To enter the draw for tickets and for further information, click here. Deadline is 11am on 22 October.

A massive fan of the band for years, Gabi said of the show at Lowestoft Claremont Pier: “The whole experience was great fun - the journey there, even the waiting around to play, the playing, watching the Libertines from the side of the stage and getting drunk and enjoying ourselves afterwards.”

Libertines bassist John Hassall got to know Gabi when she read poetry and sang at his wife's night Y Tuesday upstairs at the Three Kings pub in Clerkenwell. The song, titled 'Lady of Seville', already written by the pair and due to be recorded in the next few weeks, was inspired by an 85 year old Spanish woman who Gabi sees through her work in dementia wellbeing, and how music has helped her cling onto her personality and identity.

“It's about her journey and her songs and how that's still a big part of who she is,” says Gabi, “My favourite fact about dementia is that the part of your brain that responds to and appreciates music is never affected, even in the later stages of dementia. It stays intact. So that's a really good way or reaching and stimulating people with dementia. She loves that - she loves singing.”

The song came about when Hassall asked Gabi to write some lyrics for him to put music to. “So with ‘Lady of Seville’, the lyrics are mine and the chords and vocal melody are his. We then worked on it with my band so the instrumentation is down to the Illuminations lot. When we record it I'm going to play bass and sing. My band will do drums, harmonium, Viola, guitar and trumpet. He (John) will do some vocals as well and some guitar.”

In the meantime, Gabi shares the first single from the album, which has been made in collaboration with Manics keyboard player and Dexys member/producer, multi instumentalist Sean Read, excluisvely with Gigwise. A soulful and poetric tribuite to a friend and her ability to face off adversity, it's due out on the Famous Times label on December 1.

Dury describes a “prince of tears stood on his driveway”, the workaday narrative of this “small man” turned grandiose through the soundtrack of a full orchestra, an oppugnant symphony completed by a rolling bass line and the stirring backing vocals of long-term collaborator Madelaine Hart.

As ever, the song seems to echo Baxter’s father as much as it eludes the shadow of his legacy; the Bow-Bells spoken word of Ian Dury becoming the poetry of Baxter Dury through his son’s unique blend of musical styles.

Prince of Tears will be Baxter’s fifth studio album to date and his first via independent record label Heavenly Recordings. The album was recorded towards the end of 2016 at Hoxa Studios, co-produced with Ash Workman (Metronomy) and mixed by Baxter’s longstanding collaborator Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, New Order, Florence & the Machine). It is set to be released on 27 October.

Baxter will be performing in London on the following dates:

31 October – Rough Trade East
29 November – KOKO

Released on November 17, the new live album is an absolute embarrassment of riches as hit follows hit follows hit and so on. Just check this lot out: ‘Mr Blue Sky’, ‘Livin’ Thing’ and ‘Evil Woman’ are all present and correct, as is ‘Handle With Care’ which Jeff Lynne recorded with The Traveling Wilburys as well as early classics such as the utterly glorious ‘10538 Overture’ (a track so glorious that Paul Weller was moved to write ‘The Changing Man’).

But yes… the live video for ‘Turn To Stone’. Originally taken from the ELO’s 1977 double album, Out Of The Blue, ‘Turn To Stone’ is not only the album’s opening track, it was also the first single from the LP, fact fans. And here it is in all its splendour and transplanted to the 21st century without losing any of the magic and sparkle that made it such a joy 40 years ago. Which explains why some 60,000 people are totally and utterly losing their shit to this track.

You can tell that Jeff Lynne and his current incarnation of ELO are having the time of their lives. Little wonder that Lynne enthuses of the gig thus: “It’s the best time I ever had in music… It is beyond anything that I could’ve imagined.”

He’s not wrong.

Responding to Björk’s comments on Danish newspaper Jyllends-Posten, von Trier said: “That was not the case. But that we were definitely not friends, that’s a fact. On the other hand, she delivered one of the greatest-ever performances in my movies.”

In her original post, Björk wrote: “I am inspired by the women everywhere who are speaking up online to tell about my experience with a Danish director… it was extremely clear to me when I walked into the actress profession that my humiliation and role as a lesser sexually harassed being was the norm and set in stone with the director and a staff of dozens who enabled it and encouraged it.

“I became aware of that it is a universal thing that a director can touch and harass his actresses at will and the institution of film allows it. When I turned the director down repeatedly he sulked and punished me and created for his team an impressive net of illusion where I was framed as the difficult one.”

