Queens of the Stone Age will no longer be playing this year’s Reading & Leeds.
In a tweet, Josh Homme and company write that “restrictions and logistics” are preventing them from making the trip to the U.K. next month to play dual festivals.
“We hope everyone has a GREAT time at the festivals and look forward to returning to the U.K. in 2022,” the band says.
While QotSA will no longer be rocking Reading & Leeds, Biffy Clyro has joined the lineup. The bill also includes Liam Gallagher, Machine Gun Kelly, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Two Door Cinema Club, Yungblud, The Struts, FEVER 333, iDKHOW, The Kid Laroi and Wolf Alice, among others.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler‘s debut solo album, Golden Heart. To commemorate the milestone, an expansive box set featuring newly remastered versions of all of the solo studio efforts Knopfler issued from 1996 through 2007 will hit stores on December 10.
Mark Knopfler: The Studio Albums 1996-2007 will be available as a six-CD package or an 11-LP set, and will feature remastered editions of the lauded singer, songwriter and guitarist’s first five solo records — 1996’s Golden Heart, 2000’s Sailing to Philadelphia, 2002’s The Ragpicker’s Dream, 2004’s Shangri-La and 2007’s Kill to Get Crimson. The box set also will include as a bonus disc a new companion compilation titled Gravy Train: The B-Sides 1996-2007.
The vinyl box set will feature two-LP versions of the five studio albums, plus the single-disc compilation, all pressed on 180-gram black vinyl. This will mark the first time that Golden Heart, Sailing to Philadelphia and, of course, Gravy Train, will be available on vinyl.
Both box sets will come with a download card allowing access to digital versions of the albums, plus six embossed art prints of the albums’ covers.
The Knopfler studio album featured in the box set that saw the most commercial success is Sailing to Philadelphia, which peaked at #4 on the U.K. chart and was certified gold for sales of over 500,000 copies in the U.S.
Joan Jett loves rock ‘n’ roll, and the rock legend will get back to doing what she loves with her band, The Blackhearts, when they kick off a series of 2021 concerts with a show this Sunday, August 1, in San Francisco at the Stern Grove Festival.
Jett & the Blackhearts have 20 concerts lined up this year, running through a November 21 performance in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Several shows on Jett and company’s schedule are joint gigs with some other big-name rock acts. These include an August 12 concert in Vienna, Virginia, with George Thorogood & The Destroyers; performances with Cheap Trick on August 28 and 29, respectively, in Chesterfield, Missouri, and Kansas City, Missouri; and an October 2 show in Laughlin, Nevada, with Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Joan and the band also will play the 2021 of Milwaukee’s Summerfest on September 9.
Meanwhile, The Stadium Tour, the long-delayed trek that will feature Joan Jett & the Blackhearts teaming up with Def Leppard, the reunited Mötley Crüe and Poison, is scheduled to finally get underway on June 16, 2002, in Atlanta. The outing is plotted out all the way through a September 7 show in San Francisco.
Last week, Kiana Ledé unleashed her “dream collaboration” with fellow R&B singer Kehlani.The two went back and forth on “Ur Best Friend,” contemplating the consequences of cheating in their respective relationships.
To entice fans about a forthcoming music video, Ledé shared a tempting photo on Instagram of herself and Kehlani appearing to engage in a sensual kiss. “Video this week? How’s that sound?” Ledé wrote in the caption.
Ledé also tagged Oakland photographer Blair B Brown and Honey Shot Productions, which is comprised of visual artist and photographer Brianna Alyssa and ‘Hyphy Williams,’ Kehlani’s director alias.
Kehlani shared the same photo on her Instagram story to confirm the video will be “directed by me.”
Fans in the comments shared their enthusiasm over the sexy photo, which they hope will be just as alluring as the “Ur Best Friend” video.
“I don’t think I’m ready, but I’m also extremely ready,” wrote one fan, while another said, “Please, I’m being so patient.”
For Ghostbusters fans — particularly those wary of the infamous 2016 reboot later marketed as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call — the new trailer to Ghostbusters: Afterlife came as a relief.
Fans already knew the original cast would return — in their original roles, unlike the reboot — but seeing Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Dan Akykroyd, and the late Harold Ramis suited up in a vintage photo in the trailer brought all the feels back.
Now Ghostbusters: Afterlife director Jason Reitman, the son of original Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II producer Ivan Reitman, has partnered with IGN for a deep dive into his new trailer, to show the pains all involved went through to pay honor to what he called the “original sauce” that made the first two films so special to fans.
Among them, Reitman points out, are the props from the original two films that have been faithfully laser scanned and replicated for use in his film. Also making an appearance in the coming attraction is the “terror dog” as seen in the 1984 original — Reitman explains how their digital effects wizards replicated its wonky running that was due to the limitations of the effects at that time.
