Madonna practises Kabbalah, of course, and she wishes to inform readers about this embrace of what she imagines to be Jewish mysticism, having been told about it at a dinner party 14 years ago. “Life no longer seemed like a series of Random events,” she writes, deploying capital letters to devastating effect. “I started to see patterns in my life. I also began to see that being Rich and Famous wasn’t going to bring me lasting fulfillment and that it was not the end of the journey. That it was the beginning of the journey.”

The singer reveals all about her Kabbalah faith in an Israeli newspaper

There’s more – much more – but I’ll spare you the full slog. Underpinning it all is Madonna’s amusing inability to grasp the fact that actual Jewish scholars find it vaguely irksome being lectured to by someone who is academically satisfied by overpriced McWisdom, $26 red string bracelets, and a belief that magic water not only cures illness, but neutralised nuclear radiation in a lake within the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

Traditional Jewish Kabbalah study is regarded as so complex that one is only permitted to embark upon it after the age of 40, and only then with a deep knowledge of Jewish law. In Madonna’s version, although you have to fork out hundreds of dollars for the 23-volume holy book, you don’t even have to read Hebrew to get the benefit. According to the insurance salesman who started the sect, you just look at the books and the “energy” will come. “By simply possessing the books,” the Kabbalah Centre’s website promises, “power, protection and fulfilment come into [your life] You may find that hard to believe, but that was before you owned a set. Have one delivered today and see what we’re talking about.”

Truly an amazing journey.

Yes, show overlord Simon Cowell knows that in conference centres up and down the land, there are spinsters and sister acts and pitch-imperfect teenagers to be harvested. Somewhere out there, even now, will be a young male who cradled his dying best friend as he bled out from a gang-inflicted stab wound, and who has since turned his life around with the help of Mariah Carey standards.

Victoria Beckham will bring her musical expertise to bear on American Idol

But will he reveal himself? Will this sinner who repenteth be offered up, as the X Factor cavalcade passes through his city seeking auditionees, an altogether more advertiser-friendly version of tolling a bell and intoning: “Bring out yer dead … !” Will Simon be able to utter the words: “I believe in giving people second chances,” a line scripted for use in the Manchester auditions, but which has yet to alight upon the appropriate trigger material?

Only time will show. But while you have the luxury of merely crossing off the days as you wait for the magic to unfold, Simon does not. Every night, he paces the empty corridors of his monochrome mansion, worrying whether he has calibrated correctly the mix of trainwrecks/ugly nightingales/Iraq-based backstories, or whether something – somewhere – is askew. Will one mistimed child teardrop in episode three be the Toto that pulls back the curtain, finally revealing that the great karaoke wizard is in fact nothing but a diminutive man working the levers of public taste with a mixture of enthusiastic opportunism and gnawing inner despair at how easy it is?

This is Simon’s burden. This, and the knowledge that there really is no limit to the number of times he could hear You Raise Me Up and genuinely enjoy it – that if anything, he prefers it sung by a dowdy single mother than a major recording artist, because he has personally fitted the mother with a heartbreaking backstory, and she’s going to get her teeth done when the show moves into its makeover phase in week 10.

Yet with the series not due to start until later this month, Simon and his army of fellow judges must set to work sating the public appetite for teasers. This week, it fell to Dannii Minogue to toss a piece of chum into the water, and she certainly didn’t disappoint with an interview in which she revealed the show had landed an auditionee with Asperger’s. “He came on stage and he was very particular about explaining his condition,” explained Dannii of this 21-year-old.

“He told us that because of his Asperger’s syndrome and the fact that he’d been picked on, he hadn’t left the house in seven years … You will not believe his performance when you see it.” But if you read more of the interview, you will believe that Dannii’s attempt not to patronise him fails so spectacularly that she might as well have just screeched, “Amazing news! We’ve found another one! In your face, Susan Boyle!”

Of course, SuBo’s in a heavily ballgowned Harper’s Bazaar photoshoot this month, and will doubtless have acquired a mid-Atlantic accent and a glamorous prescription painkiller dependency by what she probably now refers to as “fall”. So it’s vital to inject these shows with fresh naivety.

