be the charity partner for RSD last year and raise over £12,000 to help change the lives of children affected by conflict. It was a really difficult year for everyone and we’re really proud to have worked with RSD, the independent record store community and make a difference. The music industry has always been so important to his charity and we’re really excited to return as charity partner for 2021 as well as marking the partnership with our first release on War Child Records.”

Last month Noel Gallagher was announced as an ambassador for this year’s Record Store Day UK. He said of the partnership: “Record shops were really important when I was growing up. It’s something that’s in my DNA,” Gallagher said in an official announcement video. “I think if we can keep record shops open for as long as possible, we owe it to the young people of this country. For this year’s Record Store Day I’ll be getting involved. I’ve got something unique coming out.Hopefully the fans will like it and they’ll keep the flame burning for your local record shop.”

‘Meantime 33:45′ is now available via the Meantime E-Shop and will be on sale in participating stores from 12 June 2021.

A full list of Record Store Day UK drops is available via their website.