Dead Or Alive's Pete Burns was awarded over
$750,000
in damages in his case against plastic surgeon Maurizio Viel who
admitted negligence over his lip enhancement surgery. Burns
reportedly had to undergo more than 100 procedures between 2000 and
2004 to correct damage he suffered from an adverse reaction to the
collagen implants. At one point he was advised by doctors in
London that the only option he had was to have his lips amputated.
Sonic Youth have been forced to cancel their performance at this year's
Austin City Limits festival on Oct. 4th as guitarist Lee Ranaldo
fractured his wrist while playing tennis.
Kansas songwriter/guitarist Kerry Livgren, 59, suffered a stroke on
Tuesday morning and is showing signs of recovery. He is out
of ICU and beginning to work with a speech therapist.
More is becoming clear about guitarist Zakk Wylde's strange and sudden
formation of blood clots in his lungs and legs. Wylde's wife
has revealed that he is suffering from "a rare genetic disorder" for
which he is currently in California undergoing treatment. He
has an appointment with a hemotologist today. Earlier reports
were optimistic that the blood thinners were helping him pass the clots
but his blood is apparently still clotting.
Reba McEntire has been nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year and
Vocal Event of the Year with Brooks & Dunn for "Cowgirls Don't
Cry" at the 2009 CMA Awards to be held on Nov. 11th. George
Strait has been nominated for Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of
the Year and Music Video of the Year ("Troubadour.") The
Eagles have been nominated for Vocal Group of the Year. Randy
Travis' "I Told You So" is up for Song of the Year. Also up
for Vocal Event of the Year are Lee Ann Womack with George Strait (for
"Everything But Quits") and Carrie Underwood with Randy Travis (for "I
Told You So.")
Bruce Springsteen and jazz composer/pianist Dave Brubeck will be
honored at the 32nd Kennedy Center Honors Gala. The event
will be recorded for broadcast as a 2-hour prime-time special on CBS to
air on Dec. 29th.
Quincy Jones will be honored by the Bermuda Premier with the African
Diaspora Heritage Trail Award for his contributions to culture and
humanity at the 14th annual Bermuda Music Festival at the end of
October.
They Might Be Giants' new studio album, Here Comes Science, has topped
the Amazon.com children's music charts.
Whitney Houston's new album, I Look To You, debuted at #1 on the
Billboard 200 albums chart (#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and #1
Digital Albums) on sales of 304,000 copies. George Strait's
Twang fell 9 places to #16. Reba McEntire's Keep On Loving
You dropped 11 spots to #17. John Fogerty's The Blue Ridge
Rangers Ride Again debuted at #24. Neil Diamond's Hot August
Night/NYC fell 13 places to #36. Michael Jackson's Definitive
Collection climbed 7 spots to #39.
Michael Franti & Spearhead featuring Cherine Anderson's "Say
Hey (I Love You)" climbed 4 places to #21 on the Billboard Hot 100
singles chart.
Vera Lynn's We'll Meet Again: The Very Best Of Vera Lynn climbed 18
places to #2 on the U.K. Albums chart. Michael Jackson's The
Essential dropped a spot to #9. Neil Diamond's Hot August
Night/NYC fell 10 places to #24. Jackson's Bad dropped a spot
to #28. Jackson's Thriller climbed a place to #30.
The Stone Roses' The Stone Roses dropped 8 spots to #31.
ABBA's Gold: Greatest Hits climbed 3 places to #33. Michael
Jackson & The Jackson Five's The Very Best Of Michael Jackson
& The Jackson Five dropped 3 spots to #37. U2's U218
Singles fell a place to #39. U2's No Line On The Horizon
dropped 12 spots to #40.
Former Cold Chisel frontman Jimmy Barnes has scored his 13th #1 album
in Australia with his latest release, The Rhythm And The Blues.
Janet Jackson will open the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday with a
tribute to her brother Michael. The special appearance is
expected to honor his life and career. The first look at the
This Is It trailer will also take place during the awards
show. Meanwhile, more than 50,000 fans gathered in Mexico
City on Aug. 29th at the Monumento a la Revolución to
witness over 13,000 people dressed in their best Thriller costumes to
perform the "Thriller Dance" becoming the largest number of people
performing it at the same time. Jermaine Jackson's tribute
concert to his brother in Vienna, Austria, has been canceled and will
instead take place in London in June.
