Focus Music Notes. "Out of the Blues". Popular music through the decades

Nicki Minaj, one of the hottest artists on the planet, and indisputably the biggest breakthrough artist of 2011, has announced that she will be returning to the UK this June for the ‘Pink Friday’ Tour. She will perform in London, Birmingham and Manchester. Nicki Minaj tickets are available from www.livenation.co.uk 2011 was an incredible year for Nicki, with her multi-platinum selling debut album PINK FRIDAY boasting the most charted singles by any female rap album in Billboard history. Nicki also became the first artist to have 7 singles on the Billboard HOT 100 chart simultaneously. She criss-crossed the US playing to massive sell-out audiences with friend and mentor Lil Wayne on the sold–out “I Am Music II” tour and then slayed audiences as the special guest on Britney Spear’s US tour. In addition to winning Best Hip Hop Video at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards along with Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Album and Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Artist at the 2011 American Music Awards, Nicki was recentl

Florence + the Machine are set to release ‘Never Let Me Go’ as the follow up to ‘No Light, No Light’ on April 2. This emotionally charged huge song is suffused with an elegantly weary grandiloquence, gospel chords shine the way for a multi-tracked flock of Florences to soar in free flight. “The gospel thing comes from my obsession with hymns. I’m drawn to anything that has a hymnal quality, be it Spiritualized or dusty old albums by Georgian choirs.” In the two months since the release of ‘Ceremonials’, love for Florence’s second album continues apace, a mainstay of the UK and US chart top10s with worldwide sales now in excess of 1.5 million. Fresh from a non-stop globe-spanning jaunt of live shows (the US, Brazil and a first visit to Japan), Florence has just returned to the UK where she performed at the Brit Awards & The NME Awards before embarking on her biggest UK tour to date in March. All 120,000 tickets for the spring tour were snapped up by her ever expanding army of fans u

Enjoying a constant critical high and a never ending creative peak, Paul Weller continues to push the boundaries with his new album SONIK KICKS, due for release on March 26th 2012. This is the follow up to the Mercury Music Award nominated WAKE UP THE NATION and Paul’s eleventh solo album. Once again, it's his best yet. If you’d like a taste of what’s to come, head to www.paulweller.com now where you can check out the album track ‘Around The Lake’. The track is set to an excellent sequence from a short film called '24hrs, Pavey Ark' directed by Mike Moloney & John Hooper which Paul is massively in to. SONIK KICKS features appearances from the likes of Noel Gallagher and Graham Coxon. The 14 tracks you can look forward to are: Green / The Attic / Kling I Klang / Sleep of the Serene / By the Waters / That Dangerous Age/ Study in Blue / Dragonfly / When Your Garden’s Overgrown / Around The Lake / Twilight / Drifters / Paperchase / Be Happy Children. With SONIK KICKS