Image source, Getty Images

That's your lot for today folks.

Scroll down for an exclusive first play of Yoko Ono's cover of her late husband John Lennon's Imagine, plenty of big names in the mix for Live Lounge Month on Radio 1 and some even bigger names up for the Rock Hall of Fame class of 2019.

Plus a Newbie Tuesday artist who wants to delete his G N' R cover version and Donald Trump seems to want another Kanye v Taylor row.

We'll leave you with one of America's most decorated singers, Barbra Streisand and her pretty thinly-veiled attack on the US president, taken from her forthcoming album, Walls, which is out on 2 November.

See you back here tomorrow at 09:00.

Image source, Bob Fries

Just time before we go to get some views on Yoko Ono's new version of the John Lennon Classic, Imagine, to mark what would've been his 78th birthday.

Ann (below) loves it and calls it "a great tribute."

Denise points to the similarities between their relationship and the new Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga movie.

Mike has an idea for a future duet and finally Bernard... well he thinks the song is "awful", frankly.

Well, thankfully - like the statue above - you are at liberty to think whatever you like.

Image source, Lime Pictures

Rick Astley is set to pop up in one of next week's episodes of Hollyoaks, the show's producers have confirmed.

He's playing himself in the show and his appearance will involve the character Kim Butterfield bumping into him at a bus stop.

Totally feasible.

Whatever happens at that fictional bus stop in Celebland, our Rick won't be the first pop star to make a cameo appearance in a TV show.

Here are nine other great/average/rubbish cameos.

Paul Glynn
Music News LIVE reporter

Next up is a mixture of music, football and art. The perfect hat-trick you could say…

Bands FC, external is the brainchild of Mark Liptrott and Nick Fraser who have - in their own words – been "re-imagining bands as football teams and football teams as bands".

It started with a few humble mashup logos, now’s it’s made its way to the National Football Museum in Manchester, external, for a free exhibition which will run until 22 November.

Such has been the demand around the indie football community, the exhibition will head out on the road to Salford, Liverpool and then Sunderland.

They've even opened one in New York.

We spoke to Mark to find out how it all came about, what makes the perfect band FC design and how the merchandise is now raising money for some excellent causes, thanks to involvement from bands like Pulp, Frightened Rabbit and more.

Listen above.

Image source, Getty Images

Lots of musical action being beamed directly into your telly box tonight (other digital platforms are available) as Jools Holland welcomes another coterie of stars of the past, present and future.

Neneh Cherry, The Lemon Twigs and Echo and the Bunnymen will be joined by Toots of Maytals fame, Ashley McBride and another Newbie Tuesday favourite, Sam Fender - who seems pretty pumped (below).

Tune in tonight on BBC Two from 22:00 GMT.

We'll bring you some of the action in tomorrow's MNL.

Can't say fairer than that really.

Kev Geoghegan
Arts and entertainment reporter

Image source, Daniel Alexander

When Welsh multi-instrumentalist Ali Lacey was asked to provide the music for a TV ad campaign for a deodorant in 2015, he axed Axl Rose's screeching rock vocals and slashed Slash's screaming guitars.

The result,an atmospheric, sweeping ballad, external in the vein of Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens found itself nominated for a handful of advertising awards.

Three years on, Ali - who records under the name Novo Amor, says he would rather forget about it.

"It is weird, I was making music before that but I guess it was a launching point where people could hear my music," he admits.

"I did the cover especially for the advert, I mean Guns N' Roses are great but I couldn’t see myself covering their music.

"Looking back at it, there will be a time when I want to take it off the internet if I can. The advert is dead and gone now."

The 27-year-old, who grew up in Llanidloes, Wales but now calls Cardiff his home, has been a musician since his formative years, playing drums since the age of 12 and the guitar since he was 15.

He started producing music "at about 14".

"I never gave myself a Plan B," he adds.

Lacey credits a trip to the US six years ago, to upstate New York specifically, to shape his current musical direction.