Reitman said of the project, “…I feel like I’m not really carrying the Spengler story, but I’m carrying my own family story,” adding he’s “thrilled to share it with everybody.” The filmmaker said, “It’s a movie that was made by a family about a family. My father and I cannot wait for you to see this in theaters.”
Also debuting along with the trailer was a new line of toys from Hasbro Pulse, including action figures of McKenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard‘s characters and their friends, as well as the original Ghostbusters, all in their gear.
Emma Roberts proved she can take a joke as well as anyone after a video she posted on Instagram over the weekend went viral.
The clip shows Roberts striking a glamorous pose while Lana Del Rey‘s “Happiness Is a Butterfly” plays. At one point, the 30-year-old Scream Queens actress sticks out her tongue at the camera.
The video, which has over a million and a half likes, instantly went viral, with Twitter users adding captions like, “Me trying to get the barista at Pret to give me my coffee for free” and “me looking at myself before everyone else logs into the meeting.”
Emma responded by sharing a snippet of the video on her Instagram Stories, writing, “Me going viral after 30. Thank you gays and whoever else.”
This isn’t the first time Emma made a meme out of herself. In 2013, when starring in American Horror Story: Coven, her character, Madison Montgomery, uttered a memorable line when revealing she was resurrected from the dead.
The scene where Emma remarks, “Surprise, b**** — I bet you thought you saw the last of me,” has since become a popular reaction image and gif on social media.
(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged Wednesday during a joint press conference in India that the situation in Afghanistan is headed in the wrong direction — noting the Taliban is “making advances” and calling reports that the group has committed atrocities “deeply, deeply troubling.”
They “certainly do not speak well of the Taliban’s intentions for the country as a whole,” he told ABC News.
Blinken made a quick visit to New Delhi, where he and senior Indian officials focused on deepening U.S.-Indian cooperation on key challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, China, and climate change. But with the security situation in nearby Afghanistan deteriorating quickly, their meetings also focused on the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the Taliban’s swift efforts to control more territory.
As he and other Biden officials have argued, however, he said that the international community would make a “pariah state” of an Afghan government that “does not respect the rights of its people, an Afghanistan that commits atrocities against its own people.”
“The Taliban says that it seeks international recognition, that it wants international support for Afghanistan,” and that it wants sanctions and travel bans on its leaders lifted, he added, saying there’s “only one path” to achieving those aims, “and that’s at the negotiating table.”
But it doesn’t seem that the Taliban — which now control nearly half of the country’s districts since launching their offensive in May, according to the Pentagon — agrees.
The group’s leadership has also denied responsibility for the atrocities Blinken mentioned, including extrajudicial killings, forced displacements and attacking civilian infrastructure — a sign that their promises remain empty and they do believe they can take power by force or that they don’t have full control of their fractured forces across the country.
President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops before the 20th anniversary, this fall, of the Sept. 11th attacks that brought American forces to Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaida’s operations there and topple the Taliban government that gave them sanctuary.
In the weeks since then, the Taliban have won control of dozens of districts by force or through surrenders, as they dawdle at negotiations with the Afghan government meant to secure a ceasefire and decide on the country’s future government.
Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, agreed with Blinken that, despite the deadlock in those talks, they were the only solution to Afghanistan’s fighting. But he declined to say how concerned India’s government is now about the deteriorating security situation, instead calling it “natural” and “inevitable” that “there will be consequences” to the U.S. military withdrawal.
“What is done is done. It is a policy taken, and I think in diplomacy, you deal with what you have,” he told ABC News – agreeing with Blinken that negotiations are the only solution.
But he subtly took issue with Pakistan, India’s neighbor and long-time adversary, adding that “not everyone who agrees … does what they say they will do.” Without a direct mention, he called its support for the Taliban a “reality of the last 20 years.”
A senior State Department official said after the day’s meetings that the two sides made no specific asks of one another, but committed to deepening cooperation and information-sharing on the situation.
“It’s a chance for us to talk about, sort of, the way forward and really where we can find points of leverage to try to bring the Taliban along and get toward a negotiated settlement,” they said.
The two foreign ministers were chummy after their day of meetings — cracking jokes and praising U.S.-Indian cooperation. Jaishankar said the two powers had “entered a new era,” with cooperation on COVID-19, defense, trade and investment, climate change, and regional issues.
In particular, Blinken said the two countries “will be leaders in bringing the pandemic to an end,” as India ramps up vaccine production and exports, and the U.S. launches the first of the 500 million doses next month that Biden promised during the G-7 summit.
The Biden administration had hoped to share three million of those doses with India, but they remain held up by Indian bureaucracy, which must first approve their import, according to the senior State Department official, who added they hoped for “some movement soon.”
While the increasing U.S.-India partnership has irked the Chinese government, which has accused both countries of trying to “contain” it, Jaishankar shot back Wednesday — saying, “People need to get over the idea that somehow other countries doing things is directed at them.”
