According to his publicist, R&B vocalist Will Downing is recovering at his New Jersey home after he has
spent several months hospitalized for a chronic muscle disorder called polymyositis. He has been in physical therapy
and recording a new studio album to be released early this fall via Peak Records.
Luciano Pavarotti has been given the go-ahead to leave the hospital according to his manager. He was admitted last
week after suffering a high fever.
Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against lead vocalist
Gordon Gano on Aug. 15th claiming he was deprived of credit for some of the group's songs, a proper accounting
of its earnings and that Gano hurt the band's reputation by letting their hit, "Blister In The Sun,"
to be used by Wendy's in a commercial. Ritchie claims in the lawsuit that he founded the band in 1980 (hiring drummer
Victor DeLorenzo that year and Gano the next year) and seeks a ruling that he is half owner of the band's songs,
an accounting of past and future royalties and unspecified damages. Gano has claimed that he wrote all the band's
songs with one or two exceptions.
Law firm Lavely & Singer of Los Angeles filed a lawsuit on Aug. 15th against their former client Michael Jackson
claiming they are owed more than $113,750 of the $180,000 the two parties agreed to in arbitration last year. Essentially,
the final payment of the settlement was allegedly not made before the July 31st deadline as stipulated in that
settlement. Meanwhile, Jackson and his sister are reportedly among those negotiating with a New Jersey man over
a collection of nearly 60 unreleased songs by the Jackson 5. Richard Altomare reportedly purchased a collection
of unclaimed personal belongings containing the recordings from a warehouse.
Dr. Dre [a.k.a. Andre Young] has filed a lawsuit in bankruptcy court against defunct label Death Row Records over
ownership of the rights to the 1992 album The Chronic (which he claims he created, produced and was the principal
performer on all the master recordings.) Dre claims he owns the copyrights to the album and fears Death Row and
a court-appointed bankruptcy administrator will sell the rights. He asserts that he granted Death Row a license
to distribute the album in exchange for payment of royalties in 1992 and that the label broke their 1996 agreement
to continue to pay royalties on the album in. In 2000 he notified the label that he was rescinding the agreements
and demanded return of the copyrights. Dr. is asking the court to declare that the previous agreements have been
rescinded, compel the label and trustee to restore the copyrights to him, to pay him restitution for all the revenue
the label received using the copyrights and issue a permanent injunction that would bar the defendants from offering
to sell the copyrights without his written consent.
George Michael has begun serving one hundred hours of community service at a London homeless shelter as part of
his sentence for driving while unfit. The sentence also prohibits the singer from driving for two years. Meanwhile,
A U.K. Wham! fan has been fined £200, ordered to pay £219 in costs and had his stereo confiscated by
the local council in a Liverpool suburb after a 3 hour session repeating Wham!'s "Last Christmas" at
full volume.
With 229 arrests at the PNC Bank Arts Center last week as well as the deaths of two men (believed to be drug and
alcohol-related) attending Ozzfest there, alcohol has been banned in the parking lots of the New Jersey amphitheater.
Neil Sedaka will be honored at New York's Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall on Oct. 27th for his 50 years in the
music business. Natalie Cole and The Captain & Tennille are among those paying tribute during the event which
will be used to raise money for Elton John's AIDS Foundation.
The Hairspray soundtrack dipped two places to #6 on the Billboard 200 album chart last week selling 69,000 copies.
Bon Jovi's Lost Highway dropped three spots to #18 and Prince's Planet Earth fell nine places to #20.
Bruce Springsteen will release his new 11-track studio album, Magic, on Oct. 2nd via Columbia Records. The album
is his first with the E Street Band in 5 years and was produced and mixed by Brendan O'Brien. Springsteen's longtime
manager has called the end product a high energy rock CD. This is O'Brien's third album with the Boss. The lead
single from the album is expected to be "Radio Nowhere."
B-52's vocalists Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson appear on the song "Take My Time" from Junior Senior's
new studio album, Hey Hey My My Yo Yo, which has just been released.
The Mission U.K. have announced an exclusive four-show event to be held at Shepherds Bush Empire in London between
Feb. 27th and Mar. 1st. Each show will be focused on one of their first 4 albums (playing the entire album and
all the B-sides from the singles released.) Meanwhile, the band recently released their new album, God Is A Bullet.
The Eagles have released their new single, "How Long," to U.S. radio. A video for the track premieres
today (Aug. 20th) at music.yahoo.com and is heading to CMT shortly. The song comes from their new studio album,
Long Road Out Of Eden, which is due out in October in an exclusive deal with Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and the band's
Web site. The single is now up on their MySpace page.
