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Black Sabbath are back! Kind of…

On February 5, it was announced that the heavy metal originators’ founding lineup will reunite for one last show this summer, following their retirement back in 2017. The one-day Back To The Beginning event will also feature the final solo performance from frontman Ozzy Osbourne, plus a support bill that includes a ‘who’s who’ of hard rock royalty.

As the metal world gears up for what could be the defining gig of this generation, we’ve prepared the essential Q&A so you know everything you need to about the extravaganza.

Why are Black Sabbath coming back?

Black Sabbath retired following an extensive farewell tour from 2016 to 2017. The shows featured three of the band’s four founding members – singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler – but not original drummer Bill Ward, who pulled out of the band several years earlier due to a contract dispute.

Last year, Osbourne said on his podcast The Madhouse Chronicles that Sabbath’s career felt “unfinished” because they didn’t bow out with Ward behind the kit. He called for a true original lineup reunion, and Iommi, Butler and even Ward all expressed interest in the idea over the following weeks. The comeback finally became official with Back To The Beginning’s announcement in February 2025.

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Are Black Sabbath retiring?

It certainly looks that way. From the moment Ozzy Osbourne started discussing a Black Sabbath reunion last year, the idea was for it to be a proper farewell with every founding member present. When Back To The Beginning was announced, it was promoted as the singer’s “final bow”, meaning it’s set to be his last time onstage both with Sabbath and as a solo performer.

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Why is Ozzy Osbourne retiring from live shows?

Ozzy Osbourne originally retired from touring in February 2023 and chalked the decision up to the knock-on effects of numerous surgeries, as well as his Parkinson’s disease.

“As you may all know, four years ago, this month, I had a major accident, where I damaged my spine,” The Prince Of Darkness wrote on social media. “My one and only purpose during this time has been to get back on stage.

“My singing voice is fine. However, after three operations, stem cell treatments, endless physical therapy sessions, and most recently groundbreaking Cybernics (HAL) Treatment, my body is still physically weak.”

As his wife and manager Sharon Osbourne recently explained, the singer’s health issues have only worsened since then. She told The Sun that he can no longer walk as a result of Parkinson’s, despite his voice still being in top form. This has doubtlessly all played into Ozzy’s decision to retire from the stage after Back To The Beginning.

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Which members will appear at the Black Sabbath reunion show?

Back To The Beginning will feature all of Black Sabbath’s original members: Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitars), Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums). The four men initially played together from 1968 to 1979, when Osbourne was fired due to his excessive substance use. The singer started a solo career while Sabbath continued, with Iommi being the only constant member.

The Osbourne/Iommi/Butler/Ward lineup reunited in 1999 but disbanded again in 2006. Iommi and Butler started the project Heaven And Hell, and Osbourne went back to his solo work. Though the classic Sabbath members came together yet again in 2012, Ward quickly abandoned the return due to contractual disputes.

Sabbath’s 2025 show will mark the first time Osbourne, Iommi, Butler and Ward have played together since late 2005. Their last full-length concert was in September 2005 in West Palm Beach, Florida, during the Ozzfest tour.

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Who else will play at the Black Sabbath reunion show?

As well as Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, Back To The Beginning will feature sets from many heavy metal greats. Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Gojira, Anthrax, Lamb Of God, Halestorm, Alice In Chains, Mastodon and Rival Sons are all on the bill.

There will also be an all-star “supergroup” playing, with Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), David Ellefson (ex-Megadeth), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Jonathan Davis (Korn), Wolfgang Van Halen and others among their ranks. Morello will be the musical director of the event and famed actor Jason Momoa (Aquaman, Game Of Thrones) will compere.

See the full list of performers in the poster below.

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What will happen at the Black Sabbath reunion show?

According to a recent interview with Sharon Osbourne, Back To The Beginning will start at 12 noon on July 5. “Then you’re going to see one icon playing with another icon, doing a Sabbath song and one or two of their own songs, and people playing with each other that you never you’d see,” she added. “Tom Morello is going to play with the drummer from Tool [Danny Carey] and they’re going to have Billy Corgan with them.

