Category: Music

Vicki Wickham, the pioneering British television producer, music executive and artist manager who worked on the television series Ready, Steady, Go!, died Aug. 1 in New York City following an extended illness. She was 87.

Wickham played a defining role in promoting the acts behind the British beat explosion. As talent booker and later producer of ITV’s Ready, Steady, Go!, a live pop performance show, from 1963 to 1966, she helped introduce a generation of artists – including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Yardbirds and Cilla Black – to millions of viewers at home.

The Beatles appeared on Ready, Steady, Go! three times in 1963 and 1964 as Beatlemania spread around the globe, while Wickham was pivotal in showcasing Motown to British audiences. Wickham booked The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and The Temptations, among others, for the programme.

Wickham also produced an hour-long live television special devoted to James Brown. She later brought in performers such as Ike & Tina Turner, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Patti LaBelle and Berry Gordy for subsequent specials.

Quoted in Andy Neill’s 2020 book, Ready, Steady, Go!: The Weekend Starts Here, Gordy recalled: “The wonderful Vicki Wickham had convinced her boss to do a one-hour TV special. The Sound of Motown was a big moment for us because it brought our music and our artists to the U.K.’s national television audience for the first time. We will always remember and appreciate the love and the loyalty of the British people and the part Ready, Steady, Go! played in our success around the world.”  

Born in Newbury, Berkshire, England, Wickham began her career at London publisher Cassell & Co. before joining BBC Radio’s Light Entertainment Department, where she worked on audio documentaries. A chance introduction to producer Elkan Allan led to her involvement with Ready, Steady, Go! just as the first wave of British pop music was starting to take off.

She went on to manage Labelle and Dusty Springfield, guiding the latter’s career through the late 1980s and bringing Springfield together with Pet Shop Boys for the 1987 hit “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”. Wickham later co-authored Springfield’s biography, Dancing With Demons, with Penny Valentine.

Wickham received the Music Industry Woman of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999, and in 2013 was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music, receiving the honour from then-Prince Charles.

Wickham is survived by her wife, singer-songwriter Nona Hendryx. The couple first met in the 1960s when Hendryx performed with Labelle and married in 2011. Private family gatherings will be held in New York City and London, with a larger public celebration of Wickham’s life to be announced at a later date.

Live Nation Entertainment is building its first venue in São Paulo, partnering with Brazilian urban development group Cidade Center Norte on a 21,000-capacity arena slated to open in 2028.

The project will be developed through a Live Nation-led joint venture with Cidade Center Norte, and will sit within the company’s planned urban living district in the city’s North Zone.

Live Nation says São Paulo Arena will be Brazil’s first purpose-built, world-class arena and the largest indoor live entertainment venue in South America. Construction is expected to begin in the second half of 2026.

The economics are substantial. According to projections from Oxford Economics cited by Live Nation, the arena is expected to generate roughly US$159.9 million in direct attendee spending and more than US$311.2 million in total annual economic impact across Brazil by its fifth year of operation, while supporting approximately 1,800 jobs annually. Once operational, the venue is projected to host more than 200 concerts and sporting events a year and draw over 2 million attendees annually.

“São Paulo deserves an arena that reflects the energy, passion and cultural influence of one of the world’s great cities,” Live Nation president/CEO Michael Rapino said in a statement. “São Paulo Arena will be the new home for Brazilian and international artists and the fans who make this city one of the most exciting live entertainment markets.”

Cidade Center Norte CEO Flavio Fernandes called the venue “a dream project coming to life,” framing it as an extension of the company’s commitment to the city’s North Zone alongside its existing malls, exhibition space, hospitality, residential and commercial holdings.

The arena is being designed by Blueprint Studio, Live Nation’s in-house design and development arm, whose credits include Austin’s Moody Center and New York’s Barclays Center. Plans call for three seating levels, a dedicated VIP suite tier, climate control and acoustics engineered to limit noise impact on surrounding neighborhoods, plus a 2,000-space parking garage, rideshare and taxi zones and direct links to major roadways and public transit.

The investment deepens Live Nation’s already significant Brazilian footprint. The company promotes tours in the market for artists including Madonna, Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Shakira and The Weeknd, alongside Brazilian acts such as Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia and Djavan. It also holds a majority stake in Rock World, the Brazilian company behind Rock in Rio and The Town and the producer of Lollapalooza Brasil.

