(Pictured above - Imelda May, Miranda Sawyer and Becky Allen)

Universal Music teamed up with the National Portrait Gallery this week to provide an exclusive insight into the music business with Rebecca Allen, President of Decca Records and singer-songwriter Imelda May, one of biggest-selling UK female artists of last year.

The discussion, chaired by writer and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer, focussed on advice for people wanting to break into the music industry on or off-stage. Topics ranged from getting your foot in the door and why it’s never too late to make it on stage.

The audience, which included young people from the likes of ELAM and the Roundhouse as well those already in careers looking for a change, were treated to Imelda’s first-hand experience of making it in music and Rebecca’s insights on the range of job opportunities available in the industry. She also encouraged attendees to check out Universal Music’s industry leading internship scheme.

Before the session concluded with networking and a meet and greet, the speakers were asked to give one piece of advice on breaking into the industry. Rebecca talked about the importance of “grabbing every opportunity no matter how big or small”, while Imelda encouraged the audience to, “do something you love, start from the bottom up and have fun with it”.

Talking after the event, Rebecca said, “Events like this are so important in helping to provide people with a clearer path into the music industry, so it was brilliant to be involved. Like Imelda, I didn’t realise this job existed when I was at school, so I hope we’ve been able to shed light on some of the exciting opportunities that are out there in the world of music.”   

The event formed part of the Mayor of London’s Sounds Like London festival, a month long celebration of the capital’s grassroots venues, up-and-coming talent and music heritage. In the year of the centenary of the women’s vote, the festival also highlights the important contribution made by women in the music industry.

The National Portrait Gallery are also marking the centenary with a #RebelWomen season, which includes a special gallery trail exploring the extraordinary achievements of women from the past. Becky joined a number of leading women, including Miranda Hart and Gillian Wearing in selecting portraits of inspirational women to feature in the trail, which runs until the end of the year.

Capitol Records have left no stone unturned in engaging 5 Seconds of Summer’s devoted global fanbase in the run up to the release of their third studio album, Youngblood.

Released today, Youngblood follows the band’s self-titled 2014 debut and 2015’s Sounds Good Feels Good. The album’s first single, Want You Back debuted at number one on iTunes in over 18 countries earlier this year and the album’s title track has become another hit, with worldwide streams already surpassing 15m.

The Australian group have been documenting the preparation for the release via their YouTube channel, where their viral Cocktail Chats have proved a hit. Tonight, they will celebrate the release in New York with an Apple Music screening of their short film On the Record: 5 Seconds of Summer - which offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the new album as well as a special performance.

Capitol head of digital marketing Maddy Smith says, “5SOS have always been a digital first band. They grew their fan base online and we were lucky to still have an incredibly active and engaged audience across their socials as we come in to album three. We didn’t want to take this for granted however, so through activations like a global Snapchat lens, which reached 262m people, an always on social content strategy and a vertical video on Spotify we have been super serving our fan base with continual content.

“With the focus track from the album, Youngblood, currently sitting at number 10 on the global Spotify charts we are excited that this band are reaching outside of their core fan base with what’s setting up to be a global smash. This is only the start of the story for album three!”

The band have been in London this week to promote the album release, appearing on This Morning and in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge.

Back with another summer smash, Virgin EMI’s hit maker and global phenomenon Jonas Blue has returned with his highly anticipated new single Rise, featuring Island’s American duo Jack & Jack.

The bouncy track released last month was the fastest-grower in this week’s single chart, finishing the week at number 17. Songwriting dream team Sam Romans and Ed Drewett, who co-wrote his massive 2017 hit Mama, collaborated with Jonas once again for this summer single release. V

irgin EMI marketing manager Ian Carew says, “Jonas knows the exact ingredients for a global smash record as the launch of Rise has proven once again. The single is one of his fastest growing hits to date and looks set to repeat the success of Mama last year. On top of that he has the lead song in third instalment of the Hotel Transylvania 3 movie and has announced an Ibiza residency, his own imprint label via Virgin EMI and a publishing company.”

Blue began work on Rise after hearing Island-signed Jack & Jack interviewed on an LA radio station. The duo are a phenomenon in their own right: having risen to fame on Vine before turning to music, the childhood friends have a combined 85m followers on social media. The new single was performed for the first time at Capital’s Summertime Ball where Jack & Jack were amongst Blue’s host of special guests including Raye and Demi Lovato.