“Then you’ll see Slash and Duff [Mckagan] and whoever they choose to play with. [Disturbed singer] David Draiman is going to come up and sing, Jonathan [Davis] from Korn is going to be here and he could be playing with [Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer] Chad Smith or whoever! Alice In Chains are coming and they’re playing as the band.”

The day will end with performances from Ozzy Osbourne and the original Black Sabbath lineup. However, on his Sirius XM radio show in mid-February, Osbourne said he’ll only play “bits and pieces” with Sabbath onstage.

“I’m not planning on doing a set with Black Sabbath but I am doing little bits and pieces with them,” he said in full. “I am doing what I can, where I feel comfortable.”

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Where and when is the Black Sabbath reunion show?

The Black Sabbath return will take place at Villa Park, Aston, on July 5. The venue isn’t only in the band’s birthplace of Birmingham, but is the home stadium for the members’ beloved football team Aston Villa. Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler demonstrated their love for the club last year, appearing in the reveal trailer for their 2024 kit. Iommi recently held up their colours at a photoshoot announcing Back To The Beginning.

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Can I still get tickets to the Black Sabbath reunion show?

After multiple pre-sales, tickets to Back To The Beginning went on general sale at 10am UK time on Friday, February 14. The BBC reports that the online queue for tickets exceeded 60,000 people, while Live Nation claims that the event sold out in fewer than 10 minutes. So, unless you’re willing to keep an eye on resale sites and potentially pay exorbitant prices, your chances of getting tickets for Black Sabbath’s final show are now slim-to-none.

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How much are tickets to the Black Sabbath reunion show?

After the artist presale for Black Sabbath tickets started on February 11, The Independent reported that prices ranged from £197.50 to £834. On February 13, Birmingham Live reported that one local father spent more than £6,000 on two passes for himself and his daughter.

All proceeds from Back To The Beginning will go to the charities Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital, Acorn Children’s Hospice and Cure Parkinson’s.

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Depends who you ask. There were bands who took the groove of blues rock and made it heavier before Black Sabbath came around, such as Iron Butterfly and Cream. However, it’s broadly accepted that Sabbath codified the heavy metal genre with their self-titled song in 1970. Not only was it heavy, but it started metal’s lengthy habit of pulling ideas from the horror genre: guitarist Tony Iommi used an ominous tritone while bassist Geezer Butler’s lyrics were themed around a demonic encounter. Many journalists and musicians have thus called Sabbath the first real metal band.

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How many albums have Black Sabbath made?

Black Sabbath have released 19 studio albums and are unlikely to make another. Here they are in chronological order:

• Black Sabbath (1970)
• Paranoid (1970)
• Master Of Reality (1971)
• Vol. 4 (1972)
• Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)
• Sabotage (1975)
• Technical Ecstasy (1976)
• Never Say Die! (1978)
• Heaven And Hell (1980)
• Mob Rules (1981)
• Born Again (1983)
• Seventh Star (1986)
• The Eternal Idol (1987)
• Headless Cross (1989)
• Tyr (1990)
• Dehumanizer (1992)
• Cross Purposes (1994)
• Forbidden (1995)
• 13 (2013)

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What’s the best Black Sabbath album?

There’s no general consensus on what the best Black Sabbath album is, but the fan-favourites from the band’s original lineup are Black Sabbath and Paranoid (both 1970), Master Of Reality (1971), Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) and Sabotage (1975). Many are also partial to the band’s first album with Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Heaven And Hell (1980), while Headless Cross (1989) featuring singer Tony Martin is frequently described as underrated.

Classic Rock magazine recently ranked Sabbath’s albums from worst to best and put Paranoid at the top of the pile. “Released just seven months after their debut, Sabbath’s second album is their masterpiece,” wrote journalist Paul Elliott.

Paul Simon has announced a new tour for four months this year.

A Quiet Celebration Tour will play throughout North America in the spring and summer, with Simon performing at intimate venues during the run. The shows support Simon’s latest album, Seven Psalms, which came out in 2023.

In addition to songs from his most recent album, Simon will play classic cuts from his career, including favorites from Simon & Garfunkel.

