Music Observer

LAZYRAVE Brings Together Four Highly Gifted Individuals with a Deep Passion for Quality Music

To see a thriving collaboration of passionate and musically gifted individuals in the music industry today is a rare sight and achievement for anyone who wants to introduce a formidable group that fans can love. Yet, despite the odds, four remarkable individuals have come together to form the grungy, dreamy, and euphoric band known as LAZYRAVE, made up of Dan Clark as frontman, Ben Kindlan as the drummer, Mark “Clem” Clemmett as producer, and Pete Cheyne as tech engineer.

Dan and Ben come from the same rock and roll band known as The Kush. By joining forces with Clem and Pete, they merge their personal styles and experiences, ensuring that their music has a lasting impact on every listener in different scenarios, from rave parties to afterparties and live shows. Having come from different backgrounds, their collaboration proves to be an exciting and unique development in the music industry.

“We want to create a positive connection with everyone that listens to our music. We don’t stick to a manufactured formula. We try to blend our music across genres drawing from our collective experiences,” the band members explained.

Dan’s passion for music started in his teens, and he developed a love for everything electronic, specifically the drums, bass guitar, techno, and house music. Hip-hop, however, is a genre that he considers to be his first love. He was 20 when he joined The Kush and found himself traveling worldwide for nine years as the frontman and lyricist of the band. The Kush disbanded after some time, and it left a void that never left Dan. However, things started to change for him when he started bumping into Clem during parties and festivals. In 2015, they made their first collaboration with the tune they called “1up.”

“We both worked full-time jobs, so for the following few years, we would meet up once a week or twice a month or just whenever we could to knock up some new beats. As time went on, the tunes got bigger, and my craving for performing live was itching away,” Dan shared. “Benny, the drummer from The Kush who had been living abroad for the past four years, had just returned to the UK. I caught up with him and said, ‘fancy this electronic band or what?’ As soon as I showed him the tunes, he was in the band.”

Not long after, LAZYRAVE started to come to life. “Figuring out how to reproduce our sound in a live setting was an absolute mind melt initially, but we grew the process, adding more as we went along. Just as we started getting gigs, COVID hit. Initially wounded by the momentum getting hit, we realized this was an opportunity to focus and grow our sound, and this is when Pete joined the band,” Clem explained. “We looked at what we had done and did a full rework and reboot of the live rig. Pete helped balance things out as Dan and Benny were less tech-oriented, and he brought fat synth bass to the table.”

When the pandemic happened, the band knew that it would be their make-or-break season. “There was a huge mountain to climb to faithfully recreate the sound in a live environment. Creating a live rig for a multi-instrument electronic band is no joke. This was when I got involved, going deep into YouTube videos, watching how legends like the Chemical Brothers set up their rig and reading articles on the seemingly endless ways how you can manipulate voltage. The learning curve was steep, but we persevered,” Pete explained.

Today, LAZYRAVE is one of the most promising and influential bands in the industry, with an ability to draw multiple music fans on Spotify and other streaming platforms. Without a doubt, the band is the next big thing in the music industry. You can also follow LAZYRAVE on Instagram.

A Man Held by Authorities for Smashing Cake on the Mona Lisa

A man posing as an elderly woman in a wheelchair successfully disrupted the peace and tranquility that usually prevails at The Louvre Museum, smashing cake on the Mona Lisa, the famous painting of Leonardo da Vinci. 

The magnificent painting, which had not been damaged in any way, still looked beautiful even after being smeared with white cream all over its protective glass surface. The culprit wore a wig and lipstick as he encouraged people to “think of the Earth” while being held from the scene. 

Louvre guests were left speechless when they witnessed the extraordinary event that unfolded before them. One of the witnesses is Luke Sundberg, from the US.

“The crowd began gasping, and we looked up, and some man in a wheelchair [dressed] as an old lady ran up to the painting and started punching it before smearing cake all over it,” said the 20-year-old visitor in an interview with PA news network. 

“It took about 10 to 15 seconds for the security to actually take the man away, but the crowd seemed [to] panic a little bit,” he added. “It was jaw-dropping, it was a lot to take in considering how historic Mona Lisa is… the moment was once in a million.” 

