That's what we need right now, to get us out of here as our work is done.

Scroll down for plenty of musical tributes to the late great Dr Martin Luther King Jr, as led by Stevie Wonder and his megastar friends and carried on by this week's Newbie Tuesday act Wildwood Kin.

Plus all the news from last night's Folk Awards in Belfast, members of Little Mix and Oasis have different views on last night's big 'battle of Britain' football match and major music labels confirm that there is a huge gender pay gap within the industry still.

Oh and some band from Sheffield have announced a new record...gulp.

See you tomorrow for New Music Friday with the likes of Hinds, 30 Seconds to Mars and much more.

We'll leave you today with Georgian R & B starlet Khalid's recent Live Lounge Tracy Chapman cover to mark exactly 30 years since the release of the Ohio singer's seminal self-titled debut album.

Time flies when you live life in the fast lane...

While she has shared videos of herself singing cover versions before, Frances Bean Cobain has now sung what is apparently an attempt at original songwriting.

According to a note on her Instagram video (above), she is singing A Capella because "i can’t play guitar with long nails".

She credits her creativity to "not having a TV in my house" saying its "the best decision because I’m forced to occupy my time with things that feed my brain & soul instead of wasting energy on thinking about not having to think".

Not a Gogglebox fan then?...

BBC 6 Music

Indie veterans James are another band on the comeback trail, releasing their new EP Better Than That next month.

It was produced by Mercury and Brit Award winner Charlie Andrew who has previously worked with artists like alt-J and Wolf Alice and is the band's first new music since their 2016 number two album Girl at the End of the World.

The band have shared the lead title track (below) and singer Tim Booth spoke to 6 Music about its relevance in today's world of "complete bedlam".

Listen above.

It's been nearly four years since we have heard from the Devonshire singer-songwriter.

Now Ben Howard has only gone and announced his return in style with a Hottest Record on Radio 1.

A Boat To An Island On The Wall is a pretty dark affair which he's described as "a bit of a patchwork quilt".

"It went through a lot of different lives this one and I think you can kind of tell that, And that's sort of the charm of it, I think."

Listen above and see if you agree.

The track is from his upcoming third album Noonday Dream, out on 1 June.

Ben has also just announced headline shows taking in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and The Eden Sessions in Cornwall.

Image source, Arctic Monkeys

We're guessing that Alex and co have just been reading MNL.

New album; Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, confirmed for 11 May.

There's a moody looking pic of the four Yorkshire men on their Twitter page (including a goateed Mr Turner) and a music teaser to boot below.

It's left us with the question: Is this the Arctics prog rock album?

And here (for the uber fans) is that rather intriguing looking tracklist in full:

1. Star Treatment

2. One Point Perspective

3. American Sports

4. Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

5. Golden Trunks

6. Four Out of Five

7. The World’s First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip

8. Science Fiction

9. She Looks Like Fun

10. Batphone

11. The Ultracheese

Five years have passed (not 84 - below) since their last album; AM.

We, like many of you, can't wait to hear the new sound... especially Ultracheese.

According to a new report on the music website Dork, the sixth Arctics album is seemingly titled... wait for it...

Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

Which is a cool name right?

They've cited an entry on Amazon saying it has a release date of 11 May.

But that's nothing compared to some of the apparent track names that are now listed on the Japanese I Tunes page for the Sheffield foursome.

There are some real beauties on there including Golden Trunks, She Looks Like Fun and our favourite; The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip.

See for yourself, external if you don't believe us.

Just last month, drummer Matt Helders told a bloke in a chip shop, it would be coming in May.

The band are playing TRNSMT in Glasgow this summer as well as some dates in Europe.

Read more, external

BBC Radio 2

In addition to Stevie Wonder and friends (scroll down), Devon alt-folk family trio Wildwood Kin paid their own timely musical tribute to the great man yesterday afternoon.

They popped into Simon Mayo's Radio 2 show to perform a cover of U2's Pride (In the Name of Love).

Their performance formed part of a folk music special ahead of last night's Folk Awards.

If you like the sound of the above, then take a look at our interview with The Kin from earlier in the week, as we all went folk crazy as they joined our burgeoning Newbie Tuesday club.

We'd have quite a festival already if we could get these 21 acts all together.

