Metallica's performance at the Globen in
Stockholm,
Sweden, on Mar. 8th was canceled after James Hetfield came down with
food poisoning. Hetfield wrote on their official site, "The
cause/diagnosis at the hospital was narrowed down to either a 24-hour
virus or a bad oyster...yes, hate to admit, an oyster could have taken
me down." The date has been rescheduled for May
4th. To make up for the cancellation all those
attending the make-up show will receive a free download of that night's
performance at LiveMetallica.com.
The Billboard Latin Music Conference and Awards celebrate their 20th
anniversary this year and have announced that Santana will be honored
with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his achievements in Latin music.
U2's No Line On The Horizon have scored their 7th #1 on the Billboard
200 albums chart on sales of 484,000 copies. This ties them
with Led Zeppelin at third for most #1's by a band. The
Twilight soundtrack climbed a spot to #16. Bruce
Springsteen's Working On A Dream dropped a place to #19.
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand fell 10 spots to
#26. Charlie Wilson's Uncle Charlie dropped 9 places to
#29. Van Morrison's Astral Weeks: Live At The Hollywood Bowl
fell 6 spots to #39.
Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent's "Crack A Bottle" fell 3 places on
the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart to #11.
U2's No Line On The Horizon debuted at the top of the U.K. Albums
chart. Tina Turner's Platinum Collection debuted at
#14. Bette Midler's The Best Bette gained a spot to
#16. U2's U218 Singles climbed 22 places to #17.
Bruce Springsteen's Working On A Dream gained 8 spots to #24.
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand climbed 5 places to
#26. Roger Whittaker's The Golden Age Of Roger Whittaker: 50
Years Of Classic Hits dropped 3 spots to #27. ABBA's Gold:
Greatest Hits climbed 2 places to #28. Morrissey's Years Of
Refusal fell 19 spots to #31. UB40's Love Songs dropped a
place to #35. The Pet Shop Boys' PopArt: The Hits fell 20
spots to #38.
Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent's "Crack A Bottle" fell 4 places to
#16 on the U.K. Singles chart. U2's "Get On Your Boots"
dropped 10 spots to #30.
Ticket sales for Michael Jackson's final U.K. performances at London's
O2 Arena have been a massive success -- selling out 50 performances in
5 hours. Meanwhile, attorneys for MJJ Productions have filed
documents in court allowing Julien's Auction House to proceed with the
auction of more than 2,000 of Jackson's items until Apr. 3rd when their
lawsuit against founder Darren Julien (claiming they had no right to
sell the items) is set to be heard in Los Angeles Superior
Court. The auction is expected to be held on Apr. 21st.
Devo are in the studio putting the finishing touches on their first new
studio album since 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps due out this fall.
On Nov. 27, 2008, Echo & The Bunnymen performed what some fans
claimed to be their greatest gig ever. Split into two sets,
the second half of the show had the band playing their Ocean Rain album
with a full orchestra. That recording of Ocean Rain is now
available in a deluxe edition exclusively at Bunnymen.com.
Saga have announced that they will release, The Human Condition, their
new studio album on May 19th. This will be the album debut of
their new frontman Rob Moratti.
Peter Frampton will see digitally remastered versions of his 1986
album, Premonition, and 1989's When All The Pieces Fit re-issued
digitally soon (no physical release has been planned.)
Frampton also plans to continue work on his next album until a
scheduled July 17th performance in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Poison's Bret Michaels plans to release his 'tell-all' autobiography,
Roses And Thorns: The Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy To My Reality, via Simon
& Schuster in June. Meanwhile, his VH1 series, Rock
Of Love Bus with Bret Michaels, ends in April and he has been working
on his new solo album with hopes to release it this summer.
According to Paolo Rossi, the manager of Sting's country estate in
Tuscany, about 30,000 bottles of wine produced on the property will go
on sale in September in the U.K. and U.S. A 2008 Chianti
could also go on sale this fall if tests show it has aged
properly. But expect many other products from his estate
including honey, olive oil, fruit, vegetables and Tuscan salami to be
available soon.
Unified Pictures release their new film, The Perfect Sleep, this
week. The film is scored by Dave Vanian of The Damned and
keyboardist Greg Kuehn (who has recorded with Berlin, The Church and
T.S.O.L.) has composed a piano piece for it.
Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics has been writing songs for a planned
musical version of Ghost that is set for a West End debut next year.
INXS vocalist JD Fortune backtracked on his previous statements about
being kicked to the curb by the band at a Hong Kong airport in a recent
interview with Sun Media in Canada. "That was sort of a
misquote (on my part.) It was the proverbial
handshake. Nobody really said, 'Thanks a lot, kid.'
I thought we were going to see each other again. It was kind
of like, 'Hey, hey, I'll catch up with you later.'"
A biographical film about N.W.A. is in the works from New Line with the
working title Straight Outta Compton. The film will tell the
story of their rise and turbulent breakup and will be produced by band
members Dr. Dre and Ice Cube.
Carrie Underwood unveiled her country cover of Motley Crue's classic
"Home Sweet Home" on Wednesday's episode of American Idol.
The song is available exclusively via iTunes through Mar. 16th (and
then added to other online music retail sites) with a portion of the
proceeds benefitting the Humane Society of the United States.
Meanwhile, Erie, Pennsylvania mayor Joseph Sinnott declared March 7th
Motley Crue Day onstage during the band's performance.
Richard Thompson's career will be celebrated with the 71-track 4-CD
collection, Walking On A Wire: Richard Thompson (1968-2009), due out on
June 30th.
