According to her spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg,
Madonna
suffered "minor injuries" and bruises when she fell off a horse on Apr.
17th. "The accident occurred when the horse Madonna was
riding was startled by paparazzi who jumped out of the bushes to
photograph the singer, who was visiting friends." Madonna
cracked 3 ribs, broke her collarbone and hand in the summer of 2005
when thrown from a horse. Meanwhile, her appeal in the
adoption of her second child from Malawi will be heard in court on May
4th. On a brighter note, the singer tops Forbes' list of
Hollywood's hardest working mothers with earnings of $110 million in
2008.
Country legend Jimmy Dean, 80, and his wife were forced to flee their
Varina, Virginia, home when it caught fire on Monday.
Extensive damage was caused to the basement, first floor and the attic
of their mid-sized farmhouse. Authorities reported that 3
firefighters suffered minor injuries while fighting the blaze that went
on until Tuesday morning. A cause of the fire has yet to be
determined.
According to TMZ.com, Don Henley is suing California Republican
Assemblyman Charles DeVore after the politician recorded parodies of
"Boys Of Summer" and "All She Wants To Do Is Dance" attacking Barack
Obama and Senator Barbara Boxer respectively. Henley is
seeking damages and asking for the videos to be removed from the
Internet. DeVore is running a campaign for U.S. Senate.
Bob Seger and his bass player Christopher Campbell have been named in a
negligence lawsuit filed by a man who says he suffered injuries in a
crash involving a 2004 Lexus registered to Seger. Scott
Martin claims that he was injured on Aug. 8th in Independence Township
when his motorcycle was struck by the vehicle driven by Campbell and
hasn't been able to work since. Campbell was reportedly
ticketed for failure to stop after the accident.
Pink Floyd have filed a lawsuit against EMI and its private equity firm
owners Terra Firma over claims the label miscalculated their royalty
payments. The band has been with the label since 1967 and
likely took action during negotiations over their royalty
payments. No terms of the lawsuit have been released and both
parties have declined comment on the case.
Carlos Santana was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award during
the 2009 Billboard Latin Music Awards on Apr. 23rd. The award
was presented to him by Mexican pop/rock act Maná.
Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson performed and were honored with the ASCAP
Founders award at ASCAP's recent 26th annual pop awards.
It seems there were a few other acts nominated for the Wide Open
Country Video of the Year award in the first round of nominees at the
2009 CMT Music Awards. We mentioned Def Leppard and Taylor
Swift's "Photograph" and Def Leppard and Tim McGraw's "Nine Lives" but
left out John Mellencamp's "My Sweet Love," Robert Plant &
Alison Krauss' "Please Read The Letter," The Raconteurs featuring Ricky
Skaggs and Ashley Monroe's "Old Enough" and Rehab featuring Hank
Williams, Jr.'s "Bartender Song."
The Twilight soundtrack climbed 4 places on the Billboard 200 albums
chart to #4 on sales of 49,000 copies. Prince/Bria Valente's
Lotus Flow3r/MPLSoUND/Elix3r fell 6 spots to #15. U2's No
Line On The Horizon dropped 2 places to #16.
Flo Rida's "Right Round" (a previous #1 in the U.K. and U.S. which has
a chorus based on Dead Or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)")
retains the #3 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
Carrie Underwood's "I Told You So" featuring Randy Travis fell 8 places
to #37.
Chris De Burgh's Footsteps debuted at #4 on the U.K. Albums
chart. Annie Lennox's The Collection fell 4 places to
#8. Dusty Springfield's Just Dusty: Greatest Hits debuted at
#18. ABBA's Gold: Greatest Hits climbed 9 places to
#25. AC/DC's Black Ice re-entered the chart at #28.
U2's No Line On The Horizon dropped 10 spots to #34. The
Specials' The Best Of The Specials fell 10 places to #36.
Lionel Richie & The Commodores' The Definitive Collection
dropped 11 spots to #40.
Flo Rida's "Right Round" fell 2 places on the U.K. Singles chart to
#11. The Saturdays' "Just Can't Get Enough" dropped 12 spots
to #39.