READ MORE: Top 30 Albums of 1975

After the release of Seven Psalms in 2023, Simon said he couldn’t perform live because of hearing loss. In 2024, he noted that some of his hearing had returned and hoped to play some shows again.

The upcoming concerts will be played in smaller, more intimate venues to accommodate Simon’s hearing loss. The concerts start in April in New Orleans and wrap up in August in Seattle.

This past weekend, Simon, with Sabrina Carpenter, kicked off Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary special with a performance of “Homeward Bound.” Simon was one of the program’s earliest supporters, having appeared on the show several times over the past five decades.

Where Is Paul Simon Performing in 2025?

Simon worked with specialists to create a stage setup that would make performing easier for his hearing loss, which started to surface when he recorded the acoustic and mostly solo Seven Psalms.

A Quiet Celebration Tour starts on April 4 with two dates in New Orleans at Saenger Theater. Over the next four months, Simon will play multiple nights in cities such as Denver, Dallas, Nashville, Toronto, New York and Los Angeles before concluding on Aug. 3 with the second of two concerts at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall.

You can see the list of dates below.

Simon’s band for the tour includes viola player Caleb Burhans, percussionist Jamey Haddad), guitarists Gyan Riley and Mark Stewart, keyboardist Mick Rossi, saxophonist Andy Snitzer, flute player Nancy Stagnita, cellist Eugene Friesen (Cello), and drummers Steve Gadd and Matt Chamberlin alternating for performances.

Tickets go on sale Feb. 21 at 10 a.m. local time. More information can be found at Simon’s website.

Paul Simon, A Quiet Celebration Tour 2025
April 4 Saenger Theater, New Orleans, LA
April 5 Saenger Theater, New Orleans, LA
April 8 Bass Concert Hall, Austin, TX
April 10 Bass Concert Hall, Austin, TX
April 11 Bass Concert Hall, Austin, TX
April 14 Paramount Theatre, Denver, CO
April 16 Paramount Theatre, Denver, CO
April 17 Paramount Theatre, Denver, CO
April 20 Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
April 22 Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
April 23 Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
April 26 Midland Theatre, Kansas City, MO
April 28 Stifel Theatre, St. Louis, MO
April 29 Stifel Theatre, St. Louis, MO
May 7 AT&T Performing Arts Center, Dallas TX
May 8 AT&T Performing Arts Center, Dallas TX
May 11 Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN
May 13 Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN
May 14 Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN
May 17 Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI
May 18 Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI
May 21 Symphony Center, Chicago, IL
May 23 Symphony Center, Chicago, IL
May 24 Symphony Center, Chicago, IL
May 27 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON
May 29 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON
May 30 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON
June 6 Wolf Trap, Vienna, VA
June 7 Wolf Trap, Vienna, VA
June 10 Boch Center, Wang Theatre, Boston, MA
June 12 Boch Center, Wang Theatre, Boston, MA
June 13 Boch Center, Wang Theatre, Boston, MA
June 16 Beacon Theater, New York, NY
June 18 Beacon Theater, New York, NY
June 20 Beacon Theater, New York, NY
June 21 Beacon Theater, New York, NY
June 23 Beacon Theater, New York, NY
June 26 Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA
June 28 Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA
June 29 Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA
July 7 Terrace Theater, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, Long Beach CA
July 9 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA
July 11 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA
July 12 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA
July 14 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA
July 16 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA
July 19 Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA
July 21 Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA
July 22 Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA
July 25 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC
July 26 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC
July 28 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC
July 31 Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA
August 2 Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA
August 3 Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA

The eternally prolific Melvins have announced two new albums in the past five days.

The track listings for Thunderball and Savage Imperial Death March and the band’s upcoming 2025 tour schedule are below.

These albums follow 2024’s Tarantula Heart.

Savage Imperial Death March, a six-song collaboration with the group’s 2025 touring partners Napalm Death, will be available on vinyl on tour and as a “cheapy $5 CD” from AmRep at an unspecified point. A limited-edition online vinyl edition sold out instantly on Sunday.

You can hear “Victory of the Pyramids” from Thunderball below.

