Paul Rodgers may tour with Queen again

The former Free and Bad Company vocalist joined Brian May and Roger Taylor to tour as Queen + Rodger Taylor between 2005 and 2009, and while they have all been working on other projects since, the vocalist hasn't ruled out performing with the band again.

When asked if he would tour again with Queen, Roger said: "We may do. We left it because we all wanted to do different things. We toured the world twice and after the studio album I didn't feel like there was a lot more we could do.

"We didn't want to do it forever, but I enjoyed playing the role for a while, so we'll see."

Speaking at the Ivor Novello songwriting awards, the singer also said how daunting he found it to fill the space left by original vocalist Freddie Mercury - who died in 1991 of complications related to AIDS ' and how much respect he has for the way he gracefully bowed out of the public eye when he became ill.

Paul told BANG Showbiz: "I had to fill a role as well as be myself, and it was quite daunting, at first we were just jamming and having fun, but when they put the full rig up and I was stood in the middle, all of a sudden I realised the enormity of what I'd got myself into.

"I grew to love Freddie. I always had a great deal of admiration for queen and Freddie, but the more I studied him and his life and his death too, there was no poor me about it, he was just very, very brave."

Debbie Harry has thought about adopting children

The iconic singer ' who was adopted at a young age by shop owners Richard and Catherine Harry ' has never had children but did occasionally think about the idea of expanding her family.

She said: "I've thought of adoption, which I think I'd be really good at. Now that this terrible earthquake has happened in Japan, there will be lots of children needing homes."

The 65-year-old pop star likes to support various charities, and the eco-conscious celebrity would like to set up a foundation to promote the use of solar panels.

She said: "I spread myself around a lot of causes.

"I'm concerned about the environment and clean water and being carbon-free. I also support diabetes research.

"If I were to do a foundation it would be to promote solar energy. And I'm worried about drilling for oil. I think it is harming the earth, because it drains the layer of oil under the surface, and that could be causing earthquakes.

"It's like we're giving the earth arthritis. I don't know if that sounds crazy."

AC/DC still regard Bon Scott a member of the band

AC/DC still talk about Bon Scott like he is a member of the band.

The 'Highway to Hell' rockers still regard their former lead singer ' who tragically died in 1980 after a night of drinking in London ' as one of them, and Bon's replacement, vocalist Brian Johnson, feels his death was just "unlucky".

He said: "He wasn't a wild, wild, wild man - he was just as wild as the other boys were. He was just unlucky. We've all done stupid, dumb things where we're young, but we got away with it. He didn't.

"It was just one of them stupid things that shouldn't have happened, and it was accidental and it was stupid.

"I just won't have a bad word said against him. We still talk about him like he's a member of the band in the dressing room."

The Australian rock group ' who also includes brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd - are to release a new version of their 1979 concert film 'Let There Be Rock', made in Paris shortly before Bon's death, and Brian said it gives a "wonderful insight" into the singer.

He added to the USA Today newspaper: "If you want to understand the band, then you'll understand this when you see Bon Scott with the boys when they were young and just starting out, and thinking you never know what the future holds. You can tell these guys just wanted to rock 'n' roll.

"They showed me this movie and I saw it and it's a wonderful insight into Bon Scott."

Adele tops Guardian's Music Power 100

Singer-songwriter Adele and her record label boss, publisher and plugger have topped the Guardian's Music Power 100.

The list, compiled by a panel of industry experts, names those that exert the greatest influence over the UK's music listening habits.

The top ten of the Guardian's Music Power 100 is:

Team Adele - Adele, Richard Russell XL Recordings, manager Jonathan Dickins, publisher Paul Connolly, radio plugger Brad Hunner
Lucian Grainge, chairman & CEO, Universal Music Group International and David Joseph, chairman & CEO, Universal Music UK
Simon Cowell
Nigel Harding, music policy executive, Radio 1
Person or persons unknown, iTunes UK
Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, founders, YouTube
George Ergoutadis, head of music, Radio 1 and 1Xtra
Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt, Google
Simon Moran, managing director, SJM promotions
Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon

At only 23, Adele has sold millions of records worldwide. Her second album, 21, has topped the US chart seven times and it has been No 1 in the UK for the last five weeks, having previously been No 1 for 11 weeks. In February she became the first artist since The Beatles to have two top five singles and two top five albums at the same time.

Those on the advisory panel were: Geoff Travis, founder Rough Trade records; Paul Scaife, MD/publisher, Record of the Day; Terri Hall, managing director, Hall or Nothing PR; Cerne Canning, Supervision Management; and Jonathan Morrish, director of corporate comms, PPL.

The Guardian's inaugural Music Power 100 list is published in the Guardian's Film & Music supplement as part of a summer-long season, Music Loves Summer, in the Guardian and Observer. The season continues over the weekend with a Glastonbury ticket giveaway on Saturday and an exclusive interview with the Arctic Monkeys on Sunday in The Observer.

