So 2018 is officially the year of the dog, as of today.

Zodiac experts believe that anyone born in this year therefore will be a very loyal creature... and perhaps even barking mad. Your faithful rabbit/rat writers, respectively, wish you all a great weekend and a Happy Chinese New Year.

Before you head off into the night, scroll down to discover five things we learned this week in music, plenty more gossip from the NME Awards - including Big Narstie's plan to take over your telly - and lots of new music from the likes of Muse, the Manics and Paris Hilton.

Good luck finding a festival bill with those three names together.

See you next week.

Peace out.

Image source, PA

Tom, who made the BBC Sound of 2017 list, is reaching for the stars on his debut album, which is out later this year.

He says his biggest influences include the likes of Amy Winehouse, Ray Charles and Adele.

As well as Robert Johnson and Plan B.

That's a broad list.

The singer, who has worked with Chase & Status in the past, was on the lookout for Kasabian's Serge when we found him. on the red carpet at the NME awards.

"I reckon me and Serge would get on."

We don't know if the two ever did meet but we do know what the new album is supposed to sound like.

"There'll be orchestras, brass, gospel - a classic record really," said Tom.

"I'm excited for people to hear it and excited to get it out there."

And we are excited to hear it if he can pull all of that off.

Image source, PA

The London rap duo were up for best mixtape at the NME awards this week, for their 7 Nights / 7 Days compilation.

The award went to Avelino in the end but judging by their chat on the red carpet, we're sure the lads didn't let it ruin their night.

There was fighting talk coming from their direction.

"Someone was saying who would win in a cage fight between us and the Gallaghers?," joked Krept.

"We would take them to the cleaners!" replied Konan.

Just as well Noel wasn't in the building or it could've got messy.

Back to the music and after their mixtape, which featured guest appearances from Skepta, J Hus and Stormzy, was recognised, we asked what their next dream collaboration would be.

"Rihanna, with a Jay-Z verse with Eminem and Lil Wayne all on the same song," said Konan, in a heartbeat.

"Elton John on the hook - it would be a masterpiece."

Sounds great but we wouldn't want to be the one sorting out the royalties for that one.

Image source, Getty Images

OK latecomers, here's our rap up of a week which saw Cardi B (above) declare her feminist credentials, external, the headliners for this year's Reading + Leeds festivals announced and we met a great new band for you to check out - our Newbie Tuesday for this week, Brighton rockers Yonaka.

1) Ed Sheeran used to worry about body image... but not anymore

As we can see from his video for Shape of You, he does like an Anhtony Joshua-themed workout when he goes a-wooing.

But Ed insisted his days of worrying about his weight are over after feeling pressure to slim down early in his career.

At one point, he started a crash strict diet after comparing himself unfavourably to "people like Justin Bieber or the One Direction lot".

"I was like, 'they're so photogenic and they've got six packs... and I should look like that,'" he said on a new podcast by fellow musician George Ezra, external.

"I had zero insecurities before I became a singer - and I was born with ginger hair

"I didn't care. I'd have a beer belly, ginger hair, wouldn't wash and wear scraggly clothes.

"But as soon as you become in the public eye and people start picking holes in you, you start thinking things are bad for you. Like, 'Am I fat?'"

Read more.

Image source, Getty Images

2) Jack White says rock 'n' roll needs an injection of 'wildness'

"Rock ’n’ roll needs an injection of some new young blood to really just knock everybody dead right now."

So says the 42-year-old singer and guitarist, while promoting his third solo album Boarding House Reach.

He was speaking on US radio station KROQ, external when he suggested a new wave of rock is “brewing”.

"Since rock 'n' roll’s inception, every 10, 12 years, there’s a breath of fresh air and a new injection of some sort of what you could, I guess, call 'punk attitude' or something like that... a wildness."

Amen.

Read more

3) Metallica's James Hetfield makes a very convincing cop

The hulking frontman is playing Utah highway patrol officer Bob Hayward in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, as reported by Deadline, external.

He stars opposite Hollywood heartthrob Zac Efron (pictured above) who plays the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy.

We also learned that James' band have been honoured with the music equivalent of the Nobel Prize - the Polar Music Prize.

One of the most prestigious awards in music comes with a £90,000 prize, which the band will be presented with in Stockholm this June.

They're the first metal band to win the award and according to organisers, the Glastonbury headliners could transform "a teenage bedroom into a Valhalla".

Read more.

4) Taylor Swift's choruses are too 'banal' to be copyrighted

The singer won a bittersweet victory this week when her lawyers had a copyright claim over her track Shake It Off thrown out of court.