The man, who was seen throwing roses in the gallery, was escorted out by security. 

“Think of the Earth,” he said. “There are people who are destroying the Earth. Think about it. Artists tell you: think of the Earth. That’s why I did this.” 

The Paris prosecutor’s office has begun an investigation into the damages inflicted on cultural artifacts this past weekend. One activist was detained and sent to a psychiatric unit while awaiting investigation results about what happened. 

Thankfully, the Renaissance painting was installed in glass to protect it following an acid attack in the 1950s.

A footage from Sundberg revealed onlookers clapping after the cream was entirely removed from the glass. 

“What were the odds this would happen?” asked another museum guest, 26-year-old Klevis, from Albania.

Robert Pattinson and ‘The Whole Team’ Will Reprise Their Roles in The Batman 2

Photo: EW

After a successful showing of The Batman, Warner Bros said at Cinemacon that Robert Pattinson would reprise his role in its sequel, sporting the iconic cape and cowl of Gotham’s superhero. 

While the entertainment giant didn’t disclose further details, it reveals that co-writer and director Matt Reeves, Pattinson, “and the whole team will be taking audiences back to Gotham in The Batman 2.” 

The 56-year-old director made a brief appearance to express his gratitude to viewers who contributed to the film’s exceeding the $750 million mark at the worldwide box office, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2022. 

“This is thrilling for me,” Reeves said, further stating that he’s a great admirer of the character and “is excited to jump back into this world for the next chapter.” 

Reeves also guaranteed to reveal more information about the movie at another Cinemacon. Therefore, to the bat fans out there, sit tight and relax because you will get what you want. 

The Batman was released on March 2, 2022, featuring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gil Colson, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, and Colin Farrell as Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot/Penguin. It is a film based on the DC Comics character Batman. 

The film follows Batman, who has been protecting Gotham City from crime for two years, discovering corruption amid going after Riddler, a serial killer who aims for Gotham’s elite. 

Initially planned to release in June 2021, the film premiere was constantly postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, it garnered quite a good review from spectators, citing performances from actors, cinematography, the direction, sequences, and the storyline. However, it was still criticized for its runtime.

Critics Pour Praises Over Top Gun: Maverick Production and Over all Performances

Tom Cruise’s comeback in Top Gun: Maverick acquired endless commendations from pundits, portraying it as a “barrier-breaking sequel” to the initial 1986 installment.

The continuation of the film hailed as probably the best film of the 1980s sees Cruise’s reprisal of his role as crackerjack US Navy pilot Maverick.

It is “as thrilling as blockbusters get,” as indicated by Independent, praising it as a “true legacy sequel.” Meanwhile, The Telegraph depicted it as “absurdly exciting” and “unquestionably the best studio action film in years.” 

Besides Cruise, the film cast includes Jennifer Connolly, Jon Hamm, Monica Barbaro, Danny Ramirez, Val Kilmer, and Ed Harris. Top Gun will be released in cinemas this month.

Divergent Series’ Miles Teller portrays Rooster, the child of Maverick’s past partner, Goose. Currently a pilot himself, Rooster considers Maverick liable for his dad’s demise in a mishap in the first film.

In the continuation, Maverick returns to the Top Gun flying school, presently an instructor who handles the preparation of another age of pilots.

Top Gun: Maverick was at first set to be sent off in 2019; however, it was delayed to permit the team to complete the flight scenes. And afterward, it was deferred again due to the Covid pandemic.

Peter Debruge of Variety expressed that the “barrier-breaking sequel” is a “stunning follow-up,” further saying, “Hardly anything in Top Gun: Maverick will surprise you, except how well it does nearly all the things audiences want and expect it to do.” 

Debruge praised the scenes from a plane cockpit for their precision.

“It’s the most immersive flight simulator audiences will have ever experienced,” he stated. “If the flying scenes here blow your mind, it’s because a great many of them are the real deal, putting audiences right there in the cockpit alongside a cast who learned to pilot for their parts.” 

Robbie Collin of The Telegraph gave a five-star survey of the film, indicating the “play of light and gravity on actors’ faces, and the way the landscapes spin and drop away balletically through the canopy glass puts other blockbusters’ green-screened swooping to shame.” 