Speaking of painkiller addiction, meanwhile, it is to another Cowell-rich format that we now turn, as idiosyncratic American Idol judge Paula Abdul has announced she is leaving the show. Clearly, this leaves American Idol short of a burbling kook who at any given moment might strike up one-sided conversation with whichever imaginary unicorn has just drifted into her field of vision … And unbelievably, I am now going to type the words “cue Victoria Beckham”.

Set your faces to stunned, because our very own Posh Spice is to fill Paula’s adorably unsteady shoes, though at present only for a one-off episode. But the import is plain. Just like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have stepped in to help America in its hour of need, in this case by loaning them one of our foremost celebrity dress designers to tell their Mormon teens that they totally made that song their own.

As you know, Victoria is managed by Simon Fuller, whose company produces American Idol – but let’s not bore ourselves with the synergies. The arrangement will obviously be mutually beneficial: Victoria will bring her unrivalled musical expertise to the show, while she in turn will be given an invaluable boost in her tireless quest to make it in the US by being beamed into literally a gazillion American homes. If America still manages to remain indifferent to her after that, then I really think we just have to conclude that it’s not her, it’s them.

All of which winds up your week in Simon Cowell’s reality, which continues to expand at a fearsome rate, and looks set to overtake actual reality sometime in late 2011.

The first reason why you must benefit from Rome travel deals and attend the concert of Nine Inch Nails is to enjoy a high-spectacular live performance: with lights special effects and the power of their music, Trent Reznor and the musicians that accompany him on stage know how to make a concert involving and unforgettable.

The second reason is to be found in the support bands that will precede Nine Inch Nails performance: the American band, indeed, is only the headliner of an event that will also include the performances of TV on the Radio and Animal Collective. The first band, American from Brooklyn, published the latest album Dear Science in 2008, which was as acclaimed as the previous records Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes and Return to Cookie Mountain, while Animal Collective, who were born in Baltimora, have recently published Merriweather Post Pavilion, their 8th studio album. Also thanks to the participation of these two bands, the concert of Nine Inch Nails, which will take place during Rock in Roma, a festival that will host an amazing number of Italian and international artists between the 27th of June and the 25th of July, is expected to be one of the most interesting and awaited concerts of the festival.

The third and most important reason why you must hurry up buying tickets and renting apartments in Rome is that this will be the last tour of Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor, founder and only fixed member of the band, announced that he is not going to release albums with the name Nine Inch Nails anymore. 20 years after the publication of the first album Pretty Hate Machine, this is the end of the story of one of the most important and influential bands of the last two decades, a band that has left an indelible trace in the world of music with albums like The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999). The story of the band, which is identified with singer, multistrumentist, producer, lyrics composer Trent Reznor, begins in the 80s in Cleveland, Ohio, where Reznor begins to play with drum player Chris Vrenna. Soon Reznor realises that no musicians can play his songs as he wants them to do, therefore he decides to play personally all the instrumental parts except drums. This composing technique becomes his main feature, and Reznor hires other musicians only when he needs to be accompanied during live performances. Pretty Hate Machine, released in 1989, is considered as one of the symbols of industrial rock, a genre that mixes rock and electronic, while the following album, The Downward Spiral, published in 2004, is one of the best-selling industrial albums ever. In 1999 Treznor publishes The Fragile, which is followed by a quite long break that ends in 2005 with the publication of With Teeth. Since then Nine Inch Nails have never stopped: Year Zero was born in 2007, and in the same year Reznor announces that he is free from any record deals. The new phase for Nine Inch Nails begins in 2008 with Ghosts I-IV, the first experiment of the band with digital retailing, which is followed after a very short time by The Slip (which can be downloaded for free from the band’s website), the last chapter of the twenty-year career of Nine Inch Nails. Do not miss the last chance to attend a concert of this important band, book now the best hotels in Rome.

Tickets. 40 euro
Date: 22nd July 2009
Location: Ippodromo delle Capannelle, Rome, Italy

The comic books have been made into a movie and the sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, is now out for viewing. Transformers are all about action, adventure, and autobots.