That and a particularly bad romantic break-up.

"I started listening to folk music. I was producing film scores, not professionally but I was an aspiring film score composer and I was reading books on orchestration and ripping videos off YouTube and re-scoring them.

"A lot of my music is quite cinematic, with strings and such but I started listening to stuff like James Vincent McMorrow and Keaton Henson and Sufjan Stevens and - it sounds like a cliche - but I went through a break-up and a lot of the songs started to feel more relevant to me than they had before. It's all very cheesy looking back on it now."

Lacey's first Novo Amor EP, Woodgate, NY, was released in March 2014 and, later that year, he released several tracks with fellow producer Ed Tullet.

Their collaboration bore an album, Heiress, which was released in 2017.

Lacey's forthcoming Birthplace LP marks his debut as a solo album artist, though he says some songs were written while they worked together "so a lot of the ideas were ideas that we came up with together... but it is very much a Novo Amor album."

He has shared the title track from the record, which comes hand-in-hand with a stunning video (above) which recently won video of the year at the Association of Independent Music Awards and has been shortlisted alongside artists including alt-J, Gaz Coombes and Young Fathers at the UK Music Video awards.

It's eerily moving as a fully-clothed man swims silently through coral reefs before coming face to face with a whale made entirely of discarded plastic waste.

It seems to talk about mankind's fragile relationship with nature and the environment and addresses issues like pollution of the seas.

"Videos are a really important aspect," says Lacey. "For Birthplace, we got pitched the idea and thought it was too good not to use.

"I don’t really want myself in the video, I don’t need a slightly egotistical video of me singing.

"After that video, it’s harder to find what to do next to raise the bar."

While the musician says the director's interpretation of the song and its lyrics may be different to his own, the visuals work.

"I don’t have any political or environmentally charged songs. The track is more about looking back at a place, looking at something with loving eyes but realising you’re better off without it."

In fact, Lacey says he shies away from becoming a message songwriter, preferring to leave politicising to others.

"I listen to music like Rage Against the Machine or Enter Shikari or artists who have a political message and I love their music. I’m not necessarily big on the music lyrically but I love what it can do to create groups of people who stand up for things.

"But it’s not something I want to write about or feel comes naturally to write about, it’s not really me."

Though much of the new album is solely Lacey playing (guitar, bass, banjo, keys, drums etc etc), on the road he is joined by more musicians.

He insists he's "not much of a frontman", adding he is "much more comfortable at home working on ideas and being able to throw them away if I don’t like them".

"The live environment is completely different, if you mess it up, you mess it up. I’m just not from that background and I’m not much of a singer."

His first solo performance, four years ago, was "kind of horrible... I think I drank a bottle of wine before I got on stage and there were about 10 people.

"I kept messing up the tuning on my guitar, it wasn’t very good."

But if the start was a bit wobbly, the name of his debut album points to new beginnings.

"I guess Birthplace as a song, represents change and the release of an attachment to something, it’s a theme that inadvertently started to manifest within the record as I was making it.

"I’ve always been inspired by sudden changes and the creation of this record has been the output of this.

"Novo Amor - the translation is 'New Love', which is awfully cringey, but that’s why I started making the music, to make a new love for myself and give myself a new direction."

Read Newbie Tuesday #47: How Kylie Minogue helped Chelcee Grimes get her big break

Image source, Getty Images

The longlist is in for next year's awards folks...

British indie kings Radiohead (who first made the cut last year), The Cure and Roxy Music are in there alongside US pop royalty Janet Jackson.

Artists become eligible 25 years after the release of their first record.

Also on the list are Rage Against the Machine, MC5, Rufus & Chaka Khan and The Zombies, as well Kraftwerk, Devo, Def Leppard and John Prine.

LL Cool J, Stevie Nicks, and Todd Rundgren also get the nod.

The class of 2019 will be selected from the list above and revealed in December ahead of next year's event.

