Newsround :: Featuring Alex Chilton, The Pipettes & David Byrne

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Sad news, unfortunately, to begin today’s Newsround. Alex Chilton, famous for his work with Big Star, has died. This from commercialappeal.com:

The singer and guitarist, best known as a member of ’60s pop-soul act the Box Tops and the ’70s power-pop act Big Star, died today at a hospital in New Orleans. Chilton, 59, had been complaining of about his health earlier today. He was taken by paramedics to the emergency room where he was pronounced dead. The cause of death is believed to be a heart attack.

His Big Star bandmate Jody Stephens confirmed the news this evening. “Alex passed away a couple of hours ago,” Stephens said from Austin, Texas, where the band was to play Saturday at the annual South By Southwest Festival. “I don’t have a lot of particulars, but they kind of suspect that it was a heart attack.”

On a slightly more upbeat note, the world will welcome back The Pipettes on 28th June. With their new lineup, the album will be called Earth Vs The Pipettes, and is apparently based on the the sound of disco in space… Anyway, you can catch the girls on the following dates:

APRIL
18TH FAC251 MANCHESTER
19TH O2 ACADEMY 2 SHEFFIELD
20TH HOXTON BAR & GRILL LONDON
21ST AUDIO BRIGHTON
22ND NEW SLANG (CLUB) KINGSTON
25TH WEDGEWOOD ROOMS PORTSMOUTH
26TH JOINERS SOUTHAMPTON

MAY
7TH FIBBERS YORK
8TH O2 ACADEMY 2 LIVERPOOL
14TH INSIDE OUT DARLINGTON
15TH O2 ACADEMY 2 BIRMINGHAM
21ST THE BOX CREWE
22ND PARCC HALL SOUTH WALES

In case you didn’t know, David Byrne is working with Fatboy Slim on a musical based on the life of Imelda Marco. The song ‘Please Don’t’ which features Santigold on vocals, has been doing the rounds, but Byrne has finally unveiled the video to go with it: