Hall of Fame - Rap group Outkast, pop star Cyndi Lauper and 1960s pioneer Chubby Checker have all won places in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This year's inductees were revealed live on American Idol, with the UK represented by hard rock band Bad Company and Joe Cocker, 11 years after his death from lung cancer. Performers become eligible for inclusion 25 years after the release of their first commercial recording. The nominations are voted on by more than 1,200 music historians, industry professionals and previously inducted artists.
The full list of performers to be inducted this year is: Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast, Soundgarden and The White Stripes. Salt-N-Pepa, the first commercially successful female rap group, will also receive the musical influence award, alongside Warren Zevon. There are also musical excellence awards for Thom Bell, an architect of the Philadelphia Soul sound, and English pianist Nicky Hopkins, who contributed to records by The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and The Who. US guitarist Carol Kaye, whose fretwork can be heard on classic tracks like You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling and the theme to Mission: Impossible, receives the same honour.
Sold Out - The final batch of resale tickets for Glastonbury Festival sold out in 20 minutes after "incredible demand". Those who missed out on buying tickets last November were given two more chances to buy them this week, in the annual coach and general resales. Coach resale tickets sold out in about 30 minutes.
Writing on X, Glastonbury Festival said: "On a morning of incredible demand, all of the tickets in today's resale have been sold. Thank you to everyone who bought one, and sorry to those who missed out." The cost of a ticket rose from £355 per person to £378.50 from last year, including a £5 booking fee.
Up All Night - Organisers of the BBC Proms are encouraging fans to stay up all night, with a "magical" and "intimate" after-hours concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Plans for the Dark Till Dawn Prom were unveiled in the programme announcing the summer festival, which will also feature one-handed pianist Nicholas McCarthy, rock star St Vincent and a celebration of film composer Bernard Herrmann. The CBeebies Prom will return, and Claudia Winkleman will host a concert exploring the tense and haunting soundtrack to the hit TV show The Traitors.
Tidal Rock - Performances staged in a tidal pool, a mass burial site and a floating ship are to form part of the third iteration of a festival of work celebrating the Thames Estuary. Estuary 2025 - Vessels is set to take place in June this year across South Essex and North Kent coastlines, marking the first time it will run as an independent arts organisation since its creation by fellow arts organisation Metal in 2016.
More than 20 projects featuring a total of 47 artists are lined up for this year’s festival, including Anchored, in which Scarabeus Aerial Theatre will perform on light vessel LV21in Chatham Historic Dockyard, and SALT from artist duo Helen Galliano and Dimitri Launder, which will be performed in a tidal pool on Canvey Island. Other programming includes Sleeping with the Dead, a proposed remembrance piece for those buried in the mass grave adjacent to Willow Cemetery in Canvey Island, which is said to contain remains of victims of the black death.
Water Music - A violin played by the band leader of the Titanic as it sank in the 1997 Hollywood film has been sold for £54,000 at a "record breaking" auction. The violin was used to play the hymn Nearer My God To Thee as the ship went down. The violin, described as a "true piece of movie history", was auctioned by Henry Aldridge and Son in Wiltshire on Saturday.
(Jim Evans)