Surviving members of the Bee Gees, Barry and Robin Gibb, have announced
they will perform live together again 6 years after the death of their
brother Maurice.
David Thornton and wife Cyndi Lauper appear in the new film Here And
There that recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Lauper wrote the theme song, "Here And There," that is being showcased
on CyndiLauper.com. She will also appear on the season
premiere of the Fox television series Bones on Sept. 17th portraying
psychic Avalon Harmonica and right afterwards performs on Divas Live.
Elvis Costello has announced plans to debut a selection of rare live
recordings from throughout his career, The Costello Show Series,
starting with Live At The El Mocambo on Sept. 29th via
Hip-O/Universal. The concert was recorded in 1978 and was
heavily bootlegged until it was included as part of a 1993 box
set. The series of recordings will continue to roll out live
releases next year.
Toad The Wet Sprocket's Glen Phillips and will see the release of the
self-titled debut album from his Works Progress Administration (WPA)
project. The core of the group is made up of Phillips, Sean
Watkins and Luke Bulla with an expanded line-up that adds 5 other
members including Benmont Tench of Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers.
Jon Marsh of The Beloved has a new album/project in the works and track
previews will be appearing on their MySpace page
(www.myspace.com/belovedjonmarsh).
In 2006, Dan Fogelberg finished recording an album he titled Love In
Time and placed them in a safe deposit box. He had been
diagnosed with cancer two years before and would pass away at the age
of 56 in December 2007. Love In Time will be released on
Sept. 22nd via Full Moon/UMe. All of the songs make their
physical debut on the disc and only "Sometimes A Song" has been
released digitally (as it was made available as a download on
Valentine's Day 2008 to benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation.)
Bananarama's new single, "Love Comes," from their new studio album,
Viva, has been released in the U.K. via iTunes in a radio edit, an
alternate version and remixes.
Herbie Hancock has enlisted Ravi Shankar, Jeff Beck and several other
artists for his Herbie Hancock's Imagine Project which sees the Grammy
award-winning keyboardist travel around the globe to record songs in
the home countries of over a dozen musicians. The album and
accompanying documentary film are in progress with an expected early
2010 release.
Australian act 1927 will reunite to promote the 20th anniversary
re-issue of their 1988 album,...Ish, with several tour dates in
November.
Anton Fig recently released a new single, "Know Where You Go," via
iTunes. The song features vocals by Sebastian Bach and guitar
by Ace Frehley. Fig returned the favor by appearing on
Frehley's new album, Anomaly.
BJ Thomas will release his new 10-track studio album, Once I Loved, in
just a few weeks. The album can be pre-ordered at
BJThomas.com. A fan-made video for the disc's lead track
"Aqua de Beber" can be found on YouTube.
Dr Robert of the Blow Monkeys will see a solo collection, The Coming Of
Grace: An Introduction To Dr Robert, released in the U.K. on Sept. 14th.
Defiance will release their new studio album, The Prophecy, in Europe
on Oct. 19th via Candlelight Records. This is their first
studio release since 1992's Beyond Recognition.
John Lydon has announced that he will relaunch Public Image Ltd after a
17-year hiatus with a few pre-Christmas shows. Former members
guitarist Lu Edmonds and drummer Bruce Smith return to the band and are
joined by multi-instrumentalist Scott Firth. In a recent
interview with the Guardian, Lydon described PiL as an "unfinished work
which is set to continue for some time."
A new 63-track 4-CD box set entitled The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998
will be released on Sept. 29th. The set touches on his 6
albums he released during the 1980s and is made up of unreleased studio
recordings from Stewart's personal archive.
Former Treebound Story singer/guitarist Richard Hawley will release his
6th studio album, Truelove's Gutter, on Sept. 22nd via Mute.
Winger will release their 5th studio album, Karma, via Frontiers
Records on Oct. 27th in a limited digipak edition (during the first
pressing only.)
M will see his 1979 hit "Pop Muzik" revisited with the release of Pop
Muzik: The Remix Album on Nov. 16th in the U.K. The disc will
include the original song, original video, 1989 remix, original demo
and several remixes (including the one commissioned by U2 in 1997 that
they played through the PA system at the start of each date of their
PopMart tour.)
