Words: Gery Hristova

#1

The iconic sci-fi film of the 70s ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’ starring David Bowie is scheduled to be released into a novel this autumn. The release of the book was announced by the independent British publishing company Titan Comics (‘2000 AD’).

Directed by Nicolas Roeg (‘Don’t Look Now’, ‘Bad Timing’, ‘The Witches’) the film, which is based on the 1963 novel of the same name written by Walter Tavis, tells the story of the extraterrestrial Thomas Jerome Newton who crashes on Earth in the hope to find some water to ship to his dying home planet.

“‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ is a masterpiece of a film with an awful lot to say; about men, about the Earth, and lots of things in-between,” comic writer Dan Watters said in a statement. “There are ideas in the film, about climate crises and corporate greed, that are more relevant now than they were when Nicolas Roeg set out to make it. And now here we are. I think it’s high time to look at the world through Thomas Newton’s mismatched eyes all over again. Perhaps he’ll see something we’ve been missing.”

You can pre-order on Amazon (£23) and Forbidden Planet (£18,62) for UK and Europe. You can also watch the original movie on Amazon Prime Video.

#2

Glass Animals have become the first British band to top the daily global Spotify streaming charts with their single ‘Heat Waves’, which has been played over 4.26m each day.

Even though the single was originally released in June 2020 it took over a year and a half for the track to reach the official UK chart. Finally, it entered the Top 40 in February and made its wat up to the Top 5 in October of the same year. The same applies to the US official charts, where it took over 43 weeks for the summer pop song to reach No.1 on the Billboard charts, becoming the longest climb to the Top 10 in US music history.

Listen to Heat Waves here:

#3

A rocket launched by Elon Musk’s space exploration company is on course to crash into the Moon and explode. The Falcon 9 has been considered ‘space junk’ since 2015.

Initially, the space machine was launched as part of Musk’s SpaceX program (a project that was meant to find another planet for people to reside on). However, after completing its mission the machine didn’t have enough fuel to return to Earth and instead remained in space. Even though the spacecraft is supposed to hit the Moon with almost 10,000 km/h, the effects of the collision will be minor.

#4

The beloved summer event, End Of The Road, is back for another year and the lineup includes some of the greatest songwriters – new and old. From the alternative rock icons Pixies (‘Where Is My Mind?’, ‘Here Comes Your Man’) and the American indie band Fleet Foxes (‘Mykonos’, ‘White Winter Hymnal’), to the psych-rock trio Khruangbin (‘Mordecai’, ‘Con Todo el Mundo’) plus many more, this year the four-day festival offers a varied lineup.

This year’s festival will take place on 1st – 4th September 2022 at the Larmer Tree Gardens site. You can buy your ticket here.

#5

Following the sale of Bowie’s music to Warner Music, Bob Dylan has sold the master recordings to his entire back catalogue to Sony Music, in the industry’s latest blockbuster music acquisition.

The deal includes all of the artist’s works – from classic 1960s albums like ‘Blonde On Blonde’, up to his latest release from 2020, ‘Rough And Rowdy Ways’. The catalogue is worth about £149m ($200m), based on annual revenues of roughly $16m (£12m), claims Billboard.

That’s not the first time the legendary American artist has sold his work. He previously gave the rights to all of his music to Universal Music for an estimate of £300m ($400m) – including Dylan’s lyrics and compositions, which Sony had previously administered outside the US.

Even though Sony Columbia Records has fought to retain the rights to Dylan’s recordings, including 39 studio albums, 16 compilations of outtakes, and unreleased material which could be compiled and issued in the future and extended his recording contract, promising future new releases, the label said in a press release.