And we're all winners as that's it for another working week.

Have a cracking weekend, safe in the knowledge that Abba are back and there will be a BBC Special to come with them later this year.

Scroll down for more on that massive reunion news, plus a review of a live comeback from The Streets and a good old chinwag with Anne-Marie on why women understand more, after her long-awaited debut album dropped today.

New music too from Blossoms and Janelle Monae, as well as 5 Things We Learned This Week, including Kanye and Trumps Twitter love-in, The Rolling Stones' support artists and Sir Elton's Bedtime gig.

See you next week for Music News LIVE. Same time, same place.

Take it away Agnetha.

Rolling Stone magazine

Image source, Get

The Canadian rock 'n' roll legend is getting the band back together for the first time in four years, for a couple of gigs in California next week.

They'll be playing without guitarist Frank "Poncho" Sampedro for the first time since 1975.

The band were forced to cancel some UK gigs back in 2013 after Poncho broke his hand.

E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren, who actually played on Crazy Horse's debut LP in 1971, will fill his shoes on this occasion.

"Life is an unfolding saga," he wrote on his online archives newspaper; The NYA Times-Contrarian., external

Let's hope the story involves another chapter on these shores.

For now at least, let's check into the Ramada Inn with the band for 17 minutes.

It's that end of the week highlight that you've been looking for, the 5 musical things we have learned.

The week got off to a sad start with the death at the weekend of Swedish DJ Avicii.

We also found out which a-list support The Rolling Stones have secured in their UK tour (clue: the tweet above) and discovered a Swedish Newbie Tuesday rebel who is changing her ways, in Angie.

Here are some more...

1) Eminem is living sober

Which would explain his recent burst of creativity.

The 45-year-old rapper, who previously battled addictions to prescription drugs, celebrated ten years in recovery by posting a picture of a sobriety chip, shortly before he closed the final weekend of Coachella Festival in California.

His battles with substance abuse are a running theme of his albums like Relapse, Recovery and latest effort Revival.

His former Detroit rap partner, Royce da 5'9 - from their late 90s hip hop act Bad Meets Evil - was one of the first to congratulate his old pal and "mentor."

Read more.

2) Stormzy goes head to head with Everything Everything at the Ivors

The Ivor Novello awards recognise British and Irish songwriting excellence within the industry.

Stormzy's album Gang Signs & Prayer is up for best album against the indie band's A Fever Dream.

EE also have a horse in the race for best song musically and lyrically for Can't Do (below), while Stormzy's Don't Cry for Me is up for best contemporary song.

Ed Sheeran has two nods in the PRS most performed work category for Castle on the Hill and Shape of You.

Read more

3) U2 want fans to bring mobile phones to gigs

Flying in the face of public opinion, the Irish rockers actually want ticketholders from their forthcoming UK to whip their phones out .

A new U2 Experience app pledges to give fans an augmented experience during their UK/Ireland gigs in October and beyond.

Fans in the venue will be able to hold their handsets up in the direction of a 100 ft LED screen behind Bono and enjoy an audio visual experience.

The future of music or a gimmick?

Read about other times the band have tried to change the music industry

Image source, Getty Images

4) Kanye continues to praise Donald Trump... and musicians aren't happy

The hip hop star and tweet-philosopher Kanye officially re-affirmed his love for the US President.

The rapper tweeted (below); "You don't have to agree with Trump but the mob can't make me not love him.

"We are both dragon energy. He is my brother."

Wasn't that last line from Game of Thrones?

Needless to say, it hasn't gone down well with many of Kanye's contemporaries such as singer Macy Gray (below), Janelle Monae and Ice T.

John Legend texted the star urging him to reconsider and he reciprocated by tweeted the text and accused John of manipulating him through fear.

He was defended by Chance the Rapper though, who said he was "in a great space".

Read more.

Image source, Macy Gray/Twitter

5) Elton goes from Rocket Man to rock-a-bye baby man

Sir Elton John isn’t going to let the sun go down without putting a smile on the faces of the nation’s children when he becomes the latest star to read a CBeebies Bedtime Story.

