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80s Nuts News Archive
3/19/99
With the smoke now cleared from last year's demise of Toad the Wet Sprocket and singer Glen Phillips still working
on a solo career, the remaining members of the band are now resurfacing in new projects and ventures. The duo of
former Toad guitarist Todd Nichols and bassist Dean Dinning now has a name, Lapdog, and the two have recently returned
from a recording session in Canada and are currently rehearsing with other musicians in their hometown of Santa
Barbara, Calif. Three new tunes by the band can be downloaded at www.lapdogmusic.com. If the songs have a familiar
ring to them, it's because Nichols wrote a lot of Toad's biggest hits, including "Walk on the Ocean"
and "Fall Down." Lapdog is currently without a record deal, but interest is building, according to a
spokesperson for the band. Former Toad drummer Randy Guss has dropped the drumsticks to manage another Santa Barbara-based
band, the Mades. Toad the Wet Sprocket's curtain call retrospective, The Best of Toad the Wet Sprocket, is now
set for a May release on Columbia Records but, according to a spokesperson for the band, could be pushed back further
because the band members cannot decide on a track listing.
Billy Idol is still pushing forward on his new album. He is also releasing an album titled Breakthrough in the
next few months, which is one of a series of albums by EMI of various major artists consisting of studio versions
and demos of early hits. Featured on Billy's album will be never heard before versions of such hits as "Rebel
Yell", a killer version of "Blue Highway", and a never before heard cover track called "Motorbiking",
which Billy and his band used to warm up the studio on the Rebel Yell album recording sessions. Billy and Steve
Stevens are also going into the studio to record a track for the Heavy Metal: Fakk 2 movie and to do some soundtrack
work.
Consider it a match made at the Grammys. Madonna and Latin pop sensation Ricky Martin will be recording a song
together for his upcoming album due out on May 25. The future duet was spawned when the two met backstage at the
Grammy awards ceremony in February, where both artists performed and took home awards. Last week, Martin flew to
Los Angeles to meet with Madonna to discuss the collaboration, which Madonna's "Ray Of Light" producer
and artist in his own right William Orbit will be helming. There's no word yet on what the track or the album will
be titled. It has also been reported that the former Menudo member will be Madonna's date on Oscar night, but neither
camp could confirm it at press time.
Word from the Styx website says that they are currently in the working stages of the new album. Also later this
Fall, Tommy Shaw is supposed to be touring with Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Cosmetic company Urban Decay has just permanently added a line of make-up products based on several rock and heavy
metal bands. Issued under the banner of the "Heavy Metal Tour 98/99" line of products, Urban Decay created
six colors named for Ozzy Osbourne (just referred to as "Ozzy"), AC/DC, Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden,
the Cult and Kiss -- colors which were then used in the creation of various nail enamel, lip gloss and eye shadow.
A spokesperson for Urban Decay says the colors, which were only intended to be released in a limited-edition capacity,
are now so popular with the company that it has decided to add the "rock tones" to Urban Decay's permanent
line of make-up products. In addition to music, Urban Decay has also had recent success by pairing colors with
films, and has issued shades inspired by such movies as "The Big Lebowski," "A Life Less Ordinary"
and "The Wedding Singer."
Phil Collins' first single from the Tarzan soundtrack called "You'll Be In My Heart"
will begin to get radio airplay on April 5th. Also a Phil Collins tribute album will be released sometime in the
first half of 1999. A number of various R&B artists are revising and recording Phil's hits. Also sometime this
spring, the second Genesis box set will arrive at music stores world wide. It will cover the Collins lead vocal
years, ('76-'93). Surely it will include live, b-sides, and other amazing stuff any Genesis fan will die to have.
Sinead O'Connor, Thomas Dolby and Coldcut's Matt Black and Jonathan More last night made a piece of recording history
when they produced what is believed to be the first single recorded live over the net from four different continents,
with musical contributions uploaded into the BBC's Maida Vale studios in London, and all via the Web. The ambitious
project, shown live on BBC's Tomorrow's World, and formulated to raise money for the 'War Child' charity was a
cover version of Bob Marley's 'Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)'. Viewers watched as O'Connor added her vocal, aided
by three backing singers, from a booth set up at the BBC Television Centre in London, with Dolby supplying keyboard
parts from San Francisco. Various other musicians from New Orleans, Johannesburg, Jakarta and Los Angeles were
also connected to the Maida Vale studio, where the Coldcut team recorded and mixed the track in one hour using
software known as Rocket Network. Although web technology has facilitated recording of this nature many times before,
even as far back as 1996, this will be the first time that the results are to be made available commercially. All
proceeds from the single will be donated to the British charity which aids children around the world, maimed and
orphaned by the ravages of war.
Three years after the dissolution of his famed pioneering punk band the Ramones, Joey Ramone has finally decided
to venture out on his own with a solo record. It's not as if the lanky punk godfather hasn't been keeping busy
since the 1996 dissolution of the group; it's just that he's finally decided to make a go of it himself. "I
think I'm finally ready to do this now," Ramone, 47, said from his New York apartment. "I've got some
good new songs and I'm just looking for a label that will be supportive of me." In addition to co-producing
music by his favorite new punk bands and by his idol, former Ronettes singer Ronnie Spector, Ramone says he's been
performing sporadic live cameos and accumulating material for an envisioned Joey Ramone disc. With 14 songs written
-- and many of them demoed with longtime collaborator and former Ramones producer Daniel Rey -- Ramone said he
is preparing to enter a New York studio to begin recording. But don't expect the regular Ramone's style songs...
no more simple songs about punk rockers. Intriguing titles of new solo songs include "I Feel Like I'm on a
Drug I've Never Done Before," "Mr. Punchy," "Don't Worry About Me," "What Did I Do
to Deserve You" and "There's a Spirit in My House and I Know It Ain't No Mouse."
The life of Culture Club’s vocalist, Boy George, is to be made into a £5 million movie by American company
Fine Line Features and BBC Films. It will be based on the pop star/Ministry of Sound DJ’s hugely successful 1995
autobiography Take It Like A Man. The book is a forthright chronicle of an outrageously extroverted young man,
his gay loves including his failed relationship with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss and his heroin addiction. The
film starts before George found success with Culture Club in the early 1980's. George has said in interviews that
actress Julie Walters has agreed to play his mom.
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