In The Vatican - The Edge has performed four songs in the Sistine Chapel to raise awareness for cancer prevention, becoming the first contemporary artist to play at the venue. The guitarist played for around 200 doctors, researchers and philanthropists as part of a conference at the Vatican on regenerative medicine. He played acoustic guitar and was backed by a choir of seven Irish teenagers. He performed Leonard Cohen's If It Be Your Will, and versions of three U2 songs. The Edge, whose real name is David Evans, lost his father to cancer last month. He is on the board of several foundations working in aid of cancer prevention.

Park Life - T in the Park will go ahead at Strathallan in July after councillors granted the festival a one-year public entertainment licence. The approval followed a five-hour Perth and Kinross Council meeting attended by organisers and objectors. Last year's event was criticised over traffic issues and anti-social behaviour. Organisers DF Concerts recently announced improvements to the campsite, arena, and traffic management. The festival's director, Geoff Ellis, said, "I'm delighted with the council's decision and that they have acknowledged the significant work that has been put into ensuring that this year's festival will be remembered for all of the right reasons - incredible line-up, the best entertainment and fun with your mates.

Melvin Benn, T in the Park's executive producer, said, "We're delighted to have received our licence for 2016 and we'll be happy to be judged on this year's event. "We've robustly addressed the shortcomings from 2015, we have a brand new team in place with a huge amount of expertise and the council has recognised the sheer volume of work that has gone into this year's planning."

The Band Plays On - The band that played with late musician Prince during his Purple Rain era say they plan to reunite and perform again "soon". Revolution made the announcement in a video posted on Facebook and Twitter. Guitarist Wendy Melvoin said they "have decided after spending three or four days together now grieving over the loss of Prince that we would like to come out and do some shows".

On Stream - Music streaming service Soundcloud has launched a UK paid-for service to rival the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. The company hopes to attract users with a mixture of officially licensed tracks and its catalogue of 125m covers, remixes, DJ sets and podcasts. Called Soundcloud Go, it costs £9.99 per month in line with its rivals. Soundcloud itself will remain free to use, although listeners in the UK and Ireland will hear advertisements between songs from this morning. The launch is a big move for the company, which built its business by allowing artists to upload their music and share it with fans on social media and blogs.

Non - A French minister has criticised the selection of an English song as the official anthem for French supporters at the Euro 2016 championship. Andre Vallini, Secretary of State for Development and Francofonie, said it was "incomprehensible" for the French team's song to be in English. Mr Vallini also berated the French entry at the Eurovision song contest, because of its English chorus. "At a time when we are defending the place of the French language in international institutions, and especially European institutions... it is incomprehensible that for these two big popular events, the French language throws in the towel," he said.

France is hosting the football tournament, which begins next month. The song, I Was Made for Lovin' You, was originally performed by Kiss and is being performed for the event by French group Skip The Use. The Eurovision entry, performed by Amir, is called J'ai Cherche (I Looked).

(Jim Evans)


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