An 'enhanced ebook' of Nick Cave's second novel, The Death Of Bunny
Munro, has been released and is currently available through iTunes.
Paula Abdul's replacement on American Idol has been
announced. Comedienne/talk show host Ellen DeGeneres
announced her joining the judges panel on her show on Wednesday.
Boy George has told People magazine that he is working on his first new
studio effort since 1995's Cheapness And Beauty which will be a
collection of cover songs reflecting his "personal journey and
experience."
Former Bongos frontman Richard Barone has been out promoting his book
Frontman: Surviving The Rock Star Myth but plans to release an album
that has been 33 years in the making. In 1976, a 16 year-old
Barone went to see the late Tiny Tim perform at a TraveLodge but, being
under age, had to listen from the lobby with his two friends.
An unlikely meeting of the two after the show led Barone to book a
recording studio to record, I've Never Seen A Straight Banana, which
will finally be released via Collector's Choice Music on Oct. 20th.
Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band will release their new album, Between
My Head And The Sky, on Sept. 21st via Chimera Music.
Jim Photoglo released his new studio album, Is It Me?, earlier this
year which went to #1 on the Folk DJ's listserve. It can be
purchased at his official Web site www.JimPhotoglo.com. Is It
Me? is the follow-up to 2005's Sparks In The Radio.
Duran Duran release their Live In Hammersmith '82 on DVD/CD on Sept.
22nd. The previously-unreleased set will contain videos from
the Rio era and two previously-unreleased Top Of The Pops performances.
Former Rough Cutt vocalist Paul Shortino, former Pantera drummer Vinnie
Paul and Lizzy Borden guitarist Ira Black have recorded a rock version
of the classic song "Send In The Clowns" which will be used as the
opening of Carrot Top's show at the Luxor in Las Vegas.
Taj Mahal, Los Lobos' David Hidalgo and Los Cenzontles have
collaborated on, American Horizon, a new album that will be released on
Nov. 3rd.
Side-Line has reported that Sinead O'Connor has re-recorded vocals on
her song "This Is To Mother You" for the charity organization GEMS
(which focuses on helping and supporting young girls in North America
who have become the victims of child trafficking.) O'Connor
has also been working on demos of new songs that may make up her next
album due around spring.
Mr. Big's Eric Martin will see his Mr. Vocalist album released in the
U.S. on Nov. 2nd. Martin is also looking at releasing a Mr.
Vocalist Christmas on Nov. 11th in Japan.
A live Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers anthology is in the
works. There are actually 4 versions that Live Anthology will
be released in: a 48-track 4-CD set, a 62-track deluxe box
set with a 1978 concert DVD, a 7-LP edition and the Superhighway Tour
edition that will allow you to download 24 of the songs over an 8 week
period (before the release date) and download the other 24 songs when
it is released.
Anvil will make their late-night performance debut on The Tonight Show
with Conan O'Brien on Oct. 6th in support of their 'new' album, This Is
Thirteen, due out this week and the DVD, Anvil! The Story Of Anvil, due
out Oct. 6th.
Madness plan to release a new retrospective collection on CD/DVD in the
U.K. entitled Total Madness on Sept. 21st.
The grand opening of Vince Neil Ink's newest location inside the Rio
All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas will happen on Sept. 12th
with a performance by the owner.
Jamaican dancehall reggae keyboardist and producer Wycliffe "Steely"
Johnson, 47, died on Tuesday at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital on Long
Island following a heart attack. According to fellow producer
Cleveland "Clevie" Brown, Johnson was diagnosed with kidney failure in
December, had been suffering from pneumonia and doctors also told
Johnson that he had a blood clot in his brain. During the 80s
Johnson played on albums by Gregory Isaacs, Dub Syndicate, Freddie
McGregor, Wailing Souls, Shinehead, Eek-A-Mouse and Marcia
Griffiths. He would continue appearing on albums by Shabba
Ranks, Jimmy Cliff, Mikey Dread, Ali Campbell, Yellowman, Billy Ocean,
En Vogue, Dennis Brown, Buju Banton, Junior Reid and Sean Paul as well
as work record as Steely & Clevie.