Dancer In The Dark bagged Björk a best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000.

Producer Peter Aalbaek Jenson, who worked with von Trier on Dancer In The Dark as well as other films, also rejected her claims saying that he and the director “were the victims.”

“As far as I remember we were the victims. That woman was stronger than both Lars von Trier and me and our company put together. She dictated everything and was about to close a movie of 100m kroner [$16m],” he said.

The card is part of a number of mementos and other souvenirs linked to the Nirvana frontman who died in 1994. Also up for auction is a studio receipt from the session with producer Butch Vig that saw the band record a version of The Velvet Underground’s ‘Here She Comes Now’. The same session also saw the band record early versions of ‘In Bloom’, ‘Breed’, ‘Stay Away’ and ‘Polly’ which would all be re-recorded by Vig the following year for the Nevermind album. The current bid for that stands at $400.

Alternately, you could put a bid in for an unused Nirvana concert ticket from a cancelled show at the RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion in Dublin. The concert was scheduled for April 8, 1994, the same day that the band's lead singer, Kurt Cobain, was found dead in Seattle. The bidding for that one has started at $200.

And that video card? Say auctioneers Julien’s Auction, it was “issued by Blockbuster Video at the 1508 North Orange Grove location in Los Angeles, bearing the name Kurt D. Cobain printed on the verso.

“Together with a plastic wallet insert containing two scraps of paper, one printed with the name and address of John Silva at Gold Mountain Entertainment (Nirvana’s management company) and one printed with the name and address of Lee Johnson at Voldal-Wartelle Accounting (Nirvana’s accounting firm), both of whom were thanked by Dave Grohl during his acceptance speech at Nirvana’s induction ceremony into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

If you’re feeling particularly flushed or have just won the lottery, why not go for Cobain’s MTV Music Award for Best New Artist In A Video 1992 for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’? The current bid stands at $25,000 but its expected to fetch anywhere between $50 ,000 - $70,000.

The auction closes on November 4. That still leaves you a few weeks to sort out a hefty loan from your bank manager. And to mortgage your soul.

Manson, whose tenth album, Heaven Upside Down, has just crashed the UK Top 10 in the album charts at Number Seven, was talking to Cindy Scully of The Scully Report when he recalled the moment the accident happened on stage and the damage that it made to his ankle. Following surgery, he’s had to re-schedule the US leg of his tour.

“It wasn’t secured to the floor,” he explained. “I’ve got ten pins and a plate in my ankle and so I sadly get to miss the great shows that I wanted to do and I’m pissed! I don’t wanna be laying with a fucking cast on my leg.”

He continued: “I had to go to surgery which was a painful ordeal. I’m not going to let this mild setback keep me off-track from my goals and ambitions for this record.”

‘The Beautiful People’ hitmaker went to on to assure his Europeans that this tour on this side of the Atlantic would go ahead as planned despite his injuries.

“This isn’t something that’s going to wreck the whole world,” he said. “I will recover quickly because I have superhuman powers. I have the willpower and the determination to not let this set me back.”

He jokingly added: “Maybe God does exist and he’s trying to hold me back!”

Keeping his tongue firmly in his cheek, he quipped: “I have the greatest fun on stage but unfortunately I was the victim of gun violence. I shouldn’t have been playing around with firearms!”

Marilyn Manson returns to the UK in December.

The singer tackles the subject in his new autobiography, What Does This Button Do?, where he reveals a “golf ball” was on his tongue. Dickinson endured radiation therapy that helped him beat the cancer.

Speaking to iNews, Dickinson says that he wrote of the episode to raise awareness of the condition.

“I was trying to be informative, to say this is what it feels like to go through this; but everybody goes through that and I was lucky. I got the all clear and the treatment left me relatively unscathed,” he said.

“But the truth is the treatment itself is hugely damaging to people. I’ve spoken to a lot of men who had the same cancer and had exactly the same treatment and while all of them thankfully had good outcomes, one or two of them had a horrendous time, far worse than me.

“This is ongoing with men with this particular cancer around the world. There’s an epidemic of it, and it’s a kind of unspoken thing. Everybody knows about cervical cancer, but nobody really knows about this cancer, which is the same.”

Given how the disease was contracted, Dickinson is less then thrilled with chortlesome elements of the media who reported on his condition.

