Television Academy Releases New DEI Report; Announces Summit For Industry Pros From Marginalized Communities

The Snuts have encouraged their fanbase to 'bombard' their record company, Parlophone, in order to release their second album early. The West Lothian rockers announced their highly anticipated second album, Burn The Empire, back in June and currently isn't due to hit shelves until October 7.

Biig Piig has shared her latest single ‘Kerosene’ and announced details of a series of live shows in London and Dublin – you can listen to her new track below.The song follows on from the Irish artist’s June single ‘Fun’, which was subsequently remixed by Yuné Pinku.Biig Piig has shared ‘Kerosene’ today (September 6), which was written alongside her ‘Feels Right’ collaborators Zach Nahome and Maverick Sabre.“‘Kerosene’ is the first track off a wider project I’m working on,” the artist, real name Jess Smyth, explained in a statement. “It’s about wanting someone to rip my clothes off, and the tension of that relationship… my own hot girl summer anthem, tbh.”You can listen to Biig Piig’s ‘Kerosene’ below.Biig Piig has also announced a quartet of November shows in London and Dublin.

Bree Runway has confirmed that she will release new music at some point this month.The London singer-songwriter and rapper, who featured in the NME 100 2022, shared her latest single ‘Somebody Like You’ back in March. It followed on from the track ‘Pressure’ and last year’s team-up with Glass Animals, ‘Space Ghost Coast To Coast’.Last Saturday (September 3), a fan on Twitter asked Runway when more new material would be arriving.

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins looks set for dramatic scenes as it released a new trailer teasing the upcoming series on Wednesday.  Starting on Sunday 4 September at 9pm, 14 celebrities will face a brutal selection course run by the elite team of ex-special forces operators - Chief Instructor, Rudy Reyes, and his team of Directing Staff (DS), Foxy (Jason Fox), Billy (Mark Billingham) and Remi Adeleke.Teasing what viewers can expect in a new trailer, it sees a voiceover say: "Welcome to our extreme spa where celebrity treatments include a relaxing plunge pool, skin exfoliation and motivational speakers." It then cuts to Maisie Smith in the desert shouting: "I need help!" while Ferne McCann is seen grimacing during a brutal challenge. It ends by quickly showing a montage of the other celebrities, including Curtis Pritchard and Pete Wicks, testing themselves during the intense experience.The new trailer comes after former EastEnders star Maisie, 21, revealed she went on the Channel 4 show to inspire "other young girls".

Gorillaz have shared details of their new album ‘Cracker Island’ alongside the release of latest single ‘New Gold’ featuring Tame Impala and Bootie Brown.‘Cracker Island’ is released on February 24, 2023 via Parlophone (pre-order here) and marks the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Song Machine, Season One – Strange Timez‘.The virtual band, headed up by Damon Albarn, has a host of collaborators on their eighth studio album including Stevie Nicks, Bad Bunny, Beck, Thundercat, Adeleye Omotayond and the aforementioned Tame Impala and Bootie Brown.It’s produced by eight-time Grammy Award-winning producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Greg Kurstin along with Gorillaz and Remi Kabaka Jr.Today (August 31) the band have also shared ‘New Gold’, which follows on from first single ‘Cracker Island‘. Gorillaz debuted the track live at their headline All Points East show in London on August 19 with both Kevin Parker of Tame Impala and Bootie Brown joining the band onstage.“It’s kind of a mad song, to be honest with you,” Albarn told the crowd at the time.Press material about Gorillaz’s new album states: “Originally based at Kong Studios in West London, the group of musical misfits – Murdoc, Noodle, Russel and 2D – have relocated to Silverlake, California as they recruit new members to join The Last Cult in search of the one truth to fix the world.

Michael Stipe has announced a special split single with Beatie Wolfe in aid of climate emergency charity EarthPercent.Founded by Brian Eno in 2021, EarthPercent aims “to offer simple and innovative ways for businesses and artists to donate to the most impactful organisations addressing the climate emergency”.The organisation marked EarthDay this April by releasing numerous exclusive tracks that had been donated by such artists as Stipe, Coldplay, Eno, Anna Calvi and Jarvis Cocker‘s JARV IS… via Bandcamp.Proceeds from sales of those songs went towards funding EarthPercent’s five core areas of work: “greening music, energy transition, climate justice, legal and policy change, and protecting nature”.Today (August 31), it’s been confirmed that the former R.E.M. frontman will release ‘Future, If Future’ – his debut solo track, which originally arrived in 2018 – on the world’s first commercially available bioplastic 12″ vinyl.The record also features ‘Oh My Heart’ by Beatie Wolfe, and will be available to pre-order here from this Friday (September 2).