With over 4bn streams and 25m global single sales, Blue has gathered 39 platinum certifications worldwide since the release of his breakthrough track Fast Car two years ago. His success has taken him on recent tours of Asia and Brazil alongside fulfilling remix duties for the likes of Sigrid and James Bay.

Blue will be taking Ibiza by storm this summer, hosting Electronic Nature at one of the island’s premier clubbing destinations.

Details of his new label and publishing company, Blue Future, will be announced soon.

Having guided The Vamps to become one the UK’s most successful bands, Virgin EMI have pulled out all the stops for tomorrow’s release of their new album.
 
Tomorrow’s launch is for the “Day Edition” of the Night & Day album, the record having been divided into two parts to fulfil fans’ demand for new music. The first instalment, The Night Edition, was released a year ago and became The Vamps’ first UK number one album and was an iTunes Top 10 in more than 20 countries.
 
The latest release includes a concert DVD and 10 new songs including the singles Personal and Too Good To Be True. The album will also include eight bonus tracks from the Night Edition including the global smash hit All Night, which has notched up over 343m streams on Spotify.

The British four-piece released their latest single, Just My Type, earlier this week alongside the accompanying music video which has already surpassed 818k views on YouTube. To promote the album release, the band are visiting six cities around the UK for in-store signings and exclusive performances.
 
Virgin EMI marketing manager David Balls says, “Over the past four years, the Vamps have built an incredibly passionate and engaged fanbase across the globe. They have managed to successfully navigate a streaming and physical market, so focus has been on capitalising on both in release week. Alongside Spotify listening parties and an Amazon Music takeover, the band will be also be meeting fans all week visiting HMVs up and down the country.”
 
Following a US promo tour which included performances on some of the biggest TV shows in America, the band have announced their Four Corners UK & Ireland 2019 tour. Kicking off next April, they’ll be joined by pop trio New Hope Club, who are signed to their own label Steady Records.

MAMMA MIA! Here We Go Again The Movie Soundtrack has been whetting the appetite of eager audiences a week before the release of the highly-anticipated sequel to the smash-hit MAMMA MIA! The Movie.

Already riding high in the album charts following its release last week by Polydor, the soundtrack was produced and arranged by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and features 18 classics performed by the film’s all-star cast including seven of ABBA's nine number one hit singles.

The sequel sees Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper and Christine Baranski reprising their roles from the first movie, with Lily James and Cher joining the cast. All except Julie Walters were in Hammersmith on Monday night for the film’s world premiere at the Eventim Apollo.

So far, the film has had an impressive response from the critics, with the Guardian, Times and Telegraph agreeing it is irresistible, the latter declaring it “feelgood gold”.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is in cinemas tomorrow in the US and the UK, 10 years to the week after the original film's release. That film’s soundtrack went on to sell more than 5m copies worldwide and was an Top 10 album in more than 20 countries, including the US where it reached number one and sold 1.7m copies.

Following the release of their recent single Cut and Run, British duo Slaves have been gearing up for the release of their third album Acts Of Fear And Love on August 17 through AMF/Virgin EMI.

The duo have been sharing some typically offbeat content ahead of the release, as AMF marketing manager Connie Meade explains: “Slaves never disappoint in coming up with something interesting and engaging and on this campaign they have delivered a bumper crop! From the dance routine in the Cut And Run video with its accompanying hilarious dance tutorial to the continuation of the story of Isaac leaving the band to pursue a career in dance and Laurie calling on some indie drumming legends (including Dave Rowntree from Blur and our very own Ted Cockle!) to fill his boots in the Chokehold video. They can always be relied on to cause noise and create conversation making them a real joy.”

Posting on Twitter, Slaves revealed the tracklist for the album last month as well as previewing the three new songs from the record - Chokehold, The Lives They Wish They Had and Photo Opportunity - during their Mad Cool festival performance in Madrid. To celebrate the upcoming launch, they have released new instalments of their quirky web series Slaves TV where fans can already get immersed and watch a spoof behind-the-scenes making of the album featuring Laurie’s son baby Bart as the difficult producer. The team at AMF/Virgin EMI maximised on organic material to re-engage the band’s unique fanbase, using vertical cuts of the videos across socials.