(Most of) Radiohead have previously suggested that they couldn't care a jot.

The class of 2018 included Nina Simone, Dire Straits, Bon Jovi, The Cars, The Moody Blues and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

1Xtra

Said someone once. Probably.

Anyway, Dotty makes some valid points here in her argument as to why The X Factor should be allowed to retire.

Her takedown of Louis Tomlinson is kind of harsh.

Watch above.

Paul Glynn
Music News LIVE reporter

Image source, Iain Macmillan

John Lennon's Imagine - the third greatest song of all time, according to Rolling Stone magazine, external - has been given a reworking today for what would've been the former Beatle's 78th birthday.

So who better then to deliver this musical gift, than the track's co-writer, Yoko Ono?

The Japanese artist, who married Lennon in 1969, was only officially recognised as co-writer last year.

Now she's released a haunting new church organ version of the 1971 classic and you can check it out exclusively on Music News LIVE below.

The re-Imagining is set to feature on Yoko's politically-driven forthcoming album Warzone, which will arrive just a few weeks after last Friday's reissue of her late hubby's most celebrated solo album.

The original version of Imagine was co-produced by John and Yoko - alongside Phil Spector - and the 85-year-old told the BBC she remembers it as a special time, when they were both dreaming of a better world.

"When we finished creating," says Yoko, "we just looked at each other and said: 'Did we do this?'"

Yoko is keeping the dream alive in 2018 and adds it was important for her to do the track justice.

"I did enjoy it. I thought putting out Imagine again in this way was so important that I did my best to make it well.

"John and I created a lot together and he would be very happy that I did it."

• Read more: Imagine - the making of an iconic song

Image source, Getty Images

Rock 'n' roll's most famous couple made seven albums together and one son, Sean, before Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York apartment in 1980, aged 40.

Prior to Imagine, in 1969 - during the height of the Vietnam War - the couple staged a world famous 'bed-in' in an Amsterdam hotel room. It remains one of the most famous anti-war protests in modern pop culture and Yoko is still hopeful that one day the world will be as one.

"I'm very happy that people are thinking about peace these days.

"We said it in many ways how important that peace is and I feel that we were successful.

Image source, Matthew Placek

"I felt that we were living in a war zone, but that increased more and more and I felt that [now] I had to say it.

"But we have to do more. It took so much time to get it all out, I've been ready for a long time!"

Later on Tuesday, at her flat in NYC, Yoko will give awards to the latest two recipients of the Lennon Ono Grant For Peace, demonstrating that while she may still be a dreamer, she's not the only one.

"The Wound Warrior Fund is so important because of the work they do to help wounded veterans," she explains.

"It also helps people understand what the soldiers are going through, which many people don't think about.

"Make The Road NY is supporting immigrants in this country [US] when it's needed most.

"I hope the awards will bring awareness to these important organisations."

Yoko Ono's new album Warzone is out on 18 October.

In preparations for Saturday's first ever National Album Day - celebrating the best this country has to offer in the long play format - the clever people over at 6 Music social have put together an emoji-quiz.

Can you name all six albums from the clues above?

We'll confess we are struggling so far. Unless Tom Ravenscroft is planning on playing 'German Siren Wine' in full... Thought not.

You have until 4pm, good luck.

NME

Image source, Getty Images

He just doesn't know when yet. Or more to the point, why?

Helders, who also moonlights as Iggy Pop's drummer has, on occasion, taken lead vocal duties for the Sheffield band and he's been talking to The Trap Set, external podcast about his desire to eventually go it alone.

"I will do it," said Matt, as the NME reports., external

"It’s like figuring out why as well. Like ‘Why do I even want to do that?'

"Why do I want to make a record? What’s it for? I just like the process of creating it. Maybe it’s more because I’m not writing the lyrics, so it’s fine that I do that.

"When you’re writing a record and you’re putting yourself out there, a lot of people need a reason to want to hear a message or hear my opinion on this."