Arctic Monkeys have released their first new single in four years, There'd Better Be A Mirrorball, to launch their seventh album, The Car. 

Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp have shared a special edition of Sunday Lunch today (August 28), featuring only bloopers from across their popular YouTube series.The Sunday Lunch series begin in 2020, and Willcox explained last year that it had been born from a desire to keep Fripp inspired and entertained during the coronavirus-enforced lockdowns. Here I am in this house with this 74-year-old husband who I really don’t want to live without,” she told the Guardian.

MGMT are set to return with new music this year, according to frontman Andrew VanWyngarden.The New York-based duo last released an album with 2018’s ‘Little Dark Age’, which NME named one of the best albums of that year, writing: “After more than a decade of insularity, MGMT have thrown open the doors and welcomed you back into their world. In doing so, they’ve had to engage with our messy, unpalatable reality.”Since then, the band have been largely quiet, though appeared in feature spots on The Avalanches‘ star-studded recent album ‘We Will Always Love You’ and ColaBoyy’s track ‘Kid Born In Space’.In a new post on his official Reddit account, VanWyngarden has appeared to confirm that the band’s “drought” will end this year, and that they’re on the way back with new music.After a fan on the MGMT Reddit page guessed at a title for their forthcoming fifth album, VanWyngarden replied: “We have a working title!”Of progress on the record, he added: “There are irons in the fire and we have been busy.

Matilda Lutz (Revenge), Wallis Day (Sex/Life) and Robert Sheehan (The Umbrella Academy) have been tapped to lead the cast of Millennium Media’s upcoming comic book film Red Sonja, from director M.J. Bassett (Solomon Kane), which is now in production at the Bulgarian Nu Boyana Studio, with filming at the Greek Nu Boyana Studio to follow.

EXCLUSIVE: They call it “the show that captured hearts for 30 seasons.” And now, the hope is that hearts will follow the former ABC hit to Disney+.

HBO has released the second teaser for music industry drama series The Idol, starring Lily-Rose Depp and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye. (Watch it above.)

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe Television Academy will launch its first-ever industry-wide DEI summit later this year, which comes as the org also releases its latest report on diversity, equity and inclusion practices throughout the industry.The summit, which will take place Dec. 1, will target DEI professionals in the industry – “to meet, network, share ideas and collaborate to work towards a more inclusive and equitable industry, increasing the visibility, equity and power for those marginalized and underrepresented,” according to the Academy.The report is part of the TV Academy’s efforts, first announced in March 2021, to evaluate the organization’s inclusion and representation practices.

Netflix has released a surprise bonus episode of The Sandman, available to stream now (August 19).Based on the series of comic books by Neil Gaiman, The Sandman stars Tom Sturridge as Morpheus/Dream, the personification of dreams and nightmares who sets out to restore order to his realm after being locked away for over 100 years.The two-part bonus episode is divided between animated story A Dream Of A Thousand Cats and the live-action Calliope. The former features a voice cast that includes Sandra Oh, Rosie Day, David Gyasi, Joe Lycett, Gaiman, James McAvoy, David Tennant, Georgia Tennant, Michael Sheen, Anna Lundberg, Nonso Anozie, Diane Morgan and Tom Wu.Speaking about the episode, director Hisko Hulsing said: “We endeavoured to make the animated version of A Dream Of A Thousand Cats as mesmerising and hypnotic as we could by utilising the magic of real oil paintings on canvas.“We combined the paintings with classically drawn 2D animation, based on realistic 3D animation of telepathic cats in order to create a trippy world that feels both grounded and dreamy at the same time.”Calliope, directed by Louise Hooper, stars Melissanthi Mahut, Arthur Darvill, Nina Wadia, Souad Faress, Dinita Gohil, Kevin Harvey, Amita Suman and Derek Jacobi.The Sandman showrunner Allan Heinberg previously told NME about plans to adapt the entirety of the comic series in potential future seasons.Asked how many seasons they’ve got planned, Heinberg said: “We’ve got as many as they’ll let us have.