Prince has announced that he will perform for three straight nights
(Mar. 25th to 28th) on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote his
new 3-CD Target-exclusive release on Mar. 29th and celebrate the end of
Leno's run as host of the show.
Late R&B artist Snooks Eaglin will see his 1987 album, Baby,
You Can Get Your Gun, reissued on Hep Cat Records through Collector's
Choice Music on Apr. 21st.
VH1 has acquired the exclusive rights to the world television premiere
and subsequent DVD release of the Anvil! The Story Of Anvil!
documentary which follows the career of Canadian heavy metal act that
inspired acts like Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax. The film
heads to theaters on Apr. 10th.
Stevie Nicks will see the release of her Live In Chicago DVD and The
Soundstage Sessions CD via Reprise Records on Mar. 31st.
Joe Lynn Turner will see his second album with Sunstorm, House Of
Dreams, released on May 19th (on Apr. 17th in Europe.)
Iggy Pop will release his new solo studio album,
Préliminaires, on May 19th. The album includes the
song, "Autumn Leaves," on which he sings in French.
A new limited-edition book, Pixies: In Print, that collects interviews,
essays and articles with and about the band from 1987 to 1992 and 2004
to 2007 is on the way. The book can be previewed and
purchased at Rock
Reader Books/Lulu.
Bjork's environmental documentary Nattura-Summer 2008 has been made
available on iTunes. All proceeds from the download go to the
Nattura Campaign.
During a private show in Somerville, Massachusetts, Bono mentioned to
the crown of 950 fans that U2 are considering reworking and
re-releasing some early work including, Boy, their 1980 debut album as
they were rushed from the studio during production. During
the Q&A session, the Edge stated, "There are so many U2 songs
that I am quite happy not to play. But the thing is we still
want to rewrite some of them, and who knows, we may at some point
re-release a few of our early albums with a few changes."
Robert Pollard's new project Circus Devils will release Gringo on Apr.
14th. He will follow that by releasing, Jar Of Jam Ton Of
Bricks, his collaboration with Richard Davies under the name Cosmos on
June 9th.
Styx's May 26, 2006 performance with the 115-piece Contemporary Youth
Orchestra in Cleveland will be released on Blu-Ray DVD under the title
Styx: One With Everything on Apr. 21st via Eagle Entertainment.
Sonic Youth, John Paul Jones and composer Takehisa Kosugi will debut
their collaborative original musical piece, "Nearly Ninety," on Apr.
16th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of a four day festival
celebrating choreographer Merce Cunningham's 90th birthday.
Deborah Gibson has premiered the video for "Already Gone" at her
www.deborah-gibson.com Web site. Gibson has made the song
available as a free download when signing up at her official
Reverbnation page (the link can be found on her site.)
Siouxsie & The Banshees will see their 1982 album, A Kiss In
The Dreamhouse, 1984's Hyaena and 1986's Tinderbox remastered and
reissued on Apr. 6th.
Death In June have gathered together material from their original
line-up (from 1981 to 1984) that was previously only available on vinyl
for the new compilation, Lesson One: Misanthropy.
The Pet Shop Boys will release their tenth studio album, Yes, via
Astralwerks on Apr. 21st. The first single from the album is
"Love etc."
Finnish power metal act Stratovarious will release, Polaris, their
first new studio album in 4 years via earMusic in the U.K. on May 18th.
According to a Rockpages.gr interview with Night Ranger's Jack Blades,
"...there is talk of getting back together in March 2009 to record
another Damn Yankees album!"
Kajagoogoo's Limahl has collaborated with Sara Noxx on the song
"Superior Love" which will appear on her upcoming album
In(t)oxxication. Her MySpace page features a sample of the
track.
Pulp's Jarvis Cocker will release his new solo album, Further
Complications, via Rough Trade on May 19th.
The new series, The Osbournes: Reloaded premieres on Fox television on
Mar. 31st.
Kyle Rae Sweet, wife of Stryper frontman Michael Sweet, lost her battle
with cancer on Mar. 5th. A private funeral service is
expected to be held. In lieu of flowers, donations to the
Sweet Children's College Fund can be made. If you wish to
express your sympathies in an email, send them to
thesweetfamily@michaelsweet.com.
Studio and touring guitarist David Williams, 58, passed away on Mar.
6th. He was admitted to Sentara Hospital in Hampton,
Virginia, after suffering a stroke on Mar. 2nd. Williams had
fallen into a coma and died of cardiac arrest later.
Williams' understated guitar style endeared him to many producers
including Quincy Jones, who brought him in to work on Michael Jackson's
Off The Wall and Thriller. He became on of the most in-demand
Los Angeles session players of the 1980s and 90s, performing on albums
by: Jackson, The Jackson 5, Madonna, Aretha Franklin, Chaka
Khan, Diana Ross, Herbie Hancock, The Tubes, Stevie Nicks, Melissa
Manchester, Paul McCartney, George Benson, Shalamar, Julio Iglesias,
ABC, Whitney Houston, Kenny Loggins, Eddie Murphy, Johnny Mathis, Rod
Stewart, Stacey Q, Boz Scaggs, Tracie Spencer, Nick Kamen, Peter
Cetera, Julian Lennon, Paul Young, Hiroshima, Go West, Lionel Richie,
Michael McDonald, Bryan Ferry, Manhattan Transfer, Dionne Warwick,
Steve Perry, Elton John and many others as well as vocal work on The
Plimsouls' Everywhere At Once.