He will read The Dog Detectives: Lost in London by Fin and Zoa and illustrated by Monika Suska on Thursday 3 May.

Elt' said: “Family is always really important to me, no less so this year, where they have been supporting me on my Farewell Tour launch and working on the movie Sherlock Gnomes.

"I now get to read a Bedtime Story to families all over the UK on CBeebies. It was a great day and I hope you enjoy it."

That's a masterclass in how to plug your many other projects right there folks.

Read more.

Well, it's nearly the weekend, which for many of you out there means football.

#FootballShirtFriday is currently trending online, which gives us the perfect opportunity to dig out this beatuy of Snoop Doggy Dizzle in his Canaries shirt, at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Norwich in 2015.

It's a classic trick to get the locals onside that Julian Casablancas has also pulled while performing in Barcelona with The Strokes.

Don't wish to make you feel any less special Norwich fans, but as Buzzfeed point out, external, Snoop does have form when it comes to crowd-pleasing football shirts.

The word mercenary springs to mind.

Loyle Carner has to be the king of the football shirt on stage though still.

The Liverpool fan rapper regularly sports an Eric Cantona shirt on stage, in honour of his late dad - who supported rivals Manchester United - and last year he was dishing out gig tickets in return for retro footy tops.

Explain this Scotland shirt though please Loyle...

Mamma Mia indeed.

News of the return of Sweden's finest caught us all off guard, to be honest.

Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid said the new material was an "unexpected consequence" of their recent decision to put together a "virtual reality" tour.

"We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the studio," the band said on Instagram (scroll down).

BBC Entertainment correspondent Colin Paterson has been in the game for a long time (he won't mind us saying that) and he didn't see it coming.

No-one did.

Apart from Peter at music blog Pop Justice maybe, that is.

He says he tried to tell us all last year.

BBC Music reporter Mark Savage calls it "the best news of 2018", while Radio 1's Nihal Arthanayake is dreaming up some 21st century song titles for the 1974 Eurovision winners.

No release date has been set for the new songs - but one of them, titled I Still Have Faith In You, will be premiered in December on a TV special broadcast by the BBC and NBC.

Read more.

South Korean boy band BTS have announced a mammoth world tour which includes two UK dates.

The seven-member group will perform at the O2 Arena in London on 9 and 10 October.

BTS have become global stars and are one of the K-Pop's most established acts.

Read more.

The star of his new music video for Sing, Ed's puppet, is back for a second bite at fame in the promo for Happier.

We think he looks pretty styled in the way that only opulent wealth can buy you.

It sees puppet Ed hit rock bottom as he wanders the streets of New York in lament over his balloon sculpture-ex as she fawns over her new man who may or may not be Elmo's cousin.

BBC Radio 2

The Empress of Soul will top at the bill at London’s Hyde Park on Saturday 8 September.

She'll be joined at the event - which will be broadcast live on Radio 2 - by artists including Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja, American singer-songwriter Josh Groban, Matt Goss and Lisa Stansfield.

Gladys said: "I love coming to the UK and always receive such a warm welcome."

Speaking to Ken Bruce (above), she explained why she loves Brit crowds so much.

Listen above.

Image source, Getty Images

This is not a drill people, the Swedish supergroup have confirmed they they have recorded two new tracks together after 35 years.

Writing on Instagram, they said "it was like time stood still", adding it was as if they had "been away on a short holiday".

The band briefly reunited for a private event two years ago and have been reportedly working on a virtual tour.

They say one of the new songs will be performed "by our digital selves" on the BBC later this year.

We'll have more info when we get it.

TMZ

Wearning his Trump-affliiated MAGA hat, the rapper-cum-philosopher has shared a short snippet of some new music he's been working on.

He invited TMZ boss Harvey Levin to his studio to spit some freestyle bars over a sparse piano, which referenced a slave ship and one of his tracks from his Yeezus album.