“I’m like, really? If your wife or daughter got cervical cancer you’d go round and tell all your mates that she was a slag, would you? It’s disgraceful. But because it’s men people think they can get away with it.”

Elsewhere in Dickinson’s autobiography, he also reveals how he joined the territorial army as a teenager and that he took fencing lessons from the man who taught swashbuckling movie legend Errol Flynn.

The multi-platinum artist, famous for global smash hits including ‘That’s What I like’, ‘Locked Out Of Heaven’, ‘Uptown Funk’ and ‘Just The Way You Are’, will have just finished his gigantic 172-date world tour supporting his latest double-platinum LP ’24K Magic.’

Back in April he played four critically-acclaimed shows at London’s 02 Arena.

Mars’ breakthrough ballad in 2010 ‘Just The Way You Are’ set the tone for his stellar career, owning the record for longest-reigning debut single to stay at the top spot worldwide. Cheeky pop number ‘The Lazy Song’ made the top five, and has remained a global radio staple. ‘Marry You’ is a go-to soundtrack for viral marriage proposal videos to this day.

In 2014 Mars became the first artist under 30 to headline the Superbowl halftime show, with a dazzling Prince-esque set that won him admirers around the world.

Storming mega-hit ‘Uptown Funk’, a collaboration with Mark Ronson, topped the global charts and is the fifth most watched video on YouTube with more than 2.5 billion views.

Earlier this month it was announced that former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters is headlining Barclaycard British Summertime the day before on Friday, July 13.

Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Hyde Park is now one of Britain’s premier summer events, attracting some of the greatest names in music to the heart of London’s historic Hyde Park.

Bruno Mars joins an illustrious list of artists to have played the Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time Hyde Park including The Rolling Stones, The Killers, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, Green Day and many, many more.

Tickets to the show go on the are available on the Amazon pre-sale now, and are on general sale Friday 20 October.

Or would you rather put your life in the hands of Tom DeLonge, the man who, not too many years ago, was waxing lyrical about how nice it’d be to get a blow job from your mom. Well now you can! DeLonge, a long-term alien fanatic who has published two Sekret Machines books on UFOs, recently posted on Facebook that he is looking for investors in an “ElectroMagnetic Vehicle to Travel instantaneously through Space, Air and Water by engineering the fabric of Space-Time”. And this isn’t something that he’s got from getting stoned in front of Back To The Future II. He claims to have put together an “elite” team of experts “from CIA, DOD and the FMR Director of Advanced Programs at Lockheed Martin’s SkunkWorks” to help him “revolutionize the world with technology that can change life as we know it”.

What’s more, he’s launched a To The Stars Academy Of Arts & Science alongside a team of scientists, engineers and big thinkers with the aim of exploring 25th Century technology today and, according to ex-NASA co-founder Dr Hal Puthoff, “challenge the limits of traditional theory” and “introduce profound possibilities.”

Arguably the most profound is the suggestion that the To The Stars team is intent on unearthing proof that aliens have visited Earth. ““We have a plan to bring the unimaginable, the stuff of dreams, to the world,” DeLonge said at the project launch, which claims to have already raised $300,000, “I had the rare opportunity to present my ideas to an executive with the Department of Defense who worked in the special access programs in an area called Watertown also known as Area 51.

"That meeting led to multiple clandestine encounters across the United States from desert airports to vacant buildings deep with Washington DC from these exchanges I learned three things: one, there are certain things that should never have been secret; two their secrets that were justifiable at the time which should now be disclosed."

Ufologists believe that such a team might well be about to blow the lid on secrets kept hidden from the public for decades. “Something extraordinary is about to be revealed,” wrote UFO author Leslie Kean on Huffington Post. "Former high-level officials and scientists with deep black experience who have always remained in the shadows are now stepping into the light.”

Amongst the major figures prepared to come out and help expose the truth is Chris Mellon, who acted as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. "Figuring out the UFO phenomenon is going to take an effort outside of the government,” he said. "This is another case in which the system will not repair itself and people outside of government need to take action for breakthroughs to occur. This team has the skill set to process information others avert their eyes to and turn it to the advantage of the nation and the world.”

Let’s just hope they don’t waste all the money probing Uranus…

The much-lauded outfit will be bringing its highly combustible brand of rock’n’roll to Mirth, Marvel & Maud in Walthamstow on Friday, November 10.