Now there's an idea...

Mark Savage
Music reporter, BBC News

Country music legend Kenny Rogers has scrapped the remainder of his farewell tour on doctor's orders.

The 79-year-old singer is "working through a series of health challenges", his management said in a statement.

"His doctors fully expect the outcome to be great," they added, but said he had been advised to cancel his commitments "to focus on recuperation".

Rogers had eight dates left to play, including an appearance at Blackpool's Livewire Festival in August.

He announced his farewell tour in 2015, saying he wanted to spend more time with his two young sons and his wife Wanda.

"I didn't want to take forever to retire," Rogers said on Wednesday.

Speaking to Rolling Stone last year, external, the star said his health had started to have an impact on his ability to perform.

"This is all I've done for 60 years, but my mobility has gotten kind of strange, and I don't like to go on stage and have to apologise," he said.

"It's one of those things - you make decisions based on what life gives you. I've had a great life, I can't complain, but it's time for me to hang it up, I think."

Today's #TBT takes us to Amsterdam in 1976.

There we find the prince of soul Marvin Gaye performing his anti-war rallying cry; What's Going On.

The song, released in 1971, was Marvin's ode to peace and love and he would've appreciated Stevie Wonder's attempts to keep Dr MLK's dream alive today (scroll down).

In 1984, the singer was shot and killed by his own father, Marvin Gay Sr, just a day before his 45th birthday.

Watch him doing what he did best above.

Image source, Youtube/Rudy Manusco

That's right.

The Biebster skates in to represent his country near the end of a satirical new comedy sketch entitled Racist Superman

Apparently Canadian Superman's main personality traits are that he's incredibly nice and massively into ice hockey.

The sketch comes courtesy of YouTube comedian Rudy Mancuso, who supported Biebs in Brazil on his Purpose tour.

It pokes fun at cultural stereotypes and is mildly amusing to be fair but it is also eight whole minutes long, so we'll let you find it for yourselves online.

If it helps JB enters proceedings at around 06:20.

When she's not busy singing her heart out at The Kop (scroll down), Little Mix's Perrie Edwards is doing the same in the recording studio.

The girls are the stars of Friday's first #SLFN (that's Sounds Like Friday Night) of the new series and they gave presenter Dotty the exclusive first listen of their new single.

And by exclusive listen, we mean one of four Mixers hummed the tune.

Thankfully it isn't a cover of You'll Never Walk Alone.

Check it above.

American rapper/producer El-P from Run The Jewels has given his thumbs up to a new remix album of his beats being set to the vocal stylings of Queens of the Stone Age singer Josh Homme.

"It's kind of awesome," he tweeted, to a producer called ToToM, external.

"Thanks for this weird gift."

You can check it out above.

The lyrics come from Make It wit Chu from the Queens' 2007 album Era Vulgaris.

Josh has already had a listen and gives his approval in the form of one flame emoji.

Sometimes a flame emoji paints a thousand words, as the old saying goes.

Image source, EPA

The Georgian rapper posted a picture of himself, external with three year old T’Rhigi “Ralo” Diggs on his Instagram page, believed to be taken just a few days before the child was killed in a shooting in DeKalb County.

"Frankly I’m just appalled man,” he wrote.

"This kid is around the same age as my son and my heart goes out to his family.”

The three-year-old died on Sunday night when someone fired a gun into his mother's car.

He had been sleeping in the back seat in his car seat.

Local police and T'Rhigi's mother, Roshonda Craig, have said they felt the shooting may have been a case of mistaken indentity.

2 Chainz added: "We have to do better y’all ... how you kill a 3 year old bru ????? How ???"

NME

Image source, PA

The music legend has contributed to a new music compilation turning classic tracks into “same-sex wedding anthems”.

The new mini-album Universal Love is out this New Music Friday and also features St Vincent, Kesha and Bloc Party‘s Kele Okereke.

Bob has taken on the 1929 classic She’s Funny That Way, changing the lyrics to He’s Funny That Way.

Billboard magazine

Image source, PA

A photographer's legal action against Kendall and Kylie Jenner's fashion label over a line of T-shirts bearing the late rapper Tupac's face on them is being dropped, says Billboard.

A court document filed on Wednesday says both parties are asking a judge to dismiss Michael Miller's action.

