Saxophonist Clarence Clemons, 68, of the E
Street Band
underwent back surgery on Wednesday at a Manhattan hospital.
In a statement released to the Associated Press, he's "in great
spirits" and "looking forward to a brighter future and playing more
music!"
Former Candy/Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke is being treated for
major injuries he suffered in a hit and run accident he was involved in
earlier this week. On Wednesday, he reportedly underwent
surgery on one of his legs. Clarke updated fans on his blog,
"yes, some asshole in his pick up truck pulled a left as i was going
through an intersection on my bike. JD & I were
riding back from Pomona Easyriders show when it happened." He
would also say, "... i have 3 broken bones in my left foot & 1
broken bone in my right foot. my new joe king helmut saved my
skull, but i won't be walking for awhile."
Liza Minnelli, 63, will undergo knee replacement surgery next
week. The singer has canceled her plans to attend the Grammy
Awards ceremony on Jan. 31st (where she is nominated in the Best
Traditional Pop Vocal Album category) as she will still be recovering
in the hospital. Her spokesman insisted the operation was not
serious, but a routine procedure in women of her age and, since she's
been dancing on stage since she was a teenager, has been feeling the
wear and tear.
Ronnie James Dio's wife/manager Wendy Dio has updated fans to Ronnie's
condition. "After a few hiccups between Christmas and New
Year's, such as a blood clot, a trip to the emergency room, and a
three-day stay at the hospital, we had a quiet holiday spent with
family and close friends. Ronnie and I just returned from
Houston, where Ronnie had his third chemo treatment, and all seems to
be going well."
Knack vocalist Doug Fieger, 57, is suffering from brain and lung
cancer. Fieger recently talked with the Detroit News about
his condition saying that surgeons removed a portion of his lung to
cancer in 2004. Two years later after noticing he forgot the
words to his classic hit, "My Sharona," was looked at and doctors
discovered several brain tumors and has suffered from more than 20 so
far. He underwent several surgeries and treatments but it has
weakened him causing him to decline further therapy. His
ex-wife, Mia, has been taking care of him and helping him put weight
back on.
Joan Jett has been named Style.com's Beauty Icon of the
Month. Meanwhile, Floria Sigismondi's biopic The Runaways
will premiere at Sundance later this month.
Roy Orbison was honored on Jan. 13th with a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame.
The Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel soundtrack climbed a spot
to #6 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Glee Cast's Glee:
Season One: The Music Volume 2 fell 4 places to #15. Glee
Cast's Glee: Season One: The Music Volume 1 dropped 2 spots to
#20. Michael Jackson's This Is It soundtrack fell a place to
#23. Michael Jackson's Number Ones dropped 2 spots to #35.
The highest charting single by an 80s artist this week on the Billboard
Hot 100 singles chart was Reba's "Consider Me Gone" at #59.
Queen's Absolute Greatest fell 9 places to #24 on the U.K. Albums
chart. Foo Fighters' Greatest Hits dropped 3 spots to
#37. Whitney Houston's The Ultimate Collection retained the
#39 slot.
Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" climbed a spot to #6 on the U.K.
Singles chart. The resurgence of the song is attributed to X
Factor contestant (and future winner) Joe McElderry performing the song
on the show.
Reba McEntire has signed on to host the 45th Annual Academy Of Country
Music Awards which will broadcast live from the MGM Grand Garden in Las
Vegas on Apr. 18th. This will be her 12th time hosting
'country music's party of the year.' McEntire will also
release CMT Invitation Only: Reba on DVD on Feb. 9th.
Nena will release her new single, "Du Bist So Gut Für Mich,"
on Feb. 19th. The song is her follow-up to "Wir Sind Wahr"
off her Made In Germany album. She is expected to start her
Made In Germany tour in April.
Shelby Lynne will release her new studio album, Tears, Lies And Alibis,
via her own new label Everso Records (distributed via Fontana) on Apr.
20th.
Drummer Neil Peart of Rush recently told The Canadian Press that the
band is in the early stages of planning their next project but the new
music may not be released in the traditional album format.
"We're thinking of writing and recording a few songs and maybe
releasing them, and playing them live, and then going back and doing
some more later. We just feel really free (in terms) of what
we might do right now."
Former Whitesnake/Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord will release his
latest solo studio album, To Notice Such Things, on Mar. 22nd via Avie
Records.