“Watching Cruise’s return as Maverick is so outrageously pleasurable largely because the actor himself treats it as pleasure,” he stated. 

Collin then, at that point, called attention to the “smooth and shockingly moving plot,” portraying the film as “Dad Cinema at its eye-crinkling apogee: all rugged wistfulness and rough-and-tumble comradeship, interspersed with flight sequences so preposterously exciting and involving they seem to invert the cinema through 180 degrees.” 

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Times’ Justin Chang’s review read: “A lot of consideration and calculation have clearly gone into this long-aborning blockbuster sequel, insofar as Cruise [one of the producers] and his collaborators have taken such clear pains to maintain continuity with the events, if not the style, of the first film

Top Gun: Maverick is a longer, costlier and appreciably weightier affair, and its expanded emotional scope and heightened production values give it a classy, elegiac sheen; it’s like a hot summer diversion in prestige-dinosaur drag or vice versa. As a rare big-budget Hollywood movie about men and women who fly without capes, it has a lot riding on it.”

BTS Advocates Against Anti-Asian Hate Crimes During White House Trip

On Tuesday, K-pop icon BTS visited the White House for the first time, delivering statements concerning Asian inclusion and representation on the final day of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. 

The group was introduced by press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, taking turns behind the microphone to talk about the rampant anti-Asian hate crimes prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the unifying influence of music. 

“It’s a great honor to be invited to the White House today to discuss important issues of anti-Asian hate crimes, Asian inclusion, and diversity,” band leader RM started. 

“We are devastated by the recent surge of hate crimes, including Asian American hate crimes,” Jimin then spoke. “We’d like to take the opportunity to voice ourselves once again.” 

“We feel surprised that music created by South Korean artists reaches so many people around the world, transcending languages and cultural barriers,” Jungkook stated. “We believe music is always an amazing and wonderful unifier of all things.” 

“It’s not wrong to be different,” Suga added. “Equality opens up when we embrace all of our differences.” 

V then added, “Everyone has their own history. We hope today is one step forward to respecting and understanding each and every one as a valuable person.” 

President Joe Biden has inked into law the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act last May. The law facilitates the Justice Department’s review of hate crimes and appoints a department head to administer the effort. 

“President Biden has previously spoken about his commitment to combating the surge of anti-Asian crimes and signed into law the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act in May 2021 to provide law enforcement with resources to identify, investigate, and report hate crimes and ensure that hate crimes information is more accessible to AA and NHPI communities,” the White House said about BTS’ visit. 

According to the White House statement, BTS will also talk about their “platform as youth ambassadors who spread a message of hope and positivity across the world” with the president during the meeting. 

The White House visit came following BTS’ advocacy against anti-Asian violence and discrimination the previous year, after the three different spa shootings aimed at Asian women. 

“We send our deepest condolences to those who have lost their loved ones,” the group said. “We feel grief and anger.” 

“We cannot put into words the pain of becoming the subject of hatred and violence for such a reason. Our own experiences are inconsequential compared to the events that have occurred over the past few weeks. But these experiences were enough to make us feel powerless and chip away our self-esteem,” said BTS, referring to moments that they’ve suffered discrimination. 

The statement added, “We stand against racial discrimination. We condemn violence. You, I, and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together.”

Elvis Costello Reveals Reunion with Band Rusty as they Announce Debut Album

Before he was part of the Attractions, Elvis Costello – who was then widely known as D.P. MacMagnus – was initially a member of Allan Mayes’ Liverpool rock band Rusty in 1972. He was then famous for the name D.P. MacManus. 

But even though the rock band toured extensively, they did not make it to a recording studio. 

Today, Costello has reunited with Mayes for their eagerly awaited debut album. The Resurrection Of Rust will be released on June 10 through EMI/Capitol. 

The 67-year-old singer-songwriter had called the album “the record we would have cut when we were 18 if anyone had let us.” 

Produced by Costello and Sebastian Krys, the LP spans six songs pulled from Rusty’s 1972 setlists, including covers of Nick Lowe’s “Surrender to the Rhythm” and “Don’t Lose Your Grip On Love,” Jim Ford’s “I’m Ahead If I Can Quit While I’m Behind,” as well as two originals; “Warm House” and “Maureen and Sam.” 