Having previously won two NME Music Video of the Year awards, their latest offerings for both Cut and Run and Chokehold look set to carry on the tradition.

Following their Mercury-nominated top 10 2015 album Are You Satisfied? and 2016’s top 10 album Take Control, the band have opened themselves up to new territory. The album’s title is inspired by a comment once made by drummer Isaac Holman's college teacher - "There's no such thing as hate - just acts of fear and love." 

For all their album campaigns, the band have returned to the venues where they made their name. For this release, they drew on their roles as ambassadors for the Music Venues Trust to pick out four small independent venues across the length and breadth of the UK where they played intimate shows to fans. The sold out I Would Drive 500 Miles and I Would Drive 500 More and Then Drive 126 More Tour took them to Colchester, Pontypool, Dunfermline and Dover in July. They will also play 13 intimate in-store shows in record stores across the country ahead of a just-announced UK and Ireland tour which will include a show at Alexandra Palace; their largest headline venue to date. 

Jeff Goldblum has been jazzing up London this week, surprising commuters with a performance on one of the public pianos at St Pancras Station, to mark the announcement of his debut album, The Capitol Studios Sessions.

As well as his public piano performance, which was combined with some entertaining improvised comedy, Jeff visited Decca's new King’s Cross offices and picked up a GQ award on Wednesday night. He and his band, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, will return to London in November for their first UK live shows, performing at Ronnie Scott’s and Cadogan Hall, before taking the show to venues in Paris and Berlin.

Goldblum, who has been playing the piano since he was a child, has performed with his jazz band at venues in New York and Los Angeles over the past few decades. The atmosphere and energy of these shows is captured perfectly on his new album, out November 9.

Decca senior director of A&R and creative strategy Tom Lewis says, “Jeff Goldblum is possibly the most charismatic man in the world! He absolutely radiates star power and he leaves happiness in his wake. His visit to the building created the most fabulous buzz. What a way to christen our new offices. I love that people in the building suddenly found themselves in a lift with Jeff Goldblum.

“He's created an album that captures this magic. My advice to everyone is to get home, pour themselves a generous glass of red, press play and spend a very entertaining evening with the great man and his band.”

The album repertoire includes favourite 60s jazz numbers Cantaloupe Island and I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free), the 1940s classic Straighten Up & Fly Right with guest vocals from Decca’s own Imelda May and My Baby Just Cares For Me featuring American songstress Haley Reinhart. The band are also joined by the extraordinary Grammy-nominated trumpeter Till Brönner.

The stand-out performer from the 2018 Last Night Of The Proms last weekend was the Decca-signed 20-year-old saxophonist Jess Gillam.
 
Jess first made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall 12 months ago and returned as part of the BBC Young Musician 40th Anniversary Prom in July.
 
Last Saturday she played Michael Nyman's If (from The Diary of Anne Frank) at Proms in the Park in Hyde Park, before dashing to the Last Night of the Proms Royal Albert Hall for a spritely performance of Scaramouche, bringing the audience to their feet. Jess released the two tracks, her debut recordings, the day before to coincide with the big events.
 
Decca lined up a lively socials plan for the day in collaboration with the Royal Albert Hall and BBC Proms. Jess took over the Royal Albert Hall Instagram account and posted her journey to the venue on her personal IGTV. The team also captured a behind-the-scenes time-lapse of Jess’ journey from the stage at Proms in the Park to the stage at the Last Night of the Proms.
 
Jess’s solo performance has been widely praised by Proms viewers and press, further boosting her profile beyond her burgeoning concert career. Jess often appears extensively in recital throughout the UK and performs with orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Manchester Camerata.
 
Decca classical product manager Rebecca Hutter says, “We’re hugely excited about Jess at Decca. She’s amazingly dynamic when she plays, has an infectious personality, and is also a charismatic presenter and communicator. The responses to her performances at the Proms were overwhelmingly positive and her enjoyment while playing shines through! She’s a brilliant role model for young musicians and we’re all looking forward to working with her on her upcoming recordings.”
 
Jess became the first sax player to be signed to Decca Classics after catching the public’s eye during BBC Young Musician 2016.. In June, she made her international debut with the Swedish Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and upcoming appearances include concerts with the L’Auditori Barcelona (Spain), Argovia Philharmonic (Switzerland) and a recital at the acclaimed Philip’s Collection series in Washington DC.
 
