Foo Fighters are confirmed to play a surprise set at Glastonbury.
Dave Grohl and company had been heavily rumored as the true identity of The Churnups, a mystery band scheduled to perform Friday, June 23, on the famed English festival’s main Pyramid Stage ahead of Royal Blood and headliner Arctic Monkeys. Theories only intensified when Grohl wrote in a letter to fans, “It feels good to see you, churning up these emotions together.”
Now the Foos revealed that they are indeed The Churnups in an Instagram post featuring a photo of a sign reading “Churn it up,” as well as #Glastonbury2023.
Foo Fighters previously headlined Glastonbury in 2017. At the 2022 festival, Grohl made a surprise appearance during Paul McCartney‘s headlining set, marking his first public performance since the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Train is back with new music. The band just dropped the new song “I Know,” featuring country star Tenille Townes, and rapper and singer Bryce Vine.
“So excited to share this new song with you as our official kickoff to summer 2023,” Train frontman Pat Monahan shares. “We can’t wait to sing it live with our fans all summer long.”
“I Know” is the first new music from the band since they released their album AM Gold in May 2022.
Next up, Train is set to kick off a new summer tour on June 29 in Joliet, Illinois, hitting close to 50 cities, many for the first time in years. A complete list of dates can be found at savemesanfrancisco.com.
Tim McGraw is set to release his 17th studio album, Standing Room Only, on August 25.
The 13-track project will feature the title track, which is Tim’s current single, as well as “Hey Whiskey,” which dropped Friday, June 23.
Of his forthcoming collection, the country superstar shares, “As an artist, I always want to dig deeper and get better every time I make a new record – it’s a big part of what drives me, and I really believe this is one of the best projects we’ve made.”
“I’ve been working on this album since 2020, and this collection of songs are some of the most emotional, thought-provoking, and life-affirming music I’ve ever recorded,” adds Tim. “I’m excited to have ‘Hey Whiskey’ out so fans can start hearing more of what we’re working on – and maybe even more before August.”
While you wait, presaveStanding Room Only now and check out exclusive album bundles at Tim’s merch store.
Here’s the track list for Standing Room Only:
“Hold On To It”
“Standing Room Only”
“Paper Umbrellas”
“Remember Me Well”
“Hey Whiskey”
“Her”
“Fool Me Again”
“Small Town King”
“Beautiful Hurricane”
“Cowboy Junkie”
“Nashville CA/L.A. Tennessee” (featuring Lori McKenna)
“Some Songs Change Your World”
“Letters From Heaven”
Babyface was removed as the supporting act of Anita Baker‘s tour after she allegedly endured cyberbullying from his fans. Speaking on The Jason Lee Show, he described the night that everything seemingly went downhill.
According to Babyface, they’d experienced technical difficulties on the Newark, New Jersey, stop of the outing, and he was told not to perform while the issues were being fixed. After a nearly two-hour delay, he eventually had to nix his set so Baker could take the stage; he decided to update disappointed fans about his canceled set.
“The issue was, for me, the only reason why I ultimately posted something was because people were booing after they announced that I wasn’t coming on,” Babyface said. “[Fans] were pissed, and DMs were coming in saying, ‘Babyface is a no-show,’ and I didn’t want that to be the story. I just tried to make an announcement to at least say, ‘Hey, I couldn’t go on tonight for technical difficulties. I was asked not to go on.’”
The singer then made it clear he had no problem being Baker’s supporting act, expressing disbelief that things played out the way they did.
“My love and respect for her is to the extent that, where she is and what she’s done in her career, and how she too has touched people with her music — I’m going to support that. That’s just who I am,” he said. “And so, in all reality, for everything to have gone as crazy as it did, that was never my intention to ever think that it would, because that’s not my heart. I can’t believe that it rode out the way it rode out.”
He previously said he was saddened by his removal from the tour.
Paddington Bear is going to be accompanied by some new but familiar faces on his next adventure.
Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas and Emily Mortimer are all in talks to join the third installment of the Paddington franchise, titled Paddington in Peru, Deadline reports.
The popular Paddington films follow the titular, marmalade sandwich-loving bear voiced by Ben Whishaw and show his escapades while living with the London-based Brown family.
Colman will play The Reverend Mother in the third film, a nun who runs the Home for Retired Bears. Banderas will take on the role of the riverboat captain Hunter Cabot, who helps the Brown family on their Peruvian journey.
Mortimer, however, will take over the role of Mary Brown, which was played by Sally Hawkins in the first two Paddington movies.
“For me, it has felt the right time to hand the reigns over to another, and one can’t get much better than the truly wonderful Emily Mortimer, she is extraordinarily special,” Hawkins said. “I already greatly miss my on and off-screen family – the experience of making the first two films has truly been some of the best and most creative times I have had in the world of film.”
Paddington in Peru is set to begin principal photography on July 24.
Thirty Seconds to Mars has shared a new remix of the single “Stuck” created by drummer Shannon Leto.
The updated recording is a slower and darker take on the original, in which frontman Jared Leto sings, “The way you move has got me stuck.”
You can listen to the “Stuck” remix now via digital outlets.
The original “Stuck” is the lead single off the upcoming Thirty Seconds to Mars album It’s the End of the World But It’s a Beautiful Day, due out September 15. Its video already has over 10 million YouTube views.
(NEW YORK) — The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said the Kremlin’s justifications for its invasion of Ukraine are based on lies, in another extraordinary attack on the country’s military and political leadership.
Prigozhin, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a video posted Friday contradicted the public explanations for the war, including the central claim made by Putin that the 2022 invasion was necessary to prevent an attack from Ukraine.
Since launching the war, Putin has painted it as a defensive operation to protect Russia. He’s claimed it was needed to stop imminent large-scale attacks from Ukraine on Russian-speaking eastern regions in Donbas that Russia has occupied since 2014.
But in his video address, Prigozhin, whose fighters have played a leading role in the war, said that was not true and there had been no imminent risk of attack from Ukraine.
“The ministry of defense now is trying to deceive society, the president, and tell a story there was insane aggression from Ukraine and that they intended to attack us with the whole NATO bloc,” Prigozhin said.
“The Special Military Operation that began on Feb. 24 was started for completely different reasons,” he said.
Prigozhin has been in a public feud with Russia’s defense ministry and its head Sergey Shoigu for months, blaming them for Russia’s disastrous prosecution of the war. As Russia has faced deepening setbacks in Ukraine, he has become an unexpected, prominent critic of Russia’s leadership, using social media to post almost daily video updates excoriating it as incompetent, but stopping short of directly criticizing Putin.
Prigozhin also said in Friday’s video that the two goals Putin announced at the start of the war — the “demilitarization” and “de-Nazification” of Ukraine — were “pretty stories.”
Instead, he blamed Shoigu, the defense ministry and a “clan of oligarchs” for starting the war. He accused Shoigu of seeking glory and wanting “to rob” Ukraine and divide up its assets.
Prigozhin’s attacks are extraordinary in Russia, where public criticism of the authorities risks harsh punishment. Since the war began last year, criticism of the military leadership has become a criminal offense.
That has led to speculation among experts about why Prigozhin is enjoying such license. Some observers have suggested Prigozhin might be speaking with the tacit approval of the Kremlin, which may be looking to shift blame for the war from Putin by scapegoating other figures such as Shoigu.
Prigozhin did not directly attack Putin in the video, instead claiming the president was being deceived by his generals and other figures around him. However, Putin has made the claims around Donbas and de-Nazification the central justifications of the war.
The implicit picture Prigozhin gave of Putin as weak and out of touch was also remarkable, implying he was manipulated by a clan of wealthy businessmen around him and lied to by his military. The war, as described by Prigozhin, was not about protecting Russia or resisting NATO expansion, but instead greed.
