Music

Two men have been charged for the murder of former Lostprophets singer and convicted child sex criminal Ian Watkins.

Watkins, 48, was attacked and killed Saturday at the HMP Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire, England, where he had been serving a 29-year sentence for charges including attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13.

“Detectives have charged two men with murder after the death of a prisoner at HMP Wakefield on Saturday,” reads a statement on the West Yorkshire Police website. “Ian Watkins aged 48 was pronounced dead after being seriously assaulted at HMP Wakefield on Saturday morning.”

Watkins was previously attacked in prison in 2023.

Lostprophets formed in Wales in 1997, and scored a string of rock and alternative radio hits in the mid-2000s with singles including “Last Train Home” and “Wake Up (Make a Move).” The band broke up in 2013 following the charges against Watkins.

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During her first performance at this year’s Austin City Limits Festival on Oct. 4, Sabrina Carpenter sang with ’90s country icon Shania Twain. During her second appearance on Oct. 11, Sabrina sang with yet another iconic ’90s female country act: The Chicks.

Sabrina welcomed the group, formerly known as The Dixie Chicks, to the stage to sing their 1998 hit “Wide Open Spaces” with her. The two acts then teamed up for a rendition of Sabrina’s hit “Please Please Please.”

In the “Juno” portion of the show, during which she pretends to “arrest” someone in the audience, the lucky “criminal” was Olivia Dean, the U.K. singer/songwriter who’ll be opening for Sabrina when she resumes her Short n’ Sweet tour later this month.

On Instagram, Sabrina wrote, “ACL weekend 2 such a special night. Getting to sing wide open spaces/ please please please with @thechicks was a true highlight of my life!! getting to arrest @oliviadeano for being too beautiful was very fitting…. you were so loud and rowdy Texas i miss you already but i do nottt [sic] miss that heat thank you goodbye.”

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Taylor Swift is giving fans what they’ve been wanting for some time now: a behind-the-scenes look at her Eras Tour.

ABC’s Good Morning America announced Monday that Disney+ will stream Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | The End of an Era (Docuseries), a six-part series giving fans unprecedented access to the tour. It features appearances by Taylor’s family, friends and special guests, including Ed Sheeran, Gracie Abrams, Sabrina Carpenter and Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine.

The first two episodes of the docuseries will premiere Dec. 12, with two episodes following each week afterwards. But wait … that’s not all.

Also on Dec. 12, Disney+ will premiere Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | The Final Show, a concert film captured at the final stop of the Eras Tour in Vancouver on Dec. 8, 2024. It features the entire Tortured Poets Department sequence of the show, which Taylor added following the April 2024 release of that album, live for the first time.

On Instagram, Taylor wrote, “It was the End of an Era and we knew it. We wanted to remember every moment leading up to the culmination of the most important and intense chapter of our lives, so we allowed filmmakers to capture this tour and all the stories woven throughout it as it wound down. And to film the final show in its entirety.”

The Eras Tour, which Taylor first announced on Good Morning America in November of 2022, kicked off March 17, 2023 and went on to gross over $2 billion and draw 10 million people, according to Taylor Swift Touring.

The movie capturing the trek, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, became the highest-grossing concert film of all time. A special version of the concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version), is now streaming on Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of Disney+ and ABC News.

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HARDY‘s a minimalist when it comes to album covers.

For the front of Quit!!, his 2024 rock album, he simply used a bar napkin someone shoved in his tip jar years earlier. 

For his new COUNTRY! COUNTRY! record, it’s an orange background with a black-and-white picture of his face, encircled by a halo of stars, as if he were dazed. On either side, there’s a thought bubble with the title. 

So, what gives? 

“A lot of ideas got thrown around,” HARDY explains, “but I kind of like the quirkiness of the shot of me just sort of looking at the camera, like kind of smirking or just making my dumb, goofy face of like, ‘Here’s your country album.'”

But the self-deprecating star wants to make sure you know he didn’t mean anything by it.

“That didn’t come from frustration, but more of like, you know, I knew it was time to put out another country record. So, ‘Here you go!'”

Clearly the cover’s done its job, as the album’s first single, “Favorite Country Song,” is a top-20 hit, just as he prepares to launch THE COUNTRY! COUNTRY! TOUR! in February.

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Bush‘s new album I Beat Loneliness has a song called “60 Ways to Forget People,” which is 10 more ways than there are to leave your lover and 39 less than there are luftballons. If you’re wondering why exactly frontman Gavin Rossdale chose the number 60 for the track, he actually started off with another, much larger number.

“It began as 1000,” Rossdale tells ABC Audio.

Rossdale decided to change it, though, not because of any musical or rhythmic reason — “It actually sang really well,” he says — but because Bush already recorded a song called “1000 Years” for their last record, 2022’s The Art of Survival, and released a duet version of it with Amy Lee of Evanescence.

“So I was, like, ‘It can’t be 1000 again!'” Rossdale says.

To finally arrive on 60, Rossdale had to “go through a number of numbers to see what worked.” 

I Beat Loneliness is out now. It also includes the single “The Land of Milk and Honey.”

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Charli XCX popped up in an unexpected place on Saturday night: onstage at SNL with Role Model.

During performances of his hit “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out,” it’s become a tradition for a woman — sometimes a fan, sometimes a famous woman — to join Role Model onstage and dance during the part of the song that begins, “Here we go again/ I’m falling headfirst/ Ankles hit the two-step/ Sally makes my head hurt.”

The singer, born Tucker Pillsbury, performed the song on a set that looked like a barn, and when he yelled out, “Where’s my Sally tonight?”, the barn doors opened to reveal Charli, wearing shades, a miniskirt and a t-shirt with the logo of the legendary New York City club Max’s Kansas City — possibly a reference to the title of Role Model’s album Kansas Anymore.

As Tucker continued to sing, “Heard it through the grapevine she can be a diva/ Cold like Minnesota, hotter than a fever,” Charli began dancing around, and then really got into it, whipping her hair, taking off her shades and putting them on Tucker before throwing a kiss and exiting the stage.

Tucker also performed his song “Some Protector” on the show.

Next week, Sabrina Carpenter will be the host and musical guest on the show.

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Sleeping with Sirens will no longer be playing the 2025 When We Were Young festival.

The festival has announced in a Facebook post that Kellin Quinn and company have dropped off the bill “due to reasons beyond our control.”

Sleeping with Sirens announced earlier in October that their scheduled run of headlining dates had been canceled due to Quinn’s wife dealing with health issues.

“My place is at home until we can solve this and she is recovered,” Quinn said at the time. “I love you all very much and thank you for understanding.”

When We Were Young 2025 takes place Oct. 18-19 in Las Vegas. The bill is headlined by blink-182 and the reformed Panic! at the Disco.

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Here are some of the new songs from the alternative world released on this New Music Friday:

Yellowcard‘s comeback album Better Days has arrived, marking the “Ocean Avenue” outfit’s first full-length effort in nine years. Along with the lead single and title track, Better Days includes a collaboration with Avril Lavigne called “You Broke Me Too.”

FINNEAS has released a song called “Palomino,” recorded for the soundtrack to the second season of the Netflix series Nobody Wants This. The soundtrack, due out Oct. 23, also features Portugal. The Man, Role Model and Royel Otis.

Of Monsters and Men goes the distance with “Fruit Bat,” an eight-minute track off the band’s upcoming album, All Is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade. The record, which also includes the single “Ordinary Creature,” drops Oct. 17.

Oliver Tree returns with a new single called “Superhero,” marking his first official release in two years. It’s the lead single off his upcoming album, Love You Madly, Hate You Badly, due out in 2026.

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