Also, among the songs included in the record are arrangements of Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” and “Dance, Dance, Dance,” with the latter starring Costello on electric violin. 

The Resurrection of Rust spotlights Costello and Mayes, backed by Costello’s band, the Imposters. 

As of now, fans can pick up a copy at Costello’s current tour dates. In addition, the Resurrection of Rust will be extensively available on June 10 (July 1 for US customers) and vinyl releases in the summertime. 

Check out this statement from Elvis Costello below.

Elvis Costello:

In 2021, my pal and singing partner in the Liverpool clubs, Allan Mayes wrote to me from his home in Austin, Texas. He wanted to remind me that it would soon be fifty years since I joined his band, “Rusty”, just after our first meeting at a party on New Year’s Eve, 1971.

The group was then a quartet, with Allan’s school friend, Alan Brown ‐ who would play bass until he left for university later that year ‐ and there was also another vocalist called “Dave”, whose main credentials as a singer were the ownership of a microphone and tambourine. A month later, after a couple of pretty ragged gigs, Allan and I became the only vocalists and there was not a tambourine in sight. Show business is a cruel game.

We would rehearse in my bedroom in West Derby or at Allan’s house in the shadow of Walton Gaol, where his father was a medical officer, working our way through two pretty similar stacks of mostly American albums, looking for songs to sing.

Our repertoire did include a few of our own compositions ‐ lyrics written in various shades of purple ‐ but they were often put in the shade by the songs of Neil Young, Van Morrison and two Bob Dylan tunes; one made famous by The Byrds and the other co‐written, by Rick Danko of The Band. We played tunes by Randy Newman, John Martyn and the psychedelic band, Help Yourself. One of our early duets was David Crosby’s epic, “Wooden Ships” before which Allan would jokingly ask if I had my lucky rabbit’s foot about me, as I was about to venture into an unsteady guitar solo on my amplified Harmony Sovereign.

Our secret weapon was certainly a stack of Nick Lowe’s songs written for Brinsley Schwarz, which were not so very well‐known then. I think some casual listeners might have actually imagined we’d written them and I can’t say we always corrected this misapprehension but I suppose we’d acted as unpaid pitchmen for Nick by the time we met him, when the Brinsleys came to play “The Cavern”.

For the next year or so Rusty played the folk clubs and pubs on either side of the Mersey, acting as a musical interlude at poetry evenings organized by Harold and Sylvia Hikins or provided background music to nervous conversation at a lonely hearts gathering held in the RAF Club on Bold Street.

We were paid exactly nothing for playing “Mary Help Of Christians” ‐ a Catholic girls school, known locally as “Mary Feed The Pigeons” ‐ and opened up for the Natural Acoustic Band at John Lennon’s old school, Quarry Bank High and then for the Irish duo, Tir Na Nog, in the little recital room at St. George’s Hall, where Charles Dickens had once given a public reading. That show was on the eve of my rainy departure for the Bickershaw Festival at which I contracted something close to trench foot while watching the Grateful Dead in a sodden field.

We even took one fairly disastrous booking as a wedding band on Cantril Farm for which we hired a drummer and had to rescue the night with an impromptu medley of Chuck Berry songs. When teenage girls at our Friday night pub residency, in nearby Widnes, demanded the hits of Slade and T.Rex, we tried to ease their hunger for Marc Bolan with a couple of Lindisfarne songs, which were at least in the pop charts.

It was all part of learning your trade as we were certainly only earning enough money to put petrol in Allan’s Ford Anglia and, failing this, ran our own musical evenings until the club owner of “The Yankee Clipper” realized that our Tuesday night crowd only nursed one pint of beer all night and didn’t put enough in the till to pay either the barman or the electricity bill and we were sent on our way to find safer harbour at “The Temple Bar”.

Nevertheless, by the summer of ’72 we were playing up to five or six nights a week. I was still at school, supposedly studying for my A‐Levels. Once I got a job, we had to schedule our Rusty gigs around my shift work as a computer operator until early in 1973, when I decided to leave Liverpool looking for something and took to this long and crooked road. I asked if Allan wanted to come with me but I had a place to live with my Dad and he had a steady job to give up and I suppose I thought we might travel lighter and further alone.

