“The Thai Health Promotion Foundation wants to encourage people to take better care of their health, and Kodindy is here to give new bands a chance to show their abilities onstage,” says Dr Bundit Sornpaisarn, director of the foundation’s Health Risk Control Section.

“Kodindy is a role model that for 13 years has supported public-health campaigns to stop people drinking, smoking and taking drugs.”

Jaruwat Nutdechanan of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives notes that there was also a push on June 1 – World Milk Day – to get Thais drinking more milk for their health.

Such efforts also honour His Majesty King Bhumibol, who introduced measures to develop the country’s dairy industry in a sustainable manner, Jaruwat says, “so there’ll be milk booths at the festival too”.

The festival concept is “Department Store Never Dies” and there’ll be eight stages designated Merry Kings, Nightingale, Thai Daimaru, Sogo and the like.

On these, over the course of 12 hours, 120 bands will be jockeying for attention, including Yellowwarm, Super Radio, Bonehead, the Toilet Warriors and the Passion of Anna.

Both Dose and Overdose will be there, as will Mai Siblor, B-King, the Proper Clan, Third Person, Miraculous, Noom T-Bone and at least one outfit with a name best left unpublished.

Tickets cost Bt350 on the Kodindy Facebook page, and Bt50 from every sale goes to the Kao Kon La Kao Project.

In a project whose breadth has no parallels among musicians of his level of fame, Young made all of his albums available for streaming alongside the accompanying lyrics, credits and artwork as well as videos and tour information.

In a delight for fans of the ever-prolific Canadian with years of rumoured obscurities, the Neil Young Archives includes around 10 unreleased albums although most are not yet fully uploaded.

Envisioning the archives as a high-tech version of collections that authors and fellow rock elders generally establish at universities, Young said he would continually update the site, accessible at neil-youngarchives.com.

The site will be free through June 30, after which Young said he will charge a “very modest” fee.

Young worked with Singaporean firm OraStream to develop the finest possible audio, with music files that carry up to 20 times as much data as MP3s, the files typically used on streaming platforms and iTunes.

Prioritising quality and detail over efforts to be user-friendly, the site has a sleek but cluttered interface, shaped like an old-style stereo with knobs and dials, with multiple ways to filter searches.

Young himself explains how to use his archives in a 10-minute video after which he offers matter-of-factly, “Don’t forget to have a good time and try not to get lost.”

The archives go back to 1963 and Young’s very first recording, the single The Sultan, recorded in Winnipeg.

The site ends with his brand new album, The Visitor, Young’s second work with Promise of the Real, a hard-charging back-up band featuring Lukas Nelson, son of country great Willie Nelson.

Young, never reticent about his political views, directly lays into United States President Donald Trump from the get-go on Already Great, a play on the tycoon’s “Make America Great Again” election slogan.

He appears to allude to Trump’s promised barrier with Mexico on Change Of Heart as Young sings, “Hate is not worth using / Even as cement / To build your walls that you hide behind”.

And on When Bad Got Good, Young turns Trump’s election taunt of Hillary Clinton back against him.

The rocker bellows “Lock him up!”

The Hollywood star was announced Tuesday as a producer for “Head Over Heels,” an upcoming musical that will trace the story of the rockers known for infectious pop-rock songs such as “Vacation.”

“If you told us 30 years ago that our songs were going to be in a musical, we’d have said, ‘Of course they’ll be on Broadway!’ None of us would have really believed it, though,” The Go-Gos said in a statement.

The Curran Theatre in San Francisco announced Tuesday that “Head Over Heels” would premiere there on April 24 before heading to New York, with the Broadway details not yet revealed.

A statement described the musical on The Go-Gos as “a tantalizing odyssey wrought with mistaken identities, jealous lovers, romance and scandal.”

It marks the first production on Broadway for the “Shakespeare in Love” actress. The musical will be directed by Michael Mayer, the force behind rock musicals such as Green Day’s “American Idiot” and “Spring Awakening.”

The New York Post, quoting unnamed sources, reported earlier this year that Paltrow refused an offer to invest in “Head Over Heels” from Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who soon afterward was disgraced by wide accusations of sexual abuse.

The Go-Gos are one of the most successful all-women bands in a rock scene dominated by men. They emerged in Los Angeles in the 1970s, around the time Paltrow was growing up in the city.

Go-Gos frontwoman Belinda Carlisle went on to a successful solo career with hits such as “Mad About You” and “Heaven Is a Place on Earth.”

“BOYdKo 50th #1 Rhythm & Boyd” at Impact Arena on February 4 promises to be a lively concert.

Boyd broke with precedent by letting others sing the 12 songs he wrote on that first album, rather than doing the honours himself. They were Thanachai “Pod ModernDog” Ujjin, Nop Phonchamni, Rudklao Amratisha, Krisada and Marisa Sukosol Clapp, Suthipong “Heart” Tadpitakkul and Santhorn Kraiyoonsen.

Now their fans can again sing along with their favourites, including “Rak Khun Khao Laew”, “Khuen Nee”, “Rudoo Thi Taektang”, “Khlang”, “Keb Dao”, “Chao Ying”, “Lom Hai Jai”, “Dok Mai”, “Khao Khong Ther” and “Ja Kep Ther Yoo Nai Jai Samer”.

Between the hits there’ll be an onstage chat about the heyday of Bakery Music, featuring its founders, Kamol “Suki” Sukosol Clapp, Somkiat Ariyachaipanich and Salinee Panyarachun.

Seats go on sale on December 23 for B1,200 to Bt4,000 at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and (02) 262 3456. Keep on top of developments on the “Boyd Kosiyabong” Facebook page.

Beyonce hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for her new duet with Ed Sheeran on a remix of the English songwriter’s “Perfect,” a tender guitar ballad.

The song sold 181,000 digital downloads in the week through Thursday on the benchmark US singles chart, which also tracks streaming and radio airplay.

“Perfect” is Beyonce’s first tune to lead the Hot 100 since December 2008 with “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” her blockbuster dance anthem of female empowerment.

Beyonce moved in a more experimental direction with her latest album “Lemonade.”

But she initially released it last year as an exclusive on Tidal, the streaming service led by her husband Jay-Z, impeding the chart performance of individual tracks.

“Drunk in Love,” her duet with Jay-Z off her self-released 2013 album, only reached number two on the Hot 100.

The longest gap between number one songs in the chart’s history belongs to Cher, who waited nearly 25 years between her 1974 hit “Dark Lady” and her 1999 chart-topper “Believe.”

Formed in 2005, the London-based trio, featuring Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith, are well known for their haunting, melodic musical style, and have three smash albums and a debut solo outing by Smith to their credit.

After playing sold out shows and headlining festivals around the world, The xx are back in Asia for their biggest run of dates to date with a full production and spectacular sound and lights show.

The xx’s music has been widely used in the media for TV and in films, as well for the Olympic Games.

Tickets are Bt2,800 and go on sale on December 17 at 10am at http://www.TicketMelon.com.

The orchestra will be conducted by Norway’s Terje Mikkelsen and will also feature Stravinsky’s “Violin Concerto in D” and Brahms’s “Symphony No 1 in C Minor Op 68”

St Petersburg-born Austrich studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the USA and at the Hochschule fur Musik in Cologne and has won many international competitions, including the 1999 Hamburg Instrumental Competition. He has soloed with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, St Petersburg Camerata, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.

Tickets costing from Bt400 to Bt1,500 are on sale at Thai Ticket Major counters and online at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

A Salaya Link shuttle bus runs between BTS Bang Wa Station and the auditorium. Find out more at http://www.Music.Mahidol.ac.th/salayalink.