“The war was needed by oligarchs,” Prigozhin said. “It was needed by that clan that today practically rule Russia.” He added Russia’s “sacred war” had “turned into a racket.”
Prigozhin lambasted Russia’s military leadership for the huge casualties its troops have suffered. He accused Shoigu of hollowing out the armed forces under Putin through corruption and cronyism, crippling its ability to fight effectively and then catastrophically botching the invasion after believing it would be an easy victory.
“There is a total absence of management,” Prigozhin said, calling Shoigu a “weak grandfather.”
“Someone should answer for the lives of those soldiers,” Prigozhin said in Friday’s video.
Prigozhin this week has accused the defense ministry of once again presenting a falsely upbeat picture of how Russia is fending off Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive in southern Ukraine. Russia’s military has claimed to have largely stymied the counteroffensive and inflicted heavy losses on Ukraine.
Putin himself has trumpeted those alleged successes, repeating claims Ukraine has suffered heavy losses of Western equipment.
But Prigozhin has said in Russia’s position is far more difficult, as Ukraine presses attacks at two points on the Zaporizhzhia front in the south.
“On the ground now, today, the Russian army is retreating on the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions,” Prigozhin said in Friday’s video.
He added that Ukrainian forces were advancing “deeper and deeper and deeper into our defenses” around Bakhmut, which his Wagner forces helped capture weeks ago.
“The leadership of the ministry of defense is thoroughly deceiving the president, and the president is receiving reports that don’t correspond with reality in any way,” Prigozhin said.
“Two agendas are forming—one on the ground, the other on the president’s table,” he said.
Mötley Crüe has shared a mysterious teaser hinting at a tiny club show in London.
In a Facebook post, the “Dr. Feelgood” rockers have shared a video teasing a show for “Dögs of War,” complete with an umlaut, taking place Friday, June 30, at London’s Underworld venue. The club capacity is limited to 500 people.
Tickets go on sale Monday, June 26. Notably, the ticket price is 19.81 British pounds, a likely reference to the year Mötley Crüe was founded.
Meanwhile, the Facebook video is accompanied by what might possibly be new music. The Crüe’s been in the studio with producer Bob Rock and new guitarist John 5, who joined the band in place of Mick Mars.
Mars, meanwhile, is suing Mötley Crüe over a financial dispute related to his retirement from touring in October 2022.
Mötley Crüe is currently on tour with Def Leppard. The outing comes to the U.S. in August.
(NEW YORK) — As Pride month events continue in June, members of the LGBTQ community and security experts are expressing concerns about growing anti-LGBTQ sentiment in the U.S.
“We are in the midst of a threat environment that is more complex and more disturbing than any other that I’ve experienced in my close to 40 years in law enforcement and homeland security,” said John Cohen, a former acting undersecretary for intelligence and counter-terrorism coordinator for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and an ABC News contributor.
The current threat against the LGBTQ community is worse than when the mass shooting occurred at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, seven years ago, Cohen says. The June 2016 massacre killed 49 people and injured 53 more.
The New York Police Department said Friday there are no specific or credible threats to Sunday’s Pride march in the city, but an assessment by the NYPD said the event will take place “amid an elevated threat environment worldwide” related to the LGBTQ community.
The department’s report, obtained by ABC News, mentions prior acts of mass violence targeting the gay community, including the shooting at Pulse.
Brigid McGinn, an organizer with Gays Against Guns, an activist group committed to ending gun violence, told ABC News at a vigil for Pulse shooting victims in New York City that she fears for the safety of the LGBTQ community amid the heightened rhetoric and the prevalence of guns in the U.S.
“Our kids are not safe. Our trans siblings are not safe walking down the street…and it’s all due to interactions with gun violence,” McGinn said.