Hopped off the Amistad / And made I'm a God / it's always a lituation when I'm involved.

There's not much there at the moment and we're not actually sure what "lituation" means but it's his first new material since Life of Pablo in 2016.

Ye has also continued his liberal-baiting pro Trump thoughts on Twitter, even sharing a text message sent to him by his pal John Legend, asking him to reconsider his position.

He later tweeted that he "appreciated" John's text.

They've called it the Greatest Show on Earth in typically understated fashion and if you missed it yourself, you will be able to watch highlights from Muse's world tour from the comfort of a cinema seat.

The Devonshire prog-rockers announced the film will be shown for one night only in July.

They follow artists like Nick Cave and Patti Smith who have all released concert films this year.

Paul Glynn
Music News LIVE reporter

Image source, Joshua Halling

If the Arctic Monkeys were the masters of noughties "chip shop rock" (as frontman Alex Turner puts it) then The Streets were the undoubted kings of chip shop hip hop.

The shop, however, has been closed for seven lean years - since 2011 album Computers and Blues - and fans of Mike Skinner's collective were long overdue a Streets supper.

The penultimate night of their long-awaited UK comeback tour; The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light, saw fans old and new pack into a sticky hot Brixton Academy in south London to find the Birmingham MC, who will turn 40 later this year, demonstrate that he can still work (and crowd-surf into) a crowd as well as ever.

Things get under way with a trio of tracks (bangers - not anthems) from seminal debut album Original Pirate Material; Turn The Page, Lets Push Things Forward and Don't Mug Yourself, which sound as fresh as when Skinner made them in his Brixton bedroom on a computer in 2002.

"I’ll show you how committed I am," he declares.

"You show me yours and I’ll show you mine".

Before dishing out some tough love to residents of the capital;

Image source, Joshua Halling

Skinner's live band of merry men are tight as can be, throwing in segments of Nelly's (in this case very apt) Hot in Herre and later an unexpected bit of Bryan Adam's Everything I Do.

And although the beats don't ring out quite as clearly around the venue as they do on record, it doesn't really matter as such a huge space is required to contain the legions of highly-vocal Streets-wise fans.

After gospel-tinged Never Went to Church, from 2006 record, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, an almost choked up Mike admits: "It gets me every night.

"This has been the best tour of my life!

"But it’s not a game - I didn’t come here to stand around. Do you get me?

"This is about emotions."

Could Well Be In (above) provides an early lighters and two-pint glasses in the air moment, as Skinner comically pleads with the crowd; "Please don’t get naked yet.

"We’re all gonna get really excited. But we need to do it at the same time."

His second foray into the crowd sees some fans get a bit too close for comfort.

"Not the bollocks please" he pleads from on top of a sea of over-zealous fans down the front.

After returning to the stage, the first champagne bottle (no prosecco here) of the night gets cracked open by the singer/rapper who proudly declares: "I've waited seven years for this!"

Image source, Joshua Halling

There's not a dry eye in the house for Dry Your Eyes, from 2004 second album A Grand Don't Come for Free, as bromances all around the room intensify.

New track Boys Will Be Boys doesn't sound too out of step on a rapid fire night of all killer, no filler.

The relatively short night climaxes with an encore containing perhaps the band's finest ode to underground night-time activity; Blinded by the Lights, and final track Fit But Don't You Know It; the song that sountracked every young working class bloke's cheap package holiday in 2004.

The song and night ends with Skinner - by now shirtless - jumping into the crowd for a final time - as the band, joined onstage by support act Jay Kae, Grim Sickers, Bowzer and Teef, cleverly mix into a rendition of the aforementioned Arctics' I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor.

"For our first date that was bonkers," Skinner declares.

It's technically the second Brixton date, with a third and final one to follow tonight.

And while the Monkeys prepare to launch their space-age cosmic Hotel + Casino in a few weeks, Mike Skinner and his group prove that they are still firmly from the street.