“For groups of countries to work together is not strange. It’s the history of international relations,” he added, earning a laugh from Blinken.
But much of this visit has been focused on China — including Blinken’s meeting Wednesday morning with the Dalai Lama’s representative, Central Tibetan Administration Representative Ngodup Dongchung. It’s the first high-level engagement from the Biden administration with the Tibetan leader and his team — one that is sure to anger Chinese officials who have long opposed U.S. support for the spiritual figure.
The senior State Department official tried to downplay the meeting, saying they met “very briefly” so that Dongchung could present Blinken with a scarf as a “gesture of good will and friendship.”
Blinken also tried to send a message with another meeting Wednesday morning, starting his day before the cameras with a group of Indian civil society leaders. Before the press, he talked about how both countries’ democracies “are works in progress. … Sometimes that process is painful, sometimes it’s ugly, but the strength of democracy is to embrace it.”
That process in India has been particularly ugly in recent years. Earlier this year, Freedom House, the U.S. think tank, rated India as “partly free” for the first time in its annual global survey, as the government of Narendra Modi has been accused of curtailing minorities’ rights, especially Muslims; attacking political opponents and the free press; and restricting human rights groups and NGOs.
With his morning meetings, Blinken tried to send a message about that, talking up the importance of “a vibrant civil society” and talking openly about American democracy’s struggles and faults — including the events of Jan. 6.
But during their presser, Blinken was more conciliatory than critical of Modi and Jaishankar’s administration, saying Americans “admire” India’s “steadfast commitment to democracy, pluralism, human rights, fundamental freedoms.”
“As friends, we talk about these issues. We talk about the challenges that we’re both facing in renewing and strengthening our democracies, and I think humbly, we can learn from each other,” he added, clearly highlighting the common ground, rather than risk alienating this critical new partner.
Jaishankar had a sharper edge in response to the question — telling the reporter who asked that Modi’s changes are an effort to “really right wrongs when they have been done” — the kind of ‘don’t question’ attitude that critics say is at the heart of Modi’s democratic back-sliding.
Riding on the success of her popular family comedy flick Yes Day, Jennifer Garner is staying in business with Netflix not only for a sequel, but other films for the streaming giant.
In a statement, Garner said Netflix chiefs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos “have built a safe, collaborative home for storytellers,” adding, “I am honored to join the awesome group of creatives in the Netflix family, and I am extremely excited to work with their passionate and innovative teams across all departments.”
In Yes Day, Garner and Edgar Ramirez played a married couple who decides to take their Torres family up on any whim by saying yes to anything and everything for a single day.
“Seeing Netflix’s global reach as the Torres family wreaked havoc in homes all over the world makes me eager to dive in with another Day of Yes; I can’t wait,” said Garner.
Justin Bieber approves of gymnast Simone Biles‘ decision to withdraw from Thursday’s all-around competition to focus on her mental health.
On Instagram Wednesday, Justin posted a photo of Biles, the most decorated American gymnast of all time, and explained why he can relate so strongly to Biles’ situation.
“nobody will ever understand the pressures you face! I know we don’t know each other but I’m so proud of the decision to withdraw. It’s as simple as – what does it mean to gain the whole world but forfeit your soul,” Justin wrote.
“Sometimes our no’s are more powerful than our yes’s. When what you normally love starts to steal your joy it’s important we take a step back to evaluate why,” he continued. “People thought I was crazy for not finishing the purpose tour but it was the best thing I could have done for my mental health!! So proud of you @simonebiles.”
In 2017, Justin canceled his Purpose World Tour and wrote at the time, “Me taking this time right now is me saying I want to be SUSTAINABLE… I want my career to be sustainable, but I also want my mind heart and soul to be sustainable. So that I can be the man I want to be, the husband I eventually want to be and the father I want to be.”
Earlier this week, Biles also removed herself from the U.S. Olympic team finals, saying, “I do not trust myself any more. I have to focus on my mental health.” She added, “We have to protect our mind and our body rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do.”
Saint Motel‘s new album The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is coming to life in a very unique way.
The band will perform the record in its entirety during a streaming concert filmed in Macedonia. They’ll be accompanied by the country’s acclaimed Fames Orchestra and film composer Duke Bojadziev, who had created “film score transitions” for in between the songs on The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.
“What an incredible way to perform The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack in the most thematically true way possible,” says Saint Motel frontman A/J Jackson. “Live with one of the best orchestras in the world and showcasing not only all the songs but the incredible film score transitions. It’s something truly special.”
The concert will premiere August 18 via the streaming platform Dreamstage. Visit Dreamstage.live for ticket info.
The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released in June. It combines three different EPs, which spawned the singles “Van Horn,” “Preach” and “It’s All Happening.”
