Procol Harum lead vocalist Gary Brooker has filed an appeal over the judgment awarding their former keyboardist
Matthew Fisher 40% of the royalties of their hit, "A Whiter Shade Of Pale." Brooker claims that it was
his idea to use the Bach theme Fisher played on the record and that he wrote the song with lyricist Keith Reid
before Fisher joined the band. The singer has stated that he believes the ruling sets a dangerous precedent allowing
anyone that played on any recording in the last 40 years to claim joint authorship.
Reba McEntire's Reba Duets dropped from the top of the Billboard 200 album chart to #6 last week. Queen Latifah's
Trav'lin Light debuted at #11 followed by Melissa Etheridge's The Awakening (#13), Joni Mitchell's Shine (#14),
Chaka Khan's Funk This (#15), Tony Bennett's Tony Bennett Sings The Ultimate American Songbook Vol. 1 (#16) and
Barry Manilow's The Greatest Songs Of The Seventies (#17).
Bruce Springsteen's Magic debuted on top of the U.K. Album chart last week. Annie Lennox's Songs Of Mass Destruction
debuted at #7 followed by Phil Collins' Hits (#8), Bob Dylan's Dylan (#10) and Ian Brown's The World Is Yours (#15).
The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour has broke another record pulling in $558,255,524 over 144 dates becoming
the top-grossing tour in history. The previous record-holder was U2's Vertigo tour with a more than $150 million
difference.
The producers of Saw IV have announced that the soundtrack will be released digitally on Oct. 23rd. The set includes
Nitzer Ebb's "Payroll (JohnO Mix)," Ministry's "Life Is Good," Skinny Puppy's "Spasmolytic
[Deftones Remix (Habitual Mix)] and Sixx: A.M.'s "Tomorrow" among the tracks. "Payroll" is
actually a new Nitzer Ebb recording.
Sananda Maitreya (formerly Terence Trent D'Arby) will release chapter 1 of Nigor Mortis ® - A Critical Mass
via his own Treehouse Publishing label on Oct. 10th at: http://www.sanandamaitreya.com/ecommerce
The Charlatans U.K. have signed a deal with xfm.co.uk to release their new studio album and new single, "You
Cross My Path," online free of charge. Their currently untitled 10th album is in the finishing stages and
will be released in early 2008.
A free, streaming preview of The Cult's newly released studio album, Born Into This, is currently running at AOL
Music (http://spinner.aol.com/artists/new-releases-full-cds?defaultTab=14). The album comes in a standard edition
as well as a savage edition (a second disc with 3 demo tracks and 2 songs not on the album.)
Ricky Martin will be releasing his new CD/DVD, Ricky Martin Live: Black & White Tour, on Nov. 6th. A two-hour
concert special will air on Telemundo in October and Mun2 in November. Martin is also scheduled to receive his
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Oct. 16th and has been nominated for 4 Latin Grammy Awards (Album Of The
Year, Record Of The Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Album and Best Long Form Music Video.
A deluxe edition of Paul McCartney's Memory Almost Full will be released on Nov. 6th. The set includes 3 previously-unreleased
tracks joining the original songs on the CD and a DVD featuring videos from the album as well as a 5-song performance
by McCartney from June at London's Electric Ballroom.
The fourth installment of The Alarm MMVII's Counter Attack Collective entitled Situation Under Control is already
being shipped. A concept video for "Plastic Carrier Bags" from the 6-track mini-album has been released.
According to producer Brendan O'Brien, there were quite a few great songs that didn't fit with the collection that
became Bruce Springsteen's latest album, Magic. Rumors of the remaining songs being released on a new album in
the spring have been circulating but haven't been confirmed. Magic is looked at as a lock for the #1 spot on the
Billboard 200 album chart next week. The album has become his 7th #1 album on the U.K. Album chart. The singer
is also reportedly being sued for $850,000 for backing out of a deal to purchase a horse for his teen daughter.
Morrissey is considering a possible September release date for his next studio album. Most of the tracks are written
and arranged (of which many have debuted live during his fall U.S. tour.) The only thing keeping him from setting
a date is that his deal with Sanctuary has ended and he'll need to find a new label.
Peter Gabriel has returned to the recording studio to resume work on his first album since 2002's Up. He hasn't
ruled out working with his former Genesis bandmates but couldn't find the time to do it for the current reunion
tour.
Stone Gossard's pre-Pearl Jam group Green River will reunite next summer for a Sub Pop 20th anniversary concert.
While Pearl Jam takes a break, Gossard has been going over material he recorded with his band Brad in 2004 for
release. Brad's rights to their first two Epic album have been acquired from the label as well as albums from Satchel
and Malfunkshun (connected bands) with reissue projects coming in the future.
The fight over the New Order name between Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Peter Hook may have created a new
project. According to an interview of Sumner while attending a screening of the new Joy Division film Control yielded,
"I'm working on some stuff at the moment. Steve is gonna be involved with it, and it's a project called Bad
Lieutenant." With Sumner and Morris doing their own project, Hook is still working with Freebase.
Gordon Lightfoot, Jennifer Warnes and Blue Rodeo have contributed tracks to the various artist compilation The
Gift: A Tribute to Ian Tyson.
David Bowie's last 5 albums (1995's Outside, 1997's Earthling, 1999's Hours, 2002's Heathen and 2003's Reality)
will be collected into the David Bowie Box Set due out Nov. 27th. The albums will each include a bonus disc of
rare tracks and will all be housed in vinyl replica digipaks.