Allan had always been the more accomplished, presentable performer ‐ even then, I looked like a sack of spuds that had been left out in the rain. He continued to play the local club circuit after I left town, took over a group he re‐named, “Restless” (formerly “Severed Head”) and even made raids down from Merseyside to hit the London pub circuit of 1975 and found themselves playing the same venue and same week as my own semi‐pro band, Flip City. Allan recorded a solo album in the early 80s before traveling the world, playing on cruise ships in the Pacific and in oil worker bars in Alaska, before settling in Texas, where he still plays other people’s songs that other people want to hear in a strong true voice.

Allan Mayes has been a hard working musician for more than the fifty years since we met. So, when he asked me if I wanted to celebrate this anniversary by getting together to play a few songs that we used to know. I said, “Absolutely not!” “Let’s make the record we would have cut when we were 18, if anyone had let us”. And this is what you will hear on The Resurrection of Rust.

The EP contains new renditions of songs from our 1972 club repertoire; our duets on two Nick Lowe tunes from 1972; “Surrender to the Rhythm” and “Don’t Lose Your Grip on Love”‐ and closes with an arrangement incorporating Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” and “Dance, Dance, Dance” which marks my recording debut on the electric violin.

The stand out for me is Allan’s touching rendition of “I’m Ahead If I Can Quit While I’m Behind”, a song written by the Kentucky songwriter, Jim Ford, who wrote hits for Aretha Franklin, P.J. Proby and Bobby Womack.

Most of our own early compositions from the Rusty days exist only in lyrical form, scrawled in our old notebooks, the tunes long forgotten but we did have a reel‐to‐reel demo of “Warm House”, a song which I began when I was 17 and which could be found in nearly all of our set lists and found here with full vocal and band arrangement driven by mandolin.

Remarkably, Allan still has an old school exercise book in which he kept a record of all the venues we ever played. “The Resurrection Of Rust” record sleeve is decorated with a collage of flyers, posters, playbills and diary entries of the time along with some of our setlist from that exercise book which also acted as an accounts ledger for our rather modest earnings, hitting the heady heights of £17 ‐ our largest fee coming at our very final gig, opening up for Cockney Rebel ‐ but frequently amounting to no more than a couple of quid and with several dispiriting entries which read: “Paid: Nil”.

The second original tune is a co‐written portrait of a struggling cabaret act called, “Maureen and Sam”, the verses are taken by Allan with very spare accompaniment before I arrive in the bridges with a distorted electric guitar, piano, bass and drums, all of which I recorded in the basement of Sentry Sound.

Keen listeners may recognize the theme of this song as one I re‐wrote as “Ghost Train” and recorded in 1980, changing “Sam” to “Stan” and setting my new lyric to an entirely different melody. Allan and I quickly re‐discovered the vocal blend that convinced us that we might conquer the world (or at least Widnes) when we were teenagers but to bring Rusty into the 21st Century, I enlisted the talents of The Imposters and we were delighted to invite our old pal, Bob Andrews, to revisit his signature Hammond organ and piano parts on the Brinsley Schwarz showstopper, “Surrender To The Rhythm”.

Like most things today, these sessions connected Sentry Sound, Vancouver with Austin, TX, Santa Fe, NM and Los Angeles, CA by the magic of the musical telegraph.

Warner Bros. Executive Repulsed Amber Heard’s Claims of Her Role Being Reduced

President of DC Films at Warner Bros., Walter Hamada, debunked Amber Heard’s testimony that her character in Aquaman 2 was considerably “pared down” in the wake of ex-husband Johnny Depp’s supposed “smear campaign” against her. 

Not long ago, Heard gave a testimony that she had to “fight really hard” to remain in her role in Justice League, Aquaman, and the forthcoming film, Aquaman 2, following Depp’s attorney Adam Waldman’s allegations of her scheming an “abuse hoax” against Depp in the press. 

On Tuesday, in a pre-recorded testimony, Hamada claimed that Waldman’s accusations did not impact Heard’s role. He refuted that Heard’s role was reduced, saying that the movie was always a “buddy comedy” between Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Patrick Wilson’s Orm. He added that the studio did not plot to place Heard as a co-lead. 

When queried whether Heard’s role was ever shrunk for any grounds, Hamada replied, “No. I mean, again, from the early stages of development of the script, the movie was built around the character of Arthur and the character of Orm. Arthur being Jason Momoa and Orm being Patrick Wilson, so they were always the two co-leads of the movie … The movie waws always pitched as a buddy comedy between Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson.” 

Heard was compensated for her participation in the two films, and Waldman’s statements did not impact her payment, Hamada testified. 

He also said that there were talks about the prospective recasting of Heard because of an “issue of chemistry” with Momoa. However, nothing about the possibility of Heard being released from the Aquaman 2 contract happened. 

“It was the concerns that were brought up at the wrap of the first movie production, which is the issue of chemistry,” he testified. 

“Did the two have chemistry? The chemistry, you know, editorially, they were able to make that relationship work in the first movie, but there was a concern that it took a lot of effort to get there and [they] would be better off recasting [and] finding someone who had a bit more natural chemistry with Jason Momoa.” 

Hamada further explained, “It’s not uncommon in movies for two leads to not have chemistry. And that is sort of movie magic … the ability to sort of put performances together and with the magic of a great score and how you put the pieces together. You can fabricate that chemistry. I think if you watch the movie, they looked like they had great chemistry, but I just know that during the use of post-production that it took a lot of effort to get there.”

Aunjanue Ellis Outs Herself to the World as Bisexual

American actress Aunjanue Ellis is now ready to reveal her reality. Ellis told Variety that she identified as bisexual, which was already common knowledge to family and friends. However, she hadn’t made it known to the public. 

The reason? Ellis elaborated, “Nobody asked.” 

Explaining that she wasn’t one to talk about her personal life while promoting an Oscar-nominated film and her work “because that’s artificial,” Ellis revealed her truth in a unique way: by sporting a Dolce & Gabbana suit jacket imprinted with the word “Queer” to the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards a few months past and by discussing the subject via Variety in their 2022 Pride issue. 

“I’m very clear about being bisexual. I have a sweatshirt that says ‘Girl Bi’ that I wear everywhere,” Ellis stated, further saying that although she gives her effort to bring pride to fellow Black women, they still don’t acknowledge her as a member of the LGBTQ+ family. 

“There is an assumption made of me – a presumption made of me. Is it because I’m a Black woman from Mississippi? Is it because I’m older? I don’t know what the mechanics are that goes into them not processing, or them not just being able to believe that in the same way I am Black, I am queer,” Ellis continued. “This is who I am.” 

Ellis confirmed that she was aware of her sexuality when she was eight. However, she felt undersized being raised with a firm belief in the Bible-belt and didn’t recognize her bisexuality until she was in her 30s. 

“There was a moment when the sun was hitting the water, and I was looking down in the water, and it was so clear, and I can only hear this woman’s voice behind me,” she stated of the walk with a friend at Sundance Lab that was an enlightening moment of her life. 

“I said, ‘This is how I’m supposed to feel. This is what I’ve been waiting to feel my entire life.’” 

In an interview with EW, who stressed her remarkable performance in King Richard as Venus and Serena Williams’ mother Oracene, Ellis said that the show holds a special place in her as the matriarch of a prominent Black family. 

“It’s because I’ve done something I feel good about, and that’s because it’s making people feel good,” she told EW regarding the role. “I had to convince them to put me in this movie, but thankfully I got them to believe.” 

And today, she’s calling on her co-workers and the public to believe in her as she pours her heart out. 

“It is imperative that we see more of that because it is the truth of who we are,” Ellis said in the interview with Variety. “It is not a blemish on who we are. It is the wonderful scope of our humanity as Black folks in this country. It is something that I am insisting on, in what I bring into the world creatively.”

Arcade Fire Appears in Saturday Night Live as Musical Guests

If they haven’t watched the episode yet, Indie rock band Arcade Fire fans will love this news.

This week’s Saturday Night Live was blessed with the appearance of Arcade Fire, performing “Unconditional (Lookout Kid)” and “The Lightning I, II” during the episode hosted by Benedict Cumberbatch. They also played “End of the Empire I-IV (Sagittarius A*)” during the credit roll at the end of the show.

