Roger Daltrey: 'Contemporary Music Lacks Lead Singers'

Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who, says there aren't many contemporary singers who could "lead" a band.

Speaking to the Associated Press, the veteran frontman said: "A lot of the new people they choose on shows like American Idol and things like that - I don't ever hear lead singers. They always seem to pick people that are great singers, fabulous singers, but they've never got the voice that makes a great lead singer." 

He went on to name drop some of music's best singers: "You hear ten seconds of Rod Stewart, you know it's Rod Stewart," he said. "Ten-seconds of Mick Jagger, that's Mick Jagger."

Daltrey's tour wraps up in the United States on Oct. 25 in Seattle, Wash. He'll visit Canada for five dates after.

Alex Turner: Arctic Monkeys Is a 'Bad' Name For a Band

Arctic Monkeys frontman has admitted his band’s name isn’t the best, and has laid the blame squarely at the door of his bandmate Jamie Cook.

“I’ve no idea where it came from” he told. “It was Jamie’s fault, he came up with it and he’s never even told us why. If he even knows, he’s keeping it a secret from me. This is the first band I’ve been in. A lot of people in bands have a few goes at it before they find the one that works but with us, we all started playing guitar and everything at the same time.”

“There might have been other ideas for offshoots at the time, but the Monkeys was the first one. It sound like a first band name, doesn’t it? It’s so bad that the tribute bands don’t sound worse. I saw there’s an Aertex Monkeys, that’s pretty clever.”

Noel Gallagher "Oasis Were The Last Great, Traditional Rock'n'Roll Band"

Noel Gallagher, who releases his debut solo album on October 17,  spoke with Time about the band's success and says that it came from their existence before the internet came along.

"We came along before the internet so, if you wanted to see us, you had to be there," he said.

"It makes me feel like a righteous old man. We don't live in an era where indie rock bands sell 60 million albums. Oasis were the last great, traditional rock'n'roll band."

He also said he was approached about making a solo record as far back as Oasis' landmark Knebworth shows in 1996.

"I distinctly remember somebody sidling up to me saying, 'It's time for the solo record now'. But I always said I wouldn't do it if the band was together."

Noel Gallagher begins his first solo tour on October 23 in Dublin.

Shaun Ryder Can't Remember Anything From 1990 To 2006

The legendary Happy Mondays' frontman Shaun Ryder, has declared that he had to ask his friends for help writing his autobiography - because he couldn't remember anything between the years 1990 – 2006.

Shaun, who spent more than 10 years fighting addictions to heroin and crack cocaine, told the Daily Star: "The memories stop in 1990 and restart in 2006. Writing it did take a lot of time but we got it all right in the end. 

"Of course I never wrote a diary on the road so I had to look at old copies of magazines and newspapers and sort out what was what." “I was out of it, so had to talk to a lot of my mates who were with me at the time and ask what they remember. But the book is very truthful.”

Ryder’s autobiography, Twisting My Melon, is out now.

Manic Street Preachers Unveil Video For 'This Is The Day'

Manic Street Preachers have just released the video for their new single 'This Is The Day' which is a cover of the track originally released in 1983 by The The.

The single is taken from the MSP forthcoming best of album 'National Treasures', which is out on October 31st and and features 37 of the bands previous single releases.

The group will play a one-off gig at London's O2 Arena on December 17 to celebrate the record's release.

Watch it below:

BOTM September 2011 - EVANS THE DEATH

Named after the undertaker in Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, Evans the Death's first steps took place when Dan and Katherine met each other at a gig a couple of years ago, but it was only after recruiting Dan's schoolfriends Matt and Rob, and younger brother Olly, that Evans the Death began playing the kind of shows that made both them and their audiences sit up and take notice.

Having evidently spent a good proportion of their young lives attuned as much to the lyrical dexterity of Morrissey, Lawrence Felt, Edwyn Collins, and Jarvis Cocker, as to the scuzzed up melodic exuberance of early My Bloody Valentine, Pavement, The Pixies, and the I Am Kurious Oranj era of The Fall, the band effortlessly blend precocious musical literacy with the kind of unerring self-awareness which makes for a perfectly pitched pop sensibility.

Their imminent first release, latent-cold-war-paranoia love-song 'Threads', produced by Rory Bratwell (Test Icicles/RAT:ATT:AGG/Kasms), is as urgent, unsettling, and hook-laden a calling card as could be wished for.

Elegantly handled self-deprecation, mordant wit and a willingness to embrace your own awkwardness go a long way when you have th sophisticated grasp on the things that make music exhilarating, nervy, and vital which Evans the Death manifestly do. With their compellingly unhinged and hyper-intelligent pop the band look set to blaze a trail through 2011 and beyond.