Phil Collins has detailed his recent battles with alcoholism in a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Times published on Sunday (Aug. 3). In it, the 75-year-old reflected on large portions of his career, discussed his personal life and spoke on mending his relationship with Paul McCartney.

Collins revealed that in April 2024, he was hospitalized in Switzerland following a relapse with alcohol and that his manager of 50 years summoned his five children to see him at his bedside.

“Because there were some decisions to be made about ‘Do we keep Phil on life support?’ kind of thing. My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up,” Collins said. “People were coming to say goodbye. But I don’t remember them coming, I didn’t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”

The former Genesis member discussed his alcoholism in his 2016 memoir Not Dead Yet and was sober at the time of writing; in 2012, he’d previously been admitted to intensive care with acute pancreatitis and got sober as a result.

After this period of sobriety, which Collins attributes to the medication Antabuse, the singe/drummer began abusing again, but cannot remember when. “When I was drinking, the calendar goes out the window,” he said.

“But I’d have wine when I woke up. That was what I’d want for breakfast, a glass of wine. But I didn’t drink into the night, you know. So I wasn’t really aware of having a problem, to be honest.”

In November 2023, Collins was rushed to hospital and discharged three days later; several weeks later, Collins was rushed back into intensive care and spent seven months in hospital. “I was very lucky to have come out of that. Needless to say, I haven’t had a drink since.”

Collins last performed live in 2022 as part of Genesis’ farewell tour. He is no longer able to drum due to nerve damage and numerous knee and spine surgeries.

Elsewhere in the interview, Collins discussed healing a rift with former Beatle McCartney after he said in a previous interview that the latter treated him “condescendingly.” McCartney read the interview and reached out, “saying, ‘I’m a bit disappointed, blah blah’. He said don’t be so … ‘sacrosanct’ was the word he used. I’m not sure what that means, but anyway it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth and obviously left a bad taste in his.”

An upcoming charity auction involving Collins and the King’s Trust helped mend the relationship, when McCartney agreed to donate an item after Collins wrote him a letter. “I wish I hadn’t said it, although it did happen. But we’ve made up, he’s happy about the fact that we discussed it, and I’m happy we discussed it, so it was just really lovely that it’s gone full circle now,” he said.

Collins will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo act in November alongside Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Sade, Luther Vandross, and the Wu-Tang Clan. “I think people on the board thought I was already in,” Collins said on his belated entry. Had he not ever been inducted, “I’d have just put it down to being English and just being invisible.” Collins was inducted as part of Genesis in 2010.

Robyn and Zara Larsson have joined forces on “Talk To Me, Zara,” a new collaborative single that reworks a track from Robyn’s latest album.

The song is a new version of “Talk To Me,” originally featured on Robyn’s Sexistential — her ninth studio album, released in March. Larsson remixed the pulsing, Max Martin-co-produced original and added her own verse. The two Swedish stars debuted the track live at Copenhagen’s Royal Arena on July 14, when Robyn brought Larsson out as a surprise guest on the final night of the European leg of her Sexistential tour.

“Talk To Me, Zara” marks the second collaboration between the pair, with Larsson returning a favor: Robyn contributed a new mix of “Puss Puss” to Larsson’s remix album Midnight Sun: Girls Trip, released in May, which also featured reworkings from PinkPantheress, Shakira, Tyla, Kehlani and Madison Beer.

Sexistential was Robyn’s first album since 2018’s Honey and was accompanied by her first major headline tour since 2019. Robyn’s biggest cultural touchstone, “Dancing on My Own”, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording in 2011.

For Larsson, the collaboration arrives during a career upswing in the U.S. Her signature stateside hit remains 2015’s “Never Forget You” with MNEK, which peaked at No. 13 on the Hot 100, while “Ruin My Life” reached No. 20 on Billboard’s Pop Songs chart in 2018. This year she notched her first career Grammy nomination, for “Midnight Sun” in the Best Pop Dance Recording category, and returned to the Hot 100 for the first time in a decade when her 2016 single “Lush Life” went viral, capping one of the strongest chart runs of her career.