Scene and Heard

MUSIC NEWS: Roman Abramovich’s new year party on St Barts in the Caribbean may have been a bit far for his Chelsea team, but their absence was hardly noticed at a bash that was chock-a-block with big names from the music biz.

Roger Waters, Rick Rubin and P Diddy were among the guests, while Kings Of Leon were flown in to perform at the occasion on Monday night. Meanwhile, Beck, right, has told NME that he has amassed enough material to release two albums in 2013. The Californian is well overdue a return to the charts, as it’s been almost five years since his last studio album, Modern Guilt. Fontella Bass passed away just after Christmas, aged 72. While most people will remember her for her ‘Rescue Me’ hit from 1965, her career had undergone a revival in recent years with a superb collaboration with the Cinematic Orchestra.

GIG WISE: While there was a rush of gigs announced before Christmas, conspicuous by their absence were any mentions of Oxegen or the Electric Picnic. While Oxegen was cancelled in 2012, promoters MCD had announced it would return in July of this year. Rumours abound, however, that an alternative event is being put together instead. Watch this space. The Picnic may have missed the Xmas pressie market, but organisers have promised word on the line-up and a release of early bird tickets “soon“. At a lower end of the scale, one of the confirmed gigs for the months ahead is Villagers, above, at the Savoy in Cork on Mar 19, while British dubsters Zion Train are back at the Pavilion on Mar 8.