Sean Hall and Nathan Butler sued Taylor last year, arguing the hit song stole from their composition, Playas Gon' Play.

They said Taylor's chorus relied on their lyric, "playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate".

Judge Michael W Fitzgerald disagreed suggesting "the phrases 'playas… gonna play' or 'haters… gonna hate', standing on their own, [are] no more creative than 'runners gonna run', 'drummers gonna drum', or 'swimmers gonna swim.'

"The concept of actors acting in accordance with their essential nature is not at all creative; it is banal."

Erm... yaaay Taylor?

Image source, Getty Images

5) Ignored at the Grammys... women ended up ruling the NME awards

Just weeks after being told to "step up" their game by the boss of the Grammys (who later apologised), women were in dominance at the award ceremony in south London.

Haim (above) won best international band, Lorde won international solo artist, Charli XCX won best track and Shirley Manson (below) was heralded as an 'icon'

Image source, PA

"I don't feel good ever about having to school someone," she declared, with reference to her musical rebuke, external to Neil Portnow.

"It kind of breaks my heart that women still have to do that.

"For the head of the recording academy to suggest that women are not 'stepping up'... is so ignorant and so offensive and so upsetting I don't even know where to start with it."

Here are our pick of nine moments which put women in the spotlight.

Talk about being a perfectionist.

Will Toledo has clearly been having nightmares about the quality of his band's 2011 album Twin Fantasy.

So much so that he's made their 11th (yes, ELEVENTH!) full length release today a re-working of their sixth.

Twin Fantasy (Face To Face) is hopefully more to the 25-year-old Virginian's liking and you can check out the new version of Nervous Young Humans above and decide if you prefer it to the original.

Now then.

We'd like to think you visit MNL every week day just to see how we're doing but we know on a Friday that you're only really here for one reason; new music.

And that's totally fine. We get it. So let's have a power post of two new music videos from two very different artists.

First up US singer/songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews is espousing the merits of being kind to strangers in her wistful new track, which you can check about above.

Courtney seems pretty inseparable from her guitar, whether in the car, on the couch or at the airport, which probably explains those killer country riffs. It's the second song taken from her forthcoming album May Your Kindness Remain, which is out on 23 March.

We've had a chat with her which we'll let you in on in the coming weeks.

Next up Aussie singer/actress Delta Goodrem has a confession in her new song Think About You, so saucy that it just made our monitors blush.

Find out what the former Australian X Factor winner has to reveal below.

Disant Colours is the latest single from the Welsh band's forthcoming 13th album Resistance Is Futile, which drops on 13 April.

Like the previous video for lead single International Blue, external, the video features a mysterious lady (actress Sarah Sayuri) delivering more cryptic aphorisms - this time in Welsh - before the track kicks in.

Check it out above.

The Manics will play the Belfast leg of the BBC's Biggest Weekend this summer.

Another 90s band of guitar heroes Ride are back today too with a new EP called Tomorrow's Shore.

Last year's Weather Diaries was the Oxfordshire band's first full album in over 20 years.

Now, they've joined the new digital age and dropped a four-track record and you can check out the new video for Catch You Dreaming above.

Singer Mark Gardener, like James Bay, has ditched the hat too it seems.

Hats are so 2017 anyway - but a good bit of shoegaze on a Friday afternoon is surely timeless.

Earlier, we told you that Thought Contagion was Annie Mac's Hottest Record on Thursday night.

Well, here is the vampiric music video to enjoy this lunchtime.

It borrows heavily from Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Warning: It gets a wee bit bitey.

No Loyle Carner yesterday sadly, but fellow Brits nominee Dave will be pumping out your stereo shortly.

Tune in and see if he can match Dua Lipa's Arctic Monkeys effort from earlier in the week.

The Essex singer is set to support her pal and "favourite human" on tour this summer.

And if you doubt the veracity of her statement, just look at them.

Bezzies forevers.

BBC 6 Music

Fresh off the back of her new album announcement, the singer-songwriter has been speaking to 6 Music about how her writing has changed on her new record, Tell Me How You Really Feel.

She has also shared a new track Nameless, Faceless, external, which addresses internet trolls and paraphrases a Margaret Atwood quote: "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them; women are afraid that men will kill them."

She told 6 Music's Elizabeth Alker that her words and music don't always arrive at the same time during her creative process.

"I don't necessarily know that they'll end up together, it's like they're at separate parties and then they might meet at a different party."

Listen above.