The Cure's Robert Smith has recorded a cover of the Fain/Hilliard song,
"Very Good Advice," (from the 1951 Walt Disney version of Alice In
Wonderland) for the Almost Alice CD containing songs inspired by the
film Alice In Wonderland due out Mar. 2nd. Smith has also
recorded a few collaborations, a song for a John Martyn tribute album
and working on an 'exclusive' iTunes album amongst other projects.
Camper Van Beethoven bassist Victor Krummenacher has a new
collaborative project with Alison Faith Levy called McCabe &
Mrs. Miller with a debut album, Time For Leaving, due out Mar. 9th via
Magnetic Motorworks. Camper Van Beethoven guitarist Jonathan
Segel plays violin and mandolin in the band.
Motels vocalist Martha Davis has a new children's CD, Red Frog Present:
16 Songs For Parents And Children, heading to digital retailers in
February. With a lot of new projects in the works including a
jazz album and covers album, Davis has been on the road more and heads
to Dante's in Portland on Jan. 29th.
Former Sepultura vocalist/guitarist Max Cavalera will release his new
studio album with Soulfly, Omen, via Roadrunner Records on May. 4th.
A new posthumous album by Johnny Cash, American VI: Ain't No Grave,
will be released on Feb. 26th. Produced by Rick Rubin, the
album includes one of the last songs he ever wrote. "I Corinthians:
15:55."
Buzz have released their new live CD, Cyberclash, via MySpace page at
www.myspace.com/buzzbiz.
Jason Donovan and the Moody Blues' Justin Hayward will star in the new
U.K. production of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The
Worlds -- Alive on Stage! starting November.
Glenn Danzig has recorded a special duet with Melissa Auf der Maur for
her current multimedia project, Out Of Our Minds, which will include a
solo record when released on Mar. 23rd.
Alan Jackson's new 12-track studio album, Freight Train, will be
released via Sony Music Nashville on Mar. 30th. Vern Gosdin
performs a duet with him on "'Till The End" on the set. The
album's first single, "It's Just That Way," has just entered the
Billboard Country Songs chart at #32 and was released digitally this
week.
Blackmore's Night will release a love song collection, Beyond The
Sunset: The Romantic Collection, culled from their first 4 albums, in
time for Valentine's Day. The disc will also include two
previously-unreleased songs ("Once In A Million Years" and a cover of
Joan Baez's "Diamonds And Rust.")
Thomas Dolby, Howard Jones and Erasure's Vince Clarke have remixed
songs for the Electro Pioneers EP digital download by Lady GaGa
collaborator DJ Space Cowboy released this week.
Sarah McLachlan's new music video for her new song, "One Dream," will
premiere on MSN.com on Jan. 21st and make it's television premiere on
NBC on Jan. 24th before heading to YouTube.
A new k.d. lang hits set, Recollection, is on the way in
February. The set will be released in a slimmed-down 2-disc
version followed by a 3CD+DVD deluxe package.
The new Broadway musical Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark reportedly has a
budget closing in on $50 million. According to producers,
"the production is moving forward" and preview performances have been
rescheduled and an opening date is expected later this year.
Delays have prompted its producers to offer refunds to theatergoers who
purchased tickets for performances that were expected to begin on Feb.
25th. U2's Bono and The Edge wrote the score for the
show. Meanwhile, the BBC have admitted that their coverage of
the release of the band's No Line On The Horizon last year had given U2
"the sort of publicity money can't buy." Especially viewed as
inappropriate was use of the slogan U2 = BBC.
Joe Satriani has announced plans to release a new double/CD and DVD,
Live In Paris: I Just Wanna Rock!, on Feb. 2nd via Epic Records.
Morrissey has released a statement saying that he has ceased working
with his current Front Line Management team. He also is
currently without a record label after parting with
Universal. Meanwhile, with the success of the 'Rage Against
The X Factor' group, that helped make the song, "Killing In The Name,"
a Christmas #1 in the U.K., a group called No1 Meat Is Murder 25th
Anniversary is pushing fans to purchase the Smith's hit, "How Soon Is
Now?," between Jan. 28th and Feb. 6th to make it #1 to coincide with
the 25th anniversary of their Meat Is Murder album.