The first Transfomers movie was about Sam Witwicky and his autobots saving the world from Decepticons. Autobots are robots and are the good guys in the movie, and Decepticons are the bad guys in the form of military or construction vehicles. In the new release, Sam is continuing his life after saving the world and is preparing to start his life as a college freshman. He is trying to live a normal life and has to leave his autobot, Bumblebee, at home. The autobots continue to defend the world from any decepticons that may not have previously been destroyed, and they understand why Sam has to leave them behind. The autobots continue to adjust to living on Earth with humans and are originally from another planet, Cyberton. While Sam sees how the autobots help save humans, one man thinks that all robots including autobots should be destroyed. He doesn’t trust them living on Earth. Theodore Galloway, the National Security Advisor, plans to ban all autobots from earth. Sam helps the autobots who must convince the world they are here for a good reason. You can read more about the plot of the movie in detail at the Transformers Official Movie site (www.transformermovies.com). The movie stars Shia LeBeouf, Tyrese Gibson, Megan Fox, and Michael Bay. Sam Witwicky, the leading character, is played by Shia LeBeouf and the character’s girlfriend is played by Megan Fox.

The Transformers comic books have been popular among readers since the 1980s. The popularity of the series has helped the movies become box office hits. The action of the autobots is perfect for an on screen performance. The comic series has been issued by four production companies. Transformers also include popular action character GI Joe. Besides being a popular comic, the Transformers series has also been successful as a toy line, television series, books, video games, theme park rides, and now a movie series. Comics are also the launch and starting point for other successful movies such as Spiderman and Batman.

Ben Stiller packs a big commercial punch these days and so it was little surprise to see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian beat Terminator Salvation in the Memorial Day weekend smackdown at the North American box office. The family sequel grossed $70m (£43.9m) in 4,096 cinemas over the four-day bank holiday according to estimates from 20th Century Fox, elbowing the fourth entry in the Terminator canon into second place on roughly $67.2m (£42.2m) from 3,530 sites. Stiller and a crack support cast that includes Robin Williams, Amy Adams, Steve Coogan and Owen Wilson had “too much in the tank” – to borrow a typically gung-ho phrase from Hollywood’s executive ranks – for its sci-fi rival and the talk at Fox this week will be whether it can overtake its 2006 predecessor’s $250.9m (£157.6m) final gross.

The first Night launched over the Christmas period whereas this is slap-bang in the middle of the summer blockbuster motorway, so it’s not going to be easy. Nonetheless, Smithsonian’s launch was higher than predicted by Fox, who played the old studio game of downplaying expectations while knowing full well this would destroy the first film’s $30.4m (£19.1m) opening weekend. Even over three days, Smithsonian’s $53.5m (£33.6m) launch was impressive, and the studio honchos won’t be disappointed that the four-day tally ranks as the ninth biggest Memorial Day debut. It could even overtake Mission: Impossible II to rank eighth in the pantheon if the actual opening gross figures issued by Fox this week take it over $70.8m (£44.5m), but it’s rare that a studio estimate is revised upwards. For the record Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End set the biggest Memorial Day launch in history with $139.8m (£87.8m) in 2007. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull set the second biggest debut last year on $126.9m (£79.7m).

Terminator Salvation didn’t fare as well as they expected it to at Warner Bros, which released the movie in North America, but it’s not looking too shabby on $67.2m (£42.2m). Sony’s Angels & Demons tumbled three places to No 4 in its second weekend and took a further $27.7m (£17.4m) for a so-so $87.8m (£55.1m) running total, while X-Men Origins: Wolverine ranks sixth on $165.4m (£103.9m) after four weekends and Fox should be happy with that. Turning back if I may to Terminator Salvation, male moviegoers were the key driver here, which could be a problem for the Christian Bale-Sam Worthington pic because the same pool of people who might see it next weekend will be sorely tempted when Universal releases Sam Raimi’s low(ish) budget horror movie Drag Me to Hell (let’s face it, anything’s low budget after the Spider-Man franchise that Raimi delivered for Sony). Similarly, Smithsonian could see its second weekend numbers drop off as family audiences flock to see Disney/Pixar’s Up, which opened Cannes less than a fortnight ago and is, in my humble opinion, Pixar’s best.

There’s a theory among studio executives that the market expands when it has to – in other words, release several good movies at the same time that appeal to the same demographic and they could all prosper. The key word here is “good”. Star Trek is very good, held its own against Terminator Salvation in its third weekend and is now by far the biggest movie in the franchise on $191m (£119.9m). Drag Me to Hell is gloriously entertaining and will be a big hit for Universal, even though it will most likely open second to Up and debuts in about 2,400 cinemas compared with 3,700 for the Pixar release. So, is Terminator Salvation good enough to generate that crucial word of mouth and get audiences lining up in the second weekend, the third weekend, and so on? Does it have the chops to revive the 25-year-old franchise and stick around? Because this season, with waves of summer titles waiting in the wings, a movie’s career prospects are shorter than those of a Premier League manager.

