15 Things NME Learned This (30/05/14)

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Poor Macaulay Culkin. The actor’s tribute band The Pizza Underground were booed and bottled off the stage in Nottingham earlier this week. But it’s not all been nasty crowds and humiliated child stars, so let’s see what else has been doing the rounds for the past seven days…

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Arctic Monkeys – Finsbury Park – 23/05/2014

And they weren’t alone on those dates, either: support slots came from the likes of Tame Impala and Royal Blood, among others. What a way to start the summer music season, eh?

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In other big-gig news, Carl Barat announced that he and the rest of The Libertines will prepare for this summer’s big Hyde Park reunion show with a gig at the 2,000 capacity Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow on June 29.

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Exciting news for Foo Fighters fans, as Dave Grohl et al teased that they’ll be playing UK shows soon in a Facebook post. “Hey UK pals… It’s been WAYYY too long,” they teased. A chance to see them play new material, perhaps?

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Former Radio 1 Breakfast Show host Sara Cox criticised some of the station’s music choices, including the rapper Pitbull. Cox, who now presents on Radio 2, said: “Someone like Pitbull on Radio 1 makes my soul weep with the way he sings about women. I just couldn’t bear playing that. There will always be the odd song that isn’t for me.”

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More Monkeys – or, more accurately, a reunion for the Last Shadow Puppets, as Alex Turner and Miles Kane shared the stage at the band’s final Finsbury Park gig.

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Ahead of the release of his new solo album ‘Lazaretto’, Jack White revealed that he and former White Stripes bandmate Meg White “almost never” speak anymore. “I don’t think anyone talks to Meg,” he said. “She’s always been a hermit. When we lived in Detroit, I’d have to drive over to her house if I wanted to talk to her, so now it’s almost never.”

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Coldplay’s ‘Ghost Stories’ is the fastest-selling album of 2014, after it sold 168,000 copies in its first week of release. Altogether, the band have sold 11.1 million albums in the UK since the release of their debut, 2000’s ‘Parachutes’.

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Arctic Monkeys know a thing or two about headlining Glastonbury, so it’s only natural NME asked Alex and his bandmates how they thought Metallica would fare at Worthy Farm. Turner said it was an “out there” decision, but applauded the bookers for taking a risk and delivering the unexpected.

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