MVD Visual and Sexy Intellectual have announced the upcoming release
Depeche Mode: The Dark Progression on DVD on June 16th. The
new documentary follows the rise of the most successful electronic band
ever (over 100 million albums sold worldwide) and includes interviews
with all the band members, friends, producers, colleagues and
contemporaries (including Gary Numan, Thomas Dolby, OMD's Andy
McCluskey, Daniel Miller and band biographer Jonathan
Miller.) The documentary will also include rare video
performances by the band from across their career, archive footage,
video clips, location shoots, news reports and more.
According to BANG Media International, Iron Maiden plans to start work
on their 15th studio album in November or December with hopes to
release it in 2010 supported by a tour.
Producer and Electric Light Orchestra mastermind Jeff Lynne has been
busy working in the studio on his follow-up to 1990's Armchair Theatre
solo album. He also has plans to write and record with Joe
Walsh.
NewsOK.com reports that Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry will sign an
executive order declaring the Flaming Lips' single, "Do You Realize??,"
the state's official rock song on Tuesday. During the 2008
legislative session, the Oklahoma state Legislature approved House
Concurrent Resolution 1047, which established a selection
process. Oklahomans nominated 454 songs and a panel narrowed
it down to 10. Despite being chosen as the official rock
song, the state's House of Representatives were 3 votes shy of passing
the resolution after band member Michael Ivins was seen wearing a
Communist Party t-shirt when the winning song was announced at the
Capitol on Mar. 2nd.
UFO will release their new studio album, The Visitor, on June 2nd via
SPV. The band reportedly wrote over 35 songs for the album of
which 13 were brought into the studio for recording and
production. Tour dates behind the album will begin on Oct.
2nd.
Poco and Eagles member Timothy B. Schmit has been working on, Expando,
his first new solo studio effort in 8 years. The set will
include many guest appearances including Dwight Yoakam, Graham Nash and
the Blind Boys of Alabama.
A new live Nirvana DVD is on it's way. Filmed during their
headline performance at 1992's Reading Festival the 27-song set, Life
Takes No Prisoners, will be released in the U.K. on May 4th.
Relapse Records has announced that they will be releasing what is
expected to be Voivod's last album, Infini, on June 23rd in the
U.S. The 13 tracks on the album are the last to be written
with late guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour.
The video for, "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'," the first single from Bob
Dylan's forthcoming album, Together Through Life, can currently be
viewed exclusively at Amazon.com.
Many will remember Jason Bonham for his father's legacy or his 1989
album, The Disregard Of Timekeeping, (recorded under the name
Bonham.) But in 1984 his band Airrace released their sole
album, Shaft Of Light. That album was recently reissued via
Wounded Bird Records. It seems the re-release has brought the
band together for some performance dates and, according to a recent
Classic Rock interview with guitarist Laurie Mansworth, the reunion
"could be an ongoing thing and we will work together in the future --
there might even be a second album."
Cherry Pop have reissued Kim Wilde's first two albums (1981's Kim Wilde
and 1982's Select.) The releases have been overseen and
approved by Wilde and her official fan club/Web site and will include
non-LP B-sides and in-depth liner notes.
Chickenfoot's Joe Satriani posted to the band's Web site, "Beyond our
expectations, the public on-sales for the nine road-test shows sold out
all tickets in record time. The band was blown away by your
response and can't wait to take the show on the road!" Their
self-titled debut hits stores on June 9th.
Former Fairground Attraction vocalist Eddi Reader has released a new
studio album, Love Is The Way, via Rough Trade.
Have a favorite 80s diva? VH1 has announced that they will
bring back their performance special set to air live on Sept. 17th and
they are asking the public to offer their opinion on what female
singers should headline the show and perform a duet on stage.
Fans can leave their suggestions in the comments section at
Divas.VH1.com... along with thousands of others. Good luck.