He added: “That’s why I’m not that interested in the lyrics side of it yet. I want to make a lot of music and that sounds cool."

Here's a sample of what it could sound like, from the Arctic's 2011 album Suck It and See.

The solo star-turned-label boss has announced a reissue of the band's second album Consolers of the Lonely, which is celebrating its 10th birthday.

The new album will include two new songs, their first since that album.

The mini rock supergroup featured White, solo singer Brendan Benson and members of The Greenhornes.

Apparently, the new tracks came from “recent sessions that will ultimately result in a new Raconteurs album in 2019”.

Image source, Sian Anderson

The women have been selected for a foot up in the music industry by 1Xtra DJ and former Atlantic records exec Sian Anderson,

The NEXXT STEP, external initiative follows on from Sian's FLOOR SIXX Music Academy in 201, which mentored 40 young people ranging from artists to aspiring executives.

The new project is designed to assist and blossom the careers of young BAME (Black, Asian, and minority ethnic) women.

The ten mentees: Frizz, Tiffany Juno, Toaozay, Ray Ray, Ellie Rose, Prit, Renee Loren, Summer, Jamila, and Madjesty (all pictured above) met for the first time this month at the Tileyard Studios in Kings Cross, London.

They will take part in workshops, writing camps and studio sessions and will record an EP, Behind Every Great City, which will be released on Parlophone.

All ten will also play two nights at XOYO in east London.

Sian told Complex magazine, external: "Black music is a great London success story; it is an internationally renowned sound with awarding winning artists but black women are still a minority within their own scene’.

It was Bruno's 33rd yesterday and after we left you Ed Sheeran popped round to wish him a musical 'all the best'.

However it seems the British singer/songwriter - who unlike the birthday boy, has not yet headlined the Super Bowl, had to earn his slice of cake.

Watch above.

Oh and who else eats cake with a knife and fork?

BBC Radio 1

The 1975, Rita Ora and Mumford and Sons are among the lineup for Radio 1's Live Lounge month next month.

It all kicks off on Thursday 1 November with Twenty One Pilots, who will perform an original track and a cover, as is tradition.

As an example of how it could pan out, see Matty Healy's band's best Bieber above from a few years back.

The Live Lounge sessions will be hosted by Clara Amfo from Monday to Thursday, 10am-13:00 and performances will be available to watch on BBC Radio 1’s iPlayer and YouTube channels.

Clara says: “November is the time, back for another year with all of the artists our listeners stay loving! Whether returning to the Live Lounge or making their debut performance, it’s set to be another special month.”

It all culminates in an epic-sounding 'Live Lounge Symphony' performance from Mumford & Sons on Thursday 29 November.

The band, apparently in unison, said:

Check out the full list below, which also contains a debut for Music News LIVE Newbie Tuesday favourite Lewis Capaldi, who tweeted he is "absolutely buzzing".

BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge Month

Thursday 1 November: Twenty One Pilots

Monday 5 November: Dizzee Rascal

Tuesday 6 November: Marshmello and Bastille

Wednesday 7 November: Robyn

Thursday 8 November: Hozier

Monday 12 November: Zara Larsson

Tuesday 13 November: Jess Glynne

Wednesday 14 November: Lewis Capaldi

Thursday 15 November: Blossoms

Monday 19 November: Rita Ora

Tuesday 20 November: Jax Jones

Wednesday 21 November: Christine and the Queens

Thursday 22 November: George Ezra

Monday 26 November: The 1975

Tuesday 27 November: Rudimental and Tom Walker

Wednesday 28 November: Ellie Goulding

Thursday 29 November: Mumford and Sons – Live Lounge Symphony

Image source, Getty Images

California news station ABC has reported , externalmore than 51,000 new registrations nationwide in the past 24 hours, according to Vote.org, after Taylor finally broke her political silence, external on Monday.

