Duran Duran have been forced to cancel their two
upcoming performances in Mexico City and Guadalajara as keyboardist,
Nick Rhodes, has developed a very serious inner ear infection and
doctors have told him that he is not allowed to travel.
Meanwhile, a new official book, Would Someone Please Explain, which
will include the best questions sent to their official 'Ask Katy' Web
site information service will be released on their site in a limited
2,000 copy run.
According to CMT.com, Hank Williams Jr. has talked with Senator Lamar
Alexander and former Senator Bill Frist about a possible run for the
U.S. Senate as a Republican during the next primary election.
A Colorado judge has begun sentencing noise violators to listen to an
hour of either Barry Manilow or the theme song from Barney.
Early reports claim that the new sentencing has been massively
successful.
The FCC has filed for an appeal of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Philadelphia ruling that threw out the case and $550,000
fine against CBS Corp. in July citing the FCC practice of not
considering objectionable images indecent if they are
"fleeting." The case revolves around Janet Jackson's brief
exposure during her halftime performance at the 2004 Super Bowl with
Justin Timberlake. The FCC has been busy with appeals as they
have one pending before the U.S. Supreme Court in New York in a case
involving Cher's use of profanity in December 2002 during the Billboard
Music Awards and a similar incident during the same event by Nicole
Richie.
Testimony has began in London's Snaresbrook Crown Court this week in
the April 2007 alleged false imprisonment of 29 year-old Norwegian
escort Audun Carlsen by Boy George [a.k.a. George O'Dowd].
Carlsen told the court that he was manacled to a bedroom wall and beat
with a metal chain after being accused of hacking into the singer's
computer.
It seems that Michael Jackson didn't have to make that trip to London
to appear in court after all. According to his spokeswoman,
"As Mr. Jackson was about to board his plane to London, he was advised
by his legal team to postpone his travels since the parties had
concluded a settlement in principle." No details of the
settlement have been announced.
A lawyer for Guns N' Roses and Axl Rose has accused Dr Pepper of
failing to deliver on its promotion to offer free soda in celebration
of the release of Chinese Democracy. The original promotion
was called an "exploitation of my clients' legendary reputation and
their eagerly awaited album" and that it "brazenly violated our
clients' rights." They are seeking "an appropriate payment...
for the unauthorized use and abuse of their publicity and intellectual
property rights." The failure to deliver accusation comes
from a crash of Dr Pepper's Web servers under the demand for coupons
that could be redeemed for free drinks. The promotion was
extended an extra day to Nov. 24th but the site remained inaccessible
for many hours. The group is seeking a public apology in
newspaper ads, more time for people to claim their free beverages and
monetary damages. The company has declined to comment but
reportedly were considering extending the promotion.
Meanwhile, China isn't too happy with the release of Chinese Democracy
according to the national newspaper the Global Times published by the
ruling Communist Party. They quoted unnamed sources from
Internet message boards that suggested the lyrics were inflammatory and
critical of China and suggested the album was a Western plot to "grasp
and control the world using democracy as a pawn." The album
has been banned, their site has been blocked, iTunes downloads have
been forbidden and Internet searches for "Chinese Democracy" have been
blocked in the country. The album is #1 on iTunes Rock Charts
in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Canada, Greece, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and
Switzerland.
The 2008 American Music Awards were held on Sunday. Alvin And
The Chipmunks won for Favorite Album, Soundtrack. Annie
Lennox was honored with Award of Merit.
Black Sabbath founder Tony Iommi was recently presented with a star on
Broad Street's Walk of Stars in Birmingham.
The Twilight soundtrack fell a spot to #6 on the Billboard 200 albums
chart despite a 17% increase in sales to 125,000 copies.
Enya's And Winter Came... dropped a place to #9 on sales of 83,000
copies. AC/DC's Black Ice fell 4 places to #10 on sales of
86,000 copies. Elvis Presley's Christmas Duets climbed 31
spots to #25. Metallica's Death Magnetic dropped 14 places to
#33.
AC/DC's "Rock N Roll Train" is holding on to the #1 spot on Billboard's
Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Oddly enough, the song has
also made it to #48 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play
chart. The Offspring's "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" retains the
#1 spot on Billboard's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Simply Red's 25: The Greatest Hits debuted at #9 on the U.K. Albums
chart. Celine Dion's My Love: The Essential Collection fell 5
places to #13. Enya's And Winter Came... dropped 8 spots to
#14. AC/DC's Black Ice fell 7 places to #18. Rod
Stewart's Some Guys Have All The Luck debuted at #19. Status
Quo's Pictures: 40 Years Of Hits dropped 7 spots to #22.