Sonic Youth fans can download, "Sacred Trickster," the first MP3 from
their new studio album, The Eternal, (due out June 9th) for free at
their MatadorRecords.com's MataBlog. (You may need to scroll
down a bit.)
Loretta Lynn has co-written and recorded a song, "Don't Tempt Me," with
Todd Snider for his forthcoming Don Was-produced album, The Excitement
Plan.
Stevie B has announced via his MySpace page, "Every 8-10 years I decide
to do new music. I do it first because I love
music. Second I do it because of fans and friends like you
who have supported my career for over 23 years. Today my long
awaited album is available for download." The new album, The
Terminator, is available over at www.hottunez.com.
Simply Red's 1985 #28 U.S. hit, "Money's Too Tight (To Mention)" has
been re-recorded and produced by frontman Mick Hucknall. The
song will be released as a download that will feature 6 remixes.
According to Babyshambles drummer Adam Ficek, the long-awaited
follow-up to The La's 1990 self-titled debut album could be on the
way. Lee Mavers of the band would be using Babyshambles as
his backing band as they have worked on stage recently.
John Waite has posted two new songs ("Something Better" and "I've Been
Wrong Before") on his MySpace page. The songs are two of 3
that will individually adorn re-releases of his 1995 album, Temple Bar,
1997's When You Were Mine and 2001's Figure In A Landscape when they
head to iTunes.
The Pixies will see their studio catalog released in a box set entitled
Minotaur due out on June 15th. The set will include all 5 of
their studio releases. A deluxe edition of the box set will
retail for $175 and combine the albums on 24k CDs, Blu-Ray disc, bonus
1991 concert/videos DVD and a 54-page book. The limited
edition version retails for $450 and adds 180 gram vinyl versions of
the 5 albums, a 72-page hardcover book, a Giclee print by Oliver and
all packaged in an oversized custom clamshell. None of the
tracks are expected to be remastered and they are still considering
bonus tracks. The box sets can be pre-ordered at Ainr.com.
Thomas Dolby is working on a new studio album. On May 18th,
he will release a new hits collection, The Singular Thomas Dolby, in
the U.K. containing all of his singles and videos.
Harmonix and MTV Games have announced they will add a 7-pack of songs
from Styx and REO Speedwagon to the Rock Band Music Store of
downloadable content. Meanwhile, Kevin Cronin and Tommy Shaw
will appear live on CBS' The Early Show on Apr. 27th to perform a
special acoustic version of their song "Can't Stop Rockin'" as well as
hits by their bands. They will appear the following day on
Fox's The Morning Show With Mike And Juliet.
With Shelley Preston leaving Bucks Fizz to focus her attention on
Cloudfish (her project with Spandau Ballet's Steve Norman) the group's
tour plans have been put in limbo. But, a new documentary
about the band with interviews from all 5 members is on the
way. Also, expect a new remix collection of their RCA hits,
The Extended Mixes 1981-1985, due out in September.
80s Music Central recently caught up with Dwight Twilley and talked
with him about his upcoming projects. He releases his first
covers collection, Out Of The Box, as a digital download on Apr.
28th. Twilley has often cited the Beatles as inspiring his
musical career and the 20-track set even includes a few tributes to
them ("In My Life," "Hello Goodbye" and "You've Got To Hide Your Love
Away.") He has also begun work on Out Of The Box 2 and is
taking suggestions for songs at his Facebook page.
Gospel singer/composer Rev. Timothy Wright, 61, was critically injured
in a three-vehicle crash on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania on July 4,
2008 and died as a result of those injuries on Apr. 23rd.
(That same crash had taken the life of his wife and
grandson.) Wright was a pastor at Grace Tabernacle Christian
Center Church of God in Christ (located in the Crown heights area of
Brooklyn.) He released 5 gospel albums during the 1980s, was
nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album
(in 1994 for Come Thou Almighty King and 1999's Been There Done That)
and last released Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in 2007. Savoy Records
& The Malaco Music Group had previously announced the upcoming
release of a Rev. Timothy Wright 18-track career retrospective
collection, The Godfather Of Gospel, due out on May 5th.