We're breaking up the MNL band and going our seperate ways - until tomorrow morning at least.

Scroll down for Kanye West defending his controversial slavery comments, The Kinks' Ray Davies on getting the old band back together (for a pint and maybe some new music) and a big wedding reveal from pregnant rap star Cardi B.

Plus a Bee Gee becomes a knight of the realm, sad news from the Bucks Fizz camp and our Newbie Tuesday act from Down Under who is calling time on the toxic male behaviour.

We'll leave you with one of the new bookies' favourites to headline Glastonbury 2019, Madonna, enjoying the current UK number one from Clean Bandit.

See you.

We love it when an established musical artists goes off on the state of music today.

And today we have not one but two.

Kasabian - a bunch of white men in their thirties who headlined the Isle of Wight festival at the weekend, reckon the reason we see so many heritage acts taking those slots is that the quality of music from younger bands just isn't up to scratch.

"They ain't good enough, I don't think they've got many big songs, you know what I mean?," singer Tom told Sky News, external..

"If you're a big band you have big songs, it's simple as that isn't it, that's how I look at rock and roll, it's obvious isn't it?"

Thanks Tom.

Image source, Getty Images

On to the next angry old man - in the shape of vegan electronic star Moby who has taken to social media to attack pop music, saying most of it is "heartbreakingly terrible".

"I mean, who should listen to a middle-aged guy complain about the state of pop music, right?," he asked.

"But, with that caveat, let me state that from my perspective pop music is heartbreakingly terrible."

His Instagram game, however, is pretty fly for a 52-year-old guy.

If that World Cup contained a lot fewer teams and Italy were suddenly re-instated for some reason.

That's the question that Radio 1 DJs Annie Mac, Nick Grimashaw, Greg James and more have been answering by introducing some of their favourite international acts.

It's been treated as a given that we could have Tame Impala for Australia, Kali Uchis for Colombia, MØ for Denmark and ALMA for Sweden in this fictional tournament.

The shouts for England include Dua Lipa, Years & Years and Stormzy?

But what about France, Iceland, Nigeria and South Korea.

Read more and find out.

*Pssst: Don't tell your boss we told you, but two more World Cup games have kicked off.

Image source, Getty Images

Drizzy's fifth album, Scorpion, is hot to drop on Friday.

Like Ariana before him (scroll down), the Torontonian singer has been teasing its arrival with a new bit of video.

Watch the trailer below which sees Drake cruising in his jeep to the recording studio late at night, listening to some moody music.

Already on the new album campaign we've seen him return to Degrassi High School.

His last album, Views, came out in 2016 and featured a little known track called One Dance.

Image source, Getty Images

All the best to Ariana, who turned 25-years-young today.

She celebrated by posting a video of her unwrapping presents as a three-year-old and also with another snippet of new music.

Wasn't she a cutie?

New track Sweetner finds a blonde-haired Ariana sitting on a staircase singing about angels, a capella style in a pretty high register.

So high in fact that it would almost certainly annoy Jason Cundy., external

We'll have to wait a bit longer yet for the full monty.

Sheryl Crow's latest single Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You features the singer-songwriter and awesome guitarist Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent).

“I called her and said, ‘I am dying to have you bring your St. Vincent-ness to this.'" she told Billboard, external.

“And I sent it to her, and her response was, ‘[EXPLETIVE] yeah.’ That was a direct quote, as only Annie Clark can respond, which I loved."

Check out the finished product above

Paul Glynn
Music News LIVE reporter

Image source, Zak Kaczmarek

When life throws you lemons, make lemonade - as the old saying goes.

Stella Donnelly, it seems, would probably make it an extra large lemon cocktail, with a lemon garnish, candied lemons and lemon-infused ice cubes.

If the Australian singer-songwriter (or those near to her) run into a problem, she finds a way around it or over it, with a laugh, a smile and in some cases, a song.

Here are just three recent examples from The Great Escape new music festival in sunny Brighton.

Firstly, she laughed off a drunken intruder into our interview, with perfect comedy timing: "Sorry about my dad guys, I've told him not to keep crashing my interviews but he just can't help himself!".

Secondly, the composed way in which she battled high winds and amp feedback issues on the beach stage to deliver one of the most charming solo performances of the weekend.

And thirdly, the tale of how she turned a friend's cry for help, following a sexual assault, into a song to help empower potentially vulnerable women everywhere.

My friend told me of a secret / Told me that she blames herself / You invaded her magnificence / Put your hand over her mouth

"I always give a bit an explanation before Boys Will Be Boys, external," she explains.

"Where it came from and why I feel I need to sing about it.

"That song is quite heavy so I always try and give a bit of warning and engage people and it gets people on side and understanding where I'm coming from.