Hooked on saxophone from a young age, Jess is keen to give people from all backgrounds access to classical music and has set up her own concert series in Ulverston, bringing world-renowned musicians from across the world to her hometown.  She is a champion of new music for saxophone and there will be a number of new commissions written for her over the coming years.
 

Take That are celebrating their 30th anniversary with the help of Polydor, marking the milestone with a re-imagined greatest hits album, Odyssey, as well as a huge UK tour.

The new album will be released on November 23,  but to coincide with the announcement today, fans were treated to a re-worked version of the band’s 1993 UK number one Pray.

Odyssey is a celebration of both Take That’s past and present.  Produced by Stuart Price, the album features tracks that span all three decades of the band’s history, a time in which they have achieved six number one albums and sold over 45m records, from their debut Take That And Party right up to the present day. The brilliantly reimagined versions of Take That classics gives fans the opportunity to hear the songs as they’ve never been heard before.

In addition to these reinterpretations, the 27-track album features three new tracks and some exciting collaborations.

Since their official anniversary is in 2019, Take That will kick off their tour across the UK and Europe in April next year, where they’ll be joined by special guest Rick Astley. Tickets go on sale next Friday.

(Photo credit Jill Furmanovsky)

The wait for the highly anticipated new album from Nile Rodgers & Chic ended on Friday with the release of It’s About Time, the group’s first new album in over 25 years.

Released by Virgin EMI, the album was recorded in cities across the world although it began, ended and was mixed and mastered at Abbey Road Studios where Nile is now Chief Creative Advisor.

Having made Abbey Road his creative base in the UK,  Nile used the studios to record a wide range of contemporary collaborations for the album, which also features Elton John, Emeli Sandé and Lady Gaga.

Nile says, “Right now the world feels the same way as when Chic started. Chic promised good times, a way out, a new world even when things looked bleak. In the middle of chaos, certain songs can make you feel triumphant. I’m not denying things have gone apocalyptic, but we might be safest on the dance floor with the likes of Cosha, Mura Masa, Stefflon Don and Vic Mensa”.

As the co-founder of Chic, Nile pioneered a new musical language with chart-topping hits like Le Freak and Everybody Dance, even sparking the advent of hip-hop with Good Times. His work in Chic and his production work for artists like David Bowie, Diana Ross and Madonna has helped sell over 500m albums and 75m singles worldwide, while his innovative, trendsetting collaborations with Daft Punk, Avicii, Sigala, Disclosure, and Sam Smith have kept him at the vanguard of contemporary music.

Following a festival-filled summer with performances across the world, Nile and Chic will kick off their UK headline tour this December.

(Dave pictured right)

Dave has smashed chart records this week with new track Funky Friday, as the first UK hip-hop artist to achieve a number one.

Following the track’s release by Neighbourhood/Universal last Thursday, Dave has reached new heights and sits alongside Drake as one of only two artists to debut at number one in 2018.

His first new track in six months, Dave’s collaboration with fellow rapper Fredo has topped numerous playlists and its accompanying cinematic music video has notched up over 3.2m YouTube views. 

Funky Friday skyrocketed and dethroned Sam Smith and Calvin Harris’s Promises after a five-week reign, amassing 6.7m streams in just one week. 

Dave, the 20-year-old who earlier this year became the youngest winner of the Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song with his politically-charged track Question Time, will be embarking on his European tour next month. He told OfficialCharts.com, “I’m speechless right now. I just want to say thank you to everyone that’s helped us get this Number 1. I can’t even explain to you how grateful I am.”

Virgin EMI are delivering exclusive material spanning Queen's entire career as part of the soundtrack album to the Bohemian Rhapsody feature film. 
 
Premiering on 23 October, the film celebrates the rise of the band through their iconic songs and revolutionary sound. 

The key task for the team behind the soundtrack was sourcing the most suitable versions of the band’s songs, especially live performances to create a soundtrack album to stand on its own and underscore key moments in the screenplay. The album features live tracks and new versions of old favourites, including some of their biggest hits and 11 all-time anthems that reached #1 around the world. Tracks from Queen's legendary performance at the historic Live Aid concert in 1985 are being released for the first time, among other rare gems from the band’s catalogue.
 