Bette Midler's The Best Bette fell 4 places to #31. Tom
Jones' 24 Hours debuted at #32. Cliff Richard's 50th
Anniversary Album dropped 12 spots to #38.
The Bellamy Brothers' "Let Your Love Flow" climbed 7 places on the U.K.
Singles chart to #21. Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" fell
10 spots to #37.
BBW (Brzezicki, Butler and Watson formerly of Big Country) will
release, In Our Name, as a new digital download on Dec. 16th.
Meanwhile, several Big Country rarities collections become digital
download releases (Rarities III on Dec. 16th, Rarities IV on Jan. 5th
and Rarities VI on Jan. 26th.)
Steve Albini and Bob Weston are supervising the remastering of The
Jesus Lizard's first 4 studio albums (1990's Head, 1991's Goat, 1992's
Liar and 1994's Down). A release date hasn't been announced
but the band will play together next year in their first shows in a
decade.
Whitney Houston's publicist has denied rumors of a romantic reunion
with ex-husband Bobby Brown, that surfaced on Wednesday in the
Chicago Sun-Times, as "a complete fabrication." Houston's new
studio album is due out in a few weeks.
Metallica's Lars Ulrich recently told Rolling Stone magazine that the
band are free of their record contract. "We have that element
of complete freedom with the next record, so we can do whatever we
want. We could do an Internet thing or even put it out on
Andy Greene's record label." He also said, "I wouldn't hold
my breath for another Metallica record. I'm still
decompressing and coming down from the whole experience of the last
one, but if we spit one out every four or five years that's not so
bad." Meanwhile, the RIAA has certified Metallica's 9th
album, Death Magnetic, as both Gold and Platinum in only its first
month of release. The band have now sold more than 63.5
million albums since their 1983 debut.
Cliff Richard will reunite with his former Shadows bandmates (Hank
Marvin, Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett) for tour dates next
year. Richard first recorded with the band in 1959.
They last performed together 20 years ago. The singer and the
band went separate but successful ways in 1968.
David Gilmour has a Thanksgiving gift for fans as his DavidGilmour.com
site will host clips from his latest DVD, Live In Gdansk, until Dec.
2nd.
A 6-disc Kinks box set containing over 130 tracks (rarities, live cuts,
demos, classic singles and fan favorites) is due out on Dec. 8th in the
U.K.
A live CD of Adam Ant's 2007 solo performance at London's Bloomsbury
Theatre will be released on Dec. 12th and can be pre-ordered at
Adam-Ant.net.
Bill Frisell has been making more of his live sound board recordings
available exclusively as monthly releases at BillFrisell.com.
Jim Hall & Bill Frisell (with Scott Colley & Joey
Baron) released the double-CD Hemispheres this month.
Erasure will release their double-CD Total Pop! collection on Feb. 23rd
in the U.K. A deluxe edition containing 3 CDs (two containing
their hits and one with 15 live recordings from 1987 to 2007) and a DVD
(containing 26 of their live performances on the BBC from 1986 to 2005)
will be released the same day.
Madonna's film, I Am Because We Are, about Malawi children orphaned by
AIDS will premiere on the Sundance Channel on World AIDS Day, Dec.
1st. The singer wrote, produced and narrates the
feature-length film.
Slapshot: The Junior League has been released on DVD. The
soundtrack features "Beat' Em, Bust' Em" as well as two songs
("Donnybrook" and "Human Bomb") from D.O.A.'s latest album, Northern
Avenger.
Kylie Minogue will release a remix album, Boombox, containing some of
her most popular tracks on Jan. 9th. The iTunes version will
have two exclusive bonus tracks.
U2, R.E.M. and Bob Dylan are among the acts that have signed on to
contribute exclusive songs to, RED(WIRE), a new digital music magazine
launching Dec. 1st on World AIDS Day. All proceeds from the
$5 subscriptions will benefit HIV-infected people in Africa.
The magazine is an outgrowth of the (RED) organization.
Norway's Stage Dolls have signed a deal with Sony Music with plans to
release a new studio album in Norway and Europe in the
spring. The group scored their biggest hit in 1989 with the
single "Love Cries" which peaked at #46 on the Billboard Hot 100.