They just live on a much more expensive street these days.

Variety

Image source, Getty Images

For a cool $10m (£7.2m).

Former manager Klenord “Shaft” Raphael filed a claim on Thursday according to a report in Variety.

A statement from his lawyer, reads; “Since discovering Cardi B in 2015, Shaft has played an integral role in developing her music career and public image.

"While he is proud of their successful collaborations as she evolved from Instagram influencer to music megastar, Shaft is disappointed by her actions to freeze him out of her career, which are detailed in the complaint."

He claims he orchestrated Cardi's two season-starring role in VH1 reality show Love & Hip Hop: New York, and helped her secure label and publishing deals.

Cardi - who is now managed by the same team behind her partner Offset from Migos - has not responded to the legal action.

Read more, external.

She performed at the 2018 Billboard Latin award show in Las Vegas on Thursday night (pictured above) and tweeted fans to say that despite cancelling a string of performances due to her pregnancy, she is still planning on working hard on new music.

Avicii's family has issued a new statement, following the DJ's death, which says he "could not go on any longer".

The body of the Swedish superstar, whose real name is Tim Bergling, was found at a hotel in Oman last week.

His family added the 28-year-old was "an over-achieving perfectionist who travelled and worked hard at a pace that led to extreme stress".

A spokesperson for the artist declined to confirm whether he had killed himself.

The police in Oman say they've ruled out "criminal suspicions".

In the statement his family spoke about how Tim "struggled with thoughts on meaning, life, happiness".

Avicii had always been quite open about his struggles in the limelight and announced in 2016 that he was to retire from touring.

Read more.

The Stockfordians return today with their second album (sophomore, if you're reading this in America), Cool Like You.

Watch singer Tom Ogden attempting one of his own new tracks on karaoke below, which is cheating if you ask us.

You really ought to go for Elvis, Madonna or Tina Turner if you're doing it properly.

The band spoke to our man Mark Savage earlier in the week about the essence of cool and it turns out the key is a purposeful gait.

Read more.

Bohemian Rhapsody will hit the big screens on 2 November and if these newly-released images are anything to go by, then film-makers 20th Century Fox are well on their way.

Check out Freddie - aka Rami Malek - (above) alongside young Queen guitarist Brian May, played by Gwilym Lee. And the below pic which chronicles their crowning moment at the original Live Aid concert in 1985.

So the director either got 72,000 extras inside Wembley Stadium or that's some impressive CGI.

Either way we can't wait to see it.

Kev Geoghegan
Music News LIVE reporter

It's taken six singles but the Essex-born singer-songwriter releases her debut album Speak Your Mind today.

A mix of pop club bangers and acoustic introspection, it looks set to cement the 27-year-old's standing as one of the UK's most exciting young pop queens-in-the-making, on level pegging with stars like Dua Lipa, Ellie Goulding and Jessie J.

It's also been three years since the former karate world champion released her debut EP Karate.

"It has taken a while for me to get this album out so I'm surprised people are still there. I was very busy, always writing but also when do you find that moment to get into the studio and finalise the whole thing?

"Also, I'm a perfectionist, so things take extra, extra long."

What's interesting as that despite being a product of a playlist generation and as an artist who has collaborated on lots of other radio-friendly tracks - working with the likes of Clean Bandit, Lily Allen and Wretch 32 - Anne-Marie is still clearly invested in making an album "journey" for fans.

"An album is so important to me personally, I don't know if it's as important to anyone else but for me it's been what I'm most precious about because there's a chance to say everything that you might not get a chance to say on a radio single.

"So it's taken a while to get the whole journey of songs together and make it all match together.

Of her 12 album tracks - six of them were already released - most recently 2002, which Anne-Marie wrote with her pal Ed Sheeran.

She is due to support him on his forthcoming UK stadium tour this summer and they've known each other for years and yet this is the first time they have written together.