Mike Scott of the Waterboys has released a new single, "In The Beginning Was Love," in collaboration
with the Norwegian organization One People. The song can be heard at his MySpace page (www.myspace.com/mikescottwaterboys.)
Mayor Murphy R. McMillin of Jena, Louisiana, has written a statement to the Associated Press, "The town of
Jena has for months been mischaracterized in the media and portrayed as the epicenter of hatred, racism and a place
where justice is denied." The mayor claims that he stayed quiet until now but said, "However, the Mellencamp
video is so inflammatory, so defamatory, that a line has been crossed and enough is enough." The mayor's ire
comes from the new John Mellencamp video for the song Jena with the lyrics, "Jena, take your nooses down."
Mellencamp has responded at his Web site saying that he is only telling a story and not reporting. "The song
is not written as an indictment of the people of Jena but, rather, as a condemnation of racism." The video
can be seen at his MySpace page.
UB40 vocalist Ali Campbell has released his new solo single, "Hold Me Tight," from his new studio album,
Running Free, due out this week in the U.K.
A double-DVD of Eric Clapton's second Crossroads Guitar Festival will be released on Nov. 20th containing performances
by Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck and many others.
Queen Latifah will be making a cameo appearance in the upcoming romantic comedy film, What Happens In Vegas...,
which stars Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz. Latifah's other film Mad Money heads to theaters in January.
The Charlie Daniels Band will release their new album, Deuces, on Oct. 9th featuring guest performances by Vince
Gill, Brenda Lee, Marty Stuart, Dolly Parton, The Del McCoury Band, Earl Scruggs, Gary Scruggs and Randy Scruggs.
Carbon/Silicon (the group formed by form Clash/Big Audio Dynamite member Mick Jones and former Generation X/Sigue
Sigue Sputnik member Tony James) will release their debut album, The Last Post, on Oct. 23rd.
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne have plans to auction off art, furniture and collectibles from their Beverly Hills, London
and Malibu homes on Nov. 30th and Dec. 1st administered by Julien's Auctions. A portion of the proceeds will benefit
the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Foundation.
Jody Watley plans to release a new remix collection, Three Decades In The Mix, next year. Her Superhits - Live,
has been released at Target.com and Walmart.com.
A DVD of Nirvana's legendary Unplugged In New York performance on Nov. 18th, 1993, will be released on Nov. 20th.
The disc will include the unedited 66-minute concert which includes two songs that didn't air on the original MTV
Unplugged broadcast.
Garth Brooks will release his new retrospective, The Ultimate Garth Brooks, on Nov. 6th. The double-CD plus DVD
set contains 34 tracks and disc of videos.
Chaka Khan's new album debuted at #15 but she has another debut on her mind... Broadway. Khan joins the cast of
The Color Purple starting Jan. 9th.
Taylor Dayne is featured on page 52 in the Oct. 15th issue of People magazine. She talks about her new project
where she has re-recorded her greatest hits. She also discusses online dating, Britney and having children via
a surrogate.
Liquid Trio Experiment will release their new studio album, Spontaneous Combustion, on Oct. 23rd. The group includes
bassist Tony Levin (of King Crimson and Peter Gabriel's band), drummer Mike Portnoy (of Dream Theater) and keyboardist
Jordan Rudess. The album contains recordings from 1998 sessions for their quartet Liquid Tension Experiment which
included Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci. Petrucci had to leave the studio to attend his wife who went into
premature labor and recording continued, were misplaced during mixing, found and now heads to stores.
Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Kris Kristofferson are among the artists making a guest appearance
on Deanna Carter's new album, The Chain.
Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Neilsen has announced plans to open a hotel/restaurant named Rick's in the group's hometown
of Rockford, Illinois. The building will also house a guitar museum (containing Neilsen's large guitar collection.)
Bono has reportedly given a song to the Spice Girls that will be included in their new Greatest Hits album. Bono,
Sting, Chrissie Hynde and Suggs McPherson are set to appear as guests on Jools Holland's upcoming album, Best Of
Friends, due out in the U.K. on Oct. 16th.
Guitarist Andy Summers of the Police has told the Associated Press, "I would see it as a challenge, to make
an absolutely brilliant pop album at this stage of our career, and that would be something quite remarkable."
He also has said that their major concern right now is keeping the group together while on the road.
After the successful release of their Humanity EP and summer tour dates, 32Crash (which features Front 242 vocalist
Jean-Luc De Meyer) have announced plans to release their debut album, Weird News From An Uncertain Future, on Oct.
19th.
Robyn Hitchcock has reportedly recorded hundreds of songs with his backing band the Venus 3 (which includes R.E.M.
guitarist Peter Buck, Young Fresh Fellows' Scott McCaughey and former Revolting Cocks/current R.E.M. drummer Bill
Rieflin) for his next studio album due out next year in the summer or fall. Until then, he has boxed set collections
coming out starting with I Wanna Go Backwards on Nov. 13th.
Former Greg Kihn Band lead guitarist Dave Carpender has died of heart failure. Carpender was with the group from
1976 to 1983. Kihn, drummer Larry Lynch and group manager Joel Turtle visited him the day before he passed. Earlier
this year, group keyboardist Gary Phillips lost his battle with cancer.