The controversial tops, which were being sold for $125 (£95), featured the sisters' faces and logo superimposed over images of musicians such as rappers Tupac and Notorious BIG and rock bands like Kiss.

They were withdrawn from sale and they both apologised.

"These designs were not well thought out and we deeply apologise to anyone that has been upset and/or offended, especially to the families of the artists," Kylie wrote on Twitter.

The court papers say each side in the dispute will pay legal fees with no more detail on any financial settlement.

Read more, external.

Image source, Getty Images

Some of the music biz's biggest players have released their gender pay gap stats... and it does not make for good reading.

Basically that gap looks pretty big and the music industry appears to be dominated by men.

As reported by Music Business Week, external, the average gender pay gap across Universal Music UK, Sony Music UK, Warner Music UK and Live Nation was up to 30% in favour of male employees.

Warner Music UK reported an average gender pay gap of 49%. Their median figure (the number halfway between the highest and lowest) shows a 21% pay gap, which is higher than the national average of 18.4%.

The company's gender gap for bonuses was even wider at 82% mean and 44% median and the proportion of women in leadership roles (16%) is described as "stubbornly low", considering females constitute 42% of the workforce.

Masha Osherova, from Warner Music, wrote in the company's submission: “Our current gender pay gap numbers make starkly clear the need for us to accelerate the pace of change within our company.

"For the past three years, we’ve been focused on making WMUK a more dynamic and forward-thinking organisation.

Universal reported a median pay gap of 16.7% while Sony Music UK reported a pay gap of 4.6%(median).

Read more., external

Local rock 'n' roll legend Van Morrison presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to musician and producer Donal Lunny for his contribution to folk music at the Radio 2 Folk Awards in Belfast, Northern Ireland last night.

Folk Singer of the Year was awarded to Scottish singer-songwriter and musician, Karine Polwart.

On an evening of performances, Lunny took to the stage to perform with acclaimed musician Zoe Conway on the fiddle, while Cara Dillon performed accompanied by Sam Lakeman on piano and John Smith on guitar.

A nine-piece from the Armagh Pipers Club brought the evening to a close with a performance of three specially-composed new songs.

Read more

On Tuesay, Radio 2 gathered past winners and nominees including Eliza Carthy, Julie Fowlis and Young Folk award-winner Mera Royle for an impromptu performance which you can watch below.

There are loads more pictures at the Folk Awards site now too.

Little Mix's Perrie Edwards was in fine voice last night at Anfield as she cheered boyfriend and Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain on to a memorable 3-0 victory over Manchester City in the quarter-final of the Champions League.

The highlight on the night for the couple was surely Alex's first half screamer to put The Reds 2-0 up.

The lowlight would have to be Perrie's half and half scarf (above).

We're sorry all you Mixers out there but when is she ever going to wear that again? (Next week for the second leg maybe - but that's it...)

In the blue corner was Liam Gallagher who is not crying his heart out just yet, as you can see above.

It ain't over 'til it's over baby.

Liam's Brother, former Oasis bandmate and fellow City megafan Noel is on tour in Europe right now with his High Flying Birds, who include former Zutons bass player and big Liverpool fan Russell Pritchard.

We bet the air was as blue as City's shirts on that tour bus last night.

The singer, who has just been added to the Swansea leg of the Biggest Weekend (scroll down), has been speaking to Radio 1 about that stage kiss which went viral earliuer this week.

She ended the US leg of her Tell Me You Love Me tour in Newark on Monday with a seductive kiss with her opening act, R&B singer Kehlani (above).

She told Breakfast Show host Nick Grimshaw: "She came up behind me. I had no idea… And then all of a sudden I feel hands on my shoulders for this song called Lonely.

"She totally surprised me. It was awesome."

No explanation though for the subsequent straddle.

The grime star was presented with the honour in Ogun state, in the southwest of his family's native Nigeria.

Skepta, whose full name is Joseph Olaitan Adenuga Jnr was apparently given the title, external of Amuludun of Odo-Aje.

The event took place on Wednesday and saw Skep wearing the traditional Agbada - a wide sleeved robe worn by men in West Africa.

That certificate will look fab hanging just above his Mercury Prize.

Read more.