The Plimsouls will see their 18-song Halloween 1981 performance at the
Whisky a Go Go (that was recorded but never released) surface in a
remastered version entitled Live! Beg, Borrow & Steal on Feb.
23rd via Alive Records.
SPV plan to re-release Sepultura's latest album, A-LEX, in April with
two new songs that were recording during the same album sessions but
went unreleased. The band are also planning a DVD for this
year that will be culled from their upcoming European tour.
Starting Feb. 6th, VH1 Classic will air 8 new half-hour weekly episodes
of Behind The Music Remastered which will pick up from where the
original Behind The Music episodes left off. Episodes on
Genesis, Motley Crue, Metallica, Judas Priest, Def Leppard and John
Lennon are expected. VH1 Classic has also announced the new
original series Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy camp coming this summer and The
Music Video Exposed.
Rob Zombie has started work on his first project in television
directing as he is filming an episode of CSI: Miami set to air on Mar.
1st.
Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook is resurrecting
Manchester's famous Factory Records offices as a 350-capacity live
music venue called FAC251: The Factory.
With the launch of Ringo Starr's new studio album, Y Not, word is
trickling down about the line-up for his next All Starr Band.
Edgar Winter and Gary Wright are set to return and Rick Derringer and
Mr. Mister's Richard Page are expected to join them.
Michael Gira will revive his band the Swans for a new album, an LP of
acoustic demos, a live DVD and a tour this year.
According to Jason Bonham, he's working on a new project with guitarist
Joe Bonamassa and bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes with a working title of
Black Country.
Sade's music video for "Soldier Of Love" premiered at Amazon.com this
week. The song is the first single and title track to her
first studio album in a decade due out Feb. 8th.
Paul McCartney will be giving away his new 12-track album, Live In Los
Angeles, free in the Mail on Sunday newspaper in the U.K. and Ireland
on Jan. 17th.
Filmed for the German television Rockpalast in 1980 at the Grugahalle
in Essen, Joan Armatrading will see the release of the new live DVD,
Steppin' Out, via Eagle Rock Entertainment on Feb. 23rd.
Bon Jovi are asking fans to cast their vote at www.CBS.com to decide
which hit song by the band that they'll perform on the 52nd Annual
Grammy Awards on Jan. 31st.
Foreigner's Mick Jones and Kelly Hansen appear for a short interview
and acoustic performance on the Jan. 16th episode of NBC's Access
Hollywood.
R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck has teamed up with Snow Patrol vocalist
Gary Lightbody, Sebastian drummer Richard Coburn, singer Miriam Kaufman
and her husband Iain Archer in what is being called a "country-tinged"
band called Tired Pony.
Guitarist Jimmy Page has announced that he's started work on his first
new album in 22 years. "I think it's very important to make
musical statements with new material, and that's exactly what I plan to
do over the forthcoming year. Musically it will be a
different picture in quite a radical frame, I hope. I'd like
to try some ambitious projects."
The video for W.A.S.P.'s "Babylon's Burning" off their latest album,
Babylon, has debuted on YouTube at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktQfK3Jo-zk. The band head out on The
Beast Of Babylon tour in the U.S. starting February.
Grammy-nominated R&B vocalist Teddy Pendergrass, 59, died at
Bryn Mawr Hospital in suburban Philadelphia on Jan. 13th.
Pendergrass was having a difficult recovery after undergoing surgery
for colon cancer about 8 months ago. The singer started as a
member of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and as a solo artist
before charting two #1 albums on the U.S. R&B chart and a #1
U.S. R&B hit as a solo artist with "Close The Door" in the late
70s and a solid recording career until a 1982 car crash paralyzed the
sex symbol from the waist down. This didn't stop Pendergrass
as he continued to release albums until 1998's This Christmas I'd
Rather Have Love and announced his retirement from the music business
in 2006. Pendergrass was the first black male vocalist to
record 5 consecutive multi-platinum albums.
Former Johnny Kidd & The Pirates guitarist Mick Green, 65, died
on Jan. 11th with no cause of death reported. Green did stay
in the hospital as recently as last year for a suspected kidney
problem. The guitarist recorded with several artists during
his career including Paul McCartney, Peter Green, Ronnie Lane, Henry
Rollins, Bryan Ferry, Robert Plant and recently with Van Morrison.