"There could be people who have been through something like that in the audience so it's always good to give people a heads up.

Image source, Evie Mackay

Stella, who released her debut EP, Thrush Metal, last year is part of a growing generation of artists, like Dream Wife, Shame and Phoebe Bridgers who are standing up for what they believe is acceptable behaviour at their gigs.

And while Boys Will Be Boys serves as a warning to some men out there, she's keen not to tar all blokes with the same broad brush stroke.

"I know so many amazing men in my life who don’t deserve to be generalised into the category of people who just walk around grabbing women or raping women and stuff like that.

Like so many other exciting Australian acts of the past few years - Tame Impala, Pond and Methyl Ethel - Stella hails from the Freemantle music scene in Perth but cites another Aussie, Courtney Barnett (above) as her main inspiration these days.

"She's just amazing and really opened up the door for women who just want to play and tell stories in their own authentic way.

"I'm really grateful to her and Jen Cloher - who is Courtney's partner actually - she's done so much for women in Australian music over the years."

As for her own role in Oz rock, well she's quite happy to "try and tell a few stories and make people laugh if I can."

"I talk a lot during the sets and try and make jokes and engage people so they feel comfortable when I do sing about these serious things.

"It's also important for them to see that I'm a real person who has got good things in her life as well, you know?

"Not just crying about things that have happened!"

You can catch Stella on tour in the UK in August, as well as at festivals like Green Man and End of the Road.

Read Newbie Tuesday #32: Exclusive: Ruby Francis is preparing her festival debut

Bucks Fizz star Jay Aston has revealed she has mouth cancer and fears it could stop her talking and singing.

The singer is due to have part of her tongue removed but is concerned she may need more extensive surgery if more cancer is found.

"I think if they take more of my tongue away the chances of me singing, even talking, will be very slim," she told the Daily Mirror., external

The 57-year-old found out she had cancer just under two weeks ago.

Her agent confirmed the news to the BBC.

Aston, together with original members Cheryl Baker and Mike Nolan relaunched last year as The Fizz (below)

Read more

Image source, PA

The founding member of the Bee Gees has been made a knight by the Prince of Wales at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

We don't know yet what the two talked about, but we hope that Prince Charles was expounding about his deep and abiding affection for How Deep Is Your Love.

When the honour was announced in the Queens New Year's Honours list, Sir Barr tweeted (below) he was "deeply honoured, humble and very proud".

We think it's a tragedy that it's taken this long really.

Image source, PA

The Hello singer and the Harry Potter writer were both in attendance at one of Tay Tay's Wembley Stadium gigs at the weekends.

Taylor took the opportunity to get selfies with the two of them and posted them on Instagram alongside a message of love and R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

The US singer wrote: "I’m so grateful for these women, for the words they’ve written and the worlds they’ve created through their art.. so stoked to have you at the show in London Adele and JK ❤️. Always."

Away from the photo booth it was a real love-in on stage too as she was joined one night by One Direction star Niall Horan and another night by Robbie Williams, as well as support acts Camila Cabello and Charli XCX.

The British documentary-maker found himself at the centre of a Twitter storm last week when he posted a tribute to the slain rapper (below).

He called him a "huge talent".

It may have been a well-meaning tweet by Louis but he was immediately shouted down by domestic abuse campaigners who pointed out the 20-year-old was facing charges of beating and threatening his pregnant ex-girlfriend.

Louis has now taken to Twitter again, saying: "I don't believe compassion be reserved for the righteous."

But he added he heard those who "felt my comment did a disservice to victims of domestic abuse".

Meanwhile, since the rapper's death last week, sales of his music have surged.

His single Sad! has topped the US Billboard chart, external making him the first artist to have a solo posthumous number one since The Notorious B.I.G, with Mo Money Mo Problems in 1997.

The pressing questions we are left with after watching this video is why all these cool people were hanging out under a flyover.

Like Sugar has seen Chaka teaming up with Major Lazer founder and producer Switch.

It's also the first release from his new label imprint Diary Records and precedes a new full album.

What a time to be alive.

In a tweet that's apparently since been deleted, Childish Gambino's manager, Fam Rothstein, has appeared to claim This is America is at least a year older than American Pharaoh - the 2016 song on which some bloggers say the smash hit has been based.

As we told you in Monday's Music News LIVE, over the weekend, some people compared CB's track with that of Jase Harley.

The rapper in question said he too thought his track was Childish Gambino's inspiration.

"I feel extremely humbled to be recognised and labelled as one of, or the original inspiration, for one of the most important pieces of music and visual art of our time," he posted on Instagram.

Rothstein's deleted tweet - screen-grabbed by some sites - said: "This song is three years old and we have Pro Tools [music editing software] files to prove it."