She publicly endorsed two Democrats for the upcoming US mid-term elections, saying events of "the past two years" have meant she's no longer reluctant to share her views.

The 28-year-old backed Democratic senatorial candidate Phil Bredesen in his election day battle over Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee, saying "her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me."

As well as potentially causing a spike in voter turnout, the comments have also caused US President Donald Trump to confess he now loves Taylor slightly less than he used to.

While the US President may be an official fan/friend of Ye's (scroll down) he's now 1/4 less interested in Miss Swift's music.

“I’m sure Taylor Swift doesn’t know anything about [Blackburn],” Trump said on Monday, according to Rolling Stone., external

Another musician, Jon McClure of Reverend and the Makers has backed Taylor's decision to go political, adding her endorsements shouldn't put off her fans with opposing views.

Speaking to Good Morning Britain earlier, Jon said: “Firstly, I don’t think being political puts you off an artist.

“Nobody ever told John Lennon to shut up, but I think people who vote Donald Trump are entrenched in that belief system regardless of what Taylor Swift says. I don’t think that her comments will embolden people in any way."

He added: “The key thing is that she’s an artist and music is the most popular art-form. Nobody would have said to Picasso, ‘Don’t paint Guernica, stick to vases.'"

Variety

Image source, Getty Images

The rapper is set to join the action star in the film Wonderland for the streaming service.

According to Variety, Peter Berg is on board to direct the movie, adapted from Robert B. Parker's novel of the same name.

The book is part of the Spenser detective book series and follows Spenser as he uncovers the truth about a sensational murder and the twisted conspiracy behind it.

Apparently the character has been the basis for 48 novels, all New York Times bestsellers.

No word yet on who Malone will play but if it's a period piece, then the make-up department have a serious job on their hands.

The filming must play havoc with Wahlberg's busy daily schedule.

Read more, external

Daily Mirror

Image source, Getty Images

Apparently it's laughter.

The singer has been speaking to The Mirror about her 52 year marriage to Carl Dean.

They married in 1966, two years after meeting outside a laundry in Nashville, Tennessee.

She told the paper: "The humour has kept us together over the years. Carl has a crazy, warped sense of humour. He is extremely funny and I suppose I am pretty funny too.

She also paid tribute to her co-star and friend Burt Reynolds who died last month aged 82

"Burt and I were a good ol' boy and girl, and I was very sad when he passed away - we were really very much alike.

"But he had not been in good health for a long time and so I hope he's resting in peace. I'm sure he is. The last years of his life he had some really hard times. We were kind of like brother and sister."

Image source, Getty Images

The controversial rapper caused a stir back in December 2016 when he paid the then US President-Elect a visit at Trump Towers in New York.

Now, he's expected to go a step further by having lunch with him at the White House in Washington DC on Thursday.

Representatives of the Republican rapper - who is rarely seen these days without his Make America Great Again hat - apparently confirmed to the The New York Times , externalthat discussions about manufacturing in Ye's hometown Chicago will be on the menu, as well as job opportunities for former convicts.

The artist, formerly known as Kanye, has publicly endorsed Trump on US TV and radio and recently described the 45th American president as "my brother" on Twitter.

Don't bother looking for that one though as he deleted his social media accounts over the weekend.

Morning all and welcome back to Music News LIVE.

Monday is done and dusted and today we are cooking on gas.

Coming up:

• Kanye to meet with Donald Trump at the White House
• There's a reported spike in voter registration after Taylor Swift’s Democrat endorsement
• A Newbie Tuesday act who found himself up for an advertising award thanks to a Guns N' Roses cover
• Plus a world exclusive from the legendary musician and artist Yoko Ono.

More on all that later but first up today is diamond-encrusted hoodie-wearing London rapper Donae'o, who has a hottest new record entitled Chalice.

It features Canadian hip hop artist Belly and a certain mega-famous, filthy rich, well-connected Scots DJ.

Listen above to find out who.