"Wired" will be the first single released from New Model Army's upcoming studio album, High. The single
is currently available as a free download at www.newmodelarmy.org.
The Osmond Brothers taped a 50th anniversary reunion special in Las Vegas for PBS due to air next year. The show
included the full family (the Osmond Brothers band, Donny, Marie and Jimmy) gathering to sing for the first time
in over two decades.
Apple.com has featured an interview with former Depeche Mode member and current Recoil mastermind Alan Wilder about
his new album, Subhuman. The interview can be found at: http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/wilder/
Rick Spingfield's new song, "Who Killed Rock N Roll?", is now available for purchase from iTunes. The
song will be performed by Springfield on the Aug. 23rd and 24th episodes of General Hospital.
Prior to her death in 2005, Johnny Cash's first wife, Vivian, told her story to TV producer Ann Sharpsteen. That
story has now become the book, I Walked The Line: My Life With Johnny, heading to stores on Sept. 4th. Sharpsteen
and Vivian share author credit on the book.
VH1 is reaping the rewards of landing Rock of Love with Bret Michaels which has been number 1 at the network for
5 straight weeks.
J.J. Cale plans to release a collection of previously-unreleased songs from his early career, Rewind: Unreleased
Recordings, due out Oct. 2nd. Along with 8 songs written by Cale are covers of songs by Eric Clapton, Leon Russell,
Waylon Jennings and Randy Newman.
The Jesus & Mary Chain have announced they will be recording their first album since 1998's Munki. One of the
new songs, "All Things Must Pass," was debuted by the band at the Coachella Festival.
A new CD box set collection, Dick Clark's American Bandstand 50th Anniversary, is on the way. Deborah Gibson and
Frankie Avalon will host an infomercial to promote the set which begins airing Aug. 24th.
Edwyn Collins has been doing some interviews and is expected to film a video for his new single, "You'll Never
Know (My Love)." The song and video will include Luca who sings with Collins on the track which will be released
this autumn.
Johnny Marr recently told the U.K. magazine the Word that he plans to collaborate with Morrissey on a Smiths boxed
set to be released via Warner Bros. about a year and a half from now. Meanwhile, Morrissey has plans for a 6-week
fall North American tour.
The Cure's Robert Smith, Frank Black and Tom Waits are among the singer/songwriters that will judge this year's
International Songwriting Competition.
A remix album of Nine Inch Nails' recently released Year Zero in on the way under the title Y34R Z3R0 R3M1X3D.
You didn't think Tony Bennett would slow down after turning 80, did you? If anything, he's more active as he will
be the subject of an upcoming episode of PBS' American Masters series (Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends) debuting
on Sept. 12th. On Sept. 25th he will release a new 15-track album, Tony Bennett Sings The Ultimate American Songbook,
Vol. 1. He will also publish the book, Tony Bennett In The Studio -- A Life Of Music And Art, on Oct. 1st featuring
more than 200 of his paintings. He is also planning to record a jazz album with Stevie Wonder (who he won a Grammy
with for their duet "For Once In My Life.")
LL Cool J's new television series, The Man, has been picked up for 6 episodes as a mid-season replacement for the
upcoming TV season. The rapper/actor plays an undercover LAPD officer who cares for an orphaned boy.
Two new songs by the Flaming Lips will join six older ones by David Bowie for the soundtrack to the new Farrelly
Brothers' comedy The Heartbreak Kid that stars Ben Stiller.
Erasure will release their new EP, Storm Chaser, on CD, limited-edition 7" and digital download on Sept. 24th
in the U.K. The 9-track disc will contain new, extended and remix versions of songs from their Light At The End
Of The World album. Erasure's song, "Early Bird," featuring Cyndi Lauper (which appeared on the True
Colors Tour CD) is among the tracks.
Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante and Dhani Harrison (son of George) have recorded guitar tracks
for the Wu-Tang Clan's song "Gently Weeps" which includes a sample of the Beatles' "While My Guitar
Gently Weeps."
Punk act D.O.A. will release D.O.A. - 1978-1985: Smash The State on DVD on Sept. 18th featuring commentary by the
band members.
Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore plans to release Trees Outside The Academy, his first new solo studio album since
1995's Psychic Hearts, in September.