Melvins previously toured with the grindcore legends – ask Loudwire what that means – back in 2016. The album release page doesn’t specify which Melvins members participated in the Death March sessions. Guitarist and singer Buzz ‘King Buzzo” Osbourne founded the band in 1983. Drummer Dale Crover joined in 1984 and bassist Steven McDonald has been with them since 2015.

Read More: Melvins’ King Buzzo Picks His Top Five Classic Rock Songs

Thunderball will be the third album from the band’s “Melvins 1983” lineup, which features Osbourne and founding drummer Mike Dillard. Crover switched to bass for 2013’s Tres Cabrones and 2021’s Working With God Melvins 1983 albums, but is not credited on Thunderball.

Buzzo and Dillard are instead joined by Void Maines and “electronic noise terrorist” Ni Maitres on the five-track, 37-minute album, which arrives on April 18.

“I wanted this one to be bombastic. I think it is,” Osbourne declared in the Thunderball press release. “I’ve been wanting to do something with Void Manes and Ni Maîtres for a long time. Both of them are exceptional talents and were a joy to work with. Their out-of-the-box use of electronics pushed Thunderball beyond my expectations.”

Crover sat out the Melvins’ 2023 tour after undergoing spinal surgery but recovered quickly enough to release and tour behind his 2024 solo album Glossolalia. He will rejoin Osbourne and McDonald for the band’s 2025 tour, which includes a brief March trip through California and two months of dates with Napalm Death beginning April 4 in San Diego and concluding June 7 in Berkley.

Melvins will be joined on these dates by Big Business and High on Fire drummer Coady Willis, who along with Big Business bandmate Jared Warren served as a member of the Melvins’ four-piece, twin-drummer lineup from 2006 to 2015.

Melvins 1983 ‘Thunderball’ Track Listing
1. “King of Rome”
2. “Vomit of Clarity”
3. “Short Hair With a Wig”
4. “Victory of the Pyramids”
5. “Venus Blood”

Melvins / Napalm Death ‘Savage Imperial Death March’ Track Listing
1. “Tossing Coins Into the Fountain of Fuck”
2. “Some Kind of Antichrist”
3. “Nine Days of Rain”
4. “Rip the God”
5. “Stealing Horses”
6. “Death Hour”

Melvins The Spring Break Tour Dates
March 1 Bakersfield, CA The Nile Theater
March 2 Fresno, CA Strummer’s
March 3 Sacramento, CA Goldfield Trading Post
March 4 Santa Cruz, CA The Catalyst Atrium
March 5 San Luis Obispo, CA SLO Brew Rock
March 7 Pioneertown, CA Pappy & Harriet’s

Melvins and Napalm Death Savage Imperial Death March Part II Tour Dates

April 4 San Diego, CA Music Box
April 5 Santa Ana, CA The Observatory
April 7 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
April 8 San Jose, CA The Ritz
April 10 Los Angeles, CA The Belasco
April 12 Las Vegas, NV Swan Dive
April 13 Phoenix, AZ The Van Buren
April 14 Tucson, AZ Rialto Theatre
April 15 El Paso, TX Lowbrow Palace
April 17 Dallas, TX The Echo Lounge & Music Hall
April 18 Austin, TX Emo’s
April 19 Houston, TX White Oak Music Hall – Downstairs
April 20 Baton Rouge, LA Chelsea’s Live
April 21 New Orleans, LA House of Blues New Orleans
April 23 Tampa, FL The Orpheum
April 24 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
April 25 Orlando, FL The Beacham
April 26 Savannah, GA District Live
April 27 Atlanta, GA The Masquerade – Heaven Stage
April 28 Birmingham, AL Saturn
April 29 Athens, GA 40 Watt Club
May 1 Charlotte, NC The Underground – Charlotte
May 2 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle
May 3 Virginia Beach, VA Elevation 27
May 4 Baltimore, MD Baltimore Soundstage
May 5 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
May 6 Allentown, PA Archer Music Hall
May 7 Brooklyn, NY Warsaw
May 8 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club
May 10 Pittsburgh, PA Mr .Small’s
May 11 Cleveland, OH Globe Iron
May 12 Detroit, MI Saint Andrew’s Hall
May 13 Grand Rapids, MI The Intersection
May 15 Cincinnati, OH Bogart’s
May 16 Louisville, KY Mercury Ballroom
May 17 Nashville, TN Brooklyn Bowl Nashville
May 18 St. Louis, MO Red Flag
May 19 Chicago, IL Metro
May 20 Milwaukee, WI The Rave II
May 22 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
May 23 Des Moines, IA Wooly’s
May 24 Kansas City, MO Madrid Theatre
May 25 Omaha, NE The Waiting Room
May 27 Denver, CO Summit
May 29 Salt Lake City, UT Metro Music Hall
May 31 Bozeman, MT The ELM
June 1 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory
June 2 Seattle, WA The Showbox
June 3 Portland, OR Revolution Hall
June 4 Eugene, OR McDonald Theatre
June 6 Reno, NV Virginia Street Brewhouse
June 7 Berkeley, CA Cornerstone Berkeley

When Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger penned 1970’s “Without You,” they almost certainly had no idea it would one day become an international hit.

In fact, neither man thought the song had much potential to begin with. They also wouldn’t live to see the success. Ham would die by suicide in 1975, five years after the song was released on Badfinger’s album No Dice, and Evans would die by the same cause in 1983. Conflict over financial matters played a role in both men’s death — their manager Stan Polley signed them to a contract with Warner Bros. in the early ’70s that provided Polley himself with most of the band’s earnings. In 1974, Warner sued Polley, who more or less disappeared from the picture, effectively leaving the members of Badfinger with nothing.

“I will not be allowed to love and trust everybody,” Ham wrote in his suicide note (via The Independent). “This is better. Pete. PS Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me.” Less than a decade later, Evans fought over the phone with his bandmate Joey Molland over royalties to “Without You.” After the argument, Evans hanged himself in his garden.

Listen to Badfinger’s ‘Without You’

There was someone, however, who thought “Without You” had merit: Harry Nilsson, who released a cover of it in 1971. Why? He reportedly mistook it for a Beatles song when he first heard it at a party one night, an understandable mistake.

That recording did not come without its own share of challenges over how best to present the song.

“I had to force him to take a shot with the rhythm section,” producer Richard Perry would later recall to Mojo (via Far Out). “Even while we were doing it, he’d be saying to the musicians, ‘This song’s awful.'”

Nilsson’s version turned out more somber — or rather some parts of it did, since Perry managed to persuade him to lean into the big, orchestral sound on the choruses. And Nilsson turned it into more of a Beatles-adjacent song than Badfinger did, with Klaus Voormann on bass, Jim Keltner on drums and Gary Wright on piano. It all paid off when Nilsson’s version went to No. 1 in both the U.S. and U.K., plus earned a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. The members of Badfinger were rightfully thrilled.

“No one had recorded any of our songs until then,” Evans said in 1972. “It had been our ambition to write songs other people would record. It’s one of the most exciting things that has happened.”

Listen to Harry Nilsson’s Cover of ‘Without You’

Nilsson died in 1994, coincidentally the same year “Without You” would find yet more life with another artist, Mariah Carey.

By that point, Carey had already made a name for herself as a songwriter and vocalist with multiple hit singles and Grammy awards. She wrote or co-wrote every song on her third album, Music Box, with one exception: a cover of Badfinger’s “Without You.”

Carey may have been young – she was in her early 20s when she recorded Music Box — but she had a wide palette, which might have explained why she chose to cover the song.

“I listen to different music at different times,” she explained in a 1993 interview with Us. “I like gospel music at night — I’m pretty religious in my own way. … I like rap when I’m in a rowdy mood. I like songs from the ’80s, ’70s, ’60s, old soul music.” (She also said in her cover’s official music video that “Without You” used to make her cry as a little girl.)

READ MORE: How Paul McCartney Constructed Badfinger’s Breakout

But the answer is actually much simpler. “I heard that song in a restaurant and just knew it would be a huge international hit,” Carey would say many years later in 2013.