"We always wanted to do a session together because we've been friends for so long but we were both so busy, we were like, 'This isn't going to happen' and then one day he was in London and he just said, 'You've got to come and do this song, I've got an idea'.

"So he had most of it and then we wrote the rest together, that's how it happened, every song on the album is from a natural organic place, not one has felt forced".

Image source, Getty Images

The song, a rose-tinted slice of nostalgia which feels like a sister-piece to Sheeran's Castle on the Hill, is - says Anne-Marie - "a really nice song".

With tracks like Alarm and Ciao Adios sung as rebukes to to the infidelities of previous partners or Friends which shouts down a buddy who wants that little bit more, the singer says it's nice to be able to sing something which is a little more positive about l-o-v-e.

"I feel like I didn't write a lot of songs about the good feelings of love, I always write about bad experiences, it's very different for me but I've always wanted to have a song like that and Ed was the perfect person to do that with."

The well-judged album title Speak Your Mind, which Anne-Marie has inked across her right arm, feels perfectly timed to chime with the current climate of women coming forward, not just with accounts of sexism and harassment but to claim equality with men.

"I've always been the type of person to speak my mind about everything," she says. "If I feel strongly about it. It just made sense as lot of songs on the album are about stuff I've wanted to speak about for a while.

Anne-Marie has made a point of working with many women on the album, writing with the likes of Julia Michaels, Jennifer Decilveo, Emily Warren and up-and-coming LA artist Sasha Sloan, not to stave off any criticism or fill any quotas but because "it comes naturally, especially writing songs".

She continues: "I think women understand more - I think almost every song is co-written by a women, there are a few songs produced by women as well and that's something I want to do more of in the future."

Image source, Getty Images

Or phone, or record player - depending on how you listen to your music these days.

Dity Computer is the 32-year-old US singer, and close personal friend of Prince's first album in five years and fourth overall.

Check out the opening title track and scene setter, featuring Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson below.

Pharrell and Zoe Kravitz (daughter of Lenny) also appear elsewhere on the record.

Janelle, whose new track Pynk, external is an ode to the female anatomy, is the cover star of the latest edition of Rolling Stone magazine.

She told the US publication that she considers herself to be pansexual.

We've previously heard the term used by fellow singer Héloïse Letissier, of Christine and the Queens.

Janelle said: “[I] read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.

“I’m open to learning more about who I am."

Adding: “I keep my personal life very much to myself. I want everybody to focus on my music. I also don’t want to let anybody down.

“I want women to still be attracted to me. Go get my album! I want men to still be attracted to me so I have to be political in this. So I can’t really tell y’all!

Check out the trailer for the 'emotion picture' narrative film that accompanies the album below.

Read more., external

We're not sure if Robert Smith will them use his eye-liner but the Manc pop rockers have been named as special guests for the band's big 40th anniversary gig at BST in Hyde Park on 7 July.

The band were named as the fifth most exciting act to look out for this year inBBC's Sound of 2018 poll.

The poll wasn't running in 1978 Robert, sorry.

Image source, Getty Images

Also on the bill will be Irish folkster Lisa Hannigan.

The following day in central London, east End pub rock favourites Chas 'n' Dave will support Eric Clapton.

A raft of new artists have also been named to perform on the same bill as Roger Waters on the Friday too and you can check them out below.

It'll soon be summer people, hang in there.

Hello again folks.

We won't be with you for quite that long today...

But between now and 16:00 BST we will be bringing you news of all the latest releases on this New Music Friday from the likes of Anne-Marie, Janelle Monae and Blossoms.

Plus, Avicii's family speak about the DJ's death, Cardi B gets sued by her old manager and Neil Young gets back on the old (Crazy) Horse.

Later on, we'll have a review of The Streets penultimate gig on their glorious comeback tour and, of course, 5 Things We Learned This Week.

Where to start?

How's about with Ben Howard's Hottest Record from last night, which the musician says "opens the door to dream". Listen to Nica Libres at Dusk, the opener from his new album, Noonday Dream, above.