After they finished their second song of the evening, Win Butler gave a message to the audience, appearing to back up abortion rights.

“A woman’s right to choose forever and ever and ever, amen,” he stated.

This week’s episode of SNL was the fifth time the band appeared as musical guests on the show – after appearances in 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2018. In March, Arcade Fire revealed their newest album, WE, with the rollout of “The Lightning I, II.” They released “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)” from the album in April.

Will Butler announced his separation from the band in the same week of WE’s release, saying, “I left at the end of last year after the new record was complete.” He added, “There was no acute reason beyond that I’ve changed – and the band has changed – over the last almost 20 years. Time for new things.”

He later revealed to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that his younger brother brought pride to him by “doing his own thing.”

The band was part of the Coachella lineup, playing in the Mojave Tent on April 15, but they were added in late.

Arcade Fire recently announced their tour.

The band is scheduled for a tour in Europe and North America this year, starting in Dublin at the end of August. Beck will headline the opening for the band in North America, with Feist snagging the support slot for their European schedules.

Kanpe, which backs vulnerable communities in Haiti, will be the beneficiary for a dollar, pound, and euro from every ticket sale of Arcade Fire’s tour, in collaboration with Plus1.

Next week’s episode of SNL will see Post Malone and Selena Gomez as musical guests.

Check out this list below for Arcade Fire’s tour schedule:

08-30 Dublin, Ireland – 3Arena

09-02 Birmingham, England – Utilita Arena Birmingham

09-03 Manchester, England – AO Arena

09-05 Glasgow, Scotland – OVO Hydro

09-08 London, England – The O2

09-11 Lille, France – Zenith

09-12 Antwerp, Belgium – Sportpaleis

09-14 Cologne, Germany – Lanxess Arena

09-15 Paris, France – Accor Arena

09-17 Milan, Italy – Mediolanum Forum

09-18 Munich, Germany – Olympiahalle

09-21 Madrid, Spain – WiZink Center

09-22 Lisbon, Portugal – Campo Pequeno

09-23 Lisbon, Portugal – Campo Pequeno

09-25 Bordeaux, France – Arkea Arena

09-26 Nantes, France – Zenith de Nantes

09-28 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Ziggo Dome

09-29 Berlin, Germany – Mercedes-Benz Arena

10-01 Warsaw, Poland – COS Torwar

10-28 Washington, D.C. – The Anthem

11-01 Camden, NJ – Waterfront Music Pavilion

11-04 Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center

11-08 Boston, MA – MGM Fenway Music Hall

11-10 Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena 

Read Also: Travis Scott to Headline Three Primavera Sound Festivals

Johnny Depp Makes a Surprise Appearance at a London Concert, Awaiting Final Verdict of Defamation Case

Johnny Depp attended a rock concert in London without scheduling prior, as he awaits the verdict of his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.

The actor performed at the Royal Albert Hall with British guitarist Jeff Beck, famous for his work in rock and roll music – the second time the two appeared together after Sunday’s Sheffield performance. 

The jury’s deliberation on Depp’s million-dollar lawsuit against Heard is scheduled to resume on Tuesday. The 58-year-old sues his ex-wife for an article she published in which she declares herself a domestic abuse survivor. Heard counter-sued for $100 million. 

Before the weekend, attorneys for both sides delivered final arguments to closing statements. The deliberation started soon after, and it was adjourned until Monday so that everyone could enjoy Memorial Day Weekend in America.

Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck performed John Lennon’s “Isolation,” which they collaborated on in 2020. The performance prompted different reactions from the audience. 

In an interview with the PA news agency, 38-year-old Angela Flannery from Southend said that Depp had “smashed it,” further stating that she did not know he would perform. “I’ll die happy, I’ve been in the same room as him now.” 

However, Peter Schmidt, who came a long way from Frankfurt to London, particularly for the concert, claimed he felt “duped” and called Depp an “embarrassment.” 

“I had been waiting 50 years to see Jeff Beck live… this was the biggest let-down of my life,” he stated, according to Reuters. 

Depp is set to perform again at the London venue on Tuesday – the same day the verdict could come.