And it did. Carey’s version, which mimicked Nilsson’s arrangement but of course featured her tremendous vocal, was released as a single on Jan. 21, 1994, six days after Nilsson’s passing. It became her first No. 1 hit in the U.K, spent six weeks at the No. 3 spot in America and went to the top of the charts in a variety of European countries — not bad for a song that Badfinger paid little mind to.

Watch Mariah Carey’s Music Video for ‘Without You’

Massive Attack will headline a new festival in London that’s 100 percent battery-powered.

The Bristol trip-hop pioneers will top the bill at LIDO festival in Victoria Park on June 6. Supporting them will be French electronic duo Air, Forensics (the new project of Yasiin Bey and The Alchemist), singer/songwriter Tirzah and more acts to be announced.

The day will continue Massive Attack’s ACT1.5 initiative, which presents their blueprint for environmentally sustainable live music. Tickets will go on sale at 10am UK time on February 21. A pre-sale will start at 10am on February 20 for those who sign up via the LIDO website.

Massive Attack’s Robert “3D” Del Naja comments: “To present London’s first-ever 100% battery-powered festival day with a dynamic range of artists is an optimum outcome for us.

“History shows it’s often the combination of art and science that overcomes the greatest challenges we face, so it’s good to see LIDO take learnings from our ACT1.5 event last year and apply those technologies to where they see emissions coming from.”

LIDO festival will occupy central-east London’s Victoria Park for two weekends starting on June 6. Jamie xx will headline on Saturday, June 7, followed by Charli XCX on June 14 and London Grammar on June 15. In between, the park will host Outbreak festival, headlined by Turnstile, on June 13.

Massive Attack haven’t released a studio album since 2010, but Del Naja told NME last year that the band hope to put out new music in 2025. “Hopefully we’re going to be able to release it next year and do some gigs,” he said in December.

He added, “I hate sitting on stuff for too long because I’m the first person to get bored of it. I deliberately don’t play it for months so that I can maintain some enthusiasm for it.”

However, he finished, “It’s good – I’m looking forward to it!”

The band also have extensive live plans for the year. They’ll play a handful of Mexican shows in April, before headlining LIDO festival and then touring Europe in June and July. See all dates via Songkick.

John Lydon has revealed he was annoyed after hearing the news of Sex Pistols reunion tour, which saw the band announce a series of live dates with Frank Carter acting as replacement lead vocalist.

During an interview with The I, the former Pistols frontman admits that he felt “pissed off” by the arrangement, describing the new line-up as “karaoke”.

In 2024, the band’s remaining members Paul Cook, Glen Matlock and Steve Jones teamed up with Carter for three intimate fundraising dates at Bush Hall to help save the iconic West London venue. Due to the success of the performances, the four musicians embarked on a sold-out UK tour. They’re now scheduled for a number of performances this year, including at Download Festival, Glasgow Summer Sessions, Dreamland Margate, Rock For People, and at the Royal Albert Hall for the annual Teenage Cancer Trust concert series.

Lydon was left out of the picture due to his strained relationship with the band, following years of conflict and even a lawsuit in 2021, which saw him sued by his former bandmates over his disapproval of the Sex Pistols’ music being included in Danny Boyle’s Pistol, a biographical series that he noted as allegedly having “little resemblance to the truth”.

“When I first heard that the Sex Pistols were touring this year without me it pissed me off. It annoyed me.” Lydon says of the Pistols reunion. “I just thought, ‘they’re absolutely going to kill all that was good with the Pistols by eliminating the point and the purpose of it all.’ I didn’t write those words lightly.”

“They’re trying to trivialise the whole show to get away with karaoke but in the long term I think you’ll see who has the value and who doesn’t. I’ve never sold my soul to make a dollar. It’s the Catholic in me – that guilt I don’t want to trip.”

Lydon continues: “Like Nancy Reagan, I’ve always found it easy to just say “no”. If something challenges your heart and your soul and your mind and your sense of purity of what is right and wrong in the world, then just say no.

“Which, according to the corporate thinking which riddles the music business, earns me the title of ‘difficult to work with’ – a title of which I’m very proud.”

King Crimson percussionist Jamie Muir, who famously left the band to become a Buddhist monk in 1973, has died, aged 82.