The threats coincide with the increased use of false anti-LGBTQ+ stereotypes by conservative figures that activists have said were historically used to marginalize the community and rile up a political base.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank specializing in research and policy advice on extremism and disinformation, said in a report this month that in the first five months of 2023 there have been more incidents of anti-drag protests, offline and online threats and violence (an average of 19.4 per month) than in the last seven months of 2022 (an average of 15.1 per month).
The report cites a total of 203 incidents between June 2022 and May 2023 that targeted drag events online and offline across the U.S. in the time period reviewed. Of that total number of incidents, 100 (49%) targeted drag queen story hours and 75 (37%) targeted drag shows, the report says.
“The numbers in this report suggest that we run the risk of dangerous backsliding toward hate and violence directed at LGBTQ+ people,” said Clara Martiny, digital research analyst of ISD, in a statement on the report.
The atmosphere of increased threat against the LGBTQ community has shaped Pride month events this year, as well as commemorations of the Pulse shooting.
At last week’s vigil for Pulse shooting victims held across from the historic Stonewall Inn, where an uprising by members of the LGBTQ community in 1969 followed a police raid, people dressed all in white and held placards for the victims.
“And once we put the veil on we’re basically silent in tribute to these people,” said John Murphy, who explained he attends the vigil every year.
“Given all of the anti-LGBTQ legislation that’s being passed and the quantity of gun violence across the country, it feels more urgent than ever,” said David Sabshon, who followed the procession through the neighborhood. “It feels like we are more at risk of something like this happening again.”
The ISD report noted that the types of groups behind the anti-drag activity have gone beyond the usual anti-LGBTQ groups and include growing numbers of local extremists, white supremacists, parents’ rights activists, members of anti-vaxxer groups, and Christian nationalists.
A DHS report in May said threats of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community are on the rise and intensifying.
“These issues include actions linked to drag-themed events, gender-affirming care, and LGBTQIA+ curricula in schools,” DHS said.
In three separate incidents this month, dozens of flags were vandalized at the nearby Stonewall Monument National Park, police said. No arrests have been made in any of the incidents.
Cohen said his assessment on the growing threat to the LGBTQ community is based on three factors. First, there is a much more significant level of online hate directed at LGBTQ people than in the past.
Online hate is also being amplified by elected officials, including in their rhetoric about anti-LGBTQ legislation, which can make extremist groups feel justified in using violence, he said.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, which tracks activity in state legislatures, in 2023, 77 anti-LGBTQ bills have been passed in the U.S. — more than any year on record.
“When you have violent extremists and public figures associating members of the LGBTQ community as being groomers or pedophiles, evil or satanic, then when you couple that with calls for violence directed to that community, it’s a dangerous combination,” Cohen said.
A larger number of people seem willing to use violence as a way to express personal views or opposition to government policy, according to Cohen.
“So when you take those three factors and put them together, that’s the witch’s brew fueling violence across America,” he said.
Katherine Rose Turbes, a marshal for the vigil at Stonewall, said commemorating the victims of shootings like at Pulse helps to remind the public what’s at stake.
“I just want to make sure that people understand the kind of impact and significance of the human beings because as you see…each and every one of these people was a human person whose life got cut short because of homophobic and queer phobic and transphobic violence,” Turbes said.
Now that summer’s here and school’s out for most kids in the country, the last thing they want to think about is going back to the classroom. But the Jonas Brothers want to change that.
The trio stars in a new back-to-school ad for The Children’s Place, which centers around Kevin Jonas’ two daughters, Alena and Valentina, heading back to the classroom.
The clip is set to the Jonas Brothers tune “Celebrate.” After Nick tells the girls to “dream big,” we see clips of them dreaming of having the best school day ever, including pizza and cupcakes for lunch, an appearance by their dad at Career Day and a Jonas Brothers concert in the gym.
As part of the campaign, The Children’s Place is kicking off a contest where parents can win $100,000 for their child’s school, plus a chance to see the Jonas Brothers in concert. More info can be found at childrensplace.com.
