Yahoo and Google News Update and live stream

After more than a decade out of the spotlight, Stefani and No Doubt are back. They talk about the breakup that spawned their biggest hit, spending time with the Obamas and taking eight kids on tour In her tight black trousers, a loose top with more safety pins than fabric, toe-crunching high stilettos with a steel rod in place of a heel and heavy makeup on top of a creamy complexion, Gwen Stefani looks, initially, like a typical rock'n'roll veteran and the very image of the trendy celebrity mother frequently photographed in LA and Primrose Hill. And when she walks into the studio in west Hollywood and instantly bemoans the non-existent cold temperature, it looks worryingly as if she might be as high maintenance as the role generally implies. Initial appearances prove to be misleading. Stefani is, indeed, a pop star and high-profile mother – the endless paparazzi shots of her with her sons Kingston and Zuma help to keep her in the public consciousness between albums – but beneath those punky safety pins is, it transpires, a sweet and endearingly unfiltered woman, one who is prone to being a little more honest than perhaps her PR would like. When asked if she and her British husband, singer Gavin Rossdale, who fronts the band Bush, ever discuss her songwriting together, Stefani replies, "Oh, he's never been a fan of what we do," and the entire room freezes, No Doubt bandmates and PRs alike. "He's more into dark, indie stuff. But I'm not saying he doesn't think I'm amazing," she blithely continues. "Oh God, that's going to be a headline, isn't it? 'Gavin thinks Gwen's amazing'!" And the PR makes a strained little smile. The announcement that No Doubt are about to release a new album, the first since 2001's Rock Steady, prompts a similar sensation of pleasant surprise. In the year that even Chumbawamba have given up the noble fight, one has to ask whether a band so much associated with the 1990s really has a place in 2012. No Doubt have always had their hardcore fans, dating back to their formation in 1986 when they were a popular ska band that venerated Madness in their home state of California. They broke out of that pond three albums into their career with the then ubiquitous single Don't Speak on 1995's Tragic Kingdom and, while they never quite matched that success again, ska-inflected pop-based songs such as Hey, Baby and Just a Girl burst through the grunge landscape of their time to become part of the backing music of the decade. Yet even then, the band's success felt more like an anomaly than the establishment of something long-lasting. When Stefani, always the band's most charismatic performer, broke away to pursue a solo career, focusing more on dance music with 2004's hugely successful Love Angel Music Baby and 2006's The Sweet Escape, as well as starting up a fashion line and pairing up with hip-hop collaborators such as Eve (Let Me Blow Ya Mind, Rich Girl) and Ludacris (Luxurious), this seemed like both a natural progression and an inevitable end. Eleven years is a generation in pop music. Without wishing to hold Justin Bieber up as the standard-bearer of modern music, when No Doubt last released a new album, he was seven and his fans were barely zygotes.