History of Linkin Park

The band started with Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, and Rob Bourdon, three high school friends from California who enjoyed playing together. After graduation, they decided to see how far they could take their group, and then recruited three new members: Joe Han, Dave Ferrell, and Mark Wakefield. The new group gave themselves the name “Zero” and began to record and produce their own songs. The original songs were produced in Mike’s bedroom studio, but they were struggling to land a record deal.

As with many similar bands, the lack of success led to tension. This caused two of the members to leave. First to leave was Wakefield, who was Xero’s vocalist, followed by Farrell, who went on to tour with other groups.

The group had to recruit a new vocalist, and they turned to Chester Bennington. His unique singing style landed him a spot, and the new group changed its name to Hybrid Theory. As the band came back to life, it changed its name again to Linkin Park.

Still, the band continued to struggle. They turned to Jeff Blue, vice president of Warner Bros. Records, who had referred Chester Bennington to them in the past. With his help, they signed a deal with Warner Bros. Records in 1999, and their first successful album Hybrid Theory, was released in 2000.

The first album contained much of the work from the group over the last ten years. Music fans enjoyed it, and it sold over 4.8 million records its first year. Singles from the album were popping up all over the place, including several hit movies. The album was nominated for three Grammies, winning the Grammy for the best hard rock performance, which solidified the band’s popularity.

Over time, bassist Dave Farrell rejoined the group, and they published the remix album Reanimation, which earned second spot on the Billboard 200. This opened the band to touring, and in 2002 the band released its third album, Meteora, which featured a variety of styles.
Between 2004 and 2006, the band rested from recording for a while, allowing its members to work on side project while the group did some tours. Linkin Park came back together in 2006 to record Minutes to Midnight, which was not released until November of 2008 due to the band’s busy tour schedule.

Trivia About Linkin Park

- The band is named after Lincoln Park in Santa Monica
- The Linkin Park song Leave out All the Rest was played in the movie Twilight
- Shadow of the Day is the first music video produced by Linkin Park that did not feature the entire band
- The first show the band performed was at The Whisky
- The What I’ve Done video is the most popular among YouTube users who download music videos online
- The band owns its own record company, which is called “Machine Shop Records”
- The band’s most popular song is “In the End” from Hybrid Theory
- The album cover for Hybrid Theory was designed by Mike
- The band’s music is considered Nu-Metal and Rapcore
- Meteora’s name came from a set of monasteries in Greece

By knowing a little more about the group, downloading music videos of Linkin Park will be much more enjoyable. The group continues to make new music, so new music videos will continue to be produced for avid fans to enjoy.

Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown

How did a man once so eager to demonstrate his awareness of new musical developments that he told an incredulous early 80s interviewer his favourite band were A Flock of Seagulls get so out of touch? How had he managed to miss Green Day’s American Idiot, an album released 18 months after the invasion of Iraq? It’s not like it slipped out on an obscure indie label to a smattering of critical acclaim then vanished. It topped the charts in 19 countries and sold 12m copies.

There’s a chance Young was conveniently turning a blind eye. After all, Green Day had already done precisely what Young was currently claiming he alone among musicians had the guts to do – tour an anti-war album through America’s red states to much booing. Or perhaps he just found Green Day’s transformation into the world’s most successful protest singers too unlikely to countenance.

Previously a punk band of the jokes-about-willies-and-poo variety, Green Day had drifted rudderless since their 1994 breakthrough album Dookie, their attempts to mature undermined by their music’s unerring ability to turn up on the soundtrack of gross-out comedies such as Freddie Got Fingered and Road Trip. The righteous anger of American Idiot not only gave Green Day focus, it dignified the previously undignifiable: a trio of men in their 30s who still found it incumbent to pull “Look at me, I’m completely nutty!” faces when a camera was pointed in their direction. It also covered up the album’s shortcomings, not least the fact that it was a rock opera, with a plot (in which the Jesus of Suburbia meets a punk rock freedom fighter called St Jimmy, who turns out, as is somehow always the way in rock operas, to be merely an aspect of himself) that had a definite hint of the We Will Rock Yous about it.