Jim Jones And The Righteous Mind don’t so much play gigs as detonate in a catharsis of rock’n’roll that have left audiences breathless and reeling. Having rampaged across Europe in support of their critically acclaimed debut album, ‘Super Natural’, Jim Jones And The Righteous Mind now kick off their UK tour for their new single, ‘Something’s Gonna Get Its Hands On You’ in London.

Jim Jones has got previous form. Previous incarnations have included The Jim Jones Revue, Black Moses and Thee Hypnotics.

Support for the London date comes from the 10-piece crime gospel rock’n’roll outfit The Future Shape Of Sound, whose upcoming studio album features contributions from Jim Jones, Sister Cookie and Big Boy Bloater. 

Openingt the show are psychedelic duo The Left Outsides who effortlessly weave atmospheric, hypnotic songs with a bucolic and third-eye cleansing sensibility that’s utterly beguiling.

Elsewhere, Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind will be joined by garage-punk duo, Dolls, for the rest of the UK tour that includes dates in Newcastle, Halifax, Leicester, Tunbridge Wells and Ebbw Vale. Tickets for London show are on sale here while the UK tour tickets are available from the band’s website.

‘Something’s Gonna Get Its Hands On You’ is released on November 17 and is taken from their highly acclaimed debut album, ‘Super Natural’.

Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind play:

NOVEMBER

10 – London, Mirth, Marvel & Maud
15 – Newcastle, The Cluny
16 – Halifax , The Lantern
17 – Leicester, The Soundhouse
18 – Tunbridge Wells, The Forum
24 – Ebbw Vale, Brain Freeze Festival

The accident may well put his upcoming tour in doubt. He is scheduled to play in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei on Sunday night (October 23) with gigs at the Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan and Seoul’s Olympic Park. Other dates include gigs in Tokyo, Manila and Singapore.

Sheeran confirmed the news himself by posting an image on Instagram showing his right arm in a plaster cast and his left arm in a navy shoulder bandage.

"I’ve had a bit of a bicycle accident and I’m currently waiting on some medical advice, which may affect some of my upcoming shows. Please stay tuned for further news. Ed x," he said.

It’s been reported that the incident took place this morning. He was cycling down a London street when the accident occurred.

It’s difficult to see how the shows can go ahead. He’s famed for playing his concerts solo and uses just his guitar and loop pedals to thicken up and layer the sound on songs like ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and ‘Shape Of You’.

Speaking to the BBC this year, he said that a backing band wasn’t an option.

"I don't feel like there's anything interesting or new about seeing a singer-songwriter with a band behind them," he said.

"I don't feel like if I suddenly got a band, everyone would go, 'Wow!' I actually feel it'd take away from me."

The documentary, which George Michael was working on when he died last year, features contributions from Coldplay’s Chris Martin and supermodels Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.

The Sun reports that ‘Someone Like You’ hitmaker Adele decided to contribute to the documentary at the last minute and entered a studio late in the production process to record her version of ‘Fastlove’. She’d previously sung her version of the song at this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony.

"Adele did not feature until a very late stage," a source told the paper. "But George’s best friend David Austin, who was making the film with him, asked her if she would be involved and she said yes straight away.

"She was a massive fan and wanted to make sure her tribute was perfect. The result was incredible and will be aired during the opening credits."

It’s been mooted that the track may well be released as a single.

The documentary features a contribution from Kate Moss who took cameras into George Michael’s Highgate home in north London. This is the first time that cameras have been allowed into the singer’s home.

An insider told the newspaper: ”Kate and George were friends for years and knew each other really well. They lived just a few seconds walk away and Kate would hang out with him. She slipped into the house through the back door with the crew to avoid causing a scene as there are still fans who go there to pay tribute. Everything was kept very hushed.

"Filming at his home will give fans an insight like never before. Many of them have never been able to go through the keyhole to see where he actually spent his time."

As reported on Gigwise last week, Gallagher was dominating the UK album charts during the midweeks by outselling the remaining artists in the Top 20 by selling 79,000 units. It’s now been confirmed that he’s achieved impressive combined sales of 103,000 – and 91% of those were physical purchases and digital downloads. It’s also the most streamed album of the week.

As You Were is now the third highest selling album of 2017 and sits behind Ed Sheeran’s ÷ and Rag’n’Bone Man’s Human.

Perhaps most impressive are the album’s vinyl sales. As You Were shifted 16,000 copies and in doing so has made for the biggest one-week vinyl sales in over 20 years.