Virgin EMI officially announced the track listing on September 5, to coincide with what would have been Freddie Mercury’s 72nd birthday.

Virgin EMI MD Clive Cawley says, “The greatest frontman of all time from one of the biggest bands of all time has finally being given the Hollywood treatment and both the film and the soundtrack deliver on every level. I’d trade in ever year of my obscenely long career to have spent one night on the tiles with the great man.”

With record sales estimated at 300m and counting, Queen remain rock favourites whose catalogue of songs continues to thrill fans of all ages.

Ellie Goulding is fast adding to her 13 billion streams with the release of single Close To Me, her first new music for Polydor in two years.

The collaborative new release follows her last 2015 album Delirium which saw the hit single Love Me Like You Do become her most downloaded and streamed song, clocking up 84m plays on audio and video streaming services. Her incredible career to date has seen her take home two BRIT Awards, sell over 14m albums, 102m singles, and garner 14m Instagram followers.

The track is Goulding’s second collaboration with Diplo following their work in 2015 on Major Lazer‘s Powerful and pairs her vocals with verses from Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee.

Ellie cleared her Instagram page and teased fans with cartoon artwork a day prior to the release of the track, which amassed over 1.5m Spotify streams following its launch and was added straight to the Today’s Top Hits and Fresh & Chill Spotify playlists.

Polydor A&R manager Jamie Spinks says “Ellie is a flagship artist for Polydor. It’s really exciting to have her releasing music again after two years. The record with Diplo and Swae Lee is a great example of Ellie’s international breadth and consistent ability to be performing at the forefront of exciting music across multiple genres.”

Bouncing up the charts this week with the surprise release of her new single, Thank u, next, Ariana Grande is firmly back in the limelight after starring in her own hour-long BBC special last Thursday.

Ariana has been having a stellar few months thanks to the success of her fourth album Sweetener, which hit #1 in the UK album charts.

During Ariana Grande At The BBC, Billboard's newly-crowned Woman of the Year performed songs from Sweetener, as well as some of her biggest hits, accompanied by her band, an all-female 34-piece orchestra and 20-person choir.

Recorded live in front of a studio audience during a promotional trip in September, the show saw Ariana talk to Davina McCall about her music, life and career, following on from previous BBC music specials that have featured Sam Smith, Adele, Michael Buble and Harry Styles.

Ariana and Davina also touched upon last year's terrorist attack at Ariana’s concert in Manchester. She last appeared on BBC One when she headlined the One Love Manchester benefit concert which raised more than £10m to support the victims and their families.

Island’s senior TV promotions manager Tony Fletcher says, “Ariana’s performance in the BBC special was exceptional. And we have had a fantastic reaction, seeing new album Sweetener return to the Top 10 with an 80% uplift this week and previous albums all up considerably too.”

With his shows selling out in seconds, Virgin EMI are anticipating an eager response to the release of Paul McCartney’s 17th solo album on September 7.

Sharing a title with one of Paul’s paintings, Egypt Station is the first full album of all-new McCartney music since 2013’s international chart-topping New. The album follows two of its tracks, I Don’t Know and Come On To Me, being released as double A-sides as a celebration of his 76th birthday last month.

True to the inspiration behind its title, Egypt Station has a travelogue, concept album vibe. Between the opening and closing instrumentals, Station I and Station II, each song finds Paul capturing a place or moment before taking the listener to the next destination.

Confirmation of Egypt Station’s release puts an end to speculation that began with the whiting out of Paul’s Instagram account as he turned up at various landmarks in Liverpool. The excitement reached its peak when he appeared on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, the segment included his surprise gig at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Pub where new track Come On To Me was debuted.

Virgin EMI MD Clive Cawley says, “Having worked with the great man across his previous four studio albums we’re no strangers to his greatness but this time around Macca has delivered what he loosely refers to as a “concept album” using the format of the classic LP to dictate the length and depth of the overall album. From what my untrained ears have heard, it’s feasibly his most excellent and concise slab of audio delight in many, many years. To be involved again with arguably the greatest songwriter of this or any generation makes us feel warm and fuzzy all over”.