Former Crimson drummer Bill Bruford announced Muir’s passing on his own Facebook page, paying tribute to his former colleague. “Jamie Muir died today 17.02.2025 in Cornwall, UK, with his brother George by his side.

Jamie was the drummer/percussionist with whom I worked on the King Crimson album Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (1973). He had a volcanic effect on me, professionally and personally, in the brief time we were together many years ago – an effect which I still remember half a century later. I’m sorry we lost touch, but his departure from our working relationship was so sudden and unexpected, I sort of assumed he didn’t want anything more to do with me and my colleagues in King Crimson!

He was a lovely, artistic man, childlike in his gentleness. There was probably a dark side underneath. It could be glimpsed as he climbed the PA stacks in a wolf’s fur jacket, blood (from a capsule) pouring from his mouth, on a rainy Thursday night in Preston, Lancs., to hurl chains across the stage at his drumkit. One of these Robert Fripp will tell you, only narrowly missed him.

His conversations with Jon Anderson at my 1973 wedding party, in Jon’s words, ‘changed my life’.

Jamie also changed mine.I consider it a privilege to have known, and benefitted from the company of, a man of such quiet power, even briefly. He struck me as one of those about whom one might truthfully say he was a beautiful human being. He will be much missed. Goodbye, Jamie.”

Born in Edinburgh in November 1942, Muir would attend that city’s College Of Art in the 60s. Early on he was intrigued with jazz music. An early stint on the trombone gave way to drumming and he looked to the likes of Tony Williams and Pharoah Sanders for inspiration, as well as the opportunities of improvisation, of which he said, “The first time it felt really dangerous, like the sort of thing you had to lock the doors and close the curtains on because if anybody saw you, God would strike you down with a thunderbolt. But I took to it like a duck to water.”

Having moved to London, Muir worked with choreographer Lindsay Kemp and played music with the free-jazz outfit Music Improvisation Company, and also with Pete Brown And The Battered Ornaments, Boris and Assaga and also Allan Holdsworth in the short-lived jazz-rock band Sunship, during which time he began to collect the arsenal of household objects he would use with his drum kit and for which he became famous in King Crimson, whom he joined following a request from Fripp in 1972.

Muir was inspired by Crimson’s “potential and creating monstrous power in music” and his standard drum kit was now bedecked with rattles, bird calls, car horns, chimes, bells, gongs, metal sheets, tuned drums, plastic bottles. In his 2023 King Crimson Prog cover story on the making of Lark’s Tongues… writer Mike Barnes points out that “at a time when to be weird was cool, press shots of Muir leaning towards the camera grinning through a waxed moustache while playing a bowed saw piqued the interest.”

Legend has it that Muir gave the album its title, telling Fripp when he asked what he though the music sounded like, “why, larks’ tongues in aspic … what else?”.

Muir abruptly quit Crimson following the album’s release. The aforementioned conversation withJon Anderson, suggesting the Yes singer read Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography Of A Yogi, when Anderson asked Muir what made him perform the way he did.

“He was an unbelievable stage performer,” Anderson told Prog writer Sid Smith during an interview about Yes’s 1973 album Tales From Topographic Oceans, inspired by Muir’s suggestion. “I wanted to know what made him do that, what had influenced him. He said to me, ‘Here, read it,’ and it started me off on the path of becoming aware that there was even a path… Jamie was like a messenger for me and came to me at the perfect time in my life… he changed my life.”

Despite a news story from King Crimson’s management that a “personal injury sustained onstage during performance” was the reason for Muir’s absence, he had in fact moved to the Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland to pursue a Buddhist life.

“There were experiences over a period of about six months which caused me to decide to give up music, so one morning I felt I had to go to E.G. management and tell them,” Muir recalled. “It was difficult of course, a whole year of tours had just been lined up… I didn’t feel too happy about letting people down, but this was something I had to do or else it would have been a source of deep regret for the rest of my life.”

Interestingly, Fripp himself would quit King Crimson in 1974 having discovered the writings of English mystic J.G. Bennett, whch, according to Crimson biographer Sid Smith had “deeply and profoundly resonated with him, confirming his sense of needing to alter the course of his life.”

