For those whose heads have been under rocks / in the clouds over the extended bank holiday weekend, here are the main nuggets of news from the last three days.
– Michael Jackson‘s one-time manager has revealed in a new memoir that he once plotted to “kidnap” the troubled singer in order to get him into rehab. Ron Weisner, who managed Jackson in the late 1970s and early 1980s, claims to have hatched the plan with Jackson’s sister LaToya in 2006. Over to Weisner, who describes the “kidnapping” as so: [I] told her, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s get him fixed. I’ll put together a team, I’ll arrange for an airplane, I’ll find the right [rehab] facility. I’ll put everything in place, and pay for it myself.'” The scheme hit the dirt when LaToya pulled out at the last minute. [via The Guardian]
– Werk Discs bossman Actress has remixed recent Ninja Tune signing Kelis. The ‘Sixinium Bootleg Mix’ of ‘Rumble’, which appears on the singer’s just-minted LP Food, is available here.
– The spirit of 1989 lives! A colossal illegal rave took place at Devil’s Dyke in the South Downs, running from Sunday night well into Monday. The National Park site was taken over by around 2000 people, with police admitting they didn’t have enough officers available to actually shut it down. The Telegraph were among the national papers to pick up the story, scoring some cracking quotes from peeved residents in the process (““The bass just thump-thumps away and it never seems to change one bit. I can’t stand it any more. I’ve never heard music like it.”)
– House music historian Bill Brewster will follow up his 2013 Late Night Tales mix with a second instalment in July. His sophomore After Dark mixtape, titled Nightshift, promises disco and house-leaning material from DJ Nature, Justus Köhnchke, General Lee and Mugwump, amongst others. Head here for the full tracklisting.
– Queen have announced a new compilation of previously unreleased material, tentatively titled Queen Forever. Inspired by a cache of recently rediscovered material from the 1980s, the album will see archival Mercury vocal tracks laid over freshly recorded instrumental tracks by the remaining band members. In less heartening news, May confirmed that a sequel to till-ringing stage musical We Will Rock You is in the works.
– The freshly reunited Monty Python have announced a 9xLP box set, collecting all of their full-length comedy records, remastered from the original master tapes. Python’s Total Rubbish: The Complete Collection will arrive on June 30; alongside well-known full-lengths like Matching Tie and Handkerchief and the Life Of Brian soundtrack, the set will also include a 7″ of Monty Python’s Tiny Black Round Thing and a new 64-page book.
– Macauley Culkin’s pizza-themed Velvet Underground covers band The Pizza Underground had an absolute shocker.