Visit www.guardian.co.uk/music for the latest news, reviews and offers from Music Loves Summer.

Friendly Fires add new London date

Due to phenomenal public demand, Friendly Fires are delighted to announce a second show at London's 5,000 capacity Brixton Academy.

The show will take place on Saturday 26th November and Friendly Fires will personally curate a night of special guest live acts and DJs for an event that will run until 3am. The full line up will be announced shortly.

This gig will round off Friendly Fires' biggest UK headline tour to date and comes on the back of the critical and commercial success of the band's recently released second album 'Pala'.

The full tour dates are:

10TH NOVEMBER
BRISTOL O2 Academy

11TH NOVEMBER
BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy

12TH NOVEMBER
SOUTHAMPTON Guildhall

14TH NOVEMBER
NOTTINGHAM Rock City

15TH NOVEMBER
NEWCASTLE O2 Academy

17TH NOVEMBER
MANCHESTER O2 Apollo

18TH NOVEMBER
GLASGOW Barrowlands

19TH NOVEMBER
LEEDS O2 Academy

21ST NOVEMBER
CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange

22ND NOVEMBER
LINCOLN Engine Shed

25TH NOVEMBER
LONDON Brixton Academy

26TH NOVEMBER
LONDON Brixton Academy

For more information contact Jon Wilkinson or Patrick Johnson at XL Recordings on 020 8870 7511 or jonwilkinson@xlrecordings.com / patrickjohnson@xlrecordings.com

www.wearefriendlyfires.com

Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Band Rare Bird Alert

There is a long history of comedians, actors and the like turning their hands to music and the results are highly varied. From Steven Segal desperately trying to prove he has soul by playing Blues (excrutiatingly), Hugh Laurie actually playing a pretty good form of Blues but with a nerdish attention to detail through to Woody Allen and his regular Jazz band in NYC with Woody playing a mean clarinet the evidence is clear – listen with care and a cynical ear.
So up pops Steve Martin. A genuine comedic talent, funny actor, playwright and ‘eruditer’ (or bullshit philosopher as Mel Brooks would have it) and now he wants us to believe that his greatest pleasure – not to mention talent – is playing banjo. And, dagnabbit, he actually plays damn well and he has a band around him that play equally well but rather than covering up his weaknesses actually emphasise how good he is – now I did not expect THAT!

This is an album of easy and delightfully played bluegrass. All songs written by Steve Martin and all acoustic, featuring some excellent fiddling, easy and steady bass and guiter. It turns out that The Steep Canyon Rangers won the award as the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Best Emerging Talent. It is my guess that they weren’t likely to saddle themselves with an idiot who only thought he could play banjo and so it proves.

From the title track, a superb instrumental that just sets the stage and through ‘Yellow-Backed Fly’, one of the most bucolic and heartfelt fishing songs I have ever heard and featuring the great line “twenty inches long and measured with a stick, he’s Old Jim but to me he’s Moby Dick” and if you’ve ever fished for a famous fish you will understand that line to your heart.
‘You Are My Best Love’ is a slightly cheesy love song featuring the vocals of no less than Sir Paul McCartney but that quickly gives over to ‘Northern Island’, a frantic instrumental and probably featuring the best picking on the album – simply great Bluegrass.
The whole album is suffused with good humour and sounds as though it was recorded with a big heart and wide smiles and you really will find yourself dancing away to numbers like ‘Go Away, Stop, Turn Around, Come Back’ and smiling broadly to the utterly silly but delicious ‘Atheists Don’t Have No Songs’.

Best track on the album is probably ‘Jubilation Day’ or the heartbreakingly lovely ‘The Great Remember (For Nancy)’ but the live numbers at the end of the album raised a big smile too.

I am genuinely delighted that this album is as good as it is, bad Bluegrass is almost worse than bad Blues, but this ain’t bad by anyone’s calculation.

Reeve Carney, Bono and The Edge release Spider-Man single

Reeve Carney together with Bono and The Edge have the lead-off single from the 'Music from Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark'.

'Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark' is the Broadway musical with songs written by Bono and The Edge and starring Reeve Carney (from rock band Carney) in the lead role of Peter Parker / Spider-Man. Carney the band is the musical's orchestra.

The first single 'Rise Above 1' was produced by Alex Da Kid.

The album 'Music From Spider-Man, Turn Off The Dark' was produced by Steve Lillywhite (U2, Rolling Stones) and will be released in June.

The Spider-Man musical got off to a bad start for Bono and The Edge with constant delays and rewrites. However, previews are now happening at the Foxwoods Theatre on West 43rd Street.

The story follows teenager Peter Parker who is bitten by a spider and develops super powers.

The show also stars Jennifer Damiano as Mary Jane, T.V. Caprio as Arachne and Patrick Page as the Green Goblin.