Egypt Station’s finishing touches were completed at Abbey Road Studios, with Paul returning last Tuesday to re-create the original Abbey Road album cover before performing a secret gig for friends and family. As well as having the Beatles icon back in the building, Abbey Road have been honouring the 50th anniversary of the band’s landmark film, Yellow Submarine, and have created a range of newmerchandise.

Last week Paul was also at LIPA in Liverpool for a Facebook live Q&A with Jarvis Cocker where he announced a secret show at the city’s Cavern Club for the following day. As the birthplace of Beatlemania and where the band played almost 300 times in the early 1960s, it was no surprise to see fans queuing for hours on Thursday to see the icon return to the club.

McCartney is set to play three dates in Liverpool, Glasgow and London this December in support of the album release.

After a huge 2018 for both Sam Smith and Normani, Capitol are starting the new year with the release of their joint single, Dancing With A Stranger.

Since the release was announced last Friday, Capitol have been encouraging fans to pre-save the track, teasing the music video and single artwork on socials and arranging a huge billboard takeover at Piccadilly Circus.

The team began warming up the fanbase with hidden clues in one of Sam’s Instagram posts - on a shelf behind him there were books titled ‘Normani’, ‘Dancing With A Stranger’ and lyrics from the track. The post had eagle-eyed fans in a frenzy and quickly prompted speculations of a possible single.

The collaboration, a slice of R&B infused pop, came about through an encounter for the pair in a studio in LA and follows a stellar past year for each of them.

Dancing With a Stranger is the first new music from Sam in 2019 and comes hot on the heels of Promises, his global hit with Calvin Harris which stormed the charts last summer, spending six weeks at number one in the UK.

Sam has spent the past year touring the world following the release of his sophomore album The Thrill Of It All, selling over 1m tickets across100 shows. He will be flying out to South America this spring for Lollapalooza before heading over to South Africa for a string of shows in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

New to the solo scene, following her global success with multi-platinum girl group Fifth Harmony, Sony-signed Normani released her debut solo single Love Lies in February last year. This March she will join Ariana Grande on the North American leg of her Sweetener world tour.

Forty years after the seminal British ska-punk band formed, UMC and Island Records have released a new album from The Specials, their first new music in 38 years.

The 10-song record was produced by Specials founding members Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Horace Panter alongside Danish producer Torp Larsen and is the first new material from the group since their 1981 number one single Ghost Town. 2019 also marks 10 years since the band came back together for their 2009 reunion tour.

The first single from the album was Vote For Me which had its first play with Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 6 Music in December. Last week, the group gave another glimpse into the album with new track 10 Commandments, which features viral activist Saffiyah Khan. As the NME declare in their 4* review, “Brexit chaos. A near-decade of Tory austerity. Poverty, racism and inequality on the rise. A country irreparably divided. Time to send out the Two-Tone Bat-Signal and call in The Specials”.

As true innovators of the punk era, the Specials began the British ska revival, combining it with a political and social attitude. The band debuted with their single Gangsters, which scored a UK Top 10 in 1979.

The group performed on The One Show and on Soccer AM last weekend and tonight they will perform live from The 100 Club, headlining BBC Radio 6 Music’s independent venues celebratory week promoted by Fred Perry, which will be broadcast at 6pm on Steve Lamacq’s show.

UMC senior marketing manager Sue Armstrong says, “The Specials are legends, it’s been 38 years but it’s like they’ve never broken stride. There is a genuine excitement to this record that you couldn’t manufacture if you tried. They’re back!”

The Specials will take to the road in the UK and abroad throughout 2019 in support of the new album.

Keeping fans on their toes, Island are pulling out all the stops for the launch of Sigrid’s debut album, Sucker Punch, on March 8.

Sucker Punch has been featured by Billboard as one of the Most Anticipated Albums of 2019 and the latest single to be lifted from the record, Don’t Feel Like Crying, has already been her biggest radio launch to date. The track earned Sigrid a spot as Scott Mills’ BBC Radio 1 Tune Of The Week and Arjan Timmerman’s Apple Music #BopOfTheWeek immediately after its release as well as making it to #3 on Spotify’s The Pop List.

Don’t Feel Like Crying follows directly on from the album’s title track, which helped Sigrid to performances on Jools Holland and the Jonathan Ross Show and amassed over 7m YouTube views.