The former Oasis singer was in a celebratory mood. Posting a video message and holding a Number One award in his hand, Liam crowed: “Well, well, well, what do we ‘ave here? I reckon it looks like a Number 1 record, brothers and sisters. Woohoo! I wanna thank everyone who bought it. I want to thank everyone who helped make it. As you were…”

Taking into account his own track record with Oasis, As You Were gives Liam his ninth Number One album. Doubtless he’ll take a measure of satisfaction knowing that As You Were’s first week sales doubled that of Oasis’ debut album, Definitely Maybe, which shifted 56,000 in its release week back in 1994.

Elsewhere in the charts, a-ha scored their seventh Top 10 album with MTV Unplugged: Summer Solstice which went to Number Six. Marilyn Manson, currently recovering after injuring himself during a gig in New York, gets his first Top 10 album in ten years as Heaven Upside Down sits at Number Seven while The Darkness’ Pinewood Smile is one place behind.

Foo Fighters fan Sabryn (Twitter handle @SebrynSucks) was hobbling backstage on crutches with her friend Kaydee after the band's gig in Washington DC, when she was told by Dave Grohl’s orthopaedic doctor that her foot injury wouldn’t recover if she didn’t put a shoe on her foot.

It was at this point that Grohl came in and gave her one of his shoes.

Speaking to Alt Press, Sabryn said: “Dave brought him [the doctor] out once he saw that I was on crutches, and that’s when his doctor mentioned that I was supposed to wear a shoe with my brace.

“I told him that my shoes didn’t fit over it because it’s pretty big and my shoes are kinda small. So Dave said, ‘You need one of my big high tops!’ and I laughed it off.”

tonight dave grohls orthopedic doctor told me if i didn't put a shoe on my foot it wouldn't get better. so dave gave me one of his shoes? pic.twitter.com/updeujumtx

— sabryn (@sabrynsucks) October 13, 2017

Proving that he was serious, Grohl went back to his dressing room and gave her the extra shoe he wore when his own leg was broken.

"I wore it for the rest of the night after Dave told me to put it on," Sabryn continued. "It's definitely one of the coolest things to ever happen, and probably the funniest.

"If you wanted to know what we did with the shoe, it's sitting on Kaydee's shelf in her room because we thought it would be a nice display piece."

Meanwhile, Foo Fighters are set to return to the UK to play two massive stadium gigs in support of their new album, Concrete And Gold. They play the Manchester Etihad Stadium on June 19 and then the London Stadium on June 22 and 23. Tickets are on sale this Friday (October 20) and you can get yours here.

The incident is alleged to have taken place on August 31. The band were arrested on September 9. The band were held at a Los Angeles jail and have recently been extradited to Spokane where they were charged with kidnapping in the first-degree. The Spokesman-Review reports that Michal Lysejko, Waclaw Kietlyka, Rafal Piotrowski and Hubert Wiecek have now been formally charged with rape.

Piotrowski and Kieltyka have been charged with second-degree rape, while Lysejko and Wiecek face a third-degree charge.

Posting on Facebook, Decapitated said: “Following extradition from California to Washington, the band has now been charged. We’d like to emphasise: the Spokane Police Department has pressed charges as procedural formality, without doing so, they would be forced to release the band – this is not a conviction or any indication of guilt or innocence.

“Once again, we ask that everyone wait for each party’s case to be presented and await the court’s decision. With that said, whilst cases are being prepared on both sides, some facts are indisputable at this point – that the original officer who took the complaint from the accuser stated, ‘I do not have probable cause that a rape occurred.’

“It’s taken a full 30 days to file charges, which is right up against the point at which the defendants would legally have had to be released.

“The band firmly refutes the allegations and are confident that once the facts and evidence have been seen and heard, they will be released and able to return home.

“Individuals who were present on the night in question with information about the case are asked to reach out to the defence lawyer, Steve Graham of Spokane, Washington.”

Taking to Facebook, Björk wrote: "I am inspired by the women everywhere who are speaking up online to tell about my experience with a Danish director.”

Though she didn’t name the director, Björk has only starred in one feature film – 2000’s Dancer In The Dark, which was directed by Lars von Trier. The pair famously clashed on set though the full details of the fall out have never been revealed.

She continued: "It was extremely clear to me when I walked into the actresses profession that my humiliation and role as a lesser sexually harassed being was the norm and set in stone with the director and a staff of dozens who enabled it and encouraged it.