Another deleted tweet posted from his account a few minutes later appears to say his words should be taken as an official "comment from the label".

This is America made the top 10 in the UK and number one in the US, while the video has now been watched more than 300m (yes - million) times on YouTube alone.

Read more.

The King of Pop moonwalked off this mortal coil nine years ago yesterday.

As we left you on Monday, tributes were flooding in from the singer's native US.

Rolling Stone magazine, external dug out their biography on the "triumph and tragedy" of a "complicated personality".

Jackson, whose later life was shrouded in controversy, died at the age of 50, ahead of 50 planned performances at London's O2 Arena - none of which took place.

Oprah Winfrey took the opportunity to dig out a classic interview with the late star, who said he was "chosen as an instrument to give music and love and harmony to the world."

He added: "I just simply want to be loved wherever I go."

US chart sponsors Billboard marked the occasion by digging out Jacko's official top 10 hits.

Starting with #10, Bad ("shamone!") right through to his official biggest chart hit.

Click below to find out what that is and keep your eyes peeled for everybody's favourite cheeky noble scouser, who co-wrote the track.

Michael's daughter Paris, who earlier this month cleaned the Hollywood star of another Michael Jackson, posted the below picture alongside the caption "Infinite."

While the singer's producer Quincy Jones [Thriller, Off the Wall, Bad] describes him as being "like a son", signing off: "Miss you forever, Smelly!"

Thanks for the music Michael.

Channel 4

Sir Ray Davies, the singer-songwriter and creative powerhouse behind the iconic London band has told Channel 4 news The Kinks are getting back together to make a new record... after they've had a pint that is.

Sir Ray said he was "inspired by The Rolling Stones".

The band recorded some of the most famous songs of the 1960s and 70s, including You Really Got me and Waterloo Sunset.

But Sir Ray and his brother Dave had a famously fractious relationship and the band split more than 20 years ago.

Sir Ray, who took a call from the band's original drummer Mick Ivory during the interview said he could confirm "The Kinks are getting back together...in the pub at least."

Watch above.

Image source, AFP

Its been a busy six weeks for Ye, having released a slate of albums including a solo effort and collaboration with Kid Cudi as well as LPs by Nas and Pusha T.

Now, he's addressed his now-infamous comments made during an interview with TMZ, external, in which he suggested 400 years of slavery "sounds like a choice".

“I said the idea of sitting in something for 400 years sounds - sounds - like a choice to me, I never said it’s a choice. I never said slavery itself - like being shackled in chains - was a choice,” he told the New York Times, external.

“That’s why I went from slave to 400 years to mental prison to this and that. If you look at the clip you see the way my mind works.”

Kanye, who recently travelled to Paris to support his pal Virgil Abloh, the recently named artistic director of men's wear at Louis Vuitton (below), went on to clarify that the continuing fall out from the interview is more than he deserved.

Image source, Getty Images

"It’s literally like I feel like I’m in court having to justify a robbery that I didn’t actually commit, where I’m having to somehow reframe something that I never said.

"I feel stupid to have to say out loud that I know that being put on the boat was - but also I’m not backing down, bro."

So, he hasn't apologised, he didn't say something offensive and he isn't backing down.

All good?

Where was our invite Cardi?

The rapper who is currently in the latter stages of pregnancy has revealed she and partner Offset of Atlanta rap trio Migos got hitched in September without telling anyone.

Offset, who got down on one knee very publicly during a gig in October, was reported to have referred to Cardi as his wife at the BET Awards last weekend.

Now, Cardi has now explained on Twitter that his very public declaration of love actually occurred after rap's first couple had been married on the fly a month or so earlier.

She wrote:

Cardi went on to explain that they were "so in love we didn't want to lose each other," so got married on a whim one day with just the two of them and her cousin as a witness.

"I said 'I do', with no dress, no make up and no ring!," she added.

We can't bring you the exact note here due to the wording but Cardi does sign off in spectacular fashion by suggesting that everybody can politely "stop saying I had a baby out of wedlock".

Congratulations to the not-so-newly-weds.

Morning all and welcome back to Music News LIVE.

We've already had the 'is it acceptable to wear shorts in the office?' debate (it was a definite 'yes') and we are ready to roll.

Coming up today:

• Kanye West clarifies his comments on slavery turns out it was us who got him wrong

• Childish Gambino's manager responds to This is America plagiarism accusations with some x-rated language
• Cardi B reveals she has been secretly married to Migos rapper Offset since last September
• Fans remember Michael Jackson on the anniversary of his death

Yesterday was also the hottest day of the year so far and ended with a Hottest Record from Northampton rapper Slowthai, who told Annie Mac that he started rapping as a joke.

Now that joke - like the weather - has got out of hand and you can listen to Polaroid above.