PET SHOP BOYS recent show at Ireland's Oxegen Festival has been reviewed in the REVIEWS section. Meanwhile the band's classic single 'West End Girls' has been covered by up and coming UK act We Have Band.
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DURAN DURAN have announced that they will be joined onstage by producer Mark Ronson at their forthcoming appearance at London's Lovebox Festival and Edinburgh Castle this month.
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GARY NUMAN's album 'The Pleasure Principle' is to be reissued in a deluxe expanded edition on September 28th to coincide with the singer's Pleasure Principle tour which will mark the album's 30th anniversary. The release will come as a 2-CD set featuring the original album remastered plus a bonus disc of demos and b-sides. See GIGS for all the dates.
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DEPECHE MODE cancelled the last two shows of their European tour following frontman DAVE GAHAN tearing a calf muscle at the band's recent show in Bilbao. The band were subsequently forced to cancel appearances in Porto and Seville.
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PAUL WELLER's new album will be released in Spring next year, however he is expected to preview some of the new material at a set of new UK dates scheduled for November and December. See GIGS for all the dates.
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A-HA have announced two shows in Russia in November. The band will play in St. Petersburg and Moscow on November 20th and 22nd respectively. See GIGS for all the dates announced so far.
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HEAVEN 17 have announced that they will appear on this year's Night Of The Proms tour in Germany in December. The band will join a bill that also features ROXETTE and ALAN PARSONS. See GIGS for all the dates.
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KAJAGOOGOO will headline this year's free 'Hobble On The Cobbles' event in Aylesbury in August, see NEWS for more details.
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EDWYN COLLINS will play three shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on August 20th-22nd as part of his own 50th birthday celebrations. The shows will take place at The Assembly Hall and will feature a number of special guests.
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BANANARAMA's long-awaited new album will be called 'Viva' and will be released in mid-September, preceded by a single 'Love Comes' at the beginning of the month.
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AGE OF CHANCE will reissue both their albums, plus all their remixes, rarities and videos, available for download on August 3rd, the first time that all the tracks have been available since their original releases. See NEWS for the full tracklistings.
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Special thanks goes out to: www.remembertheeighties.com??
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KIRSTY MACCOLL's duet with THE POGUES, 'Fairytale Of New York', is the most downloaded 80s track of the last five years in the UK according to a recent report, having been downloaded almost 300,000 times. The track heads a top twenty that also features A-HA, MICHAEL JACKSON, NEW ORDER, WHAM! and THE JAM. See NEWS on the website for the full Top Twenty list!

THE ENGLISH BEAT have added more shows to their upcoming US tour. See GIGS for all the dates.

ABBA will be celebrated at a special concert in London's Hyde Park on September 13th. The event 'Thank You For The Music... A Celebration Of The Music Of Abba' will feature ABBA's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus performing the band's hits with a selection of guest vocalists.

DEPECHE MODE have rescheduled more of the dates they were forced to cancel as a result of singer DAVE GAHAN's recent emergency surgery. The shows originally scheduled in Zagreb, London and Dusseldorf in May and June will now take place in February. See GIGS for all the dates.

ALISON MOYET has announced a very special tour for November and December that will see her celebrate her 25th anniversary as a solo performer with twenty-six shows across the UK. She has also collaborated with electronic group My Robot Friend on a new track called 'Waiting' which will feature on the US act's forthcoming album 'Soft Parts' which is scheduled for release on September 29th. See GIGS for all the dates.

GARY NUMAN has announced the dates for his upcoming 'Pleasure Principle' tour which will see him play the classic album at sixteen shows around the country. See GIGS for all the dates.

MADNESS will play a huge outdoor show at Carisbrooke Castle Fields on the Isle Of Wight on August 30th.

ERASURE will release a six-track EP of classic remixes entitled 'Erasure.Club' on August 10th. The mixes were released to clubs on a series of promo-only 12" singles in 1990 and have not been commercially released before. The release includes versions of the singles 'Ship Of Fools' and 'Sometimes' among the six mixes and is available for pre-order with a special Erasure t-shirt at the band's official online shop.

MICHAEL JACKSON will be the subject of a special tribute edition of Smash Hits magazine which is published this week. The publication will be the first edition of Smash Hits to come out since the magazine folded in 2006 and will feature Michael Jackson content from their archives and will include original interviews, news reports and posters. The singer was also reportedly working on two albums prior to his death last week, a pop album with songwriter Claude Kelly and Akon, and an instrumental classical album. It is thought that both albums will receive some sort of release.

NEW ORDER's BERNARD SUMNER and STEPHEN MORRIS's new project Bad Lieutenant will release its first single 'Sink Or Swim' on September 21st with an album, 'Never Cry Another Tear' to follow on October 5th.

SHAKATAK will play Japan's Kutchan Jazz Festival on Saturday July 25th followed by shows ain Tokyo, Fukuok and Osaka. See NEWS for dates and more details.

REM are expected to release a live album later this year featuring songs from the band's five-night residency of 'live rehearsals' at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in 2007. The band will also have an expanded and remastered edition of their 'Reckoning' album released on August 3rd.

Special thanks to: www.remembertheeighties.com - "The 80s... up to date!"