Muir would return to both London, and music, in the 1980s, playing with both Derek Bailey and Evan Parker of Music Improvisation Company, as well as former King Crimson drummer Michael Giles on the soundtrack to the 1983 British independent film Ghost Dance.

By 1990 however, Muir had left music behind him, and devoted his time to painting, the discipline he remained with until his death.

Brian Molko has been charged with defamation for calling the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni a “piece of s***, fascist, racist” and a “Nazi” while on stage.

The Placebo frontman shared his thoughts on the politician during his band’s appearance at Italy’s Sonic Park festival in 2023, while performing to a crowd of 5000 people.

Following a police complaint at the event, prosecutors launched an investigation into the musician for “contempt of the institutions”, according to Italian newspaper La Stampa.

On February 17, Italy’s justice ministry accepted the request from prosecutors to charge Molko for his words against Meloni, which could leave the musician with a fine of up to €5,000 (£4,200).

In other defamation cases in the country, offenders can be sent to prison for up to three years, however Justice minister spokesman for Carlo Nordio said a prison sentence for Molko is unlikely.

Members of Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party, which has been linked to Italy’s neo-fascist movement, has demanded that Molko publicly retract his words and apologise.

Lawmaker Augusta Montaruli said of the case: “We cannot let an international event that attracts so many people (to Italy) be ruined by filthy words which, amidst a general silence, aim to attack the institutions of the republic”.

The case follows calls for Meloni to lessen Italy’s strict defamation laws in order to match other international standards for freedom of expression.

In previous years, the PM successfully sued investigative journalist Robert Saviano for calling Meloni a “bastard” over her migration policies, after a baby died while crossing the Mediterranean. He was fined €1,000 (£830).

The right-wing Brothers of Italy party was voted into power in Italy in 2022.

Machine Head have announced their new album and released single Unbound.

The song is taken from the Oakland groove metal kingpins’ upcoming record Unatoned, set to come out via Nuclear Blast and Imperium Recordings on April 25. See the album’s artwork and tracklisting below.

Unatoned will be Machine Head’s first album since Of Kingdom And Crown came out in 2022, and it will mark the recording debut of guitarist Reece Scruggs (ex-Havok). The band first teased the album last year, when they released the single These Scars Won’t Define Us and announced a spring 2025 North American tour with support from In Flames, Lacuna Coil and Unearth.

They wrote on their website at the time: “The track comes from [Machine Head’s] upcoming new album (slated for April release TBD).”

Unatoned follows Machine Head’s return to festivals in 2022, which ended a 10-year dry spell from the circuit, and was written while the band were touring. Their 2024 festival run included a slot at the UK’s Download festival. Metal Hammer journalist Stephen Hill reviewed the set.

He wrote: “Although this headlining set on the Opus Stage probably won’t go down in history in the same way as their legendary 2007 show did, tonight is a hell of a way for Machine Head to re-introduce themselves to the UK festival scene.”

The band say that, musically, Unatoned reflects the “raw energy” of their recent stints on the road. Singer, guitarist and band leader Robb Flynn produced the effort, with Zack Ohren returning to engineer and Colin Richardson and Chris Clancy mixing and mastering. The artwork was designed by Septicflesh singer/bassist Spiros Antoniou (AKA Seth Siro Anton), who also did the cover for Of Kingdom And Crown.

Following their spring tour, Machine Head will headline Derbyshire’s Bloodstock Open Air in August, alongside Trivium and Gojira. Weekend tickets for the festival are sold-out, as are day tickets for the Sunday with Gojira, but day tickets for Friday and Saturday (Machine Head’s day) are still available.

See all of Machine Head’s live plans now via their website.

Machine Head – Unatoned tracklisting:

01. Landscape Of Thorns
02. Atomic Revelations
03. Unbound
04. Outsider
05. Not Long For This World
06. These Scars Won’t Define Us
07. Dustmaker
08. Bonescraper
09. Addicted To Pain
10. Bleeding Me Dry
11. Shards Of Shattered Dreams
12. Scorn