NEWS DIGEST: Monday, January 5

12:35 PM GMT 05/01/2009

Happy New Year one and all!

Prince has announced that he intends to release three albums in 2009 without the backing of a record label.

The 50-year-old star has told the L.A. Times that he is in “final negotiations” with a US distribution company to release the trio of records, two of which are tentatively titled MPLSOUND and Lotus Flower.

Shortly before Christmas, Prince debuted four tracks on L.A. radio station Indie 103.

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Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant has been awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours List. Jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine will also become a Commander Of The British Empire.

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Foals, Oxford's math-rock chart-botherers, have released three snippets from their forthcoming second album online. The semi-instrumental tracks have been recorded by front man Yannis Philippakis and are available to download free from the band’s MySpace page. The band's debut album, Antidotes, was released in March 2008.

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Aretha Franklin has been handed the honour of performing at Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony on January 20. Millions are expected to arrive in Washington D.C. to witness the first African-American President take the oath of office from Chief Justice John Roberts. Other attendees confirmed for the event include highly influential civil rights leader Rev. Joseph Lowery and poet Elizabeth Alexander. Over 11,000 US troops will on duty in order to protect the Obama from possible attacks.

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Wilco will release their first live DVD, Ashes of American Flags, later on this year. The performances, recorded at the Nashville Ryman Auditorium and Tulsa Cain Ballroom in February 2008, are due to appear on disc in February or March. The band are currently in the process of recording their seventh studio album.

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And finally...amid all the Christmas and New Year celebrations, the music world lost another clutch of great names. So farewell Eartha Kitt, Delaney Bramlett and Freddie Hubbard. Full obituaries will appear in a future issue of MOJO magazine.

Delaney & Bonnie (with Eric Clapton, 1969)

Freddie Hubbard & Art Blakey - Moanin' (1962)

Eartha Kitt - Just an Old Fashioned Girl (1962)

Ewan Phillip Gibb

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 12:35 PM GMT 05/01/2009

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