Gary Glitter (a.k.a. Paul Francis Gadd), 61, was sentenced to 3 years in prison on Friday for molesting two
Vietnamese girls (ages 10 and 11) while renting a home in southern Vung Tau last year. Glitter continued to proclaim
his innocence after the verdict was read and has 15 days to appeal. Otherwise, he will be deported to Britain after
serving his sentence, paying $320 to each girl's family and court fees. The former glam rocker was given a minimum
sentence (initially facing up to 7 years in prison) because of the $2000 in "compensation" he paid each
girl's family in December.
Singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen was awarded a default judgment against his former business manager Kelley Lynch
for draining his personal accounts and investments of millions of dollars. Lynch failed to respond to the allegations
of stealing from his retirement fund and is expected to be difficult to find to obtain any of the $9.5 million
ordered from the court. Another defendant reached an out-of-court settlement with Cohen. A Leonard Cohen documentary,
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, will be released to theaters in June. The film includes cameos by Nick Cave, Bono
and Adam Clayton. A collection of his poetry and illustrations, Book of Longing, will be published on May 9th.
Twisted Sister vocalist Dee Snider had throat surgery on Wednesday to remove a polyp from his vocal cords. Snider
had to cancel his nationally syndicated radio show and other appearances for the next two months as he recovers.
Richie Sambora's lawyer filed court documents on Friday challenging the objectivity of Los Angeles Superior Court
Judge Michael Levanas who is assigned to handle his divorce from Heather Locklear. It isn't known specifically
what issues there are with the judge but does follow a recent trend toward the intent to get reassigned to a private
judge to minimize publicity.
Rod Stewart has been ordered by a federal judge to pay Harrah's Entertainment more than $3 million for a show he
canceled in December 2000. He was also ordered to pay an additional $153,483 in contempt-of-court sanctions and
legal costs for failing to turn over information to lawyers during last year's trial. Stewart's lawyer intends
to appeal the verdict and jury award. Meanwhile, Rod Stewart has announced that he and fiancee Penny Lancaster
will wed in a "small, cozy affair" in June. The couple had their first child together in November.
"Dani California" will be the first single from the Red Hot Chili Peppers new 25-track double-disc studio
album, Stadium Arcadium, due out on May 9th.
Ronnie Milsap has returned to RCA Records with plans to release a new studio album in the summer. "Local Girls"
has been tapped as the first single from the as-yet untitled album.
Former Van Halen members Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar have teamed up with Vic Johnson and David Lauser under
the name The Other Half to exclusively perform Van Halen songs live.
Former Vitamin Z and Alan Parsons vocalist Geoff Barradale has resurfaced as the manager for the Sheffield band
The Arctic Monkeys who currently hold the title of fastest-ever selling debut album by a British group for Whatever
People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.
The Buzzcocks have released "Wish I Never Loved You" as the first single from their new studio album,
Flat-pack Philosophy, due out this week.
Erasure's album of country/acoustic versions of songs spanning their 20 years together, Union Street, will be released
on Apr. 18th.
The 5th track 'leaked' from Guns N' Roses long-overdue album, Chinese Democracy, entitled "Catcher In The
Rye" has appeared online. Queen guitarist Brian May performed on the song and confirmed that he recently received
a mix of it. Reports are also claiming that Chinese Democracy will be a 3-disc set.
Organizers of the NME Awards in London last week were stunned as Bono dropped the F-bomb 14 times while introducing
Bob Geldof, who won the Hero Of The Year Award.
A Smithsonian Institution collection entitled Hip-Hop Won't Stop: The Beat, the Rhymes, the Life tracing the history
and evolution of the genre is in the works. The more than $2 million project is expected to take 5 years to complete
and include memorabilia donated by MC Lyte, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash.
According to Asia's official Web site, Geoffrey Downes and vocalist John Payne have dissolved their partnership
amicably. Payne has formed a new band with former Asia members Guthrie Govan and Jay Schellen called One. The group
have signed a deal for the release of their self-titled debut due out May 23rd.
Poison's new Don Was-produced cover of Grand Funk Railroad's "Were An American Band" will be featured
on their new 18-track compilation, The Best Of Poison - 20 Years Of Rock, due out Apr. 4th. Meanwhile, with C.C.
Deville appearing on the new season of The Surreal Life in March, Rikki Rockett will makes a guest appearance on
TLC's new Wrecks To Riches series (where they will play "We're An American Band.")