According to a new press release, Banger Films Inc. are going to be
working on a Rush documentary. "The film will be the first to
reveal the inner workings of one of the world's most enduring rock
bands and will engage both die-hard Rush fans and general music
lovers." Meanwhile, a new 14-track Rush collection,
Retrospective 3, is due out on Jan. 27th.
Rob Zombie has said that he is "almost finished" with the recording of
his new album. He has said that it will be more of a group
effort than a pure solo album. He has also said that he's
"closing the book" on White Zombie after the recent release of the Let
Sleeping Corpses Lie box set.
Gene Simmons has re-launched his Simmons Records label in
Canada. He told the Toronto Star, "The idea is to have the
bands we sign develop a strong Canadian identity first in Canada, then
move them onto the world stage."
No Doubt have announced plans to reunite for tour dates in 2009 and
finish work on their first new studio effort in 7 years. One
of the Anaheim, California, band's first recordings, "Everything's
Wrong," appeared on the 1988 compilation Skaface: Ska-Ville USA Vol. 3.
According to a report at CaptainsDead.com, Keith Richards has been
recording covers of Perry Como, Hoagy Carmichael, Judy Garland and
Tammy Wynette songs for a covers album of which some have bootlegs have
surfaced.
T.S.O.L. have announced that they will thank their fans for 30 years of
support by recording a new album and giving it to their fans
free. Hurlev Int. are letting the band use their studio to
record and live streaming video of the recording process will also
be available. The album is due out in December.
George Michael will give fans a present on Christmas Day by issuing a
free downloadable single, "December Song (I Dreamed Of Christmas)" at
GeorgeMichael.com and some other online music outlets.
Cyndi Lauper has recorded a seasonal song, "A Christmas Duel," with the
Hives. The song is available for free as a download at
TheHivesBroadcastingService.com until Nov. 30th.
Tony Bennett's "Winter Wonderland" from his new holiday album, A
Swingin' Christmas, with The Count Basie Big Band is available as a
free download at iTunes until Dec. 1st.
3 tracks by Recoil ("Shunt," "Vertigen" and "Want") have been included
in the soundtrack for the Need For Speed - Undercover video game
released last week. They also plan to make a new bonus mix of
"Prey" available as a free download at the official Recoil.co.uk Web
site on Dec. 8th.
Funk/jazz act Spyro Gyra have released their latest album, A Night
Before Christmas, which features 10 classic and traditional holiday
songs as well as "It Won't Feel Like Christmas" written by band
leader/producer Jay Beckenstein and Terry Cox.
Quiet Riot's Frankie Banali has posted a blog at his MySpace page
marking the first anniversary of the death of bandmate Kevin
DuBrow. Read it at: http://www.myspace.com/frankiebanali
The family of former Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards
have changed his legal status from missing to "presumed
dead." Edwards' car was found near Severn Bridge and he was
last seen at a central London hotel on Feb. 1st of 1995. It
is believed that he committed suicide at the age of 27.
Former Platinum Blonde bassist Kenny MacLean, 52, was found dead of
natural causes on Monday in his Toronto recording
studio-apartment. MacLean left The Deserters and joined
Platinum Blonde in time for the release of their 3rd album, 1985's
Alien Shores, which peaked at #3 on the Canadian Albums chart (their
only top 20 entry.) He stayed for a follow-up in 1987 and an
album, Yeah Yeah Yeah, under the name The Blondes in 1990.
MacLean released his solo debut, Don't Look Back, in 1990 and released
a follow-up, Clear, in 1995. He had been putting the
finishing touches on, Completely, his third solo disc due out early
next year and had convinced the rest of the band to reunite for a
reunion gigs. The rehearsals were to begin this
week. MacLean had been nominated for several Juno awards
during his career and won a SOCAN award for his hit single, "Don't Look
Back," from his solo debut.
Former Little Angels drummer Michael Lee [born Michael Gary Pearson],
39, died in his sleep at his Darlington home on Nov. 24th. A
cause of death has yet to be released. Lee joined Little
Angels in time to record their 1989 album, Don't Prey For Me, and was
replaced after the tour for the 1991 follow-up, Young Gods, when the
band found out that he had auditioned for The Cult. He would
wind up touring with The Cult in 1993 before joining Robert Plant's
solo band and worked with them on 1994's No Quarter and 1998's Walking
Into Clarksdale. In 2004, Lee joined Thin Lizzy for a
temporary reformation and moved on to work with Ian Gillian for his
2006's album, Gillian's Inn. He had also spent time working
with The Quireboys, Jeff Martin, Guns N' Roses, Lenny Kravitz and Echo
And The Bunnymen.