Take That tickets are now on sale on www.doneevents.com for fans who have pre-registered. Ticket prices for the British band's show at Dubai Media City Amphitheatre on October 30 are Dh350 for general admission, Dh650 for Golden Circle and Dh1500 for VIP tickets, which include food and drinks. Tickets will go on public sale on Sunday from www.doneevents.com and Virgin Megastores. Take That are coming to the UAE on the back of their latest album, III. – The National staff
Kanye to be honoured at MTV VMAs
Pharrell Williams and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis will perform at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, and Kanye West will receive a special honour. He will be presented with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles in recognition of his memorable music videos and live performances. The Weeknd, Demi Lovato, A$AP Rocky, Tori Kelly and Twenty One Pilots will also perform during the two-hour show. Miley Cyrus will host the event, which will be broadcast live on MTV in the United States. Taylor Swift is the top contender, with 10 nominations. Ed Sheeran, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar and Mark Ronson also are up for multiple awards. More performers and presenters will be announced this week. – AP
Sheeran ‘to work in charity shop’
British pop star Ed Sheeran is planning to take a break from music and volunteer at a charity shop, according to The Mirror newspaper. The musician – who in March donated the outfit he wore at the Grammy Awards to the St Elizabeth Hospice charity shop in his home town Framlingham, Surrey – now wants to work at the Sue Ryder charity shop in the town, an insider says. It's just one of several good causes he intends to help during his break from music. "There's a good possibility he will volunteer here – we'd welcome him," said Jacqui Bell, manager of Sue Ryder. "My volunteers, who are aged between 61 and 91, know Ed because he was brought up in the town. They would be fine working with him. He purchased the old police station to open up a youth club for £1million [Dh5.7m], so he'll also be helping there when its up and running." – The National staff
Early Tolkien writing published in UK
The earliest prose piece by The Lord of the Rings author J R R Tolkien is being published in Britain today, a version of an epic Finnish poem that experts describe as "undeniably his darkest work". Written in 1914-1915 when Tolkien was a student at the University of Oxford, The Story of Kullervo shows the young author "finding his feet", says Vincent Ferre, professor of comparative literature at University Paris Est-Créteil. Fascinated by ancient languages, Tolkien was taken by the 19th-century work of epic poetry, Kalevala, a compilation of mythology and folklore that tells the story of Kullervo. The story was "the first time that J R R Tolkien, who had been a poet until then, began writing prose," says Ferre, a Tolkien expert. Published by Harper Collins, the short story will be released on October 27 in the United States. It was first published in 2010 in an academic journal, Tolkien Studies, by English professor Verlyn Flieger. Kullervo is a precursor to Turin Turambar, a key character in Tolkien's works who is the protagonist of The Children of Hurin and appears in The Simarillion. – AFP
Dylan lyrics expected to sell for £150,000
The draft lyrics for one of Bob Dylan's most influential early songs will go on sale at auction next month. Sotheby's said it expects the manuscript for A Hard Rain's A -Gonna Fall to fetch between £150,000 and £200,000 (Dh861,505-Dh1.1m)at the sale in London on September 29. The auction house says Dylan typed out the lyrics, and made amendments in ink, in a room above the Gaslight Folk Club in New York's Greenwich Village in 1962. The revisions show the creative process behind the landmark song, which warns of a revolutionary or cataclysmic change. Last year, the final hand-written lyrics to the song sold for US$485,000 (Dh1.7m)at Sotheby's in New York. At the same sale a draft of Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone sold for $2m. – AP
Mystic Pizza restaurant owner jailed for tax evasion