You could argue that the Bush administration was the best thing ever to happen to Green Day, but its end leaves them facing a dilemma: what to do now the focus of their ire has departed? They’re evidently not willing to give up their position as multi-platinum protest singers, regardless of who’s in the White House. 21st Century Breakdown essentially serves up more of the same – another rock opera, this time divided into three acts – with a swaggering confidence that’s both the making of the album and the source of some of its drawbacks, not least the lyrics, which, lacking an obvious target for their anger, buckle under the weight of their own importance. “This diabolic state is gracing my existence like a catastrophic baby,” sings Billie Joe Armstrong on Christian’s Inferno, a line that’s a bit of a catastrophic baby in its own right.

On the plus side, there’s a hugely imposing certainty about the album’s sound and songwriting. For all its occasional nods to punk past – like the Sex Pistols’ Holidays In the Sun, Horseshoes and Handgrenades opens with tramping jackboots while the ghost of Hüsker Dü haunts Viva La Gloria’s tune – the main currency of 21st Century Breakdown is king-sized stadium rock. The episodic title track lurches from Big Country to Queen to Mott the Hoople; Before the Lobotomy is propelled by Keith Moon drum fills; there are McCartney-esque piano ballads. All of them display the same impressive, if faintly unnerving ability to come up with melodies that sound instantly familiar.

But there’s also something familiar about 21st Century Breakdown’s problems: they’re the same as the problems with American Idiot. It’s too long, the storyline becomes impossible to follow, the concept album format permits Green Day space to occasionally do things you wish they wouldn’t, not least the vaudeville oompah of Viva La Gloria, which seems to carry with it the dark threat that this all might end up on a Broadway stage one day. Still, you can understand why Green Day are happy to repeat the kind of mistakes that sold 12m copies last time around. If it seems a little less bold, a little less surprising than its predecessor, you still wouldn’t bet against 21st Century Breakdown repeating its success.

In his career, Rod Stewart achieved approximately 250 million album and single sales. He began his music career in the middle of the 1960’s. His name and talents gained attention on the British music scene in 1968. No mean feat when the best group in the world ever The Beatles and also the Rolling Stones were at their peak.

After leaving Jeff Beck, Rod joined the group The Faces. During his time with this group, he recorded his first solo album. This was 1969’s ‘The Rod Stewart Album.’ He subsequently released his second solo album ‘Gasoline Alley’ in 1970.

The year 1971 proved to be a breakthrough year for Rod Stewart. He released his third solo album entitled ‘Every Picture Tells a Story.’ The song ‘Maggie May’ from this album began to receive airplay. The reception to this song was phenomenal. ‘Maggie May’ went number one in the U.S and the U.K. at the same time.

Another popular song off ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’ was entitled ‘You Wear It Well.’ The album displayed the singer-songwriter’s talents in performing folk, R&B and blues orientated tunes. In 1972, Rod Stewart released another solo album called ‘Never a Dull Moment.’

It was apparent that his music career was moving in high gear. By the mid-70s he was on his way as a true solo artist, having left The Faces. He hasn’t stopped since. In subsequent years, smash hits followed such as ‘Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright),’ which hit number one. His top of the charts 1978 album ‘Blondes Have More Fun’ contained two top 10 hits. These were ‘You’re In My Heart’ and ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy.’

Over his 40 plus year career Rod Stewart has garnered multiplatinum albums and top of the chart singles. The 80s and 90s saw him release hits such as ‘Infatuation,’ ‘Some Guys Have All The Luck,’ ‘Have I Told You Lately’ and ‘Forever Young.’ In 1994, he received induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On October 11, 2005 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

With the new millennium, Rod Stewart embarked on an ambitious new project. From 2002 through 2005, he released four volumes of the Great American Songbook. These releases are his recorded versions of classic crooning tunes from the 1930s and 40’s.

Proving immensely popular, this song series showed a completely new side of the singer’s talents. This series has the honour of being the biggest selling ongoing series of new music recordings in history. The 2004 release from the series, ‘Stardust: The Great American Songbook 3′ reached number one in the charts. It also garnered a Grammy for the singer.