Paul Glynn
Music News LIVE reporter

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Justin Young and Freddie Cowan from the band were at the NME Awards on Wednesday to hand Pale Waves their under the radar award.

"I can see why people are falling in love with them," said Justin.

We asked the singer his thoughts on Jack White's recent comments that rock 'n' roll is missing some much-needed "wildness".

"I agree with that," he said, not that you'd know the above pic.

"I think rock 'n' roll is not very culturally weighty at the moment.

"It's being outdone by pop and hip hop and needs someone to come along to force it to face itself in the mirror and do a big 180.

"But it's cyclical. Every 15 years there's Nirvana or a Strokes, maybe we're overdue one... maybe there never will be another one, I don't know."

The London guitar gang, whose fourth album Combat Sports is out on 30 March, suggested greater access to home recording technology has allowed more electronic genres like grime to flourish and could lead to old fashioned (and often expensive) rock 'n' roll being left behind.

Justin added:

Luckily, nowadays The Vaccines have the luxury of a tour bus.

And while, these days, the charts are filled with collaborations, Justin insist we could be waiting if we want to see his band work with any pop or hip hop stars anytime soon.

"We're open to collaboraiton but it would have to be something very natural with a friend, rather than cold-calling Dua Lipa hoping she's gonna improve our streaming figures!"

The Haim sisters have been showing off their lip syncing skills in their promo for their forthcoming UK tour, filmed outside Ally pally in north London.

They were named best international band at the NME awards this week and issued a rallying cry for young women everywhere who aspire to a career in music.

They really are giving us everything.

Abbie McCarthy
Abbie McCarthy

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The south London rapper appeared on the Gogglebox couch, external in November, alongside pals Ed Sheeran and Example, then later on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.

His performances on both clearly impressed Channel 4 bosses enough to give him his very own pilot for a chat show, alongside comedian Mo Gilligan, external, aka Mo The Comedian.

Narstie, who also demonstrated his comedic potential with a surprise slot as the ITV weather man, told the BBC's Abbie McCarthy what to expect from the new show on the red carpet at Wednesday's NME Awards in his hometown Brixton.

"It's sick - doing the pilot on Friday [today]," he said.

"It's the blackest thing that's been on TV in a long time. It's gonna be gassed."

As well as his new TV venture, Narstie has a new album; BDL Bipolar on the way too in August, proving that he's the whole package.

"I've got a good body too, I think I could make a good stripper".

Maybe stick to the music and comedy for now big man, but let's not rule anything out.

Yes *you.

It's difficult to find the words to describe this music video other than to say it involves the scantily-clad US 'it girl' writhing around on a pink loveheart-themed bed listing measurements of time in which she needs you.

Most of us only know Paris the musician from her 2006 hit Stars Are Blind, off her self-titled debut solo album.

But fans will know that this 'new' track is not that new at all, with versions of it floating about the internet since 2010. It was supposed to feature on PH's follow-up album, which was ultimately scrapped, but apparently did make its way into some of her Ibiza DJ sets.

Listen above to the shiny new version.

*It's probably not you actually that she's singing about and more likely new fiance Chris Zylka. Sorry.

Rolling Stone magazine

Image source, Getty Images

Sorry guys, the big countdown on the band's website, external did indeed lead to an announcement of a tour but, for the time being, you'll have to travel across the Atlantic to see it.

Three-fourths of Smashing Pumpkins; Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, will play their first US tour together since 2000.

It should be no surprise to anyone who has been reading Music News LIVE this week, that the band's original bassist D'Arcy Wretzky will not join the trio.

The Shiny and Oh So Bright tour starts on 12 July in Glendale, Arizona and ends on 7 September in Boise, Idaho.

The band will exclusively play songs off their first five albums from 1991's Gish to 2000's Machina.

"For if this is a chance at a new beginning, we plan on ushering it in with a real bang," said singer Billy.

Read more, external.

Morning all.

Welcome back to Music News LIVE on this fine New Music Friday.

New tracks coming up today from artists as varied as Muse and Paris Hilton.

Plus, the Smashing Pumpkins announce a US reunion tour, plus Courtney Barnett talks to 6 Music about her new album and later on, the 5 things we've learned this week.

Let's kick off today with Thought Contagion; the new one from Devon's best space rock trio, which was crowned Hottest Record last night.

Watch above Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac and Matt and Dom from the band compare hangovers from the *NME Awards, where they picked up the gong for best festival headliners.

Drink responsibly folks.

*We'll have more from that showbiz bash too.