Last Friday, the team at Island set up a pre-release album showcase at O’Meara, inviting friends and fans to watch a Q&A and performance of five unheard tracks from the album. Guests could get involved by creating their own Don’t Feel Like Crying single covers, personalized tote bags and pin badges.

Island also pulled together a Vevo LIFT campaign where Sigrid gives a stripped back performance of Don’t Feel Like Crying and chats about song writing and her vision of the future, whilst Studio Island produced a thumb-stopping creative that broke the fourth wall.

After performing at various music festivals and events in 2018, not forgetting her headline show at O2 Academy Brixton at the end of last year, Sigrid will venture on the biggest support of her career with George Ezra in March, a tour that includes two dates at London’s O2 Arena.

Island are taking the reins for the release of the Wild Rose film official soundtrack on April 12, but not without the help of the Globe team who have steered the music from script to screen.

Directed by BAFTA nominee Tom Harper, Wild Rose is an uplifting story with an original soundtrack about family and dreams. It had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last September and is due to hit the screens in the UK on April 12.

The standout track Country Girl was released on Friday after getting its first play on Bob Harris’ BBC Radio 2 Country show last Thursday.  The song, which was written by Primal Scream who released it as a single in 2006, soundtracks a key moment in the film and is performed by fast-rising actress Jessie Buckley. 

Jessie found the writing and recording experience for the film so rewarding that she has since performed the songs live and will be playing shows with full band following its release. 

Starring alongside Julie Walters and Sophie Okonedo, Buckley plays Rose-Lynn Harlan, a fresh-out-of-prison single mother of two, bursting with raw talent and a dream to leave Glasgow for Nashville to make it as a country star. Her performance has already impressed audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival.

Globe, via their Soundtrack and Score set-up, were integral to the creation of the soundtrack.  The team began working on the project from the script stage with the film’s producer Faye Ward and went on to work closely with director Tom Harper, writer Nicole Taylor and Jessie Buckley to develop a music project which was true to the ethos of the film.
 
This progressed into the making of the soundtrack in close collaboration with Island Records and music consultant and executive producer Ian Brown.
 
Globe President Marc Robinson says, “We are very excited that this wonderful film is being unleashed on the world. It is the most collaborative film and music project we have worked on yet – we are extremely proud of the results.  Working with Island and Ian Brown, and so closely with the filmmakers and Jessie Buckley has been brilliant. Jessie is total star and performs the songs like a world class artist.”

Formula 1 and The Chemical Brothers have teamed up for a unique brand collaboration, launching the fastest remix of all time to kick-start the 2019 F1 season.

Working with F1’s creative agency Wieden+Kennedy, Universal Music UK’s in-house creative agency Globe put forward new Chemical Brothers track We’ve Got To Try as the high-octane motif for F1’s 2019 World Championship, which starts on March 17 in Melbourne.

Long-time F1 fans known for pushing the limits through their music, the duo have produced a 15,000 beats-per-minute remix that matches the 15,000 revs-per-minute of an F1 car as well as echoing the iconic ‘neeeum’ sound of one racing past.

The groundbreaking, three-second WGTT15000BPM F1 NEEEUM MIX will become the sport’s sonic identity for the entire 2019 season and is available to stream from today. The original track is on The Chemical Brothers’ forthcoming new album No Geography, due for release on Virgin EMI on April 12, and the duo have been involved in a promotional video directed by Ninian Doff that tells a tale of heroic canine Girl the Dog and her mission to complete the impossible, including getting behind the wheel of an F1 car and commandeering a rocket into space.

“The engineering challenge of creating the fastest remix intrigued us as F1 fans and music producers,” says the duo’s Tom Rowlands. “It’s exciting to hear our music in the context of F1. The speed and intensity of F1 is a nice reflection of our music and live shows.”

Sarah Desmond, SVP Strategic Marketing & Partnerships at Globe, comments: “We have produced an exciting and innovative project and a world first. We are proud to have helped deliver this collaboration between The Chemical Brothers and Formula 1. It is a great example of how a team effort between our sync and partnership departments can deliver excellent work.”

The Chemical Brothers are continuing their collaboration with F1 as they have previously performed at multiple F1 events over the years. Ellie Norman, Director of Marketing & Communications of F1, said of the partnership: “As pioneering sound engineers, with music to match the speed and intensity of F1, there’s nobody better for us to partner with than The Chemical Brothers.”