Search Results for: april

Stevie Wonder has not performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 35 years, and has never headlined the event. Organizers want to change that this year. Wonder was scheduled to headline the second weekend of the 2008 Jazz Fest along with Billy Joel, Sheryl Crow and Louisiana native and country music star Tim McGraw, festival promoter Quint Davis said Thursday in announcing the lineup. Joel, Crow and McGraw are all festival first-timers. The last time Wonder took the stage at Jazz Fest was in 1973, when he participated in an impromptu jam session with The Meters, the… Read more »

Trey Anastasio spent two days in an upstate New York jail last week for missing a counseling session required after he pleaded guilty to a drug charge in April. The 43-year-old former Phish lead singer was ordered to participate in the Washington County court’s treatment program when he pleaded guilty to possessing painkillers without a prescription during a traffic stop in December 2006. The program requires weekly court appearances for 12 months to 15 months, community service and drug testing. Assistant District Attorney Tony Jordan told the Glens Falls Post-Star that Anastasio, who lives in Richmond, Vt., missed one counseling… Read more »

Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash says the group is planning a significantly shorter turnaround for its third album. The Los Angeles rockers plan to start working in earnest on the follow-up to last year’s “Libertad” in April, almost immediately after they finish a tour that starts Thursday in Chicago and includes dates in North America, Australia and Europe. “That’s the big thing right now,” Slash says. “I’m really jazzed about doing it. I’ve been working on new ideas, and we’ve had a couple times where the guys all got together and worked on some stuff. I’m itching to see what this… Read more »

Heath Ledger, the Australian-born actor whose breakthrough role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 movie “Brokeback Mountain” earned him a nomination for an Academy Award and comparisons to the likes of Marlon Brando, was found dead Tuesday in an apartment in Manhattan with sleeping pills near his body, the police said. The police said Mr. Ledger, 28, was found naked on the floor near the bed in an apartment in SoHo that he had been renting. The chief police spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said the police did not suspect foul play. “There was no indication of a disturbance,” he… Read more »

There’s nothing like 1.3 billion potential ticket buyers to attract the attention of the live entertainment business. With the world’s largest population and an exploding economy, China may represent the future for international touring artists. That’s why the three biggest players in the U.S. live entertainment business — Live Nation, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and Ticketmaster — have all staked claims in China. It’s virgin territory. “In China you have a huge potential market, a clean slate and opportunities you don’t see in more mature markets,” Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty said. “There is no established way of doing business yet,… Read more »

Canadian pop superstar Celine Dion will play her first concert in China in April and has submitted an entry for the Beijing Olympics theme song competition, Games organizers said on Wednesday. The 39-year-old multiple Grammy Award winner has scheduled a stop on her worldwide tour at the newly renovated Workers’ Stadium in the Chinese capital on April 13, which will be part of Beijing’s official celebration of the Games. “Her team has submitted the song to our Theme Song Selection Committee,” said Kan Ke, deputy director of Culture and Ceremony Department of Beijing Organizing Committee for Olympic Games. “We are… Read more »

2007 worked out well for Hilary Duff and Avril Lavigne. The two were the highest paid singers under 25, earning $12 million each. Hilary Duff The pop star-actress-‘tween merchandise mogul has replaced the Olsen Twins as your teenage daughter’s favorite. Her Stuff by Hilary Duff line of apparel and accessories is sold at Kohl’s, Target and Claire’s. Duff also licenses her name to footwear company Candie’s and Electronic Arts, which made her a character in the Sims videogame franchise. In April, she released her sixth studio album, Dignity, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard pop charts. Look for… Read more »

Panic! At The Disco will headline the eighth annual Honda Civic Tour, scheduled to visit about 45 cities in North America, beginning April 10 in San Francisco. The trek will support the Las Vegas four-piece’s second album, “Pretty. Odd,” due in stores March 25. It will end June 14 in Anaheim. A full itinerary will be unveiled in February. The tour will primarily play theaters and scaled-down arenas. Tickets will be priced between $25 and $35. “Pretty. Odd” is the follow-up to 2005’s “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,” which has sold more than 1.7 million copies in the United… Read more »

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment announces an exciting new line-up of Blu-ray initiatives in 2008, an ever-expanding Blu-ray slate and new technological-advancements in bonus feature materials, all which guarantee a superior high-definition home entertainment experience. “This is an exciting time for Disney as we not only announce the release of our first Platinum Disney animated classic on Blu-ray with Sleeping Beauty, but also allow consumers to create an entirely new home entertainment experience with stunning new bonus features and amazing interactive capabilities like never before seen,” stated Bob Chapek, President of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. For the first time… Read more »

Nobody would ever confuse R.E.M. for Metallica, but the guitars have definitely been turned up for the Georgia group’s 14th studio album, “Accelerate.” The follow-up to 2004’s “Around the Sun” is due in stores April 1 via Warner Bros. Nearly all the material was tested out during a summer run in Dublin, although manager Bertis Downs said a few of those songs didn’t make the cut, and a couple of album tunes were held back from live airings. Mostly gone is the drowsy vibe of “Around the Sun,” which was a commercial and critical disappointment. New tunes such as “Living… Read more »