"I became aware of that it is a universal thing that a director can touch and harass his actresses at will and the institution of film allows it."

The singer went on to say that whenever she turned down his advances, "He sulked and punished me and created for his team an impressive net of illusion where I was framed as the difficult one. Because of my strength, my great team and because I had nothing to [lose] having no ambitions in the acting world, I walked away from it and recovered in a years time. I am worried though that other actresses working with the same man did not."

She concluded her statement saying: “Let’s hope this statement supports the actresses and actors all over.

“Let’s stop this.

“There is a wave of change in the world”

Angus has bought into a cattle farm in a sub-tropical paradise in northern New South Wales close to the border of Queensland. It's somewhere he settled for six months after finishing touring the self-titled album that Rick Rubin produced. It's there he found time to create music with his other band - the psychedelic storytelling project Dope Lemon - and craft the massive new Angus and Julia Stone album, Snow.

Banana plantations, the shark infested Pacific Ocean, and long roads that cut through verdant agricultural land are his surrrounds. Just off one of these stretches of tarmac - and not too far out of the metropolitan Byron Bay - is Angus' home. With dogs, horses and commercial livestock around, it's an unsassuming, modest location for a rock star to live. The sound of cycades and cows are a far cry from the bustling urban terrain that has dominated the background to his movements for the best part of the last ten years. As a touring musician he lived in London, New York and LA over the years.

But this modesty of the farm seems to suit Angus. The Sydney raised 31-year-old's past two albums with his sister may have been to number one - and this latest one went to number two in his country - yet his ego seems very unaffected. The singer comes across very down to earth: he's softly spoken, unshaven, and his jacket - nice as it is - is falling to bits. Moreover, one of the key instruments on his album is a knackered old organ with preset beats that he got for 150 dollars; and a few years ago he spent a lot of time living in a hut on the side of a swamp in Byron that a backpacker can rent for 20 dollars a night. He seems caring, too, he has brought his girlfriend along for and his sister's brief visit to Europe ahead of the tour next month - and they're planning a stop in the Medtierranean on the way back to Australia. She flicks through flight options as Angus turns his whole attention to talk about Snow; an album free from - as mentioned - the pressure of time.

"You must love it!?" I ask. "Surely, this is what you've spent your life reaching towards - a studio with no one on your back. What enables you to have that freedom? The label aren't breathing down your neck?

"The labels don’t ever know we’re making music," he answers. "We just deliver a finished product - artwork and everything - then we hand it over and do licensing deals. It’s cleaner that way." His answer affirms my romanticised view of an artist holed up with a monofocus, and determination to achieve greatness no matter how long it takes. Further emphaising his indie credentials, he recalls just how much control they have regained with their artform:

"It's come full circle. When Julia and I first started it was just us in our Dad’s garage with some friends who knew how to record who made our first EP. " Nostalgically, and showing a genuine sense of appreciation for their staggering recording history, he adds: "We worked with all the big producers and these amazing beauitfiul studios, and we’ve come back to doing it ourselves in a way it’s getting back-to-basics." (Those words are roll of his tongue without ego nor much preference, he's evidently open to what works best at the time and appreciates what's been before.)

So how basic is it? Who is the procucer? "Yeah... it’s funny...producing... the idea of producing it changes. You can have some guy at the back dropping subtle hints: he's a producer. I think everyone in the room is a producing. "Yeah even the guy making tea," I quip. "yeah," he laughs, "sure."

Collaboration is infact very central to everything Snow is about. He wasn't as isolated as you'd suspect from hearing he sought a rural life. There's a vibrant social scene in Byron Bay, it's a "transient hub" he tells me. You have nights out drinking where you can see Bonnie "Prince" Billie and Black Keys for 50 bucks and great places to drink beers such as the Arts Factory, where he lived six or seven years ago in between places. Friends visiting from all over would pop in at all hours whilst he was recording Snow, and add to the atmosphere of the record.

The collaboration that's most central to the new album, though, is, of course, the one with Julia - and things appear to be in better health than ever there. In 2011 - just when they had 'made it' in the music industry - the siblings parted ways with no intention of making music together again. The separation was only until Rick Rubin - who adores them - brought them back together for their self-titled record, released in 2014.

Of course, after finishing that album cycle - with cracks in the relationship from before - the question of whether they'd consider going their seperate ways once again remained. But Rubin certainly healed any rift with a method for them to work together. Angus proceeds to explain: "What’s unique about it is we actually wrote the whole record together." With Rick Rubin we wrote together for the first time but only on a few songs. Before I’d bring my song, Julia would work on it seperately, we were almost disjointed but still going together."