Van Halen fans have voiced their anger at recent snubs directed at original bassist Michael Anthony. Anthony had
previously shared credit on all Van Halen tracks (except for the 3 new ones on Best Of Both Worlds) but wasn't
listed in the credits to "Panama" (which appears in the film Superbad) and has been removed from the
credits for the songs on their Diamond Award-winning 1984 (listed in the ASCAP database.) Things got further out
of hand after the relaunch of their official Web site when fans reported that Anthony was air-brushed out of album
artwork and replaced with Wolfgang Van Halen. The original artwork has been replaced and the band have not commented
on any of this. Meanwhile, with the announcement of the new Van Halen tour, David Lee Roth has said that they are
"plotting and planning" a new album after the tour.
Rapper Tone Loc will be heading to reality television as part of MTV's new series Celebrity Rap Superstar. The
show will pair 8 celebrities with a superstar MC mentor (Loc is one of 3.) The show premieres Aug. 30th.
16 of John Lennon's solo albums (including the Double Fantasy album) and exclusive videos from EMI Music have made
their debut as digital downloads at iTunes.
John Mellencamp has entered the studio with producer T Bone Burnett to start work on his 22nd career album.
Spear Of Destiny plan to head into the studio this week to start recording about 14 songs for their new album,
Imperial Prototype. The first track to be finished will be "Berlin Berlin" which will also appear on
the group's upcoming disc, The Singles Collection.
"More Than A Memory" will be the first single released from Garth Brooks upcoming retrospective, The
Ultimate Hits, due out Nov. 6th. The other 3 new songs on the collection are "Midnight Sun," "Leave
The Light On" and a duet with Huey Lewis on Lewis' classic "Workin' For A Livin'."
Harper Collins will publish Jason Donovan's upcoming autobiography, My Story, on Oct. 1st. An audiobook read by
Donovan himself is also due.
Bongos frontman Richard Barone will release his new book, Frontman: Surviving The Rock Star Myth, via Backbeat
Books on Sept. 28th. Famed producer Tony Visconti has written the forward for this release and positive reviews
have come from artists as diverse as Lou Reed and B-52's frontman Fred Schneider.
Neil Young plans to release Chrome Dreams II via Reprise Records on Oct. 16th. The album is a sequel to his 1977
unreleased album.
Bill Frisell's new album, Floratone, with Matt Chamberlain, Tucker Martine and Lee Townsend is available at floratone.com.
Eric Clapton reportedly paid $120,000 for 12 paintings by legendary graffiti artist Lee Quinones. Each of the works
depicts a shoplifter snagging an album from the 1970s.
Alabama will be among the artists contributing songs to the soundtrack for the feature film, Dale. The soundtrack
will be sold exclusively at Wal-Mart stores and Walmart.com on Aug. 28th. The film is the only authorized biography
of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Former Skid Row vocalist Sebastian Bach will release his new solo studio album, Angel Down, on Nov. 20th. During
a recent interview with Blabbermouth, Bach revealed that he has collaborated with Axl Rose (who he has been opening
for on tour and joined on stage for some songs) on a track for Chinese Democracy and that Axl sings on "(Love
Is) A Bitchslap" and another song (rumored to be a cover of Aerosmith's "Back In The Saddle") on
Angel Down.
The upcoming soundtrack to the television series House will include Joe Cocker, Lucinda Williams, series star Hugh
Laurie's Band From TV and Elvis Costello (with a cover of Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful.")
Los Lobos, John Doe, Sonic Youth, Mark Lanegan, Bob Forrest, Roger McGuinn, Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan are among
the artists who have contributed tracks to the soundtrack for the Bob Dylan-themed film I'm Not There due out Oct.
30th. More than 30 songs were recorded for what is expected to be a double-CD set. The film, opening Nov. 21st,
includes 6 different actors portraying Dylan during different points of his career. The 3-CD Dylan retrospective,
Dylan, will be released on Oct. 1st.
The Buzzcocks recently headed to Los Angeles to tape an episode or two of Fuel TV's The Daily Habit that should
air in the next few weeks.
Legendary jazz percussion pioneer Max Roach, 83, died in his sleep early on Aug. 16th in New York. Roach had a
seven decade career during which he recorded over 70 albums. During the 1980s he began experimenting with a double
quartet (his regular jazz quartet and the partially improvising Uptown String Quartet in which his daughter Maxine
played viola.) Roach also wrote for theater, performed with the hip-hop act Fab Five Freddy and the New York Break
Dancers, served on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts and holds 8 honorary doctorate degrees.