Recently leaked transcripts from Jermaine Jackson's upcoming book entitled Legacy: Surviving The Best And The Worst
have made it to the press. According to reports, Jermaine had doubts about his brother's innocence when he was
arrested in 2003 because of a few things he will detail in the book.
Former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson has joined Soul Asylum after Karl Mueller lost his battle with throat
cancer last year. The band will release their new studio album, The Silver Lining, on June 13th. The first single
from the album, "Stand Up And Be Strong," can be heard at their MySpace page.
The Charlatans have posted the video for their new single, "Blackened Blue Eyes," from their upcoming
album Simpatico at their official Web site: http://www.thecharlatans.net/
A 49-track double-disc collection of Johnny Cash's previously-unreleased home-recorded music (from the early 70's
to the early 80's) entitled Personal File will be released in May.
Mick Karn of Japan is planning to release his 7th new solo album, Three Part Species, in May preceded by an as-yet
undisclosed single.
The Cult have signed a deal with Instant Live to produce authorized recordings of each of their reunion shows during
their A Return To Wild tour which began on Mar. 1st.
Bad Religion's new live DVD will be previewed on VH1 Classic on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday under the title
VH1 Classic in Concert: Bad Religion - Live at the Palladium.
3 years after canceling a pair of shows in China because of the SARS outbreak, the Rolling Stones plan to hold
their first-ever concert in the country on Apr. 8th.
ABC have finished recording tracks for their first new studio album since 1997's Sky scraping. Frontman Martin
Fry will also be appearing in the final show of Just The Two Of Us on Sunday.
The first wholly comprehensive retrospective, Kornerstoned: The Alexis Korner Anthology - 1954-1983, by the late
Godfather of British Blues will be released on May 1st.
Depeche Mode have re-recorded their new single, "Suffer Well," in Simlish (the native language of The
Sims) for The Sims 2: Open For Business. Other songs in the game include Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy" and Howard
Jones' "Things Can Only Get Better." Meanwhile, Cryonica Music is collecting material from artists for
a tribute album to Depeche Mode's B-sides.
Rhino Records plans to release expanded reissues of Dinosaur Jr.'s 1991 album Green Mind, 1993's Where You Been
and vocalist/guitarist J Mascis' Live At CBGB: The First Acoustic Show on May 16th.
During an interview with Out magazine for their April issue, Madonna said that her daughter Lourdes is really obsessed
with who is gay and asked Mommy about her kiss with Britney Spears at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. She explained
it as: "I am the mommy pop star and she is the baby pop star. And I am kissing her to pass my energy on to
her."
Rick Rubin will executive produce Slayer's first new studio album with their four original members since 1990's
Seasons In The Abyss. The band have some summer dates scheduled and plans to release the new album in the fall.
A new Web site is being created for Go West as work on their new studio album is progressing well and on time.
Meanwhile, the mixing of vocalist Peter Cox's Motown solo album has been finished.
Don Dokken is planning to release a new Dokken studio album, new solo studio album, a greatest hits collection
and a live CD later this fall.
According to a post on their official Web site, UFO's Phil Mogg and Vinnie Moore have recently finished a songwriting
session. The band are expected to reconvene in mid-March to rehearse and develop the songs with plans to record
later that month.
Rosanna Arquette's film, All We Are Saying, begins airing on Showtime on Mar. 8th and collects testimonials by
the likes of Tom Petty, Steven Tyler, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Elton John and David Crosby on why traditional touring
rockers hate the way the face of music has changed due to media conglomerates.
The remastered and expanded double-disc version of The Waterboys' Fisherman's Blues album will be released on May
1st and include 14 previously-unreleased tracks.
King Diamond will reportedly lend his voice to director Kevin Smith's next film, The Passion of the Clerks, due
out later this year. His 1988 song, "Welcome Home," has been mentioned but how it will be used is unknown.
Sigue Sigue Sputnik will release their new studio album, Into The Unknown, slowly as free MP3 downloads via their
new Sputnikworld page starting this week.
April Wine have been working in the studio on what would be their first album of new material in 5 years with hopes
to release it later this year.
Saraya keyboardist Gregg Paul Munier, 44, passed away on Feb. 3rd from flu complications that turned into pneumonia.
Munier founded Saraya with vocalist Sandi Saraya Salvador in 1987 and released 1989's Saraya and 1991's When The
Blackbird Sings before leaving the band.