This new, more co-operative way is certainly an apprach that works well for them. Snow is a masterful long playing record that feels like a complete body of work. It's one you can truly cherish from start to finish like a classic record. Sonically, it's more timeless than anything they've ever done before as it seems they were firing from all cylinders in the studio. And - it almost goes without saying - vocally it's a feast for the ears: Julia has a falsetto that's otherworldy, beautiful and crystalline'; Angus' is slightly rugged and soaked in 60s psych pop like Simon and Garfunkel, and has a peppering of Springsteen or Kurt Vile.

Despite some retro nods, it also manages to sounds distinct and original. You can him bearing his soul without ever being overbearing. It's applying restraint whilst having the oaky tones of a classic singer songwriter that make him great.

And the guitars sound brilliant and he tells me what ones were used: "I used a 1973 Gibson LS-5. It was Keith Richards’ guitar that he’d used in the studio. A 68 Tele that was my dad's'. I’ve never seena tele that fucking amazing ever - in all the bands no ones got that guitar. I've also got this Airline, the thing’s a fucking dream. I've got a '59 Gibson acoustic. They're all dreamy, they look like Cadillac’s, proper!

Nice guitars that certainly help make Snow sound brilliant. So why Snow? There could be a number of reasons but one of them seems to relate to the days that led to the decision to go and make another album with his sister.

"We were on a break and Julia and I got a call to play this festival in Switzerland. We hadn’t been playing for two years but made an exception for this one as it sounded cool. We flew over there in this big beautiful tent in the valley of where the Matterhorn is. It’s pure magic. The locals offered to have us for another week and we went heli boarding just did mad climbs. During that time in the snow, Julia and I sat down and talked about what it would be to get together and make another record. I guess that was sort of the start of what this record was. Looking back at it now it was a really good call, we had some good times," he smiles.

What's with the extreme sports? Well, it's a lifelong hobby and one that's inextricable from his first embryonic shoot as a songwriter: "The reason why I got into the songwriting was for one thing I had a snowboarding accident," he says. "I fucked my back and was in bed for a long time and just write songs nothing else to do really, except smoke weed and write music."

As well as being into sport he was quite an industrious young person: "Me and a friend would write songs and write covers. Dad was a wedding singer and he had a band. They would take us to weddings. Growing up seeing that you get to see the business side of the band. And it’s a positive message to show it’s cool to share what’s going on through your music."

His family actually had a very important bearing on his future in music as a whole. He recalls his aunt's pivotal role. She worked - and still works - in the music indsutry and she would give her promo cd's to them at Christmas. "She was the cool auntie," he says. When the siblings got older she recognised a talent in Angus and Julia. Auntie began managing them and he bestows her with keeping his music taste in check: "She heard us play and she hooked us up with some good connections. And yeah from there we had cool people around us that listen to rad bands and you just get guided well if you’re doing the right thing."

With their manager helping propell them forward, Angus and Julia Stone started germinating the idea of breaking internationally, and quickly outgrew only playing domestic shows. But he was there regularly enough - and playing young enough - to recall what Sydney was like before the police clamped down on its nightlife by introducing laws that meant live music venues closed at 10pm instead of 11pm.

"It was just too may fights in Sydney, people were getting hit they started to blame it on people staying out too late and put curfews on everything. A lot of the music scene got affected by people fighting."

London was the first place they left to. Aged 20 we wanted to expand our horizons: "Australia is a small country – it’s a big fucking country – but the circuit and scene only throws so far. Once you’ve been around people get a bit like oh yeah I’ve seen that…"

It was good fortune that someone had belief: "Financially a guy called David Boyd took us under his wing. When we were little kids he gave us a bunch of pounds to be here. That was a key reason why we came here. He worked for Rough Trade and he discovered Richard Ashcroft. We got a call from him, when we were in Australia when we were 19. He was like we'd love you guys to be over here. Can we get you over here and possibly make a record?"

That must have been freaky? "Yeah it was freaky. Then he introduced us to Fran Healy we  made a record in his joint. We would write separately and collaborate and Fran was adding piano and hanging out. We got to meet some cool people with Fran. He’s such a great songwriter I say and plays a beautiful Guild acoustic. "Yeah we used that Guild on pretty much the whole record."