In 2006, Rod Stewart returned to his roots somewhat. Featuring his unique raspy, bluesy voice, he released ‘Still The Same: Great Rock Classics of Our Time.’ On this CD, he gives his renditions of classic rock and roll numbers from the late 60s and early 70s. In his career, he has 62 hit singles, of which 24 made it into the top 10.

A varied life often means other interests, and Rod Stewart is no different in this respect. He is an avid soccer fan. He has even played in a senior soccer league in Palos Verdes, California. He is a supporter of Celtic F.C. and Scotland’s national team, and makes up for their singular lack of success by also supporting Manchester United on the English front.

Rod is also a model railway enthusiast. His large railway layout in his California home received media coverage. This was in the December 2007 issue of ‘Model Railroader Magazine.’ This is an example of a man whose interests cover a broad spectrum in life.

The youngest of five children, Rod Stewart’s place of birth was London, England. The birth of his two brothers and two sisters was in Scotland. His ancestry is both Scottish and English.

Of course, a varied life extends to personal relationships when it comes to Rod Stewart. He had a relationship with Britt Ekland in the 70s. His first marriage was to Alana Hamilton. His second marriage was to model Rachel Hunter. On June 16, 2007, he struck gold and married Penny Lancaster on a yacht in Italy, and he and Penny now have a son.

Rod Stewart, singer, songwriter, lover of music, soccer, trains and women continues his ride. He will perform in Tenerife, Canary Islands on May 16, 2009. For those on their Tenerife holidays then the venue will be the Golf Costa Adeje, a gorgeous setting for the man and his tunes. There’s never a dull moment when Rod Stewart is in town, that’s for sure.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/

Coldplay have responded to the latest plagiarism claim about their song Viva La Vida by insisting that they “haven’t done anything wrong”.

Will Champion, Coldplay’s drummer, was answering Yusuf Islam’s claim that the band copied his 35-year-old song for their recent hit. “It’s tough when people accuse you of stealing something when you know that you didn’t,” Champion told Hampton Roads. “We’re confident we haven’t done anything wrong.”

Islam claims that Viva La Vida borrows from Foreigner Suite, recorded when the singer-songwriter was known as Cat Stevens. Islam’s is the second recent plagiarism claim, with American guitarist Joe Satriani already suing Coldplay for copyright infringement.

Viva La Vida has been a worldwide chart-topper and won this year’s Grammy award for best song.

“For some reason, God only knows why, the successful songs that seem to be the ones that are accused of being stolen,” Champion said. “So you go figure it out.” Despite these comments, Champion also seemed to accept the similarities between Coldplay’s song and the others. “There are elements of our music that I’ve heard in other people’s music,” he said, “but it’s kind of … I don’t know. It’s interesting, but a very difficult thing to define.”

“There are only eight notes in an octave and no one owns them. And there are probably about 12,000 songs that feature the exact same chord progression. I think it lies on an intent to steal, which we certainly have never done and never would. So it’s unfortunate but it’s the way people are. That’s that.”

Bob Dylan has celebrated his latest album going to No 1 on both sides of the Atlantic by hinting that his next project could be a collaboration with Paul McCartney.

Dylan’s 33rd studio album, Together Through Life, is reported to have sold 125,000 copies in its first week in America. But instead of dwelling on his chart victory, the iconic singer-songwriter has been busy telling Rolling Stone magazine that he would definitely consider working with McCartney.

“That would be exciting, to do something with Paul,” Dylan said. “But, you know, your paths have to cross for something like that to make sense.” McCartney’s spokesman responded by saying: “I should think he would be very interested in hearing about it. As you can imagine, it would be a pretty major thing if it went ahead.”

The success of Together Through Life follows Dylan’s 2006 album, Modern Times, which also went to No 1 in the US. Of Dylan’s extensive back catalogue, only five albums have made it to the top of the Billboard chart. Dylan fairs slightly better this side of the pond with seven, including The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and Bringing It All Back Home, although his last UK No 1, New Morning, was in 1970.

His current chart success includes No 1 positions in Austria, Denmark, Holland, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, Austria and Ireland.

It is a commercial renaissance for Dylan who, with the exception of Modern Times, hasn’t scored a No 1 album in the US since 1976’s Desire. Together Through Life is out on Columbia.