Despite seemingly hitting the ground running, it wasn't all roses upon arrival in the UK about ten years ago."It was miserable ey. Fucking hell it’s pretty miserable. Coming over you’re like shit, 'you guys do it pretty rough'. It took a whilst to understand that dreariness. You guys turn it into something really positive the the pub scene is fucking so gold it just took a whilst to figure that out because no one told us."

Where did he live in London? "We had a cool apartment on London Fields.and it was cheap. "What was Hackney like back then? It's become a lot more gentrified since over the last ten years.

"It was super raw and everyone was stoked.. lots of young crew having a good time. We were starting to get signed and play festivals. In terms of the bands up around the same time, he remembers Alberta Cross since they toured together. The singer praises the eclecticism of London at the time: " It was weird lots of Simon and Garfunkle sort of bands and people were trying to think about what style to latch on to. Now everything has really bottlenecked style wise. I feel as a culture everyone knows what's next. Back then it was a bit more confused or eclectic.

So what city is next? Does he plan on leaving the farm? "Yeah I'd love to live in Berlin or Amsterdam, I like to make records in different places. He also opens up about his ambitions as a producer. He has the skils because  "Julia and I we engineered on this record (Snow) we are starting to understand Pro Tools pretty well.

"Over the years you're watching the enginner, eventually you're like *smack* get out of the way. [...] I’d like to help out a young crew who haven’t got their shit together. If they’ve got something cool I’d like to help them out.

Afterall, he had someone help him out by flying him to London, so his alturistic inclinations for the future seem genuine. "That’s priceless, if someone comes along and helps you like that."

There's little doubt that with the life he's had an Dope Lemon and his Angus and Julia Record sounding so good that his influence on the future generation could be a very positive one, so we're excited what his next moves will produce. But for now we've plenty of time to enjoy the tour this winter in the UK and hear band at the peak of their career.

Angus and Julia Stone are on tour. Check here for tickets

07 November London O2 Academy Brixton
08 November Manchester O2 Ritz Manchester

There’s a surging atmosphere inside The Forum as the band storm straight into opener ‘Ultraviolet’, setting a tectonic pace that doesn’t let up until vocalist and guitarist Matt Thomson’s piano ballad solo of ‘Palace’ at the beginning of their encore. All of the hits are there; ‘Stay With Me’ evokes one of the most boisterous reactions of the evening, ‘Little Something’ is somewhat sultry but most definitely scorching and ‘In My Mind’ bounces off the walls threatening to induce mass hysteria amongst groups of friends united by their appreciation of the music. There’s even a mash up of their own songs as ‘Black Magic’ bleeds so seamlessly into ‘Millions (The Party)’ and then back into the former.

As ‘Something In The Water’ rockets around the room, the North London venue pauses before the encore. Groups of lads belt out the hook to ‘Junk Food Forever’, chanting like they’re at a football match, and it’s a chorus that continues long after the four-piece close the set with that very song.

The Amazons are a band that have always perfected the knack of making a dingy venue feel like a stadium with their music, but now at their biggest London headline show to date, it seems those colossal capacity rooms are edging ever closer.

The Amazons played:

'Ultraviolet'
'Burn My Eyes'
'Stay With Me'
'Raindrops'
'Nightdriving'
'Holy Roller'
'Black Magic'
'Millions (The Party)'
'Little Something'
'In My Mind'
'Something In The Water'
'Palace'
'Junk Food Forever'

The album also includes two brand new tracks, I Love You But I’m Lost and Stay, which comprise the duo’s first new material since their 2004 album Everybody Loves A Happy Ending.

I Love You But I’m Lost is the lead single from the release and available to listen to now. A slick, arena-ready pop effort, laced in licks with a distinct eye on continuing mainstream appeal.

Tears For Fears have been trying to cement their modern relevance throughout this year, and were guests of The Killers during their mammoth Hyde Park show as part of this year’s British Summer Time.

That show followed a sold-out co-headline tour with fellow old-timers Daryl Hall and John Oates, while the pair were also part of this year’s colossal Rock In Rio line-up.

They’ll be performing a special one-off show at the Royal Albert Hall in London at the end of this month. The show is slated for October 27, with tickets sold out.

Having sold over 30 million albums in their career, central duo Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith initially disbanded in 1989 after the release of their third album Seeds Of Love. Orzabal continued the project throughout the 90s, with his original bandmate returning for the 2004 release.